Choosing Riley: Sarafin Warriors Book 1 by S. E. Smith Page A

nose which had finally stopped bleeding.
    Riley’s eyes watered and she shook her head
gently. “Go,” she whispered quietly looking at him with sorrow in
her eyes. “It is better this way,” she murmured before she laid her
head tiredly on Bob’s shoulder. “Please take me to medical. I
hurt.”
    Vox watched as the small group left the room,
the door sealing behind them. A dark emptiness filled him and his
cat as both of them felt the loss of their mate. Vox’s low,
animalistic roar echoed through the level as he and his cat called
for their mate to return to them.
    “We will not leave without her,” Tor said
quietly coming up behind his friend and placing a reassuring hand
on his shoulder.
    Vox turned dark, burning eyes on Tor and
Lodar. “You bet your cat we won’t,” he vowed.

Chapter 7
    Riley felt much better several hours later.
Bob had carried her up through the mines to a special lift that
moved through the center of it. Riley vaguely saw the door to the
control room as they passed it heading to the medical unit. The
only reason she recognized it was because several Antrox guards
were leaving the room and they had to wait along the side of the
corridor since Bob was too big to move past them at the same
time.
    The medical unit was a very small, depressing
looking room with only one bed in it. The healer was a dark red,
leathery looking man with little tufts of white hair hanging about
his head in all different directions. Riley wasn’t so sure she
wanted some guy that looked that weird working on her but she was
in too much pain to complain when Bob gently laid her down on the
small, single wide bed.
    The healer insisted that Riley stay the night
telling her and Bob that Antrox 157 wanted to make sure she was
completely healed before he was allowed to release her. Riley
didn’t think it was really necessary but decided it was probably
for the best after everything that had happened. After the old, red
leathery skinned man put her arm in that strange looking machine it
felt almost as good as new. Bob had been a darling through it all,
especially since Riley didn’t handle being hurt very well. The huge
Gelatian had refused to leave her alone. He had held her good hand
in one of his and talked quietly to her the whole time in an effort
to take her mind off of what was happening. Fred, true to his word,
had appeared a little over an hour later with all of her things.
Her large, pink suitcase and her oversized purse had been hooked
together and Riley couldn’t suppress the giggle that escaped her as
she watched the small Tiliquan struggle to roll it into the medical
unit.
    “Vox wants to know how you are feeling,” Fred
muttered under his breath as he sat down wearily on her suitcase.
“This is very heavy, Riley. What do you have in it?”
    Riley chuckled again as she watched both of
Fred’s heads droop tiredly. “A little bit of everything. I don’t
have much as I tend to move around a lot but what I do have, I
cherish. It is mostly clothes and shoes but I also have a few
mementos that I didn’t want anything to happen to. You never know
when you might need something so I try to be ready for just about
anything that can happen.”
    “Vox will be very upset that I took your
things. I had to sneak it out when he and the other two went to
meet with Titus and Banu. The good thing is you are closer to the
shuttle bay here. It will not be as far or as hard for you to get
there tomorrow,” Fred said quietly.
    Riley lowered her head so Fred couldn’t see
her eyes. The incident earlier made her even more aware of the
differences between her and those around her. She bit her lower lip
and winced. Lip biting was becoming a very bad habit she had picked
up just since she arrived on this huge chunk of rock. If she wasn’t
careful, she wouldn’t have any lips left by the time she got
home.
    No, it is better for everyone if I just
find my way back home with the next trader or whoever is heading
that way,