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)
There. She’d said it.
“I know.” Those strange eyes did not glance up from the page, but the corners of his mouth did hint at a smile. “Still, it’s done.”
No, it wasn’t! Nothing had been done as it should have been done. Why didn’t anyone see that? How could a woman like Lucia possibly think Brenya could handle these men? “When I stole your ship, when I got sick… you could have taken me to Greth. But you disabled the ship! You wanted Jacques to come for me! You risked my life for—”
That shifted Jules’s gaze just a touch to the right, blue eyes dragging over the page a hair closer to her, his voice offered at the perfect pitch. Crafted. “You’d locked the door to the cockpit. I couldn’t get in.”
Yes. “No. You could have explained things about Thólos. You used me, knowing Jacques would hurt me… and you. He hurt you too. And now he’s in a cage and you cut off his fingers and took away his eye!”
The book was closed, set aside, Jules meeting her furious glare, the backs of his fingers running down her scarred cheek as if he adored this. As if her emotions were fine wine. “I wasn’t wrong.”
It wasn’t exactly revulsion that made her shake him off, and that disturbed her. The Beta’s touch felt good. Welcome.
Wrong considering all she’d heard that afternoon.
Pushing away from the couch, standing in her wrinkled, soiled jumpsuit, Brenya pursed her lips, glared like she was working up the courage to do something that would only end badly. Only to become a total coward and stutter out a pathetic, “I’m leaving. I’m… I’m going to go work on my clock. I don’t want to be here when they start.”
They being Lucia and Jacques. Fucking.
At seven o’clock they were scheduled to fuck.
Half an hour from that moment, Brenya’s skin crawling from the thought of it.
Brenya did not like that woman.
The foreign Omega was a self-serving, manipulative, glittering, bravado-laced beast of ambition who had cornered her with her nausea and lies. The prattling bitch with a chip on her shoulder and the meanest glares Brenya had ever received… had needed fresh air.
Saved her from Jacques’s stares.
Shown her too much.
And they had not even left the palace.
There had been no walk in Beta Sector.
Their entire confrontation had taken place in Annette’s old apartments before Jules’s guards, the room stuffed with Grethentine Omegas: pregnant, miserable, happy, strange. Loud. All gathered in what was now Lucia’s quarters.
An ambush.
Every female had been noisy in their boisterous greetings to the great, grinning Lucia, physical in their handling and embraces. The chatter in Spanish had been animated, the women looking to Brenya, seemingly complaining to Lucia, back to Brenya.
And full of unspoken complaints. Many of them looked like they wanted to slap her even harder than Lucia had.
Yet it was Lucia who kept it civil.
“Ladies, this is our Commodorina, Brenya Havel. And we are here to serve her. Aren’t we, ladies? All queens need their court.” Spoken as the taller, far more social female pulled Brenya under her wing. “So we will start anew. After all, if we fight, they win. We cannot let them win,” said with a smirk, a knowing one.
And Brenya did not understand, nor did she grasp just why looking at the blonde who’d flirted with Jacques before they were even mated made her want to rip the woman’s hair out. “Them?”
“Jacques. Commodore Havel.” Explained without her regular disdain, blunt and a little threatening as Lucia narrowed her eyes. “Females organize and run society, Commodorina. Males see to the administration of it. Central grew so broken because Beta females cannot rule Alpha males. I’m not saying it’s not unfair; I’m merely stating facts. You cannot let the man walk all over you. We stand together, and they learn their place. Then… families thrive. Babies live. Everyone enjoys great sex. We are going to teach you this. No, don’t look at his creepy guards. They can tattle all they want. It won’t make a difference. And you will make Commodore Havel listen to you today. Yes?”
The black-clad guards who had been glued to her since she’d been dragged from the Red Room all stared forward as if deaf. But they were there. They were armed. And they were definitely listening.
And Brenya might have been inexperienced in a world of Lucias, but she was not stupid enough to fall for this. “No, Lucia.”
Jules would not take orders from her, and if Lucia thought he would, she was wrong.
A perfect black eyebrow arched, playful and inviting, challenge flashing as Lucia dipped her lashes. “Do you not enjoy sex, Brenya? I can teach you that too. I might as well, since I’m teaching Jacques.” A flirtatious shrug. “Why do you think I was the one chosen to partner your Alpha? Commodorina, I excel at sex. You do not.”