Moving on from her inner monologue, she tried Antonio again.“What’s going to happen to me?”She let her voice wobble just a little.
Antonio’s shoulders slumped.Maybe she pulled off the vulnerablesoundbetter than the vulnerablelook.
“King Azure will determine if you’re a suitable match for one of his beastwalkers.If not, you’ll likely be sold to another kingdom.”
Okay, so that was more forthcoming than she had expected.Wait a minute.She sat up straight.“Sold?Like property?”Katy tamped down her ire and focused.“Whatexactly makes me a match?”Because I’m totally doing the opposite of that shit.
“It’s just like with humans,” Sleazeball Number One—Slick—said.“You meet someone, you’re attracted to them, he courts you, then you mate.”
Katy thought back to what Roan had said in Lola’s room, that Lola was Callon’sOne.He’d made it sound like Lola wasit.Like a soul mate sort of thing.Which wasnothinglike humans.She started to mention that, but she held her tongue.Maybe knowing something they did not would come in handy.
“You will have your choice of any single male in our kingdom,” Sleazeball Number Two—Myron, who still looked nothing like a Myron—added.“Animusfemales are the only ones who can free a male’s inner beast.They’re incredibly rare and valued.”
“Like blood diamonds,” Katy offered.
Myron bowed his head in acknowledgment of the comparison.
“And”—Katy drew the word out—“like blood diamonds,animusfemales are tossed to the highest bidder when they’re of no use to the person who found”—she used quotations around the word—“herin the first place.”
“You don’t have to be sold.”Antonio shrugged, “Just pick a mate from the Kingdom of Venom.Then you won’t have to wonder about your fate.You’ll control your own destiny.”
“You havecompletecontrol.”Slick nodded at Antonio, grasping on to that bandwagon like it was the last one coming through the station.
“Right.Because the abductee always holds all the power.Silly me for not realizing that.”Katy instinctively touched her tattoo, recalling the Sleazeballs’ suggestion that it signified she might have been destined to mate with a wolf.She tilted her head, thinking about the possibility.If he was a wolf that looked like Callon or Bane, then she could jump on that train.Wolves were soft and snuggly.More importantly, they were warm-blooded, unlike these damn snakes that had taken her.But they still had teeth.Sharp, wicked teeth.That might not be so good.Maybe she could just get a puppy wolf and not do the whole mate thing.
“Don’t worry about the tattoo.”Slick must have noticed the way her hand rubbed up and down over it.“That can be replaced.Our tattoo artists are incredibly talented.”
“You could almost call them magical,” Myron added with a wink.
It just wasn’t okay that guys who supposedly turned into reptiles were good looking.She narrowed her eyes, hoping to see their beastly side, but all she got were some iridescent scales and vertical pupils before the handsome faces returned.
She leaned back in the seat.“I don’t want a different tattoo.I like this one just fine.ConsideringIpicked it.”
Slick shrugged.“If you insist on keeping it, we can just have a snake added, wrapping itself around the wolf.Like a hug.”He sounded so pleased with his idea that Katy blinked several times to assure herself that he was serious.
“A snake … hugging a wolf.”She blinked rapidly.“That’s what you think I should have tattooed on my arm?”
“No,” Slick said in a deep voice.“I think you should have the wolf removed and replaced by a snake—a bright green one with stunning, moss-green eyes.”
Myron snorted.“Nice try.She’s not going to pick you.”
“She could,” Slick argued.
“She won’t,” Katy offered.
Slick grinned.“But she might.”
Stupid grin was damn cute.But not cute enough.“But she can’t.”
His grin dropped.“Why can’t she?”
This had to be the dumbest conversation she’d ever had.“Because she made herself a promise when she was a little girl.”She looked at him and waited.
“Well?”Slick’s eyes were eager as he scooted to the edge of his seat.
Katy leaned forward as well and then said in a conspiratorial whisper, “She promised herself never to play with snakes.After all, it was the snake that deceived the first woman on this earth.And if you know the story, then you know howthatturned out.”
“I think you’ll like my sn—” Slick started, but was abruptly cut off by Myron hitting him on the head.
