Chapter 10
Four sets of cool grey eyes stare at me as I return to the table, gathering the robe around my legs as I sit and placing the paired folders on the wood.
“I have changes.”
That’s when I see the flicker in Mero’s eyes, the hunger growing. Arrek’s flash of victory is less hidden. But Talarin remains cool and blank.
We’re negotiating now. I haven’t flat-out rejected it, and it is a victory to Mero that I’m even considering becoming his pet.
The Commissioner waits, not reaching for the folders, letting me slide one of the blue-black leather folders towards him, its corners capped in platinum and his official seal embossed into the cover. None of the three men glance towards it or the changes I have penned beneath the clauses.
His expression remains controlled as he moves through the release of every prior claim by the Owners, the protection against punishment for anything found in my possession and the restriction upon their Reaver.
Then he reaches the section on discipline.
“These three want to be able to spank me,” I say, matter-of-factly. “They want to do it in a legal way, and I think they have other designs.”
Arrek’s mouth begins to curl. He motions for the contract while still looking straight at me.
The Commissioner slides it over, and Arrek reads.
A strange focus enters his eyes, and I know he is sending the words through the Bond to his battle-brothers, letting them keep their eyes upon me while he reads every line.
“The rules are ambiguous on purpose,” I say, my voice calmer than I feel.
“They could manoeuvre me into damaging something, give me a command that is impossible to follow or punish me even when I obey perfectly. I want whatever they accuse me of doing, and everything they do to me afterwards, watched live by someone who doesn’t answer to them. ”
Arrek’s grey eyes darken.
“I will not have anyone looking at my property.”
I swallow.
He’s not talking about his estate.
I haven’t even signed yet, and he already sees me as his possession.
Talarin answers first, his voice calm and precise.
“We have cameras set up, but they are currently off. I can program a wristband. If she touches it, the closed system will open a live channel to your office.”
The Commissioner looks between the three men. “You will not have access to that channel or its recordings. Before any physical punishment, she must be given the chance to activate it. You may not prevent her from doing so.”
“What do you mean, the chance?”
His cool grey eyes return to me.
“You may not want a stranger watching you receive a punishment you know you deserve. The choice to open the channel will remain yours. They must give you the opportunity. They cannot force you to use it.”
“Agreed,” Talarin says.
It is not exactly what I asked for. Nobody will be watching me unless I choose to open the system. But the instant they decide to punish me, one touch will bring someone else’s eyes inside these walls with us.
I pause. Some part of me is watching this happen from outside my body, listening as I negotiate the conditions under which three Aurelians will be legally allowed to bare my ass and spank me.
It feels too strange to be real, but the contract lies open between us, and if I sign it, this becomes my life.
“Yes.”
The Commissioner strikes through my demand for continuous monitoring and writes the agreed condition in a fine, precise script, then makes the same change in the Aurelian version.
One eyebrow rises, and I know he’s at the section where I violently penned that they will lose the hand they use and be prohibited from restoring it through a Med-Bay if they are found to have punished me improperly.
He pushes one copy across the table towards the triad and points to the provision.
“Do you three understand and accept this provision?”
“We do,” Mero says.
“Are you always going to leash me outside?” I ask, looking at the men one after another.
“They will have that right,” the Commissioner says.
Arrek grins like a wolf. “That depends how good you are.”
He enjoys saying it, and a shiver rushes through me that I barely contain.
“I’m used to spending entire days outside. Two half-hour periods aren’t enough. I want a third. Optional. Mine to take when I choose, within the estate walls, regardless of ordinary weather, unless conditions are unsafe.”
Arrek cocks his head sideways. “How badly do you want that?”
I lean back against the bench, cross my arms and give him a long look.
“You can have the third period, but in return, you can’t use your hands at the water bowl. You drink by lapping it up.”
My eyes widen in shock. The image comes instantly. Me on my hands and knees, lowering my mouth to the shallow bowl while they watch me drink.
My cheeks burn, but I glance through the archway towards the blue morning sky.
It’s worth the humiliation.
“Agreed,” I say, my voice ice-cold.
The agreement is passed back to the Commissioner, and he writes the exchange into both copies.
“Is that everything?”
He looks towards the three men, then towards me.
“Wait. I need to know, and you need to answer honestly. Do you think I’m your Fated Mate? Is that what this is all about?”
