Chapter 12
It was not until the door closed, locking us away in Cyderial’s home, that I finally felt free to state my failure. “That did not go well at all.”
Three generals demanded I birth a female child. Thayer irritated I had been carted off before he might pepper me with questions about Maeve. As it was, the golden general could change his mind at any moment.
My irritation at the outcome was now pointed at the man who escorted me away.
At my scowl, he caught my chin, pressing a kiss to my frown. “Peace, Lorieyn. It went far better than you think. You’re practically a child compared to their years, and you stood up to each of them. You earned their respect, even if you have yet to realize it.”
“I’m in an impossible position!” And now that we were alone, I was ashamed to feel my lips tremble. “Everyone wants something from me I can’t give, even you.”
He didn’t deny it. “This night was a victory, my love. Wait and see.”
“Will you let me talk to Maeve? We could go to the academy now,” I pled, eyes wide and hopeful.
“In the morning.” His look warned me not to press him. “You need to eat and rest first. Trying to encourage her to submit to Thayer when you are frantic will fail. With that wager you made, everything rides on your ability to persuade her. The generals might be angered you refused them, but they will pay close attention. Eat, sleep, submit, and obey, then go to your friend with a clear mind.”
I cocked a brow, stomach dropping. “Obey?”
He seemed surprised at my reticence. “Your orders. You are now an academy instructor and must behave as one.”
No, he wanted me to obey in another way. Suspicious, I pressed, “You want me to grow pregnant, don’t you?”
He failed to mask his expression before I might notice his obvious desire to see me bred. Looking away, as if it might hide his intentions, he moved toward the kitchen. “Don’t ask me to lie to you.”
This man had sworn he loved me, but such an aspiration was not one of love. It was one of greed. Following him, I vented my frustration. “You would put your mate and child in a position that would cause them both pain? The academy will take her from me!”
“Sit.” Pointing at a seat overlooking his food preparation space, he did not wait to see if I might follow orders. Circling to the other side, he grabbed a knife and some unknown bulb, chopping away while I crept closer.
How he could mince that thing with such finesse, how he seemed so undisturbed, irritated me. “You are my mate; do I not deserve an answer? How am I supposed to survive having my baby taken from my arms? How am I supposed to live here with you, knowing she is crying at night, wanting her mother?”
My temper brought the smallest smirk to his cruel mouth, green eyes darting up from his work to watch me settle into the chair. But still, he said nothing.
Grating silence stretched.
Settling my weight, I found I was not ready to give up my anxiety. “You let me lie to them.”
He made a noncommittal noise.
“It was a lie, Cyderial. I didn’t really understand what sex was. ‘A man pours himself inside a woman, and that’s were babies come from.’”
Actual laughter came from the man, tossing himself another bulb to catch with a flourish and set down on his slicing board. “I gave you a bit more detail than that.”
Maybe a little, but not by much. “You failed to mention there was a whole other opening. Or the process of opening. Imagine what I thought. What other girls must think. It’s not funny at all; it’s sad.”
Devious smirk on his face, he began working the papery outer layers off his bulb. “It was the most uncomfortable conversation of my life. Forgive me for laughing, but I’ve had years of nightmares over what took place that night.”
Good. I was glad he suffered a little. I had been mortified. “I guarantee I was more uncomfortable than you.”
Dicing the food, he shot me a wink. “Your face was very red, but you remained at attention. I think I fell even more in love with you watching you maintain such composure.”
Elbow to the counter, I could not believe he was trying to be cute when I was so mad. “You had to have known I did not fornicate with the boy, if you could still hear my song.”
“My head was not right that evening. The hair looked like yours, the room full of your scent, male fluids everywhere. He had been unable to set a knot, so I wasn’t sure if that meant you might have been unbonded.”
How different my life might have been if some academy boy had fumbled through my first real sexual experience. It was an embarrassing question, and I could not meet his eyes, but I asked it all the same. “How common is it for males to open their females the way you opened me?”
All playfulness was replaced by a velvet purr. “How did I open you?”
He was going to make me pay, wasn’t he? For my temper and my denunciations. “You took your time. You showed me my reflection and made it feel good.”
All warmth and sultry hunger, he said, “Tell the tale, and more males might seek to try.”
Why was it my burden to teach males something they should already seek to know?
“Hybrid laws should require males to do it properly.” God, I could not stop thinking of huge Thayer and how tiny Maeve was. Face in my hands, I sighed. “That giant is going to hurt my friend.”
“I will talk to him, and I will talk to the other men. And you—” The unblinking stare was back, the kind that warned he was getting ready to corner me. “—will cease your accusations that I would harm my mate or child in any way.”
Frustrated, I felt a tear fall. “But you are failing to give me answers.”
“Words will not fix what you fear.” He reached forward to thumb the offensive tear from my cheek. “Only time can do that.”
