Page 29 of Fever

“When the fuck is soon?”

I laugh. True that.

Chapter 11

Leah

By the time I returned, Sotay had left the office. Instead of having breakfast, I hid in the bathroom, afraid to meet Mike in the break room again. I can’t believe the idiot touched me when he must’ve known Sotay could smell him on me. It was either a mistake or a deliberate move. People like Mike, those comfortable committing treason—and I’m certain this is treason—are cold, calculating bastards. He’s looking after his own ass and not mine. He might even kill me just as I hand over the gate control. But hand it over I will. I’m not sure what I’ll do after the exchange. I’m not sure of anything besides the fact I’m hungry.

The night falls, and since the tech is down, my work is limited to scribbling notes, taking ground-line phone calls when Tamika goes on break, and chatting with Tabby, whose mood reflects mine but for different reasons.

The king visited her. Arkin is considering moving Tabby farther inland and away from the beach property. Anna hasn’t been next door. We have no idea where she is, though, through the window, I see the prince downstairs, pacing around the gate. Sotay is inside again, and when the gate collapses, another small army stands in the courtyard. Loud cheers spread. Sotay looks up as if he knows I’m watching. I smile and give him a thumbs-up. “Well done,” I whisper.

Minutes later, he’s up in the office. “Baby, we’re going out.” He takes a right and enters a wall. Quite literally.

I could use a night out. Maybe drink a little, release some stress. Or have sex with him. That seems to cure all ills. I especially like the feel of the ribbed-for-pleasure cock. When he’s working my body, I think of nothing else. A shiver runs down my spine. My lower belly cramps again. I’m sure I’ll enter heat tomorrow or the next day. Sotay messed up my cycle. Tabby said the males can do that. She said Terror can make her come at the snap of his fingers.

Even if I can’t share anything about my mom, I’m happy to have something to share with Tabby. When I hand over the control, I’ll betray her too. And for what? I don’t even know. I have no idea what those other aliens want. If they take over, what will our lives be like? I’m in over my head.

Sotay emerges again from the wall wearing a full set of silver armor with a yellow strip of paint over his chest. Okay, so Fever and I will have dinner, not Sotay and I, which puts me on edge even more. The Hordesmen, apart from Arkin’s twin, don’t seem to wear armor inside the Stronghold.

Fever holds up another yellow dress, this one with open shoulders. “I think this will fit you. It’s Anna’s, but she won’t be wearing it now.” He snickers. “Don’t tell her I said that.”

I take the dress and enter through the same wall-door, only to find myself inside a walk-in closet with one rack that’s almost completely empty and another filled with clothes for women. Raven’s stuff is gone, and Anna’s prepregnancy clothes remain, covered in transparent plastic as if they’d just gotten them back from the dry cleaners. Curious, I peek at one white dress. It still has a tag.

“Tonight, Leah. I’m trying to eat tonight, not tomorrow.”

I roll my eyes. “Coming.”

“With permission only.”

I chuckle and change, then stand at the mirror. The dress wraps around me like a second skin, leaving nothing to the imagination, and the built-in pushups lift my breasts, creating substantial cleavage. I look pretty. I have to put on a happy face, get through the dinner, and take it one day at a time until I steal the control, hand it over, get my mom, and disappear. Where to or how? Nobody knows, least of all me.

When I step back into the office, Sotay is at the open window. I join him. He peruses my body, and my cheeks heat. He yanks the rope, and the cage-lift thing appears.

“Nuh-uh,” I say. “No way. You crazy?”

Sotay smirks. “It’s not as bad as it looks.”

“It looks like a death trap.”

Something passes over his eyes, and he pauses. “Death trap. It’s…it’s something the king would say.”

I shrug.

Sotay smiles, but it doesn’t reach his eyes. He presses me against his body and moves us inside the cage. I squeeze my eyes shut. “Oh my God, I hate this thing.”

We drop.

It’s so sudden, my belly rises, and I scream at the top of my lungs.

Sotay laughs and laughs, and as the cage swings near the bottom, I slap his shoulder. “Ass.”

“My name is Fever—”

I press a palm over his mouth. “Please don’t.”

He takes my wrist and moves us out of the cage. “I’m a great singer. Deny it all you like.”

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