Surreptitious Alliance: Marked by My Alien Slave
58

Rain pov.

I feel River's gaze heavy on me and I know it's because of Morgan's mark on me. I was surprised replaceing the crest with her initials in the center on my neck when I looked in the mirror, but it's not unwelcomed. It makes me feel more solid, makes our bond less of the one sidedness I didn't know I was worried about until I saw the mark.

"So, you're fully bonded to her now. Like, serious mate stuff." River asks as Morgan and Luca leave the room. I watch her out of the corner of my eye, glad when she turns around, giving me one last look before she disappears. "Yes, serious mate stuff." I nod my head and River goes quiet, biting her lip as she thinks over what it means.

"How does it feel? Having someone else's soul connected to yours?" I smile as Remi purrs in the back of my mind.

"Like you're completed. Like you'd do anything for them, give your life and somehow it still won't be good enough but in the best way possible. It's consuming and it's better to give into it than to fight it because denying it is painful. It makes you feel whole and completed." Her eyes widen and then she pulls a sour face.

"I feel whole and completed now, why do I need a mate to change that?" I chuckle, knowing I'm not going to be able to convince her otherwise. I wasn't looking for Morgan either but replaceing her is the best thing that's ever happened to me. "You don't." She huffs and pushes against me, staring at Benjamin whose still looking Ragna up and down like he's going to attack him at any moment.

"Why is he here?" I bite my lip, wondering how much I should tell her but then again, not being told thing is the reason why Morgan feels so betrayed by the people she thought she could trust.

"Morgan is hoping Benjamin can look into his mind to get us more information on Sinclair. You know, the crazy human lady who's trying to control the supernatural world." River looks uneasy and I can't blame her.

"Do you think it's going to work?" I shrug, watching Benjamin who's still not moving from his seat. "What is she looking for exactly?"

"A weakness, I'm guessing."

"I still can't understand why she won't just use her magic and fix this. I mean, she's not human now, has she ever been? This is confusing." She huffs and I chuckle.

"You're supposed to be smart. She was never human, and her magic doesn't work that way. It's not a thing she can just wish upon. It's a dangerous weapon being wielded by an even more dangerous person." A strange sense of pride fills my chest at these words.

"She's your mate. You can't call her dangerous." River hisses.

"I can call her dangerous because she's, my mate. It's not a secret." My gaze snaps to Benjamin who finally moves from his seat and walks over to Ragna.

"I'm going to give you a chance to tell me what you know before I enter your mind." Benjamin tells him, motioning for him to take a seat. Ragna narrows his eyes at the vampire but sinks down on a couch.

"What do you want to know?" He asks, looking at his fingernails like they're the most interesting thing in the world. He doesn't look the fierce creature I've met before and that alone makes me nervous of his prescience here.

"Well, usually a story had a beginning, middle and an end. So, why don't we try the beginning?" Magnus asks and my lips twitch upward without my permission. The more the talks the more I can see where Morgan gets some of her personality from. I just don't think she's ready to see that.

"Well, I don't know where I was born, all I've ever known is those walls of those buildings. At first things were great, or as great as they can be being locked up. We got food three times a day, a snack if we were good. We played and we had classes. That only lasted up until thirteen though. Then we were taken to the lab and they injected us with things. It changed what we were. Made me angry and all I wanted to do was hurt everyone around me. They endorsed it to, until it stopped working. I quickly noticed what would happen to the older kids in the lab. It was like they were gaining their conscious back, they got harder to control and then suddenly things weren't about harming people anymore. They wanted other things, things they had before we started training in the lab, before they changed us. It never ended well for them so I faked it. I've been spending all my life faking the rage they want me to have and it was all for nothing. They're developing stuff all the time. Stuff that's supposed to make us better but they're only making us worse. The last injection nearly cost me my wings." He rolls his shoulders, his wings fluttering before they tuck tight to his back once more. "What do they plan on doing with you?" I ask, even though I already know the answer.

"They're building an army but it's not working." He rubs his buzzed head, looking worried. "They think because we're hybrids we're more powerful than normal supernatural beings but they couldn't be more wrong." "You're squibs, aren't you?" Iris asks and Ragna shakes his head.

"Not entirely. I have magic running though my veins, but that's only because I'm half human. It doesn't work so well with other creatures. There's some of us who's half vampire, half Fairie, and it doesn't work. They have a gift with no magical abilities or they have magic but no gift and it's always in its weakened state. The only mating that seems to breed truly powerful beings are those who's half human." He mutters and I frown.

"So, what? She's going to impregnate a bunch of humans with supernatural species to build an army?" I ask and he gives me a grim nod. "How are they going to achieve that?" The last time I checked babies can't survive outside of the womb. "Clones." Isa answers as she flutters down to the ground. "They're going to use clones." I think back to the room I was in. The image of Morgan in the glass jar.

"It's not working." I mutter and Ragna's eyes snap to mine.

"How do you know?"

"Because I was in there. I saw the tubes with the creatures in. The clones fail. They're not organic material so whatever DNA is being used to generate them is causing them to die." They cloned Morgan. They cloned her and they were going to... I shake my head, the thought making me sick.

"They think the problem is between the growth stimulators they're using or the enhancement serums. Either way they're going to figure it out and when they do..." He doesn't have to finish his sentence. Between their weapons, their robots and an army of hybrids they'll be nearly unstoppable and the world as we know it is going to come to an end.