The Breeding Prize - Aya Morningstar Page 0,16

contestants will be killed before they can even think to lay a hand on her.”

My cheeks go crimson. Even my ears get hot. I try to take a big gulp of the drugged-up drink, but I swallow too much and start coughing.

Kula tries to pat me on the back, but Raiska grabs his wrist. “Keep your hands off her!”

“I’m sorry I spoke so bluntly, Annabelle,” Kula says over my coughing fit. “But it’s truly the best solution. I don’t know if you are attracted to my half-brother—I know that I would not be attracted to him if I were a human female—but if you aren’t too detested by the prospect of accepting his Valittu seed and being the mother to his child, you could avoid another battle which could potentially kill all of us. On a selfish note, my human mate is due to have her child soon, and I would not like to leave my child an orphan and my wife a widow.”

I get a few more coughs out, and reply in a raspy voice. “So, no pressure!” My voice cracks and goes up several octaves on the last syllable.

Raiska stands up and starts pacing back and forth. “How dare you insult her!”

Kula sighs. “I’ll leave you two alone for a while. Tell me when you’re ready, and I’ll take you to my home.”

When Kula is gone, Raiska locks eyes with me. “I will not take an unwilling mate! I will not allow my half-brother to coerce you into taking my seed!”

“Can you not ever use the phrase ‘taking my seed’ again, to start with?”

He looks at me in confusion, and I bite my lip. “Raiska...I know you have vowed to protect me and everything, and I really, truly appreciate it. I don’t think you need to protect me from Kula. He mentioned he has a pregnant wife. He’s bonded to her or whatever, right? He’s not trying to take me—”

I was about to say “Take me from you,” but I’m not his.

“He has no intention of taking you. He’s not bonded to his mate—it’s a long story—but he’s doing it just to get back at me. He’s trying to rub in that I asked him for help by acting like I couldn’t…”

He snarls, not at me, but toward the kitchen where Kula disappeared to.

Oh. He’s mad because he feels like Kula is trying to wingman for him? I reach out and put my hand on top of his. My hand is so tiny next to his—I’m really starting to understand why he calls me “little human” so much. He looks huge to me, but I must look impossibly tiny from his perspective.

“I...um...Kula doesn’t need to help, Raiska. I like you.”

He locks eyes with me. “So you’ll accept my seed?”

I cough. “Remember. Don’t say that. Why don’t we start with a date? That’s how we do things on Earth.”

“A mating ritual?”

“Don’t say that either. It means we go do something fun together. We spend time together and get to know each other. Then, we can—um—see where things go from there?”

“To see if things lead to the bedroom?” he asks. “I’m speaking metaphorically of copulation, if that wasn’t clear.”

“It was clear.”

Six

Raiska

We reach Kula’s home. It’s a three-story building covered in greenery. There’s gardens all around the home full of things that can be eaten. Things that could easily be synthesized for much less work, and much less wasted space and energy.

“You’ve gone fully primitive, brother,” I say, poking at one of the long, purple vegetables.

Kula stops at the door. “I haven’t told my Muru you are coming yet.”

Annabelle lets out a little laugh, but covers her mouth. “Sorry.”

Kula looks at us with a serious expression. “It’s easier to ask for forgiveness than permission.”

I’m almost more afraid to see Ellie, Kula’s Muru, than I was to see Kula. Shortly after Kula had bonded to her, I used my six-dimensional scythe to cut the bond between the two of them. They were able to forge a deep emotional connection between each other to make up for the lack of higher-dimensional bonding, but Kula is rightly angry at me for what I did.

In my defense, I was ordered to do so by the Ulkar, and if I’d refused, the intricate plans my brothers and I had worked tirelessly to lay in order to betray our father and masters would have all gone to waste.

Still, Ellie is very unlikely to be happy to see me.

I also mind controlled her best friend in order to