Page 24 of My Monster, My Choice

CHRISTINA

“Christina! What did you bring?” Without waiting for a response, Sydney peers into my bowl of potato salad, the bowl Elex is carrying of macaroni salad, and the fruit salad Kenny carries.

“Hmm. That one looks the best. Did you help make it?” she asks Kenny.

“Yah! An’ mum an’ Elex helped. Kinda.” His eyes dart to us to see if we’re listening to him take all the credit.

Sydney laughs, carting him toward the buffet table to put the bowl down, then takes him to where the other dancers are. One by one, they greet him with hugs and my son glows.

“He’s happy here,” Elex comments.

“We both are. It’s a wonderful place.”

“It wasn’t always,” he says. “When we first arrived, Jaire—clumsy fool that he is—killed Anya.”

I gasp, unable to discern if he’s joking.

But he grins. “Corbin, the Britonian medic, was able to get air into her and get her heart pumping again. It was an accident—no one realized the metal collars the females wore tightened when they passed a laser at the front of the house.”

A shiver runs down my spine. I could have lost my daughter so easily when President Montgomery promised she’d be safe. He is such an evil liar.

“Things weren’t as they seemed,” he says softly. “They were forced to dance to earn food.”

My breathing feels labored. Anya approaches, Jaire not far from her side. He takes the bowls from us and takes them to the table.

“We were able to cheat where we could, though,” Anya says. “We started to save seeds to see what we could grow. Of course, over the years when Eric found out, he started to cut fresh produce out of our staples to punish us.”

“You can’t remove the collars?”

“No.” Anya shakes her head. “A few dancers died trying to escape. We tried to get the collars off them when we buried them, but they’d melded into their skin.”

God, what had my daughter gone through?

“Only Tera is free now, I guess you could say. Her collar had turned off when her contract expired. I imagine the Britonians will try to remove it there while she’s on Pimeon,” Anya continues.

“Where are the lasers?” I ask, panicked that one of them could still die if they moved too close.

“Oh, we’ve deactivated them,” Anya says. “The Britonians gave us a device to put in the house.”

Relief washes through me. “So, you’re at least safe.”

“We are. We’ve been safe since the Adroki arrived,” Anya says, smiling at Jaire as he rejoins her. He kisses her lightly on the lips.

They really love each other.

“It’s how Relion and Tera were too,” Elex says softly. “We knew he loved her. We knew she loved him. She just wouldn’t accept it because she was determined to marry an Earther male.”

“It makes me so angry,” I say. “All of Eric Montgomery’s trickery. He was taking her credits to pay for Kenny’s tuition without telling her I worked there. I had a discount and could afford to keep him enrolled. There was no reason for her to be here.”

“He’s a bastard,” Anya agrees. “But Tera will have the last laugh. Those Britonians, along with Juris and Lilaina, will come up with a plan to keep her here. And keep her with her mate.”

“How did they manage to keep you two together when Jaire was matched to your sister?” I ask.

Anya grins. “Well, that was mostly an accident. Lilaina performed a marriage ceremony and since she’s titled First Lady here on Earth, it became a legally binding contract. When Jaire returned, he had a loophole and was able to kick my sister to the curb.”

“It still took me a lot of begging and pleading for forgiveness,” Jaire says.

“Any idea what happened to Portia?” Elex asks, a frown on his brow like it just occurred to him.

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