“So the only difference between us is that you had your family replaced with an empire, and I had mine replaced with creepy old dudes.”
“There may be a few other differences.”
Maybe. But not ones that matter. I have never belonged to anything. Terrible belongs to the crown. He serves it with his entire being, and so he never has to question anything. He never has to feel lost. He knows what is right and what is wrong because that’s been consistent his entire life. I've never had that kind of certainty or security.
I think that’s part of what makes me so attracted to him. He’s a rock in a sea of absolutely fucked up random shit. He’s older and he has more power and that both attracts and terrifies me.
“You knew you’d hurt yourself when you bit me, didn’t you?”
“I wasn’t really thinking about it.”
“You are like an animal, lashing out without thought. You follow instinct instead of sense.”
I don’t like being taken apart with his words. I’d rather he just hit me. That would be easier to take, and even easier to subvert and pervert into the only kind of pleasure I am capable of enjoying.
“Just keep hitting me. It's easier that way.”
“It is tempting,” he allows, with a smirk of what might be amusement. “I thought I would take a human female more or less in the age range of the king’s mate and simply train her to be obedient.”
“Well, good plan, I guess? But you fucked up when you took me. Why did you take me?”
“I chose you by algorithm.”
“Oh, those will always fuck you over.”
“Indeed.” He draws in a breath. “You will not bite me, or fight me, human. You will settle here and become a product of your new environment. You may find peace, happiness, and contentment.”
ROOOAARRRRRRR!
The dragon does a flyby outside the window, covering my ejaculation of disbelief.
“You want me to believe you care about my peace?”
“I care about my assistant being even vaguely functional. Humans must be somewhat happy in order to operate. Not too happy, but somewhat.”
Usually men promise me the world when they’re trying to get me to do what they want. This guy is promising me adequate happiness. Maybe that’s the best I’m going to do.
“Get some rest,” he says cutting the whole ordeal short. Apparently, biting him gets you an immediate get-out-of-thrashing-free card. I’ll have to keep that in mind. “If you bite me again, I’ll gag you. Mostly for your own protection, because if you bite me twice, I’ll know you’re willing to hurt yourself for no reason whatsoever.”
“My piercings say I’m willing to hurt myself for no reason.”
“True.” He sighs. “I need to think, human. And you need rest.”
He leaves me to my own devices for the first time since I appeared on the ship. I lie in the huge bed, and I look out the window to the view that isn’t really there, and I wonder what is going to happen to me here on this vessel of aliens.
Six
Terrible
“I have to credit you, Terrible. When I first saw the human you’d chosen, I almost thought you’d just picked a female at random, but you couldn’t have taken anybody more suitable. My mate can hardly stop talking about her.”
Humans are easily impressed and Tania is lonely. I am fairly certain I could have picked literally any human and she would have liked it. I refrain from pointing that out, as telling the king his human is unhappy would displease him greatly.
“I am glad to have pleased you, sire.”
I do not add that I did choose the human at what may as well have been random, in the belief that almost any human would do. What the king does not know will not hurt him. I am concerned however, that the human I have chosen is not at all a suitable companion. What I learned from our conversation is concerning, to say the least.
“Bring her to breakfast, would you? Tania has not had nearly enough of her company. I think she may very well become a royal favorite.”
I have my doubts about the suitability of Lucky to be a royal favorite, but I am not going to undermine the king’s praise by telling him of her less-than-stellar traits. If I can hide them long enough to train them out of her, it will be a covert success which makes the public success all the sweeter.
“I will retrieve her at once, sire.”
I go to the room where I left the human eight hours ago. I find myself bracing for some fresh hell, complete chaos to greet me when I enter the room, but to my surprise, it is very calm. The fire is crackling in the stone hearth. The dragon is contentedly roaring in the distance. Lucky is… absolutely nowhere to be found.