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His face hardened.
“That’s how my kind live, Allisandra. It’s the only way there is for us.”
“Fine.” Alli disengaged from him and climbed off his lap. “Well the buffet line is over—here at least. I’m done with this.”
Kane gave a short nod.
“We only have a few days until I have to take you back anyway. If you’re not pregnant by now, I doubt there’s anything more I can do about it.”
His words made Alli put a hand to her belly. Was she carrying his child? And how would Douglas react to the news that she was pregnant if, indeed, she was? How could she explain to her fiancé that she was having another man’s baby? He hadn’t wanted to be a father to any children of his own—Alli was certain he wouldn’t want to raise one that had been fathered by another male.
She shook her head.
I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it. In the meantime, it’s time to cut this off—time to start getting over Kane. Otherwise it’s going to hurt so much worse when he takes me back to my own world.
As always, Kane seemed to know her thoughts.
“That’s fine with me, Allisandra,” he told her, his face as hard as granite. “If you want to spend our remaining days apart, be my guest.”
“Don’t you mean be your captive?” Alli shot back. “Isn’t that what I am?”
“Think what you want,” Kane growled. He rose from the Breeding Chair and fastened his trousers as he spoke. “I’ll see you at Last Meal tonight,” he said and was gone, moving with that strange, almost supernatural speed which always made Alli feel like she was seeing things.
But right now, all she was seeing were tears. They blurred her vision and blinded her. So much for loving the big Kru’ell One. No matter how many pretty things Kane said to her, it was clear she was nothing but sustenance to him. Then again, what else should she have expected from an emotional vampire, Alli asked herself.
She’d been a fool to ever let herself care for him.
Well, from now until the end of her stay, she was going to keep to her room and see Kane as little as possible. She was determined to keep to herself and ignore him.
At least, those were her intentions. But that was before the Summons…
Twenty-Three
Kane frowned at the piece of parchment unrolled before him. Alli could tell whatever was written on it was bothering him, though she didn’t know why. It had been delivered by special messenger—a sub-space drone which had come all the way from Earth and brought it to the door of his fortress just as they were sitting down to eat.
Reluctantly, she decided to break her silence, though she had been determined not to speak to the big Kru’ell One through the entire dinner.
“What is it?” she asked, nodding at the parchment. “And why didn’t they just send you an email or whatever? Why the need for a drone to come all the way from Earth?”
Kane’s face creased into a grim expression.
“It’s a Summons,” he said shortly and went back to perusing the elaborately scripted parchment.
“Well that makes everything as clear as mud,” Alli said dryly. “A Summons from who? What does it mean?”
At last, Kane looked up at her. Alli saw that his eyes were hard.
“A Summons from the Overlord,” he growled. “The head of my kind—the leader of the Kru’ell Ones. And he doesn’t fuck around with electronic communications—not with a feast of this importance.”
“A feast?” Alli raised her eyebrows. “Is it something you have to go to?”
“I do,” Kane said. “And you do as well—I’m supposed to bring my current concubine.” He shook his head. “Gods damn it—this is going to be fucking dangerous.”
“Dangerous?” Alli felt a chill skitter down her spine. “Dangerous how? What are you talking about?”
“Dangerous in that the Overlord is notoriously unpredictable,” Kane growled. “That’s how he’s remained Overlord for as long as he has—it’s not an elected position. He killed twenty other warriors to get to where he is today.”
Alli didn’t like the sound of that at all.
“Do you really have to go? Can’t you make some kind of excuse?”
Kane frowned.
“If you had ever met the Overlord, you’d know that no excuse would be good enough to miss an event he has personally invited you to. No…” He shook his head. “We’ll have to make an appearance.” He stabbed a finger at Alli. “But you are going to have to keep a low profile, Allisandra. I don’t want you drawing any unwanted attention to yourself.”
Alli frowned.
“Unwanted attention? From who? And how can I keep a low profile?”
“You’ll have to act like all the other concubines,” Kane told her.
“But…how do they act?” Alli shook her head. “I don’t understand.”
“You’ll see,” he said darkly. “Gods, I hate to subject you to this, but I have no choice.” He shook his head. “At least it’s only one event. We should be able to get through a single feast with no incident…I hope.”
