Page 105 of Owned By Two

But there was no pain.

The needle had stopped just shy of my pupil.

It was so close it was blurry in my vision.

Was this a part of the process? I wondered. To give the patient a little hope before continuing to insert the needle?

“Why wouldn’t you sign the contract?” the blonde asked.

My throat was dry and I could hardly speak. “Because I didn’t want anything my father gave me. He abandoned me and I didn’t want the money as payment for all those missed years. I wanted memories with him, not money.”

The blonde, and therefore the Hive mind, was silent for a long moment.

Then the needle retracted and the bed slid up, refolding into a chair once more.

I didn’t let myself breathe a sigh of relief — how could I when the Hive mind could shove the needle into me at a moment’s notice?

I was still very much in its power but at least I had managed to get out of the worst of the situation…

For now.

A block of glass emerged from either side of my head with a strange purple liquid inside.

After a moment, the blonde said:

“Her mind is clear and she speaks the truth.”

Then the glass vials disappeared again.

“We have no interest in wealth or power or money,” the blonde said. “Our power transcends all such superficial things.”

I sensed a “but” coming.

“But due to the weakness of other, lesser species that are not yet a part of the Hive, we must accumulate as much power and wealth as possible. We use that to fund our campaign to set minds free.Allminds. Once we have achieved our mission, once there is no war or famine or poverty, once everyone is part of the same Hive mind family, we will have peace.”

It sounded like a nightmare but I said nothing and only listened.

“This is why assimilating the wealthy is necessary. We could not convince your father to join us. For all his insight and wisdom and skills, he could not see the opportunity we offered him and how he could have lived for an eternity among us.”

Then there was more my father and I had in common than I thought.

I couldn’t think of anythingworsethan having my individuality stripped from me like that.

“We shall make you an offer,” the blonde said. “Sign your wealth over to the Hive and we shall assimilate you into our ranks. You will live forever and your knowledge will be shared across billions of our members.”

I waited for the blonde to finish before speaking. “In order to do that, I need to have the contract rewritten.”

“That is acceptable,” the blonde said. “You shall be taken to your rooms where you will contact your people and have the contract rewritten. Then you will be assimilated.”

The restraints slotted back into place and I rubbed at my wrists.

I was desperate to leap from the chair and take off and never look back… but doing so would have only angered the Hive.

Besides, what were the odds of an easy escape from this room?

Zip.

I had managed not to be assimilated, to keep my individuality.

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