The Breed Read Online Free PDF

telling me be right?
    “How?” I said slowly. “How…how did you know?
How did you find out?”
    “When I was in that damn military school, I
started putting two and two together,” he said simply. “It started
my second year there. We had this archery class and I never missed
the target. The other guys were giving me a hard time about being
perfect so I started showing off. I had them shoot arrows at me and
I dodged out of the way just in time. Then I started picking their
arrows right out of the air.” He gave a humorless laugh. “That’s
when it stopped being fun. It scared the shit out of them—and me
too, a little. Especially when I started realizing all the other
things I could do that I took for granted—things none of my class
mates was capable of.”
    “Such as?” I whispered, my eyes glued to
him.
    “I could see in the dark—I bet you can too,
right? You turn the lights off and on from force of habit but you
don’t really need them.”
    Slowly, I nodded. I had always had excellent
night vision and it had surprised me to learn than most people
couldn’t see as well as I could in low lighting.
    “Fast reflexes—abnormally fast, as I said,”
he continued. “I could hold my breath under water for up to ten
minutes at a time. That one really freaked them out. It
would have been a real asset on the swim team of course. I wanted
to join but Dad blocked me—had the headmaster refuse my
application. He knew, you see,” Lukas continued, a slight tone of
bitterness creeping into his voice. “Knew where Mom got us—what she
did to make us look human.”
    “But…but we are human,” I protested.
“I mean, the way we were raised, the culture we live in—”
    “Doesn’t change a goddamn thing,” he said
harshly. “You’re human, huh? Then what about that?” He nodded at my
chest and I looked down to see I was leaking again—already there
were two large, sticky spots on my white blouse. The nectar flowing
from my breasts turned the white silk transparent and made it cling
to my tight, aching nipples obscenely.
    “Oh God.” I crossed my arms over my breasts
as a hot blush crept over my cheeks.
    Lukas shook his head. “Don’t, Lexie,” he said
softly. “Don’t cover yourself. It’s beautiful— you’re beautiful. The nectar is just a sign of your fertility.”
    “A what?” I demanded. “What are you talking
about, Lukas? I’ve been having my period since I was twelve and
this has never happened to me before.”
    “I know,” he said softly. “Because you’ve
never come into heat before.”
    It was so much like what Sylvia had been
saying earlier than I nearly lost it. “Come into heat? Are
you serious?” I glared at him. “Lukas, you have got to be kidding me.”
    “No.” He shook his head. “Look, it’s
perfectly normal in the Breed. In fact, if we’d been raised on
Breedlow with no interference you would have had your first heat at
around fifteen.”
    “I’m twenty-five now,” I said. “What am I—a
late bloomer?”
    “Your cycle was being suppressed.” Lukas
looked grim. “Remember that tea you and Mom were always
drinking?”
    “Mom’s special blend?” I couldn’t believe it.
“You’re kidding.”
    “Afraid not. It was laced with sexual
suppressants. Drugs that were specially designed to curtail the
normal female Breeder cycle.”
    “But…I can’t…” I shook my head. “I can’t
believe this.”
    I could still remember the first time my
mother had given me her special tea. It was just after I had
started my period and she had taken me aside and told me I was a
woman now. And as such, I would be allowed to join her every
morning for tea. My mother had been a cold woman, not very loving
or demonstrative. So the idea that she would willingly spend time
with me—even just a few minutes every morning—seemed almost too
wonderful to believe. It had become our ritual—tea before
breakfast—and I had observed it religiously even while I was away
at