I was so angry I could barely speak. At my rival, the Overlord of the Southern Continent—the greedy bastard was always looking for new worlds to exploit and ruin! At the fucking Pet Finder scum who had nearly stolen little one from me and who had hurt her delicate little body. And yes, I admitted to myself, I was angry at little one herself.
How dare she run away from me like that and put herself into harm’s way? I could have lost her forever—she might have been sold to another and formed a bond with some other Master!
The very thought of it—of my own little pet forming a bond and a sexual bond at that—with some other male, made me angriest of all. So angry that I had broken my personal rules against Mental Manipulation not once but twice in the space of the past ahrn.
What the fuck was wrong with me? I had never felt this possessive of a female before. I had already had two matings—this was called for, to try and produce an heir for my throne. Neither had resulted in children, however, and I had parted with both of the HighBorn females I had mated with amicably after our respective contracts had expired.
Those women had been my equals—women of my own rank and species and yet I had left them without a second glance and no emotional pain whatsoever. Not so with little one. The thought of her with another male drove me nearly crazy with possessive anger. What was wrong with me, to care so much for a female who was nothing but a pet?
I had no answers as I stalked into the food prep area and over to the Matter Synthesizer. I jammed the Control band over my temples and closed my eyes, but my first few attempts to get healing wraps came out like badly formed lumps of clay.
I took some deep breaths, trying to calm myself. I couldn’t heal little one unless I could clear my mind to interface with the Matter Synthesizer, I reminded myself. And we would deal with her escape attempt later. Right now I just needed to synthesize some healing wraps for her face.
At last I managed to get what I wanted. I was feeling a good deal calmer as I finally pulled the plate holding the wraps out of one of the Synthesizer’s doors and went back to the sleeping chamber.
I would heal her first and we would deal with everything else afterwards.