Fortunately, she was able to get some rest that night, and when she met Asgar in the kitchen for breakfast, Egil was already there with the slider he had adjusted for Eleanor. Unlike the sliders you could find on Earth, this one hovered, what would allow her to move to wherever she wanted to, and it also had a chair, so she wouldn’t have to stand on it. It wasn’t beautiful, but it would help her a lot.
Sasha took it to her friend’s room and quietly left it by her bed. There was no point waking her up, especially if they had to go to the palace.
She left her a note on the table, and a few moments later, they were on their way back to the palace.
The king himself was waiting for them. Sasha felt he had a strange expression on his face, especially after he greeted them, but she didn’t know him enough to be sure.
He gave Asgar a million instructions about the videos he wanted to be done and then he disappeared. For some reason, she had a bad feeling about his departure, but she dismissed the feeling, sure she was overreacting to the whole thing.
The rest of the morning went by amongst the typical chaos of shouting, but by the end, the results were quite satisfying.
They were about to return to Asgar’s place when he received a call from the king demanding their presence on his office.
“What’s the matter?” Sasha asked when he ended the call, worried about his expression.
“Brynjar has summoned us to his office.”
“Us as in you and me?” she asked, surprised. “Did he say why?”
“No, he didn’t. Something wrong is going on,” he said, picking her by her hand and dragging her down the hall.
“What could be wrong?” she asked, the bad feeling she had been experiencing all morning getting a lot worse.
“I don’t know, but we’ll soon find out,” his tone was so dark it only worsened the way she was feeling.
They reached the king’s office, and Asgar pressed the button to open it up.
“Is there a problem?” Asgar asked as soon as he stepped in, looking straight at Brynjar, sitting at his desk with a stern expression on his face.
Sasha entered after him, and the first thing she saw was her friend, Eleanor, seated on a chair in front of the desk. “Eleanor! What the hell are you doing here?” she asked, in a loud tone, taking a couple of steps in her direction.
Asgar saw the other woman at that same moment, and his protection instincts burst out protecting his válkana. Stretching his arm, he stopped Sasha, holding her by her arm and pulled her behind him.
The king got up and stood in front of his friend. “Well, don’t you have anything to say before I accuse you of treason?” his ice tone sent chills down Asgar’s spine. He could count on his fingers how many times he had seen his friend this furious. Because, he was furious, there was no doubt of that.
“Treason? There’s no treason…” Sasha intervened, outraged.
Knowing his friend very well, Asgar turned around and silenced Sasha. He didn’t need her impulsive words to make things harder than they already were. “For once, keep your mouth shut,” he barked at her before he turned to look at his king. “I assure you, none of my actions were meant to be treason, but if that’s how you feel them, I shall accept your decision,” he stated, trying to stay as calm as possible. He knew the risks he was taking when he took Eleanor under his protection. He just hadn’t expected Brynjar finding out about her before he told him.
“You can’t do that. I’m not letting you do that,” Eleanor cried out.
Both men ignored her words, as they stared at each other. Behind Asgar, Sasha was paralyzed, with her forehead leaning against his back, her hands clenched on his clothing.
Despite the tense situation he was living, the fact she sought protection and comfort from him, warmed his heart, like few things did these days.
“Please, listen to me,” Eleanor insisted, finally standing up, supported by the chair backrest. “The only thing he did was save my life. If someone is to pay for that, then it should be me, not him. He didn’t do anything wrong.”
Brynjar frown at her words.
Eleanor finally managed to stand between the two men, with shaky legs. “If you want to blame someone, then, blame me, not him, do you hear me?” she insisted.
But Brynjar was shaking his head.
“He just saved my life,” she managed to say before she fell to the floor.
Both men jumped to grab her.
“Don’t touch her,” Brynjar snarled at Asgar, and he stepped back, with an incredulous look on his face.
The king picked her up in his arms and took her back to her chair. “You better start explaining what the hell is going on here,” he ordered Asgar, standing next to the woman, with a deep frown.
“When I got to the auction, the Slythonians presented five human females. As you ordered, I planned on buying them all, but while we were inspecting them, as they expected us to, Sasha mentioned the existence of another human female,” Asgar started explaining, trying to stay calm. He still couldn’t believe what his senses were telling him.
“What did you do then?” Brynjar hurried him.
“I sent the rest of the women to our ship with Egil, and on her way out, Sasha yelled she wouldn’t leave without her friend. Eskol silenced her, but her outburst allowed me to ask the captain for her friend.”
“They were planning to keep her for themselves?”
“No, I was damaged goods; they couldn’t present me to their elite customers,” Eleanor intervened through gritted teeth. “They were planning on selling me to the first buyer that would want me.”
“Though they warned me of the problem, I decided to buy her,” Asgar continued. “I wasn’t sure what I was going to do with her, but I simply couldn’t leave her behind,” he made a small pause, feeling Sasha’s arms wrapped themselves around his waist. “Eskol went to the dungeon to pick her up, but he tortured her so badly, that when he finally gave her to me, she was unconscious. I took her directly to the infirmary, where she stayed during the whole trip.”
“So, Colborn is involved in this as well.” It was a statement, not a question.
“He only followed my orders,” Asgar assured him.
“You can’t blame them, please,” Eleanor, begged him, squirming in her chair.
The King ignored her. “Why didn’t you bring her to me, like you did with rest of the women?” he asked in a stern tone.
“Because we weren’t sure of your reaction,” he explained.
“Reaction to what? Where’s the difference between her and the other women?” he demanded raising his tone.
“I can’t walk. I’m crippled,” Eleanor answered the question. “That’s why the Slythonians hadn’t planned to abduct me. They only took me because I interrupted them when they were grabbing Sasha. They never leave witnesses behind,” she explained.
