Sold To The Beastmen Princes

The coarse, pilled texture of the cheap motel bedsheets scraped against Kelsey Lane's cheek, dragging her out of a fitful sleep.

A heavy knot formed in her throat. There was no way out. No money, no family worth the name, no future. Six months ago, she'd been a student-until her mother's debts lost them the apartment and landed her at the motel.

She had nothing left to sell. Nothing but herself-and someone had already decided that was enough.

Her datapad chimed again. Not Eddy this time.

A cold, official notice scrolled across the cracked screen: a requisition order, countersigned in her name. Beneath it, one final message from Uncle Eddy:

"Don't fight it. The debt's cleared. You're not worth the trouble you cause."

For a week now, recruiters from the Meridian Offworld Group had been working the motel's hallways, promising passage off Terra-3 and a contract fat enough to bury any debt.

Everyone knew what lurked behind the polite smiles. The offworld labor contracts were a fiction; the desperate who signed them were never heard from again. Kelsey had always turned them away.

The fine print at the bottom of the notice made her blood run cold. Her debt was settled. Uncle Eddy had signed her over to cover it.

She was merchandise now.

The knock came before she could even stand.

"Open up. Meridian Group."

Three heavy raps-patient, final.

Through the cracked peephole stood two men in the smooth gray coats of the Meridian Group, and behind them, refusing to meet her eyes, Mr. Kowalski.

"Kelsey Lane. We know you're in there. Make this easy on yourself."

"Go to hell!" Kelsey shouted through the door, her voice cracking. "I'm not signing anything!"

The door didn't open. It was kicked in.

She grabbed her thin, frayed jacket and bolted for the back stairwell, her hands shaking so badly she could barely manage the zipper. A hand clamped around her wrist and hauled her off her feet.

"Let me go!" She twisted, scratched, drove her heel into a gray-coated shin. "I'm not going anywhere with you!"

"You don't have a choice, sweetheart." The taller man's grip tightened until her bones ground together. "Your uncle already sold you. You're Meridian property now."

"I'll kill him! I'll kill all of you!"

She spat in his face.

The blow came fast-a backhand across her cheek that snapped her head sideways and filled her mouth with the taste of blood.

Until a cloth pressed over her mouth, sweet and chemical, and her knees gave out.

They sealed her into a cold, humming crate that swallowed sound, and the crate rose-past the motel's roof, past the sickly yellow lights of the city, up and up-until Terra-3 itself was a gray smudge swallowed by the dark. Her destination was not a colony and not a job. It was a market, on a world she had never heard of, where people like her were bought and sold.

Time lost all meaning. Awareness returned slowly, heralded by the biting scent of antiseptic and cold metal.

Kelsey's eyelids felt like lead. When she forced them open, she was blinded by a seamless expanse of pure white. Ceiling, walls, floor-everything was constructed from a smooth, glowing material that radiated a sterile chill.

She shifted her weight and froze. The air brushing against her skin was freezing. She looked down.

She was completely naked.

A wave of pure, paralyzing terror crashed over her. Her breath hitched, and she violently scrambled backward, her bare back hitting the freezing wall. She crossed her arms over her chest, her nails digging into her own flesh.

"Hello?" she croaked, her voice cracking.

She pushed herself up, her bare feet slipping on the frictionless floor. She slammed her palms against the walls, frantically searching for a seam, a handle, a button. Nothing. The surface was impenetrable.

"Is anyone there? Let me out! Where am I?" she screamed, the sound bouncing off the walls, amplifying her isolation.

Her legs gave out. She slid down the wall, pulling her knees to her chest, her entire body shaking uncontrollably.

A soft, mechanical hiss broke the silence.

The wall opposite her slid open, revealing a dark corridor. Two massive silhouettes filled the entryway. They were impossibly tall, their shoulders too broad to be human. They stood in absolute silence, staring down at her.

Kelsey pressed herself harder against the wall, wishing she could phase through it. Her lungs forgot how to work.

One of the figures stepped into the light. He spoke, a harsh, guttural string of complex syllables that sounded like grinding stones.

Kelsey shook her head frantically, tears spilling hot down her freezing cheeks. "I don't understand... please..."

The second figure let out a low, impatient rumble. He raised a metallic device that pulsed with a faint, ominous light and closed the distance between them in two massive strides.

Kelsey stared at the approaching shadow, her mouth opening in a raw, throat-tearing scream. She tried to crawl away, but her limbs were useless on the slick floor.

The cold metal of the device pressed against her forehead.

A sharp, electric shock snapped through her skull, and the white room faded into absolute, merciful darkness.