Chapter 19 #4
“I’m surprised, Eun,” his mother said, her voice warmer now, her smile genuine. “What an interesting choice for a mate."
I took another bite, and the rest of them finally began to eat around me, tearing into their meat with wolfish bites while I worked through my steak with a strange, primal enthusiasm. My body welcomed it. My mind tried not to focus on what it was.
Eun didn’t touch his plate. He just sat there, staring at me across the table, his expression unreadable, until I finished the very last bite.
“We are leaving now,” Eun said, rising to his feet. “We’ll discuss business tomorrow.”
“You will stay,” his mother said smoothly. “We haven’t touched a thing in your suite, and we need time to get to know your wife.”
Wife. Not prey. Not Pet. Wife.
The word rang through me like a bell.
“I don’t...” Eun began.
“We have more to speak about,” his father cut in. “For example, if your pairing is strong, then there is always the topic of grandchildren. Your younger brother isn't promised to anyone yet. Stay the evening. Let’s hash out the details tonight.”
"I won't...." Eun started, but I grabbed his arm with my greasy fingers, cutting him off.
He was so righteous, so honorable.
Honor had no place when dealing with a den of snakes.
A fake smile and the pretense of compliance were a powerful weapon against the one percent.
"Eun," I said. "Don't you think we should listen to what your parents have to say? They're right. It is important for grandchildren to know their grandparents."
Eun looked at me as if I had sprouted horns and gored him with them.
There was no way I would let these people near any children of mine, but right now wasn't about telling the truth.
It was about lying through my teeth until we got out of here and could make a run for the space port.
These monsters didn't deserve honesty, and right now, I needed them to be so confident in their narcissism that they believed that I wanted to take advantage of their wealth.
Wealthy people always believed everyone else had a price.
"I think your family has a lot to offer our children," I said, squeezing his forearm and staring at him, hoping he understood. "Let's stay and discuss it with them."
“Your wife is sensible,” his mother added, folding her napkin neatly. “We’ll work on the press release to announce your marriage.”
There it was. A shift so sudden, so jarring, it was a punch to the gut.
In the space of a few phrases, a few bites, I'd gone from an appetizer to an asset.
I'd been blooded into the family by a ritual of mastication, I'd expressed that I was willing to put my flesh and blood into their hands, and now I was a viable option for their long-term plans.
“What?” Barathice gasped from the far end of the table, her lips curling into a sudden bright smile that exposed all of her teeth. “Really?”
“Barathice,” Eun’s mother said with a smile so sharp it could cut glass, “Eun has married a predator who looks soft and squishy enough to be prey. She’s absolutely perfect for the public relations campaign we've been planning.”
Then she turned to me and beamed. Beamed.
“We’ll schedule a photoshoot as soon as possible,” she said.
“Photoshoot?” I said, blinking.
“Come now,” Eun’s mother purred as she stood and wrapped her arm through mine, pulling me effortlessly to my feet.
“I’ll call my stylist to try some colors on you.
We’ll want to emphasize your softer features as much as possible.
Now, tell me everything about your species. I must know all about you.”
“Mother,” Eun called out, starting to rise from his seat, a note of panic in his voice.
“Let the girls have their fun,” his father said, reaching out with a hand as if he was going to hold Eun in place. He pulled it back as one of Eun's strands of hair lashed out at him.
The goal was to get out of here without fighting.
"Don't worry, Eun," I said. "Family is the most important thing, and I look forward to getting to know my new family."
He flinched back as if I had slapped him in the face, and then his mother pulled me from the room, her grip on my arm steel.
They were separating us. I didn't know them or their species; I barely knew their culture.
But I knew Eun. He was honest and direct.
Even if these people were blood thirsty monsters who had intended to kill me the moment they found out about me, they still raised him to be an honest person, which meant the sudden shift of heart was not a trick.
They wanted Eun as a part of their family line, and they couldn't force him; they would have already.
All I had to do was convince them that I was their key to getting what they wanted from Eun and that I was safe.
At least for the time being.
If my reasoning was correct. Then again, maybe they were separating me so that they could lock me in a room and threaten my life to get Eun to do what they wanted. If only he had told me more about his family first.
