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)
“If by chance I survive tomorrow’s coup, I want to make things right by you. You may have been assigned my breeder but my feelings for you run deep. I think I felt it from the moment I laid eyes on you. I’ve been in denial because up until now, I didn’t understand what this feeling is. I’m reluctant to use the word love because that doesn’t come easy to someone like me. You’re special to me Jamie and I want to take care of you and cherish you. But I also want you to want me. I don’t want you to feel obligated to be with me because you’re my breeder and I’m the Sector Leader.”
He takes another deep breath.
“So, after tomorrow. I’m going to return you Sector 2.”
My heart instantly drops when he makes this declaration.
Chapter
Twenty-One
DRAKEN
Ididn’t intend to confess to Jamie so soon, especially during all this turmoil, but I also realize that I may not survive this coup Braeden has started. My instinct tells me it’s going to happen soon and I need to act fast.
Shortly after my call to Magnus, I’d left the fortress to go on a run. Shifting and running usually cleared my head but all I could think about was Jamie and how I was going to protect her.
My mind was still in shambles by the time I made it back to the fortress. I headed straight to Jamie’s room wanted to hold her and be with her knowing it might be the last time.
After my confession, Jamie remained speechless but I didn’t expect to receive an answer from her at least not yet. Besides, I couldn’t ask her to love me back. She’d experienced so much trauma at the hands of the superious. My only hope was I came out on the other end of this mess alive, maybe she could come to care for me a little bit.
Though Jamie doesn’t speak after I’ve said what was in my heart, I bathe her and wash her hair. After drying her off, I get in bed and hold her until she falls asleep in my arms.
At some point, I dose off as well, but I wake up some time later in the night and slip out of her room to go to my own.
I prepare myself for my confrontation with Braeden, hoping Magnus and his team will arrive before things get too out of hand.
I style my hair in one long braid and bind it was an elastic band. I put on my battle uniform, a plain black jumper, with a dagger on one hip and a laser pistol on the other. I don my black beret with a golden snowflake in the center that represents my sector. This signals my readiness in the face of an impending battle.
I’ve noticed that my cousin has kept out of my way these past several days, but I can no longer hold off this confrontation.
When I leave my room, the first thing I notice is that he Enforcers who are usually stationed down the hallway are not at their posts. An uneasiness settles in and I run to Jamie’s room and place my hand against the sensory pad to open her door.
I look around to find it empty. I check her bathing room and her closet but there are no signs of her.
I press the communicator button on my collar to get in contact with Willa, but I’m met with static. Someone has jammed the signal.
Fear seeped into my heart and my only hope is that Ayla had managed to evacuate the fortress with Jamie.
I walk down the hallway which is eerily empty. I immediately go to my private elevator and attempt to access it through the heat sensory pad. The door doesn’t budge. I try again. “Door open,” I order hoping a voice override will work.
My cousin has seems to have made his move already. Seeing that I was still able to get into Jamie’s room I think he may have only cut off my access to the back exits thinking I would use those routes.
If he could contain my movements then it would be easier to figure out where I am. I’m certain he has the security monitors turned on me. But there’s one secret hiding place he doesn’t know about.
I head back to my room and go to my closet. There’s an escape panel that I rarely used but it leads to some stairs that go directly to the garage level.
I press the button on the inside of my closet. The wall splits open. I run down a dark narrow hallway and down an even narrower set of winding stairs, with my heart pounding.
I can find a way to get off the fortress grounds and wait for reinforcements. Despite having grown up here, Braeden doesn’t know all of the secret spots on the grounds because he’s never taken much interest in getting familiar with the land.