Page 51 of Riv's Sanctuary

In another circumstance, she might have pointed out that she wasn’t trouble at all but whatever was behind her was so close now, she could feel its fur against the back of her legs and it took everything within her not to bolt.

Bolting could be bad. What if it was the sort of predator that wanted you to run so it could chase you and rip you in two?

Fucking hell.

"Grot." The big alien advanced slowly. "Don't," he said.

"Don't what?" Lauren whispered. "Don't eat me? Don't rip me apart? Being specific is probably good here. I'm pretty sure I can feel its teeth on my back." She took a deep breath. "I'm going to die and I won't even see what killed me."

She was pretty sure she was about to urinate on herself right about now.

"Grot..." the alien said again.

As Lauren tried to keep from trembling, movement to her side had her looking down without moving her head, only for her eyes to lock with the four-eyed gaze of a terrible dark beast.

Its teeth were bared and saliva dripped from them to the floor beneath.

It was paying no attention to Riv. Its only focus was her.

Lauren looked at it in horror, everything within her telling her to run, while, at the same time, she was frozen in shock.

The thing was huge, about the size of a great mastiff or bigger. So big, it almost reached up to her breasts and that was the only reason she didn't run.

If she'd run before, it would have pounced on her in a second.

It looked like a dog—a monster-sized one—, only that its snout was a bit rounder than any dog's she’d ever seen and its four eyes didn't help either.

Long fangs protruded over its lower lip and right now they were dripping with strings of saliva hanging from them.

From what she could see, it had four legs and a shaggy dark coat. So black, it looked like a shadow demon.

Did Riv call it Grot? It should have been named 'demon from hell' instead.

The animal sniffed her as it circled her, its eyes on her the entire time as she tried not to tremble.

"Grot..." Riv said again, his tone firm but reasoning.

The way he called the thing was as if he was asking it nicely not to bite but was pretty sure it would anyway.

Shit.

This was the animal she’d heard trying to break into her room. This was death come to meet her.

As the animal circled her and came in front of her, she just had enough time to blink before the thing pounced on her.

Its heavy weight forced her unto ground and the wind was knocked out of her as she landed on her back, the only saving grace being the fact that the ground was covered in thick blades of cut grass.

Thanks to that, the fall hurt, but not as much as it would if the ground had been bare.

A scream erupted from her as the animal opened its mouth over her head, its sharp teeth bared, and Lauren squeezed her eyes shut, knowing what was coming next.

But it never came. One moment she was looking into the mouth of death-dog and the next a thick, wet, velvety thing moved over her face.

Confused, she opened her eyes as the animal’s tongue descended on her once more.

What?

It was licking her?