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He tried his best to conceal his limp, but it was as clear as day to me. I worried for his health, but other than the cuts and bruises, he appeared to be in good condition. Scrub that — he was in great condition.
Ohara marched forward, and the Prizes whispered giddily between each other. I beamed like a total idiot but I didn’t care.
Then Ohara raised a hand and pointed. “I Claim this Prize,” he said.
And… he was pointing at one of the other Prizes.
Shocked, the Prizes clapped hands over their mouths.
Ohara shifted his eyes to me and a grin spread across his face. “Only kidding,” he said, and the room erupted into laughter.
The Prize he pointed at laughed the hardest.
“Excuse me,” he said, and the Prizes stepped aside so he could stand before me. “You, Lily. I Claim you. And I always will.”
I slapped him on the arm. “That’s for Claiming someone else,” I said.
Then I leaned forward and wrapped my arms around his neck and pressed my lips firmly to his, tasting him, savoring him, loving the sensation when he responded in kind, his arms wrapping tightly around me, pulling me in closer toward him, his long tongue exploring my lips and his hands at my wide waist. “And this is for Claiming me.”
He bent down and picked me up as if I weighed a feather — and I definitely did not weigh a feather!
He carried me across the room, and the Prizes’ cheers followed us down the hallway, fading to nothing as we turned first one corner, and then another.
As their roar of approval fell, another roar greeted us as the inmates slapped their thighs in a kind of alien clap and some hooted and others hollered and sung in strange, far-away voices that echoed up and down the halls.
I pressed my face to Ohara’s chest and rubbed at him with my cheek the way Gpidod did with me. He had Claimed me, body and soul.
I was his. And he was mine.
PART III
22
LILY
PRESENT DAY
There was a strangely calm lull after the riot had died down. It was as though the entire prison had, for one night only, enjoyed a large rave and the following morning, everyone was still suffering from the after-effects.
The beasts that came to protect us — at the mysterious Thillak’s behest, no less — had done a sterling job, but now it was time for them to go.
The attacks on the Prize Pool were over and there was no longer any reason for them to remain. More than one had a lingering look for the Prizes beneath my care and I strongly suspected we hadn’t seen the last of them… not for a long while.
A young gleesarian who’d come with the most recent shipment of girls, fluttered her eyes and almost swooned as the inmates left. I’d seen the look before and it never failed but to lead to one place:
Trouble.
“Wipe whatever thoughts you’re having right now from your mind,” I said, snapping at her.
The young gleesarian blinked, surprised I’d noticed her dreamy expression. She immediately dropped her head and lowered her gaze to the floor.
“Yes, Ma’am,” she said, her native drawl tucked between each of the vowels.
“Have you learned nothing from my instructions?” I said, glowering at her. “You’re never going to find happiness with one of these beasts. You’re here for their amusement, nothing more. Do you understand? You’re their plaything.”
The gleesarian maintained her view of the floor. Then I noticed the other Prizes standing around us, watching.
Some might have buckled under their gazes but I didn’t — I doubled down and I glowered at them all one at a time. “The sooner you all get that into your thick heads, the better.”
