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“You want me to be an incubator, just like the rest of them,” I say, gazing at the people down there, wishing I could scream out at them and beg them to come get me, but the windows are sealed tight.
“No,” he says, and he turns to me and places a hand on my shoulder. “I want you to be a wife. A loving mother. Someone our community can look up to,” he says, clearing his throat. “And it seems Noah chose well when he picked you.” I can’t help but sense a hint of jealousy in that last statement, but he immediately turns around and walks off without saying another word, and it’s hurtful.
I wanted him to be the savior, the one who would fight for me, the one who would take me away from here. But it seems the longer I’m here, the more I’m beginning to realize there are no such men in this community. The people in this Family only care about themselves.
“He didn’t pick me,” I call out after him. “I went looking for him myself, after I saw the tattoo on a picture.”
He pauses in his tracks.
“I have a scarf with that same symbol on it.”
His body tenses up. He hasn’t moved since I spoke up.
“It wasn’t a coincidence. And neither is us meeting when he first claimed me,” I say. “You have to help me. I only wanted information. I never wanted to be taken to this place. I never wanted to be here … Please …”
His shoulders slump. He sighs.
And then he walks off, leaving me alone, stripped of all my personal feelings, worries, and wishes. It’s almost as if he had it all planned.
Chapter 24
Noah
From a distance I watch her run down the stairs, tears staining her cheeks. I don’t know what she’s done or where she’s been. I haven’t seen her for an entire week because she refused to leave her bedroom. I wanted to honor her need for solitude, and to give her some time to herself to process the Patriarchal Ceremony and everything that it means.
But now she’s roaming about the house, and suddenly she’s crying? That doesn’t sit well with me. I never expected to feel as much as I do now.
I have to physically restrain myself, and I clutch the stair banister to stop myself from running after her. I wish I could take her pain away, but I can’t. Not yet, anyway. Not until she knows the truth.
I close my eyes and breathe out a sigh.
Soon, Noah, soon.
All the pawns are moving on the stage, and so is she. It’s all part of the plan, and I must continue. There’s no going back, not after that Ceremony. Natalie is my wife now, and she will give birth for me, one day, and when she does, we will rule this fucking community.
Natalie marches straight for the front doors, with no one there to stop her from leaving, and I’m clutching the banisters so hard I swear it’s going to crack.
“Let her go. She won’t go anywhere,” father says, watching too. “Besides, there are guards everywhere. What’s she gonna do, escape?” He snorts, but it’s not that funny to me.
She’s tried before, so what’s going to stop her from trying again? Every time she tries, she learns something new, and one of these days, she’s going to find something to use against us … and flee. I need to get ahead of it. Now’s the time to act and give her a reason to stay.
“She won’t,” my father reiterates, and he grabs my arm and forces me to turn and look at him. “She’s your wife now. Control her. Rein her in.”
I suck in a breath, and reply, “She’s still a woman with her own mind and heart.”
“She needs to make you an heir.”
Oh, not this again.
“You need to make an heir.” He taps my chest.
I swat him away. “I know. I already fucked her twice since she came here. What more do you want?”
“Every day, until it’s done,” he growls. “The other patriarchs are growing impatient.”
“So? They know nature takes time.”
“You take time. You could’ve gotten a wife much sooner than this if you’d only accepted my choices, but you chose to wait until this one came along. Your marriage long overdue, and you know that.”
I roll my eyes and turn away. “I’m done with this conversation.”
I walk off before we start a fight. I’ve had enough of those these past couple of years. My father is so blinded by his quest for an heir that he doesn’t care who he hurts in the process. He doesn’t even care who I fuck as long as it’s someone who can produce a legitimate heir to further the lineage. That’s all my father cares about—not me, not his wife—only his family line. For power. So our name stays in patriarchal positions. Power comes first.
