Page 36 of Double Cut

Horas shrugged. “We can only try.”

Stymied by a stubborn, willful female half their size, both males agreed. Horas hung the gown of ribbons on a hook. They walked into the sitting room and squatted at angles beside the chair in which Evangeline sat with her cat. She glared at them. Sarus looked at Horas, inviting him to take the lead. The older male accepted the challenge.

Horas settled a hand on his mate’s leg and said as gently as he knew how, “Little flame—”

“My name is Evangeline. I’ll thank you to use it.”

“—there is danger outside.”

“No shit.”

“We will protect you—”

“Byinvitingperverts to molest me? That’sstupid.”

“—from unwanted attention.”

Horas glanced at Sarus, a mental request that the latter try reasoning with their unreasonable mate.

“Evangeline,” Sarus began.

Her upper lip lifted in a silent sneer.

“The gown we chose honors you.”

She snorted in disbelief.

“The collar and leash are not necessary—”

“You think?” she snapped.

“—if you wear the new gown. No male would dare to approach you if you are so garbed.”

“And if I wear the chiton, that’s an invitation?” she sneered. “I don’t think so. And if I cover up from head to toe with no skin visible at all,that’san invitation to be assaulted?” She snorted again.

“Whether you wear the new gown or whether you wear the old one—”

“I have to be seen as yourproperty, right?”

Sarus pressed the spot between his eyes where a headache had begun to throb. “Please do me the courtesy of not interrupting, Evangeline.”

She pressed her lips together in a thin line.

Assured that she would remain silent for a moment, he trudged onward. “An unclaimed female is at great risk. Why do you think the first event of the bride games took place in a group setting? It was so all the males, most unknown to each other, could not collaborate in an illegal claiming.”

“And how would appearing nearly naked in public or wearing a collar and leash prevent a dishonorable male from trying to claim me?” she asked. Narrowing her eyes again, she warned, “And don’t try to convince me that Ahn’hudin has no dishonorable males. We both know that’s a lie.”

Sarus looked at Horas who took up the reins of the conversation. “Thatwouldbe a lie, litt—er—Evangeline.” He gave her a tentative smile, close-lipped, to show her he was trying to accommodate her demand that he use her name. “In our culture, weak males do not allow their females to appear in public at all because they cannot protect them.”

“Honor, huh?” she scoffed. “More like it’syourhonor andmyembarrassment and humiliation.”

Sarus pressed again on the spot between his eyes where pain throbbed.

“You said I’m not a slave, right?”

They nodded, wary as to the direction she’d take the conversation and worried it wouldn’t be to their favor.

“If I’m not a slave, then I may choose what I wish to wear and where I wish to go and whether I have an escort and whether I even think an escort is necessary.”

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