Alex wasn’t sure if he heard Jenna correctly so he had her repeat it.

“What did he have to do with you entering the colony program?” he asked. “Did he threaten you to do it?”

Jenna’s eyes met his. “It’s a really long and sad story. Are you sure you want to hear the rest of this?”

Without thinking about it, Alex reached over to touch her knee. Jenna stiffened instantly before she allowed herself to relax.

“We’ve come this far,” said Alex. “I want to hear all of it. You’ve heard all about my past.”

“Okay,” she said, taking a deep breath. “Vince was my boyfriend for nearly five years. We met when we were still in high school. I was sixteen still, almost seventeen. I never had a boyfriend because I was so ugly and I had no attention whatsoever. Vince was the first person in my life that actually seemed like he liked me for me.”

A pained smile appeared on her face. “In those early days, he was actually kind of sweet. I still remember how he would try to get me out of the house away from my brother when he was on one of his rampages. There was a creek not far from my house, and we would sit there and just vent the entire time. He’d tell me about living with three sisters and I would vent about Jay. He listened, which was the first time in my life that a guy actually did that.”

Jenna swallowed heavily. “It wasn’t much longer until he talked me into having sex for the first time. At that time, I was just ecstatic that someone was interested in me and wanted to go to that level. In hindsight, that was the first warning sign, and because I had no experience, I missed it completely.”

“It wasn’t good?” asked Alex. “The first time?”

She shook her head. “No, although I tried to lie to myself and think that it was. I knew the first time was going to hurt but Vince was just . . . rough. I would get out of bed and be covered with black and blue marks all over. And they would always be covered up under my clothes so no one knew but he really seemed to get off on hurting me during sex.”

“It only got worse from there,” she continued. “Vince was incredibly possessive. He didn’t like the thought of anyone paying attention to me or even talking to me, especially other boys. There was a boy who lived on the same street as I did, who I’d known for years. We were friends for a long time and it was never anything more than that. Vince beat him up one day for talking to me outside my locker. He said that Charlie wanted to be my boyfriend and that he couldn’t allow that. What he didn’t even know was that Charlie was as gay as they come. He didn’t even like girls. But our friendship was over right there. Charlie was petrified of Vince, and I was still under Vince’s spell. I didn’t want him to be angry with me about Charlie so I ended our friendship.”

Jenna let out a frustrated sigh and then, surprisingly, grabbed her breasts. “It only got worse once I got these. I told you I was a late bloomer, right? I started to develop toward the end of high school. I ended up going to a local community college, and Vince made plans to go to the same one. At the time, I told myself that it was because we were meant to be together but in hindsight, I realize it was just because he wanted to keep an eye on me. By the time I was nineteen, I’d come out of my awkward phase. I really felt like I looked like a woman, and for the first time in my life, I felt like other men were interested in me aside from Vince. I really think that drove him absolutely nuts.”

“It all came to a head around the time I turned twenty-one. By that point, he’d become completely paranoid and didn’t want me around anyone but him. The abuse only seemed to amplify at that point, and I was always covered in bruises and marks from his hands. I wasn’t doing well in school, mostly because I felt so trapped being near Vince all the time. I started to tie being at college with being with him and I just lost interest. I’m not sure how I did it but I summoned up the courage to leave him and drop out of college at the same time right as I turned twenty-one.”

Jenna hung her head in shame. “It wasn’t my proudest moment. I realized I was throwing away the chance at a better future but at that time, I just wanted to get away from Vince. I wanted to get away from abusive men. Vince went ballistic, of course.”

“Did he hurt you again?” asked Alex.

She wrapped her arms around her torso. “No, but not for a lack of trying. I managed to hide away for several months with a female friend of mine, someone that Vince didn’t know too well. She let me crash at her place for a few months while trying to get my feet under me. It was just incredibly hard to support myself when it was just me. The local economy was in shambles—like it is in most places on Earth—and it couldn’t earn enough to afford rent in even the rundown parts of my town. I felt truly lost about what to do, and it only made things worse when Vince finally found me.”

Tears came cascading down her cheeks. “In hindsight, my friend, Melody, probably saved my life that night. If she hadn’t come home when she did, I would probably be dead. He broke down her door trying to get to me. The whole time, he just kept yelling at me, demanding to know why I would leave him and telling me what a piece of shit I was. He kept kicking me, and I’m surprised he never broke anything. When Melody arrived home and called the police, he ran off into the night. I was broken at that moment, Alex. I just remember sitting there on the floor hugging my legs and crying my eyes out. My life couldn’t have gotten any worse. At that point, I did the only thing I could do.”

“What was that?”

“I signed up for the colony program,” she said, looking over at him. “I’d heard about it that week, and the promise to take you from Earth to some remote world. I’d never heard of Vesta before that point but anything seemed better than my life on Earth. I had no one and barely a possession to my name. And I had no doubt that Vince would try again to reach me. I had to do something and it turned out that leaving was the answer.”

Jenna took a deep breath. “So that’s why I’m here. I came to Vesta because it was the least worst option that I had. I wasn’t happy about being assigned to someone else but how much worse could it get? I’d already been through hell. One more abusive man wasn’t going to break me.”

