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 watch as he pulls at a blanket, tearing it in half. “Come here,” he says. “This will be something to start with. We won’t be down here too long. I can guarantee you Thorn won’t tolerate his precious historic city being fired upon like this.”
He wraps the sheet around me, giving me modesty, if not true clothing. The absence of attire is just one problem in this saurian world, but it is one that reminds me just how far I am from anything that could be considered home.
“I wish I had a suit, like the others,” I say. “But they never gave me one. I wasn’t really part of the crew.”
That’s my very mild and only slightly bitter way of saying I’m not surprised Lettie just tried to kill me. They’ve never really cared about me. Sullivan did, until I was good and rescued and then she forgot about me. She liked the thrill of helping me when I was in need, but once I was on the ship I may as well have stopped existing. It’s easier to fall through the cracks than people think. I bet there’s plenty of crew on the Mare who wouldn’t know who I was if they fell over me. Or if they found my steaming bones in a crater on an alien planet.
“What was it you were saying back in my room?”
I should be more careful about what I say. And I should be more careful about the tone Wrath is using. It’s almost casual, and it lulls me into a sort of shell-shocked half-thought response.
“Which part? We were being shelled.”
“The part where you said you didn’t mind if you didn’t make it out.”
“Oh. That part.”
“Yes,” he says, grimly. “That part.”
“I didn’t want you to be hurt. It wasn’t worth it. The people down here need you. You’re important. I’m not. And once they hit me and got the tracker, they wouldn’t know where you were anymore. You’d be saved. That’s what mattered.”
“You matter, Allie,” he says. “You matter as much as any of us.”
“That’s not true. I’m a… I’m nothing. I’m a charity case, and I know you feel sorry for me, but I don’t actually matter. I am okay with that.”
My ass suddenly hurts. A lot. It takes me a second to realize that’s because he just spanked me hard. He has me by one arm, and he is keeping me in place so he can do it again if he deems it necessary.
I gasp, staring at him with wide eyes that instantly fill with tears.
“Do not speak about yourself that way again. Ever.” He is stern and gruff, and his bright green eyes bore into me with an intensity that tells me I will suffer if I do.
“I’m sorry,” I squeak.
Wrath
She hasn’t learned her lesson. She’s just afraid of me and what I might do if I punish her. That will at least break the habit of saying such things out loud, but it won’t change the thoughts that created the words.
I am going to have to do some work with this human.
Fortunately, I have time, because I am almost certain that the near incessant bombardment from above has blocked the exit. This, I do not intend to tell Allie. I do not want her to panic. There are stores down here that will last for a while, and I believe Zin and the others will work to restore oxygen supply. There is nothing to do but remain calm and instruct my human in the ways in which she will conduct herself.
“You are mine, and that makes you special. I will not tolerate you speaking about yourself in any way that degrades you. If I hear anything of the kind coming out of your mouth again, you will be in pain.”
“I’m sorry,” she squeaks. “I didn’t know that I was yours. Of course you are special, and anything you have is special.”
That’s not quite the message I tried to impart, but I suppose it is what I said.
“You are special in your own right.”
I see an expression of clear doubt in her eyes, but she doesn’t dare question me. I just smacked her for daring to say otherwise, and she obviously does not have much of a taste for disobedience or punishment. Again, quite a difference between her and her other humans. The others I have known seem to have a taste for pain.
“You are,” I repeat the two words.
“Yes, sir, of course, sir,” she says. I am doing nothing to make her feel special simply by demanding she feel special.
“The fact that I chose you for my own should suggest that, no? Do you think I choose anybody?”
“I think I am one of the few humans who has not already been claimed. That’s what Lettie was banking on. That and my long blonde hair and my big…” She blushes and trails off.