Give a tiny bow to him. Maybe then he won't hurt me.

I nodded as he addressed me by name.

"Well, nice to meet you. I'm Prince Rowan."

I bowed to him, and he grinned.

"Ah, and I worried you'd be hard to tame." He reached into his pocket and pulled out a few apples. "Here, you can have these, sorry there's no protein, I thought the King was getting me another horse."

He set them just outside the cage, and I eagerly snatched them.

"You're not bad for a new pet," he muttered to himself. "Certainly easy on the eyes."

I felt his eyes on me, gazing down my curves with a deep sexual hunger.

I ignored him, staring on my apples. I tried to, at least.

"Look at me when I'm talking to you," he ordered.

I hadn't looked him in the eyes yet. I couldn't quite bring myself to it, looking up into the eyes of some human who is supposed to own me.

He grabbed my chin and **** me to make eye contact.

I didn't resist, and he raised an eyebrow. "Oh, you've got that look..."

What look?

"Everyone has that look at some point. It's the moment they realize that deep down, they can be broken."

I swallowed. I...I'm not going to break, right?

He relished the conflict that reflected in my expression, and studied my face for a moment more before he released me.

He switched back to English, rising to stand. "Alright, good talk. Guard, have the royal architect meet me in my room, if you please. I'd like to have a cage installed."

"Yes sire," the guard said.

The Prince took one last good look at me. "Thanks for trying," he said, and indicated to the doorway where the King had disappeared. "Better luck next time."

He walked away, my hard expression unchanged.

I lay down, staring at the ceiling, munching on my apples for a while before falling back to sleep.

.

~ ~ ~

.

The Prince returned to my cell with a handful of crackers.

"Come here, Akira," he ordered in Elvish.

Leaning weakly against the wall, I dragged myself to sit in front of him.

He held his hand out to me with a cracker on it, as if he were feeding a horse.

"Go on, eat it."