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Balkazar had merely taken the chore of cleaning up the prince’s mess. Guarding his back when needed, but he’d given Sinadim free rein to vent that toxic rage before it shredded his intestines to garish ribbons.

There was nothing left.

Nothing but his own men and the hybrid females they’d rescued from the bowels of hell. All saved, except a single Hathorian female who’d been doomed from the start.

Soaked in gore, mane plastered flat to his shoulders, Sinadim’s claws remained extended to their limit. Unsheathed as breath heaved in his chest. As he surveyed an afternoon’s honest labor with a gruesome smile.

“The females have asked to speak to you,” Balkazar said, appearing at his side once more.

For a moment, Sinadim remained. Enjoying his macabre efforts, absorbing it before, with a nod, he allowed the war chief to draw him away.

No fewer than eighty hybrid females in various stages of undress awaited his attention. Silent, until the tallest of them stepped into the light.

Horrific scars lined the right side of her face, but she held her chin high. Made direct eye contact, and said, “My prince,” before she fell to her knees with one hand pressed over naked breasts. “I’ve been elected to speak for these women. And despite all you’ve done today, we have one last boon to ask of you.”

Grinning as the blood of her masters dripped from his every jagged angle, Sinadim nodded. “Ask.”

“We would fight,” she said in a rush. Sparse, hybrid mane bristling at her nape. “We’ve known nothing but pain and torment as citizens of Tengit. Nothing but helpless hatred. And we would fight to be free. If you’ll have us, we mean to pledge loyalty to the Karahmet throne and become deserters of the homeland that treated us with such disregard. But…” She swallowed, glancing up to meet his eyes for a brief instant. “We will no longer serve on our backs.”

Surprised but intrigued, Sinadim watched her for the space of three breaths. Mind racing at the implications of adding such a large force to his own. Tallying the cost and benefits. Green eyes vibrant with the riches that might be won.

“Adding three units of spears would be a boon,” Balkazar murmured, echoing the fledgling thought that had only just begun to sparkle at the edge of Sinadim’s mind. “They may be untrained, but very little can compare to the raw passion of warriors fighting for a worthy cause…”

Sinadim’s lips stretched around a grin. “Welcome, sisters!” he said, voice raised to fill the hearts of those gathered before him. “Yesterday you were nothing, but today, you become warriors. Today I sever your ties to Veli Zaganos. My gift of thanks for your loyalty and a promise of bountiful riches to come.”

An ocean of bloodthirsty grins gleamed at him from the dark.

He sent those who needed tending back to the camp.

But for those whose bloodlust overrode their physical hurts? Sinadim set them loose in the streets of Tengit. Guided by his most bloodthirsty generals. Draped in the colors of the Karahmet prince’s army.

Not a single loss was counted against Sinadim’s forces.

Not in the markets, the streets, or the brothels.

Not even in the fighting pits, where the best of Tengit’s fighting forces gathered.

And not—despite how much of his forces Sinadim had dedicated to the act—in the taking of the Zaganos palace.

There was only the harem left.

Only Veli Zaganos himself, barricaded in a dark pit, awaiting his end, surrounded by Omega females.

Blood hot with the thrill of battle, Sinadim took a moment to savor his imminent victory. To relish this last moment of peace before he slaked his thirst for vengeance on Veli’s innards.

But it was only a moment.

Wood splinters burst into the gloom as Sinadim reeled back and sent a booted foot through the very last unopened door in the entire sorry territory. A trophy he’d left untouched until there was nowhere left for the Zaganos patriarch to run.

“Come out, Veli! You limp-cocked coward!”

It was taboo of the highest order to violate the sanctuary of another’s harem. A thing not done unless one was willing to go to war to claim the precious jewels hidden within—a prize Sinadim would savor when the killing was done.

His reward for enduring withdrawal from his harem.

A bloodthirsty grin stretched across Sinadim’s lips and he stood aside as three Razie slipped past him. Rushing into the dark where a coward hid behind soft female flesh.

Even with forearms soaked to the elbow in Zaganos blood, Sinadim’s lust for murder was far from quenched.