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“The princess is everyone’s business,” he says. “We could all hear you breeding her last night.”
I stiffen. I’m not sure what they want from me—if they want her punished, they’ll be disappointed, because she was obviously experiencing nothing but pleasure last night. I cross my arms and turn to face him, leaning against the side of the boat.
“Why do you say it’s everyone’s business?” I ask. “She’smine.”
“She might be yours, but she’s royalty around here,” he says. “Carry on the family line and all that. If it were up to me, I would just have everyone breed her until she’s used up—”
I snarl and raise my fist, but Gideon is suddenly between us, snapping his arm out to block my strike. I glare into his eyes, ready to tear into Abel.
I think about ways to kill them both.
“Cut the shit, Abel, or you’ll be in a world of hurt,” Gideon warns. “Javier is one of us now. It’s time you started acting like it.”
“Just talk between men,” Abel says with a sneer.
“Enough,” Gideon deadpans. “And look up there—it seems we’ve arrived.”
I look toward the prow to find a rusty buoy up ahead, swaying on the waves. I can’t see any other trace of a settlement or anything else, but I can scent something strange here—a smell faintly of corpses, like chum in the water.
“Let’s get the fishing nets set up,” Gideon says. “A hand, Javier?”
I’m grateful for the reprieve from conversation with Abel, and it’s nice to do something that comes naturally. Boyd and I have fished so many times over the years that it’s old hat at this point, and I throw myself into the process of grabbing the nets to sling them over the side. We set up fishing rods too, slotting them into stands on the side of the boat.
Now comes the hard part…tolerating these people while we wait for something to bite.
Abel opens up a cooler of beers and passes them around, trying to force one on me with a smirk. I put my hands up and push it away before strolling over to the edge of the boat and looking in. I can see fish swimming below, and the vague shape of a building on the sand. This must be the Mer base they were talking about, long abandoned since the Heavenly Host took possession of this part of the planet.
“Javier, come take a look at this,” Gideon says from the other side.
I walk over, something making me deeply uneasy. When I look down, I realize this is the best view of the base in all it’s alien glory. The waves drift softly, and I start to make out the shape of a group of buildings about two hundred feet down. The water is crystal clear, spherical bubbles and twirling towers across the sand. I squint when I see something closer—a fish, maybe, ghostly white and drifting.
I almost stumble back when I realize what it is.
A person.
Someone with a face I recognize.
I stop myself from reacting, keeping my eyes trained on the water—and on Lila, the beta Boyd and I took out of the mess hall before he left. Her body moves slowly in the waves, decomposing and chewed up by fish, her hands bound behind her back and her ankles tied to a rope that goes down into the blue depths.
“See?” Abel chuckles from me. “What better bait than a beta?”
“What the fuck?” I curse, glaring at Gideon.
Gideon clicks his tongue. “Sweet Lila tried to stowaway on your friend Boyd’s boat. We caught her on her way out of the barracks.”
My mind races as I think about Boyd—and I start to wonder if he actually got away. If Boyd was captured, if he’s down there too, then Peaches and I have no one coming for us.
We’re alone out here.
“And Boyd?” I ask. “Did you…”
“Didn’t catch him, but we made sure his boat went down,” Gideon says. “Y’see, you two came in with bad intentions for my pack—and I can’t allow that, can I?”
“Why did you…?” I shake my head. “I don’t understand.”
I don’t want to finish my sentence—that I don’t get why I’m still alive.
“This is what happens when our people don’t follow the rules—they go to the deep,” he says.
