Page 128 of I'm Not Your Pet

Ushuu and I had spent the better part of the current day refilling the barrels with the fluorescent green liquid. We’d gotten to use these giant, frankly amazing, funnels to do it—and my worries had been the last thing on my mind while we worked. One mistake—and I could seriously injure both me and Ushuu. The hazmat suits helped, of course, but accidents still happened.

Meanwhile Briar stood in the corner judging us. He had no interest in actually helping out. He reminded me of a cat, mostof the time. Which was apt, considering the fact that I was pretty sure the ears and tail he had were feline. I figured those weren’t his only “upgrades” and the one and only time I’d asked him, he’d clammed up so tight I’d made a vow to never bring it up again.

I still couldn’t get a read on him.

It was like…he had thesewalls. More walls than I’d ever had, even though we’d come from the same place. I couldn’t imagine what he’d been through that would cause him to become an impenetrable fortress—but I hoped with enough time and patience he’d realize he was safe here with us.

“Too much,” Briar told me. I jerked the vial I was pouring back, startled. Ushuu made a soothing noise, his wrinkled eyes squinting softly at me with affection.

“Careful, please,” he murmured, reaching out with one hand to ruffle my hair.

“Sorry,” I smiled back, heart thumping unsteadily, determined now to keep my mind present as we finished our work for the day.

This was one thing I did not want to fuck up.

If I could prove myself useful then maybe…maybe I could earn my place here. Maybe I could actually take over for Ushuu like Roark wanted me to. It was a new dream. Just like I’d hoped I’d one day get. And it was my most brilliant dream yet.

Briar and I were leaving the lab to meet Roark for lunch when I sensed something was wrong. Unease twisted tight as a noose around my throat, cutting off my airways and making it hard to breathe. My gut churned, this swirling,awfulburn that threatened to climb high enough it spilled free.

I’d experienced something similar to this feeling only once before.

The day I’d been taken.

Three years later and a galaxy away, that day still felt crisp in my mind. Maybe it was the terror I’d felt that memorialized it—or maybe it was simply because nothing like that had ever happened to me before. Either way, even though I didn’t often allow myself to recall what had occurred, the memories remained frozen in perfect detail.

It had been a boring day—maybe a little brisk, but nothing memorable. Autumn in my hometown had always been brutal. Colorful leaves littered the ground, my footsteps disjointed as I hopped over cracks—my acceptance letter to Harvard tucked safely in my backpack.

The mailbox was a shared one, positioned at the end of the cul-de-sac. I’d just opened it—just pulled the letter out after arriving home from school, and I was elated.

One moment I was waltzing up the sidewalk toward home—my heart pounding—and the next I was…

I was?—

In space.

The only warning I’d received before everything changed was the same exact curl of dread I felt now. Like instinct.

“Ushu—” my words cut off as I twisted back toward the lab, where the elder Sahrk remained, but before I could even finish uttering his name, history repeated itself.

Not my history.

But Roark’s.

One moment, the world was illuminated, and the next we were enveloped in sudden darkness. Different than the time I’d accidentally hit the switch, this was the oppressive kind. The kind that suffocated. The kind that tasted like death.

Fuck.

Fuck-fuck-fuck.

Above us, the door attempted to shut, an awkward beeping sound escaping it when it noticed there was something obstructing its movement. It returned back up, leaving the doorway open, the only indication anything was wrong, the little red light blinking in the dark.

With sweaty palms, I jerked Briar into the lab with me and its relative safety. He made a startled noise.

If we’re quiet enough, maybe they won’t know we’re here, even without the door.

Ushuu’s worried rumble echoed from behind us as we all slid along the back wall.Thump, thump, thump.The beat of my heart felt impossibly loud as we stayed quiet.

“Ushuu—” my voice cut off in the quiet. “Are you okay?”

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