The Comments Told Me To Run, He Wouldn’t Let Me Chapter 07

I ran to Blackstar Port in the lower district.

Every credit of my allowance went to an illegal ticket. A ship headed for a desolate frontier

planet.

The ship reeked of engine oil and cheap tobacco.

I took the seat farthest back, pulled my oversized hood down over my face, and pressed both

hands to my stomach.

The comments exploded.

[What the hell?? Willa just RAN?]

[This never happened in the original! She was supposed to cry and beg and refuse to end the

pregnancy!]

[The plot just went completely off the rails!]

[Wait, if she’s gone, how is the ML supposed to justify feeding her to the sharks?]

I read every word. Then I shut my eyes.

I refused to be shark food.

If I was going to die, I’d die with my babies.

Three days in deep space.

The ship touched down on Outpost 98.

The air was thick and gritty. Scrap metal littered every surface.

The streets were full of shifters who looked like they had nothing left to lose.

I tugged my hood lower and kept close to the walls.

A shabby vegetarian diner had a help-wanted sign in the window.

Dishwasher wanted. Room and board included.

The owner was an old turtle shifter. Everything about him was slow.

He looked me over once and jerked his chin toward the kitchen. “Two oatcakes a day, plus the

cot out back. Get to work.”

I thanked him so fast the words tripped over each other.

That was how I started my life on the frontier.

Every day, I scrubbed mountains of dishes. The water was always cold. My hands blistered,

cracked open, and bled.

My belly grew fast.

Rabbit shifter pregnancies are short.

Two months in, and I could barely move.

Every night I lay in the drafty loft with my hands on my stomach, singing to them.

“Hush, little baby…”

Some nights, the tears came before I could even finish the first verse.

I missed Alden.

The warmth of his hands. That faint salt-water scent that never quite left his skin.

But going back meant losing them.