“It is bad luck to speak of such things before we know with certainty,” Mero says.
I wait, my mind spinning. He would only say that if he thought it might be true.
“We believe it is possible,” he continues. “But the scent of a potential Mate may mean nothing. Women before you have carried it, and none of them turned out to be our Mate.”
“This changes things,” the Commissioner says.
“This changes nothing,” Arrek growls. “How many women have you bedded who carried the scent of a potential Mate?”
The Commissioner gives him a long, hard look. He doesn’t say a word, but the warning is clear. Arrek stares back for another moment before settling back onto the bench.
“All three of you will wear Bond-disruptor rings throughout the Term,” the Commissioner says.
“We’re not going to take her virginity,” Talarin says. “There is no chance of Bonding. We don’t need rings designed to blunt the link.”
“The rings are for your protection. I know you still possess them from your service in the Army. I am not going to approve a contract where taking her virginity is punishable by death while you spend six months with the scent of a possible Mate in your nostrils.”
Arrek begins to speak, but Mero raises one hand.
“Put it as a condition.”
“What exactly do the rings do?” I ask.
“They were created to dull the pull of a potential Mate,” the Commissioner says. “If you are their Mate, no Bond can form while they wear them. I will not pretend they can prevent the Mating Rage, but they will blunt it.”
“Talarin,” Mero says. “Get the rings and prepare the wristlet.”
Talarin rises and disappears down the corridor.
A cold silence settles over the table while we wait. Nobody speaks. Mero’s coffee grows cold in front of him. The Commissioner shows no sign of boredom or impatience. He simply sits there, waiting, while I stare through the archway towards the open sky.
Talarin returns carrying three black rings and a smartwatch sized for a human wrist.
“It will take time to program the wristlet. For now, I’ve set this smartwatch to open the video feed with a single press,” he says, and demonstrates.
“I thought you didn’t have anything sized for a human?” I ask, unable to hide my curiosity.
A faraway look enters his eyes.
“I took it from a slaver.”
“He wasn’t happy to part with it. Or his hand,” Arrek says with a grin. There is an eagerness to him that might be clouding his judgment, but the other two remain tightly controlled.
“We are not here to trade war stories,” Mero says, his voice hard.
The Commissioner waits until all three men slide the black rings onto their fingers. Then he holds one hand towards Talarin.
“I will need to inspect this in my Reaver.”
Talarin passes him the smartwatch. The Commissioner rises and leaves through the archway, carrying it towards the waiting ship.
I look at Arrek’s lingering grin until my anger hardens into hatred.
“So what’s your fantasy? Make me play fetch? Make me piss in front of you?”
“Only if you want to, puppy.”
A short, humourless laugh escapes me.
“Why didn’t you trade dropping the charges for my virginity and get this over with in an hour? That’s what you want, right?”
Silence answers me.
“Or that’s not it, is it? You put in that clause so I can’t touch myself, like I’m some brainless bimbo who’s going to get so horny I come begging for one of you to stick it in me.
Or would that ruin the game? Maybe you don’t want to know if I’m your Mate or not.
Maybe dragging it out is what gets you off.
Gods know you haven’t had a single woman come to this fucking place in six months. ”
“Because you wouldn’t have agreed to that,” Mero says.
“Six months. Six months in a cage, doing whatever you guys tell me. I guess it beats seven years in a fucking jail.”
“Not six months in a cage,” Talarin says. “I’ll let you sleep at the foot of my bed if you’re good.”
“You guys are delusional.”
“Then why did I taste your lust when I threatened to spank you?” Mero asks.
I clamp my mouth shut and glare at him.
The Commissioner pauses when he returns through the archway. His gaze moves from my face to Mero, then passes over the other two men before he clears his throat.
“The device has passed inspection.”
He places the smartwatch on the table in front of me and returns to his seat. I fasten it around my wrist. The clasp seals with a quiet click.
“So this button?”
“Yes. Now that it is secured, removing it will alert my office. My men are disabling the Orb-Shifting capabilities of your Reaver now.”
The Commissioner runs one finger over the contract, tapping twice against the version in Common before repeating the motion against the Aurelian copy. “If there is nothing else, then...”
He reaches for the pen. Mero extends one hand to take it.
“I believe they have already broken the law.”