His answering look said he clearly didn’t believe me, but he didn’t voice that, or anything else, as we ate in silence.
When I finished and leaned back, the cup ofszitein my hand, he said, “You should take the female to town and purchase her some clothing. And there’s something humans wear…” He trailed off. “I believe they’re called shoes. It seems humans’ feet are much softer than ours. They need to wear shoes to protect them from rocks and sharp debris.”
The longer he spoke, the more interested I became. “How did you find this out?” I asked.
Guldan shrugged. “I talked to some of your former commanders. Several of them have acquired humans with bargains. I asked them what sort of supplies we might need if we had a human female here.”
My eyes narrowed as I stared at him. “Was this before or after you purchased Leda?”
“Before. I would never buy a human without being prepared to care for it appropriately.”
My teeth ground together as I stared at him, my fist clenching around the empty cup in my hand so hard that I heard a sharp crack. Guldan leaned back, staring at me cautiously as I set the cup aside. It fell into three pieces on the table, and a small puddle ofsziteleaked out onto the wood surface.
“Shemay be human, butsheis not anit, Guldan. Humans are not animals. They may be different than us, but they are sentient creatures who feel pain and fear. They are smaller and weaker than we are, especially the females. I’m not sure how you imagined a human female would survive a platoon of daemon soldiers, but one like Leda would have fought you until someone was dead.”
My final words were little more than a snarl as I climbed to my feet.
“That was why I chose her. Though the soldiers would have been extremely gentle with her, I needed a strong female to handle them all,” Guldan replied, his tone and body language defensive. He rose to his feet as well, and we faced off across the table. “They all contributed a large amount of coin to her purchase. They would not have risked damaging such a large investment.”
“Get out of my sight,” I growled out. “Or I won’t be responsible for what I do to you.”
“She is merely a human. I don’t understand why you are so angry when humans have been used as such for?—”
“You intended to let all thirty of the males in my command rape her at their leisure!” I roared.
My claws hooked beneath the edge of the table. With one violent heave, I flipped it into the air and out from between us.
“She belongs to me, and you were going to allow other males toharm her!”
Guldan lifted his hands in a gesture of surrender as I stomped across the space that separated us. “I didn’t know that she had not signed a contract, General. The possibility of bedding daemons is written into every contract that a human signs, male or female. If I had known, I would have selected another female.”
“That is no better!” I turned and saw that every male in the dining hall was staring at us. “Hear me now! If I hear of any of you forcing a female into your bed, human or daemon, without their consent, I will kill you, slowly and painfully!”
There was not a single sound in the dining hall. All the males stared at me with varying degrees of fear and disbelief.
“AmIUNDERSTOOD?” I bellowed, my voice echoing throughout the room and likely across the courtyard.
As one, the men all rose to their feet. “Yes, General!”
“Clear the hall and report to the yard. Today I will oversee your training.”
“Yes, General,” they cried out again.
The room cleared in less than a minute, each male taking his bowl and cup to counter where the boys too young for the heaviest physical training would take them to the barrack kitchens to be cleaned.
Guldan remained nearby, staring at me as though he didn’t recognize me. “General, perhaps you should wait until you’re calmer before you train the sold?—”
“My order was for you as well, Commander. Our first order of business today will be a run and muscle conditioning. After that, we will see how their hand-to-hand fighting skills are progressing.”
At the terse response, Guldan drew himself up taller. But I was grateful he didn’t argue. The way I felt at the moment, Ilikely would have ripped his heart out of his chest if he spoke a single word of disagreement.
“Very well, sir,” he replied.
My commander’s posture was stiff as he stalked out of the dining hall. Unlike the other soldiers, he left his bowl and cup at the table.
Needing something to do, I carried his dishes, as well as my bowl, to the counter. The cup I broke was thrown in the garbage bin.
Once I was calmer, I left the dining hall for the courtyard where the men trained. I still had a great deal of aggression to work out and training with my soldiers sounded like the perfect way to accomplish that.
