Catching Alicka Read online

  Mr. Fuzzy stopped right next to Slanon and raised up on his back leg. He sniffed the air, then began chattering loudly and waving his tiny pink paws.

  With his tail moving all around him, he pointed at Alicka and then at himself. The lukpas’s tail raked over the bunched-up sheets and for a moment his attention was diverted to it. The tip of his fluffy tail prodded and then tickled the lump of sheets. When the material didn’t move, he swung his bright yellow gaze back to Slanon and started chatting again.

  Alicka held out her arms to her upset pet. “Come here, Mr. Tickles. You have to accept Slanon.”

  The pink fuzz-ball just stood there staring from Alicka to Slanon. His eyes drooped and Slanon wondered if the little guy was tired. “He was used to sleeping with you before I came along, wasn’t he?”

  “Yes, he likes to cuddle.” She’d dropped her arms to her lap and was looking sadly at her pet. “I don’t think he’s been sleeping well without me.”

  Needing to make them both happy, Slanon reached out and petted Mr. Tickles. The lukpas’s tail came around and tickled Slanon’s arm and then, as if remembering who he was tickling, the fluffy tail pushed at the hand Slanon was petting the little guy with.

  Slanon looked closely at the pink fur-ball and saw that, although anger and frustration were apparent in the lukpas’s eyes, so was exhaustion. He invitingly patted the bed close to where Alicka’s head would be when she lay down. Yellow eyes lit up and a flash of pink fur hopped rapidly over to the offered spot on the bed.

  “Thank you, sweet giant. I really want Mr. Tickles to like you.” Alicka glanced down at her pet when his tail reached out and tugged a few strands of her hair. “He doesn’t move around much in his sleep.” Alicka yawned and lay down.

  Slanon followed suit. Mr. Tickles ran his tail over Slanon’s face and then Alicka’s before snuggling further into the bed above her head. A low, contented chirp and then purring sound came from the ball of pink fur. That sound made him glad he’d invited her pet to lie down next to them. Although he drew the line at breeding with the lukpas in their bed, it wouldn’t kill him to sleep near Mr. Tickles.

  The fluffy pink tail swiped across him a few more times and then ran over Alicka’s face before settling on the top of her head. A few seconds later, his little furry body totally relaxed as sleep took the lukpas away.

  To his surprise, the pink tail slid back a bit until it was touching his shoulder. A sigh of contentment came from the tiny lukpas. He was amazed at the change in the little guy. No miracles or catastrophes were needed to bring them together. Just a touch of patience and kindness.

  Alicka smiled at her sleeping pet and then at him. He watched her lovely, thick-fringed eyelids droop slowly lower until they closed. He settled in closer to her.

  With his arm wrapped around his mate, Slanon let the night sounds and the comfort of his happy family ease him into a peaceful sleep.

  Chapter Ten

  Mr. Tickles was excitedly moving from one side of the backseat to the other. Alicka laughed as their pet continued to chirp wildly as he watched them slowly drive past one picplom tree after another.

  It had been two weeks since Slanon had let their lukpas sleep with them. That allowance had opened the door to a budding friendship between her guys.

  They were driving along the edge of their grove, checking on the trees and looking for prurros. So far, they’d found two trees with the yellow moss on them and the other trees were all looking healthy. The vehicle topped a hill and a lake of pearl water came into view.

  “Do we have time to stop so I can get a better look at the lake?” So far, she’d only been around a few ponds on VisOrrenta.

  Slanon smiled at her. “I’ll always make time for your desires, sweetling.”

  Once they were within walking distance of the pearly water, he parked the hovercraft.

  Mr. Tickles was pointing at the water and chirping in rapid bursts.

  Alicka picked their excited pet up and climbed from the craft. Slanon led the way to the water. He looked at their pet and laughed. “His tail is moving so fast I’m surprised he hasn’t taken flight.”

  “Me, too. The little guy looks like he’s about to burst from excitement.”

  At the edge of the smooth, flowing water, Mr. Tickles started squirming, and as soon as she released her hold on him, he climbed down her body. His tail whipped around and tried to tickle every blade of blue-green grass it could. He hopped over to a boulder and tickled it. Then he hopped around to all of the flowers and plants, doing the same thing.

