Total pages in book: 58
Estimated words: 52262 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 261(@200wpm)___ 209(@250wpm)___ 174(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 52262 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 261(@200wpm)___ 209(@250wpm)___ 174(@300wpm)
"If you will stop this crying, I will take you outside and show you your sky," he offered, his jeering replaced with subtle enticement.
She stayed bent, her face hidden, and slapped at the air in his direction. "Go to hell."
The thread, the little link between them, had been so happy, so full and warm, only an hour before, but now the thread was only pain, like a razor blade in her chest. She hoped to god it hurt him as much as it was hurting her, that the damn greasy cord was a two way sense of torture. But then she remembered that he was only a psychopath with no heart, incapable of human emotion... that he was torturing Thólos on purpose.
Thinking about her mother, Claire understood everything that must have been going through that woman's head all those years... eating away at her until she just couldn't take it anymore. Her father may have been a decent man, but even Claire could see that her mother had not wanted him... that she'd longed for the female Alpha next door that she could never have. How freeing her suicide must have been. Control of her destiny, of the one thing the pair-bond wielding Alpha could not decide for her. The idea was growing increasingly appealing.
"I do not approve of the direction of your thoughts," Shepherd growled, low and threatening.
Claire ignored him.
Large hands circled her arms and pulled her up to stand. Refusing to look at him, she sniffed and turned her head, staring pathetically at the far wall.
"We will go outside. You will see your sky and you will feel better." It was a command. "This emotional response from the medication will pass."
It was like he had no idea how people worked.
All the signs of a steadily encroaching heat cycle were there: trembling shivers, cold sweat, her digestive tract shutting down. All the cleaning, the need for the room to be ready... Shepherd was right; in a few hours she would be begging him to fuck her.
Covering her mouth, another wave of nausea came.
He let her go, watching as she ran to the bathroom to vomit. Between her stomach vacating retches, she distantly recognized that he was holding back her hair, that his hand was stroking her back. Everything she had eaten was expelled until nothing but bile came up. She felt so utterly sick and so completely debased, sitting there on her knees with the very cause of her torment the facsimile of comfort.
"Why are you doing this?" she breathed, even as he wiped a cool towel over her face.
"I desire offspring; a legacy."
"You're sick." Rational thought was returning and Claire struggled to crawl out of the cradle of his lap so she might reach the sink and rinse out her mouth. "Even you must see that this is no place for a child."
He spoke with assurance, watching her brush her teeth and looming far closer than was comfortable. "Pregnancy will calm you into the rightful state of mind. There is no need for you to be upset, little one. I will provide you both with safety and comfort."
Spitting, she snarled, "Safety? You just poisoned me. Comfort? I live in a concrete box!"
His deeply warning silver eyes narrowed, Shepherd was clearly losing patience. "It was necessary, and it will only be beneficial to you if in your coming estrous cycle you should conceive."
"Do not make it sound as if your actions benefit me. I would be completely at your mercy; pregnancy would make me actually need you!"
"You are already completely at my mercy. No more sulking." He took her by the scruff of the neck, the purr he'd incessantly offered never wavering as walked her back into the bedroom. "We will walk now."
Claire was not stupid. "Don't pretend this is an act of kindness. You want me to leave the room so others can come in and prepare it."
"You are very clever, little one. A good trait for the mother of my progeny."
"And you are very evil," she answered back, eyeing the mountain before her with abject loathing.
Shepherd seemed to grow, to spread out into the dim darkness of her prison. "I can be. But I am also a man, and I expect a child from the one I chose as mate. It is unfortunate the timeline does not please you, but it is what I wish." A large palm was extended for her to take, not exactly an act of politeness, and not exactly a threat. "Now come. I will escort you outside."
Claire had no coat and no shoes, so Shepherd wrapped her in a blanket, wiped her face and smoothed her hair, purring loudly to keep her from snarling. There was absolutely no one in the halls he led her through, as if he had prepared and ordered off any men who might have encountered the Omega that belonged to him. Walking the labyrinth, Claire memorized every turn, each little landmark, building a map in her head, ready to bolt at the first opportunity. Through it all, Shepherd maintained an unrelenting clamp on her hand. She wasn't going anywhere.