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“Who are you, Elon?” She rests her elbows on the countertop, leaning forward slightly. It’s unnerving looking at her—so similar to Imogene. My heart contracts. “If Anex wasn’t there to decide for you, who would you be?”

“I don’t know.” I stare down at the hand holding my coffee mug, looking at those worn, torn, knuckles and think. I try to remember who I was, who I wanted to be, but there’s little space between who I am, who Anex created me to be, and any organic truth. I close my eyes, and a memory returns. I’m back to when I was a kid—bigger than the rest—and I’d spin the others on the merry-go-round at the playground. That was the first time I saw Imogene, wide-eyed and bossy.

I’d told her about this memory after she was Ordered to Rex and later, I kissed her for the first time.

Those moments unearth something in me, something long buried, away from Anex and his greedy control.

Across the table Camille watches me, and a flood of emotion runs through me. It’s her daughter I’m thinking of. Her daughter that technically belongs to another man—my best friend. Camille has been tolerant of us, but knowing how we share Imogene?

There’s no way she’d accept that.

Except the truth is on my tongue and heat builds in my cheeks. Approval from this woman suddenly means everything. I open my mouth to speak, but the front door opens, and my courage slams shut, just like the door.

“There’s no reason to talk about ‘what if’s.’” I rise, carrying my cup to the sink. I wash it quickly, feeling my hands burn under the hot water. “All we can do is accept reality.”

15

Imogene

Just when I thought this mansion of horrors couldn’t get any more disturbing, Rex and I were taken to a room in Anex’s wing that made the rest of the Main House seem like high level accommodations—includingthe basement cells.

The guard came for us not long after Rex and I dressed. He gave me his shirt, eyes worrying over my tender and swollen breasts, while he pulled on his pants. By gunpoint we were led back through Anex’s room. It was empty. No Anex. No Inner Circle. No Silas.

I wanted to ask about him, but I knew better than to express concern. Anex was determined to destroy the things I loved. I wouldn’t give him more ammunition.

“What the hell is this?” Rex had asked, feet planted to the floor. The room in front of us is divided into two, a clear, thick wall separating the space. Everything was pure white. White walls, white bed, white chair, white carpet. Two white toilets and sinks sat in each corner. Rex’s eyes grew wide. “Hell no!”

Erik shoved Rex into one side and secured the door. He jerked his gun at me, and I entered on my own volition. The instant the door closed I felt the air grow thin. I slammed my palms against the glass door. “Is there enough oxygen in here? Is this how it ends? With Anex suffocating us.”

“Please, Imogene. Acting out isn’t going to make this better for anyone.”

I turned and saw Margaret standing outside the door, hand cradling her belly. “Let us out!”

“This is your room for the foreseeable future.” I looked over and saw Rex sitting on the end of the bed, eyes vacant. “Your father designed this room knowing that one day he may need to keep you close, the both of you.”

“He built this room a year ago,” Rex said, forehead creasing. “Before the Order.”

“Your father is all knowing, Rex. Led by The Way,” Margaret says. “I don’t know why you’re surprised.”

“He planned this,” Rex said, pieces clicking into place. “From the beginning. He never was going to let me have you as a mate. He set up the training with Elon, Levi, and Silas. He got me to fall for you. Got us toall fallfor you so that we’d make mistakes. He knew I’d get possessive, blind with obsession and want. And that would make me, and the guys, trip up and fall right in his trap.” He ran his hands through his hair and looked up at Margaret. “The whole plan was to keep Imogene for himself, but he couldn’t just pluck a girl out of Serendee and make her his mate. That would raise questions, so he had me do it instead. The catch is that he didn’t expect her to be so goddamn stubborn. So defiant.” He laughs darkly. “SoRegressive.”

“You’ll stay here,” Margaret repeated, ignoring Rex’s moment of clarity. “Where your every movement can be watched. Every piece of food you consume. Every supplement. Every bodily function will be monitored.”

“Everything?” I asked, eyes shifting to the toilets.

“Everything, Imogene. You’ve lost the right to privacy, to autonomy, to everything. Anex is fully in control now. It’s how it has to be. It’s The Way.”

“For how long?”

Her expression softened, and there was a flicker of something in her eyes that chilled me to the bone. Something dark and lost. “Until the equinox, of course.”

Fear climbed up my spine. “The equinox?”

“The day you will finally be mated.”

That conversation had been days ago, at least three, I assume, but the days are getting shorter. The sunlight fading sooner. I can measure this through our window. It’s high, out of reach, but it does provide some awareness of the time of day. This is especially true in the morning because the window faces east, and the bright stream of sunlight makes it hard to sleep.

Which stinks, because sleeping the day away, dreaming of being somewhere else, would make everything more bearable. The light has been glaring in my eyes for at least an hour when I give up and swing my legs over the side of the bed. Across from me, on the other side of that clear divider, Rex is already up. Well, up and down. Rex is in the middle of one of his impressively long sets of push-ups.