Total pages in book: 126
Estimated words: 124077 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 620(@200wpm)___ 496(@250wpm)___ 414(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 124077 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 620(@200wpm)___ 496(@250wpm)___ 414(@300wpm)
Terra stopped breathing.
For one terrible second, the whole world seemed to tilt, and she felt like she might faint. Then her fingers began moving.
WHO IS THIS? she typed. DON’T YOU DARE TOUCH MY KIDS!
The reply came almost immediately, and Terra stared at the words.
You know who this is, my Bunny. And you know how to get your children back. All you have to do is submit to me.
Her blood turned to ice.
“My Bunny.” Only one man called her that. Only one man had taken photographs of her children without her knowledge. Only one man had looked at Terra as though wanting her gave him the right to own her.
Viktor Orlov had her children.
33
TAUREX
The mission to Valeria Prime had been successful, though Taurex found that he took very little satisfaction in that fact. After days of painstaking negotiations, endless ceremonial meals, and more discussions about the relative value of cut gems than he ever wanted to endure again, he had secured a long-term agreement for enough kethra resin to keep the Monstrum Mother Ship supplied for years.
Commander Rarev ought to be pleased, and under normal circumstances Taurex would have felt a deep sense of accomplishment at completing such an important assignment for his people. Instead, as his shuttle moved silently towards the red gash in space that would eventually bring him back to the Mother Ship, he felt the same dull emptiness that had followed him everywhere since he had left Earth.
Work had not helped nearly as much as he had hoped it would. In fact, if anything, the traveling and negotiating had given him far too much time to think about Terra because every successful bargain made him remember how proud she had been when she recovered the first delinquent invoices for Intergalactic Imports.
Every time he dealt with some incomprehensible piece of financial documentation, he imagined what she would have said about it. Probably something sarcastic and amusing before she took it out of his hands and fixed it herself. Even the Valerian meals had reminded him of cooking with her in his domicile, of Terra laughing because the meat was blue and giving ridiculous Earth names to all his kitchen plants.
He could still hear her voice if he let himself remember too clearly—could still see her standing beside him with her sleeves rolled up and that beautiful expression of curiosity on her face.
He missed her with a physical ache that never completely faded and, he was certain, would never fade. One did not survive rejection by one’s fated mate without it leaving a scar—or in this case, an open wound.
Taurex had thought leaving Earth would help. He had told himself that distance was what Terra wanted and therefore distance was what he would give her, even if providing it tore him apart. He had released her from his employment and deposited enough currency into her account to ensure she could finish her education and support her family without ever having to return to the Doll House.
He had been careful not to contact her afterward because even a harmless message might feel like pressure, and the last thing he wanted was for Terra to believe that the severance payment came with some invisible string attached.
It did not—the currency belonged to her. So did her life. He had made absolutely no claim on her.
Taurex had repeated those facts to himself so many times that they had become almost like a prayer, though they did nothing to ease the terrible emptiness inside him. Terra had chosen not to be his mate, and he would respect her choice. Perhaps one day he would even learn to live with it, though right now he couldn’t imagine how.
He was checking the shuttle’s navigation system when suddenly every hair on his body stood on end.
Taurex froze—the sensation was unmistakable. A vast presence had filled his shuttle.
It did not arrive through the doorway or appear on any of his instruments. There was no physical body—no visible manifestation at all—and yet the atmosphere had changed so completely that Taurex felt as though the entire universe had suddenly leaned down to look directly at him.
Power pressed around him from every direction—ancient, feminine and immeasurably immense—and the instincts bred into every Monstrum warrior from birth recognized Her before his conscious mind did.
The Goddess—the Mother of All Life was here in his shuttle.
Taurex immediately lowered his head.
“My Lady,” he murmured, awe tightening his throat. He had prayed to the Goddess countless times and had felt Her presence during ceremonies in the Sacred Grove, but never in all his life had She addressed him directly. “How may I serve you?”
Her voice did not enter through his ears—it sounded inside him…around him…through him.
“Warrior, you are needed.”
Taurex straightened immediately, every trace of his earlier listlessness disappearing. The Goddess had a task for him—a purpose.
“Tell me what you require,” he said respectfully.