by Sue Lyndon
“Are you cold?”
“No, Master.”
“Then you’re frightened, and needlessly. I gave you my word no harm will come to you. You needn’t fear for your life.”
“Truly?” she asked.
Edek’s expression softened further. “Truly, Betsy.”
A weight of worries lifted from her shoulders. Betsy hadn’t felt so light since before the war, even though she was a slave now.
Her face crumpled and she sniffled. No one had called her by her name in months—not since the trial—and only Layla had spoken it without hatred. Edek, though he had many reasons to hate her kind, wasn’t looking at her with hatred, nor was he speaking her name with hatred. She’d expected him to treat her with contempt. If anything, he seemed in awe of her. Up and down his eyes went, inspecting her from head to toe, and pleasure flickered in his expression as he touched her hair.
“Thank you, Master. I confess you are not what I expected.”
A smile tugged at his lips. “Is that a compliment?”
Her heart beat faster. “Yes, Master.”
“How long have you been here?”
“About two months. Sixty three days to be exact.” A day on the Kall homeworld lasted slightly longer than an Earth day, but Betsy wasn’t sure how they measured time here. The days had bled together, all of them nearly the same, but she’d kept count of them in her head. Each night as she said her prayers, she thanked God for letting her live one more day and added it to her mental tally.
“I suppose you’ve gotten to know Lanzo well?” Again, he stroked her hair.
“Yes, Master. He has been very kind to me.” Tingles raced up and down her spine. He was petting her, and she was very aware of his hardness beneath her sore bottom. A lump lodged in her throat.
The huge bed behind Betsy suddenly dominated her thoughts. Would Edek force himself upon her? She blinked hard and took deep breaths in an attempt to calm her racing heart. She told herself the pleasure she derived from his gentle touches to her hair were nothing more than a physical reaction. She couldn’t control it, though she willed the endorphins rushing her head to go away. It didn’t work.
Edek dropped his hand from her chin, but his gaze held her captive and she didn’t move an inch. “Thank you for telling me your name, Betsy.”
His words took her by surprise, and she nodded as heat rushed to her face. “Why do you keep looking at me like that?” Panic rose in her chest as she spoke, but she stared bravely at Edek. Though she was a slave and it was her duty to obey her master in all things, she wouldn’t acquiesce to his advances. Not in fear.
“Because I’ve only seen pictures of human women before. You fascinate me, Betsy. Your coloring and your tiny stature are remarkable.”
Once again, Betsy stared at him in surprise. If she weren’t afraid he was about to take her to bed, she would have laughed over his observations. Edek was the remarkable one. A giant at over seven feet tall, she felt like a child sitting in his lap. Muscles bulged from his arms, and his chest was wider than any human man she’d seen. His thighs felt firm beneath her. Though he was huge, he didn’t look like he had an ounce of fat on him. Edek, the Commander of Sumlin District’s warriors, was constructed of solid muscle. Short, dark hair rested atop his head, though he had no facial hair. In fact, Betsy hadn’t seen any Kall males with facial hair. Yet another difference between humans and Kall.
“Where do you sleep at night?” His voice held a gruff note.
The lump in her throat thickened. “I-I sleep downstairs in a small room past the servants’ quarters.”
His brow furrowed. “In one of the storage rooms?”
She shrugged. “I guess. Lanzo offered me a bed in the servants’ quarters but the servants have been locking me out since the first night, so I had to find a new place to sleep. Lanzo doesn’t know and I’d like to keep it that way. I don’t want to get anyone into trouble.” Even though she couldn’t understand their language, she’d understood the tone and gestures of the servants. She was a slave. She was beneath even them.
“I don’t want to have to go looking for you in odd corridors and storage rooms in the house. You’re my slave and I might have need of you at any time.” He tipped her chin up. “You’ll sleep here, Betsy.”
“Thank you, but I’d prefer my…storage room. No offense, Master.” She shook her head as she politely declined.
Strong hands moved up her arms to grip her shoulders. His eyebrows shot up. “Need I remind you what happens when you refuse your master?”
