Total pages in book: 47
Estimated words: 43912 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 220(@200wpm)___ 176(@250wpm)___ 146(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 43912 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 220(@200wpm)___ 176(@250wpm)___ 146(@300wpm)
“Oh, so I’m not going to parent these guys so much as my kids are going to wriggle around here until they spin themselves into sacks and then emerge not knowing me at all?”
“They’ll have genetic memories of you, and there will be no doubt that they are of you. I hope they have your beautiful coloring, your bravery, your self-possession. Your ability to act in the face of danger, and to adapt to strange circumstances and times. You are quite a specimen, Sally.”
“Ugh. Not my name. Call me anything besides that name.”
“What if I were to call you my wife?”
There is a sweetness to the request that my New York attitude compels me to reject.
“Are you serious? You abducted me and implanted your seed in me. You had me bear your young, and even now, I am chained in the basement of your lair. These are not the circumstances of a wedding proposal.”
“Fair enough,” he laughs. “You’re right. Besides. What difference does it make, really. You are mine, ring or not, ceremony or not. You are the mother of my young.”
Fuck me. That is true. I am the mother of his young. He has hijacked my genetic material and used my womb and he has reproduced with me none the wiser until it was far too late. I have been violated.
“How did this happen so quickly? Does it happen every time we, you know…”
“You must have been ovulating when we first mated. My seed finds the human female egg, changes the way the cell divides, and in most cases, causes a duplication or triplication. You were very receptive to my seed. You are a natural mate for me. We will breed hundreds, perhaps thousands of heroes.” His red eyes gleam with excitement. “You and I will make this broken world whole again.”
“I am not going to pump out mutant babies for you, Justice.”
“Are you sure about that, mother of heroes?” He smiles at me. “You birthed them so easily and so naturally. You have provided the vault with the first new eggs in many years. The future lies between your thighs.”
This is flattering, and strange, and terrifying, and disgusting, and sweet, and wrong. It is so many things. None of them make sense or are easy to come to terms with. I thought I was the captive of a mutant monster, but I am more than that. I seem to be the first person to ever create a sexual alliance with one of these creatures. Justice loves me in his very own twisted way. He has chosen to procreate with me. He has made me his mate.
“You will see soon enough,” he says. “This is the future you have chosen, whether you understand it or not, whether you know it or not, this is the path of your happiness. Together, you and I will build a life and a family. Now. Rest. You will need it. Laying eggs takes great energy.”
Maybe that is why I am not freaking out. Maybe I am just too tired. Maybe I don’t have the energy to fight this oddness. Maybe it feels intimate, sweet, and perhaps even loving.
Maybe it does. For an hour. But not two. I wake with the knowledge that it is daylight outside. I am naked and I am aching. I no longer feel whatever hormonal influence made me so calm during the laying of the eggs. Justice has moved away from me in our sleep, and he has wrapped himself around them.
Justice is cute when he is dormant. He almost looks human, but for those large wings of his, now spread out in a protective span over his clutch. I made him a father last night, but he did not make me anything more than a prisoner. No matter how sweet he is in his sleeping state, I cannot pretend I matter. We have known one another for a matter of days, and in that time he has used me as a thing, treated me as a pawn, and finally turned me into his captive.
He made a mistake when he used my own cuffs on me. I know how to get out of my own cuffs. I don’t even need a tool. I can snap out of them with a series of quick motions, and I do.
I pull my clothes back on and make my way out of the facility. There’s nobody to stop me. I walk up and out of the vault without a moment’s hesitation. I refuse to feel guilty for this decision and these actions. Justice will be hurt, but he never cared about my feelings, and therefore I cannot afford to care about his.
The truck has been unloaded, but it remains where it was. I don’t know what they did with what is left of Rage, and I do not care. I want out of here. I want to put this entire creepy fucking interlude behind me.