Lie to Me (2 page)

The gene passed only through the female line, and the affluent had turned it into a game, racing to breed the first male with the rare DNA. Some scientists thought no male would ever receive the marker.

Kella didn’t care about male offspring or if any would ever be born Xeno. She just wanted out of this freakin’ nightmare.

Her caretaker led-dragged her to the stairs while she winced at his pinching grip. Once he presented her to the steps, she couldn’t force her feet to climb them to the top of the block to parade herself to her would-be buyers. Undeterred, her caretaker gave off an irritated grunt, and bitched about whiny dregs right before he slung her over his shoulder hard enough she lost her breath.

The caretaker ascended the steps. Each bounce of his shoulder against Kella’s belly elicited a squeak from her. At the top, he settled her on her feet. His hands landed on her shoulders, and he roughly spun her around for the crowd’s inspection, before turning her to face the audience.

“Behave,” he said in harsh whisper, “Or I’ll personally see that your mother suffers for your misbehavior.”

Kella jerked as if he struck her, and her gaze slid to Regent Peter Emmerson. Stone’s dad nodded at her guardian. Tears blurred her vision, and she made a futile attempt to swipe them away. Murmurs filtered around her. All the comments she caught were about her ‘breeding stock’ and how she’d make pretty children.

“Esteemed ladies and gentlemen, I come before you today with one of the rarest offerings, an X-gene. She’s been educated in the Regent’s home, so she’s less likely to embarrass.” A twitter of laughter surfaced, and her cheeks burned with the ridicule toward her class. “Mackella Starke is five-four, weighs one-ten, and is fourteen years old. She has all her teeth and suffers no visible blemishes. The X-gene is strong in her, showing up on an unheard of fifty-five of her fifty-six chromosomes. As you can see, she’s a lovely creature with superior breeding attributes. If you’ll check your devices, you’ll see close up pictures of her for your inspection.”

Whispers increased, sounding like a hive of buzzing bees, as they checked their Regent-issued devices and perused her photos. Degrading snapshots she’d been forced to endure, some of them naked, others with her lips pulled back so her teeth would show. She’d borne the humiliation because what choice did she have?

“Lovely girl,” a woman said. “She could breed us fine children, darling.”

“I don’t know. She’s not to my tastes,” Kella surmised it was the husband that responded.

None of this was to her taste, but no one cared about her wants. Not even Momma. When she’d voiced finding a way to run, her mother, Judy, warned her to follow the law, and to do as she was told or they’d both endure the consequences of her reckless actions. Fear for her parent was all that kept her in line at the X-gene camp, and all that kept her from fleeing toward the door in this moment. Not that’d she’d make it. Kella held no delusions. They’d capture her before she traversed half the room.

“I want her.” The woman’s voice grew petulant. “Please consider purchasing her for me. You promised me anything for our anniversary. I want her.”

Shivers racked Kella’s body at the coldness of the couple’s discussion. She’d always been one to hang out on the fringe of a crowd. Being front and center, and forced to submit to their inspection, shamed her to the point she kept her eyes downcast. It was easier to face their derision if she didn’t look at their faces.

How could they think themselves better than her, but want to use her body to breed a superior race?

“Does anyone wish to submit a question before the auction begins?”

Dead silence. That unnerved her more than the chatter.

Kella swept her gaze about the room, spying Stone’s mom, Lucy. She talked to her husband, her animation hinting at the woman’s annoyance. Mrs. Emmerson shook a finger at Stone’s dad, but his glare at whatever she said had Lucy stalking from the room. Thankfully, Stone was nowhere to be seen. Maybe his dad had dismissed him from the auction. Thank God for that small favor.

Not that she’d ever see Stone again after today, anyway. That reality caused her bottom lip to tremble, and Kella clenched her teeth together to halt the betrayal of emotion. She would miss him.

“Get on with it,” someone in the crowd yelled. “I don’t care if she’s bucktoothed and web footed. My boy wants her, and I’ll pay anything for him to have her.”

Notching her chin a little higher, Kella squared her shoulders.
I will not cry. I will not cry. I will not cry, damnit!

