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“You cannot return to Earth.”
I felt my blood run cold at his quiet statement. “What do you mean?”
“The slavers are the only ones with intergalactic ships with the capability to make it to Earth and back. They’d never agree to take you back to your planet.”
“Why?” I asked, even when the answer tickled the edge of my mind.
“There is nothing in it for them. The abduction of Earthlings is a valuable trade, not just on Planet Omers but on other planets. Even if they agreed to take you back, we cannot trust them to keep their word. They’d just get you onto their transport and take you to another planet for trade.”
Given my experience with the slavers, I knew what he said to be true. Now the tingle caused by his very presence was mixed with cold. I wasn’t easily shocked, but the unfamiliarity of the feeling only made it worse.
“I’m trapped here,” I whispered.
That was why the slavers didn’t care how many of us died on the way to the clients as long as a minimum number got there intact. They could abduct more Earthlings and bring them either here or other planets for sale.
“I wish you had told me this before.” There was a lump in my throat. I really would never see home again. And worse, none of the others would either. And I would have to be the one to tell them that.
“Given everything you’ve endured. I wanted to give you time before telling you.” He grimaced. “But I had planned to tell you.”
I didn’t like his delay with revealing the information, but I believed what he said to be true.
“Do you have a pack on Earth?”
I shook my head. “I have no pack. No family.” Not that it made the reality of never returning to Earth easier to process. “My parents abandoned me as a baby, and I grew up in the foster care system until I aged out.”
“Foster care system?”
“On Earth, biological parents usually raise human children,” I explained. “But sometimes parents can’t provide proper care because of issues like poverty or substance abuse. When that happens, the government intervenes to protect the children. They are removed from their homes and placed with volunteer ‘foster families’ who provide temporary care.”
There was a beat of silence before I continued. “The goal is to reunite children with their original families once the parents have stabilized. But if that’s not possible, the foster family can become the child’s new permanent home through adoption. I entered the system when I was a baby after my parents abandoned me. I never knew them and bounced between different foster homes growing up. It’s an imperfect system but necessary to support vulnerable youth when their families fail them.”
He stepped closer and took my hand, his eyes filled with empathy. “I cannot imagine how difficult that was, to grow up alone without a stable pack. Among the Gladiators, we cherish the young above all else. But you have shown great resilience and strength despite your hardships. I vow you will always have a place with my pack if you wish it.”
His sincerity and concern touched me deeply. For the first time, I felt I had found someone who cared.
We rode on with me carrying the new knowledge that I would never return home like a cold stone in my chest. The weight never left and always drew my attention back to it even as we kept talking. The weight reminded me of the reality.
I was stuck here.
We were all trapped here.
There was no way to rescue ourselves, to escape fully. We might regain a lot of our autonomy and put the slavers on the ground. But what they had done couldn’t be fixed. Not fully.
Planet Omers is home now.
A world where we couldn’t even breathe the air without the help of technology.
A planet where we’d have to choose between a perilous isolation and mixing our lives with those of the aliens.
I wondered what the penalty would be for the slavers and the aliens who’d purchased us. Would us being forced to live among the aliens at least allow us to see justice done?
“Naxer?” I suddenly interrupted as he pointed out a bush full of volatile oils that had once been commonly used for making torches. “What’s going to happen to the slavers and the Alphas paying them?”
His brows drew together. “Abducting females from Earth and other planets is not against the law. Many—including me—do not condone such a disgusting act, but unfortunately there is nothing that can be done to the slavers except to rescue the females that they bring here.”
Anger coursed through my veins. “Can’t we enact a law to stop them?”
“We can try with the help of the Council of Five,” he replied. “But?—”
