Total pages in book: 105
Estimated words: 99485 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 497(@200wpm)___ 398(@250wpm)___ 332(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 99485 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 497(@200wpm)___ 398(@250wpm)___ 332(@300wpm)
Roderick jutted his chin at me defiantly.
“What makes you think it’s gone? Maybe I just had it moved somewhere.”
I pursed my lips—I feared that I knew where he’d had it moved. His private hover-coach driver had let it slip to my maid that my brother had been spending his nights on Rigelis Nine.
Rigelis Nine was a vast world in our sector—hundreds of times bigger than the tiny planetoid our own Kingdom of L’Crist occupied. It was known as “The Sinner’s Paradise” or sometimes just “Sin World” by most of the people I knew. That was because the entire world of Rigelis Nine was one big city made up of brothels, casinos, clone cafes, and massage parlors that offered much more than just massages. Or so I had heard—I had never seen the place myself.
It was also almost entirely owned by our enemies—the Brutes.
The Brutal Crime Organization, which offered “protection” to our planetoid as well as many others in this sector of the galaxy, was made up of four main families—Clan Cruel, Clan Vicious, Clan Savage and Clan Ruthless—all of them Impure. Which is to say, they’d allowed their DNA to mix with that of non-humans.
I didn’t care about the DNA mixing—it was the older generation that hated that. But the Clans that made up the Brutal Crime Organization were frightening—all of them were huge, hulking males with curving horns, gray skin, and glowing eyes. I had never seen one that was under seven feet tall and all of them had muscles bulging beneath their expensive, well-tailored suits. You never wanted to get on the wrong side of a Brutal Clansman.
There were stories about them too—rumors I’d heard whispered among the palace maids. It was said their male equipment resembled that of an animal’s—that their shafts were twisted and huge with an immense knot at the base.
I had listened with horror when my own maid, Pansy, told the story she’d heard from a friend of a friend who had visited Sin World and seen a Brute without his clothing.
“Long as your forearm it was—big enough to split a human girl in two!” she’d said, her eyes wide as she relayed the salacious gossip. “And they say, my Lady, that if you let them stick it in you, the knot swells inside you and ties you to them. Once that happens, you’re Soul-Bound to them for life and you can never be free!”
Just the thought of such a fate made me shiver whenever I saw one of the Brutes, which thankfully, wasn’t often. Of the four Brutal families, it was Clan Cruel that ruled over us with an iron fist. But to be fair, they weren’t micromanagers. They mostly left us alone and only came twice a year to collect their tribute.
I had heard horror stories from other enclaves of Untainted, telling what happened when they didn’t pay their tribute money on time. Some said the Clan carried away women and children to work as slaves in the quadrach mines. Others claimed they brought flesh shears and took a finger from every Untainted human they found attractive for use in the clone brothels.
I couldn’t imagine the horror. Just the thought of having a mindless copy of me, kept in slavery somewhere and being subjected to the animal lusts of males like the Brutes made me sick. I didn’t want to find out if those rumors were true—I was afraid I might, though, if my younger brother really had used up all the tribute money gambling and visiting brothels on Sin World.
I didn’t want to believe that.
“Please, Roderick,” I said, trying to keep my voice soft and coaxing so he would answer instead of just dismissing me. “Tell me where the money went? The representative of Clan Cruel is coming today—we need to have it ready!”
“What?” My younger brother looked up at me, his mouth agape. “You’re lying,” he said flatly. “The tribute’s not due until next month. I have plenty of time to get the money back.”
“What do you mean you have time to get it back?” I asked ominously. “Where did it all go? That was thousands of credits, Roderick! Where is it?”
“I lost it, all right?” he snarled, glaring at me. “But it’s not my fault—the games at those casinos are all rigged. I was going to go win it all back before the representative came, though—I swear I was!”
“Goddess of Mercy!” I closed my eyes and pressed my fingers to my temples, rubbing to try and force back the headache that was starting. This was my greatest fear come true—my brother had actually taken all the tribute money my father had collected from our people and gambled it away! What were we going to do?
I couldn’t help thinking that this wouldn’t have happened if Father had left me in charge in his will. Or if I had been allowed to marry, I might have been gone by the time it did. But that was never going to happen for me—not now and not ever.