“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 Kindred call a female blessed with extra curves. What’s wrong with that, sweetheart?”
“A lot is wrong—at least according to my culture,” Penny said stiffly. She cleared her throat. “Anyway, sorry, I didn’t mean to equate my childhood to yours. Losing your mom and…uh, being disowned by your dad and living on the street and joining a gang is obviously way more traumatic than my dad leaving my mom and me being relentlessly teased in middle school for being, uh, overweight.”
“You’re not overweight,” V’rex insisted. “That’s fucking stupid. And so is letting your past define your future. Yeah, I had a rough time coming up, but I haven’t let it stop me from becoming the most ruthless bastard in this Sector.” He grinned at her, showing sharp white teeth. “Now, back to our escape plan.”
Penny raised an eyebrow.
“Our escape plan?”
He shrugged.
“Well, you can always try to escape without me. And if we can’t find a way to get the Master Control off the GL, I’ll want you to,” he continued. “But I think it would be safer together—especially for you. I’ll want to be able to heal you and give you immunity to poison in the jungle. And speaking of healing you…” He patted his knee and beckoned to her. “Come here.”
“What? Why?” Penny shrank back against the cold glass door of the shower stall uncertainly. “What do you want to do to me?”
“Nothing painful or sexual,” he growled impatiently. “I just want to heal you—heal the place where I branded you with my initial.”
He pointed to her upper left breast where the tiny V was still red and swollen and painful.
Penny looked at him suspiciously.
“Does this involve ‘stinging’ me again?”
“No—I told you I wouldn’t sting you without your consent, didn’t I?” He frowned at her. “Look, you’re gonna have to get used to being around me—touching me and letting me touch you, sweetheart. How the hell are we gonna play the happy couple together if you shy away from me every time I reach for you?”
He had a point, Penny supposed. But she was still reluctant to put herself in his power—he was so big and strong and unpredictable. Despite