There was a shock on Brynjar’s face.
“Colborn told me there are no crippled people amongst your species, so we weren’t sure how my presence would affect you,” she continued. “If Asgar had left me behind, I’m sure Eskol would have found a way to kill me. He hated me from the beginning. So, all he did was save my life and protect your people’s interests, while we figured a way to solve this whole situation,” she insisted.
“I should have told you about her immediately,” Asgar admitted.
Brynjar took a look at the women before he walked towards Asgar.
“Stay here, both of you. Remember you’re still collared,” Brynjar ordered as he pushed Asgar out of the room, taking him to the council’s room.
Once out of the room, Asgar tried to explain why he had decided to keep Eleanor away, astonished to confirm she was the king’s soulmate.
Brynjar forgave him for his lack of judgment but demanded to keep the woman with him. Sasha wasn’t very happy with it, especially knowing she had to leave her friend at the palace and go back to Asgar’s place. According to Asgar, he had been designated as her tutor until a soulmate claimed her so that she could learn more about the planet and its people.
She didn’t want to be all alone with him. The passion they conjured each time they were together was too strong, and something told her she would get burned with its fire.
His excuse of being her tutor was nothing but crap, and she knew it. He wanted her and intended to have her.
In other circumstances, she wouldn’t have mind exploring the fierce passion they shared, but the possibility of being claimed by another man, and taken away from his side, cooled a lot of that fire. The last thing she needed was a broken heart.
But he gave her no choice. She was forced to go back to his place.
“This doesn’t make any sense, and you know it,” she grumbled as he took a seat in front of the steering wheel. “I should stay here with the rest of the women so that I can help Eleanor. She can’t be left alone for long periods.”
“The King will make sure she lacks nothing, believe me,” he assured her.
“Why should I believe you?” she protested, in a disdainful tone.
“I don’t think you have a choice, right?” he cut her, in a cold tone.
She snorted at him and remained in silence for the rest of the trip. She hated to feel helpless, with no way out. It stressed her like no other thing, and she wanted to shout her rage to the world, but as it was, she didn’t even have the privacy for that.
She was the mighty captain new sex doll.
They arrived at his place in just a few minutes, and she jumped out of the vehicle as soon as he parked it in front of the main door.
“I’ll take Eleanor’s chair back to the palace. Will you be alright, by yourself?” he asked her before she was able to enter the house.
“Yes, I’ll be perfectly fine,” she assured him, without bothering to turn and look at him.
“Remember, you’re not allowed to go outside the property,” he said in a cold tone, and this time she turned around to stare at him.
“Why don’t you confine me to my room? I’m sure that would be a lot easier for you,” she ranted. How dared he to activate the damn collar?
“Don’t push me, Sasha. It’s been a hellish day, and the last thing I need is to go after you across town,” he grumbled, turning away and walking to where he spotted Eleanor’s slider.
Sasha stormed towards the house and straight to her room. She needed to be alone. She was feeling so emotionally drained, she couldn’t cope with anything else, at least, not for a while.
Incredibly, the place was spotless, and the bed tucked, but she was too upset to give that too much thought.
Instead, she threw herself over the bed and allowed a lonely tear to roll down her cheeks.
Her life had never been easy. Her parents had always treated her as a mistake none of them wanted to assume and she had spent her whole childhood without knowing how it felt to have a real home. She had never been welcomed in any of her parents’ home, especially when both of them formed new families where she had no place in.
She was more than happy to move out with Eleanor and the nurse she had to hire soon after the accident. She was only sixteen, but her parents had been more than happy to let her move out. They wanted nothing to do with her and from that day on, she erased them from her life.
They had turned her life a living hell for far too long. Incredibly, she found a real home with her best friend. Though they were completely different, they completed each other, making them the perfect duo.
Life hadn’t been easy for either of them, but at least, they had each other for comfort and support. She knew Eleanor would always be there, to lend her a shoulder to lean on and that meant more than anything in her life.
That’s why she was so protective of her and the reason she didn’t want to be away from her.
Eleanor always thought she was the needy part in their relationship, but Sasha knew things weren’t like that. Her friend had been the pillar she had always used to move on and keep moving. She didn’t know to be without her.
After a while, she got tired of staring at the ceiling, so she jumped out of bed and decided to go exploring the gardens. After all, he said she couldn’t leave the property. That should include the gardens, right?
She grabbed a piece of fruit, a strange mix between a green apple and a peach from a tray in the kitchen and after peeling it, she left the house.
The fruit was juicy and quite delicious. She probably shouldn’t be eating it alone, after all, she had no idea if she could be allergic to it, but she didn’t pay much attention to it.
Instead, she strolled through the garden, appreciating the colorful flowers.
But her attention wasn’t completely in the lovely garden. She kept looking at the main gate, waiting for his return.
With a deep sigh, she rubbed her eyes, trying to make some sense out of her feelings for him. Why was she so attracted to him? Wasn’t she supposed to fall for her alleged soulmate? Then, how could she explain the powerful passion that burned between them? Would she forget it as soon as her soulmate showed up? Was that even possible?
She hated to have so many unanswered questions in her mind. It was exhausting trying to find answers for it when she had so little information on the facts.
Perhaps, she should start praying for the so-called soulmate to show up as soon as possible. That way, she could leave him and forget she ever felt the way she was feeling.
She let out a bitter laugh at her own thoughts. Who was she kidding? She had more chances going back home than forgetting Asgar.
He had gotten himself under her skin, and she knew he would never leave.
The muffled sound of his vehicle called her attention, and her whole body tensed up. He was home.