19. Emma

My arms were lashed behind my back and the cord about my ankles chaffed and cut into my skin.

It was difficult for me to even wriggle.

And if I managed to get off the bed, how was I supposed to get back on my feet and move about my room?

I didn't have anything that would be of much use.

None of this made any sense.

How could I be on Iav's ship when the bond had been Severed?

How had he found me?

Maybe the Surgeon had put me on a shuttle and, despite the bond being very weak, Iav had managed to pick up on the signal enough to track me down.

He could have located the ship and carried me on board his own.

But somehow, that didn't ring true.

Even if that had happened, why would Iav want me after my bond with him had been cut?

I was no longer his fated mate.

Did their breeding program still have a purpose for me?

And if they could breed with anybody, why did they not abduct random females from any planet they passed?

Why did it have to be me?

Having the bond Severed was supposed to prevent this from happening.

I thought of Vai and the look I had seen on his face through the pod window.

That hurt but resolute expression.

Although he didn't like what we were doing, he was doing it because it was for the best.

I wished more than anything I could turn back the hands of time and return to that moment when we escaped the minefield.

I would decide on a different course of action.

We would continue to run, to try and hide, and yes, I would have taken him into my bed and ended this curse once and for good.

If I knew then I would be forced to mate anyway, it might as well be with someone I loved.

I blinked at that.

Love?

Was that what I felt for Vai?

Was that what he meant to me?

Yes, I thought.

He did.

Now he was far from me, I could finally see the wood for the trees.

I wished now more than ever I could return to that moment when I discovered the truth about why Vai had come to me in the first place.

Not just to protect me but to satisfy his craving for my body.

Only once his seed spilled inside me could I be free.

And be with him for the rest of my life?

Tears sprung into my eyes as I realized that was what I'd wanted all along.

I just hadn't known it.

Or else refused to believe it.

I had let my own foolish pride and rigid principles get in the way.

We were fated mates.

We were supposed to be together.

And now I was on a ship careening through space, heading for a world I had only ever seen on Vai's hollow deck.

The Shadow Realm.

It wasthe sudden shift in the shadows that alerted me to it.

A sudden chill crept over me, along with the knowledge other emotions dominated in this place.

I could feel them steal over me now.

It wasn't love.

It was hate, fear, and desperation.

The moment we crossed into the Shadow Realm, passing through the Rift and entered this dark and unknown area of space beyond our galaxy, all hope evaporated from me.

The only thing I could hold onto, the only thing that made any sense, was that pulsing glow in the center of my chest.

A flickering flame in a dark and lonely place.

I cradled it close, going so far as to curl my knees up around myself, trying to hide it, protect it, sensing the Shadows would snuff it out the first moment they had a chance.

My door hissed open and Iav entered.

He paused a moment, surveying the room and peering at me thoughtfully.

He crossed toward me and sat on the corner of my bed.

I lay deathly still, fearing what he might do if he thought I was awake.

"You don't need to be afraid," he said.

He spoke in Vai's soft and kindly voice, only now his words seemed sinister and laced with poison.

"You will do a great service for the empire," he said. "You will give us many sons and daughters. You will live on inside them for many generations to come. And once your use has expired, you can die knowing you have served your purpose. How well you decide to serve it is up to you."

My tears came unbidden and I wept into my blanket.

"If you care anything for me, please, let me go," I said.

I snorted, choking on the hot wad that'd taken up residence in the back of my throat.

"That feeling in your chest," I said, "that pulsing light, doesn't it mean more to you than just my location?"

"It means you are living and alive and that I must find you."

"No. It doesn't mean that at all. It means so much more. Don't you feel love, Iav? Can't you feel mercy? Compassion?"

"I feel those things. I feel love for the Empire and compassion for my brothers and sisters."

My hopes faded but did not disappear.

"That love you feel for the empire, could you ever feel it for me?" I said.

He turned to me, his horns vicious and devil-like in the semidarkness.

He leaned forward and brushed a finger under my chin.

"Your duty is to the empire and all those you service shall love you… in their way."

So much for trying to appeal to his merciful nature.

This creature knew nothing about compassion.

He understood only his objective.

There was no warmth in his heart.

He didn't have a heart, I realized.

He had an organ that pumped blood around his body but he had no idea the depths of emotion it was capable of.

"Please, let me go," I begged. "I don't belong here. My bond to you has been Severed. I'm of no use to you. Take me home and I swear you will never see or hear from me again."

