“The Soldiers said so that I could become a bride to the General’s sons. That didn’t really make sense to me,” Janelle said with a frown.
My hearts leapt at those words. I brought the cup back up to her lips while reflecting on my response.
“It actually does make sense,” I said cautiously, drawing a stunned expression from Janelle. “A couple of years after the General had kidnapped your parents, he also abducted a large number of human females with psychic abilities—the first humans to have taken the enzyme. He forced those females to have children with him, not Soldiers, but hybrids.”
Janelle’s jaw dropped. She stiffened, and her pale skin became even paler. She squinted, her damaged eyes locked onto my Deynian horn as she put two and two together. I held my breath, my chest constricting at the thought that horror or disgust might descend upon her features.
“What happened to those sons?” she asked, her voice no louder than a whisper.
“They revolted, rescued their mothers, and fought in the war against General Khutu,” I said forcefully, hoping she would hear the sincerity in my voice.
She nodded slowly before licking her lips in a nervous gesture. To my complete shock, she lifted her hand towards my face, her movements still shaky from her weakened state. I leaned forward and swallowed hard as her hand roamed over the chitin scales on my cheek and my forehead before her fingers traced the curve of my crescent-moon horn.
“That’s why you have a Kryptid horn,” she said softly. “You are one of his sons.”
“He sired me, but he was not my father,” I said with undisguised hatred.
She nodded again, her hand lingering a moment longer on my horn then on my face, before dropping back towards the cup. Hearts pounding, I helped her drink the last of the broth, then put the cup back down.
She hasn’t condemned me or shown revulsion.
Janelle had even touched me.
“He was changing me so that I could be a compatible mate for you, then?”
My breath caught in my throat, and my stomach did a backflip at the unexpected comment. Although she had worded it as a question, her tone had been more of a statement.
“Yes,” I said, tension constricting my throat.
She pondered for a second. “I think you would make a good mate, a caring mate.”
“I would certainly endeavor to do so,” I said a little too eagerly.
Janelle smiled, and her face softened. “Can I have some watermelon now? I can barely see them.”
“Of course, my darling,” I instinctively said, although getting a bit of a whiplash at the sudden change of topic. I stuck a fork in a plump cube before bringing it to her lips. Her moan of pleasure sent a delightful shiver down my spine. I loved seeing her happy and content. “But you need to slow down. You barely chewed that!”
Janelle pouted, clearly eager for another piece. “I’ll go slower with the next one,” she conceded, opening her mouth for more.
“Not yet,” I said firmly, but gently. “We need to wait a little to see how your stomach reacts.”
She glared at me. “I take back what I said about you making a good mate.”
I burst out laughing and shook my head at my mate. “Too late. You can’t take it back.”
I asked her a few more questions, dancing around the topics that needed answers, trying to find a way to ease into it, but she spared me the trouble.
“Just a few days after my eleventh birthday, the General decided to shut down the base because he couldn’t bend the Creckels to his will,” Janelle said bitterly. “He had reassigned my father to a new project involving Mimics, and he wanted the Soldiers to take me with them as well, I’m not sure what for. My mother was to stay at the base to ‘take care’ of the Creckels. I found out later that meant sending body parts and fluids to be used in other experiments.”
I slightly stiffened upon hearing the part about the Mimics. I hadn’t realized experimentation on the nearly extinct species had begun such a long time ago. Janelle then went on to describe how her parents tried to resist and how the Creckels slaughtered the Soldiers to protect them before the Kryptids blew the place up.
“My father died in the explosion. His chances of survival had been slim anyway. Mom made it back inside the great hall and closed the door,” Janelle continued, a pained expression on her face. “The ventilation alveoli on the ceiling managed to filter the small amount of toxin that had made it into the room. But Mom had already breathed in a bit too much of it on her way in.”
“It killed her,” I said sympathetically.
“Yes, but not right away. It took nearly three months of her getting sicker every day and fighting it with what supplies we had left,” my mate said, her eyes looking up and sideways as she recalled her memories. “She spent those few weeks making me the optical aid,” Janelle added, absentmindedly touching the port on her temple. “And then she taught me everything she could, saying the most important thing was to maintain the membrane and find a way out.”
“And despite all of that, and at such a young age, you survived and kept your companions alive as well,” I said with undisguised pride and admiration. “You are a true fighter.”
Janelle’s lips quivered with gratitude and sadness. “I was just scared and questioning everything. Brees and the others kept me alive. I wouldn’t have made it this long all alone.”
Careful not to bump into the hovering tray in front of her, I wrapped an arm around my mate’s shoulders and pulled her against me. She rested her head on my chest, and I gently caressed her hair.
“I just wish I could have helped the others, too,” she whispered miserably.
“The others?” I asked, slightly pulling away to look at her face.
“The original Creckels abducted from Dreija,” she said, looking up at me. “There were more than one hundred of them in stasis in the basement. My parents would take one or two as needed to pursue the experiments. One day, the Soldiers came to retrieve a couple of them at the request of the General. Something went wrong and a few of the Creckels woke up. They killed the Soldiers and tried to escape the base through the lift. The Soldiers gassed them, but the Creckels went into that ball form so the toxin didn’t affect them until the alveoli cleared the air. They then woke up the other Creckels in stasis. When more Soldiers went in, the Creckels slaughtered them again, so the Kryptids condemned the access to the basement and sealed it.”
My heart sank at the realization of so many lives lost. “When did that happen?”
“Almost three months before they imprisoned us inside as well,” Janelle said, her shoulders slouching. “We tried to get them out, but we didn’t have the tools to pierce through the thick metal plate they had placed over it. They’ve been stuck there for twenty years without food, water, or oxygen.”
I nodded sadly. “There was nothing you could do. Despite that, you still saved many other lives. And tomorrow, the rest of your friends will also feel the sun.”
She beamed at me, the beautiful dark brown eyes misting. “Can I see it again?”
“Tomorrow,” I promised. “Right now, let’s finish feeding you, and then you will rest while I work on your optical aid.
Janelle pursed her lips in that adorable pout that was totally growing on me, but happily opened her mouth to receive the piece of pear I was offering her. By the time she finished eating, with still tons of fruit left on her plate, my mate was once more struggling to keep her eyes opened. She only gave in after I promised not to leave her alone in the room.