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Ican feel panic setting in, and it’s hard to swallow down.

I know the creatures range in height – from between five to seven feet.

Don’t let the height fool you, though. Even a Toad equal to my height will be packing several hundred pounds of slab-like muscle and gelatinous fat on me. Their muscle fibers are denser than those of a human, too – giving them massive additional strength.

Likewise, the thick, warty skin of a Toad is like armor – it can stop a knife, and even some bullets. In fact, only an Aurelian with an Orb-Blade could reliably pierce that glistening, sinewy hide of a Toad.

Almost as well-known as their cruelty is their desire for human women – a reprehensible addiction that’s fueled despicable crimes over the years. Toadshaveto steal their woman. No woman would ever be so desperate as to join a Toad Harem willingly – not for something as petty as money (and not that Toads are generous in sharing any.)

Aurelians lure women to their harems. Toadstakethem – stealing any women foolish enough to be found in dark space and bringing them back within the borders of their confederacy.

Foolish women like me, and Tessa.

It doesn’t matter that slavery is illegal – not to a Toad. After the first Galactic War nearly wiped out all sentient life, even Aurelians don’t venture into Toad territory to enforce those statutes.

That means once you’re a prisoner of the Toads, and you’ve been taken behind the lines of Toad-occupied space, you’re as good as done for.

I pull at the chains overhead, panicking wildly.

I’m trapped! I’m fucking trapped!

Unlike the girls Ling and I liberated, there’s nobody coming to save me.

I let my head flop forward, and I squeeze shut my eyes; feeling the despair well up in them.

I can’t believe it’s going to end like this – me, the liberator, falling victim to the same fate I’d fought against alongside Ling.

I hear another whisper to my left, and I reluctantly turn my aching head – slowly this time, blinking in the darkness.

Gods!

There’s at least ten of us women in here – all dangling from chains around our wrists.

Now my head isn’t aching so much, I look around desperately.

First off –where is the light coming from?

There is a light, seeming to originate from a crack in the far wall. It’s enough for my night-vision-adjusted eyes to make out most of the room, and my fellow prisoners.

The light must come from behind a door – but how can I be sure?

There’s a sharp hiss as that is-it-a-door bursts open to confirm my suspicion.

By that time, though, I’d decided I had bigger problems to worry about.

As the door opens, light floods into our dark, dank prison.

The blinding light makes my head scream. I turn my head and slam my eyes shut, but the beam is bright enough to burn right through my eyelids – especially since my eyes had been adjusted to the near pitch-darkness.

Blinded, I rely on my other senses – and guttural sounds flood my ears.

At the same time, a wave of foul-smelling musk and stench assaults my nostrils.

I shudder in revulsion. That confirms it.

Toads.