She was surprisingly responding well enough to all the gifts and the luxury I was
surrounding her with for the holidays. She accepted everything that was given to
her, regardless of how begrudgingly she did so. She wanted to appear grateful, but
she wasn’t very good at it. She would be eventually.
Opening the door to my office, my phone rang in my hand, Dan calling on the
other end.
“Dan,” I answered as I walked over to my desk.
“Merry Christmas, brother,” he said, his voice only barely hiding the excitement
he held. “I’ve got news for you.”
“Do tell.”
“We learned the sex of the baby,” he announced.
“And?”
“It’s a girl,” he said proudly.
“Congratulations,” I replied, but it was really nothing to congratulate him
about.
The only use a girl had in our family was as a bartering tool. Marrying them off
was usually reserved for extending or strengthening alliances by combining the
families. Marrying outside our realms was ill advised, as bringing in someone from
the outside world didn’t mix well with ours. It was too risky. Those women weren’t
built for the corruption or the brutality that we lived in like our own women were.
They were just as dark and manipulative as the rest of us, which made them ideal
companions. But there were some people, like myself, who loved to break the rules.
The problem with the woman of our world was that they were materialistic and
selfish thanks to the lavish life they’d grown up in. Most of them were stuck-up,
idiotic and needy, but always gorgeous, and most men in my world enjoyed that,
especially when it came to the bedroom. Not me. The more time I spent with Jaden,
the less I wanted those women. I wanted her intelligence, her strength, and her
ferocity. Even if she was six inches shorter than most of the women in my world,
she still had the best body I’d ever seen.
“We’re planning a baby shower in early January. Make sure you’re there.”
“Of course.”
“Maybe by then you can bring your little ruby around,” he said with a chuckle.
“We’ll see.” Jaden would likely hate it, and I’d probably find it hilarious. But I
had to make sure her behavior was in check first.
“Is she enjoying Anchorage?”
“More than she’s letting on. I just gave her the dog a few minutes ago.”
“She like it?”
“She doesn’t want to, but she does.”
“She’ll adjust eventually. It took Katherine a while to adjust to me, but she
eventually came around.”
Eventually but not as easily. Katherine was much more meek and agreeable than
Jaden was thanks to what we did to her family so many years ago. Jaden would
accept her life sooner or later, once she was done beating herself up for it.
“Katherine is not Jaden,” I replied, my tone stronger than I intended for it to be.
“I know, but they’re still human. And humans eventually break.”
“I’m aware, but … I don’t know if I want to break this one.”
“What do you mean?”
“I only want her to accept her life with me. I want her loyalty just as much as I
want her sass. It’s honestly too adorable to destroy. Too much fun.”
“Ha! Now, who’d have thought that? You’ve been breaking slaves since you were
sixteen, and now, you can’t seem to bypass this one. What gives?”
Dan had a point. Breaking the slave girls at the warehouse was one of my first
jobs when my father had finally brought me in under his wing. I’d started by
bringing the girls to their knees before graduating to the men who owed my father
money. That was when I first learned of the metallic taste of control and how
powerful it was, how addictive it was. I loved the fear in their eyes as they cowered
before me, the shiver in their bodies from terror, and the thin sheet of sweat that
blanketed them when they realized how helpless they were. I couldn’t deny the
god-like feeling that came over me when I finally put them out of their misery.
Weakness disgusted me. It was useless and only guaranteed one thing—no
survivors.
Jaden was none of that, which was why I couldn’t help but respect her for it.
After everything I’d already put her through, she was still fighting. Maybe not
always physically, but her determination to thrive in spite of me was relentless and
admirable. And I didn’t think I wanted to crush it to dust as much as I thought I
would. I wanted her to obey me always and without question, but I loved the fight in
her far too much to let it die. It made her strong, and in my world, I needed her to
be strong.
“I don’t know what to tell you, Dan. Some days, I want sugar, and some days, I
want spice. I don’t know how else to explain it. Jaden challenges me. And you know
how much I love a challenge.”
“Yes, I do, but I also know what happens once you conquer it.”
“This is a different type of conquest. I’m not worried.”
“I hope so, for Jaden’s
