Chapter 5

5

Jenna and her newly discovered mates talked about easy things, the way strangers do when they are first getting acquainted. Torren told stories about his family, mostly about the mischief he got into when one of his fathers first introduced him to chemistry.

Zanyr spoke about his work on the farm along with vivid descriptions of the land that made her long to see it for herself. In turn, she shared parts of her story—where she'd been raised and how she'd made a living for herself instead of signing on with the corporation that held the debt she'd incurred while living under their care.

Torren raised his hand. "Wait. You mean the corporation that raised you expected to be paid back for the cost of your upbringing?"

"It's the way it works." Jenna shrugged. To her, this was simply a fact of life. "They consider it an investment, and they expect to make a profit in the end. Usually, that means their wards sign employment contracts once they turn seventeen. They work for the corporation until their debt is paid off."

"How long does that usually take?" Zanyr asked. He leaned toward her as he spoke, his amber gaze fixed on her.

The attention made her uncomfortable, but she did her best to ignore the feeling as she answered his question.

"That depends on the type of work done. If someone has specialized skills or takes on high-risk jobs, they could clear their debt in about twenty years, sometimes less. For basic labor, it could take forty years or even more if they incur more debt for violations, additional training, or serious medical expenses."

"They penalize their employees for getting hurt or getting additional instruction?" Zanyr looked perplexed and horrified at the same time.

"Why hasn't your species done something to stop this?" Torren asked.

She'd asked the same question more than once, and the answer was always the same. "They do, Zanyr. And we can't stop it because somewhere in our history, we allowed the corporations to grow too powerful. We set ourselves on this path, and by the time we realized what was happening, it was already too late. They control most of the wealth, power, and influence, and no one can hold them accountable. Well, almost no one. The Interstellar Armed Forces, especially Nova Force, does what it can, but they have no jurisdiction over Earth or any corporate-owned planet."

The three of them lapsed into silence for a long moment. Jenna picked at the food Saral had brought out, but nothing tasted as good as it had a few minutes ago.

"We need to bring more of your females here," Torren said.

Zanyr sighed and scrubbed a hand over his stubbled chin. "We're trying. I mean, the leadership council wants to do more, but we're being blocked at every turn. The corporations don't want to lose their pool of potential workers, plus many of them are still angry we were given this planet at all. They'd rather we packed up and went back to our part of the galaxy."

She'd forgotten Zanyr was on the leadership council. He didn't act or look anything like she'd expected. Though, now she thought about it, most of the council were surprisingly ordinary. Except for Prince Tyran, of course. He was a royal in every sense of the word. "You've done more than anyone else has. If not for the chance to come here, I would have spent the rest of my life on Earth."

"There's no other way out?" Torren asked.

Zanyr answered first. "Other ways, yes. Good ways? No. Earthers can buy their way onto a colonist ship and hope the place they land will support a colony. Some pay even more to try to reach one of the independent stations, but that's a big risk. From what I understand, more humans end up spaced, forcefully recruited into criminal groups, or sold into slavery than ever reach safety and freedom."

Then he cocked an eyebrow at his anrik . "I've mentioned this before. You should pay more attention to my venting after I come back from my meetings."

Torren held up both hands. "I try. But the important stuff must have gotten lost between your rants about a reliable food supply for the colony's livestock and the long-running argument over what kind of law enforcement this colony should have."

"It's all important," Zanyr grumbled.

"And I want to hear all about it. I mean, everything you're allowed to talk about," Jenna said.

She'd learned far more than her former employers realized because most of them didn't see the staff as people and spoke of all kinds of things where they could be overheard. She'd learned this skill after her first family kept secrets she should have been aware of, like the fact they never intended to take her with them when they left Earth for their next assignment. That betrayal left her with lasting scars and a vested interest in knowing what was really going on around her.

"You would?" Zanyr's expression softened into a pleased smile.

"Now that's an idea. Zan, you can vent to our mahaya from now on and leave me in peace!" Torren looked utterly smug as he made his suggestion.

"That's fine with me. There's so much I want to know about Haven and how it works. We've been told the basics, of course, but you've seen it all from a very different perspective." Her interest was real, but she had an ulterior motive. She could feed some of the most innocuous information to the ones who had recruited her. She'd need Shadow's help to figure out which items would be the least dangerous but would make it look like she was doing her part.

Unless, of course, the males she was now mated to were part of the plot. Then they'd know right away that she wasn't giving them anything useful because they'd already have far better information. Fraxx .

She was so not cut out for this spying thing.

Saral's prediction that they wouldn't stay too long proved accurate. Jenna didn't know how the two males were doing, but she was under constant bombardment by lurid thoughts and a near constant need for her mahoyen . It was distracting, and the gradual loss of control was alarming. She wasn't entirely in charge of her body or her mind at the moment, and from all reports, this was only the beginning. The sharhal would intensify over the next day or so, and there'd be no relief until they were fully bonded. Which meant sometime soon they'd move from talking to nakedness, sex, and biting.

