Total pages in book: 70
Estimated words: 65094 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 325(@200wpm)___ 260(@250wpm)___ 217(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 65094 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 325(@200wpm)___ 260(@250wpm)___ 217(@300wpm)
“Why? Do you think I need a guardian?” I retort, more than a little perturbed by his implications.
He shakes his head. “Of course not. But as your back up, wouldn’t it help if I’m aware of any issues around the fortress. That way, I’d be ready to step in in case there are any more issues.”
That made sense and it would have been unreasonable of me to deny him the request over a mild disagreement. “Fine.”
I finally return my attention to the three remaining servants. “Chef, do you care to explain the slop that was served to my breeder.”
He falls to his knees and clasps his hand in supplication. “I was only following orders, My Lord. Please have mercy!”
“Who ordered you to give my breeder inedible food?”
He raises his head, and looks at me and then looks to Braeden before looking back at me. “Ugh, the steward. He said that I could feed her the leftovers off the Enforcer’s plates.”
He shoots another look in Braeden’s direction. Maybe he thinks my second-in-command will save him but I disabuse him of that notion immediately.
“Chancellor Braeden can’t save you now. Look at me. I want my face to be the last one you see.”
I raise my clawed hand and he yells out, “But Chancellor Braeden—”
Braeden beats me to him, inserting a dagger in the chef’s head before the other man can get his words out. The chef’s lifeless body falls to the ground.
I’d forgotten about that dagger Braeden keeps on his hip because he doesn’t have the ability to shift like I do. I’ve only seen him use his weapon a few times, but every time he has it’s been with deadly precision.
“Begging for mercy like a coward,” Braeden says with disgust and spits on the chef’s corpse.
“Unless the two of you wish to share the same fate, you will tell the Sector Leader who gave you the order to abuse the breeder, serve her tainted food?”
The dark-haired one called Sahra, according her to file speaks. “It was the steward. It was all him. We were simply following orders. Please have mercy on us, Chancellor Braeden. We promise this will never happen again.”
Braeden raises his dagger, but I stay his hand. “There are punishments far worse than death. Have them reassigned to the pits. I want them out of the fortress within the hour.”
Braeden looks at the cowering maids who cling to each other in tears.
Unable to stand the sight of them, I head out the door but stop when my cousin calls out to me.
“Should I have new maids assigned to your breeder?”
“From here on out, I will oversee the assignments around here.” I reply without turning around.
“But—”
I turn on my heel and shoot him a glare.
Whatever he was going to say dies on his tongue.
“Make sure this body has been removed by the time I return.”
I walked away without doing any actual killing myself but I’m left with a nagging sensation in the back of my head.
Something isn’t right.
Chapter
Thirteen
JAMIE
For the first time since I’ve arrived in sector 10, a new feeling has entered the equation. Loneliness.
And I lay the blame firmly at the feet of Draken.
No.
I shake my head. The Sector Leader.
I’m not supposed to feel anything toward this man but when I woke up in bed, beneath the fur comforter, my body aching all over from his sexual domination. There’s a stickiness between my thighs and my core throbs as a reminder of what we’d done. My nipples are still tender from how aggressively he’d suckled them. And the worst part of the entire experience? I’d loved every second of it.
This wasn’t supposed to happen. My sister had mentioned something about the cross-referencing program that had given me the breeder designation. She mentioned something about matches over a certain percentage being so compatible with one another, there’s almost a mystical pull between the two people. I was convinced it was something she’d made up to justify willingly giving herself to a superious.
I’d condemned Noah for doing exactly what I’d done.
Am I a traitor? How could I have fallen so easily in his arms and liked it? What if this one time with him was enough to impregnant me. How would it feel to carry his child? Even now my body misses his and I’m disgusted with myself.
No!
I refuse to give in to whatever this invisible pull I feel toward him is. At the end of the day, he’s still a superious, a Sector Leader at that. I’ve heard about all the cruel things that go on in this Sector.
I’ve only been here for a week and experienced cruelty at the hands of my own people. Those two maids are homo sapiens like me, but they treat me like I’m less than dirty. Perhaps they hold some kind of privilege around here and the worse they are toward me it curries more favor. This kind of place can turn people against each other.