Darcy gave a short, disbelieving laugh. She was being blamed for being stalked, terrified, and now waking up chained to a bed?
That was going over the line.
"Forgive me, but I don't make a habit of listening to strange men who stalk me through the streets of Chicago."
"A pity. You managed to lead Salvatore around like a fool, which I must admit does have its amusing moments, but I don't possess his patience. It's time you are with your family."
Family.
How many years had she longed for a family?
To be surrounded by her loved ones in a place she could truly call home?
She gave a sharp tug on the shackles. "Funny, I don't feel much like the prodigal daughter. Maybe it's the whole being chained to the bed thing."
"You'll have your fatted calf soon enough, my dear, but first you must prove you are willing to accept your position among the Weres," Sophia drawled.
"I can hardly accept a position that I know nothing about."
"Yes, it is unfortunate that you were not raised among your people." Sophia heaved a long-suffering sigh. "Your ignorance of our ways is making this all far more difficult than it should be."
Okay, that was it.
She was tired, her jaw ached, and the once burning desire to discover the truth of her past had turned into a sour ball of disappointment in the pit of her stomach.
"Unfortunate?" Her voice lowered to a furious growl. "It's unfortunate that I was kidnapped as a baby and then tossed from one home to another before landing on the street? It's unfortunate that I've spent thirty years feeling like a freak, always avoiding other people and wondering what the hell is wrong with me? It's unfortunate that I learn I'm a ... werewolf by a stranger? I'd say it's a little more than unfortunate."
Sophia rolled her eyes as she stepped toward the bed. "Oh, God, stop your sulking. Life is a bitch for all of us. The only thing that matters is that you're back where you belong." She stiffened in annoyance as Darcy abruptly laughed. "What is so amusing?"
Darcy gave a shake of her head as she struggled to contain her dark humor.
"I was just thinking of the old saying."
"What old saving?"
"Be careful what you wish for."
It took a moment before Sophia realized that Darcy was referring to her.
"Ah." A sneering smile touched her lips. "Salvatore warned me that you would be hoping for June Cleaver."
Well, what the heck was wrong with that?
Home-cooked dinners, being tucked into bed, a soft kiss on the cheek ...
Darcy grimaced. "And instead I got Mommie Dearest"
Sophia shrugged her indifference. "I suppose that is true enough. You know, I am not really such a horrible person, but I will admit I have little interest in being a mother. It's always seemed a very tedious job with few rewards."
"What about the love of your children? Surely that's worth something?"
"Not nearly enough. Perhaps when you have been a breeder for a few centuries you will understand."
Darcy gave a choked sound. She didn't know what a breeder was, but it didn't sound like a position she wanted to take on.
"A breeder?" she demanded warily.
"That's what we are, you know," Sophia drawled. "Female purebloods have one purpose among the pack, and that is to produce as many litters as physically possible."
Darcy widened her eyes. "Sheesh, do you actually have .. . litters?"
"Puppies?" She gave a sharp laugh. "No, our children are born as humans. We call them litters because we usually carry more than one child at a time, and of course, they do possess the blood of wolves."
Well, that was a quasi-relief. And it reminded Darcy of the one good thing left in this entire mess.
"Salvatore said that I have three sisters?"
"Yes."
"Will I be allowed to meet them?"
"If we can manage to capture them." The green eyes flashed with annoyance. "They are proving to be just as great a pain in the ass as you, my dear."
Darcy was torn between relief that her poor sisters had managed to avoid her own fate, and a regret that she might never meet them.
Sisters seemed like a wonderful thing to possess.
"Are there any others?" she demanded. "I mean, did you have more than one ... litter?"
There was a pause before Sophia shrugged. "I've been pregnant over a hundred times."
"Good lord."
"The pregnancies rarely last beyond the first few months. None survived to birth beyond you and your sisters."
Something that might have been sorrow briefly flashed over the beautiful face before Sophia was slipping back behind her mask of sardonic indifference.
Darcy's breath caught in unwelcome sympathy. Dang it. She didn't want to consider how painful it might be for a woman to become pregnant over and over while always knowing that death waited just a breath away.
Or to ponder the thought that any woman would learn to protect her emotions from such disappointments. And perhaps even to become cynical over the passing centuries.
She didn't want to sympathize with this woman who treated her as if she were an irritating piece of stray property that was necessary to her plans.
"I'm sorry," she muttered before she could halt the words.
"It is a fact of life for Weres."
"Why?" Darcy demanded, recalling Levet's earlier reference to the Weres' lack of children. "I mean . . . why so many miscarriages?"
Sophia made an impatient sound. "Really, darling, use that brain of yours. Can you imagine what happens to a woman's body when she shifts?"
Darcy grimaced. She wasn't entirely sure what was involved with shifting, but it didn't sound good.
"No, actually I can't imagine."
"Well let me assure you that as exhilarating as it might be, it is also extremely violent."
"Oh."
"Yes, oh." With a restless motion, her mother paced across the narrow floor. "There are legends that in the Dark Ages a pureblood female could control her shifts, even during a full moon, so that she could carry her children without fear of miscarriage. If that is true, then the talent was lost long ago."