  “Do you think he knows half the stuff he tickles isn’t capable of laughing?” Slanon asked with a chuckle.

  The suns’ beams brought out the red in Slanon’s black hair. She couldn’t help but admire it. When he waved his hand in front of her face, she was jerked back to the moment. “Sorry. I love the way your red highlights shine when the suns’ rays hits them just right. Have I told you how handsome you are lately?”

  “No, sweetling, you haven’t.” He wiggled his eyebrows. “You can show me when we get back home, though.”

  “Maybe we should hurry this trip along.”

  Several large, fish-looking creatures came close to the top of the water. She jumped back and Slanon laughed.

  “They’re just looking for a handful of grass.” He bent and broke off the tops of some blades. Moving closer to the water’s edge, he tossed the grass and, to her surprise, all three creatures jumped and caught as much grass in their mouths as they could. Slanon gestured for her to toss them some. She followed his example and couldn’t help the squeal that came from her when one of the neon-purple creatures caught some of the grass she’d thrown just three inches from her hand.

  Slanon grabbed her up and spun in a circle. “You are adorable.” He stopped turning and slanted his mouth over hers.

  She was getting into the hungry kiss when water crashed into her back. Slanon took a few steps back and set her down.

  “They just want a little more grass. They’re spinnoses. Go ahead get them some more grass. They won’t hurt you. They have excellent eye-mouth coordination.” He bent and grabbed another handful, so she did the same.

  “If one of them bites me, I’m going to be so mad at you.”

  “They won’t, sweetling. I’d never put you in any danger. Toss them some grass and watch their nose holes.”

  Alicka flung the grass to them and watched the three nose holes they had just behind their mouths. To her shock, the blue rings around their nose holes started to spin when the spinnoses chewed on their prize.

  “Now I know where they get their name from.” She watched them gobbled all the blades of grass floating on top of the water. One close to them dove down and splashed her and Slanon with a powerful wave of its two tails.

  Had Mr. Tickles gotten wet? As Alicka wiped water droplets off her face and arms, she looked around. “Slanon, have you seen our pet?”

  Slanon looked around and his eyes widened right before they started swirling. She looked in the direction he was looking to see what had caused his emotions to spike.

  A silent scream caught in her throat. Mr. Tickles had his tail out in front of him and was about to tickle a sleeping gorrcans. The massive beast was leaning against a picplom tree. Being a chameleon, his fur was dark blue against the tree’s trunk and blue-green where his body touched the grass. Mr. Tickles poked it on the leg and then tickled the beast’s big foot.

  Slanon, who’d already started running in that directions, sped up. The gorrcans’s eye popped open. Mr. Tickles let out a frightened squeak and all of his pink-and-white fur stood on end.

  The gorrcans swiped his arm out and tried to capture their pet. Slanon growled menacingly and jabbed a clawed hand into the monsters neck.

  She screamed when the gorrcans howled and swiped his claws over Slanon’s neck and shoulder. As blood poured from her mate, he repeatedly jabbed at the blue beast’s neck. He didn’t stop until the gorrcans’s head was barely hanging from his bod
y.

  Mr. Tickles was making an awful crying sound and was hopping all around Slanon. Her bleeding mate’s eyes rolled back in his head. Slanon shook his head and sank to his knees. Then he pressed a button on his wrist-comm and, in a slightly slurred voice, told someone his location before he passed out.

  She heard Tor’s voice come over the link. With shaking hands, she knelt and pushed the button. “Tor, hurry, Slanon’s dying! A gorrcans clawed his neck. W…what should I do?” She felt like she was going to pass out herself. Heat washed over her in sharp waves. Sweat broke out all over her body.

  “Alicka…Alicka, are you all right? Can you hear me?”

  At the tail end of another heat wave, she heard Tor’s worried voice and figured she must have missed something he’d said. She nodded and then realized he couldn’t see her. “I think so. I just need your help.”

  “Keep calm, little one. I need you to put pressure on Slanon’s neck. Hold it until we can get there. You should see us in a few minutes.”

