And yet… I can’t hate their gaze.
Not even if it’s driven only by lust for the novelty of my virginity and innocence.
I crave the way their eyes seem to caress my body, and I’m both nervous and excited by the thoughts that must be going through their mind as they stand there and look at me dressed so scandalously.
I’m still very aware of the way my breasts are pushed up by the tight bodice of this revealing French Maid’s outfit, and the way the skirt barely even covers my silk panties.
If I’d wanted the Aurelians to think of me as a stupid bimbo, I’m already well on my way. The shame of that realization makes me angry – angry at the way the higher Sector children got to grow up learning from private schools while I learned only what I needed to survive on the streets.
But I could never have anticipated their response.
“There’s no shame, Mia,” Gallus says simply, in his deep, sonorous voice. “The city failed you. No longer will that be the case. I will hire a mentor for you – and within a month you’ll have the skills you should have been taught as a child. You’re a sharp learner, I can tell.”
I feel butterflies in my stomach, hearing a man I barely know – a richer, wiser, bigger man than any I’ve ever spoken to grant me such simple faith in my abilities.
Gallus strides up the stairway toward me, while the other two Aurelians take their seats in the middle of the library; on those enormous chairs.
Gallus reaches the top of the stairway easily, his long legs making short work of the steps I practically had to climb to reach. He towers over me as he strides to where I’m standing.
Suddenly, though, I don’t feel the same overwhelming, barely concealed need from him – the hunger that I detect so clearly from Cyrus whenever he lays his eyes on me.
I don’t feel so deliciously vulnerable – as if, at any moment, Cyrus would just reach down and kiss me. There’s none of Varian’s barely concealed judgement, either, as that battle-brother searches out my motives and tries to dissect my very being.
No, with Gallus there is, instead, a calmness to him. He is a leader not by bravery or intelligence – though he very clearly lacks neither – but through the deep, calm presence he has to him; as though he is as deep as an ocean, but as still as a lake in the moonlight.
As he towers over me, Gallus looks down with a protectiveness to his gaze that makes me tremble with affection for him, and simultaneously loathe the real reason I’m here.
Don’t get fooled, I remind myself. He just wants to fuck you, Mia. He just wants to fuck you and make you another eagerly waiting hole in his harem. Anything else that he feels is simply Gallus confusing the instinct to find his Fated Mate with something more.
“Thank you, Gallus,” I murmur, gazing up into his slate-grey eyes – but it’s not without pain. I wish so deeply that somehow all this could be real – but I force such foolish thoughts out of my head. I might be a fool to them, but I will not be a fool to myself.
Gallus strides three shelves down and slides a tiny, leather-bound book from between huge, thick tomes.
That one? He wants to read that one? There are books a hundred times as thick here. What wisdom could be concealed within barely a hundred pages?
As if reading my mind, Gallus tells me.
“Sun Tzu.” His voice is nearly reverential. “One of the greatest human generals of antiquity. His works are even taught on Colossus – required reading at the academy, before we trainees begin our hundred years of blood and battle in service to the Aurelian Empire.”
My memory flicks back to the conversation I had with Cyrus in his luxurious shuttle. That moment when he said he paid for everything he got from the Empire. I wonder if he was remembering something dark from his service in the army.
Gallus pauses, turning to me. His eyes meet mine, and when he speaks next, it’s as if he’s trying to make sure I understand the full implication of his words.
“Can you imagine, Mia? Cyrus, Varian and I come from the dominant race in this universe. The Aurelian Empire stretches for a million light years in every direction. Each of us is born a warrior, and destined to do battle with Scorp, and Toad, and all other manner of evil to protect the likes of humanity…”
He pauses.
“And yet they require us to study the learnings of a human general. We are the greatest warriors in the universe, and yet we still have something to learn about war from your kind.”
He nods slowly, deep in thought.
“In fact, that’s even within the pages of this book: ‘If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle.’”
He slowly opens the book.
“At the academy, they teach us that to prove that even those we consider weaker than ourselves can teach us something, and even those we respect most can fall victim to arrogance.”
Gallus’s big finger traces the lines of a page. He reads: “The greatest victory is that which requires no battle.” His eyes lift to meet mine. “That is what I learned from Sun Tzu, Mia. Every business deal can be a battle, if the two sides view a deal as having a winner and a loser. No one who feels like a loser wants to be your business partner for the rest of their life. No one who feels like a winner will respect those he considers to have conquered.”
I stare into Gallus’s eyes. The wisdom within them