She actually smiled at him at that moment. “But then I met you. And you’re probably the first truly decent person I’ve met in a really long time, Alex.”

“I don’t feel decent,” he said quietly. “Not after the mess I’ve made of my life.”

She shook her head. “But you did what you did because they took someone from you that you loved. That doesn’t make you a monster in my eyes.”

“Well, as long as we’re being reflective, I take back what I said about you,” said Alex. “About you being a princess.”

“You mean a goddamned princess?” she joked.

Alex chuckled. “Yeah, that. I think given your experiences in life, I can understand why you reacted the way you did. And I’m grateful that you ended up with me and not a man like Serrano.”

Jenna shivered. “I’m grateful for that too.”

There was a moment of silence until Alex noticed that Jenna was watching him. She smiled again.

“So I guess we both know each other’s dirty laundry now, right? And I have to say, I’m still in this. I’m not running for the hills or anything.”

“I’m not running either,” said Alex. “And I’m going to promise you something right now. No matter how angry I get, I’m never going to lay a finger on you, you got that? I would never hurt you like that, Jenna.”

“I know that, Alex,” she said quietly. “If I’d thought you were that kind of man, I don’t think I would have told you about my life. I feel safe with you, I really do.”

He cracked a grin. “As long as I don’t get us killed by a bear?”

Jenna giggled. “With your superhuman speed, I almost pity the bear that would try to attack you.”

They both laughed at that, breaking some of the heavy tension that had developed. Though nothing physically had developed between them yet, Alex now saw that it was just a matter of time. With Jenna opening up to him, he saw that she was warm, tender, and thoughtful on the inside—a wonderful development from the crass exterior she had on when they met.

It made him hopeful for a future with her.

By this time in the morning, the sun was now fully up and it was time to get moving again. After rolling up their sleeping bags and putting on their packs, they set off from their camp.

“Do you want to take the point position today?” he asked once they started moving. “You did an excellent job yesterday working with me to keep a secure position.”

She beamed with the compliment. “I can do that. As long as you promise to watch my butt?”

“I can definitely do that,” he said, realizing that he would be all too eager to do just that.

They set out moments later, pushing out into the valley and continuing on their northeasterly course toward the river. The going was slow and the terrain started to become more challenging around midday, when they started to climb out of the valley into the foothills that had ringed them before. It was here that their pace slowed even further, and it was also when Alex noticed something that bothered him.

He finally addressed it with her when they sat down to eat a meager lunch.

“Does it seem weird to you that we don’t see much wildlife around?” he asked. “The training modules that we watched said most of the planet was teeming with small creatures and other mammal-like animals. I’ll be honest, I haven’t seen many signs of them. Sometimes, I get the impression that we are the only two living creatures around.”

Jenna started to nod. “Now that you mention it, I haven’t seen much of anything either. I noticed a few birds here and there but not much on the ground. I wonder why that is.”

Alex did too. The lack of wildlife bothered him on an instinctual level. In his gut, something told him that this was a dangerous sign, and there was a reason why most animals were giving this area a wide berth.

For that reason alone, he vowed to pick up the pace as they moved for the rest of the day, wanting to get to the river as quickly as possible. Jenna accepted the wisdom of the move, and they moved quickly, ascending higher into the foothills.

It was as evening was falling that two events happened that definitely spooked both of them. The first was when they came upon a rocky enclave that butted up against a sheer cliff in the hillside, rising some twenty meters above their heads. The enclave was surrounded on three sides, but it was what was inside the flat part that made both of them pay attention.

There was a creature inside but it had been dead for about a day or two judging by the remains of the body. To Alex, the creature looked very similar to how a deer would look back on Earth, except that it was about two times bigger in size. The worst part was that whatever had killed it had completely skewered it, ripping open its torso and devouring everything within.

Jenna covered her nose with her shirt. “That smells just awful!”

“And whatever did it certainly had some powerful jaws,” said Alex, inspecting the creature more closely. “This creature didn’t stand a chance. It was ripped to absolute shreds.”

“Do you think it could have been another bear, Alex?”

He shrugged. “Maybe. I could see a bear doing this kind of damage. We should stay on high alert tonight. Something is not quite right with this area. The lack of wildlife and finding this creature like this. Something deadly is out there, and I don’t want to find out what it is.”

Jenna nodded. “I’ll keep an eye out for anything that doesn’t belong.”

They kept moving through the foothills as it became time to settle down for the evening. At one point though, Alex felt the urge to look behind him. He couldn’t say why, but again it was something on an instinctual level, forcing him to look. He scanned his surroundings, looking for anything that was out of place. Only the arid environment of the Vestan planet stared back at him.

Alex continued to move but he kept a watchful eye on the terrain behind him. It was only twenty minutes later when he saw the definitive shadow that confirmed his suspicions. Getting Jenna’s attention, he gestured for her to get low and to wait for him.

“What’s wrong?” she whispered, her face going pale as she saw his expression.

“Someone is following us. Someone or something.”