Well, that was fucking unexpected. Now I’m engaging in banter with the mighty Governor Brach. Although I’m a governor now, too, I suppose.
“You’re right. She wouldn’t want a half of anything.” I wink. “You know when two dynamics mate, the male can undergo modifications… Mutations… Adaptations…”
“You’re not mated yet. And if you ever want to be, I suggest you don’t start planting ideas about acquiring her manipulation skills.” No trace of humor now. This is a senior governor talking. One with power and influence. He might be polished on the surface, but he’s ruthless underneath. He wouldn’t lose sleep over ordering me to be taken out if he considered me a threat.
Well, he could try.
“Relax, Victor. If I were going to manipulate you, I wouldn’t tell you about it first. Just making you aware that I can. The war’s not only against the Uncorrupted, and there may be times I need to do things that make ordinary men uncomfortable. But you’re good with that, aren’t you? Doing whatever it takes to protect the people you love?”
It’s a threat and a promise. It’s also a reminder that we’re not so different underneath.
Not a hint of emotion shows on his face. “I am.”
“Good. And since I’ve already picked up some of her traits, that must mean…”
“You’ve already bonded,” he grits out.
I nod, smirking now. “We’re not an alpha and omega, so it makes sense that things would work differently for us.”
Right from the start, I knew the cloning was going too deep, too fast. That something was off.. It wasn’t the cloning. No, it was our bond forming.
“If I were to hazard a guess, I’d say I bonded her from the first touch.” I shrug. “Sometimes you just know they’re the one. I’ve heard alphas have that same instinct.”
“She doesn’t know,” he says slowly. “That you’ve bonded.”
“Not yet. As soon as the official announcement is over, I will be rectifying that.”
As if on cue, his console lights up with an incoming message alert.
He fixes me with a look, switches off the privacy box, and answers it.
“Sir, the press is ready,” his beta assistant announces.
“We’ll be right out,” Governor Brach replies.
He turns to me. “I do find you refreshingly direct. I’m sure we’ll have many reasons to meet again, given our mutual desire to provide a safer Empire. Congratulations on your bonding. Now, let’s go and make history, Governor Thorne.”
Esme
“Tell me what you need, and I’ll do my very best to make it happen.”
Her words are still with me later that day when I take my book reader to the communal lounge at the omega community.
I told her I didn’t know what I needed. That was a lie. I do, only it’s an impossible dream.
The lounge is relatively quiet; I’ve got the sectional couch all to myself. On the other side of the room, three omegas are chatting and drinking coffee on another sofa in front of a huge wall viewer.
Ordinary life sucks. That’s all I’ve got to say on the matter. I’m home. Back in the Empire, safe. But I find it difficult to concentrate on anything.
He saved me. Fine, I helped him save me. Also, I was the reason he needed to save me. Yeah, we can’t miss that part now, can we?
There are days when I want to erase everything that happened. And other days when it feels like a wild dream or hallucination. Yet others, when the memories of it play out like a movie that happened to someone else.
But I don’t want to erase the events. Not when it helped to save dynamics, like Ashanti.
I saw her a few days ago. Lilly pulled some strings to get Dorian shipped in from a far-flung operation. That look on Ashanti’s face when we spoke about Dorian and her gratitude made me glad my crazy escapade in getting myself captured led to her escape.
She has a long way to go in her healing journey, but it’s a start.
