Page 56 of Rebel Fates

The Tirbs laugh as I look up, and the drone has cast down a beam over me. I see Serrat is in the same predicament, locked in a stasis field.

“Where is your third Hathoran?” the Tirb asks and then continues, now speaking at the ship, “I will let your crew-mates go if you just give us our property back. No need for further altercations.”

“Release them!” Rok yells from the hatch.

“Human first.”

“No.”

I’m a bit surprised by Rok’s resistance. Perhaps he’s just riled from adrenaline and doesn’t want to back down.

“Very well,” the Tirb says.

Then my body arches in a flood of electric voltage, making me feel like I’m being cooked from the inside. I scream out in pain.

“The female! Or your crew dies,” the Tirb threatens again.

I can see both Gemma and Rok at our ship’s opening.

“Stop it!” Gemma runs out past Rok. “Don’t hurt them.”

Rok tries to pull her back, but he’s hit by a drone’s stasis field once he’s visible to the Tirbs.

Gemma’s eyes are wide when she sees what’s happening to him. But she continues to hurry toward the Tirbs’ holo-projection. “Let them go!” she demands.

“When you are aboard our ship.”

“No. You might not release them,” she adds defiantly.

“You’re right. But if we were going to kill them, we would have done it already,” the Tirb explains, “You are our property, and we are in our rights to reclaim you. So come along and no one gets hurt.”

“Except me,” she mumbles, but walks toward them.

“No!” I cry out through a clenched jaw. My entire future leaves when she does. I’m done for. I’d rather die than see her go.

She hesitates and looks at me, then glances at Serrat and Rok. “Thank you for trying. I know I wasn’t easy to deal with.” With tears in her eyes, she runs onto the Tirb’s ship, sacrificing herself for us.

Just before the ramp locks into place, I hear her shout, “Let them go!”

25

SURRENDER

GEMMA

As I run past Rok, he places something in my hand as I refuse to be pulled back.

I clench the small object in my fist and hope the Tirbilians don’t confiscate it from me.

I really, really don’t want to go. But if I don’t cooperate, the slavers will kill them and take me anyway.

I can’t have that on my conscience. And as odd as it seems, I think I’m falling for these males. All of them.

The guys were worried about my safety with them and wanted me off their ship. Maybe me leaving is what’s best for them.

My feet carry me forward. It seems pointless for me to give up if they’re going to be killed.

I stop and demand, “Let them go!”

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