Page 61 of Free Beast Mate

Chapter Nineteen

Amoris

The girls waitedfor the line of fire to move to the other side of the fortress before crawling to the door. Dewlyn pushed the egg-shaped incubator in front of her and encouraged Emma into the back of the house. I could see stairs, so they’d descend into the deep bottom of the fortress. Emma got ahold of the incubator so Dewlyn could crawl faster. But at the stairs, Dewlyn paused, didn’t close the door. She turned around as if she wanted to stay. Vice gave her a thumbs-up.

Dewlyn bit her lip, hesitating.

“Now,” he snapped.

She closed the door.

I crawled across the floor and reached him, then sat beside him as the battle continued on the lower floors. If Jamie had built the Earth fortress based on our home on Tineya, it could withstand a siege for months. Had he built these houses as our father had built his, they too would withstand laser fire. So I asked, “Why, oh, why would he make a little utopian village on top of the military compound?”

“Rey wanted small houses with red roofs.”

“Ah.”

Vice picked out a piece of glass stuck in his palm. He tossed it on the floor. “I don’t want you to think about anything other than Nie.”

“Where is Emma?”

“Downstairs at the very bottom, in a nuclear bunker.”

I shook my head, considering she’d come from a nuclear bunker, to be forced back when she experienced freedom had to be terrible.

Vice nudged my side. “Whatcha thinking about?”

“Nothing.”

“Bitch, please.”

“I’m thinking about Emma and wishing she was here.”

Vice put a hand on my shoulder. “I’m gonna tell you a secret.”

“Right now?” I glanced at his profile, noticing a cut in the corner of his lip.

“Mm-hm. Jamie and I got busted by a bunch of Men of Earth. They put us in a well. Jamie was wounded by one of those poisonous arrows they like using, and so he couldn’t move. I had to climb the well with his big ass attached to my back.”

“Nice workout.”

“Yeah.”

“During our time in the well, they attacked Rey. She was still pregnant, and he’s never been the same. Afterward, he offered me Earth.”

I raised both eyebrows. “Damn.”

“Yeah. The moral of my story is, Jamie will not part from her during the attack.”

Vice was telling me Jamie wouldn’t show his face even if father challenged him. Father would have to fight his way to the bunker if he wanted Jamie. And he would never do that. Too risky. We knew how Father warred. We knew the siege would end tonight and negotiations would start tomorrow. He’d tell us what the fuck he wanted, and we’d go from there.

“You think Emma’s telling the truth?” Vice asked.

I didn’t like Vice questioning my mate. “About what?”

“About wanting her so he could get heirs.” Vice spat on the floor. Blood mixed with the saliva. “He has three fucking heirs.”

“Me and you aren’t fit for rule, in his opinion. Jamie won’t do it anymore, even if Nie stepped down. He hadn’t gotten to Rey in time, and then it was too late once Jamie had her.”

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