Total pages in book: 89
Estimated words: 83946 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 420(@200wpm)___ 336(@250wpm)___ 280(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 83946 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 420(@200wpm)___ 336(@250wpm)___ 280(@300wpm)
Then, she gives me a nod, full of a determination they have tried for years to beat and bleed out of her. I let it fill me as I watch her disappear through the door. I will get Bothaki and myself away from my father. And while I do it, I will make my father pay for what he’s done to my mother.
*
“Where were you trying to go when your ship crashed?” the general asks.
I stare at him in silence, but in my mind … Oh, in my mind I tell him all the ways I will hurt him for the things he’s done to my mate. Skin him. Sink my teeth into his neck. Use my claws to rip his heart from his chest. Tiny, shallow cuts to every available surface of his flesh. The list goes on and on. I find a new way to end his life with each word that passes his disgusting lips.
He slams his hand down on the table and stares at me, as if I should jump. I would never fear the likes of him. He stands and leans closer, face trying to appear menacing, but the sight just makes my lips rise in a smirk.
“I’ve been watching you every second of every day and every night,” he says. “I know about your abilities, and that you can speak our language. So, you can either tell me what I need to know, or I will show you what happens to those who do not fall in line with The New Order’s demands.”
I remain silent yet again. I could lie, give him something, mislead him, or deceive him, but I don’t even want to give him the satisfaction of believing he was able to break me, not even to make me tell him what I didn’t want to. He likes to think the way he can intimidate others makes him better, a leader, like I saw him do with my mate, like I’ve watched him try to do in this cage. He is no leader, and I will not give him the dignity of thinking, for even a second, that I fear him.
He nods as he straightens. “I see you’ve made your choice. Just bear in mind, in the events that will follow now, that I tried to do things in a humane way, which maybe you just don’t understand. Maybe your kind is too stupid and barbaric to comprehend when someone is being sympathetic towards you. When someone is offering you a chance to have a life of comfort versus, well … You’ll see.”
He leaves without another word, but the guards remain in the room, more than any other day. I know something’s coming, even if it weren’t for his words right now. But like all of the humane things he’d tried to take and extract from me, my suit will protect me for the most part. I need only remain here until the Hallans come and I can get Selina and I to safety. From the light schedule here, I can at least surmise that Earth days are much shorter than home. But I can’t know how much time will have passed there. Days? Weeks? Months? Years? How much will I have missed by the time I hear the unmistakable sound of the Hallans coming for me? Will my family have—
My thoughts utterly stop at the sound that reaches me from beyond the library. A whimper, from my mate. I’m out of my seat in an instant, the chains holding my hands to the table broken with a single yank upwards. The gun of every guard comes to me, but I couldn’t care in the least. All their weapons are useless against me. I hop over the table, easily landing a few feet past it. I take notice that while they threaten me with their weapon, not a single one of them uses it. Why would they when they very much need me alive to get the answers they want?
They do all scream for me to stop, to get back in my chair, but I don’t heed a single word. Not when I can hear my mate clearly struggling against something, her cries getting closer to me. I don’t even have to be able to see her to know who holds her captive. Even still, when I turn into the hallway and come face to face with not just my mate, but General Lockett, it feels like my entire world stills. My heart most certainly does.
He has a fistful of her hair, and her hands reach back to try and loosen his grip there. His knuckles are paler than usual with how tightly he holds it, though. Her chest rises and falls with her heavy breaths, her beautiful eyes pleading, an expression of utter distress on her face. But what my gaze lands on, and cannot move past, is the gun her own father holds to the side of her head, his finger already on the trigger. She has no suit. If he pulls that trigger, I will watch my mate die before my very eyes. Her body will fall to the floor, taking my every hope and dream with it. I have no doubt that the general would sacrifice his daughter if it meant getting what he wants. Look at what he did to his own wife.