"So you have to shift whether you want to or not?"
"During the full moon, yes." Sophia halted to regard Darcy with a meaningful gaze. "And, on occasion, when someone is stupid enough to press my temper."
Darcy ignored the less than subtle threat. "So how can I possibly be your daughter? I've never... changed shape."
"And that is what makes you so very special, darling." The green gaze flicked dismissively over Darcy's slender body. "A female pureblood who doesn't shift. The perfect breeding machine."
Breeding machine? Ew. Not in this lifetime.
Now, however, didn't seem the time to argue the point.
"Why don't I shift?" she demanded instead.
"Good God, don't ask me." Sophia gave a faint shiver. "Salvatore can give you all the boring scientific details. Something to do with altering cells or DNA, I think."
Darcy didn't try to hide her shock. Holy crap. She had been prepared for the strange, the bizarre, and even the mystical. A scientific experimentation was at the very bottom of the list.
"Genetics?"
"Yes, that's it."
"I've been genetically altered?"
"Yes, my love." A taunting smile touched her lips. "You are the werewolf equivalent of Dr. Frankenstein's monster."
A low growl echoed through the room as the door was thrust open and Salvatore stepped over the threshold.
"Shut your mouth, Sophia, or I will shut it for you."
Chapter Twenty-Two
Darcy sucked in a sharp breath as the dark, fiercely handsome Salvatore stepped into the room. As always he was wearing a silk suit that was worth a small fortune, this one in a pale blue with a dark charcoal tie. His black hair had been smoothed and tied at the nape of his neck to better reveal the elegant perfection of his male features.
His e
legance, however, didn't diminish the dark aggression that smoldered in the golden eyes or the air of violence that suddenly filled the room.
He wasn't pleased with Sophia and looked ready to do something about it.
Darcy instinctively stiffened. If the two Weres were about to go to battle then she didn't want to be tied in the middle.
Seemingly indifferent to the danger, Sophia strolled to stand behind Salvatore, her slender hands stroking over his shoulders with an obvious intimacy.
"All, Salvatore. You see, I have managed to accomplish what you could not," she said in a throaty tone. "Not surprising. A woman is usually more capable than a man, no matter how he likes to think himself superior."
He shrugged off her touch, his gaze remaining on Darcy's pale face.
"The only thing you've managed to accomplish is to terrify your own daughter. I hope you're pleased?"
"At least she is here and not in the clutches of the vampires," Sophia countered, moving to lean against the wall in a well-practiced pose. It was no doubt a pose that made most men foam at the mouth, but unfortunately for her, Salvatore never even bothered to glance in her direction. Her expression hardened. "If you possessed any spine at all you would have taken her the moment you arrived in Chicago. She would already be in your bed and carrying her first litter."
"Hey." Darcy gave a frustrated tug on the chains. "Wait a minute—"
"Leave us," Salvatore interrupted in a low tone.
Sophia laughed. "Tell me, Salvatore, are you man enough to take her while she's chained and helpless?"
A low growl trickled from Salvatore's throat as he slowly turned his head.
"I will not tell you again, Sophia. Leave us."
There was a tense moment before Sophia at last offered a mocking bow. "Of course, Your Majesty." Moving to the door she paused to cast a glance over at the bed. "Try not to injure her. She is my daughter, after all."
With her warning delivered, Sophia stepped into the hall and closed the door.
Alone with Salvatore, Darcy shifted uneasily on the bed. She didn't really believe that this man would actually rape her while she was chained to the bed. Not after he had taken such care over the past days to try to win her trust.
But she felt annoyingly vulnerable as he moved toward the bed and gazed down at her.
Her mother had made it painfully clear that she had been genetically engineered for one purpose: to have children for the Weres.
They were obviously desperate.
How long could Salvatore's patience possibly last?
She flinched as he reached a slender hand toward her face. "Don't..."
The dark eyes flashed with regret. "Darcy, I did not want it to be this way. Are you hurt?"
"Don't touch me."
His hand dropped and his expression became one of wounded arrogance.
"Despite my heritage, I'm not an animal, Darcy. I won't harm you."
"No. You seem to have an unending supply of women to do that for you," she muttered, still smarting from the blow she had taken from her mother. Not to mention her run-in with the lovely Jade.
His nose flared with an anger that filled the room with a prickling heat.
"I have an unending supply of women who possess the poor habit of interfering in my business."
She could hardly argue with that.
"And what's your business with me?"
"I have told you, cara." His gaze slowly moved down the length of her body. "I wish you to be my consort. I assure you that it is a position of great honor among our people."
She pressed herself into the hard mattress. It wasn't that she was entirely oblivious to this man's attractions. He was breathtakingly handsome and blessed with the sort of charisma most women would find irresistible.
Perhaps under different circumstances she might have found herself pleased with his attentions.
But the current circumstances included being stalked, chained to a bed, and informed she possessed a genetically altered womb so she could carry litter after litter for the pack.
Not the sort of thing to dazzle any woman.
Besides, he wasn't Styx.
