by Marie Harte
Shaking off such carnal thoughts, Dreyk focused on his current mission. To make Ryen whole. To that end, Dreyk needed patience. He would ease Ryen into his new life with kindness and understanding. After they talked about Ryen’s feelings, his needs and...
Shit. Who the hell was he kidding? That approach had failed dismally with Dreyk. Why did he assume Ryen would respond well to niceties? The bastard had head-butted him, for stars’ sake.
Such violence, such hunger. Dreyk knew well those feelings, which made him want to help Ryen all the more. He felt a kinship with the stubborn male because they were so much alike. He wanted badly to hold Ryen tight and soothe his aches, as much as he wanted to push him away as far as he could.
The memories, the violent urges that possessed Ryen lay buried in Dreyk, as evidenced by his recent need to meditate. As hard as Dreyk worked to exorcise those demons, they never quite disappeared, nor would they. Predisposed towards chaotic aggression, he struggled to overcome those ever-present tendencies. Working for Cheltam helped a lot. Purpose, the need to protect and serve directed in an altruistic light made his life worth living.
Serving will help Ryen as well, if the stubborn lout will let me in. “Nice” didn’t work with me. But I remember what did.
Dreyk turned right at the next intersection, a new destination in mind. He exited the rover and entered the large, underground store with a goal. Bypassing the whips and rods, he lingered over the collars. He selected one and continued on, adding items as he imagined working on Ryen. Picking up a pair of magnecuffs, Dreyk moved to a vast assortment of bright and shiny objects. It’s all about control, he remembered his handler say as if it were yesterday. Which gave him a hell of an idea...
Ryen groaned and rubbed his temples, a monster of a headache swamping him. He eased his legs off the bed—the bed? How the hell did I get into a bed? The last thing he remembered he’d engaged Dreyk, finally, into a bloody fight. A glance down at himself showed no wounds at all.
“Must not have been that good of a fight.” Ryen rotated his arms and legs and rubbed his stomach. He felt fine, better than fine, in fact. His constant aches no longer bothered him. For the first time in a long time, he felt strong, healthy, and surprisingly calm. Still, he couldn’t overlook the fact that he wore nothing but strange bands around his wrists and ankles in a room he’d never before seen.
He glanced around. Something about this place reminded him of the cells he’d been raised in on Eyra. Yet, the tidiness of his surroundings felt warm. Pictures of outlying planets and galaxies graced the walls. The surfaces in the room were clean without smelling of that hideous antiseptic always present in the labs.
Ryen stood, and his headache vanished. No pain, neat quarters, and the sense of peace? Too good to be true. Wanting a weapon, Ryen searched but found nothing more than a locked armoire—one he couldn’t breach. Damn it. Not a hint of closet, lav, or anything else resembling typical berthing quarters. Good thing I don’t have to take a piss.
Turning his attention to the bands, Ryen tried to remove them and found that he couldn’t. Frustrated, he again explored the room from top to bottom. Except for the armoire and the monster of a bed, there was nothing, which made no sense. Concentrating, Ryen finally spied a door that blended seamlessly into the blue-gray walls. Intent on escape, he reached the door as it opened.
A beautiful woman stared up at him in awe. “Dreyk, you never mentioned how beautiful he is. Flor, look at those eyes.”
Ryen moved back as she entered with Dreyk on her heels.
His relief at seeing Dreyk should have annoyed him, but for some reason it didn’t. Ryen waited for an explanation. What he got instead aroused him into a full-out hard-on.
“I brought you something to apologize for yesterday,” Dreyk said in a gravelly voice. At his words, the comely female began to strip out of her clothing. She had large breasts, full hips, and a slightly rounded belly. Just the type Ryen normally avoided, afraid of hurting such softness.
The woman smiled and, bold as you please, took hold of Ryen’s cock. She massaged with such expertise he couldn’t doubt her occupation.
“Pleasurer,” he said, trying not to fall into a rut.
“Tenth class, baby.” She cupped his balls before she went down to her knees in front of him.
Tenth class meant expensive, and damned if she didn’t prove her worth.
“Glaia’s got a great mouth,” Dreyk murmured as she sucked Ryen.
The whole situation felt surreal, more so when Dreyk removed his shirt and pants until he wore nothing but skin. His huge cock grew as Ryen stared.
