“Wait…” Selma paused as she realized what that sentence meant. “You… You were there?”

Her mate’s brother had seen her naked—had seen them have wild and obscene sex in front of a bunch of strangers. Heat flushed her face and she had to fight herself not to hide it in her hands. Fucking demons and their fucking barbaric customs!

“Yes.” He walked into the bedroom, pulling her with him before shutting the door. “I heard Kain would be attending and I was… curious. Of course he was going to save you—I should have realized there was some noble motive behind it. He always did have a soft spot for vulnerable women, after…”

He fell silent for a moment, but then seemed to gather himself with a deep intake of breath. “But he got you pregnant, you say? I bet that came as a nasty surprise to him.”

Hurt and some oddly protective instincts made her press a hand against her stomach to shield the small life growing there.

“He was happy,” she said, more than a note of frost in her voice. “Scared, but happy. Don’t you insult him, or me, by insinuating anything else.”

A wry smile pulled on Kesh’s devious lips, offsetting his look of mild surprise. “You really are a little firecracker, huh? Back-talking a demon Lord mere days after your claiming. Is that why he chose you?”

In truth she had no idea why Kain had fallen for her, but she didn’t feel like telling this stranger anymore of their private business. He may have been Kain’s brother, but she was done talking about Kain when he wasn’t here. If Kesh hadn’t heard about his brother’s decision to attend the auction directly from him, they obviously didn’t have a close relationship.

Selma set her jaw. “Instead of worrying about that, maybe you could tell me when we’ll go get Kain?”

“As soon as we’re able. My father isn’t wrong—it’s a rather delicate situation, and we, at the very least, need to know where he’s being kept before we can act. But this is not something you need to worry about, Breeder. I will take care of it—you just need to rest.”

Great, another overbearing male who’d decided she was too delicate to do anything but nap.

She was pretty exhausted, though, and that four-poster bed did look pretty inviting—and despite how annoying Kesh’s assurance that she didn’t need to worry because he was in charge now was, some embarrassing part of her responded to his self-assurance by letting go of her anxiety and fear. Somewhere along the line, her hormones had evidently gotten the upper hand, and she now instinctively trusted big brutes who said they’d take care of everything so she didn’t have to.

It was infuriating.