Page 41 of Red

“Just like you can’t control that, I’m not able to shut down my instinct. The need to protect you is my prime concern right now. We’ve lost enough time in this fucking place. Quit sassing me.”

She arches her brow, challenging. “Or?”

I don’t have nerves for her games. My hand wraps around her throat and I pin her down to the back of the couch as I growl, “Or I will make you do as I say.”

Her pupils are fully blown out and the air gets saturated with the scent of her arousal. I can practically taste her deliciousness on the tip of my tongue.

“Is that a promise?”

“Keep arguing and you’ll find out.” I lean over her and attack her mouth.

She reciprocates, much more enthusiasticthan I deserve after dodging the truth.

As much as I hate it, and would rather take her mind off everything, it’s time to tell her.

“Baby, I can’t let you stay here. Dean wasn’t exactly after me.”

“Wait, what are you saying?”

I take a sharp breath in preparation. “Your biological father—”

She stops me immediately. “NO!” And she bursts out crying.

“I truly wish you didn’t have to find out like this.” I cradle her in my arms as I sit down on the couch and pull her onto my lap.

“My whole life is a sham…” Her eyes fill with more tears, and I can’t stand looking at her in such sadness. There’s a long pause before she asks, “But females don’t shift, right? Then why me?”

“Well, in short, they want your offspring.”

She blinks a few times, rather confused.

“Whenever they capture one of my kind, he refuses to breed and they can’t enforce it in any way. Neither can they extract the semen. They have tried to replicate our DNA and play gods themselves, yet with no luck. Only live cover works. So they use the bitten ones, but that’s just a tragedy. I was born with a beast inside, andit’s still near impossible for me to be gentle with you. To offer a human woman to someone who was suddenly overtaken by the beast and only follows the survival instincts, unaware of their own strength, is nothing but a sacrifice. All the werewolves created for this purpose alone, all these poor women killed, and only one child that came to be this way.”

“Me,” she whispers to herself, her tone has no emotions.

“But you were born a girl. Can you imagine the disappointment? Though, that gave them an opportunity for even more babies to be bornandwithout any of the risk since you already carry a wolf gene and human partner is sufficient.”

“Enter Dean.” She weeps. “A broodmare! That’s what they want me to be!”

“That’s absolutely despicable and I can’t tell you how sorry I am this is happening to you.”

“Why do they even want babies?”

“To raise the perfect soldiers. The younger they can start the indoctrination and training, the better chances of the alliance. The bitten are terrible at following the orders since they aren’t fully coherent. There’s no controlling them. But they want to build an indestructible army to go to the wars they create themselves, disruptingthe peace and balance of the Earth. All for what? More power.”

“This makes me sick.”

“Now you know who the real monster is,” I tell her, still a bit sour about her words earlier. “Worst part about all of it is that there’s been a time in history when we worked with humans willingly. However, they got threatened by our abilities and growing numbers, so there began a genocide of my kind and others alike. We were forced to go into hiding, to live in constant fear, to become the wild creatures of the night we were perceived as. So many magical beings are already extinct, like minotaurs or centaurs, for example.”

She nuzzles into my chest. “I’m sorry, that’s awful.”

“As the technology continues to advance, the government obtains more access to genetic data. They can trace everyone with the mutation gene. We also keep track on our own. With men it’s much easier because of the wolf telepathy, we can contact them even before the first shift. But we can locate women only through magic, and some slip that way. It’s very unfortunate that females don’t have the same capabilities to protect themselves as shifted males. Some areterrified to the point they go voluntarily, the rest gets taken captive and… I’m sure you can figure out what happens to them next. We know of a few that are currently expecting and a handful of babies born already who we’re attempting to rescue. But it’s not an easy task in the least. It’s a global operation, they’ve got multiple highly secured military bases with the main operation center in Antarctica.”

She takes a beat as the new information is sinking in. I’m sure she feels overwhelmed. Her voice strangled when she finally speaks, “That’s what you do?”

“I try. We all try to save as many as we can. My aunt has some vision powers and thanks to her we can often act faster than the government. She saw you, too, of course. I came here to warn you. But as soon as I got into your proximity, this craze began. And I couldn’t do anything as I was unable to handle myself around you. All I could do was to watch you with him from the shadows like a creep. You don’t even know the half of shit he's done. I wanted to exterminate this motherfucker so badly. To see him with you was the worst kind of torture I’ve ever had to endure in my entire life.”

“Oh, Alex!” She tosses her arms around myneck, crying into my fur.

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