Page 60 of Auctioned to the Convicts
She was not destined for him.
A numbness spread through him. “It wasn’t meant to be between us, was it, Hannah?”
A cry tore from her throat. “Please don’t call me that.”
She jumped from the bed, racing after him as he neared the door. Her good hand gripped his wrist, stopping him, even as she struggled to hold the sheet to her with her broken hand.
“I don’t want to lose you, Ky. I pushed you away because I had to, not because I wanted to.”
“You claimed another male.”
“I’m in a unit offourmen, Ky’Li. Men who don’t have access to women and won’t for many years. It was going to happen. I tried to tell you that. I needed it to happen on my terms, though. I need to connect with each of you, or I’m nothing more than property to be used. That’s what Dresden wants, to humiliate me, to steal my worth, to make me into nothing more than another Company asset to be used however he wants.
“I don’t want to be anyone’s property, Ky’Li, including yours. I may have no rights, but I’ll be damned if I going to just let others force me to be what they want. But I’m not a fool either. I’m on a planet full of men. My only hope to survive is by bonding with you, Sersie, Ren, and Vaughn, and that means giving what I can, doing whatever it takes to make us a unit. Including giving into their physical needs.” She fell silent and then added, “And allowing myself to care for them.”
He raised a brow.
“I’m attracted to Vaughn and Sersie, Ky’Li. I can’t explain it and I won’t apologize for it. You of all people should be able to understand that.”
“Me? You want me to understand why you claimed another male?”
“I see something in them like I saw in you on the shuttle. Something special.”
“You slept with another male, Hannah.”
Her spine straightened at the slight growl that had underpinned his words. Green eyes grew wide, but she did not back away. Instead, she took a deep breath and continued.
“You had a unit of your own on your world, didn’t you, Ky’Li? You fought together, lived together, watched each other’s backs?”
He had until he’d lost their trust. He understood her need to bring this unit together, to form a cohesive team that would do whatever it took to survive. But giving herself to the other men. . . He couldn’t accept that. It went against nature and who he was at his core.
“I should be enough for you, but you haven’t even given me a chance, Hannah.”
It hurt to use her given name, more than she could know, though each time he said it, she whimpered. Perhaps she did understand. He looked at the smaller hand gripping his arm with a desperation he felt when he looked at her.
“When were you with him?” he asked.
“Does it matter?”
“Yes.”
“Earlier tonight.”
Ky’Li stormed out of the bedroom in search of Vaughn. He found the man sitting at the kitchen table with Sersie. A seven-inch long kitchen knife with a wood handle rested on the table, positioned in front of Vaughn without any food nearby.
“You took her after she was attacked,” Ky’Li said, barely holding in his anger.
“Took her?” Sersie asked, surprised. “You slept with her Vaughn? Tonight?”
“Leave, Sersie,” Vaughn said.
Green eyes darted between the two men. “I think I should stay.”
“Leave,” Ky’Li growled, not taking his eyes off of Vaughn and the knife.
Vaughn’s hand slowly reached for the knife, then with a single finger, he slid it to Ky’Li. “Make it quick. I saved your life. You owe me.”
Ky’Li picked up the knife.
