Total pages in book: 60
Estimated words: 56021 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 280(@200wpm)___ 224(@250wpm)___ 187(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 56021 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 280(@200wpm)___ 224(@250wpm)___ 187(@300wpm)
“I am not desperate to be mated. I don’t want to be mated at all.”
“Don’t worry about that. You won’t be interfered with here,” Vulcan says. “Adaine would have the appendage of any male who tried to touch a female against her will.”
“Is Adaine your older sister? You seem to respect her a lot.”
“Adaine is much older than either Vendis or me, by more than a decade. She was taught the secrets of the forge by our father. There are some things only she knows. Nobody would dare cross Adaine. Not Alpha Thorn, not Wrath. Not anybody. Some would say she’s the real alpha of the city. She controls the steel. She says who is able to undertake construction, and who is not. You won’t see her flashing her power about, but she has a great deal of it.”
Vulcan speaks with obvious pride as he describes his sister’s position in saurian society.
I am impressed, both with Adaine’s status, but also with the fact that I seem to have gathered some information nobody else has ever managed to gain. We’ve been thinking it is all about the males of this society. The alphas. The dominants. The ones with the dicks. We’ve ignored the women entirely. We’ve acted as if they don’t exist. But not only do they very much exist, they might even hold the key to getting us the hell out of here.
I am taken into an old kitchen made of hand-hewn stone, and I am fed.
“I hope you like meat,” Vulcan says. “We’ve a lot of it.”
“Yes, thank you.”
I don’t like meat at all, but I am a beggar and we do not choose. I would never have the nerve to turn down food or ask for something other than what is being offered. It would seem rude and presumptuous.
“Good,” he says, ladling what looks like stew into a bowl.
He gives me a portion so large there is no way I could ever eat it. The bowl is as big as my head and filled to the brim with this rich smelling concoction. He then hands me an equally outsized spoon, which I can only grasp by fisting.
“Mmm,” I say as I stir the broth with the large chunks of whatever animal the meat came from. “This looks delicious. Thank you so much.”
Vulcan watches me pick through the pieces of well-cooked meat, pulling out the occasional bit of vegetable that sneaked into the stew.
“You don’t like meat,” he concludes, less than a minute after I started pretending to eat.
“I love meat,” I say. “I’m sorry. I don’t. It’s just…”
“It’s okay if you do not want meat,” he says, slightly perplexed. “I do not want to feed you something that will not agree with you.”
He takes the bowl back and proceeds to make me a salad, using a very large, very sharp knife that turns all manner of local plant matter into a highly chopped dish topped with a light sauce.
This, I eat with real enjoyment.
“You are spoiling me,” I say. “I appreciate this so much, I cannot tell you. It has been such a long time since I was fed by anybody.”
“No? Why is that?”
“I cooked for myself on the ship. And for everybody else, I suppose.”
“So you were the ship’s chef?”
“I was the cleaner and the cook and whatever else they needed. I did the laundry, and I made sure Captain Sullivan’s boots were shined, and I cleaned Raine’s weaponry. I did everything they needed me to do.”
“Interesting,” Vulcan comments. “So you were a servant?”
“Not technically. I was crew, but not the kind of crew that does crime or gets respect, I guess. I had to pay my way one way or another. I didn’t mind. I was good at it. I was better at cooking and cleaning than I was at piracy anyway.”
“Did you try piracy?”
“No.”
Vulcan snorts with laughter. “You are quite an adorable creature,” he says. “I think you will fit in well here. My sister will have plenty of uses for you. You will not find it hard to find things to do.”
Vendis appears with a set of small black robes. “This is the best I could find,” he says. “It’s too small for most of the workers, so it’s not been worn, but I don’t know if it will work on the human’s body.”
I take it from him with another murmur of thanks and practically dive into the oversize garment. I have wanted nothing more than to cover my body since I was forced to wear that crazy spandex outfit.
“Thank you so much. This is so much better,” I say, wrapping it tightly around my body. I am now covered in fabric from the bottom of my chin to past my toes. It is the best, coziest, snuggliest feeling in this world, or any other.