Sister Katherine

by Tracy St. John

  Simdow couldn’t repress a grin at that. For all Degorsk’s joking, when the man was angered he was almost as much a terror as Weapons Commander Lidon. His language on the spyship’s bridge when Tranis had been hurt had impressed and shocked even the Nobeks.

  Tranis continued. “As for Lidon’s reaction to my being offered a destroyer, he had long served on such a vessel and was content to continue to do so. I’ll admit, being offered such a post certainly stroked my ego. But it was not a good thing for the welfare of our unit. I had to do what was best for my clan. All other considerations were secondary.”

  Simdow still felt astonished over the incredible sacrifice Captain Tranis had made. It made him wonder if he could give up his ambitions. He thought of setting aside his need to make his family and clan proud in order to benefit others, especially if those so important to him objected to it.

  Tranis smiled, as if guessing Simdow’s consternation. He told him, “Being a Dramok is a lot of responsibility, as I’m sure you’ve figured out. You have to be concerned with the welfare of every single person as head of the clan. Now that we have Mataras, that responsibility has grown ever more in importance.”

  Being reminded of his wonderful Katherine brought shock anew on Simdow. He’d only been thinking of himself and making others proud of him when he’d applied for the destroyer post. He suddenly realized that working on such a vessel would mean being separated from her. Certain classes of warships, like destroyers, raiders, and even spyships, could not house civilians for any appreciable time. If he and his clanmates continued to work aboard anything more dangerous than a transport, Katherine would be forced to live for vast stretches of time alone on Kalquor.

  Things had certainly become complicated.

  Feeling as unreal as if he’d been punched in the head several times by Miv, Simdow said, “I guess I have a lot to think about, Captain.”

  Tranis nodded. “Absolutely. I myself must consider what my next step will be now that I have a Matara. If you still want that recommendation, I’ll be glad to give it to Fleet Command. You’ve been an excellent first officer.”

  “Thank you, Captain.” Simdow spoke the words with numb lips and bowed before leaving the bridge.

  Simdow felt his legs wobbling slightly as he headed for his quarters. He wouldn’t trade Katherine for all the prestigious posts in the fleet. But that left the question, what would he do now about his career?

  Things weren’t looking any better when he reached the quarters. On the long lounging seat Katherine called a couch, Vadef held their miserable-looking Matara on his lap. Miv sat next to them, holding Katherine’s hand. All three looked terribly upset, and Simdow rushed over in an instant.

  “What’s going on? What happened?”

  Katherine sniffled and tears ran from her eyes. Vadef made a comforting sound before answering. “Mother Superior … the woman in charge of the colony and the children … has forbidden Katherine from seeing the little ones anymore. Our Matara has been upset all day.”

  “Why didn’t you tell me?” Simdow let Vadef see how angry he was.

  Vadef winced at his tone and expression, but he didn’t drop his gaze from meeting Simdow’s. “You were on duty, my Dramok. I could not interrupt the first officer’s shift over his Matara’s tears, not when she hadn’t been physically harmed.”

  Simdow thought of his responsibilities to ship and crew. Of course Vadef couldn’t break into his day with news of an emotional upheaval. Even if Katherine had been in some sort of physical danger, Simdow couldn’t have left his post.

  During the Tragoom attack and afterward, Commander Lidon had been forced to remain at his post even when his Dramok Tranis had been so badly hurt. Duty didn’t end just because a clanmate suffered harm. It made Simdow’s conversation with Tranis only minutes ago all the more worrisome.

  Vadef continued. “Fortunately, Weapons Commander Lidon gave me leave to see to her. I’ve been with her all this time, so she hasn’t been forced to grieve alone.”

  Miv winced. His usually controlled demeanor had been cast aside by a storm of emotion. It made Simdow wonder if Miv was simply upset because Katherine was, or if something more was going on with his Nobek. Unfortunately, the answers to that had to wait. Katherine was the center of the clan, and therefore her needs took priority.

  Simdow knelt down and stroked her cheek, wiping away the tears. “My poor Matara. The little ones are more important to you than anything, aren’t they? You’ve been denied access to them because of us, haven’t you?”

