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)
Was he somehow immune to the hypno-whispers too?
He must be, she thought. At any rate, he certainly wasn’t acting like the rest of the hypnotized idiots, all fawning over the Glorious Leader and hanging on his every word.
“And now that the marking of the brides is over, we may continue to the end of the Unification Ceremony,” the Glorious Leader intoned, breaking her train of thought. “And after that, you’ll be allowed to take your brides to your Love Huts for your very first Mandatory Breeding, which I know you’re all looking forward to.”
There were full-throated cheers from all the males in the ceremony and slightly weaker ones from the brides. Clearly a lot of them were still in pain from the branding. It was pretty hard to get excited for sexy times when you’d just had someone’s name burned into your flesh, Penny thought wryly. Her own small brand still stung fiercely, but it was probably nothing compared to what poor Shurla was going through.
But this thought didn’t appear to occur to anyone else. The audience laughed and clapped at their Glorious Leader’s wit and the big man himself nodded comically at them and waggled his eyebrows.
Colonel Sanders as a stand-up comedian, Penny thought. No, I don’t like it.
“So if you’ll just return the marking pens to the guards, we can continue,” the Glorious leader said. And all of the males turned over the pens with their glowing-hot nibs to the guards.
All except V’rex.
“No,” he said, when the NeverBreeder guard tried to take his pen. He held it high over the guard’s head and then brought it down, presenting it to Penny instead.
“What…?” She shook her head and looked up at him. “I don’t understand.”
“Take it.” V’rex pressed it into her hand, being careful that she was only touching the cool part, not the glowing-hot writing tip.
“Why?” Penny asked, though she took the pen.
Apparently she wasn’t the only one with questions.
“Excuse me.” The Glorious Leader was glaring at them. “Excuse me,” he said again, speaking to V’rex. “What do you think you’re doing? The marking part of the Unification Ceremony is over.”
“No it’s fucking not,” V’rex growled. “I marked her, so I want her to mark me too.”
Though he was speaking to the cult leader, his eyes were fixed on Penny’s and once again she found she couldn’t look away.
“But that’s not part of the ceremony!” the Glorious Leader sputtered.
“It’s part of my ceremony,” V’rex growled. “You made me mark her to prove I own her. Well if that’s true, then she owns me too, and I want her mark on me.” He shot a menacing look at the Glorious Leader. “I want her name on my chest to prove I’m hers the same way she’s mine.”
Penny didn’t know what to say. Her mouth was suddenly dry and she found herself swallowing hard. Was the big Hybrid serious?
Apparently he was, because he wasn’t budging.
There was a moment of breathless silence which seemed to fill the entire Amphitheater as the onlookers, guards, and Penny herself all looked first at V’rex and then at the Glorious Leader to see what was going to happen.
At first the cult leader looked angry. But then he threw up his hands and shook is head
“Fine. But make it quick—we need to end this ceremony. There are people waiting to breed!”
“You heard the man, sweetheart.” V’rex leaned towards Penny, presenting the smooth, flat, muscular planes of his bare chest. “Make it quick.”
Penny blinked up at him, her own brief pain forgotten, though she could tell the place where he’d burned his initial into her was going to be throbbing for a while.
“Really?” she whispered, searching his eyes with her own. Why was he doing this? Because he felt guilty?
“Really.” He frowned at her. “Do it.”
“Just my initial or…”
“Your full name,” he insisted and nodded at his left pec. “Go on, sweetheart—sign there.”
Not knowing what else to do, Penny lifted the pen and placed the burning nib against his dark tan skin.
V’rex didn’t even flinch, though she knew it had to be hurting him. Mindful that he had made this quick for her, she signed quickly in the large, looping scrawl she used on legal documents.
Penelope.
The pen flowed with sickening ease over his flesh, leaving the glowing letters behind. She thought about writing her full name, but she didn’t want to be unnecessarily cruel. Penelope Amanda Wainright was a lot to burn into someone’s chest—even if he was standing there, bearing it stoically while she branded him.
She finished and held the pen out to the guard as V’rex looked down at her name and nodded approvingly.
“Good,” he rumbled and caught Penny’s eyes with his. “That’s good. It’s fair.”
Penny didn’t think it was fair that either of them had had to burn the other, but then, not much about the Compound was what could be considered exactly equitable or just. They were at the mercy of a crazy cult leader and almost everyone here was hypnotized.