Excerpt

          Minsie’s door opens, Kai stepping out and closing it behind himself. He lifts an antenna to glance around the living space as he enters, and approaches the kitchen without a word. I pass him the two bowls and he sinks into the small bench to pick at his food. 
          I turn to wash my few utensils as my men eat. 
          “She downstairs?” Dae asks around a mouthful.
          “No; getting changed.” The carving knife is brushed with cleaning grease, and rotated around to be sure the chemicals get to every inch. 
          “I think she should sleep in Minsie’s room. The bed is open and there’s no reason for—” 
          “You’re not serious.” Kai drones, resting back against the wall. “Our daughter is in a husk and you’re giving away her bed to—”
          “Don’t you dare try to insinuate that I don’t understand what’s happening here. Gods damn it, Xuakai, I love you but you need to stop being stubborn about this.” 
          He shakes his head and picks another chunk of wet leaves. “I find it grossly inappropriate, and I’m not going to keep my opinion on the matter silent.”
          “Look, I get that she hurt you last week and I understand you’re trying to be protective of Minsie, but Min is in an indestructible case right now. This woman has done our daughter absolutely no harm, and they clearly had a connection. It was obvious—am I wrong, Ilsuk?”
          I growl and set the last of the dishes into the hot air dryer, and close the lid. “They were friends. But Minsie makes friends easily, even to those she shouldn’t.”
          Dae holds up his hands. “Sure, and I’ll agree with that too. She’s young and naïve. But that woman has been sitting in the corner of our cold storage bay for nine days now, that’s a full week. No hygiene of any kind, no restrooms, and the only social interaction she got was when Minsie disobeyed us and went over there to talk to her.”
          “I cannot stand idly by and give her my daughter’s bed. Not in this condition, this situation.”
          “You know Minsie would let her have it. You know that. We’re going to be home in a few hours, this is just one night. I’m not sending her back down into the corner—I don’t think she knows about Jäggr molting. I believe she seriously thought Minsie died down there in her arms. I am not sending her back to that corner.” 
          I lean against the counter and cross my arms. “I agree. It would be needlessly cruel.” And before Kai can begin to argue with me, I add, “But I think you are more attached to her than you should be.” 
          “She’s—”
          The bathing room opens, the woman stepping out with a towel curled into her hair and a hand roughly shaking the wetness from the strands. The earthy tones of Dae’s long shirt, pants, and waistwrap suit her complexion well, and her half-dried hair burns the color of amber in sunlight. Muddy brown eyes catch the three of us and flinch, her steps already backpedaling toward the ladder. Dae skirts after her, cutting off her retreat, and I hold out his spare bowl knowingly. It’s plucked from my hand and he convinces her to take it and eat.
          I speak to the room, “She is frightened. This is obvious. But whatever scared her would have likely prompted her to use her safeword, like we discussed a few days ago. The association will be tracking her to reclaim her and get her contract up for a new sale. She can have one day with a bed. We don’t need to be callous.”
          Kai lets out a breath. “I submit—but not happily. I bear no trust for her, and if she’s to stay in our daughter’s room, then I will sleep on the floor between the two.”
          Gods within me, he can be so dramatic at times…
          “Fine then.” Dae agrees. “Hells, I’ll sleep in there too. I don’t exactly want to be away from Minsie, either. But I still can’t help but wonder why the association hasn’t stopped us yet, if she did use her safeword. They would have caught up to us by now, we aren’t going above standard limits.”
          “They’ll get here eventually.” Kai says. “And I wish her the best, for her next contract.” 
          It really is strange, the whole story of it. What could have happened so soon after being sold that she felt the need to run away? Only the most desperate of souls offer years of their lives for sale—and the association has obvious checkpoints and countermeasures to be sure no one is abusing the system. Or, abusing the people they buy. If something did happen to her so soon after her contract was bought, why wouldn’t she speak her safeword and wait right there on Navesoix to be reclaimed? And how is it that her words sound so wholly foreign to us all? 
          I glance at her, shoving a chunk of meat into her mouth and licking the juice from her fingertips. The imagery sends a jolt of weak bloodlust into my brain, and I shut my eyes and breathe until it’s passed out of my system. 
          “So she sleeps in Minsie’s room tonight, and Ilsuk gets the bed to himself. Agreed?”
          Kai sighs, but doesn’t argue. 
          I certainly don’t enjoy sleeping alone, but from a tactical standpoint, it may not be wisest to have us all crammed into one small space. I huff my agreement. 
          Dae lets out a tense breath. “I dunno what we’ll do with her when we land, but that’s a discussion for tomorrow. Gods I’m tired.”
          He brings up a good point. Do we send her off once we arrive home? No money or language, just to wait for the association to pick her up? I doubt Dae would ever agree to such a thing, and he probably is pushing that next difficult hurdle a bit farther down the line. Xuakai is too tense to discuss housing the stowaway with us in our farm home. Although with Minsie asleep, we could use the extra hands. If she makes herself useful, I don’t mind letting her sleep in the barn—there’s a loft, with a cot and a bit of privacy. 
          I pat Kai’s shoulder as I step past him, headed down to the engine room for nightly maintenance. Dae steps with me, moving to the sitting area to sink into a chair and roll his tail side to side—a nervous tick of his. 
          Thirteen hours and we’ll be home. I look forward to the familiar landscape and wooden walls, but I don’t think life is going to be quite the same with this extra guest at our dinner table.