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)
Slipping out of his arms, Brenya’s gray uniform smeared with his blood, she put space between them. Trying to think in a soupy mind. “What could you possibly need the satellites for? Your people already stole Greth Dome. Now you have Bernard Dome. What more could you possibly want?”
He allowed her her rebellion, shifting his body slightly to put himself between the crystal vase of flowers and his enraged mate. “There are few Domes left standing after all the centuries. So many failed—”
“I know!” Brenya cut him off, unwilling to fall for his verbal distractions again. “That’s why Bernard Dome feeds us Beta Rations—to keep the population content. Jacques told me. Only twelve Domes are left after what you did in Thólos. And you would have eradicated another one of them! Why would you do that?”
“Mon chou… please. I’m here. Come.”
One mention of the Alpha, and it was as if he was right there, behind her. His physical presence so real that she spun around, her icy fingertips to her lips in fright.
And Jules saw. He saw, and he put his arms around her again, the rocking starting again. “He’s not there, Brenya.”
But he was there, picking at her brain, that clicking back with a vengeance until her eye began to twitch, and it was so very hard to ignore him when she was so livid. Harder still to evade Jules’s mental caress.
Her back was to his chest, the light rocking swaying her as Jules wrapped strong arms around his agitated mate, careless if he bled on her clothing. “Two Domes are known to possess weapons that can blow apart continents. World-ending missiles… which require access to the satellites that Jacques was far too distracted with petty Central politics to pay attention to. They are at war over mined resources, believe it or not. Even locked in their Domes, they war. Using drones, ballistics. I know this, because I saw it myself. The situation is escalating. That is why I volunteered for this mission. That is why I brought the virus here, even in my body, because this is not a mission that can fail. If one of them fires a single large missile, the other will retaliate. If somehow the fools release their entire barrage, everyone on the planet will die. The fallout would end life as we know it… even with the protection of our Domes.
“And I came here and found you. My darling. And I took your Dome. I incarcerated your Alpha. Relished my bond to you, because I cannot and will not live without you, Brenya. I cut the containment vessel out of myself and hid it inside your body. And so long as your heart beats, your people will live. Not to punish you. No. But to protect you. I swore to you I would keep you safe. That includes from yourself.”
The maelstrom of Jules’s sea, his lies, his truths, and his violence. Gods, how was she to survive it? His cum was glue in her cunt, his words daggers in her heart. He’d sworn to keep her safe.
And now?
Now, she’d never put herself in danger.
Now…
She had to try.
Now…
She would be physically dragged to Jacques’s cell, all because of some Omega nightmare that required an Alpha’s presence, or her brain would not stop ticking.
Or it would eventually, because separation would drive her to her death.
A risk she could never take.
Voice small, she let out a shuddering breath. “You are a bad mate.”
To this, he did not hesitate to say, “There have been seven attempts on my life in the last fifty-three days. Should someone have succeeded, you would have died from Red Consumption. Now, you’ll be safe from the virus should I be assassinated. And if they kill my beloved Omega, they will get exactly what they deserve.”
Pleading, Brenya tried to talk sense into the terrifying man. “I have seen techs fall during routine maintenance. People accidentally die. We don’t want them to, but it happens. Hearts sometimes just stop.”
“But not yours, Brenya. Your heart belongs to me, and mine belongs to you.” All said as he turned her toward him and cupped her cheeks, Jules smiling as if the world was right in every way. “Now that you know, you will make good choices. You will take care of yourself. You will eat, you will drink, and you will thrive. For your people, since you may never have done it for me.”
Gods, she’d have no other choice.
And because his cruelty seemed to know no bounds, the Beta added, “And you will eat breakfast with Jacques. Every day. For your health.”
Unable to look him in the eye, she ducked her head and rubbed her lips together in an attempt to stop her mouth. Shrank into herself and began to chew her thumbnail, her breath shallow, her gaze darting from corner to corner, and her mind broke down each thing she had said into fragments, tiny bits that settled over every crevice of her thinking, like a fine layer of black dust she might have swept away if she concentrated hard enough. “You have your satellites now. Have you… disabled those bombs?”