I’d sort of forgotten how much fun shopping is. Even on your own, which was mostly always the case for me. Trying stuff on, turning this way and that in the mirror to check if my bum looks big—it was something I did for stress relief, even if I didn’t often buy.
Not that I’m stressed, although my heart rate increases the moment I think about the jewel Driok purchased and exactly what he’s going to do with it.
“Just how did you end up tangled with a Sarkarnii warlord?” Hetty asks me as I step out of the changing area.
“You recognize what he is?”
“It is my business to know what walks through my doors,” she says with a lopsided smile which reveals some interesting bottom teeth. “Also I have a scanner which tells me,” she adds. “Although my database struggled with you.”
I snort out a laugh on both counts. Although the second sentence gives me pause for thought.
“I doubt you get many humans.”
“No, it would appear you are a rare commodity. Perhaps the Sarkarnii collected you like one of his jewels.”
“Driok wouldn’t dare.” I chuckle, feeling the now familiar heat in my core. “I was taken from my planet and somehow ended up in this galaxy, the one containing the Sarkarnii warlord.”
“And you carry his young?” She looks at my abdomen.
“Occupational hazard as the mate of a Sarkarnii, I believe.” I pat the little pooch.
Yet more warmth flows through me, only this time it’s not related to what Driok wants to do to me but what he has given me.
The baby in my belly, but more than that. He has given me a choice. I don’t have to agree to anything I don’t want to. It is all mine for the taking instead.
Driok has set me free.
“I have the perfect outfit for you, for the baron’s gathering,” Hetty says, holding up something which looks like a fishing net.
“Oh no.” I hold up my hands. “Not a chance.”
“If you want to do things to your Sarkarnii’s cock which he will never forget, I highly recommend you try it,” Hetty says.
I admit,I am trembling a little. Not because I’m cold; that seems to be the least of my worries. It’s more about what Driok is going to say when he sees me in this…
“Where is my mate?” I hear him growl at Hetty.
“She is putting the final touches to her outfit, Sarkarnii,” Hetty responds. “She will be out shortly.”
“I want to see her now,” Driok says, true to form.
“How about you consider changing up your…pants…for something more formal?”
“My pants are fine as they are,” Driok rasps, and I have to put my hand over my mouth not to laugh out loud. “You and the baron are lucky I wear them at all.”
I make a squeaking sound as I press my hand further against my lips.
It goes quiet outside of the changing area.
“My mate.Now,” comes Driok’s low, deadly voice.
I step out into the pool of light we arranged earlier.
Driok bristles with a tail and spines as he towers over Hetty, who clearly isn’t bothered in the slightest. His head turns towards me.
And his jaw drops.
It’s something I’ve read about, something I’ve even seen in movies, but never in real life. Driok genuinely stares at me open-mouthed, his eyes practically on stalks, burning like fire. Eventually, his forked tongue comes out and licks at his top lip.
