Page 28 of Aria's Desire

“Sit.”

Kneeling out of reach, he kept his gaze fixed to her chin and waited.

“Are you happy, my treat?”

Surprised at the question, he met her eyes briefly before lowering them again. “I am, Queen.”

“But not about being here,” she remarked. When he would’ve argued, if only out of politeness, she cut him off. “No, do not refute. I am not upset. The opposite. I am happy for you, my treat. You are an excellent match for her, and her love for you is obvious.” He must’ve made some expression because she hummed. “You doubt and, yet, her gaze has not left you once since I beckoned you to me.”

Unable to stop himself, his eyes darted down the table to find she was right, Aria was staring directly at him. He saw her lean forward, her eyes narrowing dangerously, a moment before he felt Ishtal’s hand come to rest on his shoulder.

Ishtal laughed huskily. “You see?”

Everything inside him went still for a heartstopping moment before erupting into chaos. It was all he could do to keep his expression from giving away the shock, hope, and hungry anticipation that flared through him.

Perhaps his plan to entice her into choosing them held promise after all.

Perhaps there was hope.

Chapter 16

Aria watched Rellik like a hawk and only relaxed once he left the Queen’s side and made his way back to her.

“What did she want?”

“To offer her praise for our mating,” he answered as he gracefully lowered himself to the pillows behind her.

There was something in his voice, something that told her the Queen had picked up on Aria’s possessiveness and commented on it. She hadn’t exactly tried to hide it, partly to keep up the ruse, but mostly because she wanted to make it very, very clear to everyone present that he was hers and, therefore, off fucking limits.

Alliance be damned if any of these women tried to take what he wasn’t willing to give.

She’d kill them. Slowly, painfully.

And if he’s willing?

Just the thought of him visiting another woman’s bed made her blood boil, made her feel like stabbing things. Unfair? Yes. But no one ever said jealousy was a rational emotion.

Realizing he and Sin remained seated behind her, she frowned back at first one, then the other. At her look, they immediately moved up to sit at her sides, both making low sounds of either amusement or pleasure.

She’d noticed—not that she could’ve missed it—that all the males were seated behind their respective females, away from the table. She wasn’t going to make a fuss about it. She wasn’t here to change these people’s culture. But she wasn’t going to be mimicking that particular practice, either. Hell, she anticipated there were a lot of practices to which she wasn’t going to be conforming while they were here.

There were a few murmurs as Sin and Rellik took places at the table to either side of her, but Ishtal just smiled and spoke over them. “Tell me about yourself, Queen Aria. I find myself unbearably curious about the slave who rose up against her master and decided to conquer the world.”

Understanding this was for their audience more than Ishtal herself, Aria nodded and told her story.

She told them about breaking through the suppression, of finding her mates and figuring out how to wake them up, as well. She recounted the fight to take over the arena, of saving the beings on the crashed slave ship, and of the humbling number of people who’d joined this war.

She kept some details sparse and highlighted others. They didn’t need to know everything, and she didn’t trust them with sensitive information for obvious reasons, but she shared enough to impart to everyone present what she’d already communicated to Ishtal: they were taking over the world with or without their help.

As she spoke, she watched their expressions carefully, picking out those who struck her as potential threats.

Mid-tale, the female who’d looked tentatively hopeful when they arrived, interrupted. “Why?”

Meeting her gaze, Aria raised her brows. “Why take over? Why not just stop after we’d seized our own arena?” At her nod, Aria offered a small, approving smile, encouraged and pleased she’d asked. “On my world, there was a man named Albert Einstein who once said, ‘Those who have the privilege to know, have the duty to act’.”

The female frowned, clearly not understanding. Thinking on how to rephrase, she suddenly remembered a quote from a movie.

“‘If something’s wrong, those who have the ability to do something about it have a responsibility to do something about it.’ My mate, Tirox, it was his idea to take over the world. And he was right. Then, and now, we have the ability to change things. So, we are. To ignore those who’ve been enslaved, to refuse to help them despite having the power to do so and, instead, only care about our own freedom, would make us just as bad as the ones who enslaved them to begin with.”

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