At some point during the night, I…

21

Naomi

At some point during the night, I awaken. I can hear somebody else crying, and I know that I’ve participated in that woman’s pain.

I stand and cross the room, where I find my captor standing by a strange contraption.

After seeing all those women being “selected” I don’t feel much like being his mate anymore. He didn’t care if he got me or someone else. All he needed was a warm female body with a uterus.

He would’ve accepted any female. I was just overly willing, since I’d had too much vodka.

“I’m sorry,” Marv says without turning. He’s sifting through a box, and when I approach, I see that it’s a memory box filled with pictures.

“Oh,” I whisper, seeing a picture of Marv with his little sister.

I sit down beside him, on the floor. “Tell me about Julee,” I say.

Marv runs his hand over her little face. She has the most beautiful hair.

“She liked to play rough. I used to wish I’d had a baby brother, instead, so she tried her best to act like a male. She liked to play fight with me.”

“She looks feisty,” I say.

A loud moan rolls through our wall. Oh. Those walls are thinner than I expected. I glance over at Marv, but his expression doesn’t change.

I guess mating is just expected. No goofy expressions, nothing.

I reach over and touch Marv’s arm, and he turns to look at me. His words stretch into my mind: ‘I only wanted you. I saw you first and stayed on your pic. I wouldn’t have chosen a different female.’

I release my hold on his arm. Does he know what he just told me?

I’m not sure I like being so connected to him.

“Let me show you something,” Marv says suddenly. He puts away the photo.

I lean back on my elbows and take in the design of his wall. Marv leans forward and presses a button, and it illuminates his dark wall in front of me. I don’t know how I didn’t see it until now.

His wall is made up of an enormous fish tank, like a wall at an

aquarium. Inside, there’s sea veggies and other plants. But there are also hundreds of weird looking fish swimming together. They have weird boxy shapes and silvery bodies.

“What are those?”

“Chutts. They taste amazing.”

I can’t take my eyes off the weird little chutt fish. They spin when

they swim, perhaps because they’re box shaped.

“Does everyone keep fish in their quarters?”

“Yes. We have to stay below ground, until the fighting ends. The

Ta’al have taken down too many of our fighters.”

I shake my head. “But what makes you think the war will end when

you have females? Didn’t someone do something to kill off all the females?”

Marv’s face changes, and he suddenly looks tired. Like I’ve drained

the last bit of hope from him.

He shrugs and stands. “Would you like dinner?” he asks, just as the

woman on the other end of the wall lets out a series of very content moans.

“Yeah. But can we go to another room?”

Marv grins. “You know most of them are mating tonight.”

“See, you are a perv. I thought it was just me that was wondering

that.”

“Perv?” Marv reaches out to offer me his hand, but I ignore it. “Never mind,” I say, standing up. I wipe my hands on my borrowed

pair of pants and then try to shove them in pockets.

But there aren’t pockets.

That’s going to be a problem.

“Come with me, Mate,” Marv says, oblivious to reason 9,834 that

I’m unhappy here. Or perhaps, ignoring me.

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