Total pages in book: 73
Estimated words: 66904 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 335(@200wpm)___ 268(@250wpm)___ 223(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 66904 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 335(@200wpm)___ 268(@250wpm)___ 223(@300wpm)
Once again, my senses tingle. I feel as though I have absolutely, certainly been discovered in my treachery.
“We are almost there,” Wrath says as the forest starts to thin. He does not continue with expressing his line of thought about betrayal and betrayers. All the better for me, I suppose. I am still clinging to a faint hope that I am misreading his tone and these cues and that he does not yet know what I have been doing these past months.
We walk a little further, moving beneath the canopy, through the rich, verdant trees which make the air feel slightly thick with perfume. This is a very pretty time of year, the flowering season. There will be rain soon, I imagine. I can smell it on the air, that pleasant dampness that comes from droplets yet to fall.
Finally, the trees clear, and Wrath stops, spreading his arms in an expansive gesture. “This is it,” he declares. “This is where you will encounter freedom in a way you have never thought to encounter it before. You are going to become wild in the most primal ways.”
There is nothing here. Well, almost nothing.
I wondered how Wrath thought we could possibly survive in primal territory, but it is immediately clear. Caves. Caves worn into deep rock in rises and mountains that have stood for millennia. We have emerged from the tree line to find ridges and hills of stark yellow rock pitted with darkness here and there. I’ve heard of these caves, in a faint and vague way during discussions of the geographic lie of the lands around Grave City.
Nobody has thought to inhabit these, because there is no protection from civilization here whatsoever. This is where animals live, creatures with no sense besides instinct, who hunt viciously. Sentient saurians do much better when living in communities. There can be no community in this rough, remote place.
I thought I would be keeping an eye out for the monstrous tracks of the primal beast who rules these lands. But now I am realizing that should never have been my main concern.
A primal is a terrifying thing to behold, but there are more present dangers than the primal who stalks these lands. There are so many carnivorous beasts out here, creatures that will eat their prey alive without any compunction whatsoever.
Wrath does not give any thought or mention to these creatures, though I feel as though the jungles around us are currently bristling with the things. That is why we, or rather he, is accompanied by heavily armed guard. I cannot help but notice neither Lettie nor I have been provided with anything. Not so much as a sharpened stick or particularly hefty throwing rock. I have to assume this is a sightseeing trip, though the gleam in Wrath’s eye makes me think otherwise. He is up to something.
“There’s enough living space here for hundreds of us. Enough for us to raise our young outside the institutions that enslave us.”
When Wrath speaks of such things, he inadvertently touches a nerve that runs so deep in me I cannot help but feel a visceral reaction. I look over at Lettie, who perhaps already contains the spark of life. My son or my daughter, my line. My family, who cannot be taken from me. Will not be taken from me. I reach for her and draw her closer. It might only be because she is afraid, but I feel her press into me, taking advantage of the shelter my body provides. I like her warmth. I like her soft, round mass close to me. I do not like the wildness of these lands and the potential for pure, raw chaos.
“You have proved your competence and bravery time and time again, Shan. That is why I have picked you to live here with your mate. You will be the vanguard of an entirely new social system. You will prove whether or not it is possible for our kind to live here with humans, and whether your resulting families are able to survive.”
Lettie lets out a gasp.
“You're going to just abandon us out here?”
“Abandon is such a strong word,” he says. “I am leaving you here, in a place where you have everything you need to survive.”
“Fuck off, we do not!” She bristles and takes a step forward. I pull her back. This was Wrath’s plan all along. I suspect he knows of my association with Alpha Thorn. This is his way of removing me from play. He is stranding me out here where survival is the only thing I’m going to have time to think about. I will have to protect my mate, who is a tasty morsel for all number of creatures.
“I think you have both shown adequate capacity for survival,” he says, barely hiding his glee. This is Wrath all over. Saurians assume that a vicious, ruthless underworld alpha would deal with treachery and enemies with displays of extreme violence, but Wrath doesn’t waste any of his resources. He is simultaneously punishing me and likely sentencing me and the human I have bonded with to a slow and painful death, while also allowing for some useful information to arise from the situation. I have to give it to him, it’s a masterful stroke.