Page 11 of My Human Wife

I continue to hold my gun against the abbess’s head. “And I kill you too.”

She smiles. “Do it.”

I look into her yellow eyes and make a decision. I pull the trigger and shoot the Agnorrian nun before she can shoot Lara. I win. The Agnorrian falls to the floor in a puddle of purple blood. The abbess tries to knock the gun out of my hand, but I grab one of her tentacles so roughly it’ll break off if I begin shaking her. “You can die too, or you can forget to report Lara’s marriage. It’s your choice.”

“What makes you think I’ll keep my promise?”

“Because if you don’t, I’ve friends who enjoy torturing females and I’ve no doubt torturing an abbess would be the highlight of their year. So, it’s up to you really.”

“Fine.” She spits on my face. I wipe it off.

“No need for goodbye kisses.” I pick up Lara and walk out of the temple. I don’t want her walking anymore on her bloody feet. As I place her in my transport, I look at her dirty and bloody body. I see some red between her legs. “Did I hurt you?”

She squeezes her legs together to hide the dried blood. “It felt good.”

I meet her green eyes. She’s lying. I’ll have to deal with this later, we don’t have time now.

Gael and Lara

{Duet}

l.“Do you kill a lot of innocent people?” Ten minutes ago, I thought Gael was the most wonderful man ever, but then directly after being so tender with me, he kills an innocent nun. Not that I hadn’t seen cold-blooded murder before, just never from someone I thought I liked. My ears and heart are still ringing from the last hour.

g.“She wasn’t innocent. They were both standing in the way of us leaving safely.”

l.“How do you mean? The abbess said she was going to let us go if we married and we married.”

g.“As I said, everything there is streamed across the galaxy for those that are interested. And a human and Imperial will draw an audience. Those are exactly the people we’re out to fool. If she’d reported that we’d married on top of having sex, then there’d be no way that you could help me save trafficked humans.”

l.“Why?”

g.“Because I need you to be sold as a pet. And to do that you can’t be reported as being married to me. This way people will think I went to the temple to have sex with you, then stole you away and granted you freedom. I couldn’t do anything about the live feed, but I could control the news of our marriage.”

l.“What does legality even matter now? No one really thinks humans are free.”

g.“You’ll see in time.”

l.His answer frustrates me. “Do you think anyone will be so foolish to believe that I’d give up my freedom to go back into slavery?”

g.“Many Imperials think that humans want to be owned. It wouldn’t be difficult for any of them to believe that after being set free you decided you preferred captivity and allowed yourself to be caught. Don’t give me that look. At the temple you said ‘yes’ to leaving with me no matter what I asked and that included being a pet.Youwere the one who proposed marriage.”

l.“I didn’t realize freedom was on the table.” Then I ask before I think about it too much and lose my courage, “Are we really married?”

g.She asks about our marriage so innocently it almost takes my breath away. I look over at her. So small and almost naked in the navigator’s chair. “Yes, it’s legal.”

l.“I thought if I ever married it would be different.” I didn’t mention that I got this idea from books from Earth. I’m sure he’d think I was a fool for being so naïve.

g.“I’m sorry I disappointed you. I did the best I could. At least I didn’t lie you down on that filthy floor…”

l.I cut him off, “No, I mean, I thought everything would be different. More words and less murder.” Then a thought occurs to me, “Have you been married before? Is this something you do often?” He could have a hundred wives for as casually as he’s acting about the whole thing.

g.I open my mouth then close it. I count to seven in my mind and then say evenly, “No. I never thought about marrying anyone. And no, I’ve never married before nor will I ever marry again.”

l.I can tell I’ve made him annoyed with my questions. I don’t want him to kill me. I want my freedom, so I change the subject. “Is there a particular person you want me to be sold to?” I ask wondering if everything I felt for him was my fantasy only.

g.“Kamos.”

l.“You mean KamosKamos? The Kamos who is the kingpin for all illegal activity in the Imperial side of the galaxy and who recently publicly tortured and executed twenty Dulu for not fulfilling his order and the IGC did nothing about it?”

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