Total pages in book: 142
Estimated words: 134725 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 674(@200wpm)___ 539(@250wpm)___ 449(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 134725 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 674(@200wpm)___ 539(@250wpm)___ 449(@300wpm)
“That’s what Daddo said when he yelled… that I poisoned you. He is so angry at me and I feel so, so bad. We thought it was the other stuff. The marrying punch.”
“I’m okay, honey. Come here.”
He crawled closer and cuddled up to me and kept sobbing. Chili hopped down onto the bed and curled up beside us, directly against my body on the opposite side.
I closed my eyes and stroked Ollie’s curly hair and then I began drifting off again until hearing him again say, “I’m sorry, Tanya. I just wanted to help you marry Daddo, so you would be my momma, and I heard you say if you didn’t get married today, you’d die. I didn’t know why and I got scared and Granddad was on the phone so I told Daylin and he told Marko and Marko said he could help.”
“Sweetie, it’s okay.”
He nodded. “I almost killed you when I only w-wanted you to be my m-momma. I didn’t mean it.”
“Honey, I’m fine.”
“Nope, Tanya. Nope. The doctor said if you’d eaten one more cracker, it might have made you dead. And now you’re in danger if you eat any by mistake because all the ones in your body will stay there like they’re waiting to kuh-kill you.”
I gulped. “I’m okay, sweetheart.” I stroked his hair.
“I have to t-tuck you in.” He pushed the blankets tight around me and even though I was overheated, I let him. He put his head on my chest and curled up beside me. He kept shuddering with broken breaths. Finally, a few minutes later, I felt his weight go heavier as his breathing evened out. He’d cried himself to sleep on me. Poor little guy.
Ollie Sr. was sitting in the big chair by the window. I hadn’t noticed he’d come back.
“How are you feeling, little one?”
I nodded. “Just sleepy. My body feels heavy. And hot.” I untucked the side opposite to Ollie to get some relief from the overheating.
“That would be the medication. Close your eyes and rest. I’ll be here until Zane gets back. He won’t be long.”
“M’kay, Pops.” I closed my eyes.
I didn’t drift right off though. It washed over me that Zane and I were married. Ollie was now officially my stepson according to Phallyx laws. When the aphrodisiac wore off, did Zane regret that?
He’d been angry at the notion I’d been trying to trick him. But when I went off on that tangent rant about how I felt, he kissed me. He held me. All that was before the aphrodisiac.
I drifted off feeling like absolute crap but also feeling immense relief about getting to where we were. As long as he didn’t regret it. I truly hoped he didn’t. Just because he kissed me and comforted me didn’t mean he would’ve married me right then if he hadn’t been overcome with sexual urges.
CHAPTER 28
ZANE
The doctor told him a drone could deliver a shipment of the medication she needed. But at that point there was nothing to do but wait for her to wake and Zane found he couldn’t sit there idly waiting. He was too angry about her being in danger. He was angry at his son for doing something so careless. He was furious with Marko for leading Ollie down this path. He was most angry at himself because he’d never, not once since taking her stats and seeing the raised blood alcohol level the day she arrived, taken her body stats to see that there was something going awry with the buildup of the allergen she’d been steadily consuming since he’d given it to her directly after taking her stats.
She’d spent almost three full days with fear. Fear that she’d die because her filthy, lying leaders told her this. After all they’d done… for half a beat Zane wanted to join the movement and bring all their women to Phallyx. Every single Earth woman could be here, with men who would treat them like they deserved. All their women would then learn that they didn’t need to be treated that way. Of course that part of his anger had cooled, and he wasn’t about to help rip millions of women away from their homes. But it was tempting.
Once he knew she was out of danger, he first got all the razzleberries out of his fucking pantry and then he went to a supplier and purchased three times the quantity of the medication that a drone could carry to justify his leaving her. Zane’s father knew that he had to get air, had to busy himself in the moments of feeling powerless. And he needed a minute away from the innocent face of his son who was currently feeling guilty. Rightly so. It would be a lesson for that boy about meddling like that. Zane had very nearly gone two doors over and ripped the head off a teenaged boy in retaliation, too, because Marko was the one that devised the solution to Tanya’s perceived ‘problem’.