Briefly, my gaze glosses over the other two females, one is ever so slightly taller, with rich, much darker skin and dark curly hair. She looks nervous, like she thinks someone’s going to eat her. The other has reddish hair, the length only just brushing her shoulders. Her skin is paler than both her companions, and her body much rounder. She’s also wearing a very guarded scowl on her face. None of them are covering their necks.

“That one?” I hear Zann whisper. “I don’t blame you for wanting a soft-bodied female, brother, but she looks like she wants to kill everyone on this ship three times over.”

Az grins, seemingly pleased and excited by Zann’s assessment of the female. “I know.”

“I want to make it clear,” my Aunts voice booms out, cutting my brother’s murmurings short. “I expect you all to enter bridal contracts very soon. The time for-” she raises a brow at Zann, “-fun has passed. The Northern Principality and the capital needs to see its royals take their breeding responsibilities seriously. But under no circumstance are the female, Lois,” she gestures to the shorter of the two before then doing the same to the other, “or the female, Jaya to be forced into contracts. That was not the agreed upon terms of purchase.”

My female - my ‘Niska’ - doesn’t make a move, in fact she is frozen to the spot, much like myself. I stare at her, still in disbelief as I ask my Aunt, “and what are those terms of purchase, exactly?”

OceanofPDF.com

9

OceanofPDF.com

Chapter 9 - Niska

So… I can’t tell if Prince Kiahn is pleased to see me, or pissed. Everything in this room felt tense as soon as we walked in. I know he’d tried to buy me himself, so is he annoyed that his Aunt did it for him? Or is it because now there’s talk of these strange bridal-breeding contracts? Is that not what he’d wanted from me when he came to try and buy me?

Thoughts about him purely wanting a bed-slave and not a woman protected by a contract flit through my mind, and I stare extra hard at the huge, horned guy in front of me. He seemed better than that, but what do I really know? I know nothing about him, or his culture. He told me that his people are not in the habit of buying slaves, but habits start somewhere, right?

It doesn’t matter what he wants me for, I tell myself, squaring my shoulders and lifting my chin as Lady Zalora recounts the deal we made. She tells her nephews that I am the only one who has consented to negotiating a breeding bride contract, but that Lois and Jaya are to remain nothing but the royal Prince’s guests until they themselves decide whether or not they want to follow in my footsteps with Kiahn’s brothers.

They won’t.

I made sure to get Lady Zalora’s agreement that they would not be pressured into any of that nonsense. And in return, she wants me to… well… loosen Prince Kiahn up a bit. Seduce him. She’d told me that he is reluctant to ‘do the deed’, and I can imagine that, since he was so very tense when I’d sat on his lap back at the club. I think he might be a little afraid of women, if I’m honest.

Which is particularly ridiculous when you take in the sheer size of the man.

Whatever it is that’s holding him back, Lady Zalora wants me to break it - to set him loose to go forth and multiply.

And I’m fairly confident I can do that.

I can do anything I set my damn mind to, and if seducing that huge, alien Prince is what’s going to keep me and my friends safe out here, then he’d better hang onto his horns, because that’s exactly what I’m gonna do.

I can hear Lady Zalora still talking, but the words are muffled like I’m underwater or something. It’s too hard to pull my focus away from the Prince as he starts to move, slowly stalking forward toward me without breaking contact with those pretty green eyes of his. My heart starts to thrum in my body, even though I feel like a sacrificial lamb in his presence. And, I can’t help but think, as he comes to stand right in front of me, forcing me to tilt my head back to look up at him;

This giant of a man is going to completely wreck my pussy.

“Is this true?” he asks me, and only me, his voice low and somehow delicious as his eyes scan my face, looking for something. “Did you agree to a contract with me?”

I nod my head dumbly. Honestly, I’m not sure I could form words right now anyway.

Kiahn lets out a breath - just a small one, but it comes out ragged and unsteady, like this news has knocked him off-kilter a little. Tentatively, he lifts a huge hand, and it’s like the rest of the room, and everyone in it melts away as he slowly reaches to gently touch my face. The pads of his fingers are so feather-soft on my cheek, they almost tickle. “Why would you allow such a thing?” he asks in a quiet voice, so quiet in fact, I think he may be talking to himself. His vibrant green eyes track the path his fingers slowly make, around the curve of my cheek and following the line of my jaw to my chin. He doesn’t stop there, though. His fingers softly brush lower to my throat, pausing when he can quite clearly feel me swallow beneath his touch.

“Kiahn?” Vel interjects, stepping closer to the two of us. The Prince blinks down at me and then to his Aunt’s assistant who pointedly clears her throat at us both.

It’s then that Kiahn pulls his hand back like he’d been burned. “I…”

There’s a jolt under our feet as the ship’s engines power up and I can see from the small port-hole-like windows in this room that we’re beginning to move away from the dock at Moon’s Rest. I have odd feelings about leaving this place for someplace new and unknown, but mostly all I can feel is relief.

“See to it that Niska has her choice of quarters on board, Vel,” Kiahn clips as he takes a step away from me now, his whole demeanor suddenly changing. “And that she is fitted with the finest, most comfortable collar as soon as we return to Xaavia.” And with that, he bows at me - like, actually fucking bows - and strides out of the room.

It’s Lois that breaks the silence of his departure after I’m left here, staring after him. “Did he just say ‘collar’?”

* * *

As promised, Lois, Jaya and I had been given first choice in which of the many sleeping quarters we’d wanted in this huge-ass ship. Each one we were shown would have been more than adequate. Especially when considering we’d been used to a bare cell with uncomfortable cots for the past six or so months. Vel was tasked with showing us around the quarters, but one of Kiahn’s brothers, the one I’ve since learned is called ‘Az’, tagged along with us, very enthusiastically offering up his own bedroom, specifically for Lois’ use.

“It has the best views from the windows, and the hygiene room is top of the range with full massage options,” he tells her as we walk the hall, plush plum carpeting beneath our feet. He follows directly behind Lois, and in front of me and Jaya, his huge frame too large to walk beside her in the ship’s halls. All I can see back here is his tight pants and bare back - hunched over from him trying to constantly communicate with Lois as we walk. Lois, for her part, seems rather non-committal in her responses and I can tell from way back here, she’s not interested in taking his offer. Maybe she thinks if she does, it paves the way for him to think he can coerce her into a breeding contract too, or maybe she just wants him to leave her alone. Either way, she’s rather quiet up there at the front of our party, following our tour-guide, Vel.

That is, until he’s telling her about the excess of closet space in his room and she finally snaps.