Total pages in book: 73
Estimated words: 66904 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 335(@200wpm)___ 268(@250wpm)___ 223(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 66904 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 335(@200wpm)___ 268(@250wpm)___ 223(@300wpm)
“You’re far too young to be out on your own. How old are you? Twelve? Thirteen?”
“Ten.”
“Ten!” His brow rises. “You’re going to be huge, aren’t you.”
“I’m already huge,” I say, suddenly proud of myself as a result of the positive inflection in his voice. My size has always been notable. The nurses remarked upon it all my life, but I never thought of it as a good thing until this moment. The saurian speaking to me is the biggest one I have ever seen. His scales gleam red with a golden hue. He is made even more ferocious than I am, but he does not seem apologetic about it in the slightest. I doubt he has ever apologized for anything.
I’ll call the nursery,” he says.
“I’m not going back there! They hate me! And I hate them!”
“And why would they hate you?”
I stab a finger toward my eyes. “Because these are creepy. I’m scary.”
He laughs, a big, masculine sound. I have not been in the presence of a creature like this before. I’ve seen grown saurian males on the streets, but they’ve never stopped to talk to me. They don’t notice me. I’m like an animal scuttling around the feet of giants. I like the way he sounds. I like how nothing seems to be a problem to him.
“Those are your eyes, whelp. And fine eyes they are too, if they spied these leftovers from all the way behind the walls.”
I guess I am somewhat inside the walls, but that’s because the outer perimeter isn’t really guarded all that well.
“I want you to come inside,” he says. “I think you need a proper meal.”
I am curious now. I look up into the massive, predatory saurian’s face and I ask the obvious question.
“Who are you? Do you work for the alpha?”
He chuckles as if the question amuses him and carries me inside the mansion. I like being carried, and I like being fed, and I like this big red saurian who has been so nice to me. Much nicer than anyone else has bothered to be. I have been ignored and neglected for so long that it started to feel like that was just how the world was.
We get inside the big house, and my eyes widen as I see all sorts of signs of wealth and comfort I have never seen before. The air is warm here, warmer than the outside. They can control the temperature, a feat I’ve only seen performed in a hatchery before.
“Sona! Please bring our young guest something nourishing to eat.”
“Of course, Alpha Thorn. At once, Alpha Thorn.”
I sit at a nice, big table and a plate of food is brought for me. I start to eat, filling my face. I realize, of course, that I have been taken in by the alpha, but the excitement of that fact is much less intense than the excitement of eating good food.
While I eat, the alpha sits near me at the table and drinks something that smells rich and tangy. He watches me with indulgent amusement and some curiosity.
“How long have you been away from the nursery?”
I shrug between bites. “Weeks?”
Thorn glances over at his manservant. I think how nice it must be to have someone who does things for you. The nurses used to do things for me, when matron made them.
“Sona, can you please check to see if I missed any notifications about missing whelplings?”
“No notifications have been received, sir. I can tell you that. It is very rare for a whelp to go missing from the nursery. My wife and myself have raised our own, of course, but…”
“Please check again, Sona. We may have missed something.”
“I never miss anything, my alpha, but I will check as you have commanded.”
I’ve not seen a saurian like Sona before. He has a big scoop running from the very top of his skull and ending in a sort of blunted protrusion behind him. His skin is green, sort of like mine, but has fewer scales. His features are softer than the alpha’s. Thorn is all teeth and tail and muscles. He is the biggest saurian I have ever seen, and he is also the nicest.
“Have some more,” Thorn says, nudging a plate of cakes over toward me.
A female reaches around and removes the cakes before I can take another one.
“He shouldn’t eat too much. He will make himself sick.”
“You know best, Allegra.”
Incensed, I snatch at the cake plate with both hands, filling my palms with as much cake as I can carry.
She laughs and pats my head. “There will be more. You will not go hungry again.”
She has a nice demeanor. Nicer than the nurses.
Everybody here is impossibly nice, and I don’t know why. There’s no reason for them to be kind to me. As my stomach works away, full of food, I start to think the way I have learned to think on the streets.