  Her face crumpled, and a sob escaped. Simdow thought his heart might break alongside hers. She was in agony and it was his fault. Despite all his efforts to make her forced clanning as easy as possible, he had still harmed her and continued to do so.

  His head hung down. “I am sorry our clanship has brought you so much pain.”

  Katherine’s gasp made him look up. She gazed at him in shock. “Oh no, Simdow. You’ve made me happy. I thought I’d never have the opportunity to have my own children. I didn’t think I could ever fall in love again, and yet I have.”

  All three men stared at her. Simdow’s heart stuttered in his chest at her words. “Love, my Matara?”

  She blinked. For a moment, anxiety and confusion appeared on her expression, then it cleared. Her tone firm, she said, “Of course. You love me too, don’t you?”

  For a moment, joy crowded out Simdow’s worries. Katherine loved him. His Matara loved him.

  A smile so big it hurt spread over his face. “I believe I loved you from the moment I saw your picture. Even before I heard your voice or touched you, I knew deep down you were the only woman I could ever want.”

  Miv nodded. “There has been no one … nothing more important to me. Everything else has fallen away.”

  The fierce Nobek looked more shaken than ever. Simdow wondered what was going on with his clanmate, but once more, he knew it had to wait. For now, everything was all Katherine and her admission of love.

  Vadef simply stared at Katherine when she looked to him for reassurance. Her lower lip trembling, she said, “Vadef?”

  The Imdiko’s mouth opened and shut a few times before he finally managed to say, “I – I am struck dumb. I’m too happy to speak. Of course you own my heart.”

  Katherine laughed at that, but the sound she made was still filled with more sadness than joy. Despite that, she looked at them all with a sense of peace. Belonging. Love.

  Her gaze ended up on Simdow. She took a deep, shuddering breath. With fresh tears streaking down her face, she said, “Perhaps it is best I don’t see my girls again. I don’t think God would object to our union, but my little ones have to go back and live on Earth where such things are taboo. Unthinkable. Mother Superior has perhaps done me a service. I’d hate to think they would remember me as a horrible, evil person—”

  Her voice caught. Unable to continue on, she put her hands over her face and cried as the men petted and held her.

  His throat tight with suppressed agony, Simdow said, “Tell me what we can do to make you feel better. Anything in our power, we will gladly do.”

  After a few seconds, Katherine emerged from the shelter of her hands. Her eyes were bloodshot, her nose bright red, her face tear streaked. Yet Simdow knew she was the most beautiful creature alive.

  Her voice choking, she answered him. “I can think of one thing. The one thing that has always given me relief.” She raised her gaze to Miv’s face.

  * * * *

  Katherine hoped the Nobek would be up for what she needed almost desperately. As his eyes darkened and a predatory knowledge chased away the torment in his face, she saw he was.

  Miv’s gaze slid to Simdow. His voice deeper than usual, he said, “She wants to be scourged.”

  The Dramok’s expression also shifted to one of carnal hunger. A bolt of excitement shot through Katherine’s guts to see all the men responding to her request with looks of anticipation.

  Simdow licked his lips as he looked
her over. “I can think of no better person to deliver such release as what she requires, my Nobek. Proceed.”

  Miv rose from his seat next to Katherine and Vadef. As he rummaged in a nearby drawer, the former nun realized her Imdiko had ceased to stroke her gently. Instead, he held her tight against his body, his eyes intent as he gazed into her face with an expression of almost menacing want. Beneath her thigh, she felt how hard he had become. She had found her perfect lifemates indeed.

  Miv turned to her, a flogger with many tails in his hand. The moment she saw it, a sense of peace enveloped Katherine. She looked at it, and her gaze ran up the arm of the man who would wield it. Left bare by his sleeveless formsuit, Miv’s vein-laced muscles seemed larger than ever. She knew he’d never use all his strength against her, as much as she might wish it. Just seeing the power he could command made everything in her head go quieter still.

