“It’s the oddest thing, but I don’t have any qualms,” said Zander as he followed Paxton’s example, standing and stretching his perfectly proportioned body.
Pax shook his head. “I know. I had expected to humor Sterling and then forget the whole thing, but she has me by the shorthairs already.”
“Is that what happened to make you paddle her bottom three times?” Sterling grinned.
“Three?”
“Zander, I’m not kidding. After she took off running out of the elevator he caught her and spanked her. She was definitely a baby badger. Then the next two you witnessed.”
“And that’s what you call affection?” Zander mocked Paxton, but his wide smile gave him away.
“Yes, it says, I will protect you and you will mind me. End of story. Besides, those were just a few swats. A woman knows if I really spank her.”
“Well, I’m sure she got the ‘mind me’ part.” Sterling patted Pax’s shoulder. “Hope she figures out you’re the only spanker quickly. I have enough on my plate right now. I need to sleep. Those dreams and this long day have done me in.”
“Yep, tomorrow’s a new day, when she’ll start to figure out I might be the spanker, but her dark and mysterious man can be more devious in his punishment methods. And her dream walker liked to withhold pleasures for punishment. She’ll think I’m the push over. ‘Night guys.”
Paxton laughed and nudged Zander who sported a knowing smile. “Night Zander. Welcome to the world of crazy. I’ll catch you in the morning. Sterling, if you need us, just have Darla wake us.”
“Okay, but I think we’ll be fine. Tomorrow will be another long one.”
As the men went their separate ways to prepare for bed in their own wing of the complex, Zander noted the lone coyote bark and then listened as it evolved into a defined howl. While coyotes hunt and travel in very loose packs, they usually are found alone so it wasn’t that it was a lone call but a distinct sound. Not like any he had heard before. He decided to find the coyote and observe it if he could. He’d love to add to his research. No matter what others said, there was always something to learn in the animal kingdom.
“Darla, record the coyote calls tonight.”
“All right, Professor,” the computer automation replied.
He nodded and went to bed to the eerily unusual sounds of the coyote. His inner voice was unsettled.
Chapter 5
Sterling threw the bed linens off his body for the third time. He couldn’t sleep, and it was aggravating, so he grabbed a glass of juice and walked into the computer/media room. It was called the “Com” by Paxton, and Zander had picked up that shortened version, but Sterling had never been in the military or worked on government tech jobs. He called it the computer room. At times like tonight when soundproofing was a welcome advantage, the media room. They had soon put in comfortable recliners and a sofa for the immigrant training. Then, because sometimes the things they watched, for research or information sake, was difficult to see, stress relieving squeeze balls. Like tonight.
Sterling tapped into the recorded feed for early in the afternoon when the officers had their baby badger alone in a closed room. Now he wondered if he should have taken her to Pax while he was getting the paperwork completed. Trouble was, Paxton was also being Dr. Moore and trying to sell an alternative to expanding his own growing operation to the Feds. Maya wouldn’t have helped. Sterling had been working on gaining her transfer to them. At least Zander got her released early and she only had to endure one day. The feed contained a full recording of Maya’s stay at the immigration center, and he hadn’t had a chance to see it yet.
He had watched her sleeping on the room cam before he’d decided to get up. She was sleeping soundly. Darla would send any alerts to him, so he settled down to watch and learn. His feelings for Maya were confused but he wanted her to stay with them. There was no denying that fact.
The connection he had felt in the dreams wasn’t immediate but by the end, that had changed. Now like his partners, today changed that perspective considerably. He had touched her, smelled her sweetness, fought her feistiness, watched her pain and confusion. If he had the chance, he’d keep her with him forever. He knew it.
Sterling couldn’t read Zander as well as Paxton could. Other than working on short projects and Ambrose meetings, he was still rather new to them. On a more personal level, he had played a couple of triad and quad scenes. He was the opposite of Pax in the bed. Zander was gentle, sensual. Pax… well… wasn’t. He was passionate, aggressive, but never too much.
They could read a woman and together they made an impressive triad of lovers. Sterling would always hit all the physical hot spots and a woman never went away dissatisfied. There wasn’t a woman alive who, after having a nice romp in the sack with him, decided kissing him was a hardship. Pax shot a woman’s uninhibited animal responses through the roof and Zander lovingly caressed them back down to earth.
But it wasn’t all about sex, regardless what their bodies screamed. There was little doubt Zander had his concerns and questions concerning the circumstances surrounding the appearance of Maya. They all did. One didn’t just accept paranormal or fantastical events when they were men of science. You could explain all things with science if you looked hard enough. Behavior could be anticipated, like Maya’s responses. They were extreme but if they were to give credence to her ‘just appearing’ from a time several centuries earlier, then she was behaving better than expected. Could she be acting as Pax wondered? Sterling prided himself on his understanding of human nature, and their responses. Even if he couldn’t “read” her when she was overwrought today, his gut said she was honest.
Walking into the room, Sterling grabbed the remote to start the viewing when Paxton entered behind him. “Thought you were sleeping.”
