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“Why are they letting you do this?”
“I have claim, and they know it. None of us wants to go to war against one another. Emrys is an ass, but I have been given safe passage here. And Atlas, he is a scythkin. He is used to sharing with a brood.”
“He didn’t want to share before…”
“This is a smaller, proven group, I imagine. Sweet of you to consider your other mates’ feelings. You are worried about what they think, when it is your own tender body which is on the line.”
Kronos makes love sweetly and tenderly. He holds me close and he kisses me, and he treats me the way a woman should probably be treated in a universe where she is not a commodity being used for her body.
It is strange to be treated this way, especially when I know what darkness lurks in my blood, but I let him take me, because he owns me, and because Atlas and Emrys see fit to share me. Does he know that the spreading of my thighs comes at the behest of my dark masters? Does he know that his kindness is not nearly as much of an aphrodisiac as the fact that I have been sent off to be fucked?
There is something deeply twisted inside me, something shattered, like Emrys said. It was twisted a long time ago, though. I think I might even have been made wrong. Are all humans this way? I’ve never met another one. I wouldn’t know whether it is normal to cling to the handsome, attentive, beautiful body of a new lover and cast my mind to those who wait to ravage and defile me once he has done spending his hopeful seed inside my deceptive womb.
9 BRED
It is Atlas who eventually catches me out.
“There’s something odd about this human. She isn’t cycling. She should be coming into heat every thirty or so days, and she should be bleeding two weeks after that. Have any of you observed her heat cycle?”
My eyes fly open as I hear Atlas broach a topic of discussion I’d really rather he didn’t.
Their favorite topic of discussion is always me. Having me. Mating me. Using me. It hasn’t occurred to them that I’m not having periods, and I had deeply hoped that the topic would not come up.
“There is one good reason that might not be happening.” Emrys speaks, and I hope he says the first stupid thing in his life, but of course he doesn’t.
“What’s that?” Kronos asks the question with his usual open curiosity.
Emrys looks at me, his blood red eyes flashing. “She is already pregnant.”
My blood runs cold as the secret I have tried so very hard to keep is brought to brutal light with those four little words. I thought I had longer. I thought I had a chance to gain some strength and plot an actual escape. I thought…
“Human.”
Emrys says my species in that summoning tone, the one I can’t ignore. He and I are blood bound, connected like maker and fledgling. When he commands me, I must obey. I rise to my feet and pad toward him, wearing the bedding like a cloak that drags behind me.
Three pairs of alien eyes are upon me, but it is Emrys’ gaze that consumes me.
“Are you pregnant?”
I should say no. I want to say no. But I cannot lie to him. I am surprised I have managed to keep this secret a long as I have.
“Yes,” I admit in a soft voice.
This is the secret I have tried so hard to hide. This is the reason I wanted so very badly to escape my past, flee the Sheriff. This is why I could not submit to the scythkin’s mental maze or allow myself even to become the barbarian’s possession.
“Who is the father?”
“I got pregnant to a numahn,” I admit.
Emrys pauses for a moment. “Who?”
I don’t want to tell him. This is my greatest shame, and my greatest fear coming to pass in a single moment. This will not please any of my alien owners. They will be appalled. I am appalled. It is something I try very hard not to think about.
Tears start to flow down my cheeks in a slow cascade of misery. Suddenly, the slavery I was in just minutes ago now seems so much more wholesome and safe than this. I am not what they wanted. I am not empty and breedable. I am already used.
Strong arms wrap around me. Atlas has picked me up and is cradling me in his lap. “It does not matter what happened,” he says. “We will not be angry at you.”
I wish I could believe that, but I feel anger radiating from Emrys already. He is not pleased at this development, and I know Kronos must be disappointed as well. My entire purpose as far as he is concerned is continuing his bloodline. He can’t do that while I am pregnant. I can’t even look at him. I bury my face in the neck of Atlas’ incredibly realistic human suit and I breathe deep, trying to center myself.
