“She didn’t die.”
I’m so distracted by the horror of what she is doing to the body that I almost miss what she says.
I turn to Jarek, staring at him with wide eyes. He presses a hand against my lips, pleading with me not to make a sound.
“She couldn’t move her legs, but she was alive. I kept her that way for three more months. I had them take her apart, piece by piece. That was your punishment for escaping, you know.”
She pauses, but I’m lost in the screams of my own mind.
“I underestimated you, Keres. You see, I thought when you made that deal that you were delusional and arrogant and that you’d die within a week. I was impressed that you were still alive after two. And at four, I started to take an interest. I stopped paying attention to you for a while, but when I was reminded you were still alive, I thought you were a most excellent bargain. Though I didn’t keep my side very well, but I am a goddess, I am exempt from keeping deals.”
I grab onto Jarek’s leg, tears rolling down my cheeks, holding onto him because I’m terrified if I don’t, I will fling myself out there and attack her.
“Six months was incredible. But you know, a claim to fame being that you lived isn’t that impressive.”
She paces; I can see her out of the corner of my eye.
“What was impressive was escaping my prison!” her voice thunders throughout the street, and a wind slams into the city like it’s her anger made real.
“How dare you leave before I was done with you? Still, I thought it would be easy to recapture you, but no, out into the wilds, avoiding everyone. Impossible to find. You taught me a lesson that I’d forgotten. You reminded me of the value of patience.”
Jarek is suddenly in front of me, his intense green eyes locked on my face. He’s almost in my lap, one hand pressed against my lips and the other on my back, holding me against him.
“And you, like a repeat of your mother, gave up your life for a child. It is so ridiculous and poetic.”
I am still before I explode with movement, ripping free of Jarek.
I get close to the window, but Mordecai pulls me back and into his arms, holding me on the floor. I struggle and fight, but he sets his teeth in my neck, and I go still, the omega in me submitting to the alphas I’ve chosen.
I lay there panting hard, while his hand slides down my back and up again.
“Those poor, darling little children.”
I struggle again, but Mordecai holds me in a lock that I can’t get out of.
“I brought them to Foreen for you.”
I open my mouth, no sound escaping me as I silently scream. Cadel comes closer, laying down, and presses his cheek against mine. Jarek holds onto my ankle, but I can’t stop.
“Get them up so Keres can see that no good deed goes unpunished.”
Every painful, terrible sound echoes in my mind. I can hear her laughter, the glee of her Claw and Fang.
“Your mother would be so proud of you, Keres. You are a chip off the old block.”
The beta grumbles and then shrieks in rage.
I can’t get up, not that I want to.
“Get me another body, quickly,” the Beta Goddess snaps. “Hurry!”
My body turns to stone hearing her words, but it doesn’t quite connect.
“Get me another body, quickly,” I mouth.
I do it again.
“What’s she doing?” Jarek asks.
