Total pages in book: 86
Estimated words: 80439 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 402(@200wpm)___ 322(@250wpm)___ 268(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 80439 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 402(@200wpm)___ 322(@250wpm)___ 268(@300wpm)
With everything ready to go, Drako, Thor, and I stand together alone. We have all lost our homes, our families, our crews. We are orphans on a harsh world that has the sole intention of killing us. Everywhere I look it feels like something is waiting to consume me.
I glance over at the two men by my side. Thor is to the left. His gaze is set to the sky, which reflects his eyes. He looks hopeful, which seems wild to me given our circumstances. He believes we are going to be saved at any moment, because that’s what he’d do.
Drako is to the right. His gaze is on the path before us. His jaw is tight, slightly gritted. I don’t think he’s angry. I think he is preparing himself for a fight. They are such different men, and I do not know how we are all going to survive together.
My body aches from the way they handled me. The passion of the fire in the dark has given way to a morning that is less overtly intense. Thor is definitely more sexually protective of me now, but he made rough use of me last night. They shared me. They got along while they were inside me. I feel a little like I am the connection between them.
“I have one thing to say before we set off,” Thor says. “Drako, if you hurt Selene, I will flay some part of you. I am not going to kill you, because we are going to need many hands for survival. But I will do things to you that you will forever regret.”
It is such a brutal, terrible threat, and it is given in such a casual way I almost don’t understand it at first. Then I think about flaying, and what that entails, and how it would to be left alive after it, and I cringe quite visibly.
Drako laughs. He is completely unperturbed. Maybe he doesn’t believe Thor. I do. There’s a certainty in the way he speaks that makes me think he means every single word.
“If you tried to hurt me, I would kill you,” Drako says. “I wouldn’t bother with the theatrics and the torture.”
“And then you would be left alone with this one,” Thor says. “And you are not prepared for that. She would ruin you.”
“She could try.”
“You are not understanding me. She would kill you. When there are only two people trying to survive a hostile world, and one of them doesn’t care what happens to her, the one who cares, dies.”
Drako looks like he doubts me. “A female, properly handled, will be obedient.”
“That is patently not true. That has never been true. That is why men fail with women constantly,” Thor says. “Women do not follow orders, and they rarely, if ever, submit.”
“To you, perhaps,” Drako laughs.
“Just let me stab him a little,” I beg. “Let me cut something off, at least.”
Thor sighs. Drako chuckles.
We embark on our ill-advised adventure.
We start walking, and as we do, we realize we don’t know where we are going. So then we stop. This is already very much not feeling like an organized expedition. There were times I followed goats for miles with more of a sense that they knew what they were doing than what we have any fucking notion of what to do next.
“Where are we going?” Thor asks the question none of us really want to answer.
“The horde will be on us if we are not careful. They generally prefer dead flesh, but they are also partial to living prey if it is available,” Drako says. “Any motion is good motion.”
“The fact that they exist means there are frequent mass death events on this world to allow an entire scavenger species to evolve,” Thor says. He is so smart, and what he’s realizing is horrific. I bet he’s been thinking about it since he woke up.
“We need to be careful,” he says. “What could be killing entire herds of animals regularly? Not a typical predator. Could be something else. Gas clouds, perhaps. Something that’s released or strikes… A virus, perhaps? Or a plague of small flies spreading bacteria?”
Drako shrugs. He doesn’t care about the reason for any of these things, clearly. He is all action and little thought. Big dumb hot dummy.
I wish I could say he looks like shit, but narrowly escaping death has done nothing but make him somehow more attractive. Scrapes and scars only ever improve men because they indicate survival.
Women aren’t supposed to get scarred up, because we are supposed to be protected.
I look at Thor, and at Drako, and I realize again, deeply, all the way to my gut, that these are the only two men here to help save me. Then I snort to myself at the concept of being saved by either of these two. Drako wanted to turn me into his slave. Thor turned me over to the captain. He rescued me once or twice too. He’s hard to predict. I have to treat them both like they’re not going to do shit for me. I am going to look out for myself.