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Even I scoffed at that, along with Kenvin, Maxar, Zandren, and even Omaera.

“I guess all we can do about it at this point is laugh,” Omaera said from her nest in Zandren’s enormous lap. “Laugh, plot, plan, practice, and hope that weall arrive back on Earth in one piece.”

Zandren whimpered a little where he sat beside me. “I’m not looking forward to that trip again.” He squirmed and covered part of his lap with one hand. “I quite like certain parts of me.”

Omaera’s lip twitched, and she kissed his jaw. “I quite like certain parts of you too, Pooh Bear.”

Even though I said I was fine, my “illness” of last night made Omaera once again obstinate. She refused to practice on meagain,and instead sparred with Zandren and Maxar. Then she had all of us lie to her, changing our tone, pitch, and latency to throw her off.

It was my turn to lie to her, and when we sat across from each other on the floor in the training room, unease crawled across me with spider-like legs, making me itch.

“What aren’t you telling me, Drak?” she finally asked.

I knew this was coming. I wasn’t stupid. Of course she would take this opportunity in her training to work out what I was keeping from her.

“Nothing,” I said flatly, keeping eye contact.

“Bullshit.”

My brows lifted only slightly, but I didn’t say anything.

The key to not breaking during an interrogation was to go against all the normal behaviors and mannerisms that a typical deceitful person would do. Normally, if you were evading the truth, you would break eye contact, stammer, perhaps even talk too much to overcompensate.

I needed to keep eye contact, say as little as possible, and articulate like I was back in boarding school and if I didn’t say the words correctly, I’d be beaten to within an inch of my life by the instructors.

A pinprick of pain wedged its way into my brain. “What secret are you keeping from me, Drak? Your Queen … yourmatedemands the truth.”

“I am keeping nothing from you, My Queen.”

Her nostrils flared along with the brighter-green swirls in her eyes. “Perhaps I need to reword things for you to understand. Drak, tell me what secret you are keeping, or I will not mate-bond with you. I will drag you around with me for eternity, unbonded, while you listen to Maxar, Zandren, and I have sex.”

Heat raced up my neck and into my face before I could stop it—not that I could have.

Triumph flashed in her eyes. “Ah, now we’re getting somewhere.”

Another pinprick of pain in my brain had me wincing, then she shoved an image so carnal, so erotic and filthy, into my mind that it was impossible not to get aroused. It was of her, Maxar, and Zandren all writhing in pleasure together. She was pinned between them, her face in the throes of ecstasy as one man penetrated her from the front, and the other from behind.

My cock stiffened in my slacks and Omaera’s gaze drifted down to my lap, a smug smile curling her mouth. She pulled back on the pinprick, but kept the erotic film rolling. I pinched my eyes closed to try to banish it, but that wasn’t how these things worked.

The Omaera in my mind looked up at me as I stood like a voyeur, watching them. Her gaze was hooded, her nipples peaked and crimson before Zandren dipped his head and latched onto one with his mouth. She rode him while Maxar filled her up from behind. “Drak,” she beckoned from the pile of flesh, “come join us. I’m not full enough.”

I was so fixated on the vision in front of me that I was barely aware of her tiptoeing through my mind to where I kept my secrets. She nearly reached the door where I kept the ultimate secret before I pushed back, shoving her out of my mind and away from uncovering what I refused to tell her.

I pushed hard enough that the sensual image of her and the other two vanished, and we were back in the training room, just the two of us. She glared at me, steam practically erupting from her ears and nose. “You’re a fucking idiot,” she said, shaking her head. “A damned fool.”

I didn’t say anything.

She wasn’t done though. “When you first showed up on my door, you were so insistent that we mate. That it was for the good of the Realm and all this shit. And now … now, I’m … I don’t exactly hate you anymore, and would be more open to the idea than I was that first night, but you just keep pushing me away. You know that I’ll never agree to mate you unless you tell me what you’re keeping from me, right? You’re your own worst enemy.”

My molars scraped back and forth against each other.

The pinprick in my brain turned into many and a lot more painful. While I was focused on the pain, I couldn’t focus on anything else, and that allowed my brilliant demon mate to forgo tiptoeing and basically do the flamenco into my mind and right for the door that held all my secrets. She heaved it open with a flourish as terror and pain ran through me.

I closed my eyes to deal with the agony so I wasn’t able to see her face, but the audible gasp told me she uncovered the truth.

I opened my eyes.

And just like that, as intense as it came on, the pain was gone.