The Bell of Freedom (King and human romance)✔

BONUS CHAPTER: CAIN'S POV: [The first day they met]

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I glance over the figures from the breeding centres, my eyes prized on the concerning number of births in the last month. I focus on a centre in Vienna which has only produced twenty-six births in the last eight years. Their transfer figures are low, which contributes to the failure rates. It means that not enough watchers are releasing humans for breeding in that region. Compared to other facilities, they are vastly behind.

I move on to the transfers. This part makes me frustrated. Almost always, none of it makes much sense. Watchers, by law, should release fifty humans a month from nanneries for service positions but there's always at least five or six unaccounted for.

One nannery in India has been especially consistent with vanishing data. According to their lies, twenty of their humans were transferred to the farming centre in Texas but the centre has only recorded fifteen on arrival.

I have my own ideas on what has happened to the missing five. Either they were injured and killed during the flight or the watcher has too many pure souls in that nannery that he feels would be a waste to release. Watchers know how to cover their tracks so the missing humans would be accounted for somewhere. I just have a hard time proving that it's forged.

I spend a few hours of the morning going through more of these ridiculous figures. I create a list of every nannery, breeding centre and watcher that I want investigating and then I hand it over to a law enforcer waiting outside my office.

I stab my finger at a certain name. "I want him brought to me immediately. No investigation, I'll handle it myself."

"Yes, my King."

I walk down the hallway and I go in search of dinner. Is it dinner? I check the time on my watch. I think the humans would call it a late lunch.

The palace is swarming with humans in every direction. Most of them are owned by my guards or visitors so I can't go near them but I like to acknowledge them. They're terrified of me, even though they have no reason to be.

I pause in the middle of the hallway, my eyes finding my humans sitting together on a couch underneath a window. They are drinking smoothies and whispering to each other about something that I have no interest in.

I study them one-by-one. I start with Charlotte. I've only fed from her once, her soul was satisfying but nothing special. It doesn't react. I move on to the blonde girl sitting in the middle named Jessie. She's the youngest of the trio and has this certain smell that I have a disliking to. Her soul doesn't react either, even though the taste was delicious. I divert my attention to Bella and she looks right back at me, almost like she knows.

Her soul writhes inside of me, becoming an aching and thumping howl. I've fed on her too much, her soul is becoming desperate to be whole again. She's the purest soul I've ever tasted out of any humans and probably the closest I'll ever come to tasting a completed. It's just my luck that I can't stand the thought of consuming her.

Even the way she smiles is selfish. I scrunch my face up with detest. I don't want to but I have to. I start moving towards her, to collect her, and she lifts her head with anticipation. I stop abruptly, turning my head at the sound of familiar laughter.

The doors are open to the dining room and I walk inside slowly, placing feeding from Bella aside to deal with the new concern.

Marina senses me at the same time, her eyes drifting from the owned girl at the table to stare at me. There is an empty plate in front of her.