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"I have no interest in harming you." I let the words purr out of me, making my tone as low and gentle as hers. "In fact, I know what I want as my prize. My incentive to play your game."
Bee straightens, her hands smoothing down her pale pink tunic that somehow makes her skin look a warmer shade of brown than usual. "What's that?"
I don't give her my answer yet. I want her to wonder about it for a while. Two can play manipulation games, after all.
The next day, the cleaner bots begin to make regular appearances into my cell. They make sharp, irritating noises, whirring as they spray soapy water onto the floors and get to work. My room is so dirty that they work for hours on end, and the sounds grate on my nerves, but I know this is another unspoken test to see how far I have come. The female is pleased with my progress, I suspect, and once the floors are clean, she moves her stool out of the hall and into my room, near the door.
"When do I get the cuffs removed?" I ask, because my back aches with the constant hunching.
"When can I trust you?" She lobs back. "Maybe you tell me more about yourself. Maybe we become friends, and then I can get the cuffs off you."
This female. I bite back a snarl of irritation when one of the cleaner bots whirrs past, spraying soapy water on the tip of my tail as it cleans the edges of the cage. "What do you wish to know?"
She tilts her head, regarding me. "Well, for starters, I suppose we could introduce ourselves. My name is Bee. It's short for Beatrice, but that's too stuffy, so I just go by Bee."
I watch her. Her tone is casual and intimate, as if it is just us alone, having a conversation. Yet when I glance over her head, there are a half-dozen guardsmen lurking nearby, watching us. Waiting for me to threaten her so they can end me. It makes me not want to say anything, but I know she's desperate to prove that she can make progress with me, that she can befriend me and somehow prove herself to these males that all talk down to her. "You know my name," I say slowly.
"Yes, but I was wondering if there was something you preferred to go by?"
"The guards call me 'Asshole.'"
Bee's mouth flattens angrily. "Do they, now? Well, I'm not going to call you that. So you tell me what you like to be called."
I shrug. "Crulden works the same as anything else."
"Very well, Crulden. I'm glad we're becoming friends." Her voice drops to a low whisper, and I feel as if she's speaking to me and me alone. It makes my cock react. "You…they told you that you're not the first Crulden?"
"I'm a clone," I agree. I've picked up that much from the conversations in the halls. "That I've been bred to fight in the arenas and win for my master." My lip curls. "Except the master I've been given to keeps me cuffed in a cage."
"He's not your master—"
"Isn't he?"
Bee goes silent, and I know she has no good answer. This male who claims to have “freed” me keeps me locked up tight. "Well. The reason I bring it up is that since you're a clone of the original Crulden, if you want to change your name, you just let me know. I'll respect your wishes." She shoots a scowl behind her, through the window. "And I will never call you ‘asshole.’"
I bite back a grin, because I suspect someone's not getting to steal her breath tonight.
5
BEE
Even though I know we're making progress, it's still startling to me to arrive one day to find that half of the guards have been reassigned and Crulden's cuffs are gone.
I set down the enormous tray of waffles—I've found a piece of metal that creates a waffle-like stamp and it's a great favorite with the guards, even without syrup—and smile at the two guards at their posts. "Changes today, I see. Riffin didn't tell me."
Zathar nods, helping himself to a waffle. "Lord va'Rin came by late last night to check on things. Fair had a meltdown over how First Rank Novis was handling the situation."
My eyes widen as I pick up Crulden's bowl and wipe it clean with the apron I've taken to wearing, since I tend to do a lot of spot-cleaning in his room now. "Novis got in trouble?"
The guardsman nods. "Said he'd told Novis weeks ago that Crulden was to be shown that we're friendly, not that he was a prisoner. We were all quizzed on how things were proceeding, and Lord va'Rin was pleased with your efforts, not so much with everything else. Several of the men were reassigned and Novis is going to let you take the lead on things, per Lord's orders." He shoves an entire waffle into his mouth. "And no more cuffs."
