Zandian Pet (Zandian Masters 7)

“I beg you not to say I sent you,” Behn called after him as he left his elegant office.

Erick didn’t dignify it with a response. He returned to his ship and set the course back to the pod.

Then he allowed himself to check the security feed on the pod for Mina’s location.

There. He found her in the Great Room, with the other females in the pod, playing games with the three young Tomis had brought from Zandia.

These holograms were the extent of his interaction with Mina since she’d walked out of his room four nights ago. Erick’s chances of ever getting Mina—or Tara, as she went by at the pod—alone again seemed to drop each planet rotation. She’d been avoiding him at every turn.

The better part of him wanted to respect her wishes. He understood—she wanted to bury her past as a sex slave. But veck if he would let her bury him with it. Or rather, he’d accept her burying his shameful part, if only she’d consent to letting him into her new life. He wanted to know Tara as thoroughly and intimately as he’d known Mina.

And it wasn’t just about sex. Their chemistry was incredible, that was true. Not a nanosecond had passed since he’d claimed her that he didn’t long to have her smooth skin under his palms again, coax those sexy moans from her lips, or make her cry out in pleasure as he sank into her wet heat.

But his attraction to Mina went far beyond her glorious, nimble body. He admired her courage, her strength. Tara was every bit the warrior her father was. And when they’d been together in his chamber, he’d been electrified by her presence. It was as if the piece missing from his life all this time had fallen into place. He used to think he ached for Zandia. Or his parents. But the hollowness in his core filled just being near her. It was as if his purpose crystallized—and it was to be worthy of Mina. To protect and provide for her. To be her mate.

Unfortunately, she didn’t feel the same way.

For four planet rotations, he’d stalked her about the pod, attempting to lure her into conversation or gain even a moment of her attention, but she always dodged him. His only dim satisfaction lay in the fact she hadn’t engaged with any other males, either.

Thank veck. As it was, he wanted to throat punch every male who looked at her. Her father excepted, of course.

But her apparent dissatisfaction with her new life bothered him even more. His female observed the workings of the pod without engaging. She stared out windows more often than spoke. Even now, she smiled and engaged the children far less than the other females.

Something was wrong.

Mina had wilted in her new environment and his need to fix anything and everything bothering her eclipsed all else. Even his problem with the missing galactacarriers.

~.~

“If you weren’t Master Seke’s daughter, I think you already would have been carried off over one of their shoulders,” Bayla, the pregnant human mate of the pod’s doctor remarked, lifting her chin toward the three guards crowding the doorway to the Great Room.

Mina had joined the other females of the pod—Bayla, her sister, Lamira, and Leora to mind the three young from Zandia while their mother was undergoing her “reconditioning.”

Mina forced out a laugh. The male attention didn’t bother her—she’d been a sex slave for the past five solar cycles, after all—but she had no interest in any of the warriors, no matter how big and strong and masculine they may appear.

She wanted Erick. She’d seen him in action during her escape—he was as much a warrior as any of these males. And so much more. Intelligent. Refined. With a little prompting, she’d learned from her father that Erick had generated millions of steins for Prince Zander through investments and trade. In fact, his business prowess was the sole reason the Zandians were now positioned to take back their planet.

Unlike her former master, Dorhock, who considered himself something of an investor, Erick didn’t exhibit the healthy ego she might expect from a being so potent.

“Don’t look now,” Talia murmured. “But one of them is coming over.”

She stifled a sigh.

The guard cleared his throat when none of them looked at him. “Do you females need anything?”

“No, thank you, Derk,” Lamira answered, beaming a smile up at him. “But we’ll let you know if we do.”

Mina had never seen a human female in a position of power before. Granted, Lamira didn’t lord over any Zandian. Instead, she presented a friendly, we’re-all-the-same-status attitude, which seemed to make her popular with servants and warriors alike. Her status might be the same, for all Mina knew. The human still wore a slave’s collar, although it was bedecked with hundreds of Zandian crystals and was probably worth a fortune.

Derk adjusted his sword belt. “Right. Very well.” He stood a moment longer before he swaggered back to his post.

“I feel like a collector’s prize,” she muttered. She adopted an auctioneer’s tone, “Step right this way for a glimpse of the one and only single Zandian female alive!”

Talia snickered. Leora sent her a sympathetic look. “Breeding season makes it even more difficult for the males here. You have to remember, they’ve been without females on this pod for fifteen solar cycles.”

“How long have you all been here, then?”

“I’ve been here one solar cycle. I was the first slave they brought in for breeding,” Lamira said. “Your mate’s idea.” She winked at Bayla. “Then Zander bought my mother as a gift to me, and assigned your father as her master. It didn’t take them long to mate. Zander found my sister, Lily, next. You haven’t met her yet—she’s mated to Rok, the pilot training Zander’s human army. Next came Bayla, also brought on for breeding.”