Voices cheer as my insides slam against my ribs. The drone lowers me safely to the ground and sets my feet down.
“Confirm your status,” it says.
I catch my breath and nod.
It zooms away.
A cluster of males piles over themselves on their way toward me. I back up and look at the other girls in the area who’ve stopped running to watch them fight.
“What do you have that we don’t?” A blue-banded woman asks.
I shrug. “A piece of shit cargo ship that breaks every single fucking day? That’s literally all I own. I make federal minimum wage. I’m not that pretty or healthy. I barely scraped in here.”
A green-banded woman crosses her arms. “Must be something to have so many males fight over you.”
I watch the five males break apart and cluster up in a fight again. I’ve only seen males behave so aggressively over one other thing in the whole universe. If females and families don’t drive them to act like this, treasure or the promise of it will. “I didn’t want or ask for this.”
ABR guards come out to break up the fight. When they struggle to get control, they open doors to a set of stairs to the third level, where human guards hustle down the steps.
One of the alien racers breaks free and charges at me on all fours. To my dismay, it’s a Ginarigon.
I stagger backward and try to run, but he’s fast and catches me around the waist. We pile up in the grass, but he quickly climbs over me. The auburn beast is three times my size and bares his pointed teeth at me.
He draws in a deep breath near my neck while his sheer weight crushes the air from my lungs. I try to push him off, use every trick Teol taught me, but he just grumbles like I’m an annoying bug.
His predatory pupils open inside striated orange irises, and I fear he’s not there to claim me but to kill me. When his teeth graze my skin, their sharp tips stinging my skin, my concerns solidify.
A shrill cry leaves with what’s left of my breath. I close my eyes as the world darkens around me from lack of oxygen, wishing I’d never come here.
The Ginarigon’s weight lifts. I blink and look in the direction he’s disappeared and see the Ginarigon tumble away, get up, and shake himself like a dog, rattling his battle armor. Between us stands a man in all-black tactical gear, tightening his fists.
ABR staff said we were protected. I’m honestly surprised that they meant what they said.
A striped hand appears before me, covered in thick, smooth scales. “You alright?”
I let him help me up, then follow his green eyes to another woman being carted off by the blue wolf-shifter. Then the male who has put me on my feet launches sideways in a blur of orange. My heart sinks.
This is not what I want. I don’t want them fighting over me when so many are starving and dying in battle with the Nebs.I wish we could put our energy toward more important things.
The two males growl at one another and scrap in the dust.
“Stop!” I squeeze between them and try my best to break them apart. “No one needs to get hurt!”
They split up. I reach for the nice male, the one closer to my size, aiming to ask if he’s okay and if he’d consider me. He’d be a decent alternative to the Ginarigons and Talhuskins, which seem to only want to risk my life. But the aggressive Ginarigon lacesan arm around my waist and hauls me away before I can make my offer.
The race time ticks through the last seconds as I wriggle and kick the male that’s taken me. “Let go of me!”
The buzzer goes off. A woman somewhere on the mountain has won. She cheers from atop the rock. I wonder if it’s Teol.
“Zariah!” Teol hangs over the shoulder of a huge male with feathery fur as dark and eerily translucent as obsidian. He slinks toward the mingle celebration. She waves and gives me a big smile. But I’m stuck with Baby Carrot.
“So do you want the money or me, red?” my captor asks. “No, not money. I saw your answers. You don’t care about stuff. You must want a mate. Lucky me, I want both.”
“Fuck.” I think he knows who I’m descended from. I have nothing but an antiquated StarBuster. He can see that in my ABR digital file.
“That can be arranged.”
“Oh, shut up.”
