“Yoo noh dis mahn?” She jerked the blaster in Sohut’s direction and Sohut’s eyes widened some more.
“Are you going to disarm her or let her shoot me? Phek that, Grot might rip me apart first,” Sohut spoke, his gaze falling to the tevsi, which was still growling in front of the human.
It took him a second to realize Grot was…protecting the human. Protecting her. Against his own brother.
Riv frowned.
Grot had lived with both him and Sohut since he was a pup.
What had gotten into the tevsi?
“Grot,” he said, intending to call off the tevsi’s defensive stance but he garnered only a sideways glance from the animal.
What the phek?
He found himself staring at Grot, not believing what the tevsi was actually doing.
“Grot would never attack you, you know that,” he spoke to Sohut, his eyes still on Grot. “I don’t understand why he’s doing this.”
Sohut’s gaze fell on the human. “I scented her. Found her here.” He glanced at Riv for a second. “Probably leaned in too close…I was just wondering what she was. Thought she was Merssi at first.”
Riv’s gaze fell on the human. She still had the blaster raised, not backing down.
He’d noticed the similarity himself. She did look Merssi. An albino one without a tail and horns.
His gaze fell to his blaster.
What was she doing with it anyway?
She must have gone and gotten it after…realization dawned on him and his eyebrows rose a little.
The humor of the situation wasn’t lost on him.
She’d gone to the main room for his blaster after last night.
She’d slept with it for protection.
Riv snorted.
Impressive. He would give her that. But she didn’t need protection from him.
“She bested you,” he whispered.
“Wh-what was that?” Sohut glared his way before his gaze narrowed. “She did not best me. Pardon me, brother, for being surprised to see a female in our dwelling. So surprised I didn’t know how to react. And Grot…” Sohut frowned at the tevsi. “You traitor…”
He couldn’t argue with that. Grot was a traitor. Taking sides with an unknown female he had no affiliation with.
“Hees not ah tray-tor. Hees juhst pro-tek-tin mee. Yoo leened in so klohz, yoo stahr-tled me. I thot yoo werr gowin to bahyt mee.” The female glared at Sohut, jerking the blaster at him as she spoke.
A smile almost graced his lips at the sight but then that was quickly done away with when the female turned on him.
“And yoo!” Her lips tightened into a line and her eyes narrowed on him. “Yoo. Ai dohnt ee-ven haff en-nee thing too say too yoo.”
He had no idea what she said but somehow he felt…rebuked?
Riv stiffened, his arms crossing over his chest.
Sohut glanced his way. “What’s she saying?”
“No idea. I don’t have her language download.”
“Call Grot off.”
“He isn’t listening to me.”
A pause.
“Tell the female to call him off.”
The female?
Glancing at her, her large innocent brown eyes made him scowl.
“The female has no power over my tevsi,” he said, his words slow and low.
“In case you haven’t noticed, brother, she does. I’d warned you about tevsis and females. They are protective of females.”
Right.
He’d forgotten about that.
It only made him scowl some more.
“I don’t think she could understand me even if I tried.”
Sohut’s lips tightened. “Try. I can’t move and I can’t stand here all day. I’ve got things to do.”
That was true and Grot didn’t seem as if he was going to stop snarling any time soon.
“You,” he directed the female. “Drop your weapon…my weapon,” he scowled some more, “and relax. Sohut is my brother. He will not harm you.”
It took a few blinks of those brown eyes before the weapon sagged in the female’s hands and she said something in her language to the dog.
“Good doggo.”
Grot ceased growling and relaxed, sitting on his haunches by the female’s feet.
“See, she understood you.” Sohut let his hands lower slowly, his eyes on the tevsi. “She probably has a translator implant. Did you check?”
Riv frowned, his glare passing from the female to his brother. “Do I look like I want to touch the female?”
Mightn’t look it but yes. Yes, he did.
He wanted to touch her.
Very badly.
But he’d rather lose all eight of his fingers first. If staying away from her was causing him trouble, he couldn’t imagine what his life would be like if he went closer.
Sohut shrugged. “You could have asked her, you know.”
Didn’t occur to him.
He hadn’t wanted to converse with her. He’d only been forced to and something told him that even if he’d tried to lay down the rules with her, it wouldn’t have mattered anyway.
She’d have still followed him around the Sanctuary…still found her way next to his sleeping cushion in the middle of the phekking dark-cycle.
“His name is Grot.” Riv forced his attention from Sohut back to the female. “Doggo” just sounded…weird.
He didn’t like this female…
His entire Sanctuary felt different since she’d arrived.
Grot let his tongue hang out of his mouth and bumped his head against Sohut, who finally relaxed enough to pat the tevsi on the head.
“Hey, Grot.” Sohut smiled at the tevsi. “You weren’t really going to rip me apart, were you?”
Grot made a low rumble before lying flat on his belly. All the while, the human stood behind him, watching Sohut with guarded eyes.
Sohut lifted his gaze to the female.
“I am Sohut,” he said. “This is my brother, Riv.” Sohut jerked a shoulder in his direction. “I am sure he hasn’t introduced himself. He’s not very…good at this.”
The female looked his way, shooting a dagger with those brown eyes of hers.
Turning back to Sohut, she placed a delicate hand on her bosom. “La-rehn.”
Her name.
That was her name.
He didn’t need to be a dark matter physicist to understand that.
La-rehn.
Grudgingly, he decided he liked it.
He could like her name. He didn’t have to like her.
Shifting uncomfortably, he watched the exchange between the two.
Sohut was so much better at this than he was.
That’s why Sohut was the one who went off-Sanctuary on contracted jobs.
He couldn’t deal with beings the way
