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)
The offer was easy, simple, Brenya suggesting, “Then… you should go for a walk.”
“Excellent idea! Let’s go now.” Said with a mischievous grin, as Lucia set her container of vomit on the table and covered it with her napkin.
“Brenya, don’t fall for this setup. That bitch wants power and will do anything to get it. I’ve seen her kind all my life! You cannot go outside. It isn’t safe! Please!” Beating on the glass with his fist, Jacques was growing more and more uncontrolled. “DO NOT LEAVE THIS ROOM, BRENYA!”
Somehow cutting through the din, Jules, commanding, suggestive… even content, purred. “You can go for a walk if you want to, Brenya. It’s a beautiful day, and this is your home.”
“It is a beautiful day,” Lucia agreed, using Brenya for leverage so she might stand. “But I will not be seen with you until you change out of that.” A little color came back to her face, a hint of disapproval, and the click of her tongue. “Come, help me up. I have something you can wear in my trunks. Oh, and we must avoid Central.” Brenya’s hand trapped in hers, Lucia’s dark eyes cut to Jules, glaring. “Someone set dozens of Greth Omegas free for a mate hunt at the main landing zone, and the males are gathering them up like candy. Best if we don’t interrupt their first meetings. They can get a little… base. Had you seen Ancil after he swept me into his arms, you’d understand. A stallion, that man. Instead of the gorgeous canals, you could give me a tour of Beta Sector, show me where you grew up. There must be something to do there, right?”
Assessing Brenya with a lengthy, measured once-over now that they were standing, Lucia already sounded exasperated. “It might help me understand you better. We’re family now, after all. Sisters… of some sort, I suppose. Heaven help me, if you knew all the sisters I had back home, you would pity me for having to put up with another.”
Lucia didn’t pause long enough for Brenya to answer, tugging her toward the door. “And here I am pregnant with a little girl. Us Greth women and our female offspring. Dios mío, next time, bless me with a boy.”
Jules was supposed to put a stop to this, to keep her to himself. To feed her dry fish with a broken sauce—whatever that meant—and force this meeting, but he did not interfere as Brenya was tugged toward the door by a determined Lucia.
“No.” Another refusal was ignored, Brenya unable to get her fingers out of the woman’s grip.
Pacing the length of his cage, following as far as he could, Jacques shouted at the Beta still sitting unbothered in his chair. “You can’t possibly let Brenya walk out there alone! What is this about dozens of Omegas? It will be a blood bath! Brenya, come back!”
“Wait.” Retreating from Jacques motivated Brenya’s legs to follow, but something was off.
As if this had been choreographed, everyone in the room was in on it in some way. Both males wanting her to leave, even Jacques, as he roared and overturned his table.
“Enjoy yourself… and remember…” Jules pressed his hand to his heart, reminding her what the consequences would be if it should stop. “I love you.”
And the doors shut between them, the muffled shouts of the Alpha no longer able to hurt her ears. Brenya realizing that every last soldier guarding Jacques’s cell—all seven of them—had followed her out without question. Jules remaining behind. Unguarded.
The black-clad killers were for her protection… not his.
Blinking in confusion at a smug Lucia, Brenya said, “You… ruined breakfast.”
Dipping her shoulder in a half-shrug, Lucia preened. “I know. You’re welcome.”
And then they were off, Lucia forcibly threading her thin arm through Brenya’s, dragging her toward the lift. “You still need to eat, so you can snack in my room. God, every morning with both of them? It will be unbearable. Thank goodness the Commodore did not demand lunch and dinner together too, no? Nights though, I still have to put up with one of them. But it’s not all bad for me. Jacques had a big cock, huh? I didn’t mind it in the slightest. Don’t look at me like that. We all know you have no idea what to do with it. I’ll take it off your hands, and you can have your romance with the Commodore. Speaking of which, I’ve never seen Havel look so human. What an effect you have on him. Back home, no one would believe the day would come that a man like him discovered feelings. Just wait until you see what he’s done in Beta Sector. Freed Central’s slaves for you. What an uproar. The staunch old Alphas lost their—”
“Stop pulling on me!”
“I will not.” Spat back with even more venom, the true Lucia coming out now that the males were out of earshot. “You are to spend the day with me and learn how to embrace your position. No more Omegas will suffer because you refuse to leave your room. See what your hiding is doing to your people! Meet the other Omegas who came here with me to have better lives. The two most powerful men under this Dome will give you anything you ask, and you will ask for our kind to be treated with dignity, or I will make your life a living hell. Don’t think I can’t. Like I mentioned many times to you, I have many sisters and know exactly how to make my point. Now march. We don’t have much time to make you look less insane.” Muttering to the Gods, Lucia motioned for the guards to make more space for them. “Repeat after me, Brenya. ‘I will not be the reason innocent women die.’ Say it.”