I didn’t mean for it to happen. I have actually been doing what I can to avoid all of them. But that didn’t do me much good now. The last male on the planet I have wanted to encounter again was this one.

I…as a Jareth Equan he is the head of their family. He should have done something about the guard who had harmed me weeks ago. But as far as I knew, he hadn’t.

“You have learned some tricks,” Cormac said, smirking at me.

I couldn’t help but wonder how his female tolerated him for even an instant. Me, personally? I abhor arrogant males. They have a tendency to make their females just seem to disappear at times.

“N-n-no thanks to your family.”

I am not going to hide what happened to me. And if he didn’t like it, that was just too bad.

I am tired of being a victim. I will not be a victim again.

I tried to read the males around me, like Jayi had said I would be able to. They were both quite old. Well shielded. All I could read from them was determination.

For what?

“We have gotten intel that there is a price on your head,” Cormac said. “We are still…tracking down its origins.”

“Do I look like I am stupid? I have known that for weeks.”

“That is all we have, Jume. I’m afraid we cannot tell you anything else,” Theo said. He came to me, knelt down. “I wish I could give you answers. But I do not think this is the time you are meant to have them.”

“So basically, just wait here. Never knowing if I am safe? Being cut off from my family. Fearing what various Jareths will do to me next?”

“What do you mean?” Cormac demanded. “What are Jareths doing to you, besides Cahum and his brother?”

“Really? One…one…of your people refused to serve me lunch yesterday. Had I not had coin enough to pay for it at another register, I would have had to leave. And I know…I know they are watching me. I can feel their eyes on me. And what of Derrol? How am I to work and to pay my way at all if I am kept locked away? Tell me, Theo. Is this what I deserve? I have never harmed anyone. So tell me…why me?”

Well, the darned male couldn’t answer that question at all.