Page 43 of The Beast's Betrayed Mate
Olive felt tears well up in her eyes. She couldn’t stop it.
“What is wrong with you?” she exclaimed.
“Great change demands great sacrifice. This will be the end of human suffering as we know it,” Cora said. “It’ll be the end of cancer, Alzheimer’s, chronic pain. Anything and everything you can think of that is currently plaguing mankind will be wiped off the face of the planet.”
“I don’t get it,” Peter said. “MRM isn’t doing this for the greater good. There’s no way. What’s the real reason?”
Cora tilted her head to one side, observing them both before she said, “Choose a room. They’re all vacant at the moment. I’ll give you some privacy. You should really discuss your lack of options right now and what complying will mean for the future. It will mean you having a future.”
With that she opened the door back up and disappeared through it.
Chapter 13 - Peter
“This is insane,” Olive said. “What do we do?”
“Well, we don’t have sex in one of those beds for their little experiment, that’s for damn sure,” Peter replied. “They must know there’s no way for us to get out of here, though,” he said. “Or there’s no way she would’ve revealed that much of what’s really going on. They would’ve just shot us. Right?”
“Right,” Olive nodded. “Right…” she repeated, looking about the space. “So… options?”
“Right now?” She nodded. “Only two: we don’t have sex, or we do.”
She nodded again. “If wedohave sex, then the chance that we’ll live grows exponentially,” she remarked.
“But if we do comply, thentheywin,” he said. “And we’ve already complied unknowingly for years. Right?”
He hated how rational his voice sounded in such an irrational situation. Then again, her tone was the same.
“Right,” she murmured. “So, the question is whether they would actually kill us or whether it’s empty threats meant to make us bend the knee.”
“We call their bluff?”
“We call their bluff,” she agreed.
The door opened the following moment, and a guard came through it carrying a cattle prod that he drove into Peter’s side, sending a shock of electricity through him that made Peter crumble to his knees with a strangled scream of agony. It must be what being struck by lightning felt like. He thought he smelt burning hair and felt as though he was two seconds from passing out.
“Jesus!” Olive exclaimed, but the guard merely glared at her before removing the stick, turning and leaving the way he’d entered.
The door shut behind him.
Olive stared at it before kneeling next to Peter.
“Alright, so they’re not bluffing,” she said.
“Clearly,” Peter groaned, hand pressed over the spot where the cattle prod had connected.
“You okay?” she asked.
“Yeah, I’ll be fine. I’m already healing,” he muttered, staying on the floor as he rolled over to get himself into a sitting position.
She sat next to him.
“We’re quite the pair,” she said.
“Are we?” he asked, glancing at her at the chaise of phrase.
He’d opened up to her back there. He’d told her things he hadn’t voiced in his entire life and hearing it spoken had felt like a release. As though he’d been holding on to the need ever since graduation, or even before then, ever since the cafeteria. And having the words in her ears was a relief. Especially since she had seemed to accept them.
She reached out, sliding her hand over his.
