Good. It’s not like I care.
I bite my lip and turn my face away. “So Emma doesn’t live in a harem with Khan’s other… courtesans?” I sound sullen but I can’t help it.
“Khan doesn’t have a harem.” Aurus sounds dismissive. “He was gone more than he was at home—at least, that was the case before he found Emma.”
“I’d like to meet her,” I say, forcing myself to meet his eyes. To my astonishment, Aurus doesn’t look dismissive. In fact, he’s gazing down at me with a weird expression on his god-like face. It’s not anger or condescension. It almost looks…
…curious. “Why? Are you homesick?”
“It’s not that,” I scoff.
“No?” He tilts his head, his amber eyes fixed on me. My heart booms like a gong. Being the sole object of this golden king’s attention is a potent experience.
“The past is the past. I can’t change it, even if I could remember it. All I have is the future—and that’s enough. That’s all anyone has, right?”
“So wise,” he murmurs. The slight rasp in his voice makes my skin prickle with pleasure. For once, Aurus is praising someone other than himself—and it’s dangerous. I could easily get addicted to him. “You are not what I expected.”
Is that a bad thing?I want to ask. Instead, I say, “What I’d like to do is… get my bearings. It would help to talk to a fellow human who knows what it’s like to come here, and to be made into an Omega…”
“Of course,” he says. “That makes perfect sense. I should have thought of it myself. I’ll make you a deal.”
Immediately, I’m wary. “Go on.”
“You start behaving yourself, accepting your place—stop this defiance, stop talking about escape since it’s a ridiculous notion, anyway, there’s nowhere for you to go—and I’ll take you to meet Emma.”
“Deal,” I say immediately. I can’t plan an escape without her help as it is, and it will be much easier to go there officially than to try and figure out a way to go meet her behind Aurus’s back.
“Deal?” There’s a note of disbelief in Aurus’s voice. “Just like that?”
“Just like that.” Part of me wants to keep negotiating. I want out of the harem. I want him to take back what he said about killing any Alpha who goes near me, and I want him to stop punishing the Betas for my actions. I want so many things, but mostly I want to be treated like an equal, not some Omega pet.
But I’ve just gotten him to agree to something huge, so I decide not to push things—at least, not for now.
One step at a time.
NINE
Aurus
My cock issore and even so, the slightest whiff of Kim’s intoxicating scent makes me want her again. We rutted for so long, I’ve lost track of time.
Still, I’m hungry now, and even though she doesn’t say anything, I assume she must be feeling the same way.
On our way in, I gave the servants strict orders not to disturb us, so now I myself must lumber out of bed, find a robe, and summon something to eat.
“Where are you going?” Kim asks, rolling onto her flat belly and resting her pointed chin in her little hands. Her short pale hair is tousled, sticking up at all angles, and I resist the urge to spank her for cutting it. After all, she has just agreed to stop defying me.
We shall see whether she is able to hold up her end of the bargain.
“I’m getting us food,” I tell her, locating a robe and sliding it over my shoulders. “You must be hungry.”
“I guess.”
She seems more excited than hungry. I didn’t miss the way the light entered her eyes when I agreed to take her to Altrim to meet the other Hoo-man. Is she lonely? Perhaps I should let her spend more time with the courtesans. Maybe their good behavior will inspire her to become more submissive. So far, she’s only been a bad influence on the harem.
I’ve already given orders for Juno and the others to be punished. At this very moment, their torment will have begun.
Good. They’re only getting what they deserve. Kim should never have been allowed to leave the harem, let alone be taken to the training arena.
