It wasn’t fair that she was being punished for spilling the cum. She’d choked, despite trying her best not to. She would have happily—well, not exactly happily—licked up the cum from the mat.
But being a slave meant he didn’t have to be fair or understanding. He would command her, and if she failed, even if it wasn’t her fault, he’d punish her. She wondered if she’d ever give up her sense of righteous indignation when he was unfair. She doubted it. Her sense of fairness was an integral part of who she was, and even if she felt owned, she wouldn’t give that up.
So, there was the answer to the question. She was obedient because she feared punishment. As awful as today was, he could have been even angrier about spilling the cum. He could have whipped her, or something worse. She had to be realistic about her circumstances.
She thought back to those books again. The alpha male always started off hateful, but usually showed signs of softening, so that the reader didn’t hate him so much. He rarely outright raped the woman.
Well, that ship had sailed. There wasn’t anything ‘dub-con’ about her circumstances. It was all non-con. She wished he would stop trying to tell her she liked what he was doing. She didn’t know if he truly didn’t understand human women’s reactions or if he was trying to convince her to accept him.
Or maybe trying to convince himself that what he was doing was okay.
Last night had been different, though. She had wanted to obey his command, despite his warning. Maybe because of his warning. That had been pure lust.
But hadn’t she just decided he’d never own her mind?
She was so confused.
The door popped open, startling her out of her thoughts. She scrambled to her feet and hurried through the silent apartment to the bathroom. On her way back she looked longingly at the food replicator, but he’d decided she wasn’t going to eat, so she hurried past it. As she approached the door it started to close, and she slipped through the opening just in time. Well, at least she knew how much time two micros was now. Answer—not much.
She managed to doze on and off. The day was agonizingly slow. Where had he gone? Was he at work? She didn’t know a single thing about him save his name. Was he having fun with his buddies? Mik'kal didn’t seem like the kind of man to have buddies, or fun. He gave off a solitary, brooding vibe. She didn’t know anything about his species, either. Maybe he had to do something revolting, like molt, every few days. If he was off molting, she was glad she didn’t have to watch it. She shuddered at that mental image.
It really, truly, sucked to have her arms pinned like this. Her shoulders ached, and she longed to scratch an itch, move her hair from her face, or even lie on her side.
She was asleep when the door popped open a second time. By the time she was fully awake she knew she’d never make it back in time, and she’d rather hold her pee than get caught out of the room.
She’d give anything for something to read. She wasn’t sure if the tiny translator implanted behind her head would help her read as well as speak because she hadn’t seen anything written since she got here. She longed to start learning their language so she wasn’t dependent on the translator. She was good with languages, speaking three human languages fluently. If her people were here for good, they needed to start figuring out how to communicate.
She hoped her master would let her learn.
Good God, she’d just called him her master in her mind.
The afternoon dragged on and the itching was relentless.
She was sleeping when he got home and woke to find him standing in the doorway.
“I’m pleased to see your obedience. Come here and I’ll take the gag out.”
She let out a cry of pain as the pressure on her jaw was released. Her mouth didn’t want to stay closed and every time she stopped thinking about it, it opened. Forming words was tough at first.
“Master, may I drink some water?”
He looked down at the bowl, still filled to the top.
“Why didn’t you drink some while I was gone?”
“Because I was afraid if I got my face wet the cum would come off and you’d punish me, sir.”
He nodded thoughtfully. “Drink as much as you want.”
She knelt by the bowl and put her mouth in the water and it was bliss, even if she had to slurp it up.
Kneeling at her master’s feet to drink from a bowl…
Ugh. Stop it.
When she had drunk her fill, he produced a damp cloth and wiped her whole face clean.
“I trust the next time you take my cum into your mouth, you will not spit it out all over the place.”
Not fair! Not fair! “Yes, Master.”
“Time for lastmeal.”
He let out the morphicwire all the way, produced the same stew she’d had for every meal, and handed her a spoon. She hesitated.
“Is there something wrong?” He raised an eyebrow.
“Don’t you want me to suck your cock for cum?”
He waved a hand. “No. Not now. Because after we eat, I’m going to use your pleasure hole.”
She struggled to finish the bowl, filled with fear. The spoon shook as she bent over to get it to her mouth. He sat over her as he ate, watching her silently, and when she’d choked down the last bit, he took the bowl away.
“Into the toilet room.”
She knew exactly what he was doing, though not quite how he was going to do it. Sure enough, he had her straddle the toilet and lean forward as far as she could. At his command she pushed the plug out, and immediately she felt a warmth sliding in. She did her best to hold it, but that wasn’t what he wanted.
“Why are you preventing it from being expelled?”
She twisted around in confusion.
“Don’t you want me to hold it in as long as I can?”
“No.” Now he looked confused. “Is that how it’s done by humans?”
“Um, well…” It was surprisingly difficult to talk about this with him. “It usually takes time to do… what it’s supposed to do, and sometimes it has to be done again.”
