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Naya's eyes fluttered up to his. He didn't realize that her memory had come back already. She said nothing. Those memories would be burned out of her mind if it were possible—she would never admit to having them. He could wait until death for that admission.
"The one thing that changes is that we will sleep in the same bed," Akoro said. "Here or my bedroom?"
"Neither."
Akoro’s jaw hardened. “If you don’t choose, I will choose for you.”
“You’ve chosen everything else,” Naya muttered.
“Where would you be most comfortable?”
“In my forest,” Naya breathed. “I miss my forest.”
“Tell me where you want to be?”
She wanted her forest. Her mama and papa. She wanted Drocan, Azarn and Idaya. She wanted Lili.
He kept speaking and she stared at him, letting his voice blur, just appreciating the physical nature of Alpha male who should have been hers. He was so incredibly handsome. Imagine if he had been good. Imagine if he had arrived at Lox Palace, seeking a new alliance through marriage? Imagine if they had seen each other and recognized instantly that they belonged together? Imagine that he had a desire to learn about Lox culture, while also keen to teach her about his? Imagine if that had been their beginning, the start to something that could have been incredible? But all she could do was imagine. Because that was not the reality of who her true mate was.
And so, she didn’t fight it. She’d lost on every front. Her sister, her family, her reign, her self-respect. He’d thoroughly beaten her down, so what was the point? She was nothing more than a used Omega, whose Alpha cared only to fuck her both physically and mentally.
When she no longer responded, he pulled her into him, tucking her head against his neck. Naya tried to fight it, to twist her head in a different direction, but he held her there until she was too enticed by the deliciously scented skin. She breathed him in, forced to take comfort from her enemy.
Then she let everything blur. Sound, touch, taste—she let them become non-distinct, unimportant. She didn’t want to hear or see him. She didn’t want to care—she had failed her people. She couldn’t help them from his bed. She’d become a slave to her instincts, a slave to the one who was supposed to be her true mate. And he wasn’t even going to stop his invasion.
Akoro wasn’t happy about her lack of interest. He tried to speak to her, but his voice blurred into the background. She barely looked at him and refused to speak to him. Furious at her behavior, he was constantly inside her, taking his fill multiple times a day. When her eyes opened, his fingers or mouth were on her—pinching, caressing, probing. He learned what she liked and thoroughly dominated her pleasure, hyperfocused on her orgasm, since it was the only time he heard her voice. He ate her cunt every day, as he warned he would, like a man having his favorite meal, greedy and desperate, never relenting until she came in his mouth. Naya couldn’t resist the storm of him. She remained in a sticky, seed-filled, Akoro-scented euphoria, only needing to whimper for him to slide his fingers into her folds and start driving her toward the high.
The days blurred together, and she remained the Omega. Akoro spoke, he lifted her up and buried his face in her neck. She just let him do what he wanted—it wasn’t Naya he desired, just the Omega.
He wrapped her neck and wrists with the dark red material again and let them tighten, his non-descript voice threatening and quiet. Naya experienced the squeeze with no panic, letting them tighten until no more air could come through her throat, the bands cut into her skin. But she had no fear of the bands any more, it didn't matter.
He started taking her out of the room. Once it was in front of the council. They all spoke, their blurred voices directed at her, and they expected a response. Instead, she took the time to take in the beauty of the room. One of the things she loved about this culture was the attention to detail in their design. Who had done it? Who had sat for hours carving, painting, sewing all of the little lines and patterns that made up the magnificent design of the room?
And then the healer came. He had sad eyes and defeated shoulders. She hadn’t noticed that before. He had tried to help her, but he couldn’t help her escape. Still, when she saw him, she smiled.
Akoro erupted into a blazing rage of aggravation. Bellows burst from his lips and aggression tensed his body. He grabbed the healer and yanked him back, away from her, and their blurry voices argued. Naya curled up onto the bed, trying to ignore the stink of their aggression filling the room.
He took her to the stables. And for the first time, she delighted in something. The beautiful nnirae stood around the stables eating, resting, or being groomed. The Alpha led her to her to his, the incredible beige-colored beast. It was huge, but the Alpha encouraged her to pet it and then to feed it from her hand, lastly he showed her how to groom it—long smooth strokes down his coat and then combing the spiky short hairs down his mane.
Once she got the hang of it, it was so soothing. The nnirae made a trilling sound when they were being groomed, and Akoro’s one was low, almost too low to hear, but if she worked long and listened closely she would be rewarded by his sound.
The Alpha took her down to the stables and worked on grooming and caring for the nnirae for most of the day, until he wanted to fuck.
Once he was so impatient, he took her in the stables, bending her forward to brace a wall while he pried her thighs apart with his thumbs and prodded himself in. She loved the feel of him working in and out of her, pulling her back onto him and cupping her breasts with his large hands.
Eventually the Alpha took her out to ride the nnirae, an incredible experience that forced her to sharpen her senses. She couldn't let everything blur and be so dull while on the back of such an amazing creature. They rode through the city until they reached the ruined outskirts and then rode along the ruins. She noticed that some of the ruins had the glimmer in them, like the blue stone the Alpha used to create the dome when they fought in the desert. But she let the information drift into the part of her mind that used to care.
They developed a pattern. The Alpha would fuck her in the morning, bring her down to the nnirae to help groom and care for them, then he would watch her eat, and then they would take a ride in the afternoon.
Her attraction to him never waned, so any time he touched her or spoke to her with that incredible voice, her body reacted. It didn't matter what he said, it didn't matter where he touched; their attraction was a powerful one that should have been the greatest love known, but was instead being debased by a cruel Alpha who didn’t care and an Omega who was too broken.
On the days he didn't exhaust her through sex, when he wanted to stroke, and cuddle, and nest more, the nightmares returned. Vivid, gory, horrifying nightmares that racked her with terror three or four times a night.
It alarmed the Alpha, so much so that he made an even stronger effort to get her to bring everything back to focus. She didn't want to. She deserved the nightmares. They were her penance for what happened to Lili. She should have let them destroy her before instead of trying to function with them. Allowing life to blur was freeing; she didn't have to worry about anything or anyone. The Alpha met her most basic needs and without any responsibilities, there was no one to disappoint.
The last thought Naya had before she embraced being the enslaved Omega was how her family should consider her dead by now, reality just needed to catch up.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
