Page 1 of Mate for the Space Cowboy

Chapter One

MELODY

Four months ago

“Melody!” My brother shouts my name.

I’m jolted with a familiar sense of fear and panic. It rises in a wave that crashes over me. I know what’s coming. He storms into my apartment, the only place I’ve ever had any privacy. It was only after my father finally died that I was able to escape and live on my own.

My brother, who once commiserated with me over how much we hated our father and his violence, has essentially become him.

“What is it?” I ask, hating the sense of resignation I feel.

“I need money,” he demands.

“I don’t have any.” My words come out flat and tired.

My brother, John, spins in a circle, his eyes darting around my one-room apartment.

“You have this.” He swings his arm in an arc.

“You know how this works,” I point out. “My apartment comes with my job. I eat meals at work.”

This is true, and I feel lucky. My abusive father died in a factory fire, and my mother had died from what we thought was cancer before that.

My brother spins back toward the door, stopping a few feet away from me before slapping me hard across the face and grabbing my arm as he shakes me. “Find me one of your friends,” he demands.

I roll my eyes. “I don’t have any friends, John. I go to work, and I come home and sleep.”

John looks tired. I worry about him, but there is nothing I can do. All I can do is try to take care of myself.

Three days later, I learn that my brother has died in a fight. Even though he gave me nothing and became as cruel as my father, I still grieve the loss. He was my only family, the only person who knew the life we had together growing up, and the only person who missed my mother as much as I still do.

The days pass, and I keep walking to work. Every day is hot, and the dust swirls in the dry air. I’m just existing. One afternoon, I’m quietly filing paperwork in the factory. I don’t even know if what I’m filing matters, but I do it anyway. At the very least, it passes the time. I have a small phone that comes with my job where I can look at Galaxy Cosmo, our planet’s only social media. I scroll through it as I file with one hand in my little cubicle. My eyes land on a post.

“That can’t be real,” I whisper to myself.

You learn to whisper around here or try to keep your thoughts to yourself.

I reread the post.Mates wanted. Females only. You can leave Earth forever and mate with space cowboys.

I check the time for the interviews listed on the announcement. It’s a few minutes after the end of my shift. I’ll be tired, but it’s a chance. A chance I might never get again.

Leaving Earth is nearly impossible unless you havea lotof money. Intergalactic travel isn’t new, but it’s rare and costly for humans on Earth. We’ve destroyed our planet. Aliens from other planets don’t really want to visit here except out of curiosity. We know from the history books that once upon a time, Earth was the envy of the galaxy. Those days are long gone, and nothing more than dust motes in the distant past.

Now, if you live here, you hope for a job and food. Lucky people live in the green zone. Even then, we hear rumors of how horribly women are treated there. Women are second-class citizens on Earth. They stripped our rights. We’re the equivalent of indentured servants.

By the time my shift is over, I’m exhausted. I stop in the restroom and peer in the mirror. I use one of the brushes to tidy my hair. I want to change into something more attractive, but I don’t have many options, which means walking back to my apartment. I leave and wait in the long line outside the building where the interviews are being held. I assume every woman here is hoping for the chance to escape.

When I sit at a table, I’m a little startled to hear the woman interviewing me referred to as a princess.

“Princess?” I ask her after an older woman with a tail walks away.

The woman in question smiles warmly. “Technically, I’m a princess. But not too long ago, I was just like you, living here on Earth and hoping for a better life.”

“Oh,” I say, flummoxed at that.

“You can just call me Jane,” she adds. “Now, let’s jump in. The basic requirement for this is a willingness to leave Earth forever to mate with an alien cowboy. You must not have children here. We don’t want anyone to leave any children behind. That would be cruel.”

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