“A what?” Shanna raised her hands palm up. “What the hell is that?”

“A person who tells falsehoods to cause trouble,” one of the women growled softly.

“We will all swear you are one and Hyvin will not want you anymore.” The woman speaking glanced at Ovoly. “Can’t we just tell him she is a bad woman? He must believe us.”

A snarl tore from a dark-headed house helper, Aya, as the woman stood up to glare at Shanna. “You will give us back our Hyvin or you will not wake up one morning.”

“It’s a good thing that I sleep with Berrr then because I doubt you could sneak in our bedroom to get to me without him knowing about it.” Shanna was pissed and more than a little frightened. “I’m going to my room now. If you try to stop me I’ll yell for Berrr.”

The women glared at Shanna as she carefully left the dining room. She watched her back the entire way to Berrr’s bedroom so they couldn’t follow her without her knowing about it. She needed to have a talk with him or those women were going to get truly ugly and nasty.

They had her at a disadvantage and if they were left unchecked, they would just grow bolder. The lights automatically came on across the room when she entered the bedroom. Shanna closed the door firmly and searched it, immediately discovering there was no lock on it. That was another thing she’d ask Berrr about. She wanted a way to keep the women away from her when he wasn’t home to protect her.

Firewood had been placed in the fire grate. It took her a few attempts to figure out their version of a lighter but when flames sparked out of the stick-looking thing she managed to get the fire to light. Shanna set the lighter back on the mantel and turned to study the room.

Someone had picked up her discarded dress and Berrr’s clothing from the floor where they’d been tossed when they’d climbed into bed after lunch. The bed was also made. Sighing, she moved for it. The upside to his house helpers is they cook a good meal and keep the house tidy. The bad side is they are all out to get me. She kept her clothes on as she got on the bed, deciding it was smarter to be dressed if any of the women came after her in the bedroom.

Shanna didn’t have long to wait. The bedroom door slowly opened softly and she tensed, knowing they were trying to sneak in. Her heart pounded hard in her chest as Ovoly and Aya stepped in the bedroom. A nasty grin widened Ovoly’s face, her black eyes narrowing dangerously.

“I was ordered to come tell you that Hyvin had to go out for a few hours.” The door slammed hard behind her, closing both women in the bedroom with Shanna. “More Collis were spotted landing on Zorn so Hyvin and his men went to meet them to make sure they weren’t bringing more human slaves to our planet to try to sell them to our warriors.”

Aya cocked her head and then to Shanna’s utter shock gripped her baggy dress, tearing it over her head to toss on the floor. The naked muscled woman put her hands on her hips, glaring at Shanna. What in the hell? Shanna’s eyes flew to Ovoly to watch in stunned shock as the other woman stripped naked.

“Shit. I don’t go that way,” Shanna stood up on the bed and gripped one of the posts to keep her balance. “I don’t find you attractive and I’m not having sex with you.” Both women frowned, glancing at each other, and finally it was Ovoly who looked back at Shanna with a glare. “We removed our clothing so your terror stink doesn’t cling to our clothing for Hyvin to smell on us.”

Relief hit Shanna for a split second before she realized that they had a worse motive for coming after her. Well, maybe not, she decided. I’d rather get my ass kicked than have two muscular women want to play out a bad women’s prison movie scene at my expense.

“You really don’t want to do this.”

They split apart, coming at the bed. Shanna backed up, walking on the bed, and kept her attention on both of them. She wished they weren’t over six feet tall of Amazon-type women. It was going to be as though she were fighting two men and she knew her chances weren’t really that great.

“Don’t make her bruise,” Ovoly ordered the other one. “If you make her bleed make sure it isn’t from a place that a mark will be left.” Aya nodded, hearing her. “Her nose and mouth are good.”

“Fuck,” Shanna cursed, deciding Ovoly was the meaner of the two by sheer size.

Taking a deep breath, Shanna knew her time was up as each woman inched along the sides of the bed at her. She threw herself at Ovoly, seeing shock hit the woman’s features a second before Shanna slammed into her, sending the woman flying backward with Shanna trying to land on top of her to soften her blow.

Even landing on the naked woman knocked the breath from Shanna as they crashed to the hard tile floor. She heard a loud crack sound though and the woman under her cried out in pain. Ovoly didn’t get up but Shanna did as she rolled away and forced herself to move even though her body ached from the hard impact. She got to her feet, glanced down at Ovoly, who looked stunned on the floor on her back. Shanna didn’t hesitate at all, just hauled back her bare foot and drop kicked her in the side to keep her down.

Ovoly screamed out, rolling away from the pain of Shanna nailing her ribs. A female snarl had Shanna spinning around as a flash of tan skin came at her from around the end of the bed. Aya looked super pissed as she stormed for Shanna. Without letting herself think, something she couldn’t afford to do, Shanna turned sideways and threw out her foot, aiming for the advancing woman. Her foot hit flesh and Aya hissed out in pain where Shanna had targeted her thigh. Aya stumbled back.

Shanna backed up and knew she didn’t want to end up in a corner. She glared at Aya and kept a side visual out of the corner of her eye on Ovoly, who was still on the floor. She waved her hands at Aya.

“You think I’m going down easily? Think again and while you’re at it, I’d rethink the entire attacking me plan.”

Aya decided not to listen, advancing on Shanna. The woman opened her arms the way a wrestler would and Shanna reacted, throwing up her hand as the other woman lunged, not even trying to avoid the arms that wrapped around her. Shanna’s palm slammed upward into the woman’s throat right under her chin with enough force to snap Aya’s head back violently. The woman released Shanna’s waist, gagging, and staggered backward. Shanna didn’t hesitate, just kicked out, hitting the stunned woman in the stomach with her foot.