AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Patrick’s eyelids twitched. His face paled as the blood drained out of it.
“Serenity, I swear, I’m telling you the truth. They—“
“You’re lying!”
As a cop, she would never have resorted to physical coercion to get a confession out of a suspect. Oh, she knew plenty of cops who did that all the time. The force was rife with power-hungry assholes who were little better than the criminals they were supposed to catch. But not Serenity. She didn’t operate like that.
But she wasn’t a cop anymore. That concept didn’t even apply on this godforsaken planet. And the situation was beyond dire. She knew beyond a doubt the nith weren’t taking them home. And it wasn’t just her own life at stake now. Every single human and ukkur life back in the canyon was in danger.
With an animalistic snarl that surprised even herself, Serenity charged across the energy cage at Patrick.
The young man’s eyes widened in shock at the sudden attack, and Serenity could practically smell the fear wafting off him. He tried to scramble away, but Serenity caught him by the arm and struck him open handed but hard across the jaw.
“What deal did you make with the nith?” she demanded. “Don’t lie to me.”
“Serenity, I swear, I—“
She cuffed him again, harder this time. His eyes rolled back, and for a second she thought she had actually knocked him out, but she shook him awake again. Blood trickled from the corner of his mouth.
“What deal?” She screamed. “What did they promise you?”
“Don’t hit me,” Patrick cried, his eyes brimming with tears. “I’ll…I’ll tell you, okay? Just don’t hit me.”
Serenity held off, but she kept her hand upraised, threatening to strike if Patrick didn’t start speaking and quick.
“Breeding,” he muttered at last.
“What?”
Patrick sniffled and scrubbed the tear tracks from his cheeks with back of his arm.
“Breeding,” he repeated. This time his voice had the tone of a petulant child. “They said they would let me bring a woman back with me, a woman of my choosing, and they would keep us for breeding.”
This revelation made Serenity’s blood run cold and then hot. She transitioned from shock to despair to rage in the space of a few seconds.
Her fingers balled into a fist. Patrick cringed.
Serenity didn’t hit him. Oh, she played it out in her mind’s eye. She pictured her fist coming down again and again, flattening his nose, dislocating his jaw, scattering his bloody teeth. But she didn’t give in to her violent urges. There was no point.
She shoved the cowering man away in disgust.
“Breeding.” Serenity spit the word out like it tasted bad. “Why?”
Curled in the corner of the enclosure, Patrick refused to look at her. He started to speak. His voice sounded half-crazy, like he was talking more to himself than to her.
“Why do you think? Meat. Ever since this war started between the ukkur and the nith, the amount of ksh being imported to Earth has waned. But trade goes both ways, right? The Earth has been sending fewer and fewer humans for the nith to eat. The nith don’tneedhuman meat to survive, of course. They’ve got other stuff theycaneat. But they prefer preying on conscious, intelligent creatures. It’s like a delicacy or something.”
Serenity shuddered.
“The nith prefer having their humans imported,” Patrick went on. “It’s like controlled predation, you see? They don’t have to worry about breeding them, housing them, raising them from infancy and all that. The Earthlings take care of all that by themselves. All the nith have to do is give the humans ksh to keep them nice and fat. Keep a steady supply coming in from off-world. It’s a matter of convenience.”
“So why start breeding us now?” Serenity asked coldly.
“With the supply of imported humans dwindling, the price of human meat’s been going up. I guess the captain of this nith ship figured he would keep a couple of human pets handy. Breed them to make—“
“You sick fuck,” Serenity cut him off.
Now she really wanted to kill Patrick. What he had agreed to was beyond disgusting. But her muscles were feeling strangely weak and uncoordinated. An after-effect of the stun gun?
