“HE WANTED TO EAT ME. He looked at me and showed his big, sharp teeth. Big fangs.” Wendy’s breathing echoed in the empty corridor. She’d wedged herself under the fire retardant and first aid station’s hatch.
Layla crawled toward her. “Who?”
“The Tigerite.”
“He does not!”
“The tech said they took girls from the Pleasure Parks as entertainment and hunted them. Then they ate them.” Wendy’s trembling voice rose to a wail and then fell to a sob.
“Layla, my love, you must not upset yourself.”
Layla turned pleading eyes to the pacing Leonid who had followed her in. “Give me ten minutes and call up Dane and Cherie, will you?”
“You shouldn’t order the King of a pride around,” Ardol’s insolent purr seemed to swim through the empty corridor.
“Youshouldn’t tell the Queen of a pride what she may or may not say to her mate,” Rupex hissed in the same silky, dangerous voice.
“Oh, put ‘em away. Ru’s is bigger and better by a mile, Mr. Spotty. I have a sick friend, and I love my mate, King, and Captain.” Layla turned to glare at the big Felids who were staring at each other in ill-concealed annoyance.
Rupex snorted and shepherded the Leopardine and the human males back to the doors that separated A Deck from the rest of the ship.
“Wendy, the tech who told you this lie about the girl from the Pleasure Parks, was he the same one who faked your biosignature on a consent form and gave you the drug that’s making you so sick?”
“Bald. Thick goggles. Mask.” Wendy blinked at Layla in confusion.
Layla scooted closer to her friend so that they were side by side, wedged under the outcrop. “If he did that, why would you believe him about this? He’s not trustworthy! He hurt you.”
Wendy sniffed in. “It makes sense when you say it.”
“Well... It must have made sense when you were scared. You know, even Rupex and Marcus heard that rumor. But, baby, I was one of those girls.” Layla clasped Wendy’s hands firmly and looked into her eyes as she knelt low. “Even though I wasn’t selling my contract, I was put on board a transport by a trafficker, and it was bound for the Lynxian System. Thank God I was transferred to Ru’s ship on an outer fringes flight.”
Wendy’s brows drew together in confusion. “But... what? I don’t understand how you can say it was a rumor, then. They were sending you to some—some backwater mining shanty town.” Wendy seemed to grope for words, hands flopping uselessly in her lap.
Layla suspected the younger girl had fuzzy memories and was trying to recall what she’d been told by the technician who’d harmed her. “The point is, Rupex and I were able to investigate the rumors by talking to the women whohadsold their contracts to Lynx-Nineteen. Now, maybe it is just a little hiccup in the Felix Orbus Galaxy, and maybe it is a rough, barren place, but that doesn’t mean the people are bad. That’s where we’re going.”
“No!” Wendy let out an anguished howl that threatened to break Layla’s eardrums. She could hear her husband-to-be growling despite several yards and a set of carbon steel doors separating them. “No! You wouldn’t! You wouldn’t do that to me!”
“Of course I wouldn’t!” Layla tried to smile, but her heart stabbed her. Her beautiful Wendy didn’t even know who to trust or what was real. “There are lots of Lynxian-human couples on that planet, and some more scattered through their system. The Queen Fever hit them hard because they already had few Queens to begin with. So...” Layla put Wendy’s hand slowly onto her middle, letting her feel the constant rolling and squirming of her Leonid cubs. “After we confirmed that the women were therewillinglyand they confirmed thatIwas with Rupex willingly,” Layla smiled at the memory of that fateful call, “we told them about my role as a surrogate. When they heard that Marcus had found a way to help interspecies couples have babies, they wanted some of his chromosomal booster and someone to train them on a treatment plan. I’ve made wonderful friends with a Lynxian named Dane and his human wife, Cherie. See? No one was eaten or chased. They’re starting families. And Wendy...You’re my family, no matter what.” Layla squeezed her hands tight and brought her forehead to Wendy’s for a moment, wishing she could see inside the tortured maze to help heal her. “You’ve always wanted to work with children. I was hoping you’d be our nanny. Governess. Teacher. Babysitter. Whatever you want to call it, I just want help! I’m having two babies, and they’re not even going to be totally human. We could be together. You could help me raise my kids, and maybe there will be other kids on the ship one day. Maybe even yours.”
Wendy nodded dreamily—then winced. “No.”
“No, you don’t want the job?”
“No, I don’t want to be a surrogate.” She yanked her hands back into her lap. “They tried to make me... They tried to do things to me so they could test drugs on babies. No. I told them no.”
“You were brave, and you stood up for yourself. I didn’t mean as a surrogate, honey. I meant that maybe one day you’ll find a person you love and you’ll have a family. There’s lots of room on this ship.”
Wendy remained curled in a ball, her hands retracted into a tight bundle under her chin. “No one will want me now.Idon’t even want me.”
Loaned to the Leonid Knight
Fall in love with the alien from the galaxy next door... Or not.
Gideon is a Leonid Knight who knows his place in the old-fashioned and proud society of upper-class Leonids. In the shadows. Without a Pride of his own, without hope of winning one of the few remaining Queens, he’s accepted that he’ll always serve as secretary and assistant to a Leonid with much more power.
Until his boss, Farhet, gives him an impossible assignment—mate with a human surrogate and produce an heir for him. If he agrees, Farhet will set him up for life on a new planet, and Gideon can finally emerge from the shadows.
To refuse would be a disaster, but to accept creates a whole new set of problems...
Sasha has nothing to lose by spending a few cycles in the Felix Orbus Galaxy. On Sapien-Three, her life consists of nothing but dead-end jobs, men who don’t want to stop playing games, and shadowy slums where human monsters roam. A visit to a new galaxy to get more money than she could make in a decade and help a civilization struggling to rebuild? Why not?
Farhet, that’s why not. The arrogant Leonid she’s matched with leaves her cold, and it’s more than mutual. Just when it looks like this new career is a bust, Farhet suggests a “harmless” switch, a surrogate lover for the surrogate mother. But there is nothing clinical about the heat Sasha feels when she’s with Gideon, and when this mission is complete, she’ll never see him again. What’s worse, he’ll never even know his child.
But if they choose love over obligation, they might not just wreck their own lives—they might wreck a new hope for the decimated population of the Felix Orbus Galaxy. Sasha understands the stakes, but does her heart? Can she let it be loaned to a desperate Leonid Knight, or will she risk everything and play for keeps?
