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Feeling like I had no choice, I pushed away from the table and stood. I kept my eyes down on the table, staring at my rapidly cooling plate of food and congealing gravy.
“No—that’s no dye job,” my stepfather said again. “Look at her tits—they’re fucking huge! Bigger than yours, Freya!”
My mother looked like she wanted to cry but she glared at my stepfather anyway.
“You leave her alone! You promised me when I agreed to your terms that if I gave you a child you wouldn’t touch Zoe!”
I felt sick—had she really had to promise herself for me that way? Is that why she had gone with my horrible stepfather so docilely—because she was sacrificing herself for me?
“You haven’t given me a child yet, even though I just spent weeks doing nothing but breeding you!” Esteban snarled. “This little one looks fertile and ripe for breeding! Plus, you can tell she has the Royal bloodline, just like you do, my dear.” His black eyes crawled over my breasts, making me feel sick to my stomach. I wondered why it didn’t bother me when either of my stepbrother looked at me but I hated it when my stepfather did?
“Wouldn’t breeding your own daughter be breaking the Unbreakable Laws?” Gabriel said, looking at his father. “We did the adoption ceremony—by the rules of the Pack, Zoe’s your daughter every bit as much as she’s my and Christopher’s sister.”
His voice was mild in tone but there was a muscle twitching in his jaw and I could see how tense his big body was as he sat on the very edge of his chair.
Christopher was looking tense too. He was leaning forward, as though he might have to spring into action at any moment. I had the feeling he was taking his cues from Gabriel—if my older stepbrother decided to fight, Christopher would be there to back him up.
At first it looked like things really might come to blows. Esteban glowered at his oldest son, his face going dark with anger.
“You accusing your Pack Master of Breaking the Unbreakable Laws, boy?” he snarled at Gabriel.
My older stepbrother didn’t flinch.
“No. I’m just saying you would be if you tried to breed Zoe. You pretty much do whatever you want around here, but the rest of the Pack might have trouble with that. I think it’s going too far—don’t you?”
For a long moment they locked eyes, black warring with silver-gray. Then, finally Esteban shrugged.
“I suppose it might be a problem. But since it’s clear the girl is ripe for breeding, she can at least be used to broker some kind of deal. Pack Master Moncrieff of the Lobos has some land I’ve had my eye on for a while—I’d like to expand the Pack’s territory.”
“What? No!” my mother exclaimed. “No, you can’t send Zoe away from me! She’s my daughter!”
“She stopped being yours when I took the both of you into my home.” Esteban spoke loftily, as though he had done us a favor by taking my mom and me off the street, instead of killing my dad and kidnapping us. “I adopted Zoe—she’s my daughter now,” he went on. “Which means I can use her to make a deal with whoever I want—the same way I did with all of my other daughters.”
Other daughters? I felt sick. Had Gabriel and Christopher had sisters that Esteban had traded away to other Pack Leaders, like some Feudal Lord in the Middle Ages, using his children like pawns or bargaining chips?
I thought of how Gabriel had known exactly what to do for me when I’d had my First Blood—he’d had Christopher run for the heating pad and the ibuprofen at once. That made me think that he’d surely had some sisters—how else would he know how to deal with cramps?
“Please, don’t take Zoe—she’s all I have!” my mother begged.
“Shut up, woman! You’ll forget about her as soon as I put my baby in your belly.” My stepfather shot her an ugly look before turning his attention to Gabriel. “I can see now why you had to excommunicate Manuel—you did a good job, safeguarding the little bitch’s virginity,” he said to my older stepbrother. He raised his eyebrows. “She is still intact—correct?”
“No, she’s not!” my mother blurted, before Gabriel could answer. “I made sure of that—long before you ever found us!”
“What did you say?” Esteban rounded on her, his black eyes narrowed with rage. “What are you talking about?”
My mother lifted her chin and stared him in the face.
“I took her to the doctor when she was younger and had her maidenhead removed,” she said calmly. Only a faint tremor in her voice revealed any fear. “I didn’t want her used as a bargaining chip, like I was at her age. The same way you used your own daughters,” she added, glaring at him. “Well, Zoe is my daughter and you can’t use her like that to make some kind of deal! Without a maidenhead, she’s technically not a virgin—not by Pack Law—and you know any other Pack Master you might want to trade her to won’t like that one bit!”
