Page 16 of Bred By Sor'en

Holy shit, I’m about to go outside.

And my head won’t explode.

Probably.

Damn.

I only get halfway to the doorway that seems to lead out of the wide house before I pivot and head back to my tent. Asurprising amount of anxiety fills my chest at the prospect of crossing that threshold. A not at all surprising amount of guilt that I’m…excitedabout it. I shouldn’t even be obeying the dumb kidnapping jerk, but then again, he said we needed to discuss something. For some bizarre reason, I want to know what that is. Probably because the food was good.

My hand flies to my chest, gripping Sofaxi’s fang. I was supposed to wait for her. At least that’s what I’ve always done. We were going to see a planet together. It was always our… or well, my plan at the least. I shouldn’t evenbeplanet-side unless it's onourplanet, our chosen place. Laying her to rest with the respect I failed to give her the first time. Assuming the Silvarri people would’ve accepted us, which theysometimesdo. This cool-toned, eerie planet is a far cry from the vibrant, lush woodlands of the outsider settlements they have there. Sure, the Silvarri people are known to be harsh, unforgiving, and downright hostile at the best of times, but that washerplace.

I made a promise. The most important kind one can make to a Nysharil.

The weight of my betrayal weighs on each step, making my feet feel like they're locked in iron as I head back for the door. If I’m going to figure out a way off this planet, it’s probably better to have some locals on my side. Perhaps even better to have a mate on my side, right?

Okay, new plan.

Play nice, get more information, and get to Lunareth.

My chest aches from the violence of my pounding heart as I make it to the odd, shimmering door, rippling like cloth in the breeze but deceptively hard. I can see the planet outside the strange door, the waves of fields, the glowing flowers inside them. I can see everything I've ever wanted.

Grass.

Dirt.

Air.

I press my hand into the strange, glittering door, surprised when it doesn’tpartbutthins, my hand popping free from the other side, making a startled gasp leave my throat. It tingles where it touches me, but not unpleasantly, just like static. Like when you sit on your legs for too long and they go numb. I jerk my hand back in, studying the skin to find it utterly unchanged.

Alright well…

Sucking a deep breath into my lungs, I slam myself through it, stumbling dramatically toward the ground as it does nothing aside from letting me through. The strange see-through electric curtain door remains thinned for the rest of my sheet dress still on the other half of the threshold.

I shove my thick hair out of my face, righting myself before jerking my sheet dress through the opening, watching the shimmering black and silver bleed into place. Turning back toward the fields, I casually, and not at all because I actually care if I embarrass myself in front of my annoyingly attractive freakazoid alien captor, check to see if I’m alone. That he nor anybody else saw me hurl myself through the door as if the building was on fire.

Definitely don’t care.

Not at all.

For the first time since waking up here, Ilook.You know, the type of looking where you actually see the things around you. The effect is immediate,tears burst into my eyes unbidden at the thick floral scent, the rolling fields of flowers as far as the eye can see. My hands are shaky as I fist the sheet tightly, jerking it up so I can watch my toes curl into the cool grass. Each tiny blade tickling my skin. Before I fully decide to, I’m falling onto my knees to sink my fingers in too. Letting the blades tickle and cool the skin between them, a soft smile appears through mysignature grimace because it turns out I really like the way it feels.

My red hair mingles and brushes the long grass as I press my face into it, inhaling deeper than I ever have before. Taking a breath because I want tofeelit, and not just because inhaling keeps me alive. Strange pale grass tickles my nose with its sharp, bitter smell, not quite citrus but not unpleasant either. The only thing that gets me back on my feet is the sudden desire to see the rest of this planet, my guilt taking a backseat, at least for now. The cool breeze sends tendrils of my hair dancing across my face, each strand swaying like the flowers I find myself in front of now. It takes nothing, no thoughts on my part, to gather the enormous sheet that billows around me higher, hiked up just under my sex as I take off into one of the many winding paths through the field.

And then I do something even stranger.

I run.

A full-body, chest heaving, face flushed run. No corridors, no halls, no twisted wires. No bustling bodies crammed together to slip between. Just an open field and pretty, glowing flowers that seem to reach for me with each breeze. Tickling at my rushing ankles to say hello to their new admirer.

An even stranger thing happens next.

I laugh.

And I don’t stop.

Not to cry.

Not to worry about where I’m meant to be or the fang hanging around my neck like a noose.