Diana Racine 02 - Goddess of the Moon

Father says we’re giving these babies part of us. We want to please him.”
    “He’s using you,” Maia said. “You’re nothing more than sexual objects to him.” Both women stopped , frowned at Maia, and the worst feeling she ever had in her life shuddered through her. Bile rose to her throat, and s he pushed the obscene thought from her mind, unwi lling to think the unthinkable.
    They, like all the young women here, had been brainwashed by lessons taught from birth. Little girls were created to be goddesses of fertility, boys their gods, and pleasure their destiny. For the longest time, she and Dione did what Silas expected of them ― yes, to please him ― but they lived different lives than the others. As daughters of one of the world’s richest men, they couldn’t be hidden away and trained as courtesans, like the rest of the women born of the group . They maintained important positions within their father’s compan ies . They were written about, photographed, admired. Their trips to attend Compton business were covers for the time they spent at the compound to give birth. They nursed their babies, held them, and loved them. Then Maia and Dione returned home to carry on with their lives , leaving their babies to be raised by others . Home to Silas and Selene, the queen bitch ― or witch. She was both, but one thing she was not and never would be ― she wasn’t their mother.
    Maia and Dione saw their children when Silas allowed . By then, the babies had bonded with others who lived at the compound, teaching and indoctrinating them. They’d bonded with her half-sisters, Maia knew, and it caused a jumble of emotions, none good .
    Sure, Maia thought sardonically, let’s keep it in the family. Now their babies had grown into toddlers and kindergartners and school age , a nd Maia and Dione hardly knew them.
    The only sister their children didn’t bond with was Anat, Selene’s first daughter. They didn’t because Anat rejected Selene’s teachings , refused to be a wet nurse, scorned the Crane god, and turned her back on the growing community of sexual hedonists. Anat was here somewhere, segregated. Maia didn’t know where, but she would find her.
    T he babies suckling at the breasts of Nona and Brigid weren’t family. They were s tolen to enrich the genetic pool of the group and nursed by strangers.
    S he had learned about the kidnappings only a few days ago and couldn’t comprehend the impossible. Whatever she ’ d been taught ― all her indoctrination ― paled to what she now knew.
    This must stop.
    How long could her father explain her absence? He could say she died overseas and keep her here forever. Then they would force her to bear other children. No lack of willing sons. One especially. She would fail to reproduce, but they didn’t know that .
    No one in the outside world knew about Selene’s three daughters. Anat had always been a thorn in the side of her parents. Now, with the twisted turn of kidnapped babies, Maia could only imagine Anat’s rebellion .
    Maia needed to find a way out of the compound . She had a vague idea, but the area was huge, bordered by rivers, mountains, and barriers of trees and guarded by men who were paid to keep everyone inside. The only way out was by air, difficult without the children, hopeless with them.
    Her father never invited outsiders to his home. Diana Racine was not an ordinary person susceptible to group tactics. What was the group planning?
    She heard the key turn in the door , locked only to keep her inside . She hadn’t seen him in a while, and as hard as she tried to rein in her reaction , her heart pounded when he entered the room . Still handsome, even with fine lines etched around his eyes and mouth . Still with the sexiest , self-confident smile.
    “You’re a foolish woman, Maia. What were you thinking?” he said, locking the door behind him.
    “Hello, Seth. Or have you changed your name? Maybe to Apollo or Adonis, perhaps ? ”
    His smile broadened, as if he found her taunt amusing. “Since we’ve been intimate, you can call me Seth. I find name changing pretentious.”
    Maia’s full-throated, cynical laugh woke one of the babies.
    “Now see what you’ve done?” Brigid said. “He was in dreamland and you’ve awakened him.”
    Seth exchanged the baby sleeping peacefully in Brigid’s arms with the crying baby in the crib. Brigid cooed and cuddled the infant, and s he quickly found peace at her breast. Seth stooped in front