Page 105 of The Breeding Cave
“Stop!” I cried. “Please, stop.”
“Beg, Little Mouse. Beg.”
“Please,” I said as his finger moved a millimeter lower. “Please, tell me.”
“Make it believable.”
“Please!” I cried, sweating and bleeding all over my belly. “Please, I want to know!”
Alvin pulled his talon out of me and dropped me to the ground. I landed with another thud and cradled my belly bump, tears streaming down my cheeks. Inside, I could still feel the faintest of heartbeats.
“Please, tell me,” I whimpered. “Please. Please. Please, tell me, Alvin.”
Alvin sucked the blood off his finger and walked to the edge of the room, overlooking the forest outside. “Your mother belonged to me. Your mother was my prisoner. I had only found out about you after I captured her. She had given you to another family to protect you.”
“Why was she your prisoner?” I asked so he wouldn’t hurt me again.
“It wasn’t just her. I captured all the phoenixes, so the prophecy wouldn’t come true.”
I stared at my belly and shook my head, brows furrowed. What did he mean by phoenix?
“You’re a phoenix,” Alvin said. “Born to eliminate the dragon race, and I cannot let that happen. I will do anything to stop that from happening, Yeosin, even if that means capturing you for the rest of eternity, like I have with the others.”
“I’m not a phoenix,” I said. “It’s impossible. I was a human before Luciano bit me.”
“That’s what I wanted you to think because I didn’t want to lock you in the cells with the rest of them,” Alvin murmured, moving closer to me once more. He leaned down and placed his hand on my sternum.
I flinched away, expecting him to hurt me further, but instead, he began healing me.
“Wh-what are you doing? Why wouldn’t you want to lock me away? That’s what you’re doing now, isn’t it?”
“Now, it is, yes,” he murmured. “But I’m not locking you in the cells with the rest of them.”
“Why not?”
“Because, Little Mouse, I already told you …” He pushed some hair off my face. “You’re mine.”
CHAPTER
FIFTY-NINE
YEOSIN
“You birds have always amazed me,” Alvin murmured, tucking some hair behind my ear with his free hand. “Your mom did. Your father. Even Luciano’s mother … I’ve always wanted a bird of my own.”
Luciano’s mother? Was Luciano some kind of phoenix too? No, she couldn’t have been.
“You are a bird,” I growled at him. “You have wings, talons, flight, fire.”
Alvin brushed his fingers down my open wound. “Not one like you.”
I stayed completely silent and eyed the wound, unable to believe that he wasn’t trying to hurt me anymore. All this time … all this freaking time, he had tortured me. Why help me? Why heal me after all the pain?
The wound completely closed, leaving no sign of even the faintest of scars.
“You’re psychotic,” I whispered. “Completely and utterly fucking psychotic, Alvin. Let me out of here. Let me go home. I’ll visit whenever you want if that’s enough.”
“No, it’s not enough.”