“Not here. In, then out, and the pleasure hole is ready.”
“Oh.” She let go with relief. He cleaned her thoroughly and helped her stand.
Back in the main room, she quailed as he pulled out the curved cushion but she placed herself over it, head hanging down, one cheek resting against the cool material. He shortened the wires so her hands were back at her waist. She was glad for the strap this time to help control her shaking.
A dribble of warm wetness then a touch to her tight ring made her jump. But he didn’t push in. He traced a circle around her opening, igniting a thousand sensations she never knew were possible. She gasped, helpless to hold in her reactions, then let out a little cry of gladness as she felt his finger on her clit.
The pressure on the hole built, and she cooperated by pushing out, then suddenly the head was in. The burning wasn’t too bad yet.
“It pleases me greatly to see you submit to the pain.” She let out a wail of terror, anticipation, and need, all twisted together.
His finger was still on her clit as he pushed deeper, and it helped for a few moments. But her whimpers turned to cries as the pain grew and was no longer drowned out by the touch of his finger on the bundle of nerves just forward of his invading cock. By the time he was close enough that she could feel the heat of his skin on her back, the pain was outdoing the pleasure. She was crying now, desperately hoping he wouldn’t take too long.
He pulled back, an incredibly odd and uncomfortable feeling, then slid forward. There was nothing but pain now. She wasn’t even sure if he was still playing with her clit as she cried out loud. She lost track of how many times he pushed and pulled.
“I’m going to come soon.” His voice was strangled. “If you don’t want my knot back here you have to finish with your mouth.”
“Take it out, please!” She was terrified of that knot. She felt him withdraw and hung her head in relief. He appeare
d before her, stroking his enormously long and thick cock and groaning softly.
“Open.” His voice was low and gravelly.
It dawned on her then what she’d agreed to.
“Are you serious? I’ll get sick!”
He gripped a handful of her hair, yanking her head up, and her mouth popped open. For a long moment his cock was poised in front of her as he pumped it with his hand, and she prepared to have it thrust inside her unwilling mouth. Then he cried out loud, and it burst out of him onto her face, covering it and falling down to the carpet underneath.
He held tight to her hair as he caught his breath. She stared at him, not quite believing that he’d listened to her plea. At last he opened his eyes and pinned her with his dark gaze.
“Tell me what you meant just now.”
She looked at him in confusion. “Bacteria.” Surely she didn’t have to explain it to him?
He gave a long slow nod. “That cleaning temporarily removed the bacteria from inside you. There’s nothing on my cock that would have hurt you.”
“Oh. You could have fucking told me that!”
He gripped her hair tighter. She winced.
“It seems I do not know as much as I thought about humans. Now I know more. But that is no excuse for you to be disrespectful.”
“Sorry, sir.” She just wanted this to be over.
“Now that you know it is safe, you’ll finish by cleaning me off.” He pointed the tip at her half-open mouth.
She was still revolted, still afraid, but she’d won a small victory when he’d held back and wasn't going to win this if she refused. She opened her mouth just a couple centimeters more, and he accepted the invitation by pushing past her lips until his knot was against her face.
Her lips closed around the thick muscle and her tongue touched it, retreated, then touched it again tentatively. He waited patiently. Finally, she wrapped her tongue around it, lapping and stroking until his seed was washed off. He pulled out, and she choked down the earthy and slightly salty fluid. Her stomach heaved once, then settled.
She collapsed, revolted, her ass still burning, and utterly defeated. As he cleaned her face, she gazed at the knot on the base of his cock, and shuddered to think of it inside her.
Stroking the tangled mass of her hair, he ran his fingers across her scalp. It felt so good and so different from what had just happened that she started to cry. Silently, he released the strap and helped her stand. As tears continued to fall, he guided her to the bed. She sat gingerly on one hip.
“I’m glad you know now that it won’t make you sick, and I’m sorry it hurts.” His comments surprised her. She looked at him warily.
“But you’ll do it, anyway.”
“You are here to serve my needs and my pleasure. Sometimes, that is painful, but your pain also brings me pleasure.”
“It doesn’t bring me pleasure!”
His eyes narrowed.
“I’m sorry, master. I’m just so tired of hurting all the time!”
He stroked her cheek. “It’s a slave’s duty to take the pain her master gives. You’ll get used to it.”
Where was the strong woman she swore she’d be just this afternoon?
20
Mik'kal
“It’s time to go to bed. Would you like to sleep with me or in the closet?”
The question must have surprised her because she lifted her head to look at him, then shrugged.
"Whichever you'd prefer, Master."
He sighed. He’d looked forward all day to taking her in her pleasure hole, but first her fear, and now her depression, were putting a damper on his fun. He removed the belt and the morphicwire from her wrists and motioned her to the top of the bed. She laid down without comment while he fastened her wrists to a soft rope above her head. She looked lovely, all stretched out, and he ached to touch her skin, to suckle on a nipple, to elicit a reluctant groan, but something about it didn't feel right. He undressed and climbed onto the bed next to her, pulling the covers up over them both and calling for the lights to dim. Staring at the ceiling for a long while, he wondered why he felt neither calm nor restlessness from his nirza. He couldn’t remember a time that had happened before.
