Vash stopped himself from lashing out and beating her. That would be too easy, he decided. “Precious. It’s not your fault.”
“Do you mean that?” she asked.
Biting the edge of his tongue, he lifted his head. “It’s not your fault the kits were destroyed, nor is it your fault I’m dying.”
Vash stood behind his admission, despite how weak it made him feel. Wren could not handle what she was hearing. “If you die…”
“You won’t be sent away. They will take care of you.”
A sudden urge to console her turned Vash inward. Lowering himself to her level, he reached into his back pocket and pulled out a new leash. Wren reacted poorly, but not because of what was in his hands.
“You’re not going to die,” Wren said.
Vash smirked. “What makes you so sure?”
Wren reached her fingers to his face and deli
cately ran the tips over his scars. Vash did not move. “We are bonded now.”
Vash’s grin faded. She was too naïve, but her heart was in the right place. “I don’t believe in fate. The universe breeds only chaos.”
“Yes, but you breed me in defiance of its laws,” she said.
“Alongside it,” he snarled.
In some ways, he even looked like him. Cassian. Vash knew she’d see it eventually. Speaking freely, she asked him the question that teased her mind incessantly. “Why does everyone tell me I’m special?”
“I thought I made it clear that you weren’t,” he muttered.
“I must mean something if he kept me untainted for so long,” she said.
“I’m looking for something,” he said. Then, quickly, he revealed more. “You’re special to him. And you’ll lead me to my own special thing.”
Wren swallowed and arched her back so her breasts tightened into small, inflated mounds. “I can be special for you,” she said.
“You need your leash.”
Obediently, Wren extended her neck. Vash fastened the leash around the brittle stem. When it was locked tight, he coiled his wrist with the leather strap and pulled. Wren fell to his chest.
“That’s all I need from you,” he hissed.
“And to bear your child. To further your pack’s progress.”
Was this another experiment for her? Another wet dream for the alpha lab scientists they had wasted in the dome? Vash couldn’t hide his distaste any longer. “My child will not have a purpose,” he warned.
Wren closed her mouth and silently obeyed.
Vash collected his thoughts. Tomorrow, he’d buy more kits outside of the city, possibly in the barracks. Then, when he had her swabbed again, he would locate a better doctor.
Without a word, he dried her goose pimpled and shivering body. He combed every strand of hair and cut her toenails perfectly. After trimming down her pubic mound, he helped her onto her feet.
“Precious.” A forced grin. “Let me show you to our room.”
Chapter Eight
Cassian stood on the rocky shoreline of Dagon, observing the waste that leaked from the back end of the city. His army of traders sat in large boats, waiting on the choppy waters. Tireless betas surrounded nearby memorials in obsessive mourning. Didn’t they realize what they were doing? Their unremitting cries made him want to kill more of their kind.
“She is close,” he muttered.