And that was that.
"I don't doubt that it is a position of great honor," she said slowly. "But what if I don't want it?"
He smiled to reveal his perfect white teeth. "You will."
"You're very certain of yourself."
"Our union was destined from the day you were born. There is no escaping it."
She glanced pointedly at her wrists. "Obviously not if you intend to keep me chained to the bed."
"I would release you if you would give your word that you will not try to escape." His smile faded as he met her gaze steadily. "May I have your promise?"
Darcy gritted her teeth. It would be so simple to lie. Just open her lips and promise him whatever he wanted.
It's what she wanted to do.
Salvatore's trust might very well offer her the opportunity to escape. Reason enough for any lie.
But more importantly, if she could free herself soon then she could return to Styx before the dangerous vampire made the horrible situation even worse.
Darcy shivered. She didn't know what time it was, but she suspected that it was late afternoon. Which meant that sundown was only an hour or two away.
Only an hour or two before Styx would be able to follow her trail and charge to the rescue.
She would do anything to avoid the inevitable confrontation.
Unfortunately, the word simply wouldn't cross her lips.
She couldn't utter a blatant lie beneath that steady gaze.
"No."
"Then I fear the chains must remain," he said. "At least for a time. Eventually you will become reconciled to your fate."
Darcy gave a short, humorless laugh. "To become a ... breeder? I don't think so."
Salvatore's expression hardened with annoyance. "Sophia's doing, I suppose. She should learn to keep her mouth shut."
"Why?" Darcy studied his dark eyes. "Did you intend to keep secret the fact that I am a scientific experiment? Or that my sole purpose in life is to produce as many children as possible?"
Surprisingly, he winced at her blunt accusations. Even more surprisingly, his eyes darkened as if he felt at least a small prick of guilt.
"Cam, it is no secret that for centuries the Weres have been fading," he said in a low voice, an unmistakable pain edging his words. "The pureblood females lose more and more children, and even the curs have become rare. We are rapidly looking into the face of extinction."
Darcy bit her lip as her stupid heart threatened to soften. "I... I'm sorry, but..."
Salvatore held up a slender hand. "Wait. I want you to understand, Darcy," he said, his tone nearly pleading. "I hired an entire battalion of doctors and scientists to assist us quite simply because we are desperate. We have to have children if we are to survive."
She struggled to hang on to her perfectly reasonable anger. She was a person, not a piece of property to be manufactured and shoved into her proper role.
"And they came up with the brilliant idea to mess around with my DNA?" she demanded.
"The scientists isolated the genes that make us shift and suppressed them in you and your sisters." He paused before reaching out to lightly touch her cheek. "It is hoped that you will be able to carry my children to full term if you do not shift."
Darcy jerked from his lingering touch. "Your children?"
His dark brows lifted. "I am the king. I am always given first choice of females."
Her brief flare of sympathy was effectively squashed.
That tended to happen when a man began yapping as if he didn't have a brain in his head.
1 am always given first choice of females...
Jackass.
"Not this female," she snapped.
He frowned, almost as if he was caught off guard by her annoyance. "You are a part of my pack, cara. It is tradition."
"It may be your tradition, but
it's certainly not mine," she gritted. Jeez, she thought Styx was arrogant. He was an amateur compared to this man. "Do you truly believe that I would jump into bed with a complete stranger for any reason?"
Salvatore gave a lift of his brows. "I am not opposed to waiting a day or two to become better acquainted."
"A day or two?"
He shrugged. "By then you will be fertile."
Darcy gave a strangled sound. "Gripes. Has anyone ever told you that your pickup lines suck?"
His lips twitched. "You want me to court you with sweet words and false promises?"
Darcy stiffened as she recalled Styx's dark, beautiful voice whispering in her ear as he made love to her.
That's what she wanted.
So desperately it made her heart ache.
"You can save your sweet words for some other woman."
"For the next few months there will be no other woman." His eyes narrowed. "Until you are pregnant I will remain faithful."
She just stared at him for a long moment.
"You can't be serious."
"I'm perfectly serious."
She gave a short laugh. "Just when I think this can't get any worse it does."
"I have just promised to be faithful. How can that be worse?"
She pushed herself from the headboard to stab him with a narrow glare. "Tell me, Salvatore, after I've produced a litter for you am I going to be passed along to the other pureblood males so they can try their luck?"
He studied her with a frown. "You will have your choice of bed partners."
Disgusted by the entire situation, Darcy gave a lift of her chin. Enough was enough. She would throw herself out the window before she would ever agree to such a soulless arrangement.
Children should be the result of two people who are committed to one another and can provide a home that is filled with love and security.
She understood that need more than anyone.
Besides, she already belonged to another.
Race, duty, nor iron shackles would ever change that.
"There's only one man whom I will have in my bed, and he's not a Were."
A sharp silence descended as Salvatore stepped toward the bed.
"Forget your vampire," he growled. "As much as I hate to agree with Sophia on anything, she is right. I have wasted too much time. You belong to me. There is no choice for either of us."
Guardians of Eternity 03 - Darkness Everlasting Page 27