After a while he turned to watch her. She was sleeping on her back, the track of a tear down her cheek glinting in the dim room light. He reached a hand out and wiped off the tear. It tasted flat, unlike the tears before that had tasted of hate, arousal, and fear.
Eventually, he turned to the other side and slept.
He woke in the middle of the night to find she'd turned her back to him, and at some point he'd laid a hand on her flowing hair. Letting his fingers slide through the tresses, marveling at the silkiness, he thought how beautiful she looked when she was relaxed and could stop struggling with her new life for a while.
He accidentally caught a small snag, and she woke with a start, freezing when she realized he was right behind her.
"I'm sorry for waking you up. Did I hurt you?"
"No, Master."
The voice was flat, and he knew she was lying, just as she'd lied the other day when he’d played with her hair. To his surprise, instead of feeling angry, he wanted to console her. He rubbed her head gently.
"Go back to sleep."
He moved his hand from her head to her hip, intending to rest it there, but froze at her whispered reply.
"You can't hurt something that’s only an object."
It was a long time before he slept.
21
Mik'kal
When he woke and rolled over, she was awake and staring at the ceiling. He unbuckled her wrists and eased them down from over her head. She didn’t look at him or say anything, but the pale skin and dark circles under her eyes told him she hadn’t slept well, either. They bathed silently, and she offered no resistance to being fastened to the tree overhead. He paddled her as she jerked and whimpered but stayed silent. Back in the main room she knelt before him, her thighs wide enough to put her hands on, mouth open, eyes downcast, just like he’d told her to do.
She was obedience personified—but it wasn’t right.
“Why are you so quiet?”
“Isn’t this what you want, Master? You won. I give up.”
“Yes, but…” He sighed and ran his fingers through his hair, dislodging the careful braid he’d done this morning. What was he going to say to her? It was more fun when she fought him?
“I need to dominate you. Conquer you. There’s nothing about you to conquer right now.”
She looked up at him. “Are you serious? You want me to keep fighting because it’s fun for you? Then I get punished. Why should I fight when you’re always going to win, and I’m always going to pay the price with pain?”
“You like being conquered! Your body says so with every drop of liquid from your pussy.”
She looked up at him, fury erupting from her eyes.
“You aren’t listening to me! I might be submissive, but you’re just… an asshole. At least most human masters understand dominance is not just ‘my way or the highway.’”
“What?” His brow wrinkled at the unfamiliar saying.
She closed her eyes and bit her lip, clearly worried about her response.
“I want to know what you mean. I won’t punish you.”
She sighed. “Dominance is more than telling me to please you and the hell with me and my needs, at least among humans. If a submissive has no power, if she can’t meet her own needs for safety and care, the dominant must make sure he meets her basic needs. Not just food and a place to sleep. She needs…” Mena struggled to find the right words. “She needs hope. Hope that the future isn’t all pain and suffering. Hope there will be laughter, and tenderness, and love. The dominant can’t ignore those needs because they’re inconvenient for him. He has to protect her. Even from his own urges. Even from himself.” She picked at a stray thread of carpet. “If that isn’t going to happen, it’s just easier to give in.”
“Kaziri n
eed to fight against something. Our nirza…” he trailed off, unsure if he wanted to share something so vulnerable, but it was too late.
“Nirza?”
He sighed. “It’s the life force inside the planet, and in each person who spends time here. Some people say the violent storms we have are the positive and negative sides, struggling for control. In people, it often demands violence, but once sated, creativity and love flourish.” Why did he choose the word ‘love?’ “Its effects are stronger in some than with others. As a group, we used to be more violent, but have found ways to tame ourselves since we joined the larger assembly of inhabited planets.”
“But you’ve found your, um, nirza, responds to sexual dominance.”
“Yes.”
“Obviously others have found that out as well since I’m not the only human taken as a slave.”
“Yes.”
“Have you always known this?”
“No. Well, sort of.” He’d never found himself so flustered before. This human was having a strange effect on him. “When I was a young man, I had… dreams, but I never acted upon them.”
“You pushed them away because they frightened you. Because you were afraid if you let any of it out, it would take over your mind.”
She understood everything in an instant. Did he want to confirm it? Did he want to make himself that vulnerable in her eyes?
“Yes.”
“Until now. You have me, and you’re letting those thoughts out for the first time.”
“Yes.” Admitting this secret, one that no one else had ever guessed, felt surprisingly good.
“Do you have any submissives here on Kazir?”
“It’s vanishingly rare. Our nirza is a dominant and conquering life force.”
“So, slaves have to come from other planets. Like Earth.” She picked at the thread again. “Sir, what really happened to the first group of humans?”
He stood and walked over to where his closet was, but instead of motioning it to open, he turned back to her.
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