Page 54 of Destinies of Diamond
In the wake of his departure, I sent a prayer to Gaia, Tartarus, Helios, and every other deity that might have been listening. Maybe we’d failed them. Maybe we’d made mistakes and used the gifts they had given us in a wrong way. But Selene didn’t deserve to pay the price for it. And no matter what soul Selene’s child carried, the baby was still hers.
I only hoped we were right about this and the king would keep her unharmed, if not safe.Wait for us, Selene. We’re coming. Just wait a little while longer.
****
Selene
“What have you done to them? Why are they acting like this?”
I glared at Brendan’s father with all my might, feeling stupid and useless. He smiled at me, and the condescending expression made me feel even worse than before. “You don’t have to worry about that, little Terran. I’ve just put the Chimeras in their place. After all, weapons don’t need minds of their own.”
“They’re not weapons,” I shouted at him. “They’re living beings. They have thoughts, emotions, hopes of their own.”
“They did,” he corrected me. “And I’ve fixed that problem. A weapon with feelings is faulty and we can’t fight a war with unreliable tools.”
I could shout at him for years on end and it would solve nothing. The truth was literally staring at me in the face, through the emotionless eyes of my Sphinx.
Somehow, King Philip had taken control of all the chimeras. Everyone was here, from Sphinx and the other Grand Chimeras, to the Harpies. They stood lined up in the launch bay of the royal transport ship, motionless, even if they were online.
I’d tried everything in my power to reach out to Sphinx, but nothing had worked. When she’d grabbed me in the hangars, I’d accessed our connection, screamed at her, begged and pleaded. But she hadn’t listened. She hadn’t even acknowledged my words at all. And after my near-miscarriage, I’d been too afraid to try to use any of my powers against her.
I wasn’t physically hurt, but if I resisted too much or tried to fight them, that could easily change. On the other hand, I couldn’t just surrender. I had to get out of here somehow. I just wasn’t sure what to do.
Two soldiers grabbed me and ushered me away from the group of chimeras, into a different section of the vessel. I was tied down with thick cuffs. It was some kind of tachyon resistant metal, and even if I’d been able to use my powers like I usually did, it would have been problematic to destroy it. I could turn to Gaia’s Gift, but those abilities were unstable even on a good day. And if I did crack the cuffs, what then? Could I get out of here in my condition?
First and foremost, I needed to find out what the king wanted with me. There had to be something more to this than me being Brendan’s lover. Otherwise, he could have gotten rid of me ages ago. But the tournament, his sudden suspicious agreement to encourage Terran rights, his agreement to me being Brendan’s wife in the future… Everything had a purpose.
In the end, there was only one way to find out the truth and that was by asking him. He stayed behind after the soldiers left, and while I dreaded the reason, I also decided to use his decision. “Why am I here, Your Majesty? If you have Sphinx, you don’t need a chimera tamer anymore, do you?”
“No, I don’t,” he offered. “But you’re not just a tamer. I honestly couldn’t care less about that. You’re the perfect vessel for something greater—the mother of a whole new species.”
My mind went blank at his words. The baby. This was about the baby. How could he have known about the pregnancy?
Fuck, I was an idiot. Dr. Bell had been in the infirmary. He’d been the one to handle my near-miscarriage. He would have noticed any anomalous heat signatures. But he, like everyone else, must have assumed the baby was August’s. Then why the ‘whole new species’ shtick?
“I don’t understand,” I told the king. “What do you mean?”
“Please don’t insult my intelligence. I’m perfectly aware of the identity of that child’s father.”
He knelt in front of me and gripped my legs, forcibly spreading them apart. “You know, I had my doubts about you when I first heard Brendan had started sleeping with you. But I should have known better. My son has many flaws, but he does have excellent taste in lovers. I wonder if he’d mind it if I sampled you a little bit. What do you say?”
He wasn’t actually asking for permission. His hands were already roaming my body, cupping my breasts through the material of my uniform. Horrified, I started to struggle. “No, don’t touch me. Let me go.”
It was futile. My legs were cuffed, like my hands, and the only one who could make the metal move was Philip. “Don’t be like that, little Terran,” he said, chuckling. “I’m sure you and I can have a lot of fun together. I hear pregnant women get really horny. I can fill you up just as good as Brendan does. I taught him everything he knows.”
Somehow, I doubted that very much. Even when we got rough in bed, Brendan and the others had never forced themselves on me. The idea of having sex with Philip turned my stomach, and what made it worse was that I wasn’t sure my hormones would agree. For all I knew, my body would start responding to him anyway, even if he repulsed me.
“You know, there are actually cameras in the showers. I got a good look at what you did with your unit. I’ve been thinking about fucking you for months, but that really settled it.”
I remembered the episode in the bathroom, when I’d gotten so lost in my desire that I’d forgotten about all sense of decency. If my lovers had pushed me just a little further, I probably wouldn’t have refused any of the other men there. I might have fucked every pilot in the other unit. It was so humiliating to know this man had seen me like that.
“You’ll be a good girl for me, won’t you?” he continued. “You’ll suck my cock good and take me deep.”
It wasn’t a question. It was a statement, one that made every atom in my body start to scream in protest. This was wrong. This was all wrong. I couldn’t just succumb to my fear and to my despair. I was better than this, damn it. And Philip was no chimera. He was only a man who thought he had power over me. I wouldn’t let him get away with it.
Pushing away my distaste, I let out a little moan. “Yes… I mean, no. Don’t. Please…”
I forced myself to sound breathless and incoherent, torn between two conflicting desires. If he’d seen the video like he’d claimed, he’d likely assume my body’s needs were getting the better of my head. That was fine with me. I could use that. I just had to be a little patient.
