But of course, Selma was a Pure Breeder. This sorry little thing might be exactly what he didn’t need to deal with right now, but at least she’d be out of his hands soon enough.

If she even was a Breeder.

Kesh sighed deeply and scrubbed a hand over his face, wishing his idiot brother hadn’t rewritten the laws concerning Breeders, and motioned for her to step forward with a flick of two fingers. “Come on. Let’s have a look, then.”

The girl didn’t move—only kept her blue eyes locked on him, the stubborn set of her chin wobbling.

Kesh narrowed his eyes at her disobedience. He leaned forward on the throne and ground though gritted teeth, “Come. Here. Now.”

She stumbled a step forward, as if jerked along by a chain, and Kesh leaned back, his smoldering temper calming ever so slightly.

The girl paused for a second, but the command in his gaze made her continue forward and up the dais, one hesitant step at a time until she stood in front of him. Her body shook ever so slightly as she stared at him, and her fear wafted against his nostrils, stirring a delicate sensation of unrest in his gut.

Ugh. Not a promising start.

Kesh pushed his foot off the armrest and reached for the girl. She was taller than most human females, but still only came to around eye-height with him when he was seated.

Her eyes went impossibly wider at the approach of his hand and she tried to jerk away with a startled squeak, but she wasn’t nearly fast enough. Kesh wrapped his fingers around her throat and brought her closer, ignoring her clawing to get out of his grip.

He pushed his index finger up, forcing the girl’s head up and to the side, and buried his nose in her exposed neck.

Instantly, his senses were alight with a wash of scents, smells of other demons, hospitals, human decay and chemicals clawing at his throat. But behind that…

Kesh closed his eyes and drew in another deep breath, his skin prickling with the sensation of her hair brushing against his face. Her fear was the strongest of the scents that belonged to her and not other pollutants she’d come across. It was thick and acrid and made him growl before he could stop himself.

She whimpered at the sound, and he huffed with irritation and breathed in again.

There was warmth underneath that fear. Something sultry and rich, tangled with something he couldn’t quite put his finger on. Mindlessly, he sniffed her again, pulling her closer to his body to find the source of that enthralling scent.

She whimpered and pushed against him, babbled some unimportant words of protest, and he smothered the annoyance of her resistance by wrapping her closer to his body, quelling her squirming with the strength of his arm around her back.