“I trained you to direct your energies at the enemy,” he said.
But that was part of the issue. There were no enemies anymore. Last year, they’d finished the deadliest war in history. Once the packs of Ouroboros traders were killed in lines, the poor and the wicked were forgiven. Ruby and Severin’s had teams cleared the rubble and rebuilt the cities, offering people a second chance.
Lucky for the Republic, Severin had enacted a few executive orders for the greater good. Forcefully wiping the tears away from Ruby’s face with his thumbs, he raised her jaw. “Now that you’ve expulsed your daily tears, we can move on to more important matters.”
“What can be more important than my urges to have a child of my own?” she asked.
“Your children are waiting in the nursery for you.”
They were her sister’s offspring, and she hadn’t taken a liking to the little grubs. They were weird and squiggly and tended to cry after ruining their diapers. In fact, she’d made it clear she loathed taking care of them. “Go on and tell me the important news, you moronic Slav.”
He ignored her brash insult. “There’s been a series of detonations. One has hit a structure near to the marble towers. The other, a public library. Of course, the third was the prison near the church square where religious zealots harp about your sister.”
Ruby’s quickly stood and ran toward the window. In the distance, remnants of black smoke swirled in the sky. “Who would do such a thing when we have achieved peace, and why wasn’t I alerted at once?”
“I came in to warn you this morning. If you didn’t have your legs propped over your ears, you might have heard the sound of the explosions,” Severin snapped.
“The culprits, dammit! Who are the fucking culprits?”
Severin hid his smile behind a twitching lip. “The Ouroboros traders,” he said, low and grim for effect.
“My sister’s alphas? How can that be? They were under strict observation.”
“I told you to move them out of the city, did I not?” he asked.
The plan had been to move them to a high maintenance facility, one far away from the freedom the cities allowed them to partake in. However, she’d insisted the transport driver only move them at night. Of course, that had now seemed to backfire.
“Somehow, I have a feeling this is all your doing,” she muttered.
“They are ruthless, those alphas,” he said. “But do not worry, my kitty-cat. I have men scouring the streets for them. It won’t be long until we have them in our clutches once again.”
The best part? Severin lied. He’d paid to have the bombs set and detonated, orchestrating the whole narrative. Why? Because an audience needed a good story with a hell of a lot of drama, and the ruler of the free world needed to believe that freedom was one step away from its destruction.
At the very least, it would get the bitch off his back…
Chapter Three
“Why didn’t they kill me?” she asked
Hands ravaged Rae’s body, hands unisexual and alien. Bending her knees against her chest, she tried to cover her breasts, falling back to kicking the shins of the guards who held her down.
“Someday, you will be judged. All of you. You will be killed. My alphas will tear your limbs off. They’ll make you beg for your own passing. Surely, you must have realized this by now,” she panted.
The guards laughed. The one to her right smacked the back of her head. “As far as we’re concerned, Severin saved you from that thug, Cassian. And now, we are on the right side of history.”
“I took his life. No one else can take credit for that,” she said. “And as far as thugs go, you might want to take a peek in the mirror.”
“Yeah, yeah,” the guard chattered. “But what will the people see on their television screens, eh? They’ll see the minister rescuing you from drowning. They’ll feel that lush swell of pride flood their hearts as Ruby stands on the podium to declare you queen.”
“Maybe,” she said. “Two years is a long time. You have kept them waiting.”
“Just be a good girl and give us your milk, whorebeast.”
They forced a set of plastic pumps around her breasts, scraping the edges against her skin until it chafed. She was freezing and in pain, but the more she struggled to get away, the more they beat her into submission.
“Stop! I can’t do this any longer!” she squealed. “You will not take any more!”
One guard leaned forward and opened his foul-smelling mouth. His teeth were cracked and sulfur yellow, his tongue closer to purple than healthy pink. “Then, the children won’t feed. They will die of starvation. Is that what you want?”