His Most Precious Human Plot Recap & Cast

She was bought as a pet—but her buyer wanted something far more dangerous: her choice.

Tessa was twenty-five, unemployed, and walking down an ordinary street when a spaceship sucked her into the sky. She woke up in a cage. Around her, other humans screamed and rattled their bars. Beyond them, something enormous with eight busy tentacles rearranged shelves.

A pet shop. She'd been abducted into a pet shop.

Then came the part that should have terrified her more than it did: a huge masked alien came to stare at her every single day. Dark clothing. A body built to tear doors off hinges. Metal covering the lower half of his face. Only his blue eyes softened the effect—and they never left her.

Then he bought her. For ten times the price.

The Buyer Who Covered His Face With a Paper Bag

The shopkeeper's warning followed them out the door. Humans judge appearances, he told the buyer. Yours may frighten her. And you mustn't force her to mate with you.

Mate. Tessa had assumed she was being purchased as a pet. Nobody asked for her assessment on that either.

But then the carrier stopped, and the enormous hand lifted the curtain. Blue eyes met hers. She stayed frozen in place—so he picked up an empty paper bag, put it over his head, and poked two holes in the front. The eyes returned, peering at her through paper.

He had covered his face because he thought it frightened her. And he was waiting, anxiously, for her reaction. A creature that size shouldn't have been able to look so uncertain.

She stepped out and stopped cold. Pink walls. A bed built for someone her size. Food, snacks, room to move without climbing his furniture. Not a shelf. Not a corner for a cage. A room.

"This is your home now."

She had spent the whole journey imagining what those hands could do to hurt her. They had helped arrange this.

The Strongest Warrior on the Planet

For days, Tessa stayed in bed. Her room was lovely. Her situation was still alarming. Kyle decided she must be ill—food and medicine kept arriving, and he hovered outside her door, too afraid of upsetting her to come in. Eventually he called a doctor.

The doctor brought his own human. Mara. Tessa's best friend, somehow on the same planet.

"I've been worrying myself sick about you, and you've been living in Kyle's mansion."

Mara filled in the blanks fast. Kyle is rich. Kyle is the strongest warrior on the planet, training military officers in the capital. "Strength means status here, Tessa. Work it out."

Tessa sat up. Ice cream appeared at the door. A game console followed. Meanwhile Mara's owner, Dr. Ben, stayed handsome, reserved, and completely immune to her flirting—or so she believed. When a cup shattered and Ben's face went rigid, Mara insisted she was completely uninterested. She was obviously trying not to smile. Even on another planet, a man could be jealous of his girlfriend's best friend.

After Mara left, Tessa turned to Kyle. He was still wearing the bag.

The Word Hidden on the Tag

"Humans like it, don't they?" he asked, about his appearance. He tugged the bag lower, as if there were more of himself he could hide. The strongest warrior on the planet was trying to make himself smaller.

She lifted the bag away. Up close, the metal on his lower face wasn't removable armor. It was part of him. She shivered at the strange cold surface—and he backed away at once.

"I'm sorry, giving my head one final stroke. I'd keep you myself if I could."

She believed him. But she still needed an answer. Why did you buy me?

He touched the tag on her carrier. Beneath the alien lettering was one small English word: mate.

"No, I don't agree. Being your mate."

He dropped his gaze. Then came the offer that flipped everything: she could keep her room, or have the whole house. He could live somewhere else. Just please don't ask for another owner.

He was offering to move out of his own home. The most dangerous-looking creature she'd ever met was bargaining with his own front door.

"And if I never want to be your mate, then you won't be. I'll still take care of you."

She searched his face for a condition. Found none.

"Nothing happens unless I want it. You don't get to force me."

"Of course not."

"And I need time."

"I'll stay out of your way."

She went back to her room wondering if he'd just promised to hide from her.

The Spoon, the Apron, and the Cushion

He kept that promise so thoroughly she barely saw him. If she opened her door while he was downstairs, he vanished. He moved through his own house like an intruder.

So she went to the dining room. Kyle froze with his meal in front of him, signaled for someone to bring her food, then picked up his bowl and moved to a corner. The attendant stared. So did she. Which one of them was supposed to be the pet?

He approached cautiously with an enormous spoon and aimed it at her face like the goal was to bury her, not feed her. "You're too thin," he said, his hand hovering beside her waist as if measuring it. She'd been eating enough to make her clothes noticeably less forgiving. When she told him to stop feeding her, his expression changed instantly. He gathered the dishes without looking at her and turned away.

He thought she was rejecting him again.

"Kyle, that's not what I meant."

The next day she caught him before he could escape upstairs, his hand already flying to his face. "Have you considered wearing an apron over these?" she asked. "Quite the opposite. Only if you want to."

He considered it so seriously she almost confessed everything. Then he went upstairs, leaving her wondering if she'd finally asked too much.

At dinner, every attendant had disappeared. Kyle stood at the stove in an apron. "May I make your dinner and feed you?" She nodded, trying not to grin. "But I'd like to sit with you." Where? "Somewhere comfortable. Humans like soft places." Before she could explain that wasn't a problem, he spread a cushion across his lap.

She climbed up. He fed her as carefully as if the spoon held something priceless.

"What?" she asked. "The apron?"

"Other things work, too. A suit, your uniform, a towel. Variety. Excellent for human morale."

The galaxy's most feared warrior, negotiating his wardrobe for her comfort. But the mask is still part of his face, and the word mate is still on that tag—so the real question isn't whether Tessa falls. It's what happens when she finally decides she wants the man behind the paper bag.

If you were Tessa, would you trust the monster behind the mask? Tell us in the comments!