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)
You mean your knowledge and consent, you bastard, V thought, hating the “Glorious Leader” even more.
He was making these assholes feel like they had some kind of power over the people he was telling them it was all right to abuse. He was using their own hate and misogyny to control them and make them feel powerful, even though in reality, they were stuck in the same place forever while he was in command.
And these idiots were eating it up.
“The Glorious Leader!” one of them shouted. “All hail the Glorious Leader!”
“Thank you, thank you!” The GL smiled and bowed his head modestly. “Now, as you all know, this will be your Forever Mate, you’re getting today. And as such, you’ll need to mark her.”
“Mark her?” one of the males asked. “How?”
“With this…” The GL snapped his fingers and one of the NeverBreeder guards put something in his hand. It looked like some kind of writing instrument, V thought, but when the “Glorious Leader” uncapped it, the tip of this “pen” glowed white-hot and the faint smell of burning drifted through the air.
“I’ll go through the vows with all of you and your new mates,” the GL was saying as they all stared at the glowing tip of the branding pen—which was essentially what it was, V thought. “Then you’ll sign your names in the flesh of your new female—right over her left breast, to show that you own her heart as well as her body—and that will conclude the ceremony.”
“No,” V said flatly.
“Excuse me?” The “Glorious Leader” raised his pure white eyebrows politely and looked at V as though he hadn’t quite understood.
“I said no. I’m not going to fucking brand some poor female for life just because your fucking sadistic ceremony calls for it,” V growled, glaring at the other male.
“Now, V’rex, my friend…” The GL smiled at him gently. “Signing your name to prove your ownership of the female I have chosen for you is a time-honored tradition here at the Compound! Why, the ceremony wouldn’t be the same without it. Every female breeder here bears a mark of ownership.”
“Well mine won’t because I’m not fucking doing it.” V glared at the other male, daring him to try something.
Go ahead and activate my pain square, you asshole, he thought. Don’t care how many volts you run through my body, you can’t make me brand a helpless female just to fulfill your stupid fucking ceremony!
He saw the “Glorious Leader’s” hand go to the side pocket of his pure white suit, where he was probably keeping the Master Control. But then he took his hand away and simply smiled at V.
“Well, V’rex my friend, if that’s the way you feel, then maybe I should give the female I picked for you to one of these other males instead,” he remarked in a calm, genial tone of voice.
“What?” V glared at him.
The bastard! He hadn’t expected this. He could tolerate the pain from the square attached to the side of his neck, but the idea of the little human female with her big brown eyes being given to another male was…well, that was intolerable.
V didn’t know why he felt so protective of her when they hadn’t spoken a single word to each other, but he didn’t want her hurt or abused in any way.
“I’m afraid if you can’t man up and bring yourself to do what’s necessary to mark your mate as your own, maybe she would be better off with a male who can,” The GL continued. “Maybe your friend, Skrug, here could use two mates instead of one.”
“Yeah! Two for me and none for V!” The Karsian’s red eyes glowed and his long dick, which hung down past the hem of the short grass skirts they’d all been forced to wear, twitched eagerly.
“No!” V felt the stirrings of Rage blooming inside him—something he’d never felt for any female before. It was the berserker fury that came over any male of Kindred descent who felt his female was being threatened. But he knew if he lost it now and tried to kill Skrug and the “Glorious Leader” he would only be taken down by the pain square…and he would lose his only chance to get his little female safely away from the other males.
Have to wait, he told himself. Wait until I have her and we can get away together!
“Well, if you don’t like the idea of another male taking your female, then I guess you’d better agree to mark her when the time comes.” The GL was still speaking in that offhand voice, the one that said he really didn’t care which way V decided—it was all the same to him.
In that moment, V vowed to kill him—vowed the “Shining Star” was going to die by his hands if it was the last thing V did.