Imprisoned in the breeding center for her part in Scarlet’s escape, Angelica has to have sex with a man she’s never seen or met. When she discovers that he is unwilling, she vows to get him free instead of using him.
Colt is a kidnap victim, blindfolded by his captor, then tied to a bed, and used repeatedly by a woman who he can only identify by the long dark hair he finds on his body. When a woman with dark brown hair comes into the room and tries to free him, he knows it’s the woman who has been using him. He vows vengeance, and in his escape takes her with him. Is she guilty? Or does he have the wrong woman?
Angelica felt like she was in prison for a month, but she knew it was only a week.
After her aborted escape attempt with Scarlet and the others, the Phoenix had deemed her unfit for freedom, and locked her in the cell in the breeding hall until they were ready with the male who would sire her child.
She’d mentally kicked herself countless times for not going through that tear with the others. It had been her one hope of avoiding the breeding, but seeing Scarlet whipped had made Angelica sick to her stomach, and she’d known they would never make a proper escape if she didn’t stay behind and help Desembara to keep the other phoenixes from following the women through the portal.
She got up off the narrow cot and started pacing again. Her breeding had been planned for a long time, and she was very near her fertile period now, but it didn’t mean Angelica had to like it.
She wanted nothing to do with it.
She didn’t want to have to have sex with a male so she could conceive one of the next generations of phoenix. The males of her species who had decided to fight to the death wasn’t her fault.
Angelica shook her head because she was being unfair. Many hundreds of years ago, the phoenix had lived on the Earth plane with the other Eternals, but the necromancers had craved the power they could have from enslaving a mature phoenix. So, the phoenix had been hunted until just about all the men had died protecting their women. They had refused to let their women carry arms or help in the fight.
Stupid testosterone.
When there were no more than a few phoenixes left. The remaining elder women had pooled their power and brought the survivors to this plane, and from then on, they’d shunned men. They only allowed female phoenix children to survive while they kidnapped the shifter males, bringing them to the plane for breeding purposes.
They didn’t target any other type of eternal for the breeding. To make a phoenix, you needed the mother’s fire and the father’s beast, so only lycans and therins were taken, and the child born from the union would usually have the male’s animal form.
The phoenix women had no choice in the matter either. They had one male per phoenix to breed with and once the deed was done, the male was taken away.
What happened to the male, Angelica didn’t know. She had a feeling the elder women killed him, and the thought put a cold spot in her stomach.
She turned at the stone wall and paced towards the wooden door.
One step, two steps, three steps, four steps, door.
She turned again and paced to the wall. She could count every stone, knew each piece of mortar personally, and felt like she was going to go insane from the confined space and the isolation.
Her food—what little she got—was shoved through a slot in the door with no word spoken. She was a prisoner of her own people, and it rankled her on the deepest level.
She sat down on the wooden bed and picked up her small eating blade. They’d left a blade and a fork with her since there was no way she could do real harm to herself with either.
She shifted to the foot of the bed and continued carving the bedpost into the shape of an owl. Angelica’s animal form was that of an owl, though she didn’t spend much time as one, but she loved the freedom of flying, and the thrill of the hunt.
Angelica stopped carving when she heard footfalls approaching her cell. She put the knife down and stood, dusting off her robe.
It wasn’t time for a meal. She swallowed the surge of nervousness that tried to claw its way up her throat. It had to be time for the breeding. Someone was fetching her to take her to the male so he could do what he needed to do to impregnate her.
Her pulse raced, terror snaking through her stomach like something alive. She didn’t want to do this. She hated that they were forcing her to do this. There had to be a way to get out of this. She’d spent too much time depressed about her
