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“That’s your past hurt talking,” Kronos says. “Atlas, Emrys, and I adore you.”
“Emrys does not adore me,” I laugh. “That’s why Atlas beat him. If he is not under threat of imminent physical destruction, he’d treat me like a farm animal and breed me until he got what he wanted.”
“He already has what he needs from you. You have completed the homecoming ritual together. That was all he really needed, but he still wants you. Each of us would do anything to have you to ourselves, but we have agreed to share you because the alternative is killing one another. We want you. We want you for our own. We want you to bear our babies. We want you in every way it is possible to want someone.” Kronos stops me for a moment, crooking a finger underneath my chin and tipping my head back a little so he can look down into my eyes. What he says next makes me bubble with intense feelings. “There is absolutely nothing you could ever do to change that.”
“I don’t believe you,” I whisper.
“I know,” he says, his eyes creased with kindness. “But you will. Give them a chance. Or give one of them a chance. Or give both of them a chance.”
“Feels like you really want me to give them a chance,” I smirk.
“I do,” he says, swinging me up and onto his back where I cling like a monkey as he carries me down the rough scree of the volcanic slope as surely as a mule. I think about what he said as we go down, wondering what would happen if they knew.
I come to the conclusion that there’s nothing to really lose. Emrys is going to be an ass no matter what, and Atlas, well, I find him hard to read. He’s more like Kronos, but with some kind of… I don’t know. You can’t forget when a man, even a handsome one who will defend your honor with his blade-sharp fists, tells you his ideal plan for you is to imprison you in a simulation designed to control you for the rest of your existence.
We return to the suite we are sharing. Emrys has been patched up to an extent, and Atlas has a new handsome suit on, and the general vibe of the men is welcoming.
“Maybe I could tell them?” I whisper the half-question to Kronos as I slide down off his back.
“Maybe you could,” he says, drawing me around the front of him.
“You can tell us what happened,” Kronos says, running his hands over my shoulders. “You can tell us anything. None of us will judge you.”
I feel as though I can hear Emrys’ disdain, but he is not making a single sound. He still looks pretty bruised up from the beating Atlas gave him. Maybe he’s going to keep his mouth shut. Maybe not.
“I really don’t want to say.”
“Then do not say,” Emrys says. “You don’t have to say anything. Just have a baby and tell us it is ours, and we will take care of the bloodthirsty little thing no matter where it came from. That thing is going to be linked to me regardless. It might have come from another male, but it was made by me.”
“But it wasn’t. It was made by…. Sheriff.”
Atlas and Emrys stare at me.
“How is that possible?” Atlas asks the question in very reasonable tones.
“About twenty years ago, he was a soldier. He was part of a unit that attacked our colony…”
“I fail to see how that could lead to conception…” Emrys’ muttered words are cut short by a look from Atlas.
Flashback…
I am small and scared. Explosions have been going off around me for so many days I can no longer trust silence. I am used to the world vibrating and crumbling around me. Buildings aren’t solid objects anymore. I’ve seen too many of them crumble into dust to see them as permanent structures.
Everything has been taken from me. My father died first, when the numahn invasion began. He went to try to repel the aliens and from what we hear he acquitted himself bravely before he was destroyed. My mother was killed while trying to get food from one of the aid vehicles. I have survived by scavenging in the dead of night, but food is getting harder and harder to find. And now the numahns are coming through on foot, killing everything that moves.
I hide among the dead, but I am not good enough at hiding. I can hear a soldier getting closer and closer. I am trembling from head to toe, so scared that my teeth are chattering.
A big hand pushes through the dead, takes hold of me, and pulls me free. He lifts me up like a pathetic little animal and inspects me. I stare at him with terrified eyes. He is so big. He is armored. I cannot see his face because there’s a mask in the way.
I just know he is going to kill me. I have seen soldiers just like this one kill others just like me. My youth and weakness and vulnerability will not save me. I hope it will be quick, but the way he is dangling me from my bloodied rags makes me think it will not be. The stench of death clings to me, and though I am too young to understand it, I yearn for it.
Three other soldiers come up behind him, flanking him. He swings me around and hands me to one of them.
“Clean her up and give her to the woman,” he says. “She’s small and pathetic. Matise will enjoy her.”
“Iwas given to his mistress,” I explain. “She had wanted to have a baby, but he couldn’t risk having one with her because he was already married. Numahns do not tolerate infidelity in any form. The penalty is death.”
“Why was he still alive then?”
