Total pages in book: 50
Estimated words: 46078 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 230(@200wpm)___ 184(@250wpm)___ 154(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 46078 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 230(@200wpm)___ 184(@250wpm)___ 154(@300wpm)
Azlan is going to be furious with me. He does not like it when I disobey him, and I am definitely disobeying him now. I think back to the night Kain first suggested this plan, and how very angry Azlan was.
Not long ago…
“No. Out of the question. I have already told you. I will not put my mate in danger!” Azlan snarls ferociously as Kain outlines his plan. Kain wasn’t supposed to say this, not in front of me, not ever.
Azlan has been trying to keep the tactical discussion away from me, an asteroidal bumpkin. It’s hard not to be offended by that, but Kain has broken with the unspoken protocol and brought the matter up over family dinner.
“She can get into Leonidas’ den,” Kain says, eminently practical. “Nobody else can. Unless you want to shave your mane and try to pass as a female. Is that what you want to do, Azlan? Play girl?”
Kain is not in any way persuasive, because he is an asshole. Even when he is making a good point, he’s just so off-putting. Still, I’m grateful to him for saying what Azlan does not want said. Every family needs the chaotic one.
“She is the only one of us who could possibly get close. And she is not Leonid, so she will not be charmed.”
When Skol says it, it sounds more reasonable, but I don’t understand everything he is saying. There is still so much I don’t know about the Leonids.
“What are we talking about, charmed?”
Skol speaks to me with an overacted patience. “Leonid females have been primed over many thousands of years to respect and desire the most dominant male. The male capable of killing other males, ruthless enough to destroy cubs and force ovulation…. These are the males Leonid females are chemically trained to desire. When charmed, they are unable to resist the allure of an alpha.”
I look at Azlan. “I thought you were the alpha.”
“I am a new breed of alpha,” he says. “I do not desire copulation with many. I need only you.”
Kain snorts with laughter. “Azlan thinks he can deny his own biology.”
“I can!” Azlan’s fangs flash sharp and dangerous. “I have no intention of being as Leonidas. Our women should be free to choose singular mates. Many of them already chose this path. Leonidas has stolen them in order to force them back to a time we have long since left behind. I will not allow it.”
“So you choose full scale war and killing our father? With a band of broken warriors?”
“No.”
“Then we send the female, and she is able to get inside the stronghold with the signaling that will bring down his defenses.”
“Oh, like a Trojan horse!” I exclaim, finally understanding something.
Now it’s their turn to not know what the hell is going on. They look at me blankly, having no idea what I mean, but I know what I mean, and that is all that matters.
“A long time ago, one army was laying siege to another army. The other army wouldn’t let them in the city, because that’s what a siege is…”
I see Skol roll his eyes in a way that’s probably supposed to be subtle but isn’t.
“Anyway. The first army, they built a giant horse and left it at the city gates, and told the city they were besieging that it was a gift and they were going to go away now.”
“An obvious ruse,” Kain comments.
“Not at the time, because nobody had ever built a giant trick horse before. Anyway, spoilers, the horse was a trick. The besieging army pretended to leave, and the soldiers of the city took the horse inside. Later that night, when everybody was asleep, the horse opened up and the besieging army swarmed out and took the city from the inside.”
“Yes,” Kain says. “Something like that, but you are no soldier. You are no danger. And that is good, because that’s exactly what we need, someone so pathetic and so completely useless, Leonidas would never suspect her as being part of our army. All we need her to do is open the gates and deactivate Leonidas’ defenses. She could do that.” He’s not talking to me anymore. He’s addressing Azlan. “She could carry jammers and transmitters, code breakers. She could get us inside, and once we’re inside…”
“NO,” Azlan roars, his fury making the walls shake. “Ava is my mate. She is not expendable. She is not a token to be traded, or a strategy to be used. She. Is. My. Mate.”
He pounds the table to emphasize every word, his eyes glowing gold and furious at all of us, though perhaps not me.
Everybody falls very quiet. The only sound that follows is one of cringing chewing.
Not long after, I am up late, feeding the babies. They need to eat every three to four hours. As I suspected, the goat milk is not good enough for them. It is keeping them alive, but it is not keeping them satisfied, and they are fussy, missing their mothers. Buttface has come into his own as a baby blanket, helping to soothe the infants by laying his body over theirs, a warm, purring presence we all appreciate.