Total pages in book: 71
Estimated words: 64359 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 322(@200wpm)___ 257(@250wpm)___ 215(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 64359 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 322(@200wpm)___ 257(@250wpm)___ 215(@300wpm)
He comes quickly, and without regard for my pleasure. I am left with an ache and a burning sensation, and a shame that will taint every thought and deed I have for years to come.
“Be here tomorrow,” he says. “I want more of that ass.”
He leaves me lying in the dirt, dripping his seed.
“Igot pregnant,” I explain to the three alien mates who are clearly struggling to school their expressions into some kind of composure. I can see little pinpricks in Atlas’ suit already, though. He’s trying to contain his rage at this tale, but it only gets worse from here. “And that’s when he set me up to die. He never let Matise have a baby, because he was supposed to be faithful to his wife. Having one with me was even worse. I wasn’t even numahn. He had to get rid of me. So he set me up…”
“You have to go!”
Matise is still a very handsome woman, though now there are graying streaks in her hair and wrinkles around her mouth and eyes which she blames for Sheriff not wanting to see her anymore. She took being discarded by him with true grace and dignity. She even took discovering that he had changed his affections to me with equanimity. A woman who has known a lifetime of powerlessness can be confused for being elegant when in truth she is simply shattered in every way possible.
She wakes me up from my nap with this urgent declaration. I have been getting tired for a while now, and kind of sick a lot of the time. I nap a lot, especially as Sheriff’s nocturnal visits seem to take more and more out of me. I am groggy with sleep as she starts packing things into a little bag for me and tossing new clothes at me. These are pants, and boots, these are the sorts of clothes that are worn in the great outdoors.
“What do you mean I have to go?”
“They’re coming for you, Emily. Sheriff noticed that your monthly did not come, and he knows what that means. They’re going to arrest you, and they’re going to execute you.”
I am now properly, entirely awake.
We have planned for this day, because she knew it would come. Matise trained me as much as she could to one day survive on my own. She taught me to fly ships in flight simulators. She would take me out when I was small and perhaps plausibly numahn and teach me how to interact with the world. She made sure I’d have everything I needed when the worst happened, and that makes her the best parent I could ever have asked for.
I scramble into the clothes she’s provided, and I tie my hair back behind my head. My stomach is churning, but I won’t let that stop me. I can’t. This is a very real matter of survival.
“What about you? Won’t they be angry you let me escape?”
“Don’t worry about me,” she says. “I know how to take care of that man. There is a shuttle waiting to take you to a port just outside his jurisdiction. Go, and never look back. I love you.”
“I love you too,” I tell her, trying to process the notion that I am never going to see her again. I know I won’t be able to come back to the numahn homeworld. I know that I am going to have to make my way among the stars, probably by heading straight to illicit space. I’m already starting to plan for survival as I walk toward the door.
“Take this,” she says, pressing a very small weapon into my hand. It looks unassuming, but it is a reverse polarity device, and it is devastating in effect. “Use it if you need it. You matter more than anything in any world. Never hesitate to defend yourself again, Emily. You’ve suffered enough.”
“And that’s how I ended up selling myself on the Owned Mates site.”
There’s a long silence following my story. I find myself shifting my weight nervously, my hands over my belly, protecting the little life who has the extreme misfortune to be coming into the middle of this absolute mess. It deserves better. I deserved better. But the universe doesn’t care about what you think you deserve. All it does is test you to see what you can survive.
Emrys is the first to speak, and when he does it is in a tone of pure venom. “I wish I could bring that bastard back to life so he could be killed again.”
Atlas also curses, but mostly because he has now really involuntarily spiked his human suit by literally bristling with rage.
Their reactions confuse me without the benefit of words. I wish I knew what they were thinking. I know they are angry, but do I seem more pathetic than ever now? Was it better when they just thought I was some inept scammer with a murderous impulse? I think I might have liked it better then.