Page 21 of I'm Not Your Pet

It was odd, remembering the sound of it through the haze of the translator. But yes. I could recall using that exact word to describe him.

“Pre-tty,” I agreed in his tongue, voice rough. It was a gamble, but one that paid off when Huu-goh’s attention snapped from the boxes to me, his eyes wide. A lovely flush spread acrosshis cheeks, just like the one he’d exhibited that morning when he’d been rubbing against me like a beast in heat.

“Pre-tty!” he agreed, very obviously excited that we had found another shared word. I gave him an up thumb and he cackled, eyes crinkling with what I hoped was affection. “Thehy ahre ahrn-t thehy?” Huu-goh babbled, hopping on the balls of his feet. “Aye-v nehvahr seen eneethingh lyke iht!”

“Huu-gohpretty,” I countered, because it was true. Huu-goh’s blush grew darker. Nearly red enough to look like arousal. I licked my lips and he squirmed, eyeing my tongue like he’d never seen anything like it before. “Huu-goh pretty,” I repeated again.

He made a high-pitched sound, like he wasn’t sure what to say, and then—because Mala was the worst, he promptly came to interrupt us.

I didn’t forget that Huu-goh liked the shiny rocks, however.

I logged that information away for later along with all the other little things I’d discovered about him.

We went to six other planets over the course of the next month. There weren’t many stops on our route before we’d drop by planet Sha’hPihn. Though there would be a decent chunk of space travel we’d have to do before we reached it.

U’suhk was one of my least favorite stops, but it was as necessary as the rest of them. This time, however, I found something rather delightful when we made a detour through one of the villages. There were huu-mans mated to the Ly’zrd that made up the majority of the population. Seeing them did not come as a surprise to me, but it certainly did to Huu-goh as heogled them from where he sat safely beside me in our transport vehicle.

There was a sadness to him then, because he was intelligent enough to understand that these people had been taken and discarded just like he had.

I’d stayed extra close to him that day, and he hadn’t minded. He’d never pulled the leash taut, not even once, his little body warm at my elbow at all times. His journal remained in his pocket, and I felt the loss of his scribblings keenly.

When we returned to the ship he had a thousand questions. Questions I couldn’t answer. I did, however, buy him one of the odd head coverings that the other huu-mans had created. Huu-goh grinned when I plopped it on his head, his sweet cheeks pinking up all over again. He repeated the words “Thank yew.”

It was something he’d said many times throughout our travels, and considering how polite he came across, I figured the words were gratitude of some sort.

He stuck close to me for the rest of the night—and I waited…god, did I wait—for him to cross that distance again. For the day we’d slept together in that cave to not have been a fluke.

Planet two was more dangerous than the others. I kept Huu-goh close then, and every time he tugged on his leash I’d yank him back into place. Mala made a few comments about it, but I snapped at him every time he did.

I knew that it wasn’t fair—that Huu-goh was merely curious.

But he was going to get himself killed.

And I refused to let that happen, whether he wanted to be my mate or not.

Ushuu, my mentor and the ship’s chief technology officer, had questioned me about Huu-goh a few times since he’d come aboard, but I’d been too busy to sit down with him like I usually did. Part of me was ashamed. Ashamed that I’d bought a person—that I was…that I was still hoping that the magnetism I could feel between us was not one-sided.

If I talked to Ushuu it would mean acknowledging that Huu-goh did not want me. He would ask. I knew he would. And then I’d have to start planning how to let him go. Where I could set him up on Osheania when we returned home, with a house of his own—and me a galaxy away, chasing the stars alone without him.

By the sixth planet, Huu-goh had gotten fed up with me.

At least…I assumed so.

He’d been ornery all day, snapping at me over breakfast, and yanking on his leash every five seconds. I’d made sure he had enough to eat and drink, pausing periodically throughout the day to feed or pet him—and that had only seemed to set him off even more.

I could admit that I was on edge too.

Tension had been building between us for weeks—and while I’d tried to stay calm and cool-headed, I wasn’t. Between the constant fear of attack from pirates after our cargo and my lack of solid standing with Huu-goh, I felt unmoored in a way I never had before.

I should’ve known things were about to change.

It was inevitable.

I only wish I’d known it was for the better.

“Aye-m Nah-t Yer Peht!”Huu-goh gasped out, his face an angry red, his whole body quaking. I willed myself to comprehend his words even though I had literally no idea what he was saying. We’d had a pleasant dinner in our rooms after returning to the ship so I thought his grumpy mood had passed. I’d been wrong. Because when I entered the bedroom after showering and brushing my teeth—I had been met with…withthis.

Dinner had made me naively think I’d been imagining the tension between us.

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