“That’s hot, Glaia. Really good.” Dreyk stroked himself as he watched them.
“Dreyk?” Ryen moaned. “What’s this about?” The need to release his scent, to trap the female and Dreyk close, pushed at him. For that reason, he held it tight. Control it, don’t let it control you.
The woman released his shaft and grinned. “Pleasure, baby. Come down to your knees for me.” She went down on all fours and waited, licking her lips.
Dreyk nodded. “Trust me, Glaia doesn’t disappoint.”
Not sure what the hell was going on, Ryen couldn’t deny his lust. On his knees, he waited with anticipation. The woman’s ruby-red lips parted as she took his length balls deep. She knew just how hard to press him. The grip of her lips and the stroke of her tongue took the edge off, just what he needed.
Dreyk knelt behind her, and desire rushed Ryen as he understood what Dreyk meant to do. Unable to contain it, Ryen’s scent wrapped around the trio. The woman moaned and sucked harder. Dreyk held his weeping cock, his eyes turning completely black as he inhaled. He watched Ryen as he nudged Glaia’s knees apart, angled himself, and pushed forward.
Ryen thought it the most erotic thing he’d ever seen. Dreyk’s massive cock disappeared inch by inch into Glaia’s pussy. Watching Dreyk take Glaia gave him a sense of satisfaction Ryen was hard pressed to name. It was as if she bridged them together. Ryen had the incredible feeling that he was fucking Dreyk, that if he pushed hard enough they might touch.
“Glaia likes it rough.” Dreyk grunted, his gaze glued to Ryen’s. “Fuck her mouth, Ryen, don’t baby her.”
“Don’t want to hurt her,” he rasped, holding onto his control.
“Do it.” Dreyk’s command, coupled with Glaia’s moan as she raked him with her teeth, shot his control all to hell.
“You want more, honey?” Happy to oblige, Ryen fucked her mouth as hard as Dreyk pounded into her. Like a well-oiled machine, they took her in a rhythm that soon had them tensing with approaching climax.
Dreyk groaned. “Milk it, Glaia. That’s it. Oh yeah, I’m coming.”
To his surprise, Ryen was too. Watching Dreyk tense and spill pushed him into doing the same. He shouted as he filled Glaia’s mouth to overflowing. She greedily drank what she could of him and climaxed with a hearty groan before he withdrew.
“Glaia’s stimulated by seed,” Dreyk said thickly. “She likes a lot of cum.”
Dreyk pulled out, his dick shiny and thick. He blinked hard at Ryen before shoving back into her, thrusting in and out while the woman moaned. “Damn, Ryen. I think I’m coming again. That scent...”
Ryen released a tremendous amount of pheromone into the air, wanting to see it happen. To his delight, Dreyk pulled out of Glaia and shot all over her back.
The urge to lean over Glaia, to smell, touch, and taste the essence of Dreyk felt too compelling to resist.
Even as he knew he should be repulsed by such thoughts, Ryen leaned forward and rubbed Dreyk’s cum into Glaia’s back. She arched and purred like a kitten. Ryen experienced the same contentment, which surprised him. Normally it took several females, one after another or all-together, to relieve his urges. This day it took one pleasurer...and Dreyk’s company.
He stared down at his sticky hand rubbing Glaia’s back and stilled. What the hell am I doing? Yanking his gaze to Dreyk as he wiped his hand on his stomach, he saw that Dreyk appeared mesmerized b
y the action.
“It’s good, isn’t it?” Dreyk asked, his voice low and seductive.
“So good,” Glaia rasped as Dreyk withdrew and helped her to her feet. He showed her to the hidden lav. When he turned around, he and Ryen shared silence.
“I guess I should thank you.” Ryen didn’t know what to think. What did Dreyk mean by sharing this woman for sex? And why couldn’t Ryen tear his gaze from the male? Between Dreyk’s impressive cock and his sparkling gray eyes, Ryen couldn’t look away.
“You’re welcome.”
“Right.” Ryen clenched and unclenched his fists. “So how the hell did I get here? What are these bands?” He held his wrists out to Dreyk.
“You’re at my place. After I soundly trounced your ass yesterday, I felt bad.” He winked at Ryen. Mr. Stoic winked. “I brought you back here and knocked you out.”
