The human, Ella, held my gaze, her chest heaving as if the effort had exhausted her already exhausted body. The distance from the seating area to the stage had hidden much of her beauty. The scent of salt from the Yuushin Sea drifted into the room on the breeze, mingling with the soaps and lotions that lingered on her skin. A testament to the care that went into preparing my mate for the moment when we meet.

The moment when we are meant to cement our union.

Only a few steps separated us. A few steps, her rage, and the surge of fury in my blood. From this distance, I could see details in her eyes. They burned with fury and determination. Details too small for me to see from the stage, but at arm's length, they stuck out as strongly as the kohl. Tiny flecks of brown, as small as a grain of sand, dotted her skin beneath her eyes. They contrasted with the pink flush in her cheeks. She would bend if I made her, but she would not break.

The air of the room turned sour, filling with the smell of her fear. I looked down at the wounds she had left behind, four thin punctures on either side of my chest. The stung of them provided a welcome distraction from my mate's closeness.

She had the fiery nature prized in warriors’ mates, but hers hadn't taken root. It ebbed and flowed like the dunes beyond the city. When the fire blazed, her eyes sparkled and words rained from her plump lips in a fast rhythm almost like music. She was fearsome in those moments. Beautiful.

But a change in the winds could dampen her spirit as well as set it ablaze. Mysterious wasn't the word I would have used for humans.

"You are . . . strange, Kai'jan," I said.

Ella listened to my words, her brow wrinkling. "Stop calling me that."

"It is accurate. The contracts were signed. The credits have been exchanged. You are, and for all of your days will be, Ella jan Zarbonov."

"This is so not how I wanted to spend my evening."

"Nor I. Yet here we are."

"Yeah, well, I'm sorry I spoiled your little love nest." Ella sniffed and reached around her back, sliding her fingers up and down her spine. "Actually, no, I'm not. Not even a little bit. Could you fix this?"

I leaned back, folding my arms across my chest beneath the wounds. "No."

She looked at me, her eyebrow quirked. "Would you please fix this?"

“It wasn’t the words.” I stepped forward again, bridging the space between us. "I want to see my mate."

"Don't call me that either!" she spat through gritted teeth. The fire returned to her eyes, blazing in her fury at how I’d addressed her.

I opened my mouth, almost giving in to the urge to shout at her before the ember in her eyes stopped my tongue. My mate only gave me a few precious seconds to savor it before she turned her eyes away again, pulling the loose strips of fabric around her luscious curves to cover herself more.

The urge to reach for her, to force her to meet my eyes again, nearly overpowered me. I wanted to see the fire in those eyes, to savor it before the winds shifted again. Lovely as I found them, I couldn't tolerate insolence. Not in a lounging chamber in Carzon's auction house. Not from the new mate I had just acquired from him.

A deep breath escaped my lips as I reached for her hand with as much tenderness as I could manage. My callused palms brushed against the soft skin covering her knuckles. She would take no pleasure from my touch that night. A warrior could have gentle hands or high status, never both.

But her pleasure was the least of my concerns. I had gone to great lengths and expense to ensure it.

"I will call you Ella, if it will calm you," I said as I turned her hand over in mine. The flesh of her wrist where I'd held her before was still red and angry, a reminder to me that humans were more fragile and breakable than my kind. "But it will change nothing. You are mine. Kai'jan."

Ella looked up at me, her expression unreadable. "And if I refuse, what will you do? Starve me? Beat me?"

Images of the other stock from the auction, the women none of us wanted, flashed before my eyes. A wave of rage washed through my blood and the fingers that held Ella's wrist trembled. Any fool with eyes could see that Carzon's stock had been mistreated, and the servant responsible would be punished severely for it. His reputation would never recover if word got out.

"Is that what the servants here did?" I asked.

There was no sign of injury to her body, not even something as small as the red skin I'd left on her wrist in my carelessness.

If Carzon's slaves hurt my mate in any way, they would regret it bitterly. Whatever punishment awaited them when Farran and Harran's sitting finished would be a restful retreat compared to the hell I would rain down on them. I could only ask one favor of the Primen, but it wouldn't be a waste to claim vengeance for my house.

Ella seemed to sense the malicious intent behind my words. Her eyes widened, the fire vanishing from them in the instant she shook her head. "Nobody beat me."

I placed my hand beneath her chin again and forced her to meet my eyes. "To speak falsely or break an oath among our people is unforgivable. That is your first lesson, Kai'jan."

"I'm not lying."

My eyes studied hers, searching for the truth behind her words. She hadn't been beaten. That much was the truth at least. But the hollows of her cheeks and the dark circles hiding beneath the face paint told a different story. Something had happened to her in that room or somewhere else.

