to be burned!” She tried to keep her voice low, for his ears alone and for a moment she thought she was getting through to him.
The impassive look in his pale gold eyes disappeared and she thought she saw a look of desperate unhappiness—maybe even self-loathing—in them instead. But then the cold blankness was back and he began to bring the glowing tip of the branding pen towards her.
Penny knew she ought to hold still but she couldn’t help herself—she didn’t like fire! Didn’t like the idea of being burned—branded—with this big asshole’s name!
As she started to struggle, V’rex caught the eye of the guard who had handed him the pen.
“Hold her,” he growled.
Hard little orange hands clamped over Penny’s bare shoulders, keeping her from struggling. V’rex leaned even closer.
“Hold still,” he rumbled, looking Penny in the eyes again. “I’ll make it quick.”
And then the burning tip of the pen bit into her flesh, just above her left breast.
The searing agony didn’t last for long—V’rex made a quick flip of his wrist—almost a check-mark motion—and then withdrew the pen as quickly as he had brought it down.
Biting her lip against the pain, Penny blinked tears out of her eyes and looked down to see a single V, about the size of her fingernail, emblazoned on her chest.
Some of the other males were still working, she saw, through her tear-blurred eyes. Shurla’s new Forever Mate was taking his time, the tip of his tongue poking out of the corner of his mouth as he scrawled his name across the tops of all three of her plump breasts. Shurla appeared to be trying not to scream but she was biting her lip and clenching her hands into fists in obvious agony.
I guess it could be worse, Penny thought, feeling a stab of sympathy for her former friend. Poor thing. At least V’rex made it quick, like he promised.
She looked up at the big Hybrid and was surprised to see one corner of his sensuous mouth was pulled down in an expression of furious unhappiness. But when he caught her looking at him, his face went immediately blank, the previous, impassive calm replacing the moment of true emotion.
What was he thinking? Penny found herself wondering. Was he sorry that he’d marked her? Hurt her? Was he angry at her for resisting or at himself for going through with it?
Was he somehow immune to the hypno-whispers too?
He must be, she thought. At any rate, he certainly wasn’t acting like the rest of the hypnotized idiots, all fawning over the Glorious Leader and hanging on his every word.
“And now that the marking of the brides is over, we may continue to the end of the Unification Ceremony,” the Glorious Leader intoned, breaking her train of thought. “And after that, you’ll be allowed to take your brides to your Love Huts for your very first Mandatory Breeding, which I know you’re all looking forward to.”
There were full-throated cheers from all the males in the ceremony and slightly weaker ones from the brides. Clearly a lot of them were still in pain from the branding. It was pretty hard to get excited for sexy times when you’d just had someone’s name burned into your flesh, Penny thought wryly. Her own small brand still stung fiercely, but it was probably nothing compared to what poor Shurla was going through.
But this thought didn’t appear to occur to anyone else. The audience laughed and clapped at their Glorious Leader’s wit and the big man himself nodded comically at them and waggled his eyebrows.
Colonel Sanders as a stand-up comedian, Penny thought. No, I don’t like it.
“So if you’ll just return the marking pens to the guards, we can continue,” the Glorious leader said. And all of the males turned over the pens with their glowing-hot nibs to the guards.
All except V’rex.
“No,” he said, when the NeverBreeder guard tried to take his pen. He held it high over the guard’s head and then brought it down, presenting it to Penny instead.
“What…?” She shook her head and looked up at him. “I don’t understand.”
“Take it.” V’rex pressed it into her hand, being careful that she was only touching the cool part, not the glowing-hot writing tip.
“Why?” Penny asked, though she took the pen.
Apparently she wasn’t the only one with questions.
“Excuse me.” The Glorious Leader was glaring at them. “Excuse me,” he said again, speaking to V’rex. “What do you think you’re doing? The marking part of the Unification Ceremony is over.”
“No it’s fucking