Pain pounded in her jaw as she ground her teeth together. Would he threaten her with a spanking each time she questioned or refused him? Was this her life now? She longed for Los Angeles. For her soft bed covered in plush pillows. For boring, stately dinners with her father. For the annoying but comforting presence of a Secret Service agent trailing her every movement. All that safety and predictability had been stripped away.
She swallowed and met Edek’s dark, dangerous gaze. “Let go of me, Master. It’s late and I’d like to retire in my room now. Downstairs.”
Edek glared at her for a moment, his features tense, before flipping her back over his knee. Cool air hit her skin as he flipped her skirt up and yanked her panties down, baring her bottom. Betsy kicked wildly and almost managed to squirm off his lap. With a deep growl, he pinned her legs down with one of his and pressed a firm hand to her back. When her hands flew back to cover her exposed bum, he trapped them at her lower back.
Shame heated her face, and anger boiled her blood, the two emotions swirling together as reality set in. He’d bared her bottom. He meant to spank her for refusing to sleep in his room. She chided herself for her stupid display of bravery and virtue.
Thwack! His hand bounced off her bottom. As before, he alternated spanking her cheeks. First her left, then her right, over and over again. The rapid swats had her howling in no time, and burning tears escaped her eyes.
“Please, Master!” She couldn’t take one more swat, yet he continued on, spanking her bottom raw as her sorrow and helplessness built alongside the pain.
“You will obey me in all things, Betsy. Are we clear?” The swats rained down as he spoke, his voice full of command. Gone was the tender Kall she’d glimpsed moments ago.
“Yes, Master! I promise!” Her sobs deepened, and she closed her eyes. Once more, she wished to return to the life she’d left behind. Earth. How she missed it and all its imperfection. Of all the planets she’d visited in her short life, she loved Earth the most. It was home, and she’d never feel at home again. She’d always feel displaced. Punished. Inferior. Frustrated and hopeless. The hopelessness was the worst, because it choked her breath and made her tears fall faster.
Edek paused but kept his hand on her bottom, a threat that he could resume spanking at any second. “I will be a fair master to you, Betsy. I won’t cause you any permanent harm. The worst you can expect from me is a good strapping if you’ve committed a serious offense. Your behavior reflects on me and I expect you to conduct yourself accordingly, especially while in the presence of others in the household and in town. Disobedient slaves in other households are punished much more severely than you will be here. You should consider yourself lucky, little human.”
Lucky. Right. She sniffled and willed the tears to stop, but her bottom ached and she hated the emotion swelling in her chest. She must be crazy, because a little voice in the back of her mind whispered that she might in fact be lucky. If the disgusting pervert from the auction had been the highest bidder instead of Lanzo, she suspected she’d be much worse off. Possibly dead.
She sucked in a deep, shaky breath. “I apologize, Master. I will sleep where you tell me to sleep, and I will try my best to obey you.” The words she uttered so easily would’ve shocked the old Betsy. But she wasn’t that girl anymore. She might as well have lost her name for real the day she stood on the slave block. In a way, she already had. She was Heslla, a human slave named after an orange flower that grew hi
gh in the mountains of an alien world she would never escape.
“I’m glad to hear that, Betsy.” Edek caressed her bottom, rubbing some of the sting away. To Betsy’s mortification, his touch warmed her insides and incited a pulsing ache between her thighs. Her whole body tingled. “Now you will go to the bed and await my joining you.”
*
Edek paused in the washroom and stared at his reflection in the mirror. He was a Kall. A warrior. He’d been on his way to kill as many of Betsy’s kind as he could get his hands on, but now he was seriously considering having his way with a little human female. He peeked out of the washroom and spotted her on the bed with the covers pulled up over her head. Her fear was intoxicating—a cold, sweet scent that set him on edge when it reached his nostrils. Except he didn’t desire to battle her like a warrior on the field. No, he desired to take her. Completely.
Senses heightened with desire, Edek shed his clothing and approached the bed, his swollen cock jutting out and swaying with his movements. He ached to yank the sheets away from Betsy and tear her dress off, but he knew she’d put up a fight. Though she’d promised to obey him only moments ago, he sensed she had some boundaries. The fact that she hadn’t wanted to sleep in his bed in the first place proved it. Obviously she feared being used for her body. She feared having choice taken away from her.