  Vadef stood, setting her on her feet. He and Simdow stripped her of the Earther fleet uniform she’d worn that day. They led her over to an open space in the room, just around the table of the sitting area and a few steps away. She was turned to face them, putting her back to the intent stare of an extremely aroused Miv.

  “Brace your hands against our chests,” Simdow said in a low voice.

  She did so, and their hands covered hers. Miv’s cool hand swept her long hair forward, sliding it over her shoulder to cover one breast. Katherine shivered in anticipation. Her body clamored for the bite of the thongs. It also awoke sexually, sending yearning through her core even as her mind stilled.

  Behind her, Miv said, “From the marks you wore before Dr. Degorsk healed you, I know you can tolerate a great amount of pain. However, you must promise to tell me if this becomes too much at any time.”

  Katherine nodded. “I will.”

  “Do you remember the word to use if this becomes too intense?”

  “Sholt.”

  “Excellent.”

  Vadef said, “We’ll keep a careful eye on her as well.”

  Miv’s voice turned growly with excitement. “All right, my beloved. We will begin.”

  A second later, the first scattering blow peppered the right cheek of Katherine’s ass. The tiny stings were sweet to her, not tormenting at all. She was actually disappointed at how little it hurt. It would never be enough to take her completely out of her head the way she preferred.

  Another splash of sparkling pain on her left buttock, a smidge harder this time. The sound of the knots hitting her flesh made Katherine think of light rain tapping on a window pane. Soothing, but still not what she wanted. However, there was one nice thing about this: it was Miv disciplining her. The fact she was being held by two of her men while the third administered the hurt excited her body. Even if she didn’t achieve that wondrous euphoria scourging herself offered, she would still get a sensual kick out of Miv’s efforts.

  Miv struck her bottom with his flogger several more times. The strands of leather snapped harder against her with each blow until Katherine’s breath began to quicken. Now he treated her to little flashes of fiery torment, using more of his formidable strength. Much better. She could feel her inner thighs turning slick as her sex responded. Her butt was turning hot, the heat building with each second.

  The strands worked their way up her back, though Miv carefully avoided the area around her kidneys. Torment sizzled where the long leather thongs slapped against her skin, and real agony burrowed in where the ends struck, as if they dug tiny holes into her flesh. Katherine moaned. It hurt, and she jerked with each blow.

  Simdow chuckled. Instead of sounding humorous, the noise he made contained danger. “She’s beginning to dance for you, my Nobek.”

  “I see that. She moves beautifully under my sedul, doesn’t she?”

  The lashes moved down again, striping her back and ass with searing trails of pain. They went further down to lick at her thighs. The pain was exquisite, and Katherine’s moans became louder cries.

  Simdow and Vadef each held an arm, keeping her in place as the whipping landed hard and fast. Katherine couldn’t remain still as the backs of her legs seemed to catch on fire. She jerked, sobbing and wailing as Miv’s flogger flew, racing up and down from her thighs to her shoulders and back down again.

  Her skin where the strands landed was in agony. Yet, she was fiercely aroused as well, with her sex gushing honey as the heat from the discipline traveled deep inside to warm her womanhood.

  Miv gave Katherine exactly what she needed. He gifted her with real pain, good pain, the kind that eclipsed the aching in her chest. It canceled out the agony of losing her little ones for the moment, washing away her tears as her entire being became centered in the now. At last what she desired most of all happened. The pain rose to where she thought she could endure no more, to the point where she must tell her Nobek to stop. It was then that endorphins flooded her brain and drove her consciousness away from the torture.

  Her mind untethered, the pain of the scourging receding to an unimportant pulsing of warmth and glowing intensity. Now all Katherine knew was the strength of the men holding her for the punishment that she must endure for their pleasure and hers. The aroma of their arousal filled her nostrils, telling her she served them well. Her jerks from the tails biting her flesh were all instinctual now, and she strained back to welcome Miv’s flogger as much as her body fought to escape it.

  Katherine’s cries were equal parts pain and pleasure as her Nobek took her to task. Well-being cascaded through her head, a sense of utter peace where nothing terrible could intrude. She was safe and secure here. Her husbands were there with her, and they loved her. They loved her enough to take control from her, to allow her to escape all responsibility, to let her put herself in their hands.

