Total pages in book: 182
Estimated words: 171288 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 856(@200wpm)___ 685(@250wpm)___ 571(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 171288 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 856(@200wpm)___ 685(@250wpm)___ 571(@300wpm)
“All pretense is over now.” The big Hybrid’s voice was low and hoarse and his words were still strangely formal. “You are not mine and I am no longer yours. I Forswear you, Penelope.”
For some reason, his somber words and the look on his face made Penny want to cry. Whatever had happened between them, it seemed like it was a kind of breaking-up ceremony. And even though she’d been telling herself from the beginning that the big Hybrid wouldn’t want her anymore after they got out of the Compound and he was no longer breathing the Spice, it still hurt dreadfully that he was basically casting her aside.
At least he did it in person, whispered a sad little voice in her head. Not like Garret who just texted you, “It’s over,” out of the blue one day…
Penny knew that she was about to cry and she didn’t want to do it in front of him.
“Could…could you point me towards the bathroom?” she asked, her voice thick as she tried to hold back her tears. “I, uh, still really need a shower.” She nodded down to the tattered blue toga which she was still wearing to excuse her sudden exit.
“Of course.” V’rex nodded. “It’s down the main corridor and on the right, past the food prep area. And the door right beside it is your room. You should find some clothes that will fit you on the bed. I have a replicator on board so I made some for you while you were out.”
“Th-thank you,” Penny somehow managed to get out. And then she was up and running blindly down the corridor towards the back of the ship as the tears stung her eyes.
Eighty-Nine
V’rex felt her pain as he Foreswore her—it echoed his own—a deep, aching emptiness in his heart that could never be filled by any other female.
But it couldn’t be helped.
In asking him never to sting her again, Penelope had been, in essence, asking for her freedom from the connection they had formed at the Compound. And though V’rex would have been more than happy to continue honoring the vows they had taken there, he couldn’t deny her request.
It wasn’t honorable or right to keep a female against her will—he might be a black hearted bastard who was half Kru’ell One, but he knew that, well enough.
If he couldn’t sting her, he couldn’t bond her to him. And without a soul-bond, there could be no long-term relationship. And so he had Foresworn her—it was the right thing to do and V’rex knew it.
He just wished it didn’t hurt so Goddess-damned much.
Ninety
The rest of V’rex’s ship was as luxurious as the front cabin. In fact, it was a lot like one of those opulent super yachts you see on shows about how the One Percent live. There was plush leather and gleaming fixtures everywhere, but Penny barely saw any of it as she rushed towards the back, hoping to find the bathroom before she broke down.
Thankfully, the door wasn’t hard to find. Penny threw herself inside and turned on the water full-force in the deep oval tub she found there. Only then, with the sound of rushing water to cover her sobs, did she feel free to let loose and cry as hard as she wanted to.
Gut-wrenching sobs shook her as she crouched on the floor, huddled in a ball with her knees drawn up to her chin. The emotional pain she felt now, after the big Hybrid had cut her loose, echoed the physical pain of his sting and caused an ache so deep it felt like a black hole had opened inside her chest.
“It’s over, it’s over,” she whispered to herself between sobs. “It’s over, it’s over.”
She didn’t come back to herself until she realized that the oval bathtub was dangerously close to overflowing. Hastily, she wiped her eyes and ran to turn off the water. It was steaming hot and it made Penny realize that she really did need a bath.
She used the restroom quickly—she also still had to pee and thank goodness the toilet was more normal in here—and then stripped off her stained and tattered toga.
As she sank into the steaming water, she tried to reason with herself—tried to reason with the deep unhappiness which had settled inside her, like a dark bird that had come to perch in her soul.
“It shouldn’t hurt this badly,” she told herself as she sank down, letting the hot water lap around her chin. It stung the place where the NeverBreeder’s knife had cut her, but Penny didn’t care about that.
“It shouldn’t hurt so much,” she told herself again. “We were only together a little under a month and we weren’t even really together. We were pretending so we didn’t get into trouble and get recycled. I was with Garret for almost a year and I got over that breakup just fine. So a month should be nothing!”