He breathed deep and crawled under the covers.
Coldness. Fear. Her scent hit him again with so much force it froze the air in his chest. He stared at the lump under the sheets and saw she was shaking. Poor little human. He shook his head and sat up against the pillows, trying to decide what to do with his acquisition. He wondered if he’d still feel affected by her emotions if he’d actually seen battle against the humans. If he’d actually taken human lives.
He sighed and adjusted the covers over his raging hard-on. What did it matter? He was here now, and so was she. The two of them thrown together, despite their cultural differences. On her world, slavery hadn’t existed for over two hundred years. In her lifetime she’d never seen it, and he suspected the shock of being a possession still hadn’t run its course. Edek’s father had owned many slaves, and he’d never questioned the practice. Slaves were former criminals, criminals guilty of misconducts great enough to warrant a lifetime of slavery but not great enough to warrant a death sentence.
He ran a hand through his hair in frustration, still eyeing the lump. If Betsy didn’t stop shaking soon, he’d never get to sleep. At least that’s what he told himself when he slowly peeled down the covers, hushing her protests with a soft voice.
“It’s all right, Betsy. I won’t hurt you.”
“Don’t touch me.” Bravado filled her tone, but her near convulsions spoke to her increasing fear, along with her cold scent.
“Shh,” he said, stroking her head. “Come and lay next to me. I’ll keep you safe and warm.”
“I’m not cold, Master,” she said. “Besides, I think my idea of safe and warm differs greatly from yours.”
“Is that so?”
“Yes. I’m not here to service you sexually. I might be your slave, but in my mind I’ll always be free. My own person. And one day someone from Earth will come looking for me and bring me home.” She scooted to the edge of the bed and yanked the stolen sheets back.
“Betsy, no one will come looking for you. Even if they did, a shield has been placed around our planet to keep aliens out. A single ship or a fleet of ships, it is no matter. Nothing can penetrate the shields.”
“The miners—”
“The miners landed on my homeworld before the current shield was in place, and they foiled our scanners on their descent, making themselves appear to be a Kall trading vessel. It will not happen again.” Pain shot through his jaw as he clenched his teeth. He didn’t want to talk about the human miners who’d taken his family away. “Our defenses have improved greatly since the attack on our soil. You will not see Earth again, Betsy.”
“You’re wrong.” She drew the sheets up to her neck and curled into a tight ball underneath the covers. “I will see Earth every night in my dreams.”
Chapter Four
Lanzo grimaced as he stretched his wounded leg and put pressure on his foot.
“A little more,” Betsy urged. “You can do it.” Smiling, she moved three steps in front of the railing and held out her hand. Each morning she pushed him to place more weight on his foot. The Holy One who’d taught her how to help Lanzo said the hit he’d taken to the head during the mountain explosions slowed his recovery, but if he kept up a rigorous schedule of physical therapy, he’d one day be able to walk without a limp.
“You slept in Edek’s room last night, did you not?” Lanzo took a slow, unsteady step. “I glimpsed you rushing downstairs this morning.” Concern filled his eyes.
Her face heated, and she quickly explained what had happened, omitting the spanking. Of course then she realized Edek knew her name, and Lazno still did not. She swallowed and met the older Kall’s eyes. “He made me tell him my name. It’s Betsy. You don’t have to call me Heslla anymore.”
He grinned, and the rising sun reflected off his shiny dark hair. The lines around his eyes remained crinkled as he gazed at her. His smiles and kind words always put her at ease, and she once again experienced a surge of guilt over her initial refusal to reveal her name.
“Betsy. That’s a pretty name. Thank you for telling me. But you’ll always be my little Heslla.” Another step and he grasped her offered hand.
A cool breeze ruffled her hair, and she glanced at the trees swaying in the wind. The railing to practice his walking had been set up outside, behind the house, because Lanzo claimed having a view of the mountains and the open sky boosted his energy. Farther down the mountain, Betsy spotted the town and repressed a shudder. The one and only time she’d been there had been on the day of her auction. She had no desire to return. The hatred she’d glimpsed in the eyes of the many Kall who’d stared at her haunted her dreams, especially the expression of the pervert who’d tried to buy her.
