Page 3 of Own to Obey

“Am I…” She hesitated for a moment, her eyes on him as she took a deep breath. “Am I a slave?” Her quiet and smooth voice sparked something in Kardos’ chest.

“We do not have slaves in the Southern Isles.”

She thought for a moment again. “You have tribes…?”

“Yes.”

“And am I part of your tribe now?”

“No. But you belong to me.”

Her frown caused a deep line in between her brows.

“I own you,” he clarified.

“That sounds like slavery to me,” she murmured on a breath, her brown eyes drifting from him.

“It is not,” Kardos barked. “We are not like the Western Lands. We have a rich, honorable, and developed culture that you are expected to adopt. And youwilladopt it by the time we arrive.” He lowered his voice. “And do not forget that you volunteered to be here in place of your sister. You have no right to complain about anything. You will obey all instructions without hesitation. Is that clear?”

Her eyes lowered and she nodded.

“What is your age?”

“Nineteen,” she responded.

He suspected as much. “And your name is Shaya.”

Her eyes darted up. “It is Katashaya.”

Kardos frowned. “That is not what your sister called you.”

A fleeting expression contorted her face for a moment, but then her head dipped back down before Kardos had the chance to decipher what it was.

“My name is Katashaya,” she said, her voice firm.

“I will call you what your sister called you,” Kardos decided.

The Omega’s mouth tightened slightly. “I will not answer,” she whispered.

Shock bolted through Kardos. “What?”

The Omega said nothing. Her eyes were stuck to a point on the floor.

Kardos lunged forward and grabbed her jaw. “Speak! What did you say?”

The fear in her eyes was mitigated by the tension in her lips. “Only my sister and my friends call me that.”

Kardos battled the anger that grew at her audacity to challenge his decision. This disobedience would have to be trained out of her. “Did King Malloron call you that?”

She blinked. “Yes.”

“Then so will I,” he roared, suddenly furious. He gripped her jaw harder, a rush of something ugly and dark whipping through his body. As far as he was aware, King Malloron hadn't even known she was an Omega. How is it that he called her a name she considered intimate?

As he examined her face, he remembered he’d seen her treating King Malloron when he was wounded. Maybe she had done more for him than that. He gritted his teeth as the ugliness within him expanded and revolved, almost taking over his whole body. “Was King Malloron afriendto you?” he asked, his voice deadly and low. “Did you fuck him?”

The Omega’s eyes widened and she tried to shake her head, but he held her too tightly. “No,” she mumbled through her closed jaw. “He was my King. I served under him.”

Kardos drew her face to his, until her perfect mouth was almost against his lips. “You serve me now,” he growled.

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