Page 19 of Tribute
“I’m not Mitan.”
“So you claim.”
“What if I’m not a suitable sacrifice?”
“We prefer to use the wordTribute.”
“I bet you do.” She took a deep, unsatisfying breath. “This sucks, you know that?”
“I do, Lee. I’ve been in your place.”
She stared at him for a long shocked moment. “And you survived?”
“Yeah.” There was a bleak look in his already hard eyes that made her wary.
“How many survived?”
“That particular year?” His smile held no joy. “Two. Me and Kai.”
“Out of how many?” She barely got the words out of her suddenly tight throat.
“Twelve.” He hesitated and then continued. “But we have refined our training methods since those days, and the success rate is far higher.”
“Oh, goody.”
One of his rare smiles lifted the corners of his mouth. “That’s the spirit, Lee. Now come and enjoy the feast.”
She ate as much as she could, and drank as muchkvasbeer as she could get down her throat. If it was her last night, she was damn well going to enjoy it. Despite them all trying their best to be festive, there was a grim air of desperation and a sense of time slipping away. Knowing that all the trainers had survived the ordeal made it a little easier, but the ghosts of those who hadn’t—the hundreds of lost Tributes—whispered and cried within the tunnels, their fear and desperation so real Anna could taste it.
“You’re drunk, Lee.”
“So what?” She glanced up at Rehz Akran, who had come to lean against the wall next to her.
“It’s time for bed.”
“My last night alive.”
“Not necessarily. You might make it.”
“Wow, you inspire me with such hope. This sucks big time, Akran.”
He shrugged his powerful shoulders. “It is what it is. You can deal with it, or you can die.”
She sighed. “I’m torn between wanting to die just to spite you, and the lure of getting out alive and having the pleasure of kicking you in the nuts and stamping them into the ground while you cry like a little boy.”
He turned in on her, covering her with his large body, blocking her view of everything except him. “If you promise to do everything I told you and come out of this alive, I’ll fuckinggiveyou my left nut.”
She leaned back against the wall so that she could stare into his harsh face. “That’s one hell of an incentive.”
To her surprise, he reached forward and gently cupped her chin. “Don’t fucking die on me, Anna Lee.”
Bending his head, he kissed her mouth until she opened to him. With a groan, he picked her up and fitted her mound against the thick swell of his cock.
“Bed.”
She wrapped her arms around his neck and let him carry her back to his quarters. He sat down with her in his lap on the edge of the bed. She immediately stripped his T-shirt over his head, and took off her own.
He smiled up at her and set his teeth on one of her nipple rings, tugging gently. She gasped and bit his throat right over the coiled scars as he rocked against her.