"My dear, that is the very last thing I wish. I will lay with you every day and give you my seed. And once the child is born, I shall do it again and again and again."

I whimpered.

With the soft look in his eyes, he had meant that to sound reassuring.

Boy, was he wide of the mark.

"Your bond has not been Severed," he said. "It may be a little muffled but it is not gone. And in twelve hours it will return full force and we shall join. I will claim you and my honor shall be witnessed by the Council. And all the empire will watch us consummate our mating ceremony."

Mating ceremony.

Now where did I recall that from?

It was something Vai had said, I was sure.

Something he had told me…

The blood drained from my face as I recalled exactly when he'd said it:

"After he mates with you, he will share you with the rest of his species in a mating ceremony. They will each take their turn, one after another. You will be impregnated and then forced to give birth. The moment you do, they will breed you again. And again. Until your body can take no more and you die. Maybe it will be from exhaustion or your heart will give out."

Those were Vai's words.

They chilled me to the bone more now than they had the first time I heard them.

Because then, he had given me his assurance it would never happen.

It was the stuff of nightmares.

"Why don't you take me now?" I said. "Like you were going to on Earth. Why now do you want to take me to the ceremony?"

"Because many Shadow have been waylaid on his return trip. The more prudent course of action is to take you on your planet. The rewards and esteem are not the same but it's better than returning empty-handed."

I glared at him.

"Then why not take me now?"

It'll give me a chance to stab you in the back while you do it,I thought.

If it had to happen, then so be it, but I wouldn't let him take me to his Shadow Realm if I could avoid it.

He peered at me and a wayward shard of light from the bedside lamp highlighted the dangerous glint in his eye.

"Because now, we're so much closer to the Shadow Realm. Your M'rora mate is heading back to his homeworld. He will never know what happened to you. A pity, I always thought. Much better for the failed mates to know what happened just when it is too late for him to do anything about it."

He grinned maniacally.

"You're a monster," I said, staring openly at his cruelty.

"We are all monsters."

Iav stood at his full height.

"Soon, we will arrive at the Citadel. You will be presented before the Council and placed in a holding cell. Once the bond has returned, the ceremony shall begin. And your purpose will be fulfilled."

"No, please…" I said.

He didn't wait to hear my pleas and marched through the door.

"Please!" I screamed. "Let me go!"

No one was there to hear it.

Iav wrappedhis powerful hand around the back of my neck and clutched so tight my breaths came in haggard gasps.

He shoved me forward and I staggered down the ramp to the landing pad below.

He'd removed the bonds from my ankles so I could walk.

Any hope I had of escape was muted by the knowledge he would be beside me every step of the way.

The landing pad was a large rectangle-shaped construct with ships taking off and landing in a well-choreographed dance.

No sooner had we stepped off the ship than another Shadow stepped on board and the ramp hastily closed up behind him.

It took off and rose into the overcast grey sky.

Iav shoved me again and I grunted to prevent myself from losing my feet.

He steered me toward the steps that led into a huge building with arched doorways and monolithic spires perched upon each corner.

Everything in this world was tainted by a dark filter as if a coal mine was nearby and spilled its soot over every inch of the city.

What did I expect in a place known as the Shadow Realm?

"Keep walking," Iav growled, pushing me again.

My boots clattered on the black marble floor.

My eyes darted left to right, surveying the scene in case I managed to escape later.

Dammit, I would escape.

There was always a way out.

Always.

I memorized our journey through the long hallways so I could run down them later.

I would hop in one of their shuttlecraft and tell it to take me home.

For now, I would play along, but only until I exposed a weakness in their defenses I could exploit.

Iav took me around a corner and I was shocked to see two, maybe three dozen other Shadows leading bound alien creatures.

Not all the captured mates were female.

Some were male—big, brooding creatures with arms the size of my head.

And still, they had gotten caught.

Others sported torn pixie wings, their faces swollen and beaten.

They stared at the floor as they were forced to march onward.

We were being ushered in the same direction—into a single large room with an impressive high ceiling.

And my hopes waned.

If there were so many of us, we couldn't all hope to escape.

And the more of us there were, the more fated mates there had been in the past, and the more likely the Shadows would have designed a system to keep us trapped.

I kept my head held high if for no other reason than to show them I wasn't afraid.

Inside, I was petrified.

My heart beat like a drum and I breathed so hard and loud I thought they could all hear me.

Iav drew me to one side, joining a single line of captured alien creatures.

