CHAPTER ONE
PALOMA
“Don’t fuck this up, Paloma.”
My father’s words repeat over and over in my head.
Three days ago, a contingent of orcs arrived in our colony to negotiate with our council. I didn’t know what was at stake then.
They reached an agreement two days ago.
That’s how long I’ve had to accept my fate. Two fucking days.
The repulsive green beasts will be here any minute.
For me.
My own people—myfather—blindsided me.
“We need this alliance,” my father adds as he stuffs a few of my belongings into a backpack that he shoves at me. “We all have to do our part for the colony.”
Numb from what is happening, I accept the bag, not even caring how callously he thrusts it at me.
None of this is real. It can’t be.
I’m standing in our living room, in our modest but comfortablethree-bedroom adobe brick home, wondering if I’m awake or having a nightmare.
I’ve seen orcs before, in the market of Pen’Kesh, a neutral area where we trade goods and services. Outside of the market, the orcs are our enemy. Brutal beasts.
Animals.
Uncivilized.
Deadly.
“The safety of the entire colony depends on this agreement.” My father crosses his arms over a thick chest. He isn’t a weak man by any means, but that doesn’t make him a good man.
“I didn’t agree to anything,” I sputter, unable to string more than a few words together.
“We’ve been through this, Paloma. You’re the oldest. It’s your duty. Now get moving. The escort will be here any minute.”
I stare at my father, not comprehending why he won’t say goodbye, good luck, or even that he is proud of me forsavingour colony.
His callous rejection hurts down to my core. I’m only twenty-five and my sisters are twenty-three, twenty, and eighteen. They are the reason I never moved out of my parents’ house back on Earth when I turned eighteen and our mother fell sick. They needed me. Our father’s never been very supportive. Or warm.
Three years ago, we traveled here to Kovos. Back when I thought I had a future of freedom and choice, since we’d escaped Earth after the occupation.
That future no longer belongs to me, but to the orcs.
Ugly green monsters with tusks protruding from behind their lower lips. Beasts who smell and live like animals.
The man from the Coalition who picked our family to receive one of the lucky spots on the spaceship said the medicine on Kovos would help Mom. What we found was a lush world full of trees, magnificent canyons, and waterfalls that fill me with awe. But no medicine.
Aside from abundant game, five species, including humans inhabiting Kovos. All transplanted here by the cendagi, one of the races that makes up the Coalition, Earth’s conquerors. They don’t live on Kovos. Only vints, bantarans, moxxels, humans, and…
Orcs.
I’m being given to them like a sack of flour no one will miss.
