Total pages in book: 82
Estimated words: 77692 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 388(@200wpm)___ 311(@250wpm)___ 259(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 77692 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 388(@200wpm)___ 311(@250wpm)___ 259(@300wpm)
“Why?”
“Why, what?”
“Why is having your daughter important to them? I’ve seen how your kind treats the females who give you life … so why is having her so important for them?”
Frances doesn’t think long about it. “To get to me. Because she’s mine.”
There’s something about his words that triggers the scowl my father swears I’m infamous for. The same one I greeted my parents with as soon I entered their universe. The human male didn’t say anything specifically to irk the reaction out of me, but I can’t control it.
I don’t like the way it sounds.
“You and I both know,” Frances continues. “If we have any good intelligence on our sides, and I think we both probably do, that the leaders of The New Order have gone into hiding.”
“The better question,” I return the moment he stops speaking, “is whether you know where this hiding place is?”
That is when Frances smiles.
I show my canines when I offer one back.
“You’re right,” he says, “I think I do. But I’m not in a position to go in on them. You, on the other hand—”
“I definitely can,” I interject before Frances even finishes.
Just like that, it seems the day will go well, after all. I know Frances can tell as much also as he looks up at me from down below. There are still many details to be decided yet about what this human male might want in exchange for his information, perhaps beyond the retrieval of his daughter, if that is even possible—because I expect there to be something.
If he’s smart, there will be something.
And still, I find myself liking whatever it is about him just enough to give the human male the benefit of the doubt. At least, for the time being.
What will it hurt to hunt his daughter down? Especially if it means finding the mother of Bothaki’s mate in the process. The sooner that happens, the quicker I can return to my family.
“If this is some trick,” I tell Frances, “or should I find out you’re lying to me in any way, your head will be the first to get skewered on a pike with one eye missing and your cock in your mouth.”
Frances blinks at my declaration.
I remain unbothered. “Is that clear?”
TWO
“Eat, Luna, or we will get the tube out and force it down your throat again,” a soldier says.
I keep my eyes on the poor excuse for oatmeal they’ve placed before me. It doesn’t matter who stands before me because in the end, they’re all the same. Just another worthless man that’s kept me imprisoned in this bunker for so long that I’ve lost track of time entirely. I almost miss when they held me at the sanitorium. At least there, the food looked halfway edible.
I am forced to see the soldier when he crouches down before me, making sure I’m looking at his face when he talks. When he smirks at me.
“We can’t have you dying now, can we? We need you alive for when your father comes for you.” He tilts his head. “That is, if he’s coming. Because it’s been a long time now, and it’s starting to look like he doesn’t care enough to save you. I guess a pitiful woman doesn’t matter to him so much, after all.”
I smile right back at him, lifting my head some. “I have no fear that my father will come. But what you should be fearing is what he’ll do to you when he finds us.”
The soldier’s face pales just like I want it to. My father looks as nice as they come, and if anyone saw him, they’d never suspect he was capable of the violence I know he is, especially when it’s in defense of me. He’s not the leader of The Opposition for nothing, but he’s also not a stupid man and his violence is always measured and a last resort. I speak with more confidence than I actually have, though. I am positive my father is looking high and low for me, but I can’t lie and say the time I’ve been down here hasn’t made me start to wonder if this bunker is just too well hidden. And if everything going on with the aliens that landed before I was taken are making it even harder for my father to even have the proper resources to find me.
No matter, though, because I don’t plan on being here much longer. I’m not going to sit around and wait to be saved. My father taught me much better than that.
While the now pale soldier watches me, I finally lift a spoonful of the runny oatmeal to my mouth. Feeling like he’s won, he nods and walks away. But I only eat so I can be left alone to plan. The one good thing about this bunker is that there are more opportunities to escape. At the sanitorium, a place that’s held women captive for years, it seemed like all the other escape attempts had made it into a fortress, where no one got out but the attendants. While in the common room, I’d discreetly check the windows each time to no avail. In my poor excuse for a bedroom, I’d try to wedge the thick bolts holding the door in place loose each night. But then they’d begun their treatments, and my body was too exhausted and mind too fuzzy to check or do much of anything.