One had huge bright yellow eyes with black slits down the middle like a cat.

She glanced at me for an instant before her eyes returned to the floor.

It'd been a single flash, but I recognized the look on her face.

I wasn't the only one with a morsel of hope.

But how many other fated mates had thought the same thing over the eons?

A string of figures entered the room from the side.

They were draped in cloth so dark it could have been made from the shadows themselves.

Their heads were bowed beneath their wide hoods.

They came to a stop before us.

I didn't know about the other cursed mates but I was terrified.

They looked like something from a satanic ritual.

"Welcome to the Citadel," the middle figure said. "We are the Elders."

A long snout protruded out the end of his deep hood and his black nose never stopped quivering.

His feet were small, with black claws and long shins tucked beneath his robe.

"You are here to fulfill a holy and exalted purpose. You have the honor of breeding the next generation of Shadows, making the holy Shadow empire ever stronger and more powerful."

"No!"

One of the other captured mates broke rank and collapsed to her knees.

I wish I had her courage.

But I was glad I didn't have her stupidity.

The Elder calmly crossed to the outspoken female almost seeming to float.

His thick tail waved side to side like a powerful snake.

It curled excitedly as he approached the captured mate.

Her Shadow mate dragged her up onto her feet.

"Forgive me, sire," he said, bowing his head.

The Elder peered down at the mate.

She whimpered and shied back from him.

I could barely see her around Iav's large frame.

He tensed his hand even tighter around my neck.

"I am betrothed!" the outspoken mate said, struggling to breathe around the hand clasped tight about her throat. "I am to marry my partner!"

"All prior relationships no longer exist," the Elder said. "You have been given a great gift. You no longer have to toil in an office or work another day in your life. Your responsibility will be to breed. That's all."

"I don't want to be a breeder!"

"Since when did what you want have anything to do with it? You will learn obedience with time. And much punishment, I should wager."

He snickered and the other Elders chuckled along with him like a backing group.

The Elder turned and floated along the line in my direction.

Please ignore me,I prayed. Please don't notice me.

I stared at the floor before me, too afraid to make eye contact.

The Elder's sharp claws came to a stop before me.

"Ah," he said.

He raised his arm and his sleeve slipped down his thin forearm.

It was hairy and dark with tufted fur.

He took my chin in his claw and turned my face one way and then the other.

Still, I refused to look him in the eye.

"A new species," he said. "Tell me, brave Claimer. What is she?"

"She is a human, sire," Iav said. "The first to be brought to the Citadel."

"Yes. I believe I have heard of them. Small, voluptuous. With good working hands and small brains. Timid too, by the look of it."

He raised my chin so I had no choice but to look him in the eye.

I peered past his long snout to the inner darkness within his hood.

His eyes glinted like onyx at the bottom of a deep well.

They shimmered dangerously.

His tongue ran over the sharp ratty teeth of his bottom jaw.

"I shall ensure to make good use of her," he said. "It's important she is impregnated with strong seed."

He gave Iav a sly smile.

"After you claim your right, of course," he said.

Iav nodded his head respectfully.

"It would be my honor to share her, sire."

Share.

Honor.

I'm going to be sick…

Now the Elders were picking out which of the mates they would fuck first.

As the Elder continued along the line, I couldn't help but notice the other Elders peer at me, their own eyes glinting from beneath their dark cowls.

I recognized their expressions immediately.

They were filled with hunger.

As if things couldn't get any worse.

"To the cells!" the Elder screeched.

Iav turned me on the spot and frog marched me out of the room.

The captured mates were forced down multiple flights of stairs, one after the other, so many I lost count.

It didn't matter.

I just needed to reach the stairs and head up.

Escape lay at the top.

If I could reach it, I could escape.

Could.

We came to a long corridor with smelly water inching down the moss-covered walls.

Each of the fated mates was shoved into an individual cell, and the thick wooden doors slammed behind them, their locks clicking into place.

Finally, my turn came.

And so did my first chance to escape.

Iav thrust me forward and I reached out with my hands to snatch the doorframe.

I missed it on both sides.

I hit the floor and skinned my knees.

The strong smell of damp and decay assaulted my senses.

I turned my head in time to catch a fleeting glance of Iav, a broad grin on his face, looking forward to our next meeting.

The meeting would prove to be my last as anything resembling a human.

He would fuck me and plant his seed inside me.

Then another would join him.

And another.

And another.

Each would take a piece of my soul until there was nothing left of me.

I curled up in the corner and wept.