“Yeah, with some kind of scent. Some knock-out drug? What did you use on me?”
“My secret.”
Dreyk’s cock, amazingly, swelled again. Ryen’s responded in kind, and he wondered if all male Creations had the same drive. Embarrassed by Dreyk’s sly grin, he turned and paced, willing his mind away from Dreyk—from sex.
“I want my clothes back. I have to go.”
Dreyk sat on the bed and lay back, his hands behind his head. “Why?”
“Why? There’s no why. I want to go.” The thought of imprisonment was enough to spike his adrenaline, ruining the peace he’d just experienced. “You can’t keep me here.”
Dreyk sighed. “Ryen, you killed two of those barbarians last night. I had to dance around their overlord to prevent him from seeking Barbarian justice. So think about what you’re rushing out to do. This is all new to you, your freedom. And it’s precious. You don’t want to lose it before you can appreciate it, do you?”
“No.” Ryen opened his senses but caught nothing more than Dreyk’s willingness to help him. “I want to remain free. What I don’t understand is why you’re helping me.”
Dreyk glanced at the door to the lav before he answered. “Someone once helped me, and I’m trying to return the favor. You don’t know how many friends I’ve had to put down because they wouldn’t take my help. Out of control, they were a danger to themselves and everyone around them. You know what that’s like.”
Ryen didn’t want to understand. He didn’t know what he might have said had Glaia not exited the lav. Dreyk rolled off the bed and escorted her to the door. He whispered something in her ear that had her laughing and looking back at Ryen.
“Bye, handsome. Anytime you want more fun, you come to Sacha’s at the quad and ask for me.” Glaia sighed. “Yummy.”
Dreyk paused with her at the door and said to Ryen, “Wait here for me. Please?”
Ryen should have demanded to leave. Should have pushed past Dreyk given the opportunity. “Don’t make me wait long,” he growled, wondering why he stayed.
Smiling, Dreyk escorted Glaia away.
Ryen waited with a patience that pleased him. He might be annoyed with Dreyk for so many unanswered questions, but he couldn’t fault the man’s attempt to apologize.
Glaia had one helluva mouth.
5
Dreyk returned to find the bedroom empty. A noise from the lav answered the question of Ryen’s whereabouts. Sated and pleased with Glaia’s visit, Dreyk pressed a few buttons on his hidden control panel. The bedroom engineered two chairs, a dresser, and unlocked the armoire. He pulled Ryen’s clothing from the bottom drawer and set out something for the male to wear.
Then, taking a deep breath, he walked into the lav. The sight of Ryen’s face titled up, his eyes closed as water and solar rays bathed him from head to toe, stoked Dreyk’s lust into a roar. Which made no sense considering he’d climaxed twice not minutes ago.
Tamping down his lust—which he thankfully found easy to handle—he held onto his pheromones and waited for Ryen to finish. As much as he would have liked to join the male in the shower, he didn’t think Ryen was ready for that yet. A glance at Ryen’s cuffs had him grinning. Not ready yet, but soon.
“You going to stare at me all day?” Ryen asked, his eyes still closed.
“Just until you get your tight ass out of my shower. I’m a little sticky.” Dreyk swore Ryen blushed. “Glaia’s good, hmm?”
“Yeah.” Ryen said nothing more and left the shower. Dreyk handed him a towel, deliberately grazing Ryen’s fingers as he did so. The short frown on Ryen’s face satisfied him.
“I’ll be right out. Clothes are on the bed for you. You have the run of the house, but I’d ask you not to leave until we talk.” The first test. He’d left the bedroom door open. He’d also programmed the cuffs not to move past the front and rear entrances of his domicile. The windows had also been magnetically sealed.
Ryen nodded as he dried himself then left the lav.
Dreyk wondered how difficult today would prove. A new game plan, outstanding sex, Ryen’s compliance...
“Controlling asshole,” roared from the other room.
So much for compliance. Sighing, Dreyk took his time in the lav. After drying and dressing, he left his bedroom. In the outer room staring out one of two large, laser-proof windows, he found Ryen clad in the clothes he’d laid out for him—trousers and a thin, white, sleeveless shirt. Annoyance, not fury, darkened Ryen’s beautiful eyes to a midnight blue.
“Why am I a prisoner here when you told me I wouldn’t be?”
