Page 11 of Love Galaxy

That she has been taken from such a planet, presumably without her consent, is despicable. My stomach churns thinking about the cut on the back of her head and how she must have been treated to have received such an injury.

“This is real. Reallyreal.” She points a finger at my chest. “I’ve— Are you—” She lets out a shuddering breath, as if steeling herself. “I’m on an alien planet, with actual aliens. And for what? LOVE GALAXY? Is that a genuine show or a fucked up ruse to get me into Mr. Smith’s office?”

John Smith. Pah! I want nothing more than to confront the Drah’os Male, to demand he explain his treatment of Briar, todemand he vacate Ril II. And if he refuses, it will become very clear to him how little power he possesses all the way out here, on the very edge of civilized space.

I clench my fists.

He and Chloe are on our farm, our home. They have no advantage over Killan, Roan and me.

Guilt twinges at the thought of how disappointed Roan is going to be, but I know he will see things my way. He will not want to be paired with an unwilling Mate, and he absolutely will not want to risk hurting Females. Barbarian Females.

“Hey? Are you alright?” She touches my arm. Then, seemingly realizing what she is doing, she snatches her hand back, holding it to her chest. “You’re turning blue.”

I glance down at myself, as if seeing my scales for the first time. Blue tinges my usually green complex, betraying the strength of my feelings. I imagine sinking my fist into John Smith’s fleshy face.

“Wait,” she breathes. “Can you understand what I’m saying?”

“Yes.” I am holding my muscles so tense with anger that I have to pry my jaw open to speak. “I have a translator. Here.” And I touch the scales at the back of my neck, under which my translator chip is located.

“Does a nod mean the same thing to you as to me?” Lines mar her expressive brow.

I have to forcibly resist smoothing them away with a gentle touch of my thumb. I will not touch her without her permission, not after everything she has already gone through.

“I’ve got an idea,” she says. “If you can understand me, raise your right hand. I mean, hands.”

I raise said hands.

“Oh, wow. Okay. I guess it’s just me that’s confused about what’s happening here. You didn’t help abduct me, did you?” But before I can respond, she is already shaking her head. “No, notyou. You looked almost as surprised to see me as I was to see you. Does that mean you abducted too?”

I raise my left hands.

“No.” Another frown, more lines across her brow. “But you’re to be a participant on this reality show, same as me?”

I raise my right hands.Yes.

“Three women,” she says, almost as if she is speaking more to herself than to me. “Three lizards… ahh—” Heat flushes her face, highlighting the tiny dots that decorate her nose and cheeks, and she glances up from under her eye hairs. “Three of you. Plus Mr. Smith and his assistant.”

As though her words have summoned them, footsteps sound on the steps behind me, and we both glance across the kitchen to the stairs.

“Hey.” She grabs one of my hands, her fingers cold against my own, and this time she does not hurry to stop touching me. “Promise me you won’t tell the others I’m awake, okay? You can’t tell them about any of this, not until I’ve had time to think. I need a plan. I need—” Voices accompany the approaching footsteps, and what color her face has gained since the antiseptic painkiller drains away. “Promise me,” she insists in a fierce whisper, her fingers tightening on mine.

I open my mouth to tell her I cannot. I cannot let what John Smith has done go unpunished, but the fear in her eyes silences me before I can say anything, and I give a quick nod, raising my right hands.

“ … spend most of our time down here when we are not working,” Roan is saying as I turn around to face them, putting myself between Briar and the approaching others.

Behind me I hear the legs of a chair scrape on the floor, and then they are stepping down into the kitchen.

“There you are, Sorin.” Roan strides across the room to stand beside me. “I was telling our guests how you do not liveclose by but still spend time in this kitchen, when we have our family meetings.” He claps me on the shoulder.

“Yesss… ” I drag the word out, surprised and confused by their lack of reaction. Glancing behind me, I see nothing of Briar. Even the cloth I used to clean the blood from her head has disappeared from the table.

Can Humans turn themselves invisible? Or is she camouflaged, her skin now the same color as our pale walls?

“Are you feeling ill?” Roan asks me, narrowing his eyes at me in what is clearly a silentact normal,you scudding fool.You are embarrassing me.

I must be the least of his worries, though, for Killan has his upper arms crossed over his chest and refuses to cross the threshold, as if his kitchen has been tainted by the cameras that Chloe is clipping to the workbench and onto the doors of the storage cupboards.

“I am well, Roan. Very well… ” I search the faces of the two-person production teamtrying to decipher if they have yet realized Briar has escaped their spaceship. John Smith is examining a datapad, clicking between camera angles, checking directions and focus, while his assistant hovers at his shoulder, waiting for new instructions.

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