  Alicka shifted and put pressure to Slanon’s neck. Blood oozed through her fingers. “This isn’t helping,” she said out loud. Looking around, she desperately sought something to help stem the blood flow.

  Mr. Tickles stopped the sorrowful sound he’d been making and hopped over to her. He flung his tail across Slanon’s neck right next her hands. Blood seeped from Slanon onto Mr. Tickles pink fur.

  “What are we going to do, little guy? We can’t lose him.” Tears clogged her throat and started running down her cheeks. Mr. Tickles started chirping sadly.

  The sound of a vehicle coming had her looking over her shoulder. It pulled up close to them and Tor, along with two other men, jumped from it.

  “I’ve got him now,” Tor stated the second he was next to his brother.

  Alicka removed her hands and picked up their sorrowfully chirping pet. One of the men was making sure the gorrcans was dead and the other knelt beside Slanon. The two men gently took Slanon to the hovercraft. The third male walked up to her. He held her arm as he guided her toward the vehicle.

  Alicka was helped into the craft and a moment later, her guide was in the driver’s seat heading to the healer. She turned her seat around and watched as Tor and the other man cleaned Slanon’s wound and then began licking and spitting on it. Through it all, Slanon didn’t move or make a sound.

  Her heart shattered when she saw tears well in Tor’s eyes. She wished she was VisOrrentian so she could help them save her mate.

  Another wave of fiery heat speared through her. A harsh burst of air blew through her lips. Closing her eyes and calming her breathing helped a little.

  “Are you all right, Alicka?” Tor asked sharply.

  Not wanting their attention to shift to her, she opened her eyes and lied, “I’m fine, just worried about my mate.”

  Tor grunted and gave her a look that said he wasn’t buying what she was selling. Her heart lifted when the palace came into view. As they pulled up to the back entrance, two men came out with a stretcher. Slanon was quickly put on the board and rushed into the palace.

  Alicka followed them into Healer Strahan’s offices. Staying out of the way, she held Mr. Tickles to her chest as she watched Strahan quickly look Slanon over and then order the men to put him on a machine in the next room.

  Another blast of heat hit her. Sweat dripped down her entire body. No matter what was wrong with her, she wasn’t about to leave her mate.

  Slanon was stripped of his clothing and strapped to the flat surface of a machine. A thin sheet was placed over his still form. Strahan pushed a button and a thick bar with a light on it started moving over Slanon. On the second pass, two more bars with lights came up from the sides of the machine and started moving all along the sides of Slanon’s body. A flash of light near his head startled her. Watching the surface he was on, she realized that another light was moving underneath Slanon.

  When the healer stepped away from Slanon’s side, she asked, “Is he going to be all right?”

  Strahan’s gold-and-silver eyes softened and then sharpened on her. “Yes. Are you having hot flashes?”

  A drop of sweat rolled down her forehead and got stuck in her eyelashes. She wiped it away and blinked a few times. “Yes. Are the lights on the machine healing Slanon?” It was nice of the healer to think of her, but all she was worried about was her mate.

  “Yes, they are. The lights have a special ability to sink into the body and enhance one’s own healing abilities by thousands of times. Your mate will be good as new in about thirty minutes. Getting him here so quickly saved his life and shortened the time of his healing. Come with me, Alicka. I want to do a pregnancy test on you.”

  In her stunned state, she let the tall healer guide her into the next room with only one quick glance over her shoulder. Tor gave her a half smile when their gazes met. Her eyes caught one last glimpse of Slanon’s still form on the machine before the door closed behind her.

  Strahan pointed to a sink and then to a chair. “Wash your hands and then have a seat while I prepare the fruit for the test.”

  As she washed her hands and their pet’s tail, a memory of her and Slanon scraping prurros off of picplom trees flashed through her head. The yellow moss was one of the ingredients that was needed for the test. There was a chance she’d bagged some of the very prurros she was about to be taking.

  Before she had time to dwell on the prospect of being pregnant, the healer walked into the room with a bowl in his hand.

