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Alaroth watched my movement carefully from where I sat beside him. “Does this arouse you, beloved?”

I took a long, shallow sip of my wine. “She looks very happy,” I replied dryly.

He laughed and leaned over, resting his hand on my knee. “I’m certain I can make you look that happy, if you’d like.”

My skin crawled at the thought of it, and I ignored him to watch the end of the act. One by one they began to climax, and I heard several roars and whimpers of pleasure coming from the audience as well, getting off on watching the acrobats.

Alaroth shifted in his seat, but I kept my attention glued on the female. Her eyes opened and met mine, and she winked, pulling her partner out of her mouth for a moment to blow me a kiss before returning to the final orgasm.

King Alaroth grunted his approval. “I think she likes you. Would you like me to make an introduction?”

I took another sip of wine and shook my head. “I’m not interested in females like that, sorry.”

“Hmm, I’m not sure whether I should be disappointed or not,” he replied, tapping his thumb on his own cup. “The thought of you with another femaleisextremely enticing.”

Oh wow, how original.

“But knowing you’re hungry for cock and cock alone also makes me irrationally excited to finally give you mine.”

I held the bile that rose up my throat at bay. I’d rather be with all the females in the world than evenseehis cock.

The acrobats ended their performance as they came, tumbling down the silks and bowing to the cheering crowd.

Two more erotic acts followed—a male who commanded magic dildos like he was a conductor of a symphony, directing them to pleasure ten fae with perfect precision, and a magic mirror that created temporary replicas of volunteers, allowing them to try to fuck themselves.

I yawned, wishing I had my phone so I could check my email,or doom scroll on Instagram, or literally be doing anything other than this. For an omega with an insanely high libido and five virile alphas at home, getting bored of all the sex was definitely saying something.

These fae needed another hobby.

The next performance was thankfully cock-free, and I perked up when a male and female duo brought a wild creature I’d never seen before into the room. It looked like a tiger but with scales in lieu of fur. A forked tongue slipped through its lips, and its tufted ears were flattened against its massive head. The handlers guided it through a series of tricks and obstacle courses, but when it hesitated to leap through a wall of flames, they whipped it and yelled at it to move.

The animal hissed and growled, backing up in fear.

I gripped the arm of my seat in anger. “They’re hurting it.”

The king had barely been paying attention, but seeing my distress caused him to sit up straight, and he eyed me cautiously. “You wish for them to stop?”

“Of course!” I snapped. “You’re the king, do something!”

I could practically see the wheels turning in his head, a malicious sneer forming from the neutral set of his lips. “And what would you give me in return?”

I closed my eyes, gritting my teeth so hard I was afraid I’d crack a molar. “This isn’t about an exchange, it’s…”

“Everything is an exchange, Marlowe. We’re fae, nothing is done out of the goodness of our hearts.”

Bullshit. I was fae, apparently, and I’d never operated my life like that. But there wasn’t a lot of time to argue, and the sound of a whip cracking through the air pushed me to make a stupid deal.

“What do you want?” I asked.

That son of a bitch vocalized a slow sigh, tapping his fingers together as he thought. He knew I wanted this dealt with quickly, so the longer he took, the less time I had to negotiate.

I winced as the creature roared in pain. “What do you want?” I repeated.

He pouted dramatically. “You’re entirely no fun, you know that?” After another few moments, he turned his head towards me. “I will spare the creature if you spend the night with me.”

Before I had the chance to tell him to fuck off and get up to take care of the situation myself, he added, “Just to sleep. I merely wish to hold you in my arms and breathe in your sweet scent while I slumber.”

The whip cracked again, and I gave him a small nod. This wasgoing to end poorly, but I couldn’t sit here and ignore that poor creature’s suffering a second longer.