Page 15 of I'm Not Your Pet

“Hugo,” I annunciated, softening the vowels. I pointed at him. “And you’re Roar-k?”

“Ro-aarhk,” he corrected me.

“Roark,” I repeated. He beamed, if you could call a long line of razor-sharp teeth flashing at me, beaming. This smile was no less intimidating than any of his other expressions.

“Cool.” I beamed right back at him. I was pretty much an alien expert now. Which was awesome. I would’ve shit my pants back home if I’d found someone like Roark while I was studying biology at Harvard. That was just a pipe dream though. As it was, his little smile and ourDisneymoment were pretty cool, regardless.

“Kewl,” Roark repeated, sounding out the word carefully. “Huu-goh Kewl.”

Oh shit.

Now he thought that was my last name.

Where had we gotten this twisted?

I laughed, shaking my head. “No, no. Cool means good—” His smile shifted into a frown, making it obvious I’d confused him. “It’s just something humans say when we—you know what? Never mind.” Wasn’t like I had a huge attachment to my real last name anyway. “Hugo Cool. Yep. That’s me. What about you?”

Great. This was super great. The greatest.

“Roark, Captain of The Dreamer.”

A captain.

Huh.

So not a lord then.

That explained the way he stood all military seriousness. And how he was kinda…uptight? Not that I thought all captains were. I just…figured you had to be kinda a serious guy to have that job and travel all the way here. F’ukYuu was kinda far off the grid, as far as I understood.

“Do you want to stay here, Huu-goh?” Roark asked. I didn’t have to think to reply, my head shaking automatically before my mouth had time to form words.

Roark studied me for a beat before nodding.

The door pushed open behind us and suddenly—everything changed. The warm mood that had begun to build turned icy cold. I kept my back to the wall as The Manager’s eyes gleamed. He eyed both of us before he crossed the space and took a seat at the desk.

“Have you made your choice?” The Manager asked, his voice rough as usual.

Roark nodded.

And just like that, they both went into business mode. I was left reeling as the tablet was exchanged between the two of them, murmurs of payments and relocation bouncing around inside my head.

It felt like a fever dream.

To be sold and exchanged like cattle.

By my new alien buddy.

But there was no denying that was exactly what had just happened.

I wasn’t sure if I’d just traded in one evil for another—but…I got the feeling I hadn’t. Roark was gentle with me. He had been since last night. And there was something about the way he looked at me that made me feel…

It made me feel…

God, I didn’t even have words.

It seemed stupid and silly to think that someone who wasn’t even my own species could make me feel anything real at all. But he did. I was in a daze as we gave our translators back and were escorted out of the building. All of my things were packed into a single solitary suitcase, already waiting by the door.

It looked tiny and sad as Roark grabbed it, carrying it easily down the steps. He didn’t touch me again, but his gaze was always on my face as we stepped into the street. Like he was trying to get a read on my feelings, even though my expressions had to be as foreign to him as his were to me.

---