Total pages in book: 70
Estimated words: 65151 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 326(@200wpm)___ 261(@250wpm)___ 217(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 65151 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 326(@200wpm)___ 261(@250wpm)___ 217(@300wpm)
And though naïve through and through, his mate was not stupid. She knew there was a hook in his bait, but could not and would not pin it.
No, it would always be he who pinned her.
Like he pinned her now into their nest, cuddling her, arranging her with subtle shifts of his body, knowing it was safest this way, considering the fire that burned within her. A fire she had yet to realize.
Her gaze slipped to the side, her sweet mind picking apart his words and finding nothing to reproach. She even meant every word. “I don’t want to leave the Dome.”
“Good.” He cocked an eyebrow, giving her that look. The one that said she owed him a vow. “So swear it.”
Her hesitation showed how smart she really was, the Omega softly asking, “And you promise to protect my people… from what?”
Rich purr in each word, Jules explained as if she’d asked the right question, “Jacques. Central. The virus. You must be safe. And, before you verbalize that sparkle in your eyes, know that regardless of how you answer, you never need to worry that I will punish your people because we argued. And we will. It is natural.”
He had her, was soooo close. “I am aware it will be impossible for you to accept your love for me with that axe always hanging over your head. You can be yourself when we’re together. The real you. The you who’s waking up. Yell at me, fight with me, disagree. Tell me all your feelings and fears. I want to hear them. And understand, I am not going anywhere. I’m yours. And I ask for a simple promise that you, who I stole—who never agreed to be my mate nor wife of her own free will—that you will give me just this one thing despite how we got here. And in return, I will give you the Dome.”
Her eyes changed, honeyed uncertainty altered with a blink. An immaculate mind’s attempt to understand, to rationalize such an uncharacteristic outpouring of words. Her quick assumption that maybe he longed for acceptance, that her terrifying Beta mate had his own fears and worries.
Good.
Tickling her senses with a fluttering of well-applied anticipation, he asked, “Will you?”
She was every bit the innocent maiden he’d coveted and stolen, every bit the woman who’d taken his breath at first glance, as she timidly asked, “You really promise to never release the virus in Bernard Dome? Because, yes, if you swear it, I vow I will stay here forever.”
And just like that, she signed over her life to him, unaware of what she’d done.
A promise not even Rebecca would have made.
Purring, lips curving into an honest smile, Jules kissed her as he poured his ocean of regret all over her light, knowing she would cleanse away the grime and make it clean.
And then his lips went back to her perfect ear, where he whispered nine secrets. Unassuming locations throughout the Dome where the virus had been tucked away—knowing a mind like hers would never forget a single detail.
It was vital she remember.
And when he got to the tenth hidden nook—a place no one would ever think to look—when he whispered where he’d tucked the most dangerous world-ending nightmare, his full weight upon her body, Brenya was too distracted memorizing every word that spilled from his lips, too taken in by dark secrets, to notice his hands were already about her wrists. Pinning them beside her head so she couldn’t strike him and accidentally hurt herself.
She understood.
Her whole body went rigid, her eyes wide.
The way she shrieked…
It was everything he needed, everything he’d orchestrated, because now she would be safe forever.
9
The rasp of the zipper engaging from navel to neck spelled her doom.
Jules had won.
Her once loved jumpsuit like sandpaper against Brenya’s skin, constrictive, uncomfortable. It wasn’t the scented softness of his used shirts. It wasn’t safe.
She wasn’t safe. Not anymore.
Two months ago, she would have willingly sucked Jacques’s cock from dawn to dusk just to wear a Beta Sector jumpsuit for five minutes. Now, she wanted to rip it off and see it burned.
Loathed it.
Because Jules, the diabolical, gentle male who gave delight and confused the senses, wanted to take her away from the Red Room.
From her nest.
The nest she needed to be in, caught in a compulsion beyond her understanding.
To the most dangerous place in the Dome.
“This is for the best.” That was it. That was all the Beta said before he pulled her into a hug.
Bastard.
Yet his hungry corpses slithered in and out of her psyche like they were playing house in her brain. Cleaning out the cobwebs, caressing her anger.
After all the sweetness and pleasure, even after the threats… she was certain now.
She was going to kill him.
Not just threaten him with murder, or lash out. But kill him.