“But my Lanni—if you go, I’ll never see you again!”
“That’s not true,” Lan’ara protested, though she feared very much that it was. “Maybe the man who marries me will be kind. Maybe he’ll let me come back for a visit.”
She looked to the scout for confirmation of her words and he shrugged diffidently.
“That’s always a possibility.”
“See?” Lan’ara tried to make her voice light, though she could feel tears tightening her throat. “It’s not so bad! I’ll go and become a rich man’s wife and you and my little brothers will be safe and well at home. Please, Mother.”
“Oh, my Lanni…” Her mother hugged her fierce and hard. “You’re truly determined to do this, aren’t you?”
“I am.” Lan’ara nodded as she hugged her back.
“I don’t want to let you go.” her mother’s tears were hot on Lan’ara’s cheek. “If there was any other way…”
“There’s not,” Lan’ara murmured back. “You know there isn’t. Please, Mother.”
They had signed the papers that very day. A large sum of money was deposited into her mother’s account and Lan’ara went with the scout. But not before her mother hugged her one last time.
“I love you,” her mother whispered in her ear. “I love you forever my Lanni…my good girl.”
“I love you forever too,” Lan’ara told her. “And I’ll be back someday soon for a visit—you’ll see.”
But the visit was not to be. When she had been at the Twyleth Tigg Academy only six months, Lan’ara had been given terrible news. A fire had swept through her hometown, burning many of the houses to the ground. Her old dwelling had been among them and her mother and brothers were gone.
“You may take comfort in the fact that it was the smoke and not the fire which killed them,” wrote her great aunt, who had taken it upon herself to inform Lan’ara of the tragedy. “For they were found dead in their beds, not a one of them burned a bit, though the top floor of the house was in ashes before the fire brigade could put out the blaze.”
The same great aunt had offered to let Lan’ara come live with her, “if you can get out of that blasted fancy school,” but she was elderly and set in her ways, and Lan’ara knew she didn’t really want the bother of caring for a younger relation. Besides, she was under contract to the Twyleth Tigg Academy and nothing but her own death could break the oath she had sworn…
Nothing but being abducted and sold on an alien world to a strange man, that is, she thought now, as she looked up at her new owner. Who was this man, with his wild dark hair and his strange bronze eyes? He was tall—so tall she had to crane her neck to see him—and his body was heavy with muscle.
Would he want to put her in a pot and make her into stew? Or breed her and force her to bear his child, as the awful three-headed creature who had been bidding on her had declared he wished to do?
Lan’ara had no idea. She only knew she was now in the strange man’s power and she could only pray he would be kind instead of cruel.
“Please,” she whispered as she looked up at him. “Please, my Lord—don’t hurt me. I’ll do anything you like, I swear. Only don’t hurt me.”
Three
The girl’s words stung Need like a needle-bee. He looked at her, kneeling in the dust before him, her torn gown clutched around her and still not covering her full breasts and bare sex, and felt something twist in his heart.
She was a rare beauty—he could see that now that the haze of red Rage had cleared from his vision. Her gold-flecked eyes were gorgeous and she had a waterfall of long, curly hair that was black streaked with gold.
Her creamy brown skin was a rare shade he had only seen once before—when he had taken his mate to the Mother Ship to try and save her. There had been females with this girl’s skin color there, he remembered. They were brides from Earth, the small planet the Kindred there were protecting.
Maybe it was the memory of trying to save Cleah that made him savage but suddenly he wanted nothing more than to get rid of the girl and never see her again.
“Get up,” he said roughly. “On your feet. You need to get away from this damned auction block if you want to stay free.”
“Get…get away?” She looked up at him, clearly not understanding.
“Yes, get away,” Need said impatiently. “Come on—let’s go.”
The girl got painfully to her feet—an operation which made her torn gown gape even more. Her creamy breasts and bare sex were plainly visible, drawing a lot of stares from the males in the crowd.
For some reason, her beauty made him angrier than ever.