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A slot in the door opened, and my breakfast slid inside on a clean piece of plastic, containing chunks of meat and some kind of pale, starchy vegetable. The meat was good—perfectly cooked and salted. The vegetable tasted bland, but I ate it anyway, wishing they’d make something like French fries with it instead. The greens that came with lunch and dinner tasted better—at least those probably had vitamins.
When I heard the kids’ voices coming close, I bundled up the extra meat in the wrapper and shoved it into my pants.
Prarr and Prurg latched onto my arms and drug me down the plain servant’s hallway to the wide, tiled entryway in front of the main door. Ornate filigree in gold covered every surface, and asshole guard waited there, tall and imposing. As much as I liked the kids, the adults were… unsettling. They were bigger than me, very heavily muscled, and all those teeth and claws hinted at how easy it would be for them to hurt me. Worse, their eyes were cold. The kids might be innocent, but the adults knew I wasn’t a pet, that I was a person.
And they kept me anyway.
Asshole guard led us outside, his taloned feet digging divots into the sandy courtyard. Prurg and Prarr scrambled along behind me, half walking, half tussling with each other. Being cooped up had given them a lot of excess energy to burn off. Today’s “run and chase” would be a long one.
The asshole opened a person-sized door set into the outer wall and stood there with an air of impatience.
I pulled my brown hair back into a ponytail and did a few jumping jacks to warm up.
The kids laughed, the sounds almost like honking, and mimicked me, their heavy tails bouncing as they jumped.
After one last look into the cold eyes of the guard, I took off.
The recent storms transformed the alien jungle. The rain had washed the golden bark of the puff-ball trees to a lustrous shine. Even the pom-poms of leaf-flowers waving overhead were a more brilliant lime green.
The orange undergrowth now bloomed. Tall, thin stalks extended from the fronded ferns, each topped with a cluster of tiny white flowers shaped like stars.
In between the clusters of orange, yellow flowers as big as a dinner plate spread across the ground. I crouched over one, the smell of sweet melon ripe in the air. The petals lay flat, looking velvety, and I reached out.
A multi-legged brown bug skittered across the surface, and the petal snapped inward, bringing the insect to the orange center, filled with a pool of liquid.
I snatched my hand back. “Mierda! A carnivorous plant!” I’d read about such things but had never seen one. By the time I left in 2123, Earth had lost almost all of her forests and jungles. It had been one of the reasons I’d been so excited to join the ARK Program to find a new world for humanity.
One of the small, flying lizards fluttered through the trees overhead, cheeping in warning, reminding me of why I was really here.
I’d used up all of my head start, but it had been worth it. Shoving to my feet, I said, “No stepping on the meat-eating plants, Sof. Good plan.”
Undergrowth rustled behind me, and my heart kicked up a notch.I’m about to get caught!
I took off again, sprinting to get as much distance as I could from my pursuers. My breathing picked up as I pumped my arms and dodged around trees. Would I see the cat today? Was it okay? It must be hungry. While the rain had kept me locked inside, it hadn’t visited my room. I had the packet of meat ready for it, but no flashes of purple caught my eye.
High shrieks from behind me—the lizards had spotted me!
A breathless laugh escaped me. Now the chase was really on!
Prurg and Prarr called out behind me, movement and distance smearing the growls of their alien language into pure noise.
I ran harder, using a clear patch between trees to glance over my shoulder—
I slammed into a hard object. “Carajo!” There hadn’t been anything there!
Something grabbed my upper arms and pulled me back behind one of the golden tree trunks.
My head whipped around and up. An alien towered over me, his handsome blue face framed by purple horns that curved down around the sides of his head. Another pair stuck straight up from his deep-black hair. Purple eyes stared at me with an intensity that made me shiver.
Then his brows furrowed, his eyes flicking down to where my hands pressed flat against his chest—hisveryfirmly muscled chest.
My fingers flexed.
He spoke, his voice a deep rumble. It didn’t sound like the lizard language, but it still meant nothing to me.
“Sorry! All I’ve got is English with a smattering of Spanish swears.” I smiled up at him.
He let go of me and stepped back, and my hands slid from him a little reluctantly. The dude was seriously built with wide shoulders and muscly arms that stretched the golden fabric of his long-sleeved T-shirt. Black pants covered his long legs, and he wore heavy black boots and a holster with two guns. He held himself with the surety of a guy who could fight, exuding a quiet confidence and power that was catnip for my lady bits.
