"Pour her one, too," the Lieutenant ordered, never breaking the gaze. "She'll need it." He stepped closer, his attention back on her. "Now tell me, are you always this submissive?"
He was taunting her. When she refused to blink, he stared back, a smile playing at his mouth. Sal tried to ignore the sudden desire to see him look away. He outranked her, but every fiber in her body said she deserved to see him submit. While Shift poured the drink, she tracked him with an ear, never breaking her stare with the Lieutenant.
"How long can you really hold it?" he whispered.
The arrogance in his tone was too human, too sure of himself. Her ears locked back and a rumble started in her throat. When he leaned forward she snarled, allowing her lips to pull back, revealing both sets of cutting teeth. He was too close.
The Lieutenant smiled. "You really think you can make me back down? Are you really that sure of yourself?"
"That would be improper, sir," Sal said, refusing to look away. Her tone was professional even if the growl wasn't.
He leaned even closer. "Iliri rarely care about the ranks of humans, girl. Either you're more dominant than me, or you aren't. Pick one, and prove it." His voice was so quiet she assumed Shift hadn't heard.
"Don't push it," Shift said as the door opened behind them. "She's running on pure instinct. Never met our kind before."
"Shit." The new voice sounded like Razor, the officer who'd spoken to them earlier. "Feral?"
"No." The Lieutenant's voice was a purr. "Not at all. Strong, but not feral." He leaned back, looking pleased. "Now go sit down, Private. That's an order."
Sal paused. Her instincts said she should not look away or she'd give him control. Her mind realized that disobeying the order would be a good way to end her trials early. Desperately, she tried to decide which would be the greater loss. Eventually, she forced herself to blink, took a deep breath to halt the growl, and sighed before moving to the chair beside Shift, refusing to rub at her ears to relax them. She wouldn't give him that much satisfaction. The door opened again.
"I smell that," Arctic said. "What did you do to her?"
"Made her submit," Razor told him. "She's not too pleased about it."
Sal's head snapped around, looking at the men she sat with. "I didn't say anything!"
Razor tapped his nose. "Didn't have to. Even Shift can smell that. Defeat. It's not a good scent for you, Kaisae."
"She doesn't know," The Lieutenant said, claiming the chair behind the desk.
Arctic took the chair beside her. "So I was right."
The other three answered in unison, all with some variation of yes. It seemed they'd already had a discussion about her, and Sal felt like she was playing catch up.
"Tamed?" Arctic sounded terrified of the answer.
"Not at all," the Lieutenant said. "No, not at all. She knows nothing, but she hasn't been tamed, even though she tries really hard to act like it."
"I'm not a beast," Sal insisted, looking at them, one after the other. "I know you think my kind are primitive, but I've studied for years, I am well versed in both military and civilian protocols, I – "
The Lieutenant shook his head, cutting her off with a lift of his hand. "Don't assume, Private. Breathe. How much human sugar do you smell?"
She shook her head, confused.
"That sweet scent. Do you smell it?"
"Barely," she admitted.
"That's probably me," Shift said.
Sal glanced toward the Lieutenant. "And him."
Razor sucked in a breath. "Whoa. That's perceptive."
She turned to him. "A hint on you, too."
Arctic chuckled. "How about me?"
Sal inhaled. "Barely. It's there, but I have to search for it. Humans never said anything about it, I thought everyone smelled sweet, except after combat."
LT laughed. "After combat we smell even sweeter, from the human blood. From your file, you have little experience with iliri, so I'm not surprised that you have no idea. I'm just pleased to see you're still able to think for yourself. Too many of us have lost that."
She noticed he included himself in the iliri. Blaec Doll had fair skin, but the wrong shade to be suspected of iliran ancestry. No different than any other citizen of the Conglomerate.
The Lieutenant watched her eyes roam across him and smiled. "I'm half. Shift is a quarter. Razor is around forty percent. Arctic, you're three quarters, right?"
"A bit over, but about that."
Sal felt her heart stop. "Iliri?"
"Yes." The Lieutenant smiled and leaned closer. "We're iliri crossbreds. That's why we're so good. Now you want to tell me how you managed to get into our mental link, Salryc Luxx?"
"Sal." She looked up, hoping she hadn't over stepped her bounds.
His pale eyes warmed and he inhaled deeply before daring to taste her name. "Sal." It rolled off his tongue naturally.
Trying to cover her confusion with a direct answer, she rambled on, "I don't know how I heard your thoughts, sir. The First Sergeant touched me and I began to hear his voice in my head. I've never had it happen before."