"Make that your second lesson, Kai'jan. I will not tolerate lies between us. Our life together will be much easier if you follow that rule."

Ella's eyes hardened. She leaned back, pulling her chin free of my fingers. "Listen, dude, I didn't ask for this. Any of this. I don't want a life with you. I don't even know you!"

I let her go, watching as she retreated toward the balcony again. "Has something I said given you the impression that this matters?"

Apparently, that was not the right choice of words. She glared at me, her amber eyes burning hotter than they had at any other point that evening. I couldn't look away from them. Her gaze shifted from me to the city behind her and she took another step back.

"That is V'dal," I said, moving toward her in silence as she looked at manses on the waterfront. "My blood has lived there since the time of my grandfather's father."

"Good for them, I guess." My mate exhaled and looked down to the street below the balcony. Her jaw clenched, her muscles tensed so tightly I could see a faint tremble in her shoulders.

A sense of dread welled in my chest. Call it intuition or superstition, but I didn't like the look in my mate's eyes. I followed her gaze, measuring the distance from the balcony to the stones below. I reached for her wrist, catching it between my fingers with half the strength I used the first time. "Whatever you are looking for, Kai'jan, you will not find it there."

"I'm trying to get away from you, jerk!" she shouted.

I swore under my breath, not because she might understand me but because I knew somehow that shouting back would frighten her more. "That will be hard, Kai'jan. We've taken enough of Carzon's hospitality. Time we went home."

"I'm not going anywhere with you!" she screamed again.

Her eyes darted around the room as if to find some object that would prove her point. There was nothing, of course. The pleasure chamber was designed for a single purpose, one which my sore cock told me my mate didn't intend to explore.

Nothing I said, whether command or request, softly or in the loudest voice I could manage, calmed Ella jan Zarbonov. Mysterious wasn't the word for the humans, at least not mine. Unruly would have fit better, and I could already feel my patience sunning out.

"Kai'jan, this isn't—"

"Stop calling me that!" she shouted.

The chamber door chimed quietly. I turned toward it just as one of Carzon's Xiban servants poked her head through the door. She must have heard Ella's voice through the door.

"Balan djaht!" I roared. My mate clamped her hands over her ears. The color drained from the servant's face as she disappeared, sliding the door shut again behind her.

Ella stood still, her hands still pressed against the sides of her head. After a long while, she peeked at me over her forearm. "What did you say to her?"

"I don't know how your people would call it. It means depart or be slaughtered."

She blinked, her brow furrowing for a moment before she burst into laughter. Full, body-shaking laughter that forced her to grab the railing to steady herself.

"You . . . told her . . . to fuck off?" Ella jan Zarbonov asked when she could get enough air to speak.

The moonlight caught her dress as she moved, giving the illusion that the air sparkled around her. Again, I couldn't take my eyes from her. The swell of her breasts, the curve of her hips. "I don't know. What is funny?"

"I just . . ." She turned her eyes away from mine, but I saw the water gathering in them. "I wish you'd been here to do that a few days ago."

Her shoulders shook, giving away her tears even though she tried to hide them. A Xiban woman would never display such weakness to someone who could use it against her, not even her mate. She would have stopped the tears before they ever reached her eyes, covering them with rage or distance.

The humans weren't like us. They were softer in body and spirit. Hadn't I seen that in the showing? I saw it and thought the women deserved mercy. Where was my mercy now?

I didn't have the luxury of it. Neither did she. But if my mate could not be broken, I would have to reason with her. I reached for the straps of her dress, securing them as I spoke. "You cannot go home, Ella, and you cannot stay here. But for now, you will be Kai'tak."

"What does that mean?" She looked at me with narrowed eyes, the way a beast eyes a predator.

"You will serve and learn. With my servant. In my house."

"But not in your bed."

A groan of frustration escaped my lips. What was this clever creature? What power lay behind those eyes that I would agree to what they asked so easily?

"I give some, and you want all. No, not in my bed. You have my word. “

Ella looked back to the stones beneath the balcony. Slowly, she turned back to me and nodded. "Okay."

I nodded, bile rising in my throat as I turned back into the pleasure chamber.

"Where are you going?" Ella asked at my retreating back.

"My maid will get you, Ella tak Zarbonov.” I didn't dare look back at her. Not in the room where we were meant to cement our mating. Not while she was in that dress. Not after I’d dismissed her from her bed duties. Even the staunchest warrior had his limits.

The war in the auction house that night concluded with three battles fought. My loss to Ella was the only one I suffered, and there was no doubt in my mind that it would be the costliest.