Page 18 of Riv's Sanctuary

Leaning back, she processed what he’d just said.

She’d been taken from Earth on the sole basis that she’d be a good sex pet.

Damn.

And the worst thing about it, Earth had no defenses against these crimes. It wasn’t like she could find her way back and then make the smugglers pay for what they did. Earth was still having problems even landing rockets on the dark side of the moon, much less across the galaxy.

Ha.

If someone had told her she’d become a victim of human trafficking, intergalactic human trafficking at that, she’d have brushed it away and continued in her cosy life as an investment banker.

High-risk portfolios she could deal with. High-risk alien adventures? That was completely different.

What was she going to do? Kill her enemies with high interest rates?

“I should have known that zookeeper would have ventured to best me,” Geblit murmured, pulling her away from her thoughts.

“He bested me, too, you know.”

Geblit looked at her as if confused and she opened her mouth to explain to him that being kept like property hadn’t exactly been her choice, but decided not to.

Slamming her mouth shut, she sighed.

“I believe now that you are illegal goods. The Tasqals must have smuggled you without a permit from the Interplanetary Union.”

Geblit groaned, his head balloon pulsing. “Troublesome, troublesome.” Then he brightened. “But Riv will fix it. He will take you.”

“And you’re sure about that?”

“Positive.”

“You still haven’t told me anything about this Riv. You keep going around it. Why?”

Geblit glanced at her, giving her the side-eye. “I do not have to explain myself. Riv owes me a favor.”

With that, Geblit focused ahead, his mouth closing into a line as thin as a thread.

Was that all she was going to get from him?

Great.

* * *

Head hanging over the hovercar once more, Lauren stared at the blur of the yellow-orange grass as the hovercar sped along.

She was a pet.

She was exactly like a dog.

The entire circumstances weren't lost on her.

She was in a box. Bought. And she'd been bought only for her owner to discover that the "child" they’d bought her for didn't want her. So now she was heading to the shelter, or sanctuary to be precise.

Life couldn't continue like this.

A year in a zoo, treated like an animal, and now this.

Lauren settled back in the box, still taking in the blur of the grass beneath the vessel.