Episode 3

I spent the next evenings in tense anticipation. Every time the door of the bar opened I held my breath and did not let the air out of my lungs until I saw no Hunter among the newcomers. And finally I came to the conclusion that I had read way too much into Nikk's words. So my life resumed its normal course. Karen, Danika and I stayed in our little apartment during the day, where we felt safe from the dangers that lurked everywhere, and in the evening we were picked up by Baris' security guards and driven to work.

I often felt like a machine that was working but not alive. My life had become routine for almost a year. And sometimes - very rarely - I even missed the life I had led before. It was tough and relentless, but it had invigorated me too. The constant struggle for survival had kept me on my toes, I saw a point in it by fighting anew every day to stay alive. The only joy I felt now was once a month going to a shopping center at the gates of the Empire with the other women from the relatively safe North Quarter to buy food and clothes. Otherwise we were trapped in our own four walls or had to toil for a guy we genuinely hated.

"Wake up!" Karen snapped her fingers in front of my face and grinned at me with her engaging smile. Her fiery red hair curled around her head in wild curls and gave her almost perfect features something abstract that I had admired from the start. "There is someone who asks about you."

"After me?" A glance at the other side of the counter froze me. "Damn it."

"I guess the good guy hasn't given up yet." She shrugged and nodded at the tall guest.

I straightened my shoulders and walked over to him. "What can I get you, sir?" I asked gently.

“Hello, Riley. How are you? ”Nikk said, ignoring my question.

"Good, thanks for asking."

"Nice. Did you miss me?"

"I don't know you well enough for that," I avoided diplomatically.

He laughed and his dark eyes sparkled quite frighteningly. "I want to ask you a question, Riley."

I nervously indicated with a nod that he should continue.

"If you had a chance to get out of here, would you take it?"

I swallowed. Almost every night after work I lay in my narrow bed and wondered if there was any way to escape the miserable life in the surrounding area. For years I had hoped that one day it would get better, even if it didn't look like it, and now this dangerous man stood before me offering me something I dared no longer believe.

"It depends on the conditions," I said finally in a husky voice.

Nikk's mouth curled up in an amused smile. "They're not that bad," he said mysteriously and ran his fingers over his angular chin.

"And that means?" I asked, even if an inner voice advised me not to go into the subject further.

"A better life, no disgusting guys sticking their dirty fingers at you, security."

"The terms, sir," I repeated urgently. What he was listing sounded well and good, but what price did I have to pay for it? How tall was it?

“One condition,” Nikk said, leaning closer to me. "Become my lover."

I hadn't given Nikk an answer to his question the night before and had dodged any further conversation, but that didn't mean I stopped thinking about what he'd said. I haven't done anything else for hours. In my head I weighed the pros and cons - and came to no satisfactory result.

"You'd just run off with the Hunter and leave us here?" Danika asked, dismayed, and frowned at Karen.

"Of course not. I would quickly wrap it around my finger and make sure that it gets you out of this misery too, ”our friend added immediately.

"And how?" Danika wanted to know. I would have liked an answer to that too.

"How would I wrap it around my finger?"

"Yes. You know what they say about the Hunter's lovers. They only stay for a certain time and are then thrown away like used goods. «

“Then Riley has to make himself irreplaceable,” Karen said, as if it were child's play. “Hunters may be tough, but they're not completely unemotional. If this ... uh, Nikk ... falls in love with Riley, he definitely won't let her go. And then she can surely convince him to give her friends a better life too. Maybe in one of the Hunter headquarters. It's supposed to be incredibly beautiful there, I've heard. "

I shook my head. “How am I supposed to get him to fall in love with me? I don't know him at all. "

“Then you'll just get to know him, find out what he likes and what makes him tick. And hey presto, "she snapped her fingers," you've wrapped it around your finger. "

"You know that reality is not made up of silly love tales, right?" Danika spoke up again. "The Hunters want to fuck their lovers, not marry them."

I grimaced at these words. When I imagined going to bed with a man like Nikk ... Damn it, that thought should scare me more than it did! It wasn't as repugnant as I had initially thought. Nevertheless, it was of course out of the question that I simply presented myself as a willing love slave.

“One doesn't automatically exclude the other,” Karen said, smiling. "She spends a few nice hours with him and gradually creeps into his heart." 

"That's a damn naive idea," I interjected. “We have heard so many stories about the Hunter and their lovers. Even if there was more than physical attraction, hunters committed their lives to protecting the Empire. You can't just neglect your chores and look forward to a happy family with wife and children. "

Karen leaned back against the back of the chair and shrugged in resignation. "Fine. I just wanted to encourage you a little. You have a chance to get out of here, Riley. And in my opinion you would be pretty stupid not to take this chance. But it's up to you what you make of it. "