  &quot;Her feelings are of no concern,&quot; Rikash lied. 
  His mate s feelings had not mattered when he had offered his proposal to Verika, now, he was not so sure. She had begun to behave very territorial over him, something he enjoyed immensely, and he suspected that she would not react well to the proposal with Verika. 
  It would be something he needed to keep from her, whilst she carried his kit, if Verika accepted. 
  &quot;Hmm, I wonder if that is true.&quot;
  &quot;Are you considering the proposal, or are you just using it to try to provoke me?&quot; He asked her. &quot;If it is the latter, you will not succeed.&quot;
  &quot;I cannot accept without my mother s approval, but that does not mean that I am not keeping your terms in mind.&quot;
  &quot;Your mother will never agree. Isn t that what you told me?&quot; He put forth his own barb. &quot;Why do you not run along home t

  He would not use her name. 
  Even after every tactic she had employed, he stubbornly would not use her name. Amelia knew it was important. His resistance made it so. If it wasn t important to him not to use it, then he would do so. The fact that he wouldn t, mean that she had to make him. 
  She had upped the stakes by allowing the conception to occur, now she had to win the war. 
  Her breath hung before her like smoke and her feet froze in the delicate slippers that were not meant to wander through snowdrifts, but she had a mission in the garden, a new tactic to employ. She used her power to short-out the devices that the woman had flung around the garden. Amelia was not entirely sure of their purpose, but she suspected they were surveillance. 
  The woman had obviously not anticipated the vagaries of the weather in the area, snapping from winter sunshine to snow in a matter of days

  Snow drifted almost lazily from the sky, melting before it could form into drifts, the curbs along the edges of the street running with water. 
  Rikash watched as the captives were marched out onto the street and fixed by their chains, evenly spaced. Human military and the remains of their government, the men and women were far from the hardened warriors his men were, trembling in the cold and looking up at the bodies strung from the street-lights with horror and fear that rose in an offensive stench. 
  &quot;Have they no pride?&quot; He wondered. His breath hung on the air like smoke.
  &quot;No,&quot; Nadyr replied. &quot;They weep and plead like children. It is revolting.&quot;
  &quot;There is something odd about this planet,&quot; Rikash observed. &quot;There are too few people for the buildings in these cities, great stretches of farmland lie abandoned, and there are areas wher

&quot;Her feelings are of no concern,&quot; Rikash lied. 
  His mate s feelings had not mattered when he had offered his proposal to Verika, now, he was not so sure. She had begun to behave very territorial over him, something he enjoyed immensely, and he suspected that she would not react well to the proposal with Verika. 
  It would be something he needed to keep from her, whilst she carried his kit, if Verika accepted. 
  &quot;Hmm, I wonder if that is true.&quot;
  &quot;Are you considering the proposal, or are you just using it to try to provoke me?&quot; He asked her. &quot;If it is the latter, you will not succeed.&quot;
  &quot;I cannot accept without my mother s approval, but that does not mean that I am not keeping your terms in mind.&quot;
  &quot;Your mother will never agree. Isn t that what you told me?&quot; He put forth his own barb. &quot;Why do you not run along home to your mother, then, Verika, and ask her?&quot;
  &quot;Because that would be boring,&quot; she

Chapter 23