Total pages in book: 83
Estimated words: 76857 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 384(@200wpm)___ 307(@250wpm)___ 256(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 76857 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 384(@200wpm)___ 307(@250wpm)___ 256(@300wpm)
Her implication was grotesque. “What you are asking me to do is obscene! I am expected to sacrifice everything I ever wanted?”
Cupping my cheek, Miranda looked upon me with compassion. “It’s a hard lesson for all of us to learn. Who we were before we were mated no longer applies. You will find new achievements to pursue. Someday, you may find a great joy in motherhood.”
Not one ally stood in my corner.
I may have come across forceful, but I was very much afraid when I snarled, “Get out!”
My face must have been awash with betrayal, for her final words to me were soft. “There is nothing to prevent him from locking you in this fine house forever. No one, human nor hybrid, will go against his wishes. Remember that the next time you feel an urge to break a plate.”
20
Cyderial came for me not long after Miranda abandoned me to my fate. Thoughts congested with her poison, I didn’t even think to respond to his approach.
Submerged and naked, my knees pulled up under my chin, I felt like the last problem I needed to worry about at that moment was my nudity before the man.
Far weightier issues were at hand.
He held out a stemmed glass of golden liquid, the crystal steaming once held over my bath. Stern, he said, “I want to caution you. Wine is an intoxicant. Miranda’s motivation in suggesting it wasn’t purely for your benefit.”
Nothing that ancient hybrid woman came to share had been purely for my benefit.
Lifting my arm from the water, wet fingers gingerly pinched the stem before I accepted the glass. It smelled floral and syrupy, appeared thicker than water, yet light. Unsure if I wanted to drink the poison or pour it out, I asked, “And if I drink it, what will happen?”
He took a seat beside the tub, observing me observing the wine. “You may be more inclined to my attentions.”
“But you can make me want you anyway.” And that was the hard truth. So, what did it matter at all?
“Lorieyn, I overreacted.” Elbows to his knees, he leaned closer. “There is so much about this world that you do not understand, and I am unaccustomed to speaking with women in a personal way. The subtleties of female emotional connections contradict the black-and-white of male thinking. In my view, your mother is a woman who gave you away for personal benefit. To you, she was a loving caregiver who did what she thought would be best for a child she had formed an attachment to. Perhaps neither of us are wrong.”
Blinking up at him, I said nothing.
After a sigh, he added, “I want to take you into the city, but I cannot do so….”
Here we go.
This was where he’d tell me I would be locked in his home for a decade. Eyes already welling, my lip shook.
“I cannot risk your safety," he said, starting again, “if you are not aware of the dangers. I am also not foolish enough to assume you won’t try to run. The city is not safe. It is full of humans who would do you harm.”
Perhaps I should drink the wine, inebriate my brain right out of the crushing anxiety. “Run? Where would I go? There is no place for me anywhere.”
The tips of his fingers dancing atop the water, he sighed. “Humans may try to deceive you. Tell you there are ways you could be free of me. Can I trust you not to believe them?”
“You want me to trust you, when you have misled and deceived me my whole life? I don’t know anything about you. I don’t know anything about myself. Right now, I feel very unsafe.” Every last word true, I felt sadness oozing out my pores. “I’m scared.”
“We will take it one day at a time. Maybe even hour by hour.” The general’s thumb came to wipe a tear from my cheek. “Let me earn your trust.”
I wanted to pull away from his touch almost as badly as I wanted to lean into it. Desperate for any form of comfort, even if it came from him, I asked, “How?”
His hand dipped lower, a featherlight touch tracing down my throat. “We mate and get it over with. You will find that the sky is not going to fall and that there is nothing to fear about my body nor yours. The heat will completely subside, and you will feel much better.”
“But for how long?” Because the heat would come back… forever.
Another one of those unusual, careful smiles. “We take it one minute at a time and see.”
“I want to eat first.”
His smile grew warmer. “Of course.”
Already breathing faster, I added, “And I reserve the right to change my mind.”
Standing slowly, he looked at me fondly. “I will leave you to finish your bath. Dinner will be waiting.”