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“Smashing someone in the nose will do that. But he’ll be back, and so will the others.”

Eden clutched Wren’s arm. “It sounds like you just jinxed us. Someone’s coming.”

Two Gente appeared in the cargo hold. They were dragging Daisy between them. She was conscious but having trouble walking.

Wren shuffled to the cage door. “What have you done to her?”

“Move away. Both of you get to the back of the cage. We’ve had orders to be careful around you,” the Gente on the right of Daisy said.

Eden bared her teeth. “Scared of the little Humans, boys?”

“Back. Or I’ll throw your friend into space,” the Gente said.

Wren caught hold of Eden’s arm and tugged her away. Her gaze ran over Daisy. A patch of hair had been shaved off from around the wound on the side of her head. She had a fresh cut on her lip and a swelling on the right side of her face.

“She doesn’t look too good,” Eden muttered.

“Hey, assholes, you were supposed to make her better, not beat her up. What the hell is wrong with you?” Wren’s fingers curled into fists.

The Gentes simply grunted as they shoved Daisy into the cage and slammed the door shut.

“She shouldn’t have resisted,” one of them said. “You will learn in time. The harder you fight us, the worse it’ll be for you.”

They turned and walked away.

Wren and Eden rushed over to Daisy. She was on her hands and knees, her head down.

Wren touched her shoulder. “Are you okay? I mean, of course you’re not okay. You look like death warmed up.”

“I love you, too.” Daisy raised her head and tried to grin but grimaced as her cut lip split.

They helped her sit in a more comfortable position then sat either side of her, waiting until she got her breath back.

“What did they do to you?” Eden said.

“They shaved my damned head! I’ve spent years growing this hair out. I finally got rid of the shaggy bob and this happens!” Daisy felt around the wound on her head.

Eden huffed out a laugh. “If that’s the worst they did, consider yourself lucky.”

Daisy’s nose wrinkled. “They had other things in mind. They took a blood sample, ran my health profile then talked about finding the right match for me. When one of them approached and tried to take my clothes off, I grabbed a scalpel and sliced off his finger. He decided I wasn’t the perfect woman for him after that.”

“They’ll soon realize none of us are right for them,” Eden said.

“How are you two doing?” Daisy asked. “Did I miss anything fun?”

“Wren got handy with a Gente,” Eden said. “She messed with his face.”

“And his balls. But only because he tried to mess with me,” Wren said.

Daisy touched her hand. “You good?”

“Yeah. He didn’t get what he wanted.” She rubbed a hand across her stomach. Ever since she’d learned the news about Striker and the others, a cold pit of despair had opened inside her. She wanted to scream and cry and kill every Gente in sight.

“Hey, you sure you’re doing all right?” Daisy said.

“Yeah. It’s just a crummy situation. We’ll figure a way out.” Wren scrubbed a hand across her eyes. It would do her friends no good to share her grief. “Did you hear anything useful when you were with the Gente?”

“I heard a lot of things. I pretended to be unconscious most of the time. They kept bragging about their win. None of the talk sounded rosy for us.”