Page 101 of Labor of Love

We’re almost finished with the paperwork.

Rhydian

You’ll be long gone before your three-month deadline.

Daunt

Have you told Iri yet?

Rhydian

Take a breath, Luken. It’s going to work out exactly as it should.

Hakan, Rhydian, and Daunt live almost 800 miles away in Imari. A city very different from Alyra, where Iri and I live.

All over the world, the cities are different. They’re run very differently, giving their citizens different freedoms and different lifestyles. I know it sounds as if Alyra has far too much control over its citizens, and maybe they do. It’s the price you pay for absolute safety.

Iri is safe here. He can live a life with a job and friends, and wander around the streets at night. He’s a commodity in the world, so in most places, the freedoms he has here aren’t an option. The underground trafficking markets for breedables are something that’ve endured for centuries. It doesn’t matter what wars are fought or what militias try to interfere, nothing has been able to wipe them out.

In fact, I think they’ve gotten stronger, more prevalent now than they were a decade ago.

There’s a reason cities like Alyra exist. For whatever reason, the trafficking markets don’t touch us. They can’t penetrate our borders. There’s no way in or out of the city without going through security. Not in the air, not on the ground, not underground.

We’re protected. Iri and the breedables like him are safe. That’s why the city’s population expands constantly with the migration of other breedables and breeders alike.

This city is also unique in that we’re a single-gendered city. There are only men here. Twenty miles to our east is our sister city, Aryla, where all the female breeders and breedables live.

This isn’t segregation by force. It’s by choice. To the east, we also have a mother city with all genders, Yrlaa.

These cities were set up as an experiment. Because the population is so skewed in breeders and breedables, there’s been a concentrated effort to bring more breedables into the world. Not just as a means to preserve our species, but also, if they weren’t so uncommon, they wouldn’t be such a target for the trafficking trade.

That’s where the genetics labs come in. They determined which markers promise the best results for a successful breed. The breedable is presented with half a dozen options upon maturity, and they’re allowed to choose their first attempt.

But if that attempt fails, they have to choose someone else and try again.

If a breedable doesn’t want to be part of this program, they’re allowed to leave Alyra. Same goes for the breeders. No one is forced to stay. Neither Iri nor I want to leave. Our families and friends are here. We love our life. We love Alyra. We don’t take the safety Iri has for granted, either.

But we love each other more.

Alyra has a relatively slow population growth rate as far as births are concerned. Even with all the genetic testing and compatibility, it’s still not an exact science. There are some male breedables who never conceive.

Female breedables conceive readily and with very few obstacles in their way. The problem—and it’s not really a problem—is that they’re able to conceive breedablesandbreeders, and it’s far more likely that they’re going to conceive a breeder.

Arguably, their genes are stronger.

But a male breedableonlyconceives male breedables. That’s why Alyra is such an important city. In a world where breedables are less than a quarter of the population, male breedables are less than a quarter of the entire breedable population.

No one wants this new genetic evolution to die out. Especially not our breedables. They’re some of the most active scientists in genetic research, tirelessly trying to find a solution to ensure their survival.

Taking a breath, I look back down at my phone. Leaving Alyra and its family cities is the only way to keep Iri. That means we leave the safety Iri has had his entire life.

I knew it would come to this when I was a teenager. When my brother showed me just how incompatible our genetics were when it came to breeding. I started searching for a solution right away. If I can’t successfully breed the man who owns my heart, then I need to find us a Plan B so we can stay together.

That plan came two years later. I met a pack online. Yes, I know. Only bad things came from this, especially since I was just a teenager. I’d like to say I vetted them thoroughly, but in reality, I met them while playing video games.

They live in Imari. They’re a few years older than us, and as I got to know them, I also became convinced they’d be a perfect pack for us. Iri was going to adore them. They already loved my breedable, even having never spoken to him.

This was our pack. This was where we were headed. We’ve spent the last ten years working up to this point. We’re about ready.

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