AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I watched him approach with measured steps, his expression hard and cold. He stopped next to my stretcher. The way his gaze roamed over my naked body, I suspected this was actually his first time entering this room. He stared at my limp cock for a few seconds that felt like an eternity, his face contorting into a grimace of disgust and hatred. Words weren’t necessary to reveal he was picturing Dawn and I having sex.
In that instant, whatever doubt I still held about his voluntary participation in this mess vanished. The question was now whether he’d been in on it all along, or recently joined in retaliation over the woman he loved.
Beyond feeling devastated that our one potential ally had turned out to be an enemy, I couldn’t make sense of this. I had never been so completely wrong about a person. I believed Deimos when he claimed Jaek and Dawn were Attuned. But Dawn would never fall for a man capable of what he was currently doing. Was that the true reason why she had never pursued a relationship with him? Had she sensed the darkness that lurked within him?
Jaek picked up the bag collecting my fluids, giving me a first glimpse of it. The way I lay down, it was out of my line of sight. It was three-quarters full. A malicious smile stretched Jaek’s lips as he gave me a sideways glance.
“Well, it appears that, aside from having brutish strength, purebloods are indeed better at some things after all. You produce twice as much serotonin with half the Beetles than the others did,” Jaek said tauntingly.
“How could you?” I said, in an almost whispered voice as anger boiled in my veins. “Why would you do this?”
He shrugged and looked at me as if I’d asked a question with an obvious answer. “Revenge, of course.”
“Things are changing! They are better than they’ve ever been for hybrids and improving every day! Why now?!” I exclaimed.
“It’s too little, too late,” Jaek said with contempt. “What you and your men are enduring right now is but a tiny taste of the endless and helpless suffering we hybrids endured. None of it was ever for any wrongdoings on our part, but merely for being what we were. And you, Jakar Keran, are definitely something else.”
“And you think killing the very people who stand for hybrids will make things better? That it will make the past go away?”
“It won’t make it go away, but it will allow us to reshape the future for the better,” he replied matter-of-factly.
I snorted in disbelief. “For the better? By becoming puppets to the Guldans and Sarenians?” I exclaimed.
He huffed with disdain. “I am no one’s puppet.”
“Really?” I challenged in a dubious tone.
Jaek held my gaze unwaveringly. “I assure you, Jakar. I am not.”
He didn’t flinch or avert his eyes while a smug smile settled on his lips. Ancestors! Was he truly a voluntary participant? Had he concocted some sort of antidote for himself? Or had Deimos so thoroughly brainwashed Jaek that he had convinced himself these were indeed his beliefs?
Before I could respond, a sharp pain stabbed me from within, near my solar plexus. I barely managed to keep a neutral expression. I didn’t want to give him the pleasure of witnessing my pain. Thankfully, he resumed talking.
“When I escaped Braxia, I swore to myself that I would never again allow Braxians to abuse me or to take from me. It took me years to get over the trauma. But I did, and even learned to accept that I would forever be disabled and disfigured.”
He lifted a hand to his now smooth face, devoid of the burn scars that had previously marred it. The strange expression he had when he first entered the room and saw me crossed his features again to be quickly replaced by resentment.
“Like the others, when you first came here, I didn’t hold much faith in what you could or would do for us. But Dawn kept praising you, and all of us worship her. So we gave you the benefit of the doubt. After that stunt you pulled, calling in favors from the Veredians to heal us, you actually swayed a bunch of us. You made us believe you cared and would truly go out of your way to give us a home. But the whole time, you were swooping in, taking from me. But no more…”
“I didn’t take from you, Jaek. I certainly never came here with that intention. Dawn and I were both single, and the chemistry between us was unexpected,” I said in a reasonable tone.
“Fuck your chemistry!” he hissed. YouknowI love her. And she lovesme.You could have stepped aside and gone back to ruling your planet and fucking all the concubines that are undoubtedly throwing themselves at you from all sides. But no. You had to come and takemywoman. Dawn and I are Attuned!”
I clenched my teeth, both from the pain of the larvae eating me from within, and from the possessive jealousy his words stirred.
“Deimos told you?”
Even though I worded it as a question, it was more of a statement.
Jaek lifted his chin defiantly. “Yes. But he merely confirmed what I already knew.”
I nodded slowly. “He mentioned it to me as well when I asked about Dawn’s welfare. He claimed I had nothing to worry about since you’d be looking after her.”
“I will,” Jaek said boldly.
I narrowed my eyes at him, knowing my next words were foolish in my current situation, but unable to resist. “You might be Attuned, but you’re not her soulmate. Because that happens to be me. Did Deimos tell youthat?”
By his shocked reaction, Jaek had not known. Disbelief gave way to pain, quickly replaced by a murderous expression on his face. I cursed myself for allowing him to get under my skin enough to taunt him while bound in this most precarious position.
