Total pages in book: 182
Estimated words: 171288 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 856(@200wpm)___ 685(@250wpm)___ 571(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 171288 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 856(@200wpm)___ 685(@250wpm)___ 571(@300wpm)
She was seriously beginning to think that V’rex wasn’t one of their number. But if he wasn’t under the control of the hypno-beats, why had he been allowed to live? Maybe his impassive face was good enough to fool the Glorious Leader and the NeverBreeder guards.
“And now,” the Glorious Leader said, breaking into her train of confused thought. “The point in the ceremony you’ve all been waiting for—your first Mandatory Breeding!”
A cheer went up from the entire audience and the Glorious Leader beamed his bright, white, chicken-eating grin again.
“Now, you males already know the rules,” he continued. “You know that the Watchers will be watching you to make certain you do your best to impregnate your new brides. Please be sure you do your Mandatory Breeding in your bedchamber so we can be certain everything goes to plan and all our new couples are well-suited to each other.” He raised both arms high in a kind of salute. “Now, go, my new Forever Mates. Go with the blessing of your Glorious Leader—be fruitful and multiply!”
Penny couldn’t believe he was actually admitting he had bugged their houses! Of all the brass-balled nerve…she’d never seen anything like it. So the Glorious Leader and his NeverBreeder guards were actually going to be monitoring them to make sure the new Forever Mates actually did the deed?
They’ll be watching, she thought, her stomach clenching into a fist. Watching to be sure he rapes me right.
Looking up at the big Hybrid, taking in his strength and size, she couldn’t help the shadow of fear that passed over her face and settled in her heart like a black crow. Oh God, this was what she’d been dreading. And it was almost here.
Suddenly her nerve broke.
“I can’t,” she whispered, the words slipping from her mouth before she could stop them. “I can’t—I won’t!”
She started to run but she didn’t even get two steps before V’rex caught her and swung her up into his arms. Carrying her like a little girl, he strode over the stone floor and mounted the many steps leading up to the exit of the Amphitheater with ease.
“Oh yes you can, little girl,” he growled at Penny. “And you will—we both will. You’ll see.”
Then he carried her away from the cheering crowd toward the little white houses where he would take her for the first time…and every day after that for the rest of their lives.
Thirty-Four
V hated that his curvy little bride feared him. Because of his half Kru’ell One heritage, he could feel every emotion she experienced as she experienced it. Partly because he was touching her through most of the ceremony and partly because he was just so damned attuned to her—like he’d never been with any other female.
He felt her anger and hate directed at him when she’d first realized he was to be her Forever Mate, but that had changed to deep embarrassment while the two of them recited their “vows.”
Her pink cheeks and stumbling words as she begged him to breed her were both adorable and arousing, as far as V was concerned. He could tell she wasn’t used to talking dirty. And he’d felt an unmistakable tendril of arousal from her as he had returned the favor with his own vows. She might not like him much, but her body undoubtedly reacted to his—there was no denying that, he thought.
But her desire hadn’t lasted. It had turned to fear and pain when he’d had to mark her with his initial. He could still see the red lines of the capital V he’d burned unwillingly into her flesh just above her left breast. He would heal it as soon as he could but Gods, he’d hated marking her!
You’re just like him, a little voice had whispered in his head when he saw the tears in her soft brown eyes and knew that he had been the one to put them there. Just like him when he hit her…when he made her cry…
Maybe those bad old memories, which he’d pushed away almost as soon as they surfaced in his mind, were the reason V had turned the branding pen over to his new bride and insisted that she mark him too.
He looked briefly down at his own left pec. Penelope. It was an unusual name but he liked it—liked seeing her handwriting on his body for some reason, though he couldn’t understand why.
Penelope hadn’t been able to understand his actions either. He had felt her confusion as he told her to mark him, to prove that if she was his, he was also hers.
But then confusion had turned to fear again and right now she was terrified.
She thinks I’m going to rape her, V thought, looking down at her soft face, which was pale with dread. Her eyes were so big they seemed to have taken over her entire face and he could feel her trembling against him as he carried her over the neatly manicured paths towards the Love Hut which had been designated as theirs.