Total pages in book: 63
Estimated words: 58365 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 292(@200wpm)___ 233(@250wpm)___ 195(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 58365 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 292(@200wpm)___ 233(@250wpm)___ 195(@300wpm)
The Alphas were laughing, one offering up, “At least he does our work for us. Omari scum coming here with no warning… fresh treaty or no, we do not bow to their whims.”
It didn’t matter what the men at her table boasted or claimed. She herself had seen the commandant bow to the foreigners.
“It is no laughing matter.” Uriel cut off the revelry. “I advise you each to count the friends, brothers, and children you lost in the war. Hold on to that number and keep your silence before I make you silent. To imagine there will be no far-stretching repercussion from what took place in the gallery displays our arrogant blindness the Omari exploited in the first place. We surrendered to them. Remember that.”
Petulant, Esin disagreed. “Had our colonies not been threatened, sir, the outcome would have gone the other way. They do not value Beta life as we do, just as they are known to rape and mutilate their Omegas. They’re animals. He cannot be allowed to have her. She’ll die.”
“You are not pair-bonded to the girl, and unless she enters estrous in the next hour, you have no means to seal a claim. Their warships have already begun to appear around our fleet. The Heidron is going to demand she be handed over once his rut subsides, or he will take her by force. Our commandant will have no choice. He will not risk rekindling a bloody war for one feral Omega.”
So, they were going to hand her over to that raving creature from the pit. Considering their lies thus far of promised safety and love, Morgaine felt no surprise at such news.
Whatever she had done to offend that rabid male, she knew he’d kill her, and then at least it would be over. Considering how fiercely he’d battered the glass, her death would most likely be quick.
It was for the best.
The pleasure chambers would have shredded away her honor. Being mated to Esin would have been a lifetime of misery.
Groaning, she fought the covers and sat up. Rubbing away the crust from her eyes, she heard the males push back their chairs and stand.
Before one of them might give her a command or ask any pointed questions, she mumbled, “My bladder is full.”
Uriel ordered the men away, but he did not leave her to her own devices. In fact, he watched her like a hawk, which made relieving herself difficult. When the act was finished, he ordered her to bathe, ordered her to dress herself, and ordered her to eat.
She went through the motions, still numb, and unsure if it was a lingering effect of the drug or if her spirit had simply flown away.
As if reading her thoughts, Sergeant Uriel sighed. “I imagine it won’t be much longer now.”
He was correct.
The commandant himself entered, a small army waiting in the hall when that shining wall opened up wide. “Come, Omega, you are to go to the Omari Heidron now. May he be merciful.”
Lips stained berry red from the flesh of the fruit she’d forced down, Morgaine stood. Damp hair curling past her waist, life stolen away, she marched where she was bidden.
Though the remnants of sedation still tickled her veins, fear found a way to bloom with each step.
The thing they were giving her to, she remembered the wild look in his eyes. That Alpha was the stuff of nightmares: scarred, barbaric, and brimming with menace.
His people were powerful enough to have subjugated the Alpha soldiers and entered their ship.
Esin claimed they raped and mutilated Omegas.
She was going to die horribly.
And so continued her slow march, one where not even Uriel touched her to drag her onward. Heart thudding behind her ribs, her cadence wavered, and she was unsure if she could walk farther… but it was already too late.
Morgaine’s eyes never left the ground, but she knew those foreign Alphas were just ahead. She could smell their sweat, the soft aroma of leather, hear their grumbled murmurs.
Gruff, the commandant broke the lingering silence. “You are aware that this Omega is flawed? Your men briefed you on her shortcomings?”
Translation began at once, flowing, familiar speech turning guttural.
The beast replied, his voice a rasp of grit and dirt.
Moments later, the translator shared the menacing male’s words. Words that were only for her. “I have brought you a gift, gentle girl. Will you not look at me so I might give it to you?”
Her lip was shaking, so she sucked it into her mouth and bit down. Nails sharp against her palms, the pain familiar, Morgaine made herself obey. Inch by inch her chin went up, eyes following until she saw what was held out before her.
It was a mangy fur still in the shape of whatever brown animal it had been torn from, large enough to dwarf her if unraveled fully, and ugly as sin.