AllFreeNovel
Share Us
But my mate was not the issue at hand. “Maeve, listen to me. Everything I am about to teach you is vitally important. And you cannot tell a soul. I mean that. Please, hear me out completely, and hate me all you will, but you and I have an opportunity to enact change hybrid women need. The kind of change you have dreamed about.” I was going to break her heart with the next ugly truth, but she had to know. “Understand, this might be the only change you may ever have power to enact.”
Her eyes were wide, and she looked very unsettled. Petite, cute, upturned nose, and vibrant eyes, she composed herself, then said, “Tell me.”
“Unmated females do not exist outside the academy.” They didn’t exist, and she would never have her dream. I needed her to understand that first, trying to speak with kindness. “What we were led to believe is not true. The opportunity of the list is only if a girl wants to graduate sooner… and make herself available to whoever is highest ranking and hears her song. There will be no future in politics, not with the world the way it is now… and your mate may not be able to think clearly for a few decades at least after he claims you. You will be able to do nothing without his support. The large man who kissed you at the bar, his name is General Thayer. The only reason I am permitted to speak to you is because he is allowing it. Your future mating is registered and publicly acknowledged. He can come take you at any moment he wishes.”
Her brain seemed stuck, my friend sorting through her memories of what happened at The Fog. Unbelieving, jaw loose, she asked, “That beast is a general?”
There was no changing that fact. “Yes, a powerful general. When I made it to this office that night, he was already here to collect you. We argued… and circumstance forced him to wait. And, he has chosen to wait now so that we can have this conversation, but he could come through that door at any moment and take you away. Mated males will not stop him, and he is stronger than me.”
“But—”
I needed her to listen, so I cut her off, “He wants to court you, so that you won’t be afraid. Because… most females, if not all, who are taken are so inexperienced with men that the process of—” What were the words for such a thing? “—mating is painful and, um, frightening. But it doesn't have to be.”
“You’re saying I have to be a mate, even if I don’t want to?” Releasing a long breath and smoothing back the blonde curls trapped in a bun, she snarled, “You have got to be kidding me. Do you have any idea how hard I’ve worked? Why would they lie to us?”
I knew exactly how she felt—the injustice of it, the rage. Watching her vent was like watching a recording of myself, all the same disappointments, all the uncertainty. “To teach us how to defend ourselves, to keep us distracted, to keep us alive.”
The look on her face was one of utter distrust. “What were these circumstances that forced General Thayer to leave the night he heard my song?”
There was no point in keeping any secrets from my friend. “Cyderial was very angry I had gone into the city, that I risked my safety and potentially jeopardized his ability to claim me. He’d already waited ten years for me to grow up and choose the list, denied my graduation, and forced me to become an assistant instructor. I upset his strategy and exposed myself to the general population.”
And two males had been pounding on the gates of the academy.
Trying to maintain my poise, I confessed, “To assure I could not get away until he was done, he put the academy into lockdown. Because Thayer was in the room when I barged in, your future mate witnessed something that night that is unheard of in our community. He saw Cyderial and realized he was a man who had heard the song, known its madness, yet waited for a young girl’s benefit for ten years. It would seem hybrid males didn’t know it was possible to resist the lure of the song for so long.
“Cyderial’s composure inspired General Thayer to offer you the same generous consideration… as long as he could bear it. But he is not Cyderial, and I doubt he will be able to keep away for much longer. The man believes himself very much in love with you. And is allowing me to speak with you about forbidden topics as a gift to you.” And though it was the ugliest of gifts, it still was such a boon. “For all I know, he’s waiting at the gates right now.”
Horrified, she pressed her fingers to her mouth. “Oh my God!”
I needed her to understand that speaking with me was not a curse. So I reached for her hands and earnestly held them in mine. “You will be the first unmated female to be told the truth about what life is really like outside these walls, Maeve. Important men are watching. All of this is a test. How you react will either invoke positive change that allows unmated females to have access to this information, or the unfair system will stay in place. Which means your sisters, our friends, will be taken against their will in due time and bonded to strangers, if you do not willingly submit to Thayer. They will go into those overwhelming meetings with no clue of what is taking place or why. You need to remember that, if you think to run away or make a choice to resist. The consequences are bigger than you.”
Betrayal was open in her appalled stare. “How could you do this to me?”
I understood every bit of horror she felt. All of it. “Life for newly mated females can include years of incarceration in the male’s home. He can take you away from all other contact and make you do things. So please, understand I am trying to help you avoid a horrible fate. And it's not just you. Agnes, Tamsyn… everyone who gets locked inside the vault each night will face the same. All the unborn girls who will be forced to come here. This is so much bigger than either of us.”
Her fear grew nuanced by anger, but Maeve held a semblance of control. Because she was so much more adaptive and wonderful than I could’ve ever hoped to be. “You said you had to barter to gain access to me. What did you exchange for this conversation?”
“Thayer wants you, and in wanting you, he desires your happiness. He is taking a risk in this, as other influential unmated generals do not see a point in empowering unmated females. It is easier for them to just take control of us if we are unprepared.” I was desperate, body scooting toward the edge of my seat so I might lean closer and spill every secret I might think of. “And you need to understand that a male who has heard your song can, in fact, control you. They can make you receptive, make you docile, make you submit.”
“What did you exchange, Lorieyn?” Maeve wasn’t looking for circumspect answers; she wanted hard facts.
She was going to hate me when she knew, but still, I confessed it all.“My genetics are unusual, and many of the oldest males have not heard a song in centuries. They want my daughters.”
Rising from her chair, she snarled, “You can’t do that!”
“If your mating with General Thayer goes well, and you find it in your ability to tolerate his enthusiasm, the next step in acquiring the support of the males would be my pregnancy. That is what they demand in order to consider change.”
With greater force, she said it again, “You cannot give the academy a daughter, Lorieyn.”
“I don’t have a choice! Nothing will alter for us if I do not wield what little power I have.” Knocking a fist against my breast, I spat, “You think I want to wear this uniform? Our options do not exist the way the world is now. You can’t even begin to understand what it’s like out there! You have more power than you realize, if you submit.”
She cut me to the core with one look. “How dare you!”
Hands before me, I apologized with my eyes. “If you submit and your mating goes well, I may be allowed to teach every unmated female the truth of their bodies and the secrets of what being bonded really is.”
Hissing, she turned her green eyes on me. “What is so damn secret?”
“It’s an addiction, one that will tie you to General Thayer for the rest of your life. If not him, then someone else who might not be as considerate. Regardless of who it is, if males can hear our song and claim us as their own, we will be chemically dependent on them. Or we suffer and die of fever. They call it ‘heat.’”
