Chapter 10

Chapter

Ten

Allie

A faint scratching sound pulled me from sleep. I blinked, disoriented, as the dim cavern came into focus. For a moment, I couldn't remember where I was or why I was lying on cold, hard stone. Then it all came rushing back, and my pulse jangled.

Sitting up, I found Maxxon standing nearby, his body tense. He held a strange-looking weapon in his outstretched hand. Doubt flickered through my mind for the briefest of moments. Had I made a mistake in trusting him?

But he wasn't aiming at me. His attention was focused on the dark mouth of the tunnel, where the scratching sound was growing louder. My mouth went dry as shadows emerged, and then a creature on four legs. I put a hand over my mouth to keep from screaming.. Had the Kronock found us? Then I allowed myself a quick breath. The Kronock weren't four-legged, were they?

Then I saw that the creature was not only on four legs, but it was also covered in brown fur and had a pink tongue lolling from one side of its mouth and a wagging tail.

I lunged forward, pushing Maxxon's arm down. "Don't shoot! It's just a dog!"

Maxxon jumped, obviously surprised that I had come from behind. "I know what dogs are, Allie. I've been coming to Earth to source tribute brides for over a year now."

"Well, you seemed confused about my cat."

"Felines are confusing, enigmatic creatures."

Touché.

The dog trotted over to us, clearly overjoyed to see people. Its fur was matted and dirty, but its eyes were bright and friendly. I reached out to scratch behind its ears, and it leaned into my touch, panting happily.

Dinah had opened one eye from where she'd curled up in the corner, but decided the dog was no threat and curled up more snugly and went back to sleep.

"He must be a stray," I said, as I rubbed behind his ears. "Poor thing probably ran in here for shelter when the invasion started."

Maxxon nodded, then bent down into a deep squat and poured out the remainder of his chips onto the floor. The dog didn't even sniff them before wolfing them down. Then he jumped up, rested his front paws on Maxxon's shoulders, and proceeded to lick the Drexian's face.

I couldn't help but laugh at Maxxon's expression, but the sound caught in my throat as a memory surfaced. The dog's scruffy appearance and friendliness reminded me so much of Buddy, the stray I'd adopted as a kid. My stomach tightened as I remembered the night we'd had to leave him behind.

"Allie?" Maxxon's voice was gentle as he wiped at his wet cheek. "You look unhappy. I thought dogs made humans happy."

I managed a smile. "They do, usually. It's just that he reminds me of my childhood, which wasn't always happy."

Maxxon tilted his head, as if asking me to tell him more. There was no reason why I should have felt comfortable around someone I'd just met—and alien, no less, but suddenly it didn't seem strange to tell him a story I'd told no one before.

"When I was ten, we had to leave town in the middle of the night," I began. "I'd found this stray dog a few weeks earlier, named him Buddy. He was the first real friend I'd had in ages." I hitched in a breath. "We moved a lot, and it was hard to make new friends all the time when I knew I'd just leave them. But Buddy was different. He was mine. At least, that's what I thought."

I pressed my lips together to keep the tears from falling as I thought of my dad rushing into my room that night and saying we had to leave. "But the next time we left, my dad said I couldn't take Buddy with us. Dogs barked. It was too much of a liability."

Maxxon's brow furrowed. "Why did you have to leave so suddenly? Why would it matter if a dog barked?"

I sighed, absently stroking the dog's fur as I told Maxxon something I'd never shared with another soul. "My father had been part of a radical underground group. They'd done some bad things, although my dad claimed he had never done any of the really bad things. Still, we were always on the run because if they caught him, he'd go to jail. He and mom had gotten together before he'd gotten in trouble, and she refused to leave him. So that meant that we were always changing our hair and our names." I blinked away the tears stinging the backs of my eyelids. "And always leaving the past behind."

"That sounds like a hard way to grow up."

I shrugged, trying to push aside the pain of those memories. "Lots of kids have rough childhoods. At least I had parents—well, until my dad finally got caught and went to prison. And my mom went as an accomplice."

The words kept spilling out as if a dam had broken. "After that, it was just me. I've been on my own since I was 16. You know the reason I'm in this town? It was my favorite place we lived when I was little. Even though that was over twenty years ago, it was the closest thing to home I could remember. So I came back."

"It's a nice town."

I looked up at him. "It's okay, but it's not what I remembered. I guess places from the past never are, are they?" I didn't wait for an answer. "The funny thing is, when I moved back, the one thing I swore I'd never do again was run. I wanted to stay put, put down roots. I was doing pretty well at it too, until, you know, aliens invaded."

I stopped abruptly, regret washing over me. What was I doing? I'd never told anyone these things, not even the few friends I had. Yet here I was, spilling my deepest secrets to an alien I'd known for less than a day.

"I guess I can trust you with all this," I said, attempting to lighten the mood. "It's not like you'll be sticking around on Earth to tell anyone, right?"

Maxxon absently stroked the dog's back. "That is true. Once my people successfully repel the Kronock invasion—which I'm certain they will—I'll be returning to the Boat."

His words should not have been a surprise, but they still hit me like a punch to the gut. Of course, I would never see him after all this was over. The false sense of connection, the strange bond we'd formed, even the way his touch made me feel—it was all temporary. It could never be anything more. And if he was wrong and his side didn't win, then there was a very real chance that this could be my last taste of freedom before the world as I knew it ended.

I reached out and touched Maxxon's face. His skin was warm beneath my fingers, and I felt a slight vibration, almost like a purr. His eyes widened in surprise, the dark pupils flaring until the amber was a thin ring, but he didn't pull away.

"I guess we have nothing to lose, right?" I whispered before pulling his mouth to mine.