Zandian Pet (Zandian Masters 7)

Her heart jammed up into her mouth. “What?” She hit the panel to open the door and flew out, followed by Talia and Bayla at a run.

In the Great Hall, she found her father crouched over Erick, pounding his fist into Erick’s face.

“Stop!” she screamed, launching herself at her father. “Get away from him.” She wedged her body between theirs and draped her torso across Erick’s.

Leora shot forward from where she’d been shouting on the sidelines and caught her father’s arm, pulling him back.

“Why weren’t you fighting back? What in the hell is going on?”

When Erick just panted and looked at her with pained eyes, she understood. He thought he deserved this. Someone had told her father something—either what she’d done at Neo’s or what had happened at Prium’s, and he was exacting his own form of punishment.

She stood up and put her hands on her hips. “What do you think you’re doing here?” she demanded.

Her father’s jaw muscles twitched. “He forced himself on you. In a vecking brothel.”

She didn’t think, just swung her own fist and landed it squarely on her father’s jaw. She knew he could’ve ducked. He was the Master at Arms, after all, but he let it fall. Maybe he was too stunned to believe his own daughter would punch him.

She advanced on him, swinging again. This time, he ducked. She jabbed a finger in the center of his chest. “You don’t get to exact retribution on my behalf. You don’t get to decide what’s wrong or right about my sex life.”

He flinched. She felt a ripple of shock go through the room, which had filled with a hushed audience.

“I am a grown female. I have a past, not so different from many of the females on this pod. I don’t have to be made ashamed of it by my father or any other being who believes I was dishonored. I won my own freedom, and I make my own decisions, now.”

She stopped and served a hard look to every being in the pod. “I’m a warrior, same as you. If I choose to use my body as a weapon for the Zandian cause, I’ll do it, and I won’t be made to feel ashamed for it. Not by any being.” She looked over at Erick, who had climbed to his feet. “Including myself.”

He opened his arms, his expression soft.

She ran into them, pressed her face against his solid chest, and let him squeeze the breath right out of her.

“Tara,” her father began, rubbing his forehead.

“It’s Mina. I go by Mina, now.”

“Mina,” he said softly, a touch of sadness in his tone. “That’s nice. Mina, I’m sorry if it seemed I was judging… your experience. If you don’t have a problem with it, neither do I.”

Relief came so swift and hard, she burst into tears.

Her father’s face flashed alarm, but Erick sifted his fingers into her hair and murmured endearments. “It’s all right, pet. No one judges you. You can be anything you want to be here.”

“I want to be yours,” she choked, shocking herself.

“Good, because I was planning to do everything in my power to convince you to give me another chance.”

“It’s yours.”

“Say, I’m yours.”

She laughed through her tears. “I’m yours...I think. Let’s try i

t out.”

Erick’s brows dipped. “I’m aiming for more than trying it out, Taramina. But I’ll take that for a start.”

~.~

Erick hooked his forearm under Mina’s ass and hauled her legs around his waist. She looped her arms around his neck and let him carry her from the Great Hall and their spectators.

“You’re a mess,” she murmured, gazing down at his bloodied face.