“How many?” I asked quietly.


    Ra looked at Hannah and me closely before she spoke. “Twenty-four half human children would not adversely affect the overall poption. I don’t wish to confuse Damien and his family, but you will understand Mama. Your genes, as Hannah calls them, will not dilute the Paterian gene pool enough to be harmful if they stay under twenty-four children.”


    “Breeding numbers have been low,” Hannah whispered. “The women on this do not conceive easily. It has been getting worse and worse. Humans breed quickly, Nu-reeh knows this. She will use you to increase her numbers. The permission has been granted.”


    I sat and breathed slowly in and out. Hannah was strong, I told myself. My children would be strong, their testing showed it. I tried to calm myself.


    “That is arge number…” I mused.


    “Nu-reeh’sputations,” Ra said softly, “have told her you will be superior in this use.”


    Hannah growled at thement and Ra calmly stroked her arm. I knew the phrasing, too. It was the way the men talked about ves. They had not used that terminology around me in a long time. To them, I was no longer a ve. Obviously, to Nu-reeh, I still was.


    In an effort to remain controlled I concentrated on my living child. She was so upset she was shaking lightly. I tried to find a way to calm her.


    “Your letter was brilliant,” Iplimented her. “I found your message the second night.”


    Hannah grinned suddenly and even Ra looked proud. They had put a lot of time and thought into that letter. Hannah exined how hard it had been to leave it in the right spot. They wanted it found by honorable men and not pesky ouws.


    Keinmented how good the tami leaves were. My men all thanked them for the treat. The conversation over the box was casual and rxed.


    Crunching feet got our attention suddenly. Men’s voices wereing into the forest.


    “I love you, Mama,” Hannah said rising and hugging me. “Stay strong, I’ll see you again. We will find a way to fix this… somehow. We have to leave tonight, the women will fight us if we stay close to their men another night.”Còntens bel0ngs to N?(v)elDr/a/ma.Org


    Ra gave me a quick squeeze and the girls melded back into the forest.


    We stood and I heard Basin’s voice boom out. He cursed and swore. The General was angry, Damien and his Brothers were being troublesome today. First the fighting, now they disappear and hang out with me.


    Damien was nomittal in his response and just led me back to the Keepers.


    He had to walk me all the way to the beach, since everyone was already there. His presence caused a great deal of turmoil as the girls all looked up at him. They cried and looked down, everyone feared the new punishments.


    The Keeper told Damien he would let the respective owners know who had looked at him without permission.


    “No one looked at me,” Damien said bluntly while stripping me of my ornamentation, so I could swim.


    The Keeper politely disagreed and Damien got in his face. “No-one-looked-at-me,” he said forcefully.


    The Keeper backed down and Damien stalked back up toward the Keepers’pound.


    I settled under a tree and several Earth girls wandered over. They wanted to know what I’d done to make my owner so easy going.


    “I had his child,” I said as the tears ran down my face.


    Thatment cut the questions off and the crowd wandered off quickly. Rose and Fuji stayed and I looked tearfully at them.


    “Go,” I said, “unless you want to watch me breakdown again. I’m a mess and it won’t get any better.”


    They didn’t leave. Rose and Fuji were loyal friends. In addition, they were curious. Something had obviously happened at lunch.


    I told them everything. They sat in stunned questioning silence.


    “How many children do they want from you?” Rose rified with disbelief. “I knew women with many children, but twenty-four? It seems…”


    “Surreal?” Iughed in a high falsetto. “Surreal like being kidnapped and sold to aliens? What else will seem surreal before I die? How long will Ist if they breed me like that?”


    I paused and really considered giving birth twenty-four times. My eyes stared nkly ahead as I remembered the pain of Hannah’s birth. What if the babies were too big or positioned wrong? Would I get a C-section if I needed one or would I die in delivery on Nu-reeh’s warm stone?


    “I should just kill myself now and get it over with,” I mused loudly looking out over the ocean.


    I was lifted suddenly. The Keeper was carrying me away from the beach and my friends. I struggled and he just restrained me. He took me to the punishment room. My arms were bound to the wall and so were my feet. The nk divider lifted in front of my face.


    “ves are not allow to harm themselves,” he informed me before the door closed.


    Just great, I thought. How much of my rant had he heard? Hopefully, he didn’t understand if he did hear it.


    Damien was going to be angry. He would never understand I didn’t mean that literally. Christof might believe me, but if they’d had a bad enough day, he wouldn’t listen. Iy my head against the wall and rxed.