Page 2 of Hooked on the Otter Doctor
Ordinarily, I’d have said she’d hit her head or something, but since our queen had declared Svalnorland a haven for the Norlon aliens and they did have people who looked like giant otters amongst them, it was entirely possible she was telling the truth. “He swam away?”
She nodded and pushed clinging tendrils of her blonde hair away from her face. “You didn’t see him?”
I shrugged and went back to looking for clothes. “I was focused on you. Weird that he left you only half saved, though.”
“I still want to thank him. If you see an otter in an orange Speedo, that’s him.”
Good grief. An anthropomorphic otter wearing an orange Speedo? My imagination conjured that right up and had some questions about just how much to fill out the pouch. I’d visited their website a few times, curiosity winning out more often than I’d like to admit. So I knew the male Norlons were pretty hung. If it weren’t for my family, maybe I might’ve given becoming a sex worker on an alien planet a try.
Once I’d found clothes that had clearly been left behind by various people over the years, I put some tea on and headed back up on deck. Helli was fine, so now I needed to see what had happened to the boat.
The instant I stepped into the booth, I saw Helli’s rescuer on the deck. He was tall, maybe close to two meters, with dark brown fur on his back and tawny fur on his front. A thick, stiff brown tail jutted out behind him. He had a round head with cute little ears and big golden eyes above a short snout with a black nose and long white whiskers. And he might be furry, but that didn’t hide full pecs, a six pack of abs, and…the orange Speedo.
He was a shower. That was abundantly clear.
“Is she alright?” he asked in English.
I don’t know why I flinched. I knew they could talk, but this was my first time meeting one up close. “Uh, yes. She’s well.”
He took a deep breath and closed his eyes as he sighed. “I shouldn’t have left her,” he said as he looked at me again. “But she’d been so upset about losing her instrument, and I’d seen it not far away, so…” He shrugged and shook his head like he had regrets.
“She won’t mind at all that you left if you found her guitar.”
He strode toward me, and my breath caught watching his thigh muscles flex. I barely noticed when he dipped down and picked something up because he was so close to me then that Icould feel the heat of him. Was his fur soft? It looked soft. I wanted to touch him.
“You have a beautiful voice,” he quietly said and covered my hand on his chest.
Oops, Ihadtouched him. I’d buried my fingertips in his tawny chest fur. It was definitely soft even though it was damp.
“I hope the fish help.”
I nodded before I realized I didn’t understand what he meant. “What fish?”
But he was already striding to the starboard side of the boat. In a second, he dove into the sea and disappeared beneath the waves.
And I’d forgotten to thank him.
I cleared my throat and looked around even though there was no one there to see me blushing. Apparently, it didn’t matter to my libido one bit if a male wasn’t human. If he’d stuck around any longer, I might’ve touched other parts of him and begged him to do the same to me.
Wow! That had been intense. Part of me wanted to call out to him, make him come back, but there was still something wrong with the boat. If I couldn’t figure out what we were snagged on, I’d have to radio in for rescue. I did not want to think about what my father would do if it came to that.
I turned to go get a better look and saw that the alien had set Helli’s guitar down against the booth. That’s why he’d come so close. I groaned at myself for overreacting to him and got back to work.
The net lines were still taut and pulling on the arm, so I went over and peered into the— “Holy fuck!” I rubbed at my eyes, not sure I could believe them. The net was full of fish! So full that I could see them piled on top of each other. What the fuck had happened to make?—
I gasped and looked where the Norlon had jumped into the water. He’d said he hoped the fish would help.Thesefish? Had hesomehow gotten the fish into the net? Had heherded theminto the net?
As I set about hauling everything in—no easy feat by myself—I was both amazed and mad. My father would be thrilled. He’d be fucking ecstatic. There would be a party. He’d probably dance. Everyone would assume we could do this again and again.
And they would be wrong.
Being out here with no catch day after day was supposed to get my father to see that the time had come to stop. That we needed to change. Instead, he would see this as a sign to persevere. The gods had smiled upon us!
And I was completely fucked.
CHAPTER 2
DOCTOR HALABY REVAZI