At least she’d been spared the humiliation of Stone watching her degradation. She would face the crowd’s mockery with bravery, with the grace Stone asked of her in everything and she rarely gave him because creating mayhem was more her style. But when a dreg demanded justice of elitists, the result often ended in chaos rather than fairness.

“Very well.” The caretaker gripped her by her nape, and she took his hold as a warning to behave. At this point, she feared her legs wouldn’t carry her even if she tried to run. And she knew sticking her tongue out at the crowd, or throwing a childish tantrum would only amuse those present. The end result would be the same. She’d be bought and carted off to a stranger’s house to bear his children against her will. Rape in the ancient’s language. That word held no meaning for dregs in today’s society. Only elitists were afforded safety from the vile act. “I’ll start the bidding at twenty frams.”

Prices flew from the crowd, escalating to a ridiculously high nine thousand frams, and the amount continued to climb. Kella zoned out, dismissing the throng and retreating into herself while wishing her mortification would soon end.

My mortification will only increase when I’m naked and defiled
.

Maybe she could find some inventive way to flee where her mother couldn’t be reprimanded too. If that didn’t work, she wasn’t opposed to ending her life. The idea of another man besides Stone touching her...she shuddered.

“Fifty thousand frams!” The room silenced at
his
bid.

Kella came out of her trance at the shocking sum. She slid her gaze along the crowd, looking for the auction-goer. Finding him at the back, near the windows, her fingers began to tingle as Stone returned her stare. His father stood at his side, neither of them showing a hint of emotion.

How can he betray me like this
? He knew she wanted no part of this system. She’d confided her dreams in him. Her hope of being infertile and X-gene free, and becoming an archeologist.

All of a sudden chatter boomed in the quiet of the room. Someone called out fifty-one thousand frams.

“Sixty thousand frams.” Staring her straight in the eyes, Stone said cool as ice, “No price is too high for the mother of my children.”

“Sold!” The caretaker boomed a few moments later when no further offers were given.

Her breathing sounded loud in her ears, labored.

Stone stepped forward, and his voice was loud enough for all to hear. “I take Mackella Starke as my wife, with all protection afforded to her by my House.”

Patrons congratulated him on his purchase and wished him many children with his ‘lovely bride’.

Kella wanted to vomit.
I thought he cared about me.

I’m so dumb. He’ll be Regent, and like all of the privileged he feels entitled to my genes.

But this was
Stone
! He’d been her best friend for eight years. They’d planned their future together, not
together-together
, but as friends shared secrets with one another.

And now he owns me
.
His will is my will, my dreams forgotten.

Someone emitted a high-pitched scream right before blackness consumed Kella.

***

K
ella woke to a sharp sting in her neck, and an even sharper retort. “Be still.”

Her tears could no longer be halted, she wept as the tattooist marked her as Stone’s chattel. Stone’s wife. Freedom gone, exploited at the hands of the crème de le crème, she wept for the life she’d dreamed of, but would never have.

“I’m finished.” The tattooist roughly smeared liquid onto Kella’s neck that stung so bad she would’ve cried if she hadn’t gone numb.

Head spinning, she was grateful Stone’s father helped her to sit up until Peter said, “That sigil will keep a little slut like you honest while making it clear you’re off limits to all but Stone.”

Kella gasped at his slur. She had no idea why he thought so little of her.

“Don’t pretend you’re shocked. I see through you. Your momma’s a whore, too. Why do you think I keep her so close? All dregs are sluts, especially you Xenos, willingly spreading your legs for the man who buys you.”

Just when she thought she couldn’t cry more, tears burned her sinuses, but she somehow managed to sniffle them back. Her momma wasn’t a whore. If she whored herself to Regent Emmerson then it was because he forced her. And it wasn’t like an X-gene had a choice other than to submit to their owner. That was the law thanks to Regents like him.

“Stone’s my friend, I’d never betray him that way.” He
had
to have a reason for buying her. Didn’t he? She would put her faith in him because he’d had her back so many times, and trusting him was the only right thing to do.

Peter laughed. “You’re such a little fool. Hopefully, you can pop out a few babies before you’re eighteen, and then Stone can find a woman more suited to his station. Don’t you know how delighted he was to discover you are a Xeno. Now he can fuck you without losing respect among his peers. The privileged do
not
slum with the dregs, not even for a little pussy.”

