His Human Possession (Zandian Masters 8)

Yes, it was.

He loved his little female.

Mina strode forward with long, purposeful steps. She stopped two paces in front of him. “Leti told me you mistrusted when she tried to please you. Like you thought it was a trick or something.”

His stomach churned. The tingle crawling over his skin told him he was about to get his ass handed to him, but, like an idiot, he still hadn’t put it all together.

“Let me tell you something, Commander. If you think a sex pet has any options available to her besides performing as trained and pleasing her master’s every wish before he even wishes it, you’re dreaming.” She got up into his face, her eyes flashing a bluish-purple with anger. “So if you resent Leti working hard for your pleasure, if you think it’s a sign you can’t trust her, then you need to find yourself a different female.” He swallowed under her furious gaze, so similar to her father’s, it made him shift in his boots. “And furthermore, if you’d ever bothered to ask her anything about her life as a slave, you would know that her fertility has never been under her control. So the idea of her getting pregnant on purpose to trap you?” Lady Taramina made a scoffing sound. “Asinine.” She started to march away, apparently concluding her lecture, but then she whirled back for another round. “And don’t you think if she meant to trap you, she would’ve told you that baby was yours?”

“Is it?” he choked.

He’d gone vecking crazy not knowing. Wondering if he actually had a young growing inside his beautiful human right now. And the times he allowed himself to believe he did? The thrill had gone beyond any joy he’d known.

Lady Taramina hesitated for a split second, making his nerves go haywire. But all she snapped was, “What do you care?” before she sailed out of the chamber and let the door slide shut behind her.

Damn.

He made another hole in the wall.

He’d been a vecking idiot.

He needed to go and win his female back.

Whatever it took.

And Lady Tararmina was right—he didn’t care if the baby was his or not. It didn’t matter. He wanted Leti, regardless.

Leti sat in the kitchen with Bayla and the other human females, eating. Lamira appeared pale and tired. Her baby suckled her breast, one of his tiny hands wrapped around his own horn for self-soothing.

Her heart lurched at the precious sight.

Abruptly, Lamira dropped her spoon and stood up, eyes wide.

“What is it?” her mother asked sharply.

“I need to go to the crystal baths,” she said, already running. The rest of the women looked at one another for only a few seconds before they dropped their utensils and went running after her.

“Are you finished, then?” Chef Barr called after them.

No one answered. Lamira entered the crystal bath, thrusting her infant into her mother’s arms. “Wait here. I need quiet,” she said.

The rest of them stood in a clump in the corridor, silent. Fear shot up Leti’s throat, closing off her air.

Something bad had happened. Lamira had seen it.

Time inched by. It seemed like hours. No one moved. No one spoke.

Finally, Lamira emerged. She worked hard to swallow, accepting her fussing baby back without even looking at him. “Cambry and Lily, you’re the last hope. Master Seke’s troops were shot down in Zandia. Zander’s troops are under heavy attack above Zandia.

“But the crystals have shown me where to find Fluut.”

“You must find him. Take him out. Once he falls, the rest will concede.”

Cambry, the most warrior-like of all the females, tossed her long red tresses back over her shoulder. “Tell me how to find him.”

Paal stalked down the corridor looking for Leti. Not that he’d figured out what to say to her, yet.

She’d been sleeping in Lady Mina’s room, he thought, but no one answered his knock. As commander of the ship, he might have the ability to open locked doors and he might have used that privilege, only she truly wasn’t there.