Page 168 of Heartbeats & Highways

“Where is my son?” he asked. His blue eyes shone with determination.

Would he withhold food from me if I refused to tell him?

No. He wanted me alive. He wanted the babies alive.

They’re his own flesh and blood . . .

“That night you came over for dinner and I went to bed early . . . I heard you tell Randall to kill me so he could take a new wife. Afruitfulwife.”

“I make no apologies for doing what’s necessary for the good of the Seed Reapers.” He clenched his jaw. “And yet his seed finally took root, didn’t it? Did your body finally succumb to his power, or was it the sacrifice your parents made?”

The words he spouted were scripture to him.

He was certifiable.

“Sacrifice.” I snorted. “Youconvinced them to take their own lives. Next time you want to have a private conversation, make sure there’s no one lurking around the corner.”

He looked like he was pondering my words and then he touched my stomach again. “Their sacrifice was not in vain. Their blood was spilled, but life now grows within you.”

The sausage I’d eaten threatened to come up my throat.

“You know what’s supposed to happen now, don’t you?” he asked, his brow furrowing in thought. “The heir of the Seed Reapers has died. I know you killed him, or else he’d be here with me now. There is no other explanation. Tradition dictates that the wife of the deceased heir be burned alive on a pyre so that she may accompany him to the afterlife where she can servehim for all eternity. Purity . . . sacrifice by fire. However, you are carrying his heirs—myheirs.”

My expression flattened. “You’re going to burn us—the babies?—”

He scratched his jaw. “No. Purity by fire would be such a waste. You have finally proven your worth, and you have something within you that’s far more valuable to me than your death ever could be . . .”

His smile was cold and clinical, and it caused fear to battle its way up my throat and nearly strangle me.

“You will deliver these babies. And when you are healed and recovered, I will take you as my wife and I will put several more babies inside you. You will continue my family succession and ensure that it is our flesh and blood that rules the Seed Reapers for generations.Thatwill be the price for your redemption.”

“But you already have a wife,” I choked out.

“A wife who can no longer bear children due to the trauma of birthing our son. A wife who believes in duty above all else. A wife who understands her place . . . a wife who will understand when the time is right that making the ultimate sacrifice will be her greatest achievement.”

She doesn’t know . . .

“You’ll murder your own wife just to take another? You’re insane,” I blurted out. “I’ll never agree to this.”

He placed his hand on my belly and began to rub circles across my flesh. Tender, gentle circles.

“My incubator, what makes you think I’m giving you a choice?”

Chapter 44

After the GrandPatriarch’s terrifying announcement about the fate of my life, he’d calmly set the tray of food aside and left.

His second-in-command—the big man who’d kidnapped me from the parking lot—entered the room. Calvin held up leather and iron shackles attached to chains. He undid the brown strap around one ankle and even though I tried to kick his face, all he did was laugh and catch my small foot in his hand before shackling me. He made short work of the other one.

There were no shackles for my wrists, not that they were needed. I wasn’t going anywhere with iron around my ankles.

I nearly collapsed to the floor when I got off the exam table. Calvin caught me and all but dragged me to another room. A room with a cot, a single window, a wood stove chimney, and two old-fashioned chamber pots and a wash basin with some toiletries.

“I’m pregnant,” I pointed out. “I need a bathroom and?—”

“Take it up with the Grand Patriarch,” he quipped.

I snarled at him and ripped my arm from his grasp.

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