Alpha Dom and His Human Surrogate

Cora asks Sarah about her mother in a frank, curious way that I think allows Sarah to straighten her spine and answer impassively, like she’s giving a report to a doctor instead of having to break a hard truth to a queen who will probably break into tears. And I smile a little at the back of my sister’s head, grateful for her for giving Sarah what she needs when I can’t.

“He beat her,” Sarah says, and my heart twists almost physically within me. “She…she was growing older, and she couldn’t do her chores the way she used to. And…” Sarah bites her lip and looks only at Cora now, telling her what she wouldn’t be able to say to the rest of us, not while holding her head high. “And he started to look at me, the way he looked at my mother. And she tried to keep me away from him, to find other chores in other parts of the house. And when he figured out what she was doing he…”

Sarah’s voice cracks here and I have to look away from her so that my eyes don’t fill with tears. Sinclair slips a hand onto my knee, wanting to give me comfort but not to distract from Sarah’s story.

Sarah takes a deep breath before she continues. “He told her she was an idiot and a whore, for trying to keep his property from him. And that he could do what we wanted with all of us take our bodies, our lives. And then,” she shrugs, looking down at the tablecloth. “He did. He took her life then, to show her…and to show me.”

I make myself look back at Sarah now, who looks up at Cora, and then at me. And I hope that she sees, shining in my eyes, my deep and renewed desire for vengeance. Because there is absolutely no way that I am going to let this man live.

“That was the moment,” she says, nodding to me and then looking at Sinclair too, though a little shier now. ” When mother died? I decided that…that if he could take what I loved most from me, I could take what he most wanted too. The little baby – I could…I could take that away from him. And so I did or, I tried.”

“You succeeded,” Sinclair says quietly, next to me.

“No,” she says, shaking her head vehemently and looking down at her hands. “You’d have been safe anyway – you’d have figured it out.”

leaning around Cora to look clearly at Sarah, to make sure she hears him. “It gave us an advantage that…without

red. “I don’t – I don’t want anything. And I don’t want you to think that I

want to help you, like we want to help the other refugees. Though I admit,” my mouth cocks into a little smile here, “I do want to help you a little bit more than the others. Because I’m so, so grateful. I mean, what would you like – you can have

a little squeak of protest as Sinclair bursts into laughter and Roger turns to glare at me, his mouth falling open. Sarah

Sarah decline my offer,

gasps, and we all start to laugh harder as he sinks back into his chair, playing along now and exaggerating his

her some of the hope that Cora and I always had. That things can get better – and they will. And maybe that starts today, with a little laughter at Roger’s willing expense. I turn an apologetic look his way but he just gives me a wink, understanding,

I say, still holding my baby tight. “But…we’re going to be friends now, Sarah. Good friends friends for life. And friends help each other get back on their

it reaches its full extent I swear my heart could

keep every part of my word. Sarah is going to have a good life, and I’m going to help

her eyes filled with worry and woe. “Please, please can we keep them?” She looks down at the little orange

around her little sister. “We don’t even have a home to take them to

at Jessica seriously, “to leave their mother. Perhaps in a few

groans with grief at the idea of leaving