Ka'Cit's Haven (Riv’s Sanctuary #3)

Even if she apologized, he couldn’t understand a word she said.

She would just have to let Riv relay a message to him when they finally returned to the Sanctuary.

Maybe she’d even volunteer to work at his farm for a bit, to repay him for all this trouble.

It was her fault he was now stuck in the underbelly of a ship.

Shit!

The thought made her anxiety rise.

“Where are we? What is this place?”

She glanced around the small room, if she could call it that.

The walls on all sides were metal, and there was hardly enough space for both of them to sit comfortably.

Recognizing that, she felt another wave of claustrophobia incoming.

Taking a deep breath, she closed her eyes.

One, two, three…she counted over and over as she focused on her breathing.

There was a rhythmic clanking sound somewhere farther in the ship’s underbelly and she focused on that too.

The rhythm helped.

But despite her best efforts, the panic was rising once more.

Forget that she had an audience. Her sense of self-preservation apparently did not care if she died of embarrassment.

She was focusing on the clanking in the background while trying to measure her breathing when she heard the song once more.

The alien was humming again.

Nia’s eyes flew open and her head snapped in his direction.

Green eyes studied her through the metal mask and he stopped humming for a moment.

When she said nothing, he continued.

And it helped.

She didn’t know how, but his strange alien song…helped.

“Thank you.” She smiled and the alien’s gaze flicked to her lips.

Maybe he was trying to figure out what she was saying.

Another breath shuddered through her and she focused on the deep rumble of his voice.

It was a deep, low hum coming from the depths of his throat, but it was utterly enchanting.

So much so that she could only stare at him, her panic attack fading once more.

The sound reminded her of Slavic music; there was simply something hypnotizing about it.

If she didn’t think about where she was, if she focused on everything except the small space they were stuck in, she could possibly survive this ordeal without going into another panic attack.