*MATURE FANTASY*
Bound by fate, torn by betrayal.
Their souls are intertwined.
She is his mate, and he is hers, whether or not this is something they want.
Elara has spent her life hiding from the oppressive forces of the Light, a powerful cult th...
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I stood at the edge of the fighting ring, jaw clenched as I watched the scene unfold before me. Nox had left Elara, Calix, Roran, and me in the main den of this place.
"Who is Nox meeting with?" I asked Calix and Roran as I scanned the massive underground room. Three large arenas filled the space, a fight in each one of them. Cages separated the audience from the entertainment.
"Someone who he needs to meet with," Roran answered, clearly refusing to give me more detail, if they even knew anything. Nox seemed to be the kind who kept his cards close to the chest.
"And we are here because..." My voice trailed off for them to fill in the rest.
"Because Elara is required to be here for Nox to be granted an audience with the man who runs this hell hole." Calix glanced at a woman close to us, wearing clothes that looked about three sizes too small while she flirted with a brute of a man. "Every woman here is either on a man's arm or open to essentially being bought. And Elara walking around alone is very appealing to these men, if you can call them men."
I couldn't keep from going ridged. "She is not for sale." Nox seemed to favor Elara, but that could have been just because of her use to him. And a captivating woman like her could be very tempting to use as a way to get whatever he may need or desire.
"Of course not," Roran stated. "But customers here go wild for her, bets increase, the morale of these dirtbags increases, and so here she is."
My attention cut to her. Elara was a magnet for the men in the crowd. They enjoyed viewing her, leering at her, their hands straying towards her every chance they got. Watching her try and move through the crowd was disturbing with the way they stepped closer instead of opening a path for her. Maybe I gave Nox too much credit for seeming like a decent leader if he encouraged this shit.
Elara, for her part, gritted her teeth through it all, a forced smile on her lips as she navigated the sea of unwanted attention. She could have shut them all down with one look. The woman could have commanded this room, and demanded respect, and these low lives would have given it. Instead, she did what was required by her captain. How often did this captain use her in such a manner? Tension built in her shoulders as she moved, clear by the way she stiffened every time an uninvited hand brushed against her, every time a crude comment was thrown her way. It was obvious she hated every moment, but she allowed it because it was important to Nox.
Unable to stand by idly, I turned to Calix and Roran, my voice low. "Do you ever protect her from this?" I asked, gaze shifting back to Elara. If the cost for Nox to meet with whoever was Elara's presence, then it didn't seem specified that she needed to be completely alone out there. At least the captain never informed me of anything like that.
Calix sighed, running a hand through his wild rust-tinged hair. "We've suggested it before, you know? Pretending to be her... partner, just to offer her a buffer. But she nearly snapped our heads off at the suggestions, so we stopped."
