Page 70 of Rebel Fates

We have lost her, and I ache with the loss.

33

HEATING UP

GEMMA

Hood hasn’t attacked me or even paid attention to me since my scan. He’s still fiddling with his tablet as I rest on the table.

My heat finally subsides, and I shiver in the chilly room.

“Cold?” he asks. He wasn’t even looking in my direction, or so I thought.

“Yes.” I try to curl up on the metal table for warmth.

I blink, and then there’s a blanket flying over my naked body. He sets it down and tucks me in gently. “I should have given you one earlier. However, since you were overheating, I didn’t think it would appeal to you,” he apologizes.

“Uh… thanks,” I say, but there’s a question in my voice. Why is he being so kind? It makes me nervous.

“The males in your life never treated you with respect?”

I fluster at the accuracy of his statement. “I’m a slave now… so I assumed I was going to be treated like shit.”

“I don’t intend to do you harm.”

Maybe he is a kind slaver, who will find it in his heart to free me. “Are you going to let me go?” I ask.

“No.”

“Thought so.” I huff.

“It’s in your favor. You wouldn’t survive for very long if I did.”

“Because I’m a weak human?”

“No. Because you will lose your mind soon.”

“Oh, yeah.That. I think I’ve already lost it.” I pause. He seems talkative now. Maybe I should exploit that mood. “Whywill I lose my mind?”

“You are an omega,” he says, as if that explains everything.

“And?”

“You will go into a heat.”

“Like a dog?”

“You will be driven to want sex… a lot of it.”

“But… I’ve never gone into heat before.” I shake my head dismissively. “Humans don’t do that.”

“You’ve never been around an alpha before.”

“Alpha?” I ask, but my mind goes back to what they called Serrat. “The guysdidthis to me?”

“I doubt triggering your change was on purpose,” he sighs.

“Who are you, and why do you know about all this?”

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