know they suspend the awful womb exams for a little while after the Unification Ceremony but eventually I’m going to get called back into the Breeding and Conception Center and they’ll find out I don’t have a bun in the oven.”
“A bun in the oven?” He barked a laugh. “My people used to say a ‘chick in the egg.’”
“Your people?” Penny asked curiously. “The Kru’ell Ones?”
The amusement fell off his face at once to be replaced by a dark look.
“Hell, no. Those were my father’s people. I might have half his blood, but I don’t claim that bastard’s culture as my heritage. I was talking about my mother—she was a Beast Kindred.”
“Oh…okay.” Penny simply nodded, since this seemed to be a sore subject for him. “Anyway, I think we need to try and get away before I have to do another exam and they find out I’m not pregnant,” she said, steering the conversation back to more relevant—and hopefully calmer—waters.
“Agreed.” He frowned. “Which means I have to find some way of getting the Master Control away from the GL.” He tapped the shiny silver pain square at the side of his neck. “If I don’t, this little bastard will fell me like a fucking tree the minute I try to cross over the Compound’s perimeters.”
“But…how are we going to do that?” Penny objected.
“I don’t know—he keeps the damn thing on him all the fucking time.” V’rex shook his head. “I’d have to get close enough to him to pick his pocket—which I could do. I spent some time on the streets after my mother died and my father disowned me. But I don’t know if the ‘Glorious Leader’ would let me get close enough to snatch the Master Control.” He winked at Penny. “I’m not exactly the ragged little urchin I was back in the day when I could slip a diamond ring right off a female’s finger without her even noticing.”
He spoke so casually of his childhood trauma that Penny didn’t know what to say. Was he telling the truth? But then, why would he lie?
“You…grew up on the streets?” she asked uncertainly.
“The mean streets of Chulx on Tenebrian Four.” He shrugged. “But that was only for a few years, until I joined my first gang.” He pointed at the black and gold tattoos that covered both arms and ran up the side of his neck. “Death Snakes. We thought we were so badass. I still have a soft spot in my heart for those bastards, even though I left them years ago to do my own thing.”
Penny bit her lip. “It sounds like…you had kind of a rough childhood. And I thought I had it bad because my parents divorced when I was thirteen.”
“Divorced?” V’rex frowned in apparent confusion.
“Split up,” Penny clarified.
“I had heard that humans don’t bond for life like Kindred,” V’rex remarked. “But it still seems fucking strange to me that you can pledge your life to someone and then just change your mind and leave them for someone else.”
“Well, it wasn’t strange to my dad,” Penny said, frowning. “He decided to run off with his assistant at work—she was about fifteen years younger than my mom and a whole lot thinner and prettier.” She sighed. “That was when I developed an eating disorder. Of course most girls would go the route of anorexia or bulimia but not me—I went the other way.” She patted one thick thigh ruefully.
“An eating disorder?” V’rex looked mystified.
“Yeah. Rather than eating too little I ate, um, too much. Trying to drown my feelings with food, I guess. Of course, I haven’t been eating that much lately because of the way things are here, but I’ve still filled out a lot more than I like.” She gestured at her fuller breasts and hips. “I think it’s the effects of the stupid ‘Mother’s Milk’ they made us drink at the Breeding and Conception Center.”
Penny didn’t know why she was telling him this. Maybe because V’rex himself was in such amazing shape with his cut abs and muscular build, she felt the need to try and excuse herself for having gotten even curvier over the last few weeks. Leave it to her to get abducted by a cult and instead of losing weight from the stress of the awful situation she found herself in, she had somehow gained it instead.
V’rex still looked confused.
“Since when is having luscious full curves considered a disorder?” he asked, frowning at her. “You’re an Elite—that’s what the Twin