Total pages in book: 121
Estimated words: 114617 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 573(@200wpm)___ 458(@250wpm)___ 382(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 114617 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 573(@200wpm)___ 458(@250wpm)___ 382(@300wpm)
“No, Badr. No,” I whispered, slowly shaking my head. “Anyone that twisted and evil doesn’t deserve to lead my people. They don’t deserve to live. All Castor wanted was for Lucia to hide us, and for the lost packs to welcome fleeing omegas when the time came—”
“Us?”
“But I had a better idea.” I closed the distance. Even though Badr was up and out of my reach, he backed away from me and the look in my eyes. “If the council wants a throne of corpses, I’d fashion it out of their fucking bones and sit on it myself. If they want a war, they’ll get that too.”
“Volana, who is us?”
“I’ll raise an army that they’ll never see coming. An army of the lost, underestimated, and betrayed. We’ll slaughter the unlucky where they stand, and silence the ones on their knees.”
“Volana!”
“I will kill everyone—everyone!—who’s a threat to her. Everyone who dares to look at her and only see what they can take,” I shrieked. “Anyone who dares to make this world unsafe for her, they’re going to fucking die, Tahan, because it’s only after they do that I can look his daughter in the eyes and tell her that her father died for a reason.”
“Whose daughter?!”
“Castor’s daughter!” I punched the dirt. “My daughter! The one I was carrying the night we all met on that rock. The baby that was born six months ago with all the powers that named my vision as horribly, terribly true. And the reason that I only have three more months before the other babies of the new generation start being born... and Project Destiny begins.”
“No,” Badr cried, clutching his head and pacing up and down. “No! Now I know you’re lying because that’s not possible. There’s no way we have a daughter. There’s no way!”
Even though the dislike between me and Badr was very mutual, I could admit it did funny things to my chest to hear him say “we” and claim my baby as his own. “Why do you think I had to stay away for so long? The strongest weapon I have against the council right now is that they believe they still need me to complete the bonds for their plans to go ahead.”
Badr was dazed. I left him way behind in the conversation. “Where?” he whispered. “Where’s the baby?”
“She’s safe with Lucia.”
That snapped him out of it. “Lucia? The fucking vampire! You left our daughter with a leech?”
“I left her in the safest place in the world for her right now. Lucia will protect Hope with her life.”
“But you— No. No!” he sliced, cutting himself off. “I’m not buying into this. It doesn’t make sense that you could have a baby out there with all of our powers when most of our bonds are incomplete. This is just more lies.”
“No, it’s not, Badr, because it makes sense when you consider how strange it is that it’s been a year but our bonds haven’t degraded a fraction,” I said. “It’s because I did something even more important than boinking my fates on a rock. I gave birth to one of their babies.” I shook my head. “We’ve done the ceremony the same way for thousands of years. No one knew there were other ways to consummate the bond.
“But the hows and whys don’t matter. All that matters is that she’s here, and the next generation is coming with all the powers the council is eager to get their hands on. I’ve got three months to bring down a nation that’s stood unchallenged since the dawn of time, so now’s the time you get me out of this hole, Tahan, because I’ve got so many people to kill in so little time.” I held out my hand. “You want to be my ally? You want to continue the fight your brother died for? Prove it. Get me out of here, get me to a doctor, and then get out of my way.”