  Vadef and Simdow drew closer to her as Miv kept her in that good place, each man supporting her with one hand while they stroked her body. The caresses to her breasts and sex added to the growing heat in her core. Though the flogger continued to fall over her back, butt, and thighs, Katherine knew nothing but pleasure. Fingers dove into the pool of moisture at its source while a thumb rubbed her clit. More fingers tugged her nipples, bringing searing bliss bolting from those places straight to her pussy. Katherine stood there on trembling legs and took it all, surrendering herself to their dominance.

  Heat; heat everywhere, gathering within to coalesce to one bright spot low in her belly. Vadef’s fingers dove deep inside her, the two digits curling to find the cluster of nerves that transmitted the heavy pleasure of his touch to make the bright spot burn greater still. His thumb flicked her clit as Simdow leaned down to suck one breast deep into his mouth. The Dramok’s cat-scratchy tongue rubbed insistently over the nipple, sending lightning bolts to feed that hot, growing bloom of nirvana.

  The heat blossomed into an inferno, flaring out from the center of Katherine’s womb to billow out and out and out, filling her with its glare. Every cell pulsed ecstasy in its wake, simultaneously igniting her body with passion and robbing her of strength. Her limbs seemed to melt in the conflagration, and she was dimly aware of the arms of iron surrounding her, keeping her from falling to the floor.

  That knowledge was far away and unimportant as delight seared her through and through. Katherine felt she had been transformed into the sun’s corona, glowing white hot and seething power.

  As the gorgeous light slowly dimmed, she became aware of her surroundings once again. The men held her up between themselves, surrounding her. Miv had ended the flogging, and now his lips traveled over the stinging places his leather had kissed first. Vadef and Simdow also kissed her, their mouths finding her face and breasts over and over.

  “Love me,” Katherine invited in a weak voice, desiring to serve them as well as they’d served her.

  “After we’ve treated the welts,” Simdow whispered. “Miv did well?”

  “Perfect. Thank you so much.” She turned her head to smile at him.

  “Whenever you are in need, my Matara, you have only to ask
,” he assured her.

  They smoothed a soothing cream over the light red marks striping her flesh, something medicinal that would take away the pain and promote quick healing. Then Katherine rewarded the men the best way she knew how.

  “How may I show you my gratitude?” she asked.

  Three sets of eyes widened. The smell of cinnamon rose until it was almost chokingly thick.

  As Simdow and Miv contemplated her, Vadef’s eyes suddenly lit with a savage gleam. “My Dramok, I have an idea.”

  “Yes, Vadef?”

  “First, I think she should be restrained in such a way that she can still serve us all.”

  “The bed,” the Nobek said.

  Simdow nodded. “Go to the sleeping room, Katherine.”

  Katherine still felt mostly floaty, but the excitement in Vadef’s face and the uncharacteristic feral anticipation on his face gave her a moment of pause. Her hesitation fled when Miv smacked her ass. The strike was light, almost tender, but it woke her welts to burn. Katherine quickly preceded the men into the bedroom.

  “Kneel on the bed,” Miv told her. He moved to a bank of drawers set in the wall.

  Katherine did as she was told. A moment later, Miv stood over her with black cords. He looked at Vadef questioningly.

  “Ankles to wrists,” the Imdiko said. He went to the drawers next and began to rummage.

  With a slight smile and a raised brow, Miv set about securing Katherine’s right wrist to her right ankle.

  “You’re – you’re tying me up?” Katherine frowned. This was certainly odd.

  Miv winked at her. “As a game. Some find being restrained exciting. You’ve liked us holding you down in the past.”

  “Oh.” It was rather titillating, Katherine thought. She’d been aroused before by being made helpless as they enjoyed her. This time was no exception either. Her sex was warming once again, as if anticipating her vulnerability and what it would mean.

  Miv tested the tightness of the cord he’d used. “Is your circulation all right, my love?” he asked. “There’s no numbness or tingling, is there?”