Page 62 of Sold to the Nalgar
She crossed the room and picked up a slice of meat from the tray. Charred on the outside, raw and bloody inside. The smell hit her like a drug.
She tore into it with her teeth.
And moaned.
What the hell was happening to her?
She used to be a pescatarian. Ate kale for breakfast. Had strong opinions about almond milk.
And now she was devouring alien meat like a beast.
She set the rest of the food down and pressed her palms to the wall.
She neededout.
She needed air. Movement. A sense of the world beyond these opulent, suffocating walls.
Hehad done this to her. Altered her. Changed something inside her on a level so deep she couldn’t even begin to understand.
And yet—she didn’t hate him for it.
That was the most terrifying part.
She hated what he’d taken from her. Her freedom. Her agency.
But his presence… his darkness… the fact that, in the twisted, monstrous way he understood the world, heprotectedher—she couldn’t deny that it made her feel more alive than anything else had in years.
She’d stopped waiting for Earth to come back for her.
She didn’t want to be a captive.
She wanted tomatter.
Not just a warm body in his bed.
Not just a pretty thing to feed on.
More.
And she wouldforceit. Force him to see her. To treat her like something other than a possession.
Because this place wasn’t going to break her.
She would survive.
She wouldrise.
Even if she had to fight him for it.
CHAPTER 31
Days passed. Or maybe weeks. She didn’t know. Time blurred inside this gilded prison.
Cecilia wandered the chambers he had claimed for her, a sprawling suite of brutal beauty: polished stone floors, heavy drapery in deep purples and midnight blacks, alien fixtures she couldn’t begin to decipher. There were no doors, only seamless panels that responded to his presence alone. And he was always gone by morning.
But every night, he came to her.
He didn’t always touch her. Sometimes, he only watched. Sometimes, he made her burn with his mouth, his teeth, his hands. And sometimes—god help her—she wanted it. Hated herself for wanting it. Still did.
