Free The Change: Episode one by Angela White Page B

and never once had I been
attracted to any of the females I’d been forced to satisfy. I also
thought I might have seen her before. There was something about
that profile…
    She met my stare, and I quickly dropped my
head, but not before seeing her reaction to my obedience. The
others hadn’t wanted me to make eye contact while they used my
body, it was a Network standard for males to be submissive at all
times, but this one was different. I could see that, but to what
extent? Did she want a real mate? Children and a family like I
did?
    That was what the Den Mothers had tried to
convince us of, but I’d learned it wasn’t true of any of those I’d
met. We were sexually abused, slaved out to the Changeling masses
with death as our only alternative. Did the outside world know how
awful it was to impregnate a stranger and then never get to see
that child or even know if it lived? Did this brutal woman? Did
those things matter to her?
    The heavenly scent of eggs overwhelmed the
soap and dirt of our bodies as the tension thickened. I loved eggs.
They were my favorite and always on my list when I received a meal
of choice. How had she known that? I stared back, trying to puzzle
it out. Did she research the bachelors? Was that how she’d picked
me?
    This violent female was exciting… and
terrifying. Those gentle hands that could break an egg without
shattering the shell could snap my neck. I respected her for it,
for the lethal strength in her slender body, and I wondered at her
control, her reasons for even playing. From the reports, she was
rich. Why hadn’t she just bought a mate?
     
    C
    The second batch of eggs was done and I got
a clean plate from the wall. Daniel had scraped every morsel from
the one in front of him as he watched me.
    He tensed when I turned, but stayed put as I
carefully removed the old one and replaced it with a larger plate.
His face wrinkled in suspicion and then confusion, before his mouth
opened.
    “ Thank you…”
    I nodded, but didn’t
respond. I went back to my sawdust-tasting food with need flaring
hotly in my gut. His
voice ! It was the sound of angels and
devils in perfect harmony, tempting me…
    He abruptly shoved the plate away,
grimacing, and I looked toward the untouched cup. “The milk will
help settle it.”
    He didn’t notice the too-sweet taste and I
watched him gulp it down with flat, black eyes. A very mild
sedative, it would keep him from jumping so much and maybe let him
sleep.
    “ You’ll be on the couch
tonight.”
    The words brought instant relief, and in
it’s wake, confusion. I could see that he wanted to ask why we
wouldn’t share a bed, and I both longed for him to and wished he
wouldn’t. It might all be over if I had to explain it.
    He didn’t question me, and I gestured at the
steamy room I’d come from. “Clean up if you like. There’s a robe
hanging on the back of the door.” My voice lowered into an edge of
anger. “And a medical kit in the cabinet.”
    He immediately moved off to do what I’d
suggested, and I watched him until he was out of sight, thinking of
all the times I’d envisioned this moment, this feeling. Reality was
a patch over a small part of the gaping wound in my heart.
    Knowing he wouldn’t disobey me, I left the
mess for the Network cleaners and crawled onto the room’s only
couch-bed. I slid back to lie along the seam of the cushions,
making it clear where I wanted him, and fell into a light doze
almost immediately. It had been a long week.
     
    D
    She was on the couch. I’d assumed too much.
Covered in only a silken blue robe, I felt very unprotected and
stayed in the doorway. After seeing her matches, I held little hope
she wouldn’t wake up when I climbed onto the secondary bed.
    I tried to be reasonable.
It wasn’t as if I hadn’t done this before… or been hurt before. I
just didn’t like the fear and the pain, and the dirtiness that I knew were waiting
for me afterward. Under it all, the familiar longing to know