“Not because I’d startled her, or had changed—though I had—but because she was afraid of me.” Darkness entered Jules’s words, poisoned them. Made them ugly. “And had good reason to be.”
“Rebecca’s life with Kantor had not been her choice, yet she’d glittered, as you insinuated. Was beloved by the city. Of course she was; she was wonderful. And she could have spared me so much pain. She could have let hope kill me gently. But in those last moments of Rebecca’s life, she felt theneedto confess… to tell me that she had never intended for her lover to kill our boys.My boys. That it was supposed to be fling, nothing more.”
The air went still, only the faint tick of Jules’s thumbnail tapping the water glass punctuating his silence. “A fleeting affair with the powerful man. An Alpha who used his influence to subsequently murder my children, pair-bond my wife, and set in motion something that could never be undone.”
Jacques’s jaw flexed, the Alpha sitting back in his chair, mirroring his host’s posture. “Your point?”
“The confession, Jacques. She could have died without ever telling me. And I’m quizzing you to see how astute you might be.Whydid she tell me?Whywere her last words an unnecessary admission? Had I not already suffered enough?”
“Because she hated you.”
Another smirk, a little sparkle of something unnamable in Jules’s eyes. “No. Try again.”
“Because she hated herself.”
A minute head shake, Jules cocking a brow. “Maybe. But no. Wrong once more.”
“I don’t know, Beta.” Frustrated with this banality of the conversation, Jacques barked, “I don’t know why your dead wife did any of it! I’ve never met her, and you are insufferable, so I imagine it wasn’t hard to seek pleasures elsewhere.”
“You’re disappointing me, Jacques.” Jules sighed, brushing crumbs from the table with exaggerated patience. “You of all people should know the answer.”
“Because she didn’t believe you’d actually pull the trigger.”
Snapping his fingers like a man applauding the correct answer, Jules’s grin sharpened. “Exactly.She hoped. She didn’t understand who she was dealing with despite having grown up with me, been married to me, having borne my children. She miscalculated when she asked for mercy. Just as you miscalculated when you thought I wouldn’t actually cut out your eye while you were wide awake and screaming.
“And it wasn’t about revenge. If I had wanted Rebecca to suffer, all I needed to do was keep her alive. I knew what was coming for Thólos.” His chuckle dark, Jules added, “With a few truths, she carved out what little heart I had left. Emptied me of delusion. And I set her free from the infection of her guilt. I gave her true mercy.
“When that bullet shattered her face, I felt nothing. When I murdered the citizens of Thólos, I felt nothing. When I cut off your fingers, I felt nothing—sweet Brenya sedated from surgery and blissfully unaware,because she feels everything. And though she had suffered rape and mutilation and your constant attentions to her torn vaginal canal, she is a saint still. The scarring you inflicted on her was extraordinary. One of the worst cases I have seen. You were basically fucking her intestines and forcing her to like it. She would have died eventually; she was already so weak. Yet she still climbed the face of this building to reach me. And not due to hope.
“You were her Undercroft, and I was her Rebecca. And I scared her as she begged for mercy… for her people. Hopeless. As she apologized for what you’d done, that poor girl having no idea how elated I was to be trapped in that box. She wanted me to be free to return to my wife… and had accepted her life was over. Gave it to me freely.”
Savoring the words, Jules shared high praise of their mutual mate. “There is a delicious rage in Brenya you would be wise not to tempt. Underestimate her, and she will push herself too hard. Because she’s not like Rebecca. She’s not likeus. I’m not sure she ever had true hope. She won’t be tempted by a fairytale or power. And that is why the greatest gift you could give her is order… and a gentle hand.”
“You are insane, Havel. And your theatrics don’t move me.” Feeling more himself than he had since he’d woken, studying his enemy with open hostility, Jacques returned smirk for smirk.“Brenya will see through this and come to me as she should. Your unnatural connection isn’t sustainable without me, and I won’t play along.”
