Mastered by the Zandians (Zandian Brides 3)

“I don’t want to have to kill him.” Bile rises in my throat. “But I will. What are they doing to them?” Despite my fatigue, necessity calls.

I mean Tess and Mandy, of course.

“I’m sure you know.”

I do know what Garrett and his men do to the women they capture, and I have to vomit. I run outside the hut and spew my stomach into the rough, sunburnt leaves of the scratchy Cattish shrubs that grow here.

“Are they still alive?” I wipe my mouth with the back of my hand.

He shakes his head. “Probably, but…”

“Well, you and Daniel and I, and the rest, we can—”

“Daniel is dead. Garrett killed him.”

I sit down in the rough chair and put my head in my hands. “Mother Earth.”

“And the other men? The good ones, from our camp? I sent them away to Fi. In our last space-worthy craft.”

“Away? Where?” I laugh in disbelief. “What is Fi?” I shake my head. “Why?”

“Fi is a place for human males to have a new life.”

“But not females? I don’t understand.” My head swims.

“Let me tell you something.” My father clears his throat. “It will take time, but I need you to listen. Yes.”

I nod, my head aching. “I will try.” I don’t know if I can process anything right now.

“Every planet rotation you were away, I grieved your loss.” His voice is low. “But I also celebrated, Mirelle. Because I needed to believe you were safe, doing something miraculous. In a place better than this one. With a real future ahead of you.”

I can’t speak.

“For years, I believed that this place”—he gestures around us—“was the way to help humans. To persevere. Protect. Build a new future. But now…”

“Now?” My voice is scratchy with emotion.

“This isn’t working.”

“I want humans to be free.” My voice shakes. “Our species deserves it.” I make a fist.

“When your mother and I came here to Jesel, escaped from slavery to the Ocretions, we dreamed of a place where we could bring humans. Start our own planet up with humans. Repopulate. Build a society.”

I nod. “You told me. Because human history is strong and beautiful. We need to preserve it for the future of the universe.”

“Our minds have been strong over the centuries, but our bodies are weak, compared to the others in the galaxy. And our temperament, as a species, was…complicated.” My father coughs. “Humans got into trouble in the first place, lost their domination, because of greed and in-fighting.”

“But we’re resourceful and strong. Like glue. We fill in the cracks. We break things, but then we fix them. The good parts of us,” I insist. “We kept going, rising back up. That’s what you taught me.”

“That we did.” He raises a finger. “And that’s the path forward.”

“What do you mean?”

He coughs again, and this time he brings up a cloth to cover his mouth. It’s stained red when he removes it from his lips. I frown and try to look but he interrupts. “Humans, alone, fight each other. Humans mixed with another species, make it stronger.”

“So you’re saying that our goal is to intermix?”

“Maybe.” He shrugs. “I do. Look at what you accomplished on Zandia. They alone were too warlike, lacked emotion.”