The thought made her toes curl in anticipation. If sex with them was anything like the kisses they'd shared, she'd deal with the strangeness of going to bed with two males she barely knew.

Unsure what would happen next, she let them guide her out of the tavern and into the glorious sunshine. It was early autumn in the colony, with cooler nights and shorter days marking the end of her first summer.

Autumn, spring, summer, and winter were only words to her before coming to the colony. Nothing much grew outside the energy shields that protected her former home. Every season looked the same as any other from the inside. Though her employers lived on the upper levels, most of the hive's citizens lived in the cramped lower areas, far from the surface of their ruined planet.

One of the few perks of her profession was that she lived with or near the families employing her so she could be on hand to care for the children. That meant access to better food, clean water, and a chance to glimpse the sun from time to time. As weak and filtered as it was by pollution and the energy shield, it was still more than she'd have if she'd lived below ground.

It came as a surprise when Torren stopped and turned to look at her. "What would you like to do?"

"Me?" This might be the first time in her life someone had asked her that question. She'd assumed the meet-and-greet stage had ended and they'd be moving on to… whatever came next.

"Uh. Shouldn't we be, you know, getting on with things?" The moment the words were out of her mouth, she wished to all the stars she could take them back.

Torren grinned wickedly. "That's certainly one option. But if you aren't ready for that, we could do something else. You flew with me already. Would you like to fly with Zanyr? Maybe go see the ocean?"

She managed to stop herself from squealing with delight, but it was a near thing. "Could we?"

Zanyr looked at Torren, and the two exchanged a look she couldn't interpret.

"Ah," he said several seconds later. "Torren said you stared at the ocean on your way here. Have you never seen it before?"

"You noticed that?" She felt like all she was doing was asking obvious questions, but her brain was not functioning well, and she hoped the males were distracted enough not to notice.

"I did. It reminded me I haven't flown to see it in ages. When we first came here, I flew to the shore every few days," Torren said. "Neither of us spent much time on planets in the last few years. Our miss—our work didn't allow for much down time."

"I know that feeling." Jenna caught the sudden change in wording but didn't comment, though she was curious about what he'd almost said instead. Something about their past? The work they did? They'd told her they worked security for freighting companies, guarding ships and their cargos from raiders and other dangers.

She realized that both of them were waiting for her to answer Zanyr's question and hurriedly framed a reply. "The closest I've come to an ocean was a sim-pod program I found on the journey out here. The day we landed, it rained so hard we didn't see much after entering the atmosphere. I did see it from orbit, though." She smiled at the memory. "We were all so excited. None of us had ever seen so much water."

"No one took you to see it since you arrived? I'd have thought the organizers would give you a chance to explore your new home a little." Zanyr frowned. "What were you doing all the time you were sequestered from the rest of the colony?"

"Learning how to live here," she said. "Remember that we had no experience with things you take for granted. I and the others lived our entire lives indoors. No weather, no wild flora, and no fauna to worry about. Veth , it took time just to look up at the open sky without panicking. All this space." She let go of their hands, spread her arms, and raised them toward the blue sky. "It takes some getting used to. So did the higher gravity. The shots and conditioning on the ship here helped, but it was still tiring."

Torren winced. "Apologies, blossom. I didn't consider your situation before flying off with you. I hope you weren't distressed."

"I wasn't. If I'd had concerns, I would have said something. I'm shy. I know that. But I can speak up if I need to."

Zanyr smiled and reached for her. "That's good. We have a lot to learn about each other, and we're bound to make mistakes. Well, I am." He jerked his head toward Torren. "That one keeps telling me he's never wrong."

Torren drew himself to his full height, his mannerisms changing to that of an aloof aristocrat or a high-level corporate executive.

Looking down his nose at Zanyr, he drolled, "Your pitiful attempts to make me look bad in front of our mahaya are doomed to fail. She is our mate, and she will come to care for us both… which, in your case, is a testament to the power of the bond we share."

"Don't pull that courtly manner crap with me, you overbred bakaffa ." Zanyr flicked a rude gesture in Torren's direction and then held the same hand out to her. "Come with me, ana-thi. We have an ocean to see."

"Why do you call me that? It means fair wind. Right?" She let him draw her in close before asking.

"That's what you are. A gift carried to us by the fairest of winds."

She considered that and then beamed. "I like it."

"See? She likes my name for her better than yours. Blossom is boring. You'll have to do better." Zanyr swept her into his arms and took off before Torren could answer, but she heard his laughter as they rose into the wide blue sky.

"I like blossom too!" she called out, hoping Torren heard her. She had no experience balancing the emotional needs of two males, but she guessed that having them compete for attention would never lead anywhere good.