Total pages in book: 70
Estimated words: 65151 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 326(@200wpm)___ 261(@250wpm)___ 217(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 65151 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 326(@200wpm)___ 261(@250wpm)___ 217(@300wpm)
Yanking her arm free at last, Brenya snarled, “What are you talking about?”
“I’m talking about the Beta workers in Central. Jules freed them and moved them back to Beta Sector, where it is now a disorganized mess. No one knows what to do with them, and the Beta males are not looking for free blowjobs they keep trying to offer. That is all they were trained for. I’m talking about the Omegas that came here with me and have suffered this whole time because you won’t get your Alpha in line. I’m talking about the uncounted women who were dumped in Central this morning to be picked off by whoever got to them first. Do you know nothing about what’s going on outside?”
A tiny series of head shakes, Brenya intimidated and unsure why she felt deeply chastised.
Shrill, Lucia demanded to know, “What have you been doing all these weeks?”
Dumbfounded, Brenya muttered, “Building a clock.”
The slap to her cheek came hard. Brenya having never been struck in her life.
Lucia was incensed, showing her teeth and disregarding the soldiers who barked out a warning that she would be punished. “Building a clock? You should be ashamed of yourself! My baby is in danger. My people are abused. Your people are abused… and you are playing with your weird toys? That disgraceful behavior ends today. You will dress appropriately every time I see you. You will conduct yourself like a queen. And if you don’t know what to do in a social situation, you defer to me and follow my lead. My daughter will be born, and she will have a chance to live.”
Hand pressed to her stinging cheek, Brenya was more in shock than anything. “Aren’t you afraid of him?”
The him in question was not Jacques Bernard.
“I don’t have time to be afraid. My child is at risk every second this Dome is unstable. Soon enough, you’ll be pregnant too. Yes, gawk at me like a fish all you like. Wait and see. There will be a war for your womb, so be prepared to choose which male will father your firstborn now and live with the consequences.”
“Jacques cannot get out of that prison cell. Jules promised me—”
“Jules might have the threat of the virus, but he does not have the support of the Dome or nearly enough men to hold it. We all know he would not put the mate he is so obsessed with at risk by releasing Red Consumption. So, either you convince Beta Sector to back Havel, you win over the Omegas, and thereby influence their mates, or get ready to learn how to properly take a knot and a belly full of Alpha sperm. By your next estrus, the final leader of Bernard Dome will be decided. So, you can go make your stupid clocks, or you can save your people from an avoidable catastrophe.”
12
The show was over, Jules sitting back in his chair and unbuttoning the top button of his bloodied black shirt. Rolling up his shirtsleeves, crossing his ankle over his knee. Smirking.
Diabolical.
Making himself comfortable.
“It feels different.” Running his fingers through his short, dark hair, Jules hummed, thinking of his Brenya. “This consuming desire I have for that female. I loved Rebecca from the moment I saw her, and built my life around that woman. Every choice tailored to what she might need or crave. Before I shot her in the face”—said with nonchalance, Jules reaching for his water glass to take a sip—“I believed nothing could eclipse what I felt for my first wife. But one look at Brenya and I felt more.”
Pacing the length of his cage, the overturned table ignored, Jacques froze. “What the fuck did you just say?”
Jules observed him for a beat, giving space for the horror to grow. “I said I shot Rebecca in the face.”
And this, this, scared the Alpha in a way no other of Jules’s torments had.
There was shock in Jacques’s expression, quickly hidden, veiled fear Bernard Alphas were not allowed to know. The kind of fear beaten out of boys until they became men like him. “You lie.”
“It’s scary, isn’t it?” Jules tipped his head a fraction, inviting an answer. “Tell me, Jacques Bernard, what could drive a man like me to kill the woman he loved? To see her on her knees, begging for mercy… and I give it to her?”
“You can’t hurt Brenya! I made sure of that when I let you inside her. I won that day!” But he wasn’t so sure. Jacques Bernard was doubting, fidgeting with his sleeve, as he added, “Sick as you are, you can’t hurt my female.”
“But think back. Think of the bruises you gave her. The way you ripped her vagina with your cock and that machine. The pain she felt when you sodomized her. You hurt her every day, and we are operating under the same bond.” To emphasize the point, Jules tapped the table. “So, yes, I could hurt her.”