  He gave it to her. “Just eat a few pieces of this for me, and in a couple of minutes we’ll know if you and Slanon have a little one on the way.”

  She took a bite and grimaced. Damn, this is nasty. Mr. Tickles smelled the fruit and then chattered something before shaking his head. Forcing herself onward, she quickly ate the required amount and gave him the bowl back.

  “Good job, Alicka. I need you to take your shoes off while I go check on Slanon.”

  Excitement started building in her belly and quickly shot outward until it encompassed every nerve in her body. Her hands shook as she reached to take off her shoes.

  “Did you hear that, Mr. Tickles? We may be having a baby.” He stopped tickling the chair and his yellow eyes narrowed. “No, don’t be like that. We’ll still love you.” She petted his fluffy head and he purred contentedly. If she was pregnant, she hoped their pink pet took to the baby faster than he had to Slanon.

  Molten heat raced through her body. Mr. Tickles cocked his head to the side and looked her over. As he started chirping in a worried tone, Strahan walked into the room. He took one look at her and went into the room he’d gotten the fruit from.

  He came back with a glass of water and handed it to her. “Drink this. It’ll help a little bit. Let’s see those toes.”

  Alicka raised her foot and choked on the water still in her mouth. Strahan patted her on the back as he said, “Congratulations. You’re pregnant, and the little one’s secondary color is gold.”

  Joy buzzed through her heart even as another wave of fiery heat washed over her. She took a drink of her water and felt a touch better.

  A movement at the door drew her attention. Was Slanon up? She looked up into icy-blue eyes. Tor.

  He looked at her gold-striped toes and then smiled. “Slanon has bred you well.”

  If she hadn’t been experiencing another heat wave, she would have blushed at his words. The big guy was honest to a fault.

  Strahan walked back into the other adjoining room and came out with a bag containing packets of some sort and one with crackers. He held up the packets. “Dissolve one of these in a glass of water every day. It will give you the vitamins you need to stay healthy.” He held up the other bag. “These are herb crackers that will keep your stomach calm. Eat one as needed.” He put the bags next to her and headed for the door leading to Slanon.

  Tor stepped back and Strahan entered the other room. Alicka stood and followed the healer. With Tor by her side, she watched as Slanon started coming to.
Mr. Tickles circled hers and Tor’s feet, chirping excitedly.

  Tor rubbed her shoulder soothingly. “It won’t be long now, little one.”

  She took comfort in Tor’s presence as she waited to see how her baby’s father was doing physically.

  The wait was killing her. Slanon had moaned a few times, but then slipped back into unconsciousness. The lights on the machine kept moving for another ten minutes before they slid back into place and went off. Slanon’s straps were removed and Strahan did a check of her mate’s neck and shoulder.

  As he was being looked over, Slanon’s eyes opened and a frown drew his dark brows together. He looked at Strahan and then his face paled. “Where’s Alicka? Is she all right?”

  Her heart burst with love for her mate. His first thoughts were of her safety. Mr. Tickles ran his tail over her toes and pointed at them. His chirping sounds drew Slanon’s gaze to hers. The love in his blue-and-gold eyes was almost tangible. It pulled her toward him. Joy danced over her nerves as she thought about the news she was about to give the love of her life.

  * * * *

  The second Slanon’s gaze landed on Alicka, peace enveloped him from head to toe. Waking to some stiff muscles and the sight of the healer had been shocking, but nowhere near as bad as the vision of the gorrcans sleeping so close to them had been. Fear for Alicka had frozen him in place. The sight of her coming toward him with a glorious smile on her precious face freed him.

  He sat up and slid off the healing surface and quickly knotted the sheet around his hips. She rushed into his arms and hugged him tightly. Mr. Tickles climbed up her, chattering the whole time. A flash of pink was all he saw before a fluffy tail wrapped around his head and pulled him into a furry hug. There was no place else in the universe he wished to be other than right here in his family’s arms.

  “I was so worried about you, sweet giant.”

  Alicka’s words brought a chuckle from Tor. Slanon looked up and glared at his brother. He would have preferred his brothers not know about Alicka’s name for him. She kissed his chest and his heart melted. Nothing mattered except her.