Page 29 of My Human Wife

“It’s on the other side of the galaxy. It’s basically a sex temple. I was dropped there by the IGC after my master died,” I explain trying to gain some sympathy so I can get information from them.

“Wait a second,” Ava says. “Were you free?”

“I was a ward of the temple nuns.”

“How did you get to Gala? Were you stolen?”

“I was misled.” I concentrate on my story and try to make it as simple and as close to the truth as possible. “A man named Gael…”

“Gael the Returner?” Coco asks, her voice slightly louder.

“Yes.”

“Herescuedyou?”

“Not exactly. He had sex with me so that I could leave the temple and then he set me free but I don’t have any skills but this. So I allowed myself to be sold again.”

“Gael has sex with everyone. He had sex with me,” Coco says and my heart shatters.

“Were you lovers?”

“Of a kind,” Coco says.

“How is that possible if you’re a pet for Kamos?”

“I chose to be here too. Kamos and I have something special. Gael and I never had that. Gael is weak.”

“You love Kamos?” I ask.

“You’ll see,” says Ava putting her brown hair behind her ears. “He’s a good master.”

“Freedom is complicated,” I say. “I thought I wanted it…”

Coco looks away as if I’ve said something to upset her.

“I’m not fooled by the idea of being free,” Ava says. “Like you, I’ve been a pet for a long time. Kamos has given me the best life and it’s a life of luxury I could never have elsewhere. Not on Earth and not as afreehuman anywhere else in the galaxy.”

“But the laws have changed. You could be free to choose to be a pet if you wanted. I feel like I chose to be a pet now. My only wish is that I could choose to be another male’s pet if I don’t like Kamos’s style of ownership.”

“It’s a law that no one respects,” Coco says. “And we can never go back to Earth…”

“But it’s still the law and if we fight for it we really could be free. Humans could choose how we want to live in the galaxy. I don’t see a future where anyone would stop a human from being anyone’s pet.”

Ava waves her hand at me and Coco laughs. “It’s a lost cause. Only a few Imperial religious zealots uphold the law. And even from your own experience, you should’ve been free when the IGC picked you up, but even they couldn’t bear to let a human walk free.”

“I hope you’re not going to cause trouble for the rest of us,” Coco says. “We have a good life here.”

I let the topic drop and then change the subject. “I’m happy to hear that Kamos is a good master. I’d never met an Imperial before Gael.” Mentioning Gael’s name makes my stomachtighten.Does he sleep with every woman before he sends them to Kamos?I try to push down my embarrassment by believing I was special to him.

“Kamos is better than most Imperials,” Coco tells me. “He’s not a religious zealot and he actually keeps his children with him at his palace for a while.”

“He doesn’t live on this ship?”

“Only half the time. The other half, he’s at home with his pets.”

“No wives?”

“No, he likes humans,” Ava says.

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