Page 51 of Tamed

Annoyance built within her so she ignored his smile. “The conduits are still alive. But you already knew that, didn’t you?”

“I suspected,” he admitted, his smile fading.

Her annoyance flared into anger. What the actual fuck? “Was there a reason you allowed me to believe they were dead?” She had lain in bed for hours, aching with grief and guilt. And all the while he had information he chose not to share with her. How could he be so thoughtless?

“The images I was given were convincing,” he told her.

“Given by Verbet,” she cried, allowing her anger to show. “Why in the world would you believe anything that came from that creature?”

“I didn’t want to give you false hope.” His voice remained steady, his expression calm. “There was a very strong possibility that what I’d seen was real. I thought it would be better to let you start grieving.”

“It wasn’t your decision to make,” she argued. “I was convinced that they were dead because my power failed them.” He reached for her, but she twisted away. “You expect me to trust you. When are you going to start trusting me?”

“You’re right. I’m sorry.”

Shocked by his acquiescence, Kendra just stared at him. An apology was the last thing she’d expected. Controllers didn’t apologize. And President Zevon always stood his ground, defending his decisions without remorse or qualification.

He approached her slowly, their gazes locked. “I thought I was protecting you, but the crux of the issue was actually trust. I should have trusted you with the entire truth. It was unfair and I apologize.”

“Who are you?” she whispered as tears blurred her vision.

He smiled and pulled her into his arms. “Sharing myself completely is foreign to me. I’ll get better at it. I promise.”

When he bent and found her lips with his, she responded without hesitation. It was such a relief to know that Zevon could bend when she felt wronged by his behavior. Arcon had no problem compromising, but this was new.

As the kiss ended, Zevon took her by the hand and led her to the sofa. Arcon sat down on her other side.

“Tell us about the vision,” Zevon directed. He pulled her hand into his lap and entwined their fingers.

Kendra took a deep breath to steady her emotions. “It was like a montage from an entertainment vid.”

“I’m not sure what that means,” Arcon admitted.

“It was a bunch of quick scenes edited together one right after the other.”

“Take us through them one at a time,” Zevon suggested.

“I saw Jessie on the transport. It was a bloodbath. Her security team was obviously dead and Heather was nowhere in sight. Then the Torretians carried the bodies of two females onto the ship.”

“That’s who I was shown,” Zevon said thoughtfully. “The burns were designed to make me think Jessie and Heather lost control of their power. It happens frequently when conduits activate without the help of a triad.”

She nodded. The purpose for the bodies had been obvious, and both Zevon and Arcon insisted that the images had been convincing. Even so, Zevon should have told her everything. “Jessie was talking to Domar next. Domar told her that she could get back at me if she agreed to fight for Verbet.”

“And of course Jessie agreed,” Arcon grumbled.

“She not only accepted Domar’s offer, she volunteered to convince the others.” Frustration rippled across their link and Kendra squeezed Zevon’s hand. “Jessie quickly learned what happens when you trust the Torretians. She was in a clinic in the next scene and the medic injected her with something that triggered activation.”

Zevon muttered a curse under his breath and shook his head. “That compound is outlawed and has been since the Controller Wars. The results are dangerous and cruel.”

“But damn effective.” Kendra shuddered. She couldn’t stand Jessie, but no one deserved to endure what had happened in the next scene. Jessie might have enjoyed being claimed, but she hadn’t been in a state of mind to choose what had happened to her. “They used her activation against her. Two males, handpicked by Verbet no doubt, claimed her while she was so desperate that she begged them to fuck her.”

“A practice widely used during the Controller Wars,” Arcon told her.

“Verbet said that he was going to return Torret to its former glory. Now we know what he meant.”

The disgust in Zevon’s voice was obvious, but Kendra wasn’t sure what one had to do with the other.

Apparently sensing her confusion, Zevon explained, “Verbet’s grandfather was one of the driving forces behind the Controller Wars. He claimed his mate by force and encouraged his officers to do the same. Torretian brutality during those years was the primary reason conduits went into hiding.”