Deceptive Lord (Lords of Bondage) by Corinne Balfour Page A

seed inside you.” The creature made a look of disgust and pushed her away . It stalked toward the other ladies. “I smell a virgin amongst you.” It grabbed Portia Fairley by the arm and surveyed her critically. “You are the virgin.” He released her and walked toward Julia. “You also smell of Roman seed and you bore a child . Your stench offends me .” The winged beast grabbed Eden by her hair , pulling her against it . The creature sniffed her hair and looked at her curiously. “You’ve had seed of a different type entirely.” It turned her around and pressed her back wards against its chest . It held her against it with one arm. With its other arm, it pressed her head to the side . It held her in that position while it studied her neck. “ The mark - i t i s very f a int, nearly impossible to see. I am familiar with that house.” It released her head and neck. “You accepted his seed, but you have never born a child. Why is that?”
    “I haven’t reached my time,” Eden whispered. Flourdan females lived for as long as three hundred years, but they were only fertile every five years. She had a feeling that the Asstrumnians had an even longer lifespan, but she knew nothing about alien hybrid reproduction.
    The creature released Eden, but continued to watch her. “You will breed hybrids when your time comes.” The winged hybrid stared at Jules intently. “Your females are not safe on this treacherous road. Your group is not well defended. You will lose one of your women; it is the toll you will pay for traveling this road.”
    “That sounds like a threat. You must realize that taking action against Flourdans would be an act of war,” Jules said.
    “You will pay the toll or you will all die. Think hard before you make that choice.”
    “I will pay the toll,” Jules said. “ Take me instead and leave the women alone.”
    The creature shook its head. “The toll is paid with female flesh only. Your males are worthless to us. Decide on your sacrifice.” The winged hybrid suddenly flew up into the air.
    Jules shook his head. “We cannot sacrifice one of our females.”
    Eden watched as the beasts circled the sky above her . If they turned back toward Eros, they could be attacked by the winged hybrids before they reached the gates. They were further from Flourda. They were pretty much defenseless; an army of only fifty poorly armed eunuchs would be ineffective against an army of gigantic winged hybrids that could decapitate a human head from its body in seconds.
    “Why do they insist on females?” Julia asked.
    “That thing said that males were worthless to them. It talked of breeding,” Audrelia said. She looked at Eden in horror. “That thing said that you would breed hybrids! Why would it say that? It intends to take you for breeding purposes.”
    Eden wasn’t so sure that she had been selected to pay the toll. It had commented on the mark on her throat, now invisible to the naked eye. It knew that she could breed hybrids, as she knew that not all humans could do that. “I don’t know. Maybe there is no toll payment. It could be an empty threat to prevent humans from traveling to Rome again.”
    “How did that thing know I had borne a child?” Julia asked.
    Audrelia’s face showed her alarm. “It somehow knew of my past history with the Romans. It also claimed it could smell Portia’s virginity. I don’t understand how it could know such things. Some of the things it said were strangely accurate, but not all of it. What it said about Eden was complete nonsense.”
    Eden remembered what it had said about her, that she had known a different seed entirely. It wasn’t nonsense, but she still wasn’t ready to talk about those weeks when she had been missing from Avenal. None of them had been able to come up with a plan of dealing with the winged hybrids, despite their attempts to find a solution. Eventually, they had to continue onward, as it was starting to get dark. They rode for two