Total pages in book: 60
Estimated words: 56021 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 280(@200wpm)___ 224(@250wpm)___ 187(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 56021 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 280(@200wpm)___ 224(@250wpm)___ 187(@300wpm)
“I don’t want to be here,” I add quickly. “I was dropped down here. I don’t want to cause trouble. I don’t want to get captured and turned into a…” I trail off, not knowing how to express the many things I don’t want in a way that won’t be offensive. Maybe she thinks being a mate is the height of all honors or something like that — though I doubt it. Nobody who wears a coat that cool belongs to a male of any kind.
She looks at me, and I see an expression on her saurian face that I’ve seen on human faces before. It’s a sort of long-suffering resignation as someone realizes they’re going to have to deal with me even though they have next to no interest in doing so.
“It’s okay, you can walk away like the others did. I’ll find somewhere to hide. I won’t tell anyone you saw me.”
“Stop babbling, child,” she says, her voice rasping with impatience.
“I’m not a child. I’m twenty-four…”
She gives me a look that makes me stop telling her my age. I think I could tell her I was eighty-four and she would still call me a child.
“Get up,” she says.
When I do not move immediately, she reaches down, picks me up as if I weigh nothing, and hides me under her cloak.
I think I’m being abducted. I should probably do something about this. Fight, maybe, or at the very least, complain. I do none of those things.
She hustles me through the park and up the street. For a second time today, a more forceful female has decided what is to be done with me. It doesn’t feel good. It feels like I am a puppet to whoever gets a hold of me. Those young ones weren’t any better either. I might as well not even be a person at this point. I might as well just be an ambulatory toy to be pushed around and used.
I can’t really see where we are going because she is holding me, and I guess it doesn’t matter, because it isn’t as though I have any say in it anyway.
I hear a door creak open, then close heavily behind me. The quality of the light changes from the brightness of the sun to a more fire-like internal warmth. I can smell metal in the air, and in the mid-distance there are sounds of clanging and banging and the occasional hiss.
“Vulcan! Vendis!” She calls two names out as she opens her coat and nudges me out of the protective interior. I stumble out a few steps, only to find myself faced by two massive male saurians. They are both golden scaled and green eyed and look like her. They could be her sons maybe, or brothers, or her mates. I don’t know because nobody has bothered to introduce me.
“I found this,” she says, talking about me like the object I am. “They’re valuable. Thorn and Wrath are both bidding for them, and I don’t think there’s many left, so don’t let her get away.”
Before anybody can say anything about anything, she continues bustling about.
“I have to ensure that those whelplings are actually working,” she says. “They were down at the lake again. The factory isn’t going to be able to run at all if every time we take on apprentices they leave the moment they are unsupervised.”
The two males chuckle, as if this is not the first time such a thing has happened and will likely not be the last.
Adaine rushes away, leaving me in the custody of these two. They look at me, and then at one another, and then back at me.
“What are you doing here?” I don’t know who says it, because they haven’t differentiated themselves. One is wearing leather-ish pants and a harness, and one is just wearing leather-ish pants. They have thick hair in plaits, and good natured yet fierce faces. I thought I would freak the hell out if I ever came face to face with saurians, but so far I am finding them much more pleasant than a lot of other aliens and people I’ve encountered. Even the ones who wanted to stab me with a stick saved me from drowning first.
“Not caring very much about what happens,” I say, honestly.
“Not caring very much about what happens? Is this some kind of human trick?”
“No? Maybe? I’m not sure.”
“What’s your name?” the one wearing the harness says. “I’m Vulcan, and this is my brother, Vendis.”
“Who is Adaine?”
“Our sister. And you are?”
“Allie,” I say. “Allie Katt.”
“Nice to meet you, Allie,” Vulcan says. “You look like you’ve been through a lot.”
“I didn’t come here to make trouble. I didn’t want to come down here at all. They forced me down here. And now…” My words get caught up as my breath hitches. “Now I’m going to be made to lay eggs.”