Page 32 of Breed

“Get out of here. Now.” She gives me one last growly order before going back to Avel.

She doesn’t need to tell me twice. I scoot out of the chapel of bones and I start skulking back through the streets, keeping the hood up over my head, keeping to the alleys and shadowy ways, avoiding the eyes of any saurians who might pay attention to a human in their midst.

I’ve done this so many times before as a pirate that I start to feel quite safe, ironically. Familiarity starts to settle in as I pause behind barrels and boxes to allow passing saurians to go by. They all speak common galactic, which is a little odd for a city where aliens are forced to remain in port when transiting. We’ve actually docked there once or twice, but they started to get suspicious, and sneaking past security out into the city was almost impossible. We’ve landed the ship in a few places on the planet, thanks to the cloaking mechanisms — but now we know they don’t really work, that leaves us with many fewer places to hide.

I keep thinking about that big building made of bones. Usually, big, scary species who make buildings out of their fallen aren’t the good guys. I wonder if these saurians could be considered good. Then I remember something Sullivan told me a long time ago when I first started piracy and had some moral issues with the whole thing.

There’s no such thing as good or bad, there’s just perspectives.

It didn’t really sound entirely true at the time, but it sounded true enough. Tigers hunt deer, she said, and it doesn’t really matter to the tiger that the deer doesn’t want to be eaten, because what choice does the tiger have? It’s not bad for hunting, and neither are we.

I believed that for a while. I told myself that I was a tiger even though I spent all my time scuttling in the dark like a frightened mouse. Now I don’t know what to think. There’s something charismatic about these saurians, something that makes me want to trust them. But nothing they’re doing is trustworthy. We need to get off this planet. We can’t all fall for these super sexy alien masters. I’m worried that Sullivan might be beyond help. The way she was with Thorn… the way he was with her… I feel like we’ve lost her. I know she’ll try to free us, but I don’t think she’ll come with us. I’ve never seen her so contrite, content, and happy before. I’ve never seen her soften the way she did for him.

Then, going to the bone church, that didn’t give me much more in the way of hope. Everything about that encounter scared the hell out of me. I don’t know who is more imposing, Avel, or Raine. Raine might actually hurt me if she gets her hands on me. Avel looks like he hurts anyone and everyone. If I had to decide who was worse, him or Thorn, I’d have a hard time…

“There you are!”

I shriek as Shan grabs me, looming out of the shadows like a vengeful beast. He gives me a little shake as he holds me aloft in front of him, my feet nowhere near touching the ground. I am so confused. How on earth could he have tracked me down here in the middle of the city so quickly? I am very sure I should have largely escaped detection. I was so close to getting back to the alpha’s place and letting Sullivan know what the plan was, and now I have no chance of making that happen. I’m going to be dragged back to Shan’s lair, beaten, and mated again.

“I told you what would happen to you if you ran away, didn’t I?”

I stare at him with wide eyes, that black gaze searing deep into my soul. I was just trying to work out who I fear most, and in doing so I appear to have manifested the ultimate terror.

I can’t get any words out. I’m horrified to have been caught for a second time by this alien with the black eyes who somehow seems to evade my senses every time.

“I had to run away. I have to try to escape!”

His expression softens just a fraction. I wonder if he understands the scope of the desperate situation I find myself in, a reluctant broodmare for an alien I barely know, the captive of a creature who intends to use me to further his aims.

“I can’t allow it. I need you.”

For a brief moment, I let myself imagine that he means he needs me in terms of loving me and wanting me, and not being able to live his life without me. Then that illusion fades in the realization that what he actually means is he needs me to keep himself in good standing with Wrath. He’s going to whip me into submission because my obedience makes his life easier and allows him to continue with whatever agenda he’s engaged in. I don’t trust him. Trusting him would be insane. But there’s some part of me that softens when he says even the slightest kind thing to me, or even modulates his tone away from the harsh, taciturn growl that he usually speaks in.

I look into his face, and having just seen two other saurians dominate thoroughly, a cold shiver runs through me as I realize I am closer to the poor wretch suffering under Avel’s lash today. Thorn loves Sullivan, I think. He speaks to her with a certain tenderness and affection that acknowledges her worst qualities and still somehow celebrates her for them. I don’t see that in Shan’s inscrutable visage. I see a dark stare that could hold any number of feelings behind it, and I feel the sure knowledge that when he made the threat to punish me if I disobeyed, he did not do so idly.

A whimper rises to my lips.

“Please don’t hurt me.”

Shan

She makes that little plea, and I feel all the punitive energy drain from me. There’s something quite pitiful about the way she looks and feels in my hand. Her feet kick a little as she dangles by the clothing bunched at the scruff of her neck. She’s wearing rags made from my clothing, some of which I was somewhat fond of. They’re all utterly ruined now.

There is so much to punish her for. I promised her before I left that if she were to run, I would make her regret it. But I do not like the fear she has in her eyes in this moment, even though I know I am the one who put it there.

I am glad to have caught her so quickly, before she could do any serious damage, or escape properly. I was very worried that she had made contact with her ship and had been taken off the planet. There would be no retrieving her then, and that would be a pity.

I tuck her under my arm without further comment, and carry her back through the streets to the hatch I used to capture her. Of course she was found within an hour or two. There is no corner of Grave City that is not monitored by the eyes of Wrath’s spies. They told me she had gone to see the Enforcer Avel, which made me very much ill at ease. The last thing I want is to be linked with Avel. Perhaps I can somehow twist matters so any contact I have with Avel, if it is to be observed, seems to come from following up her meeting with him. There is no way to be sure that I have not been seen before. I like to think that I am keeping my affairs in order, but Wrath is the type to bide his time. There is always the chance that my double life is more common knowledge than I would like.

And now I have this human up in the mix. This fragile, troublesome, disobedient creature who very much has her own agenda. It was comforting to imagine that I might fuck her into submission, but I should have known that would be a limited effect, especially without any real discipline.

I am going to have to make her understand that doing as I say is not optional. Not because I want vengeance for her disobedience, but because she needs to be trained to be safe.

Lettie squirms and curses softly under her breath as we once again descend into the subterranean reaches of the underground passages that wind beneath the city. The light of day fades and is replaced by an electric glow that makes the rock of the tunnels seem artificial. Sometimes these passages seem exciting, like a protective respite from the world above. Other times, like now, they feel like descending into a unique madness governed by a reckless, dangerous creature who is too intelligent for any of our good.

Wrath has to be stopped. He has gained followers. He has gained wealth. His network spreads into the alpha’s territory like invasive thorns and vines, wrapping their way around sensitive social nodes. Alpha Thorn has been aware of Wrath for a long time, but nobody truly appreciates the scope of his subterranean labors. He wants the human women for the same reason he wants everything: control.

My thoughts drift to the criminal mastermind I now seem to serve while the wriggling human woman under my arm reminds me of all the many dangers he represents to anything vulnerable or good.

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