Training His Human (Zandian Masters 3)

Lamira set her fork down, and Leora regretting saying anything that stopped her daughter from eating when her body needed the nutrition for the baby. “He won’t talk to me. He forbids me to speak when he’s in here, and he’s never in here anymore. I don’t know what to do. I think he truly feels like I would leave him—or would choose my family first over him, but that wasn’t it.” Lamira’s voice had taken on a pleading quality, as if Leora was the one she needed to convince. She wrung her hands, and her eyes grew watery. She dashed at them with one finger. “I’m so emotional anyway with the pregnancy,” she explained.

“Of course you are. Maybe you could write him a message. We could have Seke send it, perhaps? Explain you would never leave him, and you’d known it was the only way to get him to engage in the battle to save Lily.”

Lamira sighed. “It doesn’t sound much better that way. I put my life and his unborn young’s life in danger and manipulated him into doing something he didn’t want to do. It’s no wonder he’s hurt and angry.”

“Your sister’s alive because of what you did,” Leora reminded her, the burn of her daughters being strangers to each other still smarting. “She wants to visit us,” she blurted.

Lamira brightened a bit. “Does she? When?”

Leora took a bite of quiche to give her a chance to order her emotions around Lily. As she chewed, she sank into Seke’s reassurances. “Soon. Seke will arrange it.” When we’re no longer being punished. Lamira didn’t need to know that.

~.~

Zander sifted through holograms, looking for any he had not yet viewed or dealt with, but there was nothing new. He had moved his business operations to the meeting room where he normally sat with his council. The chamber was round, like many chambers in the pod, but it extended beyond the main body of the pod, jutting out into space. The half of the room that extended consisted of floor-to-ceiling windows, but the crystal embedded in the skylight provided the bright light.

The Ocretion atmosphere wasn’t ideal for his species, which required sunlight, rather than food for energy. The sun was filtered and weak, at best, but his crystals amplified the light, which was why Lamira had been so excited to grow things on his pod.

He looked around at all the flowers, food-bearing plants, and small trees clustered by the windows. She’d brought new life to the pod. His servants and subjects had accepted her—some of them even before he had. They doted on her, especially now that she carried his young.

He stood from the round table—so large for one being. It seemed to mock his intense loneliness. Being near Lamira pained him too much. He paced to the bank of windows and stared down at the polluted planet below, watching airships navigate through the space.

He’d nearly gone mad when Lamira had jumped onto Rok’s ship in pursuit of her sister. But he should have remembered how much she loved her mother, and that she’d apply that same love to the sister she’d never met. Would she ever love him that much? Or was she making the best of a situation? He’d bought her as a slave for breeding. After they’d mated, she’d asked for her freedom and he’d refused it, saying she loved to be his slave.

And it was true. The monitoring device Daneth had inserted inside her had scientifically proven she grew excited by his dominance—she loved his mastery. But perhaps he had misunderstood. Perhaps her sexual arousal at being kept subordinate to him wasn’t enough.

Clearly, she’d felt she had to flee from him, rather than seek his permission or request his assistance to save her sister.

The door slid open, and Seke entered, his cool gaze assessing. He strolled over and leaned one shoulder against the windows, looking down with a casualness Zander knew better than to trust.

“What is the root of your trouble with Lamira?”

He had to flex his fingers, which curled automatically into fists any time another male spoke of his mate. “I don’t want to have this conversation with you.”

“What fear is behind it?”

He ground his teeth. Vecking Seke and his vecking lessons.

Losing Lamira.

Losing Lamira forever was his vecking fear.

“How do you master fear?”

Lean into it. Own it so it can’t own you. He knew well his lessons with Seke.

“Veck off, Seke.” He purposely didn’t call him Master Seke. Though he was a mentor, a teacher, and a father figure, he was also Zander’s servant. “What were you so afraid of when you nearly knocked my head off in the studio?”

There. He’d flip it back on Seke and see how he likes a taste of his own teaching.

“My desire.” Seke’s voice sounded thick, and Zander jerked his head up in surprise, not expecting the older male to answer. They stared at one another, the accusation behind Seke’s gaze tarnishing the shine Zander had been polishing on his question.

He had to admit, he’d known Leora’s punishment would torture his mentor. Seke considered himself bound to his dead mate by an antiquated code of honor, which Zander thought unnecessary, especially considering the near extinction of their species.

He’d also noted Seke’

s interest in Leora, and knew the male would never allow another to punish her. But if he was completely honest, He supposed part of him wanted someone else’s suffering to match his own. Wanted someone to understand how difficult it was to love a human female.

Both their arm cuffs blinked with incoming messages from the death pod. Grateful for the distraction, Zander launched the hologram.