Page 95 of The Female

Is this it? Is he finally going to tell me the truth?

Silas chuckles as I throw myself into the closest oversized chair and wait impatiently for him to sit and get comfortable. He takes his sweet time doing so, his movements painfully slow.

“This is private information, but since I don’t expect you to be leaving our sights any time soon, I’ll tell you the truth,” he starts, his lips twitching upward as I lean forward in suspense.

This is it. This is really it. My feet tap against the ground as I wait for him to continue.

“Demons were affected by the female decline just as much as the other breeds,” he says, “and we resorted to the same desperate measures most other realms were taking. Nothing seemed to work, and everything we tried only worsened the problem. A while ago, we discovered a couple living in Wrath who had given birth to six females.”

I gasp, my eyes growing wide in horror. Six females? There’s absolutely no way. I couldn’t imagine going through the pain of having six daughters ripped away from me, and I can’t believe they continued after the first.

Most human couples decide to stop having children after their first female is born and taken by the Seekers. My mother sterilized herself after I was born, and she taught me at a young age how to do the same to myself should I ever need to.

The procedure is risky and done at home, but she claims it’s a necessary precaution.

Silas seems to sense where my dread stems from as he frowns and shakes his head. “We don’t take females away from their families here. Even at the worst of times, they remained under their parents’ care until they were eighteen. At eighteen, they were given the option to choose a man or undergo insemination.”

My shoulders sag, and I nod for him to continue.

“The couple agreed to undergo some testing. We wanted to see what was happening in her body that differed from other females. Long story short, we discovered the female body has developed to reject all sperm with X chromosomes if there’s not enough oxytocin in her system,” Silas explains. “Oxytocin is produced in response to welcome physical touch, so the more males abused the females, the less they produced.”

I’m sure I look like a fool as I stare at him with a gaping mouth, but I don’t care. They know the cause of the female decline? This is nothing short of amazing.

“Why didn’t you tell me sooner? And why aren’t people treating their females better if they know this is the cause? When did you figure this out?” I ask at a rapid-fire pace.

My mind continues to reel as Silas grimaces and glances at the painting on the wall to our right.

“Only the Wraths know right now. We found out a little bit ago,” he explains.

Before I can think better of it, I jump out of my chair and launch myself into Silas’s lap. He grunts as my knee makes contact with his thigh, but he doesn’t push me away as I wrap my arms around his neck and pull him into a tight hug.

This is going to change everything. When people find out, men will have no choice but to start treating females better. We can work to get our rights back and see a world where we pick our males instead of being sold at auction.

In only a few years, we could have a boom in females again. I could find my mother, and we won’t have to cower under the painful tempers of men. I won’t have to live in fear of delivering a female, and I’ll never have to sterilize myself should I find myself unlucky enough to create one.

Silas accepts my hug, but he appears cautious as I pull back and look into his eyes. Our faces are only inches apart, but I’m so excited, I hardly notice.

“This is going to change everything!” I beam, my body practically vibrating with sheer delight.

I don’t understand why they wanted to keep this from me, but I figure Gray wanted to wait until I adjusted before telling me the truth. He’s probably scared I’ll choose to leave him and pick another male, which is understandable.

No longer will I be some sought-after, rare treasure. I’ll just be a woman—nothing special and nothing unordinary. Nobody will fight over me or try to steal me. I won’t have to fear being alone with a man who isn’t my family, and I’ll live to see relationships just like the ones in the books I read.

My eyes fill with tears as I think over the possibilities, and my jaw grows sore from how hard I’m grinning. This is the most incredible day of my life.

Silas clears his throat, and I throw caution to the wind and slam my mouth down on his.

He freezes as our lips make contact, his hands darting to my hips to hold me steady while I press our chests together and force my tongue into his mouth. His grip tightens as I wrap my arms around his neck, my current happiness outweighing the fear and insecurity I have surrounding him.

I want Silas, and I want Gray, and maybe the incubus is right in his claims that I’d be happy as their female.

It takes only a few moments for Silas to return the kiss, a muffled groan slipping from his throat as he slides his hands down my thighs and grabs my ass. His grip is surprisingly hard, and I can’t hold back a moan as he rocks me against him.

Silas likes his women to dominate him, but I have minimal knowledge of what that entails.

I slip my fingers up his neck until they’re buried deep in his hair. He doesn’t react much to it, and with a silent prayer that Gray wasn’t messing with me earlier, I curl my fist around the strands and yank his head back.

Given the strength differences between our breeds, I pull his hair as hard as I can in the hopes it’s enough for him. I don’t know what the expectation is here, but I assume if he wants his hair pulled, he wants it to hurt.

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