His statement was greeted with a grunt. “I keep thinking about our little rabbit.”
Ownership was a good sign. “I had trouble turning off my mind as well. What exactly were you thinking?”
Paxton fell into the chair next to his colleague. His hands briskly scrubbed the whiskers on his face. “Something is missing. Could this young woman be from centuries ago? I mean, can that actually happen? It’s hard to believe she’s lying or playing us, and I understand a little of quantum physics, but that’s one area we haven’t been able to crack, time travel. That we know of, anyway.”
“It’s the unknown that is driving me mad.”
“The possibilities are getting to me. Paranormal things like telepathy and what they used to call “whispering” are normal for you and Zander, but I don’t even know if time travel, breaking the time-space continuum is a real possibility in this world. It sounds like those twentieth century sci-fi books written before we stopped using only fossil fuel and started making the world run predominately by harnessing the earth’s natural energy. I mean, what we do at the compound now, used to be called living off the grid.”
“How else could she have the language base she has? Or the clothing she was found with?”
“And how could she be so afraid of vehicles, planes, computers, or anything else common in the world if she was from this time? Our pollution has diminished considerably in the last fifty years but it’s still here. What would it be like to come into this environment from a time and location that had little noise, people, or pollution?”
“Amazing, really. Pax, I’m going to watch the full interview they had with Maya at the center. You might not want to see it.”
“I’m a big boy, I can handle it. But let me ask you something before you flip it on. Is it really possible all of this is true, and we have a bone deep connection breaking all known boundaries? Could it have happened before to others? Might it happen again? I mean, I can’t explain it. You’re the human behaviorist and hell, even Zander has it all over me in compassion and empathy. That’s why plants work so well for me. You know I’ve seen and done things no one should have had to experience. It closed off the gentler side of me. But tha
t little rabbit in there…”
“I feel it too. Despite all the ways this is messed up, she could be our woman.”
“I keep saying it out loud thinking one of these times it’ll make sense to me, like when the last tumbler in a manual lock falls into place and the understanding is unleashed. It’s just the ‘possibility’ in the word ‘impossibility’ which seems to give me a little hope.” Paxton motioned in the direction of the screen. “Fire away.”
Pax leaned back in his seat and knew he was steeling himself for what could be hard to watch—even after all he’d seen and done before going commercial. He’d personally experienced biological warfare, which was the impetus for creating a foolproof detection system and finally a cure for the physical effects of chemical warfare. It was the turning point in his life, which had, up to then, seemed to be full of self-gratification without personal or worldly significance, even though being a member of Ambrose negated that possibility.
He’d been listed as one of the top ten botanists in the world before joining the science brigade, which was what he called the government sanctioned biological games everyone said they didn’t engage in, but all governments did. Then there was an accidental exposure with devastating fatalities and the beginning of his quest for ending the use of bio-weapons for good.
He found a chemical compound that neutralized on contact and could harmlessly sit in a room for years without losing its effectiveness. He sold it to every government in the world. Today, he was as wealthy as Midas… and Sterling. He felt good about his direction in life and wondered if it was time to add a woman to his forever.
Instead of living in the lap of luxury his money could give him, he chose to continue to do good in the world with his medicinal plants that grew with purified air and water. And in many instances without soil, which was often contaminated and difficult to cleanse. Which was where he and Sterling met, working to save the small vestiges of salvageable bits after the end of the biotech war. Sterling helped save lives of humans. Paxton, plants to feed and replace the air for humans.
Paxton knew plants were the ultimate catalysts of the survival of man. That and the intelligent use of them. He was saving plants that were considered extinct and performing highly advanced techniques in natural medications but looked like he was the gardener most days. His medium-toned, olive skin and hazel eyes welcomed friendships as often as it rebuffed them.
The ex-military in him demanded loyalty, obedience, and an ordered existence. He was trusted by those who knew him and feared by those who didn’t. Since meeting up, he and Sterling had been inseparable. They had even shared a few women during the isolated times they weren’t working.
The only thing he needed to fulfill his life was a woman, preferably one he shared. He felt the world was too damaged, too dangerous to allow for only one protector of his special woman. Evidently others felt the same or there wouldn’t have been any acceptance of Internet marriages with multiple partners. He smiled.
They’d spoken briefly, the three men, on that very subject. Long before Zander became a business partner, he was an Ambrose member and shared women with them a few times. They discussed what constituted the perfect relationship. Zander was, without a doubt, the softie of the group when it came to a woman. He was sensual in his lovemaking. Women would cry afterwards from his tenderness.
It was good, because they needed one to balance Paxton, who was firm and controlling. Pax wanted to ravage his woman, unleash her passion, although he could be gentle when she needed it. He didn’t have the patience the others seemed to have. He wanted to see his woman explode with the orgasms he’d give her. If a woman cried after their lovemaking, it was from the intensity.
Sterling was more intellectually driven so he was a teacher every moment of the day. He made love expertly. He never missed his goal of satisfying his woman—learning her tells—but he was always controlled and controlled his woman. He bound her to him, or the bed more like, and meticulously advanced. If Sterling made her cry, it was from the relief of finally getting her release.
