The Breeding Wars

Sera's POV

The little girl's fever was killing her.

My hands moved fast, pressing the cold cloth against her burning forehead. Six years old. Maybe seven. Too young to die in a place like this.

"Hold still, sweetheart," I whispered. "This will help."

She whimpered. Her mother gripped my arm, eyes begging. They all looked at me like that in the Fringe—like I was their only hope. Like I could save them when the Tribunal had already decided they weren't worth saving.

"Sera." Lila's voice cut through my focus. My nineteen-year-old sister stood by the window, her face pale. "We need to go. Now."

"I'm almost done—"

"Sera, I mean now."

The door exploded inward.

Wood and metal crashed across the floor. The mother screamed. I shoved the little girl behind me as black-uniformed soldiers poured into my clinic like a flood of death.

Tribunal guards. At least ten of them. All armed.

My heart stopped.

No. Not now. Not after three years.

"Everyone on the ground!" The lead soldier's voice boomed through the tiny space. His helmet covered his face, but I could see the weapon in his hands. "This is an illegal medical facility. You're all under arrest."

The mother dropped, pulling her daughter down with her. Other patients hit the floor. But Lila—stupid, brave Lila—ran toward me instead of away.

I caught her arm. "Get down."

"I'm not leaving you—"

"Lila, get down!"

But it was too late. A soldier grabbed her from behind, yanking her backward. Her scream tore through my chest like a knife.

"Let her go!" I lunged forward.

The lead soldier's armored fist caught me across the face. Pain exploded through my jaw. I tasted blood. The world spun, but I didn't go down. Three years in the Fringe had taught me how to take a hit.

I drove my elbow into his throat.

He choked, stumbling back. I grabbed the scalpel from my medical tray and slashed at the nearest soldier. The blade caught his arm. He cursed, blood spreading across his uniform.

"Sera, run!" Lila's voice was desperate, terrified.

But there was nowhere to run. Two soldiers tackled me from behind. I hit the ground hard, the scalpel flying from my hand. My face pressed against the dirty floor. Someone's knee dug into my spine.

"Stop fighting!" a soldier yelled in my ear.

I bucked against them, trying to throw them off. Useless. They were too heavy, too strong, too many.

Across the room, Lila was screaming. Kicking. Fighting like I'd taught her. But she was nineteen and small, and the soldier holding her was twice her size.

"Get off her!" I tried to scream, but someone shoved my face harder against the floor.

The lead soldier I'd hit was back on his feet. He pulled off his helmet, revealing a scarred face and cold eyes. He looked at me like I was an animal that needed to be put down.

Then he pulled out a scanner.

My blood turned to ice.

No. Please, no.

He pointed the device at my face. Blue light swept across my features. The scanner beeped three times.

The soldier's expression changed. His cold eyes went wide, then filled with something worse than anger.

Satisfaction.

"Positive identification," he said into his comm device. "It's her. Sera Ashford. Class-A Breeder. Genetic marker confirmed."

The words hit me harder than his fist had.

They knew. After three years of hiding, changing my name, staying in the shadows—they finally knew.

I stopped fighting. What was the point? The scanner had just confirmed my genetic classification. The one thing I'd been running from since I was eighteen. The thing that got my parents killed.

Class-A Breeder. One of the rarest, most valuable genetic profiles left on Earth after the Sterility Plague.

Which meant I wasn't a person anymore. I was property.

"Chain her," the lead soldier ordered.

Cold metal clamped around my wrists. The chains were heavy, designed for criminals. For people who'd broken the law by existing wrong.

They hauled me to my feet. My clinic—the place where I'd saved dozens of lives without the Tribunal's permission—was a disaster. Broken equipment. Scared patients. Blood on the floor.

My blood.

"What about the sister?" another soldier asked, still gripping Lila's arm.

The lead soldier looked at Lila like she was an insect. "Tag her for processing. She's unregistered, which makes her expendable. She'll go to the youth detention facility until the Tribunal decides what to do with her."

"No!" I lunged forward, chains rattling. "She's done nothing wrong! She's just a kid!"

"She's nineteen. Old enough to be charged with aiding a fugitive." He turned away from me, dismissive. "Load them separately."

"Wait—" Panic clawed up my throat. "Where are you taking her?"

No answer.

Two soldiers dragged Lila toward the door. She was crying now, reaching for me. "Sera! Sera, don't let them—"

"I won't!" I fought against the soldiers holding me, chains cutting into my wrists. "Lila, I'll come for you! I promise!"

"Enough." The lead soldier nodded to someone behind me.

Pain exploded at the base of my skull. My vision went white, then dark at the edges.

The last thing I saw was Lila being shoved into a separate transport vehicle. Her mouth was open, screaming my name, but I couldn't hear her anymore over the ringing in my ears.

Then I smelled smoke.

I turned my head—barely, through the haze of pain—and saw flames eating through my clinic. They were burning it. Destroying everything. Three years of work, of helping people the Tribunal had abandoned, all turning to ash.

"Let's move," the lead soldier said. "Director Laurent wants her at Genesis Center Alpha within the hour."

Genesis Center Alpha.

The breeding facility. Where they took women like me and turned them into walking incubators for humanity's survival.

The soldiers dragged me toward their vehicle. My feet scraped against the ground. My head pounded. Blood dripped from my split lip onto the white uniform someone had already shoved over my clinic clothes.

White. The color they made all Breeders wear.

The color of surrender.

They threw me into the back of an armored transport. The door slammed shut, cutting off the light. I was alone in the darkness, chains heavy on my wrists, the taste of blood in my mouth.

And somewhere out there, in another vehicle, Lila was screaming for me.

I pressed my forehead against the cold metal wall and made a promise to the darkness:

I'll get you out. Whatever it takes. Whoever I have to destroy.

I'll get you out.

The transport lurched forward, carrying me toward a fate worse than death.

The engine's roar drowned out everything else. But just before we pulled away from my burning clinic, I heard something through the metal walls.

A voice on the soldiers' comm system. A woman's voice, cold and precise:

"Excellent work. Inform the three Wardens their genetic match has been secured. The bonding ceremony begins tonight."

Three Wardens.

Bonding ceremony.

Tonight.

My heart stopped for the second time.

What the hell had they planned for me?