She blinks her luminous eyes at me.
I blink back at her.
Then she says, “So it is true. Kel D’Rek has brought a hu’man here for him to breed. No, do not be afraid, I will not hurt you or tell anyone you are here.”
I pause mid-push to run. Believing her. Her words, if not her clicks and scratches sound gentle and her expression is soft.
“How long have you been hiding out here?” she asks.
“I don’t know. Hours,” I answer, even though I know she won’t understand me.
But then she says, “Hours, you say! Oh, you poor hu’man!”
“You can understand me?” I ask, my mouth dropping open.
“Yes, I must travel with my father for business often and I asked for a translator at an early age. It was too boring watching him broker deals with other races without it.”
I laugh. I can’t imagine going to so many deal meetings that you get bored when you don’t understand the language.
“What is your name?” she asks, taking a careful step forward. As if she doesn’t want to scare me.
“Kira,” I answer, pulling the sea horse blanket I found earlier closer around me. “What’s your name?”
“N’Maryah,” she answers quickly, as if it barely matters. “You must be so very hungry after what you’ve been through.”
She reaches into her bag. “Here, take the meal I planned to eat on my evening ride. It’s just some fruit, a little bread, and various meats, but it should tide you over until tomorrow morning when I can bring you more.”
I immediately take the small silver container she holds out to me. My hunger is too advanced to even pretend to have pride, and I thank the moons when the top of the silver container easily slides open with a press of an exploratory couple of fingers to its lid.
“You would really do that?” I ask as I stuff small slices of meat into my mouth. I’m not sure what it is, but it tastes spectacular. Warm and savory and just so, so much better than pigeon jerky.
“Of course I would,” she answers. “Not everyone on this planet is under the Kel’s thrall. I, for one, think he has no right to drag a poor hu’man away from the only home she has ever known, just so he might breed her for longer than the mandated three hours. I hope my words do not offend you.”
“They don’t,” I assure her, popping a few of the bumpy red berries into my mouth. “That’s the truth. He did just bring me here to breed me, I think. Maybe to punish me for trying to run away from him, too. He thinks I should have been happy to let him breed me against my will.”
“That’s terrible!” She gives me a sorrowful shake of her head. “Perhaps I can offer you further assistance? This was a very smart place to hide. And I can see now why the palace guard has not been able to find you yet. But eventually they will make a much more thorough search and you will be routed out. We must get you off planet. I have a personal ship and would be able to take you wherever you like.”
Wherever I like. “You could take me back to New Terrhan.”
“I could. It is not too far away for my ship,” she answers, but then she furrows her ridges. “However, Kel D’Rek possesses endless resources. He could easily return to your planet, and you would be even worse off than before.”
My heart sinks, and the next handful of bumpy berries sours in my mouth. She’s right. I couldn’t possibly go back to my home planet. This Kel guy sounds like he’s some kind of king to these people. If he was bold enough to take me off planet, he’d definitely be bold enough to hunt me down again if I tried to go back.
“But there’s an Amnesty Station on the outer edge of our galaxy, where species of all sorts get along in harmony. It is protected by a consortium of species and, no one, not even our Kel is allowed to remove a refugee from the station. I have a friend who has a long distance flyer. He could take you there.”
My head reels with the offer. I don’t love the idea of leaving Zinnia and my parents behind, but I can’t think of any better plan.
“Are you sure you would be able to take me?” I ask the kind moonstone Xalthurian. “I don’t have any money—I’m not even sure what you all use for money in this world. We’re still on a barter and trade system on New Terrhan.”
“Do not worry yourself,” N’Maryah answers. “The station is only but a few days trip in hyper light drive, and my friend will do me this favor happily. But it will be tricky to get you out of the palace grounds and back to my residence, so we might rendezvous with him on the third moon…”
She thinks on it, and then says, “Oh, I know. I could pretend to want to take my faun on a mountain hike. The mountains are hours away, so the stablemaster would understand why I would arrive in a large conveyance to take her there. I could smuggle you out of the stable when he is not looking.”
I shake my head, unable to believe what she’s offering me. “That sounds amazing. Oh moons, thank you,” I say. “Thank you for being the only nice Xalthurian I’ve ever met.”
“I do not know how to respond to that. You are the first hu’man I have ever met, so I cannot be sure of the etiquette.”
I laugh again and tell her, “You can say you’re welcome, but you really don’t ever need to be polite with me. You had me at ‘here’s some food’. I seriously can’t thank you enough.”
“Please, no more gratitudes. I am happy to help in any way I can,” she answers. “But I should leave, as my father will not believe that I wished to take a morning hike with my faun after an evening ride. He knows I would never abuse an animal so. I am aware it will be uncomfortable, but you should stay here in my faun’s stall until I return. It will make it that much easier to sneak you out.”
