Page 31 of Bikar

Gathering her closer, I offer comfort the only way I can. “We do not have to speak of this any longer, if you do not wish to. I would not ask you to recall something so painful.”

The back of her hand makes contact with my chest before she gently chastises me. “Bikar.”

Tilting my head, I peer down at her. “Yes, my doe.”

“Hush, now.” Her rebuke is tenderly spoken. “If I didn’t wanna talk about this, I wouldn’t. Do some research here in a bit and look up the‘getting to know you’part of dating. It’ll give you some context for what I’m doing and why I’m doing it.”

“Query noted.”

Her little snicker makes me smile, and I pantomimezipping my lipsin a gesture that makes her snort out a laugh.

“I’m not even gonna ask how you learned that one. Anyway… I remember them opening the door to that pod, puking up that vile green stuff, being scruffed like a dog and dunked into some sort of solution that cleaned the slime off, before being tossed naked into that holding cell. I’ve always been good at remembering faces, so I know Ruby, Rowan, Heather, Gwen, and I were all in the same cell. The only reason we were left after the… auction is because we all had somethingwrongwith us.”

She pauses.

Then shifts back so she can see my entire face, not just the underside of my jaw, and what she says next shocks me to my core.

CHAPTER 28

BAMBI

Pausing, I take a second and debate if I really want to tell him the rest or not. Let him know my deepest, darkest secret. The one that still wakes me up some nights in a cold sweat.

If he’s going to be my… mate, he deserves to know.

“My father killed my mother when I was a little girl. I watched him do it. Tried to stop him. Got thrown into a wall for my efforts. After she was gone, I became the one who cooked, cleaned, and did everything else in the house, including running errands in the nearby town that my father deemed beneath him. But all of that’s nothing compared to what he did right before I ran away.”

Bikar’s squeezing me so tight I can barely breathe, but instead of making me panic, I feel safer than I ever have in my life. “Your sire killed your mam?! Such a thing can be done amongst your species?”

Nodding against his chest, I reply. “Yeah, Bikar. Humans don’t have bonds that tie them together like your people, so if one spouse kills the other, there aren’t any sort of repercussions unless they’re caught and punished by law enforcement. Thecommunity covered his crime up pretty quickly, and no one ever said her name again. It was like she never existed at all.”

I know I sound heartbroken. It’s been almost twenty years since my mom died, but that doesn’t mean I miss her any less.

“What was her name?”

Did he really just ask me her name? This man… I swear.

Wiping my nose with the back of my hand, I have to clear my throat before I can speak. “Mirabelle. Her name was Mirabelle.”

“That is a beautiful name. I hesitate to ask, but you stated that your sire transgressed worse than murdering your mam. Though I cannot imagine what is worse…”

“Noticed that, did you?”

Bikar’s chest rumbles beneath my ear before a menacing growl slips past his lips, and he grits his teeth with barely restrained patience. “Bambi, little doe, please unburden yourself to me.”

Well, if he’s going to ask so nicely, might as well.

“After I turned eighteen, I figured out why my dad kept me around. He sat me down at our kitchen table and gloated about all of it. I was supposed to be his cash cow. He planned on selling my virginity to the highest bidder in the community and then, essentially, whoring me out after… but that was the planbeforeLeader Clark decided I was his ‘chosen one.’ I couldn’t have been more than ten years old when I was selected to be his bride. I mean, who the hell picks a child out like something at the market?”

Risking a quick glance to check his reaction, I’m not shocked to see his face creased with disgust. Nodding in silent agreement, I resume my story. “It was an instant ego boost for Dad, but my mom, I found out, was horrified. My dad thought mom was subservient enough that she would just go along with his plans, but she was most assuredly not. She tried to run awaywith me, to save me from what the men of our community had planned.”

Wiping the back of my hand across my eyes, I brush the tears away. “Dad caught her in the act. That’s why he killed her. He couldn’t afford for her to disappear with me since I’d been marked as the fulfillment of a ‘prophecy’of some sort. It would boost his social standing in the community, and he cared about appearances more than anything.”

Inhaling sharply, I spit the rest out while I still have the courage. “A couple of months after I turned eighteen, I was forcibly taken to a chamber underground andcleansedbefore I was to be wedded, bedded, and impregnated by a man three times my age.”

Shoving my long sleeves up to my elbows, I slowly raise my arms so Bikar canseewhat I can’t verbally articulate. I know the second he notices the scars that crisscross up and down my skin because his entire body freezes; his chest doesn’t even move to take a breath. Several moments of silence go by, and my nerves are about shot when he suddenly jumps to his feet.

“Bikar, what are you doing?”