  &quot;Enter,&quot; Rikash stood, his expression resuming its normal hardness, and he turned to face the door.
  Amelia stood partially behind him, sliding looks at the door under her eyelashes cautiously. The green-eyed man entered but he did not look at her, his attention on Rikash and his eyebrows raising.  
  The blonde-haired woman from the garden entered and behind her shuffled three near-naked men, shivering and blue-lipped from the cold outside.
  Rikash said something sneering, and Amelia thought from the blue and green that flooded their bond, that he was displeased by the state of the men.
  The woman laughed, disdainfully, and when she stepped to the side, Amelia saw the reason that the men shuffled when they moved, the motion reminding her of the slave market and the chain of women. The men did not wear collars around their necks, but each bore a piercing through their fore

  It seemed that whenever he made progress in one area, another slipped from him, Rikash thought grimly as he reviewed the surveillance records of the next target city. He had succeeded in throwing Verika off balance, but here he was faced with a city that had not only repelled his initial invading force, but their methods of doing so was baffling his males.
  He understood the point that Verika was making with her display of her males. If she had come into his domicile a week before whilst he was still establishing his Bond with his mate, his female may not have looked too dissimilar – naked, dishevelled, bruised and cowed. But Verika misunderstood the purpose behind his dominant males  treatment of their mates.
  Indulging in the traditional courtship practices, the ones that Verika found so barbaric, was not done to harm the female nor just because his males enjoyed their female in th

  He woke her from a deep sleep with his first round of sex for the day. She knew better than to protest, but she also refused to participate. He was used to that, her little rebellion, her retaliation for his insistence on waking her. She rather thought he enjoyed it, a small affirmation that he was in charge, and she could do nothing to prevent his use of her body.
  As his flesh locked them together, she felt the pinch on her bladder. &quot;I don t know about your women,&quot; she told him. &quot;But when we get pregnant, the growing child pushes on our bladder, reducing our ability to wait to urinate, especially in the morning. If you do not want me to begin wetting the bed on a regular basis, you are going to have to let me use the bathroom before.&quot;
  She was almost certain that he laughed, the sound smothered against her neck. He began the slower, gentler rock against her, and

&quot;Enter,&quot; Rikash stood, his expression resuming its normal hardness, and he turned to face the door.
  Amelia stood partially behind him, sliding looks at the door under her eyelashes cautiously. The green-eyed man entered but he did not look at her, his attention on Rikash and his eyebrows raising.  
  The blonde-haired woman from the garden entered and behind her shuffled three near-naked men, shivering and blue-lipped from the cold outside.
  Rikash said something sneering, and Amelia thought from the blue and green that flooded their bond, that he was displeased by the state of the men.
  The woman laughed, disdainfully, and when she stepped to the side, Amelia saw the reason that the men shuffled when they moved, the motion reminding her of the slave market and the chain of women. The men did not wear collars around their necks, but each bore a piercing through their foreskins, and a chain ran between each man s legs attaching him to the one behind.
  If one fell, sh

Chapter 28