I couldn’t win. Maybe it would have been better had I been locked away for years on end. Then none of this would have happened. “The mated females won’t forgive me for spoiling their plan.”
That got a reaction out of him, one of cold disdain. “The women you spoke with tonight have failed to produce children. Why should they expect you to do something they refuse?”
But there was so much more to it, wasn’t there? “Why did Miranda say you would be our king? Why not one of the other generals?”
“My love, I am about two seconds away from dragging you into the bedroom and fucking you into a silent stupor.”
My spinning thoughts collided into a mess of loudly ringing silence my shock was so great. Never had he spoken to me that way. And to my utter humiliation, slick was already gathering between my thighs, my insides choking down on the plug.
And he could smell it, the flare of his nostrils leaving me to press my lips into a line.
“I will give you what you want, precious girl. But first you will eat, and while you do, you will listen.” He straightened, going back to his chopping. “Do not fault the generals for coveting what I have. They have not encountered a twelve-year-old they wanted to fuck and cannot image the price that exacted.”
My lips fell open. “That is disgusting!”
“I am aware.” He flashed me a warning glare. “It will be difficult for them when our daughters begin to mature. Nature screams that you must do one thing, your conscience telling you another. I will confess there was a night I came into your room as you slept, prepared to take you away. You had just come of age, and I felt I waited long enough. You lay on your side, that stolen pink rock in your palm. You must have been looking at it before you closed your eyes. Seeing you that way, vulnerable, I remembered that little girl who snatched it off my shelf. And I couldn’t bring myself to touch you.”
What was I to say to that? What was I to do but sit back and listen?
“To the other males, I may make it appear that denying your song was easy, but it was agonizing. I do not imagine many would be able to wait a year, let alone ten. My ability to withstand suffering—perhaps that is why Miranda would see me as her king.” Looking up from his work to stare me dead in the eyes, he said, “Eyes will be on you.”
Maeve was the born leader, not me. “I am not their queen.”
“Yet still they ask you to pave the way for them.”
From Thayer’s announcement that night, he—another general—would not wait longer than the few days to graduation. “The men… if they won’t practice patience like you did, our daughters will be in danger.”
There was no teasing, no suggestive male noises. Nothing but ruthless determination. “The academy is more necessary than you might wish. Females who have begun to mature must be put somewhere others cannot reach them. All mothers must hand over their daughters or face the consequences of what could take place.”
I could not imagine it, already feeling the loss of a child I could hardly conceive of. One I swore to myself I would never put in such an awful situation. “Humans may not see our children as people, and to them, separating a human-born hybrid from the birthmother may be nothing, but five years old is too young.”
He did not agree or disagree, only extoled the virtues of his precious academy. “There is a full curriculum on par with what the humans are taught. There is safety and food. And the library is well stocked. I’ve seen to it myself.”
He was being unreasonable, and I did not know how to make him understand. “Yes. And there are also hangings, and beatings, and armed guards watching you urinate. It might be called an academy, but its anything but.”
Peeling another food thing I didn’t recognize, he cut off a corner and offered me a taste.
Jarred by the sudden zip of sourness on my lips, I gave a shiver from head to toe yet found it delicious.
“Notice, you already eat from my hand, instinctively trusting your king. Set your fears aside and quiet your mind. It is distracting you from the fact that your gut knows your mate will take care of everything. You are safe.”
There was a hook in that bait. “If I get pregnant?—”
“When you get pregnant.” Direct, he held my eyes.
“—you’re asking me to?—”
Stuffing another slice of sour fruit in my mouth, he silenced me. “I know what I am asking. Eat, take your frustrations out on my cock, and then you will sleep. Tomorrow, your new responsibilities begin.”
* * *
After I was fed,I had ridden him within an inch of my life, tormenting his writhing snake with a slow, sinking onslaught and whispered demands. I had done so as if I might stretch the final night of my freedom from the academy, keeping him groaning from the sucking slit between my legs.
My tricks were allowed for only so long.
I might have been on top, but his powerful hands and thrusting hips were more than capable of taking what they wanted when it was clear I would not invite a knot until morning light.
I was fucked, hard, bracing against his chest and unable to do more than arch my back and take it. Then I was punished. Knotted and left leaning back against his bent knees for support, I watched as he took his thumbs and spread my slit until vivid purple stretched by a huge knot was on display. Braced and grinning, Cyderial’s long, demonic tongue slathered the mess of slick through sensitive folds until I realized there was no escaping.
Never again would I torture him without knowing the price.
Bearing down as hard as I might, I still could not unseat his cock.
Trapped, he made me come until I was sobbing apologies.
Only to suffer an endless knot and be licked for hours more.
As he did it, he whispered from the shadows clever threats and dark promises.
Things he claimed he would give me if only I might kneel to my king.