Page 5 of Breaking Ties

Her medic said, “How do you know this?”

She shrugged. “I can see it.”

“Have you always seen things?”

“Not enough to save my fingernail, but enough that I knew how to fix my vehicle.”

“I see. This is very exciting. I will notify the station.”

“Okay. May I eat now?”

Eyes widened. “Of course.”

The guards surrounded her, and they walked together, one of them saying, “We will escort you to a seat, give you a tablet and learning unit to start you off, and one of us will get you food and drink. Do not leave the table, and do not engage with the other survivors. They will come at you. We will handle it.”

She nodded, and they opened a door, escorting her through to a room where about one hundred fifty humans were laughing and enjoying a meal. She didn’t look for Avery. She focused on the table set aside for her and settled in the chair as the room went quiet.

One of the guards left as promised, and she was handed a tablet and started to read a language she had no business knowing. “That was one efficient machine.” Her words were in Hmrain common.

They chuckled around her.

She read up on etiquette, bond procedures, and the right of refusal before the auction began, and then she read the addendum. The Hmrain Ra had renewed his claim to their world and paid the bonds immediately on all children of Geb. Humans began free and could continue their education with a bond, but that was their business.

Her food arrived, and a variety of items were set out in front of her. She looked the items up and started eating.

She ate in the quiet room and sipped at her water. She ate slowly.

“Aubrey!” Avery walked up to the table. “Share some of that.”

Her guard answered for her. “Our scanners indicate that she has not had food in her system in several days. She requires food to recover her strength. You have no claim on it.”

Avery’s cronies paused behind her. Desmond said, “She ate all of our rations the day before yesterday.”

“There has been nothing in her system for days. These foods are all easy for her to digest. Her health is in the balance.”

She continued eating. She gestured to a guard, and he checked his tablet and nodded.

Avery looked wary. “What was that?”

“She has been ordered not to speak with you, so she asked me what your own initial scans indicated. It seems you had your last meal twelve hours before arriving at this pickup point.”

Desmond’s and Paris’s eyes filled with horror. They looked at Avery, and she was stammering. She started to cry. “I was hungry.”

Aubrey murmured to another guard. He grinned and said, “Take the shit show to another table. You are ruining her appetite.”

She ate a small spoonful of vegetable stew and watched the trio drag themselves outside to have a nice screaming fight.

“Will they hurt her?”

“No, they never do. She isn’t full companion strength, but she is enough for a fourth-generation Hmrain, and she will leave the guys the moment that wealth makes an appearance.”

“Do you see her match?”

She shrugged. “I do. She is bonded by a male who is good but serious and no-nonsense.”

“Do you see your match?”

“Yes. Very serious face, very silver, wings that have metal feathers.” She continued eating slowly and carefully. “Body is very graceful but tremendously strong. Hair is the red of dried human blood. Eyes are currently solid black.”