Total pages in book: 98
Estimated words: 91775 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 459(@200wpm)___ 367(@250wpm)___ 306(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 91775 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 459(@200wpm)___ 367(@250wpm)___ 306(@300wpm)
“That’s fucked,” I tell him, shocked. “What about families?” I make a gesture of rocking a baby.
“Resonance is allowed,” he says, moving forward and walking again, leaving me no choice but to follow if I want to hear the rest of the story (and, well, get out). “It is all very orderly. All the males of the village pass by the wall several times a day. If resonance begins, the female is separated from the others and brought into a house separate from the others, so they can celebrate their union. When the female is carrying and resonance is fulfilled, she is returned to the safety behind the wall. When the child is born, if it is male, it is given to the father when it is old enough to be separated.”
I jog up to his side and touch his arm. “You realize this is batshit insane, right?”
He might not understand my words, but he understands my tone. Rem’eb nods, and his expression grows melancholy. “No one is happy with the arrangement, but ever since the wall was erected, the females no longer grow sick. It was either that or let them all die. What choice did my father have?”
“How about a healer?”
He tilts his head at me, slowing. “I do not mark you.”
“A healer, you know…” I pretend to put my hands on his chest, but that only confuses him more. After several attempts of trying to explain what a healer is, I give up. “Okay, never mind, you either don’t have healers or the language barrier is greater than I’d hoped.”
“My people are split in spirit as well,” Rem’eb tells me. “There are rebels that would like nothing more than for my father to be removed from the chief’s seat, but who would take his place? And if we let the females walk freely among us, is that worth watching them die before our eyes? There are no answers.”
“Or it could be something that hits women harder than men? Hormonally related? Like your period?” I chew on my lip, thinking. I’m no doctor—I didn’t even finish health class in high school because it was boring—but there has to be a reasonable explanation for this. When measles killed people on Earth, it didn’t single out women. I’ll have to talk to Veronica when we get back. Maybe there’s an herb that can help…
“That is why you were hidden,” Rem’eb continues, his voice soft. He’s stopped walking, and he watches me with eyes that are both haunted and full of yearning. “If the rebels knew my father had kept a female aside for me to resonate to, they would rise up.”
So that’s why I was kept separate? I recoil. “Okay, first of all, that’s freaking gross—”
“And I should have let you go,” Rem’eb continues, his expression even more miserable. “I know it was wrong, but I took one look at you and my heart was lost.”
Goddamn it. How is it he always says the thing that defuses my anger at him so quickly?
“I want to be selfish,” he tells me. “But not at your expense. So I must free you…even if it means giving you up.”
“You could go with me?” I offer, feeling a little insane as I do. This guy is my kidnapper. Kinda. Why do I want him to stick around?
“I must go back. My people need me. Even if it is the very last thing I want.” He seems sad.
“What is it you want, then?”
He doesn’t understand what I’m asking. “This connection between us. Do you feel it?” He moves closer to me and brushes a knuckle along my jaw.
If this was any other man I’d slap his hand away.
But because it’s Rem’eb, and because I’m feeling the exact same connection he mentioned, the small touch fills me full of hunger and want.
So yeah, I feel it. I feel it even though all of this is an absolute clusterfuck.
“I know I should want you to stay with my people,” he murmurs, tilting my face up. “But all I can think about is you. And I would not do anything to make you sad.”
“I’m not going to kiss you,” I tell him, even as I step closer into the circle of his arms.
I’m a terrible person because I kiss him anyhow. And I enjoy it far too much.
Chapter
Sixteen
TIA
We don’t kiss for long, of course. We’re not stupid, just horny. There’s no time to waste, and we dart down a few more tunnels before coming across a strangely walled-off cave with metal bars and a guy sleeping inside.
Rem’eb makes a sound of distress. “We are too late. They have left already.”
“Who has left?”
“Set’nef the Wanderer and the others. He has freed your suitor, R’jaal.”
Oh. Shit. I point inside the cave. “Who’s that?”
“Probably Kin’far the Exile. He is not a good male. It would be better for everyone if he stayed locked away and starved.” But he unlocks the door anyhow. “Even I cannot be so cruel, though.”