Page 50 of Conquered Pet
The room was busy around us. There were men at stations, maps overlaid with tactical markers, screens cycling through data I could only partially read. I stood at his shoulder for a moment,uncertain where to put myself, and then something happened that I hadn’t quite planned.
I knelt.
There was nowhere to sit, so I settled onto my knees beside his chair and leaned my shoulder against his thigh. The tail shifted with the movement, a quiet reminder of its weight inside me beneath the fall of the gown. I concentrated very hard on looking like someone who had chosen to be on the floor for entirely practical reasons and tried very hard not to think about how the constant presence of the tail was turning me on.
His hand found the top of my head without him so much as glancing down.
He kept talking. He kept reading whatever was on the screen in front of him, still fully engaged in the business of his city and his army and whatever they were planning. His focus never shifted, but his fingers moved through my hair with a slow, absent certainty—the way you touched something you were glad to have nearby. The way you touched something that didn’t require your full attention because it wasn’t going anywhere.
My heartbeat quickened by a noticeable degree.
I casually fingered the collar at my throat and told myself I was simply being strategic. That I was gathering intelligence. That I was exactly where I’d chosen to be for entirely reasonable reasons.
I hardly noticed the collar most days. It had stopped registering as foreign somewhere around the third day. Right now, though, the smooth band under my fingertip was oddly steadying. A fixed point while everything in the room felt uncertain and dangerous.
One of the men at a far station glanced over at me. His gaze settled on the collar for a moment, then moved away.
I had the distinct impression it was nothing he hadn’t seen before.
There were about a dozen men in the room working at various stations on different things. One was looking at maps. Another at radar of the city. There were more looking at aerial views and weapons and more. I watched it all with a building anxiety.
“Commander, we’ve only been able to dig up a few blueprints on the ancient human servers. It appears much of what is beneath the city is wholly unmapped. We’re going to have to make our own,” one of his comrades explained.
“We have the arsenal to combat whatever the humans have under the streets. We could wipe them out quickly and efficiently with poison gas,” another offered.
I stiffened visibly. If Talyn noticed, he said nothing.
“Or we could go in with more due diligence and commandeer whatever they’ve developed for ourselves,” one replied.
They were going forward with what I feared.
It would be wise for me to keep quiet, but I couldn’t just stand there knowing that humans were going to die if Talyn continued with his conquest.
“Talyn,” I called out boldly. Many of his men stilled, looking at me in surprise. Talyn’s fingers stopped petting my head.
“Human…” he warned. Already it felt like I was skating on thin ice. Was I not supposed to refer to him by name?
“Sir. You can’t do this,” I murmured.
“Quiet. Remember your place,” he warned again. He went back to his plans with another soldier, ignoring me entirely after that.
Last night, he’d been so open with me. He’d talked with me simply because I’d told him it would make me smile, that it would bring me joy.
“Sir? Please. It would make me very happy if you didn’t go forward with this,” I whispered. I said it quietly enough that I thought it would just be him that heard me, but his men still started anyway.
“I will only warn you one last time, my human. Your presence here is something I desire, but if you continue to interrupt me, I’m going to have to punish you,” he declared. I started at the possibility of something like that. I slid my gaze up, reading his expression and seeing nothing but blatant seriousness.
It was dangerous to keep pushing.
I settled for a while after that. I knew that he would follow through with his threat, but before long, my hackles started to rise once more. It felt too wrong to remain silent.
One of the aliens in the room started speaking about all the potential women that could be housed inside one of their brothels and another started speaking excitedly about the new fighters that could enter their human gladiatorial games. To them, the humans’ lives were nothing more than a game.
The more I had to listen to it, the more unsettled I felt.
When they started talking about a competition, I closed my eyes and tried to tune out the savagery, but it turned out to be an impossible feat.
“Let’s make a bet,” one growled.
