Page 92 of Riv's Sanctuary

He had his head held straight—almost as if he hadn’t heard her speak but his body was rigid.

The scene replayed before her once more. She was sure it was going to haunt her forever.

Riv had turned her face away; he’d pulled her against him.

He’d known what was going to happen.

Her eyes widened a little.

“You knew.” She stared at him, horror flooding through her. “You knew it was going to happen.”

Riv’s throat moved.

“The Tasqals are not a forgiving species,” was all he said.

There was silence in the hovercar before he continued. “They take what they want, when they want it. They do not care about lives.”

“Those guards killed a child. There was no order to do so—not that it would have made it any better—but only a monster could do something like that.”

Riv turned his head slightly. “The Hedgerud guards are just as ruthless as their Tasqal masters.”

The Hedgeruds. So that’s what the guards were called.

More silence passed.

“I saw them before, you know. On the ship,” she finally said. Images of her time on the alien ship tried forcing their way through her memories to the forefront of her mind and she tried to keep them at bay.

“Which ship?”

He didn’t know, did he?

He had no idea.

With a deep breath, she gripped the hamper and continued.

“I was taken from my home planet. Abducted by those alligator guards and the aliens like the slug on the blue ring.”

The hovercar lost speed as Riv turned his head to look at her fully.

For several beats, he said nothing.

“Taken?”

Lauren nodded, the memories breaking through.

“I was heading home after going out one day and the next thing I knew I was waking up on an alien ship.” She paused. “That was a year or so ago.”

Riv’s throat moved again.

It seemed he didn’t know what to say to her and when she chanced a glance his way, she noticed his knuckles were turning light blue from him gripping the hovercar controls too tight.

“Taken,” he repeated, and Lauren nodded.

“That’s why I froze up in the market. I didn’t expect to see the same species again. Back in the zoo, I hadn’t seen them. I guess I thought they didn’t exist on this side of space.”

“Zoo?”

He was snarling.