Harsh words that had her questioning everything, but didn’t they contradict the claim he just made about her mother whoring herself to Peter?

“He told you this?” Kella hated the pitiful sound of her voice, but to hear the truth, that Stone thought so little of her when he’d been her world for eight years ripped her soul apart. That he intended to take a second wife once he tired of her, fractured all her belief in humanity. And if Stone’s genuineness wasn’t trustworthy, then she could depend on no one. To discover the most honest person she knew had deceived her for years—

“Of course he told me that. He confides everything to me. He is having a rainbow cake baked for you. You can celebrate a different way now by spreading your legs for my son.” Kella flinched, and he leered at her. “Grow up, little girl. You’ve believed the good lie for years. Stone never cared about you. You’re a useless goddamn dreg. The only thing you’re good for now is a dirty fuck and squirting out babies.” He dragged her toward a girl hovering near the door. She appeared a little older than Kella, but not much. “Go with Christine. She’ll deliver you to Stone, so you can thank him for buying you.”

Discovering the truth of Stone’s lies, Kella lost her stomach in the hallway. Tears streamed down her cheeks, and her breathing hitched as she attempted to reel in her devastation. Stone wasn’t worth her anguish.

Christine gave her a pitiful glance, and Kella hated the girl for her sympathy. But she was caught in a sticky web with no way out, so she shadowed the woman. Thanks to life’s cruel show of hands, nothing mattered in the face of Stone’s betrayal.

Depression threatened to carry her under. Eyes wide open, she trudged along behind Christine, coming to the harsh reality that Stone wasn’t the friend she thought him to be. Wasn’t the upstanding man he’d pretended to be.
He probably laughed and laughed with James over his duplicity.

But why the subterfuge? None of the other privileged hid their real feelings, so why had Stone?

“My mistress hates this law.” The girl stopped and faced her.

Kella blinked at her, unable to process what the other girl was getting at. “We’ll help you escape if that’s what you want. But you have to make the decision now. Go or stay?”

Relief surged through Kella so strong she would’ve gone to her knees if she hadn’t leaned against the wall. “Go!”

Christine led Kella down the hall to a couple of backpacks, and the other girl handed Kella one of them. Much later, inside the pack she discovered a few days’ worth of clothes, water, granola bars, a picture of Stone, and the wind-up dog toy he’d given her for her birthday. She had no idea why the last two were in there, but she would keep them to remind herself of what she’d lost.

That night Kella cried herself to sleep, despondent over Stone’s betrayal. She’d thought Stone different than other spooners, believed him to be trustworthy. It hurt to realize she was wrong. It hurt worse that hope and freedom came not at the hands of a friend, but a stranger. In this twisted, hate-filled world, Kella shouldn’t have been surprised.

A
ugust 8, 2282 A.E.E.

Mack Ellason tugged the itchy, wool mask over her face. She glanced at her best friend, Reaper, who was outfitted in a similar fashion, all dark clothing, no shine on their boots, and nothing but eyes showing. “Let’s do this.”

“Stay sharp, Mack.” Reaper gave her a stern glare. It’d been so long since anyone called her Kella, she’d grown to miss her real name. “If I say run, you fucking
run
this time.”

Yeah, yeah, she knew the drill. This wasn’t her first rodeo. They’d made recon missions into the Xeno clinic twice to gain intel, and everything had panned out like clockwork. Except for the loner guard on the second gig that’d almost nabbed her from behind in the alley. And by almost, she meant
did
nab her. Their fight couldn’t have lasted more than a couple of minutes, but it’d been touch and go for a moment on who would claim victory. It’d been a close call.

Reaper had come upon the scene as she huffed and puffed, on her last spurt of energy, while she put the guard down. Suffering from double vision and bleeding from her ears, she guessed she’d been a bad sight because he’d flipped. Thankfully, she hadn’t been seriously injured, just banged up. Her buddy hadn’t let her forget the incident and likely wouldn’t anytime soon. He could be a bit of a mother hen when he felt so inclined.