“Do you like jewelry?” his mother asked, sweeping me up the massive staircase before I could answer or second-guess myself anymore.
“We have some family heirlooms that I know would suit your head shape. And your mane, how does it do with product? I’d love to sculpt it to echo our ear shape.
I think it would be striking with one of my favorite tiaras. ”
“Styling and jewelry,” I echoed, slightly dazed by the whiplash transformation. She had gone from snubbing me like a stain on her upholstery to treating me like a favored daughter, all over one damned steak.
“Let’s get those nails done too,” she added, eyeing my hands. “They’re so small. Adorable.”
“I think she’ll fit in my clothes,” Eun’s younger sister Eunadi said brightly, appearing at the top of the stairs like she'd been summoned. “Let’s try some of those!”
“Oh, yes, dear,” his mother agreed. “Run and have your maid pull out the ones you haven’t worn yet. No need to waste a good debut opportunity.”
“This is so fun!” Eunadi chirped, clapping her hands before darting down the hallway ahead of us.
“We’ll set you and Eun up in his old suite,” Eun’s mother said as she led me farther down the hall. “We can't have you going back to that ratty apartment he has been playing around in. We will set up a birthing suite here so you won't ever have to leave the property.”
She gave my arm a gentle squeeze, a soft counterpoint to the threat of her words as we entered a plush sitting room, warm and elegant, lined with soft velvets and polished stone.
Above the mantel hung a massive portrait of Eun standing side by side with Barathice, painted in sweeping, romantic strokes, a promise of a future that I had interrupted, a future that his parents had hung in his bedroom so he could stare at it every day.
It was all so surreal.
“Why?” I asked, watching as she let go of my arm and turned toward a servant who had just entered the room carrying a large wooden box. The servant approached and opened it, revealing the glittering shimmer of jewels nestled inside.
Eunadice reached in and lifted a breathtaking tiara, its diamond-like centerpiece accented with delicate pink and green gems that sparkled in the light.
Tiara was the word my mind used, but a headpiece would have worked just as well, as it wasn't designed to just sit on the top of the head.
It was made to curve down around ears in a different place than mine, to sit low on the forehead and frame a face with four eyes instead of two.
She turned back to me with a soft smile, holding it gently between her claw-tipped fingers.
“Why what, dear?” she asked.
Now I was dear.
“You were planning on eating me,” I said evenly. I wanted to hear it from her lips, to have her speak out loud the conditions of my safety so I could use her intentions against her. "Why did you change your mind so quickly?"
Another servant slipped into the room, holding out a shimmering silver dress. It was gorgeous.
“I thought you were prey when you arrived, but you're not, you're perfect,” Eunadice said, matter-of-fact.
“Do you have any idea how much money some predators spend to soften their features? To make themselves more palatable to the majority of the prey population? Even Eun looks like a predator. His species has dominant genes to pass on their particularly useful traits when they interbreed with other species, but their children often take on the appearance of their mixed parents. Your children will be even more useful than Eun will be, as they will have all the useful traits of his species with some of the appearance of yours, and they will pass on their cute prey features to their children. Looks are very important, and prey outnumber us in the voting booths. My family plans for the long term, and we have to change if we are going to hold onto power.”
I felt a strange fluttering in my belly, an excitement that hovered on the edge of panic.
I had been bluffing when I said 'grandchildren,' but she actually believed it was a real possibility.
I rested my hand on my belly, a stone-cold moment of stark reality as I realized that my lies might have stepped over the border into truth.
His mother stepped closer and placed the tiara carefully atop my head.
She shifted it, the edges of it pinching against my forehead as she moved it, trying to find a way for it to settle.
Eventually, she angled it up so that the hooks that went over the ears pinched down against mine, carrying the entire weight of the gaudy piece.
Then she turned me by the shoulders until I faced a tall, gilded mirror, holding the dress up in front of my body.
“My dear,” she said, voice rich with sudden affection, “you are a gift, and we will treat you like the precious gem that you are. Eun has given us no end of trouble, and you were a very clever girl to snag him the way you did. The reports were delightful to read.”