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“Don’t be afraid of me, Sloane,” Mieshorum said. “I’m your safety now.”

I refocused on Opal. “Are you hurt anywhere?”

“Only my ankle," she said. “When that damn broker brought me here, he wasn't gentle.”

“I'll go back and finish putting holes in him,” I said, putting my arms under her knees and behind her back. Standing up, I cradled her to my chest.

“Does that mean you already put some holes in him?” she asked.

“I stabbed him in the belly with my claws,” I said.

“Good!” she said with a grin, then winced and shifted her leg a little. Her ankle must be causing her a great deal of pain.

“Everything’s going to be fine,” I murmured, pausing to rub my cheek against the top of her head. The scent of my bonding oil soaking into her mane made something deep in my chest relax. “I’m going to find you a healer. I'm going to show you all the things we did. I'm going to make everything right.”

She closed her eyes and rested her head against my shoulder. She let out a soft sigh and nuzzled her face into the strip of exposed skin at the base of my neck.

“I believe you.”

Opal

By the time I was twelve years old, I was working part time. One day I spent several hours stuck in a maintenance tube when one of the doors wouldn't open. After panicking for a while, I’d figured out how to test all the tube panels until I found a weakness. I worried at the weakness until I was finally able to pop a section open and wiggled between the ship’s inner hull wall and the tube until I could get access to another panel.

Eventually I took a painful drop from high in a wall to the floor. I’d been so relieved to be free I didn’t even feel it.

Even after a few hours my parents didn’t realize I was missing. They’d still been at work themselves.

Despite the scare, I had finished my shift. I repaired the damage I’d done and went on to finish my maintenance work. We needed every bit of money to keep our living space with the high taxes they charged on that station.

Thankfully we were able to move a few years later, but that moment stuck out in my mind as the instant I’d known I was on my own. No one was there to rescue you because they were too busy trying to survive.

This was different. Tolly was different. Not only did he care, but he had the resources to actually follow through with his promise to protect me. Even from myself.

“Take the bigger female, but leave the smaller human,” the Vicpor said, trying to sound tough as he followed us through the ship. “I didn’t know that one belonged to you, but I bought the other one from a reputable dealer.”

I opened my eyes and looked up at Tolly. “Don’t leave her!”

“We won’t,” Tolly said.

We were at the top of the ramp when the Vicpor pushed past us and stood at the center of the ramp, waving all his insect arms and addressing the Marpers on the dock.

“Thieves! Thieves are stealing from me. I need help!”

Narmuna moved past us to push the Vicpor down the ramp. “Stop the theatrics.”

Unfortunately the Vicpor’s loud voice brought a lot of attention to us. By the time we got to the bottom of the ramp, a dozen Marpers had gathered around.

“What is going on here?” one of them asked.

The Talins were quick to gather together. Narmuna and Lexarit stood in front while Tolly set me down in a sheltered spot next to the ramp. Mieshorum set Sloane down next to me.

“We’ll protect you,” he and Tolly said at the same time, then turned to face the crowd that had swelled to twenty.

“They’re trying to steal that human from me,” the Vicpor declared to the crowd. “They didn’t even let me explain. They invaded my ship and forced me to open my storage door. That dirtier creature absolutely belongs to me. I have the paperwork to prove it.”

I studied Sloane’s face as the Vicpor talked. She didn’t react to his words at all. No anger, no fear, nothing. It was as if she’d retreated deep inside herself and refused to come out.

“Is that true?” I asked. “Were you a slave before?”