Jules tipped his head, chin to chest. Eyes hollow, expression empty. “After all you have already done, you would still hurt her? Did you not see how she grieved to see what I’d done to you—the fingers, the eye, the things she hasn’t noticed yet. Later, Brenya will punish me for it. Years ago, I spent many nights awake, thinking about how Rebecca had slept next to the male who murdered her babies… and did nothing about it. She could have killed him in his sleep. She could have spoken out. She could have done anything. Kantor had no leverage over her with her children dead. You had Georges to hold over Brenya’s head. You had Beta Sector.
“Brenya submitted to your inexpert sexual attention to spare those she loved. You drove her to such desperation tormenting that Beta that she fled, stole a ship, had a plan, was thwarted, sexually tormented by you, and sodomized by me. Bonded against her will. And still, she tried to help me escape. And I could have gone with her. The cell was open. We could have walked right out of the Dome. But I stayed put, I threatened her, I frightened her, and I sent her scurrying right back to your bed. Why?”
Offended at the dig toward his sexual skill, Jacques sneered, “Why should I care?”
Leaning forward an inch, Jules’s limpid eyes narrowed. “Because I can acknowledge that I am partly to blame for what Rebecca became. I was young and didn’t understand how to handle a female. I struggled with connection. I just wanted her, and that was love, right? But now… this sensation I feel for Brenya. It is so… different. There is no undoing it. It is whatever is the next stepbeyondlove. It is the God I worship. I want you to understand just what I will do to keep it. Anything.Unspeakable things you cannot even imagine. I would burn this Dome to ashes and keep her in my pocket. I would shoot her in the face if she asked. You need to understand that. There is nothing that I won’t do for that woman… including keeping you alive. But if you ever act the way you acted this morning in front of her again, I will personally visitinsideyour cell… and I’ll show you just what we did for fun in the Undercroft.”
Jacques didn’t have time for a villain’s grand speeches. Brenya’s future, her safety, were at stake. He pushed himself to his feet, the chair legs scraping over the floor, before walking up to the glass, standing over the Beta who was smirking up from his little table. Jacques let out a growl that would have made a grown man piss himself. “Listen to me, you sniveling shit! I have done things thatyoucannot imagine to protect what is mine. You don’t have the market cornered on ruthlessness. You’re a foreigner here who knows nothing of the inner workings ofmyDome. The fact that you would allow Brenya to walk into the city with that woman proves how stupid you are. Lucia isn’t some female to be pitied and propped up so my mate doesn’t have to socialize with her lessers. She’s ambitious, and Brenya is too naïve to understand without me there to guide her. For all your threats and insanity, you do not understand how Central operates. They hate you. They must. You’re unbearably boring. This isn’t your pathetic Thólos. This isn’t Greth. And you don’t have what it takes to hold this Dome much longer. So I suggest you let me out of here now while I’m willing to be magnanimous. You want peace? I want to try your idea of cutting off your arms and legs and keeping you as a living stump. I’ll prop you up next to my throne, all of Central taking turns laughing at your suffering as I fuckmymate and teach her how to behave! Now, bring Brenya back here. NOW!”
Jules looked disappointed, or perhaps entertained, taking his time to enjoy a breath of air before sighing. “Pity. I had hopedyou might be reasonable. Every time I think we’ve made some progress, you disappoint me.”
Spittal flew from Jacques’s mouth as he shouted, “You let me out of here, you freak!”
“No. I have prepared entertainment for you instead. Take your time and absorb the material. I won’t be turning it off until tomorrow’s breakfast.”
The wall to Jacques’s left lit up with a projection of Brenya on the operating table, the wreckage of her vaginal canal being repaired by Jules himself as he directed the robotic arms performing the bloody work. Hours of what it took to repair her. Dangerous moments where everything almost went wrong. Tissue grafts, manipulations of organs, conversation between those assisting worried she may never be able to conceive. Nerves regrown. Female organs rebuilt. And an abundance of ruined tissue set aside, bloody and disgusting, in pans that glowed red under the lights.
The sounds of Brenya waking in pain. Her tears.“It hurts.”
“I know.”Jules holding her hand, comforting her.
“This is what you did to her. Look at it. You’re going to hear your mate cry; you’re going to witness her pain. You are going to acknowledge that you are the reason she may never have children. And tonight, when Lucia comes here, you are going to listen as she teaches you how to properly fuck.”
