Chapter 17: Have you all gone mad?
Raven
I couldn’t speak, but my gaze might as well have been screaming as I stared at the blonde-haired woman, a shocked look etched across my face.
Then I jerked my head to look at the three men seated at the long oak table, still stunned when Rex met my gaze without a hint of embarrassment. It was enough to make me almost flinch back, as though they were the victims and I was the one who had caused their pain.
"If she’s indeed an omega—and with that eye color and how weak she is, I believe she is—have you seen her wolf?" she asked, curiosity burning in her gaze as Rex appeared to be the one to respond with a shake of his head.
"Of course not, Gessia. We only just got her!" he pointed out.
I clenched my hands in my lap, ignoring the surge of pain as my nails bit into my skin, and fixed my gaze on them—one after the other—waiting for someone to explain.
But instead, Rex merely growled and shook his head. "...I still do not think we owe her an explanation. We should simply send her to the dungeons—"
I was taken aback when, this time, Thor spoke, low anger in his voice.
"She will pay for her sin, but how does this make you any different from her? Any better?" he asked, and I felt Rex slam his fists into the table before he spoke.
"...Better? This is revenge, nothing more! If we don’t use her, then she would be dead. At least we would get some use out of her," Rex said, his voice thundering, filled with nothing but anger. His eyes, as he focused his gaze on me, might as well have been dead. It was clear that he considered me to be less.
"As much as it pains me to say this... I agree with Thor. This isn’t about her—this is about us. We are not monsters," Axel said.
Although I should have been relieved, it only made me more wary, wondering just how bad things were that Axel—who hated me to the bone—thought it better to speak up for me.
I still could not speak, as desperately as I wanted to. I had yet to be given permission. Still, my gaze remained fixed on Rex as I waited to hear what he had to say in relation to what the woman had said.
I didn’t have to wait long.
"...As Gessia had just said, as penance for the unforgivable sin against us, you will carry four spawns," Rex spoke, and it felt like fire on my tongue not to be able to speak or react as I heard him continue.
"You will carry our children, and Gessia will, through them, make us more powerful," he said, as I dug my nails deeper into my palms, aware that it was the only thing stopping me from screaming like a banshee that had lost her voice.
Moreover, I was still a bit confused as I sat there. I understood that they wanted children, but there was something they were clearly yet to explain—something that was obvious by the glint in Gessia’s eyes.
This time, it was Thor who chose to speak, without any inflection in his voice. It was cold, but it was honest.
"You will simply conceive, but not give birth to them. By the sixth season of your pregnancy, they will be harvested by Gessia, who will then go ahead and use it to make us more powerful," he explained.
Silence descended into the hall, but even then, Thor did not stop talking—almost like he needed to make sure that I understood.
"Gessia believes that for each of us, you would need to conceive at least five times, which is possible, since as long as an omega woman still goes into heat, she would keep on conceiving."
I could feel my heart thumping heavily in my chest as my ears burned just as hot as my chest did. I wanted to rage and curse, but I knew I couldn’t, which was also the main reason why Rex had yet to give me permission to speak.
That was why he simply continued to glare at me.
But this time, I glared back.
The only thing I seemed to hear from their lips was that death was preferable to whatever fate they had planned for me.
I turned my head and focused on the woman referred to as Gessia, whom I was convinced was not a werewolf. There was a certain confidence that oozed from her—and the unique color of her eyes. There was no way she was an omega; she wasn’t beautiful and fragile enough.
Which left only one other option.
She had to be a witch.
Creatures that were written in old records for werewolves to stay away from, simply because all they ever thought about was power. It was said that they would even sell their souls if it could grant them all they wanted.
I stared at her, and my glare—filled with all the anger I could muster—only seemed to amuse her. The smile she gave me promised nothing but pain.
The silence continued for a while as they all stared at me, until they were convinced that I wasn’t about to make a scene. That was when Rex decided to speak again.
"Do not think that by allowing you to speak, it means you have a choice in this," he began. "By breaking the moon-bound oath, your life belongs to me, and I can do as I please."
He breathed out slowly before speaking again.
"You may speak—until I say otherwise."
I felt the hold on my tongue release.
Moon-oaths were banned, because they were the ones the goddess seemed to take seriously—oaths given in her name. In hindsight, it was the one thing I should have been more careful about before I thought to break it.
"...Have you all gone mad?" I asked, my voice low, but the fury I felt bled into my tone as the words slipped out before I could hold them back.
