Two women nearby are slower than me: a pink and a blue. I don’t think the pink is trying hard. The blue doesn’t strike me as a physically fit type. Nevertheless, a Talhuskin warrior, deep brown and leathery, wings bound behind his back, charges at me. I definitely don’t want one of his kind: dominating, bossy, irritable, greedy. And a bed of pebbles sounds terrible.
If I can find a spot I will fit that he won’t, I can lose him. I veer toward the ropes course. Charging up to the structure with him right behind me, I drop into the dirt beneath the lower platform, sliding through the dust on a leg. Then I scramble upon the other side and run, grateful my mother had me in softball until my father took me away.
Behind me, a blue wolf-shifter tackles the Talhuskin as I sprint for the trees. They get into a tumbling roll that gives me space to get away.
My heart pounds. I keep up my pace so I have some space to scan the arena for Teol. All around me, males fight over women. A yellow Jorbiun alien tackles a woman only to get thrown by a red Klaphos in the ceremonial armor of a prince.
I find a cave opening in the hillside just inside the forest and drop into its opening.
A woman cries out in pleasure, and a pair of angry, reflective eyes look out at me.
“Whoops, sorry. Didn’t know it was occupie—”
I’m dragged out by an ankle.
“Mine,” a sinister voice booms behind me, hauling me across the mossy ground and back toward the complex.
“What is it with you men, anyway?” I shout, clawing at the ground, frantically trying to push myself over so I can look up at who’s captured me. “I’m a fucking red. Do you really want to deal with my pain in the ass?”
I kick at his wrist. He stops and rolls me over. The gray ogre towers above me like the trees. The translator on his neck flashes and relays words to him that I don’t understand.
“Holy shit.”I definitely don’t want his kind of mating, whatever that is!Just the thought terrifies me. I’m not into baby carrots, but I don’t want to take a fist of cement either.
“Strrrong,” he says, pointing at me.
That’s why they want me?
Another alien bodyslams him, breaking his grip free of my ankle. They tumble away. I scramble up and keep running through the trees.
A cameradrone zooms after me. I don’t want to be on anyone’s TV more than I already have. I’m glad my mother isn’t alive to have heard my earlier response. She’d be so disappointed. But this universe is at war; only the toughest and cruelest of us survive.
I dart off course through a tight group of trees, losing the drone. But as I break out into a field, a set of hands grips my shoulders like talons and lifts me high into the sky.
My stomach clenches. I grab the hands that hold me and look up at the Talhuskin’s edgy face and cheekbones with rigid, scaled enhancements. He looks triumphant.
The warm breeze ripples over my hair and uniform, and I realize resisting him at this height above the surface is a deadly idea. Below us, the race grounds look like an ant colony being overrun by another. The bigger, colorful ants capture and carry away the smaller ones.
I don’t know why Talhuskins seem to want me. They’re known for their egos. I’m a red. That’s a bad pair.
Unless they want to tame me. Which will never happen.
As we arc back toward the building, I’m torn between the awe of their natural flight capabilities and the notion they want me for another reason because they know who I am.
I’m no prize except to maybe that ogre guy. The other women are thinner, healthier, prettier, with fewer scars. It doesn’t make sense for them to want me.
“We have wing release! Alert, wing release!” A cameradrone communicates over a PA. A red light swirls atop the drone.
I strain to look up at the Talhuskin. His eyes scour the fields below us as another of his species crashes into him mid-flight. I’m knocked loose in their confrontation.
Gravity might be lower on the moon, but I still fall. Sickening fear chokes out my yelp of disorientation.
I never thought this was how I’d die.
I close my eyes.Sorry, Mom. For everything.
Shouts and screams fill the air and then fall silent.
The drone’s buzz morphs into the blasting thrum of a thruster array. Metal tines collect me like a spider’s legs.
