Page 26 of His to Take

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

In for a penny, in for a pound, she thought as she stared down at him from the chair she’d reclaimed. She had a lot of her own hurt and anger bottled up inside, maybe now was the time to clear the air, when he was actually listening to her for a change.

“You always acted so high and mighty, Rex. Like you were king of the world, not just the school. That school must have seen dozens of boys like you in its time. But even in the bunker, you were too good to do most of the chores that needed to be done. It was our own fault, we coddled you and left you to wallow in your misery, because you were supposed to be a star…”

“Really?” His tone told her she’d gone way too far, but she wasn’t about to back down now.

“Really.” She gave a quick shake of her head to emphasize her point. “And look at you now. Do you think it would be any different if the aliens hadn’t made you a servant? You’d work your ass off every day, and for what? The same things you have now. Only, you’d get to make a choice about which slave-wage job you’d be performing.”

“You sure seem to be certain about that,” he said softly, and she knew she should be more careful, but something deep inside drove her to empty out every last thing she’d squirreled away. Every argument, every hurt he’d given her, no matter how petty, wanted to come out of her now.

“I am certain, Rex. This new world is no different from the old world in many respects. Yes, there are aliens now, and some super-weird technology, but do you think life is really any different? My dad was a lawyer before all of this, and he’s not a wolf, so he’s in charge. He wasn’t given that designation before, but he was one of those people that was in charge, even back then. He made sure the law was upheld, and that people didn’t get shafted. He worked and did well at his job. He has skills; what do you have? No more than me, the ability to do as we’re told by our parents, or those in charge of us, and to get on with life the best we can.”

He only glared at her, but then, there wasn’t much he could argue against. He was a wolf, fate had decreed that to be the case, and the same as any other culture that had been subjugated in American history, he couldn’t complain about it much. It wouldn’t do him any good. The aliens now had far more power than any senator, governor, or president could have ever hoped to have. They even had more power than the military had before the end came.

“You want to take part in some revolution, like every other silly boy in history has done, certain that his cause is just. But what are you really going to accomplish with that revolution, Rex? Are you going to get yourself killed? Your parents maybe? Me? Would you even care if the rest of us died, as long as you finally, finally, got to have your mega-sized temper tantrum at the fate you were handed?”

“Ann…” he started to say but looked away.

She’d expected him to explode, to scream at her. Instead, he just… looked away. But he didn’t stay quiet, not for long.

“When you’re being controlled by an alien, Ann, when you spend the rest of your life pregnant for one of them, you’ll wish there’d been a revolution. You’re a woman anyway. You’re too stupid to know what’s good for you.” He flicked a piece of rubber he’d been twisting around in his hand to the floor and stood up. “I’ll save you, even if you don’t want to be saved, Ann. It’s my job.”

With that, he walked away. His last statement made it clear that he still thought she needed to be saved. She just didn’t know what he wanted to save her from. Boys and their stupid need to nobly save women. It was something she hated about those regency romances and was why she’d picked up that other book. The women always needed to be saved. She loved the stories, of course, but why couldn’t a woman save herself?

This was a new world, women had options now, they weren’t all dependent on men to come along on a white horse and sweep them away. Some, most, had the ability to change their lives without a man in modern times. Well, maybe not so much now, but before.

Which made her stop. She’d been living in her own dream world, hadn’t she? She hadn’t seen any women in positions of power here. Only men were in the places where leadership took place. Maybe there’d been no female lawyers left after the last few years?

But what about women like Amanda? She’d been a teacher, a really good one. Yet, she was little more than her mother’s cook now, and a cleaner the rest of the time. And her mother was just the wife of a leader. She had no real role other than that.

Things would change, though, as time went on and more people were found. Ann had to hang on to that hope. Otherwise, maybe she was no better off than those women in the past who’d had to turn to a man for help. And she didn’t want that to be the case at all.