I mean, I’m still planning on robbing them…
Aren’t I?
Of course!
Although, in my head, I feel like I’m trying to convince myself – a cheesy salesman like the one from the used shuttle lot in Sector 3.
But in my head, the argument is sound. I know there’s no possible future with the alien triad. I should just let them have me. They’ll ruin me for any man in the future, but in all the ways it matters, they already have. If I don’t let those three gorgeous aliens take my virginity, who else could? Nobody else – nobody human – would ever deserve to more than them.
I know that once that happens, then every sweaty coupling I have in the future – with whichever men I choose to share myself with – I’ll be left fantasizing about those three gorgeous Aurelians, imagining what could have been...
I form a balled fist with my hand and smack it down against the mattress.
This isn’t fair!
I’m supposed to be here on a job! I should just activate the tracker that signals Darr that I’ve located the watches. I should just take them now – smuggle them into my room, and then find an excuse to get outside alone.
Three more clenches of my jaw will be all it takes to signal Darr to send the escape shuttle. Once it gets here, those Aurelians will become nothing more than a steamy memory from a past I could have had.
The old me would have followed that path. The frightened little girl, desperate to make a break for freedom and independence.
Only… it’s my other life that’s now starting to feel like a memory; the one with Darr, as a thief and an urchin.
I’ve been here in this manor house and estate for barely a day, and already it feels so much safer than anywhere else I’ve ever been.
And that’s even knowing that, at any moment, the Aurelians could find out that I’m a thief – here to repay their kind welcome by stealing their valuables.
I know, deep in my heart, that the alien species is incapable of true human emotion. I fear the Aurelians would simply turn me into the authorities if they discovered my treachery and forget all about me. Some small part of my heart wants to believe that they wouldn’t – that they would listen to my story, and understand the difficult choices I’ve had to make…
…but Aurelians aren’t like humans. You don’t know what these men are really like, Mia.
I don’t want to go back to Darr, though – that much is clear.
When I do steal those priceless watches and get out of this gilded prison, I’ll have to find enough valuables on the way to fund my new life on Oasis. My cut of the spoils will be enough, but this is a once in a lifetime opportunity.
Even as I plot my future, I feel a deep and burning shame. My mind has instantly gone from the delicious thought of sex to the cold, cruel though of money – but it’s only because I need to keep a clear head if I want to survive. I can’t trust the Aurelians – even if, in the gut that I’ve always trusted my entire life, I feel they’d never hurt me.
But I don’t know them, and I can’t risk everything on a feeling.
A crazy thought springs to my mind.
What if I confessed to them? What if I asked Gallus, Cyrus and Varian to forgive my criminal intentions? Begged them to shelter me and keep me safe?
Darr would never come up against the Aurelians, even for me. He’s not a weak man – not physically, at least – but he fights with cunning and never picks a battle he can’t win. Darr, alone against three huge, obscenely wealthy warriors, would not be a fight he’d ever risk.
“Aurelians are known to value order over everything else.” The voice is my own. I speak out loud. “They prize themselves on their ability to never lose control of their logic.”
The words hang in the air as I lay back on the bedsheets, staring at the ceiling.
It’s tempting – but that option doesn’t end well for me, either. Then, I’d just become another woman in their harem – just another toy for those three Aurelians to use. There are advantages to joining a harem, but are they worth the cost?
I think about it. I know that after a year of service in a harem, I’d be eligible for a full education at an Aurelian-funded institute, courtesy of the Aurelian Empire. The reigning monarch Queen Jasmine, with her Bonded triad of Emperor Raegan and his two battle-brothers, passed laws to give human women who serve in the famous Aurelian harems the tools they’d need to create lives for themselves if they ever left. Just a short period – that’s all I’d have to spend here…
But every moment of it I’d spend seething in jealousy, wishing I could have those three, gorgeous aliens all to myself.
Completely hypocritical, I know – since there are three of them, and only one of me.
I sigh. This is complicated. The path forward, logically, is to lay low, take the watches, and make my getaway – stick to the plan…
…but, if I do, I’ll never see those three powerful aliens ever again.
That doesn’t sit well with me. I’ve never truly been free anyway, not with Darr’s shadow always looming over my shoulder. But the Aurelians don’t feel threatening, unlike Darr. I know they’re warriors – born for blood and battle – but they’ve shown me nothing but kindness and understanding…
…and yet, I know that’s stupid. They’ve done so because I’m not a threat to them. Because they want something from me – my virginity. Would they give me the time of day otherwise? Of course not…
I know I need to view them as the enemy if I’m ever going to emerge from this.
I sit up in bed. There’s a door at the other end of my room that