I nod, understanding. But still, I feel weird as I watch her go. It’s like I’ve lost my only friend, even though we met less than an hour ago.
The stable floor is not nearly as comfortable as the mat in the Kel’s bathroom. But it will do. And though the faun shits in here, at least he doesn’t do so in the corner where I’m curled up. I fall asleep, only to be awoken by footsteps.
N’Maryah? Earlier than I expected—I think since I can’t really tell the time. The stable is still lit up with moonlight, but maybe it’s the hours right before dawn?
Just in case I stay very still. Until the footsteps stop in front of my faun’s stall.
Then a voice says, “Come out now.”
Damn these alien’s monotone pitch! I can’t see past the faun and I can’t tell who it is just by the tone.
I’m weighing whether to call out “N’Maryah is that you?” when the sea horse is guided out of the stable. My heart fills with relief. It is my new savior friend, and she’s already enacting her sea horse cover up plan.
“Thank goodness it’s you,” I say, coming to my feet, only to stop when I see the alien, standing outside the stall.
My heart drops into my stomach. It’s not N’Maryah. Not N’Maryah at all.
No…it’s the warrior who promised he’d be back two years before hunting me down in that red wood forest. The man Amethyst and Citrine kept calling our Kel. The one who issued all the orders for me to be stripped and plucked and cleansed, so that he could breed me at his leisure.
He’s here now. And the ridges on his nose are vibrating with what I’m pretty sure is 100% rage.
7
D’Rek
She is here in the stables. Not in the city I have had my soldiers searching all day. Not lying on the side of the conveyance expressway, broken and hurt as I had begun to worry when more hours than I could count on my hands had passed.
She is here. The entire time I frantically searched for her, she has been here, hiding in the public stables on my own palace grounds. Her sweet scent barely discernable through the foul stench of faun dung.
Rage battles with relief, as I stalk toward her.
Her eyes round with shock, then she drops the blanket and charges at me.
The audacity! I easily block a kick aimed at my genitals, then pluck her off the groun
d.
Tossing her over my shoulder, I stride back to my palace. The only thing that will sooth this rage within me is between her thighs, which along with the rest of her now needs a thorough cleaning.
She is covered in stable dirt, and though her sweet scent wafts through the air, it is mingled with the displeasing smell of animal musk, from the blanket she had wrapped around her, most likely to further disguise her scent
I cannot help but admire the cleverness of choosing the stables as a hiding place. If not for the tip given to my prime minister by a stable hand, I might never have found her. Perhaps these hu’mans aren’t quite as unintelligent as they seemed, I allow, as I march toward my chamber with her squirming on my shoulder. She beats at my back with balled fists, but her blows are weak and no more bothersome than that of insects buzzing around my head.
I take her to my chambers, making sure to enter a code that lets the servants and guards alike know to not disturb me. For any reason. Then I head straight to the facilities to clean her.
She claws and fights as I strip the robe from her and set her down, but my diijo once again hardens to steel as my gaze lands on her mammary glands. Not small bumps like a Xalthurian female’s, but big round pillows.
The urge to touch them hits me with more force than the little New Terrhan ever could, and I find myself running my full palm over one in exploration, careful not to scratch her with my claws, as I enclose the nipple between the pads of my fingers. It springs to life beneath my touch, tightening into a pebble.
By the three moons, I nearly spill onto my robes again at the sight. But my action enrages her even further. She screeches at me in her throat language, and her struggles become more earnest. She is like the k’vani, a beautiful mountain cat that attacks anyone who attempts to approach it.
It takes a considerable amount of willpower to drag her into the cleaning stall and close the clear glass door behind us. I grab a scrubbing pad and, ignoring the scrapes of her round talons, I wipe down her soft body as the gamma rays run over us.
I could have quickly finished the task, but I take pleasure in running the scrubbing pad along her curves as the ultraviolet light removes the stink from her. I am especially thorough with cleaning her breasts and between her legs.
By the time she is clean, however, I have dropped the scrubbing pad, preferring the run of my bare hand along her flesh. Her skin is like the smoothest of silks. This exploration does not last long. Now that I can only smell her natural intoxicating scent, touching her soon becomes more than I can stand.
With great impatience, I pick her up again, pulling her out of the gamma shower before the cleansing process is done. She is clean enough I decide before taking her to my sleeping quarters and throwing her down on my colorful mats.
She is thoroughly outpowered. Yet instead of presenting for my mounting, the hu’man attempts to crawl away.
“Stay were you are!” I hiss. Grabbing on to her fleshy hips and flattening her soft body under mine.
