“Is it? Have you tried both?”
He shakes his head at me. “Regardless. Don’t be sorry. I signed up for the adventure too,” Thor says. “And though this is not the outcome I planned for, it suits me as well as any other, because it means I have you, and our baby. And not all is lost. Drako is on top for now, but he won’t always be. Fortune favors the patient.”
“Is that how it works? I thought it favored the bold.”
“I think we’ve seen that’s not true,” he says. He wraps a towel around his waist and picks me up again. There’s not really any need, but I think he wants his hands on me. The worst thing that could happen would be for us to be separated now.
Drako’s made some promises, sure, and I think I trust him, but we both know circumstances could change. Thor is counting on it, I think.
When we emerge from the bathroom, we find Drako in the room. But he’s not the most interesting thing. What is interesting is the fact that there’s all kinds of food laid out on the table. He’s got meats and cheeses and fruits.
“Don’t eat too much, or too fast,” he says. “You’ll be ill. You might even die, if you’ve been hungry enough. Start with some nibbles…”
I have shoved half an orange into my mouth. It’s delicious. The sticky juice runs over my tongue and the rich citrus reminds me of sunny days on better planets.
“Yes. Anyway,” he says. “You’ll be fed in your captivity, and looked after as well as any two pets might be.”
He’s needling Thor on purpose, and Thor knows it. I watch him ignore Drako studiously as he picks through the offerings. He must be working so hard to not react, and instead to eat some cheese.
We eat while Drako watches, and there’s a kind of contented silence from Thor and me. Drako has all the cards and all the power, but we’ve had orgasms and showers and now cheese, so I’d say we are doing pretty well.
“Do you not have questions?”
“Do you want us to freak out?” I speak up. “Are you here to gloat?”
“No,” he says. “I was just hoping for some conversation.”
“Fine,” I sigh, knowing this will not go well. “Am I really never going to see home again?”
“Maybe, in a few years, if you prove your loyalty, and you show that you are manageable…”
“Fuck it. Forget it,” I say, throwing my arms up in the air. “Never going to happen. I guess I’m getting gang banged in front of the guys every Tuesday from now until eternity.”
“I don’t think that will be necessary. One spectacle should have been enough to prove my conquest of the pair of you.” Drako deadpans the response, ignoring my sarcastic tone.
“So conquered,” I respond. “Oh, my gods, how will I ever handle how conquered I am?”
Drako reaches out and grips the hair at the back of my head in a firm fist. My words die off into a light squeak.
“That’s what I thought,” he says.
“You love us,” I say. “That’s why you kept us. You kill people all the time. You love me and you love Thor and you want to kiss us and keep us as your own forever, and that is fine, but I would like more dessert options.”
Drako cocks his head at me, and I know he’s working out whether or not I can take another fucking right now. I absolutely cannot.
“You are going to be a very sore, very well bred girl for a very long time,” he says.
I tend to agree.
He releases me and drops a sweet, almost chaste kiss on my lips. “I do love you,” he says. “And yes, Thor, in a different way, there is love for you too. The two of you came to my world having escaped death, and over and over again you survived when you had no right to. You are strong, and you are righteous, and a little insufferable, but you are wise. I claim you as much as I claim her.”
I feel tears pricking my eyes. I never thought Drako would admit out loud that he actually likes Thor.
Thor gives Drako a long stare. “You’re a monster,” he says. “A very bad person. You kill without consideration for life. You take what you think is yours without any concern as to whether it is or not. You are possessive, you are driven like a madman. You are unpredictable. You are violent.”
“And?” Drako is smirking like he’s waiting for the words we all know are coming.
“And you are my family,” Thor says. “Like family, I don’t get to choose the fact that I too, I love you.”
