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But he doesn’t. He carries me off, just like a piece of property. I end up hoisted over his shoulder, staring back at Emrys and Atlas. Atlas has said nothing, done nothing. He was so protective to begin with, but maybe he has come to terms with the fact that I am a possession who must be shared. Maybe it is time I came to terms with that same revelation. My life is now a round of big aliens who have hunted me down and made it nearly impossible to escape, taking what they paid for from me installment by installment.
“Where are you taking me?” I ask Kronos the question as he lumbers around with me.
“To my ship.”
Emrys and Atlas are going to let him take me to his ship, apparently. This feels like a trick or a trap to me. I’m surprised it doesn’t seem like one to him. There’s no way they’re just going to sit there and let this happen. The fact that Kronos already has me outside on the volcanic plain and is actually carrying me away from the valker encampment without anybody stopping him feels very strange.
“I don’t think this is a good idea,” I say in an attempt to warn him.
“I think leaving you with those two is the worst idea anybody could have. Look at what they have already done to you. You are infected with a flesh-eating disease…”
“I think flesh eating diseases mean your flesh is being eaten by a disease, not that you like to eat flesh.”
“Same thing,” he says. “I am sorry. I should have fought harder for you from the outset.”
“I’ve been fighting plenty hard for myself, don’t worry. You buried one of these guys, remember?”
“You shouldn’t have had to. I shouldn’t have had to. This is entirely unacceptable. You should be cherished and kept safe.”
“You don’t know me, Kronos.”
“It doesn’t matter. Everybody deserves to be cherished and kept safe.”
“Then why did you buy a mate?”
He carries me into his ship and settles me down inside the interior. Kronos is traveling alone in a ship that is clearly designed to carry a large number of people. There’s enough space in the room he takes me into to hold a small wedding. The ship is well-appointed, but there are signs that Kronos doesn’t like how it feels. He has a lot of barbarian mementos on the walls, shields and swords and a pair of warhammers, all buzzing with that strange current that I saw come to light outside Owned Mates. It’s brutal, primal, and space age all at the same time.
Kronos begins pacing in front of me, his brow furrowed in a way that makes his handsome features all the more appealing for their solemnity.
“My world is dying. My tribe is dwindling. I need to breed. I wish I did not have to purchase a person to give me an heir, but I did. I chose you because your profile said you wanted a large family.”
Did it? It probably did. It probably said all sorts of things. I wrote those profiles to appeal to the highest buyers. I know what aliens want human women for. The hole between my legs is one of the most prized portals in the universe at this point.
“I need you,” he says.
“You need anybody with a working womb,” I reply. “You don’t need me. It would have been way easier to just buy another human. Surely Owned Mates has a money back guarantee. Or you could have done a chargeback. No matter how you slice it, chasing around the universe for me was unnecessary.”
“I also want you,” he admits.
“Why? You said you want a mother for your children. I’m a murderous, flesh-eating beast.”
He stops and smiles at me with a broad grin that makes my heart skip a beat. “But you are cute.”
I look at him with curiosity. This doesn’t make sense. Not even a little bit. I am not the only human woman for sale. I am not his only option. That means he’s choosing me for some reason.
He likes that I’m a very bad girl. It’s what they all like about me. Either that, or the fact that they’ve all had to compete for me has made me seem more desirable than I am. That could be it. It would be stupid, but it could be it.
I have been just as addled by this experience. When I started, I knew what I was doing. I was escaping. I was making a better life. I was doing what I needed to do in order to survive and to protect… I was doing what I had to. Now I've been sacrificed. I’ve been infected. I’ve been defiled so many times I no longer remember what it felt like to be pure in any way.
But he still wants me.
“I don’t believe the universe makes mistakes. I believe you were put in my path for a reason. I believe I was put in your path for a reason too.”
I look at this handsome, earnest, apparently nice guy with all the strength in the world, and I know that my attraction to him is preordained. I was made to want to fuck this guy and have his babies. He was made to make me want him. The universe is playing with us like two whittled dolls it made just to amuse itself. That’s according to him.
I have to believe in something more than that. I have to believe that I have choice, and that my fate is mine to determine. There is more at stake than just my freedom. There is everything I have ever suffered, and everything I have ever wanted to be.
I feel shy with Kronos, which is wild as I have been with Emrys in the most public and defiling of ways. By now I should be beyond shame. But I am embarrassed, because I know what I am. I know what the others do to me. Kronos almost seems too sweet and good and proper to be with me.
