Read Online Octavia's Choice [The Klawinken 2] (Siren Publishing Classic) by Natalie Rosewood - Free Book Online Page B

to run the other way. He knew something terrible had happened.
    “Tobias, my sweet boy,” she had begun with tears in her eyes. “You know I wouldn’t be here if there was any other way.”
    “What’s going on, Mother? Why are you here, and where’s Octavia?”
    “There are things you don’t know. Things that I must tell you. I wish there was some other way.”
    “Where’s Octavia?” His voice cracked.
    “Come back with me to our home, and I will tell you everything. I’ll be waiting for you.” She twirled, and then she was gone.
    When he walked into her study, she was waiting for him. She motioned to the chair next to her. “Please sit down.”
    “I think I’d prefer to stand.”
    “Please,” she said softly. “For my sake.”
    He sat down in the chair, his body stiff.
    “You know when your father died, I was devastated. He loved you so much, as he did your brothers. I knew we’d survive, but it was you that I was the most worried about. You were his favorite, right from the moment of your birth.”
    “Why are you telling me this?”
    “I want you to know how much you are loved. How much your father had prayed with me that you would never have to know that you weren’t like other Klawinken.”
    “What are you talking about?”
    “You’re Beaucomp, my darling child. You’re a throwback to earlier generations. We knew soon after you were born.”
    “Beaucomp,” he said, startled. “I thought only women were Beaucomp.”
    “That’s what the Council wanted everyone to think, that and it meant a woman was prone to mate with many. It doesn’t really mean that at all. It means that you have many gifts and are given many powers that a normal Klawinken can never experience.”
    Tobias sat staring at his mother. “And you’re only telling me now?”
    “It’s Octavia. She’s Beaucomp. For two Beaucomp to mate means”—she looked imploring into Tobias’s eyes—“that the female will die.”
    Tobias just continued to stare at his mother, stunned by her words.
    “Octavia is Beaucomp, as was her mother, as am I. It’s strong in her, Tobias. So strong that if she mates with another Beaucomp, it will at some point kill her.” She held up her hand to stop Tobias’s questions. “We don’t know why. We just know that it is true. I’m so sorry.”
    “So that’s why my dreams were manipulated as well as Mathieu’s. He’s not Beaucomp and would have been an acceptable mate for her.”
    “Yes. He’s also sterile. He can’t have children. The line would end there.”
    “And am I sterile, too?”
    “No. You can mate, Tobias, just not with a Beaucomp. The chance of a male producing a Beaucomp has never been documented.”
    “She’s the love of my life, Mother. How can my love kill her?”
    “She will die, Tobias. There will be nothing you, even with your healing powers, will be able to do to save her. You are poison to her. Every time you mate with her, she dies a little.”
    Tobias’s shoulders slumped. “This can’t be happening.”
    “I wish it weren’t. You don’t know how I wish it weren’t.”
    “What about my sister? Is she…?”
    “No. Thank God Elwina’s not Beaucomp.”
    “Why me then? Why did I get it?”
    “Your grandfather was a very powerful man who protected me. Our family gifts were also a consideration. I would not have been allowed to mate with a Beaucomp or even a Klawinken who was considered exceptionally gifted. Your birth was exceptional. But as a male, it was thought that you would be safe from passing the gene since it is only passed through the mother.”
    “How long has the Council been controlling our dreams, Mother?”
    “They don’t control the dreams of all Klawinken, only when a particular mating could have a negative impact on the whole of our people. Whatever they have done, it has been for our survival. You must understand that.”
    “I understand nothing except that Octavia is lost to me forever. She’s my one true mate, and I will