So sexy when riled. Dreyk walked past him to the dining area, aware that by giving his back to Ryen he showed a measure of trust. Ryen didn’t attack, which meant that sex had a remarkable effect on the male. So far so good.
“Are you hungry?”
Ryen glared. “Yeah.”
“Two glar steaks, frell and blan juice.” Dreyk waited for the processor to work. “I feel just like my creator when I order breakfast.”
Ryen blinked in surprise and gifted Dreyk with a rare smile.
The processor finished, and Dreyk took Ryen’s plate and his own to the table by the second window. “Grab the drinks, would you?”
Ryen did so and sat with him. He looked as if he wanted to say something, but the scent of food must have taken his will to argue. As he ate, Dreyk explained the reason for Ryen’s imprisonment.
“The reason you’re here, my friend, is that you need help. No, no arguing while you eat. Hear me out while you devour your meal.”
Ryen frowned but said nothing more and tucked into his food. The return of his appetite relieved Dreyk. For the past week, the giant had eaten half that much. It seemed Ryen was truly on the road to recovery. Physically, at least.
“As a Creation, we’re built to submit,” Dreyk continued. “The first generation of us didn’t take, as you know. They were weak, barely able to function unless told to breathe every day. The second batch was no better. The monsters tortured and killed thousands.
“Gradually, the Creators realized they needed to incorporate both submissive and dominant markers into our genetic coding. Unlike many in the System, we don’t have a choice about our natures. Our traits aren’t environmentally stimulated but programmed.”
“I know,” Ryen said.
“My generation looked promising. We appeared normal. We even acted normal, for the first few decades of our lives. Then, I’m afraid, science proved, once again, that man shouldn’t tamper with things best left in the gods’ hands. Many of my line became homicidal. Those that didn’t killed themselves.” He remembered too clearly the deaths of his friends. Watching Mertan kill his Creator before he understood what he’d done and killed himself.
“Dreyk?”
“Death and madness descended,” Dreyk said in a hoarse voice. He cleared his throat, aware Ryen watched him without blinking. “I managed to escape with a few others who’d retained their sanity. My only regret is that I failed to kill my handler. My creator didn’t fare so well.”
“Good.”
“Once I escaped, I tore through the System l
ooking for a place to hide. The hungers, the need to destroy, filled me for years. Like the others, I was tainted with warring desires. The relief I craved wouldn’t come.” What he’d done before he’d found salvation still haunted him. “Then I happened upon a planet in the outer rim. A man unlike any I’d ever met showed me how to deal with my feelings. How to make the pain go away.”
“Another Creation?” Ryen asked.
“I don’t know. He wouldn’t tell me anything about himself, not even his name. He told me to call him Master.”
Ryen frowned. “Master?”
“Distasteful, but he was kind, nice, and most pleasant.” Dreyk paused. “He drove me fucking nuts.”
“Tell me about it.” Ryen’s sarcasm wasn’t lost on him.
“I tried to kill him several times. To my surprise, he always overpowered me. He looked like a Mardu, or even a Nebite. He had pleasing features but not the brawn or overt strength to overtake me, so I thought.”
“A weaker man conquered you, and you enjoyed it?” Ryen’s distaste showed Dreyk what he’d suspected, that Ryen didn’t know what it meant to truly submit.
In the labs, he’d been forced to endure, to lose to those weaker than himself. Which was why he constantly chafed at Dreyk’s decision not to fight him. Ryen didn’t understand yet, but he craved submission—freedom. Until he resolved those conflicting parts within himself, he always would.
“That’s just it, Ryen. Master wasn’t weaker. His internal strength showed me how to control myself. How to adjust to accept who and what I was. Through Master’s teachings, I learned to be myself. To love women and men. To see without prejudice.”
“A lot of bullshit.” Ryen shook his head. “Come on, Dreyk. Admit it. You got your ass handed to you by somebody stronger, and he broke you.”
“You don’t understand. But you will.” Dreyk stared at Ryen’s cuffs.
Ryen tensed. “Explain.”
“When Glaia brought you to bliss, what did you feel?” he asked, avoiding a direct response.
Ryen looked as if he meant to argue, surprising Dreyk when he answered. “At ease. Her mouth took me to bliss. The rage I normally feel wasn’t there.”