Through the Veil by Lacey Thorn Page B

was
fighting to keep her eyes open. “How would Brother Michael know that?”
    “He checked on you,” her mom said. “When he saw your picture
he told me that you were the one whom he’d been waiting for.”
    “Waiting for?” Reggie asked. That didn’t sound good to her.
    “You’re the one,” her mother stated with awe. “You’ll be the
one to give birth to Brother Michael’s son.”
    Reggie was shaking her head now in denial as well as an
attempt to clear her vision. “I’m not having his child,” she vowed.
    “You will, Regina,” her mother told her. “It is God’s will.”
    Two things clicked in Reggie’s mind at once. First was that
her mother was lost to her. They had never been that close, probably because
Reggie had always felt like more the parent than the child. She would never be
able to persuade her mother to leave here. The second thing was that her mother
had drugged her drink, or at the very least given her a drink that was drugged.
    “Mom, what have you done?” Reggie asked, fighting to stay
awake with all she had.
    “It’s for your own good,” her mother stated and she looked
angry. “You have been chosen and you plan to walk away as if this is not a
great honor. Brother Michael is willing to accept you as his bride and gift you
with being his son’s mother. There are many women here who would give anything
for that honor.”
    “They can have it,” Reggie groaned. “If there are so many
willing then why me?”
    “I told you,” her mother shook her head. “You are the one
who was chosen.” Her mom pushed her back on the bed she’d been sitting on so
that she lay on her back. “Don’t fight it, Regina. Relax and sleep. I’ll have
you bathed and changed when you awake. And soon you’ll be with Brother Michael,
his first wife. And I will hold the honor of being the mother of the first
wife.”
    First wife? What the hell? Her mom’s eyes glowed now with a
sort of zealous light that sent more chills through Reggie. This was not the
woman she’d grown up with, not the cowering figure who just wanted to stay home
and in her own world. This woman would go to any lengths, it seemed, to get
what she wanted, even drugging and sacrificing her only child.
    “Mom, please,” Reggie begged as she felt the effects of the
drug sucking her under.
    “Just sleep, Regina,” her mother said and her smile was
anything but reassuring. “Everything will be ready when you wake up.”
    That was what she was terrified of.
    * * * * *
    Reggie awoke with a pounding headache. She had to blink
several times before she could focus on the room around her. It wasn’t her
mother’s. She was in a much bigger, plusher room now. She lay on a huge bed and
she was wearing a white dress similar in style to what her mother had been
wearing, only Reggie’s was made entirely of lace. You could see the dark rings
of her areolas through the dress as well as her nipples, which were tingling.
    When she looked down she saw that her pubic hair had been
completely removed, which disturbed her. Who had shaved her? Her mother? And
what the hell was she wearing? She stood up and wanted to laugh. Her dress
covered her from neck to ankle and yet revealed everything.
    “Ahhh, I’m glad to see that you finally woke up, my love,” a
voice she recognized said from behind her. Brother Michael. She didn’t dare
turn around. “I was afraid you might sleep right through our wedding night.”
    That got her turning around. “Wedding night?” she said and
her voice actually squeaked. “I don’t remember a wedding, saying ‘I do’ or
anything like that.”
    His gaze was all over her, taking in her breasts and sex and
making her feel dirty. The lust in his eyes was more than apparent when he
finally met her eyes. “There is no need for either of us to say words when our
joining was decreed by God.”
    “Yeah, I’m not so sure about that,” Reggie said, edging away
from the bed behind her and still trying to keep her