Total pages in book: 85
Estimated words: 78164 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 391(@200wpm)___ 313(@250wpm)___ 261(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 78164 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 391(@200wpm)___ 313(@250wpm)___ 261(@300wpm)
Wagging a finger at me, she spilled my secrets to every woman watching. “But things did not go as you thought they would. You didn’t know how men would behave. Several pursued you and your foolish cohort across the city in a mad rampage. You ran home to the academy for shelter. You ran right to the very man who must have aged a thousand years to learn you somehow slipped his trap. He almost lost you.”
Tilting her head as if considering it all from a new angle, Miranda sighed. “Cyderial waited all those years, urging you to choose the list, so he might court you properly. Yet, he was compelled to clip your wings before you hurt yourself. You forced him to act. Yes, he raped you, but only because you played your hand and lost.”
I had lost. I had lost everything and gained a life I didn’t know how to handle. “And if I had known the truth of men, I would have come up with a different plan. I had no useful concept of sex or the repercussions.”
Her finger came out to boop my nose, the woman obviously unafraid of any reaction I might have. “And that right there is why the men will not support educating the females about sex. We’re too wily when we’re free of a bond. They want to keep us in a little fishbowl and pluck us out when we’re old enough to breed, not instruct us on how to evade them.”
“It’s wrong!” I snarled, an aggressive rumble breaking free of my chest.
The drumming was pure threat and purely unintentional. Catching myself on a choking swallow, I put my hands to my chest as if I might hold back the offensive noise, saying, “Forgive me.”
Several of the women at the table had shifted away, looking at me as if I were a vorec toeing the fog and looking to charge. But not Miranda.
She appeared only impressed. “I forgive you, but turn around and give your mate a wave,” Miranda said, cocking her chin at the male who was no doubt glowering at my back. “You clearly do not realize you are dangerous or that your reactions are currently being cataloged by a man who will never forget a single frown you make. We do not want Cyderial coming down on us or our mates. And he will, if you do that again. Your sweetheart is a very somber fellow. Keep him calm, please.”
Peering over my shoulder, I found not only Cyderial but every last male staring right at me, tense as if ready to spring. All of them unblinking and hyper-focused.
Forcing a smile, I gave him a wave.
Cyderial measured me a good while before nodding. When he looked away, the males followed his lead in perfect sync, conversation starting up again as if nothing untoward had taken place.
“They are strange creatures, aren’t they?” Miranda murmured, watching the same display. “Beautiful, yet far more vorec than human. Sometimes they remind me of a school of fish in their uniformity. But a school of fish cannot wreak the same kind of devastation a single untethered hybrid male can. When they have a mind to work as one, even we can’t stop them.”
And that was the root of our suffering, wasn’t it? “I don’t understand them at all. Their need to control us causes harm.”
Abandoning my observation of the men, I gave them my back and settled into my chair.
Miranda waited, chin on her knuckles and a knowing curl of her lip. “I think you understand him perfectly.”
If he were reduced down to the drive to fuck, feed, and breed a mate, perhaps I did. But he was a complex person and so much more than sheer animal drive. “He gives me the illusion of control when I have none. That, I know.”
It was as if I was finally understanding her point, Miranda lighting up as she nodded. “Except, you have control over one thing and one thing only.”
I took a sip of my drink, calming my breath and waiting for the relaxing effect I had been promised would kick in. “Children?”
Nodding in agreement, the old woman said, “You want to get your way? Let’s see how you can do it. We know General Thayer heard your friend Maeve’s song. He’s already registered the intended mating. That is one who may support you if you sell your friend to him. The mated males will not hear you at all. But what about the other unmated males?” Miranda popped her lips. “If you want their support, you will have to give them a reason to take on the risk. Remember, they don’t want their little princesses vulnerable to the attentions of another.”
Countering, I said, “I’m only asking to teach them about sex, not to let them run around the city. They would still be locked away… for now.”