The Gender War (The Gender Game #4) Bella Forrest (best summer reads .txt) 📖

Amber sniffled and wiped her eyes with the backs of her hands. “Tabitha taunted us about Desmond,” she admitted, between clenched teeth. “She called us blind underlings… She was right.”

I shook my head. “No, Amber. It’s not your fault. It’s nobody’s fault. Just… tell me? About Cad and… and the rest of my family.”

“Right,” she rasped. “She showed them to me… after. They were… They were scared, but they hadn’t been hurt. Tabitha will hurt them, though. And… And there’s more.”

I gaped—what more could there possibly be? I didn’t want to hear any more, but I had no choice. “What?”

“I don’t think she wanted us to hear this part, but… there’s going to be an announcement on the news channels and via the tickers soon. I heard… I heard it being discussed in the hall when she was speaking to one of her soldiers. Two other people—I think one of them was from the press… Tabitha and Dobin… they’re going to be announcing their engagement.”

I almost swallowed my tongue. Engagement?

Amber continued. “They made… a deal together, to decide the future of Patrus. If Tabitha bears him a boy, she will divorce him and leave Patrus in the care of Dobin, but with a new trade agreement on… produce or something. However, if she bears a girl… Tabitha will be given the rights of regency over the heir, and rule in her name until her daughter comes of age… and becomes the first queen of Patrus.”

I staggered back. “Of course,” I breathed. “That’s why Tabitha wants the egg. With it, she guarantees that her firstborn child will not only be a female, but an enhanced one, just like her.” And with Elena as queen of Matrus and Tabitha as regent of Patrus… They could do whatever they wanted with both countries.

Amber frowned and shook her head. “But the Matrian fertility specialists have discovered how to guarantee any gender. I don’t understand—how can Dobin agree to this, knowing that?”

“I’m sure they’ve figured something out,” I said, my mind running over horrible possibilities. “They will probably insist that Tabitha can only use Patrian doctors. Not that it’ll matter. I’m sure Desmond owns the doctors, and all they have to do is implant the embryo. The rest will just be monitoring the unborn fetus.”

It was… smart. As horrified as I was, I could still see that. Right now, Matrus was earning major points with the locals. They had control over the media, so everything looked positive, even though I was sure that right now there were other Matrian squads just like the ones we had killed tasked with similar orders. Elena’s method was quick and efficient. She was taking out large groups of men—culling the Patrians like animals. But propaganda was a powerful tool. My guess was that once the deaths started getting to the ears of the public, they would be attributed to the ‘crazy female terrorists’ executing men who wouldn’t comply with their new world order.

That wouldn’t surprise the people of Patrus—they had been dealing with extremist groups such as the Porteque gang for years. It would garner sympathy from those who had been desperate for the Matrian aid and support after the bombings, and, even if some didn’t believe it, frightened people who only wanted to feel safe again would probably give in. Especially with an identifiable scapegoat.

“Amber, how long do I have to get there? Did Tabitha give you a deadline?” I asked with a renewed sense of urgency.

Amber’s face turned grim and she looked away, seeming to calculate. “By now… a little over two hours,” she replied. “I made my way here as fast as I could.”

I gasped—the palace was over a three-hour-drive away. “I’ll never get there in time!” I staggered back, trying to wrap my head around how I could magically make this work. I’d never driven anything other than Lee’s motorbike before, but I was reasonably certain that I could, after watching Owen in the truck.

But even so, I still wouldn’t make it. Maybe I could find a Matrian unit and turn myself in to them? But there was no guarantee that Tabitha would give my family up after I was captured. If anything, she would torture them in front of me, just to hurt me. To punish me for the deaths of her sisters.

My brain searched for options, but I was finding it hard to operate under the panic rising in my throat. I needed to calm down. No, I needed help making this work, making a plan, making something out of this decision I’d been thrown into.

“Where’s Viggo?”

I had already called out the words before I realized that I had said goodbye to him over an hour ago. Jay answered automatically: “He and Owen are out—”

I swore, even though I already knew the answer. Why had I let him leave the compound? But how could I have known that something like this would be thrown my way?

“They said they’d be back in an hour or two,” Jay said, his eyes wide, his face reflecting that he had no more idea how to help the situation than I did.

“That’s not enough time,” I groaned, my stomach sinking as I realized that I wouldn’t even be able to say goodbye to the man I loved. “I have to get to that palace now. Faster than now.”

I hadn’t even gotten a chance to respond to Viggo’s proposal.

Once again, I raced through my options. But there was no other way that I could see. Trying to flag a Matrian patrol was my best bet, and even with that plan, there was a good chance I would be late. “Amber, can the vehicle you used to get here get me back there?”

I turned back toward her, and she cocked her head at me, her despairing face changing to confusion. “Violet… you have a heloship. Why not just use that?”

“I can’t,” I said, the frustration filling my heart with anger. “We