Page 15 of Resisting the Alien Rider

And listening. From out here, I could at least pick up the sound of her rhythmic breathing if not any movement. I’d managed to keep her alive for the first night, at least.

“Magnolia,” I said to the blank face of the tent’s hides.

No answer.

Unbelievable.

I knew Zabrian hearing was better than that of humans, but there really was no excuse for her not to awaken immediately and respond to me when I’d spoken at that volume and in that tone.

Unless…

Something really was wrong.

The prickle of unease intensified. My tail squeezed its hook.

I reached for the tent flap and then stopped.

It was technically still my tent. I should be able to open it if I wanted to. Especially if it was to check and make sure someone under my charge was well.

But even so, it did not feel right. Having not seen a female of my own kind since childhood, there was already a sense of forbidden mystery about whatever lay beyond the fabric clutched in my claws. The fact that Magnolia was human only magnified the feeling.

The place where a human female slept was not a place that I could, or should, easily tread.

I snorted at myself. What a load of shuldu shit. It was only a tent. This was my camp and I was responsible for everyone in it.

Including the female one sleeping in too late.

After one more shameful moment of hesitation, I pulled the tent flap aside.

It was not a large space, and my gaze found her rightaway. Everything smelled like her in here. Instantly, the inside of the tent grew brighter as my ridiculous eyes lit up like the cursed moons on a clear night.

Magnolia was curled on her side, her knees drawn up to her chest. Her arms appeared to be tucked between them. Bizarre way to sleep. Almost like she was…

Cold.

She had no bedroll. Why hadn’t she told me she had no bedroll?

She had nothing besides her bag and a crinkly, absurdly shiny covering that did not even wrap around her all the way. The result was a rather large gap in coverage that revealed her slender back to me. The rounded curve of her backside was also visible from this angle.

For a sudden, searing moment, all I could think about was what it might be like to lie on my side behind her, to cup the perfect shape of her small body with my own. What would it feel like? To rest my hand upon her hip, to draw the lush curve of her strangely tailless backside up against my-

I jerked backwards, dropping the tent flap like I’d been burned.

“What’s wrong?” Killian was staring at me from where he was standing with the shuldu.

What’s wrong?What’s wrong is that I just imagined cozily nestling my cock against the backside of the woman intended for my cousin! What’s wrong is that somewhere at the back of my idiotic brain, I’m still imagining it!

Of course, I said none of that. Instead, I muttered, “Nothing.”

It was not convincing.

Killian frowned at me. On the rare occasions when he was content with something, it barely showed on the boy’s face. But when he was agitated or suspicious, his mouth could bend itself into pouts nearly comical in their exaggeration. His brows pulled in dramatically.

“You just jumped back like you thought a genka was about to bite your nose off.”

“No I didn’t.”

“Yes you did. Even Shanti saw it. Didn’t you, Shanti?”

---