My stomach turns to ice despite the heat. “You already paid for me?”
“Partial. Half before you arrived to secure claiming rights. Half after successful breeding, due when portal reopens.”
“And if breeding isn't successful?”
“Female returns. Payment forfeit. Hunter is banned from future hunts.”
The economics of it settle like lead in my gut. We're not just traded. We're sold, with hunters taking all the risk. If we don't breed, they lose everything they paid. No wonder he's so focused on filling me with his seed. It's not just instinct. It's investment.
“What did you pay?”
“Does not matter.”
“It does to me.”
He stops walking, considers. When he speaks, his voice drops to registers that vibrate through stone. “Secretions from a creature that lives in the volcanic craters. One vial took three hunts to obtain. Many scars.” His hand goes to his ribs where parallel marks rake across scales. “Must deliver second vial in eighteen days.”
“Or?”
“Or Consortium removes you when portal opens. Even if you carry offspring. Even if you want to stay.”
The cruelty of it staggers me. Even if I choose him, even if I'm pregnant with his child, Earth can reclaim me if he doesn't pay. We're not just trade goods. We're hostages.
“That's why you haven't been hunting,” I realize. “You're staying close to make sure the breeding takes.”
“Part of reason.” We've reached the den, and he gestures for me to enter first. “Other part is young hunters circling. Vek grows bolder. Others will follow.”
Inside, the den feels different. Smaller somehow, like the walls have contracted. Or maybe it's the knowledge that makes everything feel like a cage. Even this space isn't really ours. It's just where he keeps his investment until she either breeds or leaves.
“I need air.”
“You just had air.”
“Different air. Alone air.”
His head tilts, that alien movement that reminds me he's not human, will never think like a human. “Alone is not safe.”
“Nothing here is safe. Let me pretend for five minutes.”
He studies me for a long moment, then steps aside. “Stay within scent range. If you run, I follow. If you hide, I find.”
“I know the rules.”
Outside, the late afternoon sun turns everything gold and crimson. I find a flat stone, sit, and try to process everything. Lily needs eight hundred thousand dollars for surgery. Earth needs whatever element Pyraxis provides. Hunters need offspring to justify their payments. Everyone needs something from someone else's body.
The worst part is that even knowing this, my transformed flesh still craves him. Still gets wet at his scent, still clenchesremembering his knot. The tonic ensures I can't even properly hate the system that sells me. I'm programmed to want my buyer.
A shadow falls across the stone. Not Khor. Wrong shape, wrong scent.
“Productive breeding?” Vek's voice carries mock concern. “Or just noise?”
I don't turn around. “Go away.”
“Public territory here. Can stand where I please.” He moves into my peripheral vision, green scales muted in the amber light. “Heard you screaming for hours. Very impressive volume. But did he tell you about the payment system?”
My silence is answer enough.
“Thought not. They never do until after first knotting. Changes the dynamic when females know they're bought and paid for.”
