Page 1 of Resisting the Alien Rider

1

MAGNOLIA

Night was falling, and I hadn’t stopped smiling since we’d left Darcy and Fallon’s ranch at dawn. My cheeks were on fire, only slightly beating out my tush in the pain department. I was dusty, exhausted, positively bedraggled, and I couldn’t have been happier.

Because I was finally on my way to meet my groom, Oaken.

“We’ll make camp here.”

Without any more preamble, Garrek, my Zabrian cowboy-cum-nature-guide, practically launched off the shuldu from where he’d been riding behind me all day. Instantly, he was moving, striding purposefully away from me as if I’d done something deeply offensive to him. Or maybe smelled bad. A surreptitious sniff in the area of my armpit told me I wasn’t quite as fresh as a Terratribe II daisy, but I certainly wasn’t rancid enough to warrant that kind of fleeing.Because that’s what it looked like he was doing. Running away from me.

There was no wind, but his open leather vest flapped and snapped because of his speed, his long, muscled legs propelling him swiftly through the dust. The indigo-tinted light of dusk lent his dark blue skin a shifting, shimmering quality, half purple, half bronze.

I watched him go and my smile finally slipped.

Maybe he has to pee.

Or maybe he wanted to check on Killian. Killian, Garrek’s young convict-ward, was riding his own shuldu at the back of the herd of Zabrian cattle called bracku, bringing up the rear. In the gathering darkness, I could just barely make out his sweet little face with its giant white eyes and matching white hair.

Zabrian eyes seemed to go off and glow white all the dang time. Killian’s were always white. I still hadn’t quite pieced together what it meant. I’d meant to ask Cherry or Darcy, my two friends who were already married to Zabrian males in this colony, but in the hustle and bustle to get packed and ready to leave with Garrek, I hadn’t had the chance.

I would have pulled out my comms tablet right then and there to send Darcy a message about it, but Shanti suddenly tossed her head and shifted on her hooves.

“Whoa!” I grasped the front of the saddle for balance.

Shanti moved again, making a snuffly noise that didn’t sound particularly happy.

“Good girl, Shanti,” I crooned softly to the shuldu.Shewasa good girl. She’d carried both Garrek and me all day without complaint and was easily one of the prettiest creatures I’d ever seen. Shuldu were similar in shape to Terratribe II horses, but they didn’t have manes or long tails. Instead, their tails were cute little tapered puffs that stuck straight up from their backsides, and they had curving horns on their heads. Shanti’s hide was a gorgeous velvety cream all over, except for one spot on the right side of her rump, where a splash of natural pink was shaped exactly like a heart.

There was something distinctly hilarious about a guy as brooding and irritable as Garrek riding such an adorable mount with a pink heart on its ass.

There was something distinctlyunhilarious about how that adorable mount now seemed so increasingly nervous having me on her back without him.

“I know, Shanti. I’m not much of a horsewoman. Shulduwoman. You know what I mean. Sorry,” I murmured soothingly.

I frowned, craning my head around for Garrek, nerves tightening in my belly as Shanti twitched. The man could have at least helped me down before he went storming off to do whatever the hell it was he needed to do! Much like their Zabrian riders, shuldu were absolutely massive, Shanti included. I eyed the ground below and felt my throat clench in an involuntary gulp.

I probably could have scrambled down somehow if Shanti had been a boulder or a statue or some other inanimate thing. But she kept shifting her hooves,tossing her head, and generally making it impossible for me to get my bearings so that I could dare to shimmy or slide or jump.

Damnit. I was going to have to call Garrek back for help. I didn’t want to, but there didn’t seem to be a way around it. I wouldn’t be surprised if Shanti was sensing my nerves and that was feeding into her stress. I sighed, petting her exquisitely soft neck, already picturing Garrek’s look of taut disappointment when he realized I couldn’t even get down from the saddle on my own.

It would probably look similar to his face this morning. I’d given him a gift of soap I’d made and he’d taken a bite out of it, thinking it was food, only to look at me like I’d betrayed him on a cellular freaking level.

In my defense, I’d only designed the recipe to smell good. Not taste good.

“Garrek?”

I said it quietly, almost like I was asking a question to someone who stood right beside me. I probably should have just thrown dignity to the wind and shouted for help, but a twinge of embarrassment held me back.

Garrek didn’t answer.

The herd of bracku snorted and lowed. I couldn’t see Killian anymore.

“Oh, this is ridiculous!” I snapped without thinking. My impatient tone sent Shanti violently jerking her head in alarm. I yelped and scrabbled to grasp hold of the saddle once more.

“Shanti, beautiful girl, I ambeggingyou, please don’tbuck me off,” I pleaded. Oaken already had a broken ankle out there in the mountains somewhere. It was why he hadn’t been able to come pick me up and marry me yet. The last thing he needed was a wife with a broken leg herself.

Or a broken neck.

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