Dark Paradise by Cassidy Hunter

she was not so stupid as to ignore it.
    “You’d better have a plan,” she muttered.
    He planted her before the housekeeper, but his hand never left her arm. “Mine,” he said, his voice proud.
    The leader thumped his chest, a particular Mehnarthi habit she was beginning to hate. Fucking apes.
    “Danix,” the housekeeper said, as if that should mean something to her.
    She glanced at Mach. “What?”
    “His name,” Mach said.
    “Oh. Hey. Pleased to meet you.” Were they friends now? From the corner of her eye she saw Elder cover his face and shake his head.
    Mach squeezed her arm. “Quiet, slave. Kneel.”
    “What?”
    He forced her to her knees but followed her down, his lips near her ear. “Act to live.” His whisper was harsh, and she got it.
    She’d play along because to do otherwise would mean something too awful to contemplate. She nodded, and remembering Elder’s admonishments from earlier, lowered her gaze to the ground.
    “My slave.” Mach straightened up and placed his warm hand on her head. “ My slave.”
    They talked, mainly in their own language, and she didn’t even try to understand. Still, each time she stole a quick look at Danix, it was to find his gaze glued to her, and she couldn’t mistake the lust in his eyes.
    At long last, Mach pulled her to her feet. Housekeeping began to break up, but to her dismay, they didn’t go far. Mach led her to Elder, who stood in the same spot she’d left him in, waiting for them.
    “I heard,” he said.
    Mach sighed. “They will leave us soon.”
    “Soon,” said Cin. “Soon like in a few minutes?”
    “Maybe days,” Mach replied. His voice was gruff, but it didn’t hide his worry.
    “What the fuck for? What do they want?”
    Elder stared at Mach for a long moment, then looked at her. “Danix desires you, Cin.”
    She shuddered, and sat down on her haunches before the quickly dying fire, suddenly chilled. “What’s to keep him from taking me?”
    “Mach has claimed you. Their code prevents a Mehnarthi from taking another Mehnarthi’s property.”
    It was almost laughable that those brutish creatures had a code of honor. “Well, then, I’m okay. Right?”
    “Not exactly. Danix will travel to the post with us. He’ll watch you. He’s not completely convinced you belong to Mach. And…” He hesitated, his gaze going back to Mach, who stood staring into the fire, his face closed and proud. “Because Mach is half human, they aren’t as apt to adhere quite so stringently to their own rules.”
    “Shit,” she whispered. “What can we do?”
    “Show that you belong to Mach,” Elder said. “It’s simple really. If it works, it does. If not…”
    “Then Danix will take me.” He can try, the bastard.
    Mach turned from the fire, and when he thumped his chest this time, it didn’t piss her off. It brought tears to her eyes.
    “ Never ,” he said. His voice was fierce, promise in his eyes. He reached a hand to her hair and gently lifted a strand. “Never.”
    She swallowed over the sudden lump in her throat and did what she always did when she was uncomfortable. She glared.
    Mach only grinned and tugged her hair gently. “We should eat.”
    He added more brush and dry sticks to the fire, then pointed to the game he’d thrown to the ground. He’d brought it back from his foray into the forest before his confrontation with the Mehnarthi leader.
    Three rabbits, one for each of them. She still wasn’t good at skinning and preparing small animals to cook but was better at it than when she’d first arrived. On Ripindal, a person would adapt and learn—or die.
    Her stomach growled, and she found her skinning knife and went to work. Despite the nearby threat, she was starving. But then, no matter what else was going on, when she had a chance to eat, she ate.
    And even with housekeeping surrounding their small camp, watching their every movement, she felt safer than she’d felt since she’d arrived on Ripindal.
    And that was