All was different with Maya, for himself anyway. Paxton knew sex wasn’t what he first thought when thinking of Maya, it was protection. That fact alone scared him. He had thoughts of more than sexual gratification, he imagined having her on so many more levels. If they kept the little rabbit, and it went where he expected it to, things would be easier than they were even ten years ago.
They condoned sexual freedom now, choices were accepted as personal, so they didn’t have to hide the fact. But they wouldn’t flaunt it, either. When they played with a woman, something they had done only a few times together, it seemed natural to zig when the other zagged. They weren’t into each other, only sharing their woman. Each woman they were with was well satisfied, but there was the more relaxed feeling of having one permanently.
Learning her likes and dislikes once and for all was tantalizing with a woman who could initiate the time spent with them. Someone you could take individually, or with either of the other men or both without the jealousy. It would give them all such freedom to love. They would be able to share particular interests without forcing it because there would be a foundation on which to build.
They stared at the headwaters of the stream. It was what he and Sterling had been part of, the first meeting of their little hellion. The part that made it a no brainer in their decision to take Maya home. Now the tough part would be understanding and keeping her. That started here and now.
The men cringed when they heard the officer’s words as he spoke to her during one particularly difficult conversation. “You’ve got those doctors out there believing you’re innocent. Hell, they’re trying to get permission to take you home. That never happens unless we practically beg them. It always comes with a hefty price tag. But you? They want you, no strings attached. They think you’re special, but we know different, don’t we?” His voice was threatening, menacing and he slammed his fist on the table.
Naturally, Maya reacted in fear. Even if she had come from the local commune, she would be scared. If she was from where they thought, it had to be terrifying. The tone of his voice was enough to tell her his words were not comforting. She jumped and tightened her arms around herself, pulling her legs up against her body as the officer slammed his hand on the table again as though she wasn’t paying attention to him.
“You understood, didn’t you? There’s nothing special about you.”
Sterling spoke proudly in the momentary silence. “Her body says scared, but her head is held high. She’s tough, our girl.”
“I wish you’d have let me strangle that one.”
Sterling chuckled and continued watching. “I wish I had, too.” The officer played her words back to her and she looked around as though she was trying to find the person speaking. “What? Never heard your own voice before?” He did it again. She jumped up. He knocked her to the ground. “I didn’t say you could get up. Sit back down.” He was rough but seemed to know he couldn’t go too far. Likely because he knew the well-respected doctors would be taking her home.
“I’m going to file a report that demands they all get retrained.”
“Yeah, but do you want to retrain all these morons? We’ve so much on our plates as it is and if you’re going to do a good job with Maya, it’ll take all of us. File the report. Good thing no one who sent the video thought there was anything wrong with it or it would have never seen the light of day.”
“I know, but I don’t understand why these men can do what they do and not have any compassion.”
“No idea, man, something about jailor mentality. You’d know better than me. But with that in mind, how are you going to report your work with her? I mean, she speaks a dead language from Native Americans in this area many years ago. There is no way we can explain that, and she’ll be grabbed up as a research subject. Even Ambrose will want a chance at her. We won’t ever get her back. She’ll be destroyed, her life forever changed.”
“I called my attor
ney this afternoon. He is starting work on getting us guardianship until she is assimilated. That way, no one will get her unless we agree. He is hesitant due to her not having any identification papers. I’m saying she’s an immigrant alone, with few skills, and no ability to care for herself at this point, someone who only responds positively to us. And we will contract only with Ambrose, if we must do it at all, for further research and it will be all at our direction.”
“And they will have to pay her for the time.” Pax slowly took a deep breath and released. “This is full commitment.”
“It is and if you or Zander are uncomfortable with it, then I’ll take her on alone.”
“Stop saying that. We’ve climbed on board and weighed anchor. Honestly, we’re in for the long haul.”
“Hell, Pax, she was in my dreams for a full month. I want her but I’m not sure how far we can go with her. In the dreams of the last few days, she was with us all. And last night, I knew she was in trouble. Now, we have her in the flesh.”
“This is damn fucking crazy, man.”
“I know.” Sterling cradled his head in his hands. He lifted up again to make eye contact with his friend. “But we’re here with her for a reason. She knew us today. I have no choice but to ride this out to wherever it leads me.”
“Us.” Pax sat back in his armchair. “Right now, let’s have Darla translate her words.”
Sterling hesitated. “Darla, translate Maya’s words.”
“Translating.” There was a pause before the computer came back online, translating Maya’s verbal interactions, which were few. The next lines were important, but they weren’t sure how important. “Are you a skinwalker? Who are you? Where am I?”
“Shut up!” The detention officer struck her again, throwing her off balance. She fell to the floor. Both men jumped as though she were in the room with them at that moment. She started to bleed from her lip and nose. Her captor threw her a box of tissues she didn’t seem to know what to do with. “Hurry. Wipe your face before the bleeding-heart doctor comes in and rips me a new one.”
Captured Obedience Page 6