“He didn’t hurt you, did he? Edek? How did he get your name out of you?” Lanzo scanned her face as if searching for bruises. He sighed and his shoulders sagged when he spotted none.
Betsy gave him a reassuring smile. “I’m fine. He didn’t hurt me.” Though the spanking had brought her to tears, she couldn’t bring herself to admit she’d been over her master’s knee. It was too humiliating, and she hoped to avoid such punishments in the future.
“You remind me of Renna.” Lanzo squeezed her hand and his countenance turned wistful.
“Renna? Edek’s wife? I don’t see how that’s possible. I doubt we look anything alike.” Betsy almost laughed, but she noticed Edek approaching from the house. His sudden appearance caused her stomach to flip, and his unreadable mood sent her nerves into overdrive.
“Relax, little Heslla.” Lanzo patted her back as they turned to face his brother. “Yes, you remind me of Renna. Soft-spoken but with a fiery spirit. Not as submissive as most Kall females. She made life interesting for Edek. And despite their match being a political marriage, he loved her very much, and she loved him.”
“I have no interest in love,” Betsy whispered back.
Lanzo chuckled. “You have an interest in home. Earth. But home doesn’t have to be on Earth. Home is where love blooms, little Heslla.”
Repressing the urge to roll her eyes, she simply shook her head and inhaled deeply as Edek finally came to stand before them, his stance wide and his shoulders tense. In his black-and-gray military uniform and tall boots, he looked ready for battle. To her relief, he wasn’t carrying a weapon.
“We were just about to come inside for breakfast, brother,” Lanzo said, nodding toward the house.
Edek glanced from Betsy to his brother and eyed the railing. “I saw you outside and thought I’d come see how your therapy is going.”
“It’s going quite well, as I told you before. Your Betsy pushes me further each day. Soon I’ll be ab
le to outrun you.”
Both men chuckled, and Betsy smiled nervously. She had the distinct feeling Edek meant to check up on her. She’d slipped out of his room early in the morning, much earlier than she usually awoke, for no other reason than to escape his bed and his presence. He hadn’t forced himself on her as she’d expected, but she still didn’t trust him to leave her untouched. Baring her bottom for the spanking had been inappropriate enough.
“Heslla, would you please tell the cook we’ll be inside shortly?” Lanzo asked.
“Of course.” She nodded at them awkwardly and rushed to the house, holding her skirt up as she climbed the small hill. Once inside, she breathed a sigh of relief and leaned against the wall for a moment. Two passing servants gave her a dirty look and whispered in Kall, but she paid them no mind. After weeks of dirty looks and indecipherable whispers, she was nearly immune to their condescending treatment. Besides, Lanzo’s kindness made up for it tenfold. She just wished he’d stop trying to play matchmaker.
Breakfast dragged on and on, and Betsy stood against the dining room wall at the ready, while Lanzo and Edek conversed in their native tongue and ate a leisurely meal. She wished she understood Kall, but there were so many different dialects that she didn’t know where to begin. Lanzo had tried teaching her a few words, but many of the guttural sounds were difficult for the human tongue to make. It was no wonder Kall wasn’t one of the alien languages she’d been taught growing up; few scholars on Earth had mastered it.
Aside from meals, Betsy was able to avoid Edek for the entire day. As the sun crept across the sky, her nervousness over their sleeping arrangements increased. She flitted around the house, performing her usual chores, and kept glancing out the window and fretting over the impending evening.
Her heart broke, as it always did, when darkness fell and the twin moons appeared over the mountain. Sometimes during the day, she glanced at the blue sky and bright sun and pretended she was on Earth. Pretending was impossible at nighttime though, and the two moons seemed to taunt her like the whispering servants. As the moons shone down, reflecting off the fountains surrounding the house, Betsy pretended to sweep the stone walkways. She’d swept them earlier, but it was the only chore she had outside.