But one unexpected night, that all changed. She was given a chance to do something so crazy, so outlandish, so irresistible, she couldn’t bear to turn it down. When an alien race called Zerin contacted… er, abducted her, they presented her with a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to leave Earth and find a meaningful relationship with an alien who would love and adore her for the rest of her life.
Unlike most of the science-fiction romances she’d read, these aliens gave her a choice—join their exchange, or they’d return her home none the wiser, with the reassurance they’d erase her memories of the encounter with no harm done to her. After she heard their tempting offer, she felt an underlying sense of fate aligned within her for the first time. This… this was what she’d been waiting for. She’d always adored anything with a sci-fi twist combined with a hint of romance. How could she resist?
Toni, by nature, wasn’t impulsive. She took her time and contemplated their offer, especially since she couldn’t return to Earth if she went with them. Before she gave them an answer, she relived her life, piece by piece. Her job, which she adored at first, had been exciting; she was part of producing movies and TV shows that she’d felt were worthwhile.
But as time went by, the fierce competition turned into something she loathed, forcing her to choose between backstabbing a good friend to get the job done or losing any credibility she had in the industry. And lately, the projects she’d worked on weren’t worth the effort. They were flat and uninspiring. It was the same old grind. Like a bad rerun. Disgust couldn’t describe how mind-numbing and soul-sucking the entire industry had turned out for her.
The only regret she had was leaving hereomeonibehind.Although not estranged, Toni’s refusal to live as her mother decreed forced her to move out and reject her mother’s traditional lifestyle. Lately, whenever they got together, her mother became increasingly demanding.
“Toni-ah, look at you! You’re not young anymore. When I was your age, I already had you. Do you want to be alone forever? No husband, no children! How can you live like this?”
As if Toni being in her early thirties counted as old age. Then her mother would spout this gem:
“How will I get to hold grandchildren at my advanced age?”
Toni was smart enough not to point out her mother was barely in her sixties. Then her favorite would follow:
“You don’t think about me at all! Do you want me to grow old and feeble with no one to call mehalmoni? You don’t want to havehanin my heart, do you?”
Her mother had the emotional blackmail trope down to a science. As if Toni was responsible for all her mother’s unresolved sorrow, resentment, and longing for how her life turned out. While she loved hereomeoniwith all her heart, her mother had developed her own interests after Toni’s father died several years ago. She’d joined a group of widows from their community and traveled all over the world. If Toni saw her mom twice a year, that was considered a lot.
She shuddered. The only question was, how to tell her mother she was going away for a long time without starting in a guilt-ridden argument? Which turned out to be a no-brainer. Her only choice was to leave a note explaining she’d be unavailable for a year because of a remote job. After all, it was normal for either of them to be out of touch for long periods before. Besides, if she found a mate on an advanced world that had space travel, who’s to say he wouldn’t bring her back for a visit occasionally?
The final decision came down to this. Was she willing to take a risk of going to the ends of the galaxy for something as bold as a fulfilling life filled with love? Could there be anything nobler? Here was an opportunity to uncover parts of herself she never dared to understand—one with no outside influences. A chance to reclaim her identity away from the roles and expectations placed on her.
And wasn’t that what being alive was all about?
Of course, fate loves nothing more than to slap you upside the head with your own stupidity the second you dare to chase something better. Just a little reminder to let you know what a complete idiot you were for even thinking you had the right to change your life.
Or that you even had a chance.
Instead of finding love with a hunky alien and living a life of love and adventure on an exotic planet, Toni’s butt was stuck in a holding cell with four other women on a gangster planet called FiPan. To make matters worse, their android jailers—called, of all things,sexbots—stopped working some time ago, leaving her and her friends to die either of starvation or thirst.
Or monotonous boredom.
Just when Toni feared all hope was lost, a clatter of alien footsteps echoed down the abandoned corridor. She blinked against the light that clicked on in the hallway, spilling its dull glow into the dreary cell. What came toward them made her eyes widen. They were strange-looking creatures she could only describe as a nightmarish mix of dingoes and beavers on two feet. That is, if a dog walked on its hind legs. They scrambled to a stop at the entrance of the cell. They were short suckers, only around four feet tall. All of them had six arms—three on each side of their furry, matted torsos. In the middle of their foreheads, above their snouts, were four black-beady eyes that gleamed with identical malevolence.
Each one fixated on her and her captive friends.
Her stomach tightened as one of them ran a scan around the cell with some kind of device it held in its clawed middle paw while others focused on the frozen red sexbot poised at the entrance to their cell.
Together, they dragged the android away while uttering growls and hisses.
Toni’s faint hope of freedom evaporated once the force field covering the entry dissipated when the sexbot was gone. She gritted her teeth in a vain attempt to steady her breathing. These creatures weren't rescuers. They had to be something far more dangerous.
Sudden pain from the thick slave collar around her neck shocked Toni. She dropped to the floor like a stone, every nerve in her body blazing with agony. With everything she had, she did her best to cry out, but before any sound escaped, one of the creatures slammed a putty-like gag ball over her mouth. It expanded and covered her frozen lips.
Cold metal bands snapped onto her wrists with mechanical precision over her wrists, binding her hands in front of her. The icy metal bit into her skin, making her fingers numb.
The pain bled away, giving her a chance to breathe through her nose. Her captor yanked her upright, and the sudden movement left her dizzy. She stumbled forward, dragged along by the six-armed alien who gripped her with unnerving ease with his middle paw-hand. The other women in the cell with her were similarly held captive. Their expressions over their gags were a mixture of fear and defiance. Toni’s heart wrenched when she caught sight of Morgan’s narrow-eyed determined stare at the alien manhandling her. Izzy—gentle Izzy—whose brown eyes were now wide with tears. She couldn’t see Althea or Lisa, who sounded like they were behind her.
The elevator ride from the cell block was suffocating, both from the stench of their captors and the oppressive silence they forced on them. Toni's fingers flexed against the restraints as her mind raced for an escape plan. But nothing jumped out how to get free. The only thing she could do was glare at the short alien holding her. Not helpful, but it made her feel better.
When the doors of the elevator slid open, chaos greeted them. The once-pristine facility was in shambles, its halls reduced to a battlefield of destruction. Aliens of all shapes and sizes looted, fought, or reveled in chaos. Toni's captor pushed her onward, ignoring the scene as though he couldn’t care less about the twisted spectacle going on around them.
Her breath hitched when they emerged outside. The outside world was a blur of dull sunlight and rancid air, but it was the looming metallic structure ahead that scared the crap out of her. The octagonal vessel radiated menace, its surface marred by years of wear and stained with substances she didn’t care to think about.
Toni stumbled, and her knees pounded onto the crumbling asphalt. The rough ground scraped holes in her pants and scratched deep gouges in her skin. Her muscles screamed in protest as the collar around her neck tightened and hoisted her off the ground like she was a puppet on invisible strings. She thrashed, desperate for air. But her struggles only made the pressure worse. Her captor’s grip didn’t falter as he propelled her toward the ship.