When I fall on top of her, her struggles start anew. She bucks herself beneath me and I groan. Not from pain, but because her squirming bottom pressing into my diijo has me harder than the drill used to mine dysranean crystal. I can feel her sweet hot at the tip of my diijo…. I must have her. Right this moment.
Yet when I raise up to mount her, she flips over and slaps my face. Wicked k’vani!
“Cease,” I command. “No amount of fighting will stop this from happening.”
I know she understands me because she’s been given a translator, but she doesn’t obey. In fact she rakes her pitiful nails across my face, as if that could ever hurt me.
With a growl, I take both of her wrists in one hand and pin them above her head, holding her immobile. I let much of my weight fall on top of her, planning to flip her for proper mounting when she tires. But at the press of my diijo against her breeding slit, she begins making a new sound. Wretched to my ears and quite alarming.
I look down at her and see that her round eyes and cheeks are wet. Tears?
The only Xalthurians who cry are babes and young children, those too weak and distressed to do anything else. A few of the hu’man females who were gathered up for the Breeding Ceremony also wept pathetic tears. But the sight of my hu’man crying gives me pause, because up until now this k’vani has shown nothing but defiance and fight.
Her opposition enflames me, with both rage and lust. But these tears.... I do not like them. She murmurs something in her throatbox language and though I do not understand a word of it, it comes out like a plea.
I tighten my hand around her wrists, telling myself that it does not matter. I am Kel, and she is mine to do with as I please.
But as tears continue to slide down her dark face, I let out an angry hiss because yet again she stirs emotions within me that makes me question my actions.
The wounded look in her eyes—I cannot bear it. Her tears torment me when I should only care about riding her long and hard for hours. These unknown feelings twisting inside me are unacceptable, yet…
I cannot help the feeling that her pain matters, even when it should not.
8
Kira
One moment he’s on top of me, his weight crushing me. And the next moment, he’s not.
He rolls off me with an angry hiss. Then stands and yanks his robe back on and swipes some kind of floating screen into the air.
Sitting up, I watch him stride out of the room.
“S’Lei, meet me in my chambers. Bring in the medic to help me deal with her. And a pair of immobilization cuffs…” his clicking voice commands before it fades into the distance.
Okay, wow…it looks like I’ve been given some sort of reprieve. At least for now. Obviously, I need to figure out how to get away. Again.
I start to look around, only to freeze when I see the sun is beginning to rise.
Dawn.
My heart pounds as I crawl over to the window, seeking out the stable where N’Maryah promised to meet me. With my much-improved eyesight, I can see there’s a huge conveyance now parked outside of it. It looks like what was called a truck on the old planet, except it only has two wheels, its roof is domed, and its circular cab is entirely made of glass.
Oh my moons, N’Maryah kept her promise! Rescue is only a few meters away!
I scramble off the mat, but as soon as my feet touch the floor beyond the sleeping mats, a gold-iron door slides shut across what I’d thought was a completely open arch.
Shit! Shit! Shit! I look all over the sleep chamber and the attached inside bathroom for any other escape route. In old planet entertainments, there’s always a vent, leading to the building’s inner works. But I can’t find even one convenient human-sized vent in any of the walls.
Break a window it is then…but crap, that doesn’t work either. No matter how much effort I put into striking the large picture window with the bottom of a heavy Xalthurian gold lamp, the glass doesn’t so much as crack. By the time I see N’Maryah emerge with her faun from the stables, my arms are an aching mess.
After she puts the faun in the back of her conveyance, she looks all around, obviously searching for me one last time. My chest shatters as I watch her give up and climb into the truck’s circular glass cab.
“N’Maryah, I’m up here!” I yell. “Please don’t leave without me!”
But of course, she can’t hear me. I helplessly watch her drive off, and even though I know it’s pointless, I scream, “Please come back, I’m here! I’m here! Look up here, and see me, and come back. Please!”
“You will tell me who you are addressing,” a voice suddenly says behind me.
I freeze again, my body quivering with fright. Okay, the medic who’d been called in to “help deal” with me has arrived. And he, like, N’Maryah, must have a translation chip. Perhaps the better to torture me with?
I force myself to turn around anyway. I might have just lost my only opportunity for escape. But I’m still Kira fuckin’ Garrett. I refuse
to go down without a fight—
My declaration cuts off when I see not a doctor, but Kel D’Rek himself standing there, now dressed in a pair of maroon pants and a golden open front robe that seemed designed to highlight, not cover his ripped abs and all of the bulging muscles on his chest.
But how had he understood my words?
Before I can open my mouth to ask some questions of my own, he’s across the room.
Moons, this alien is fast. He gets a drop on me before I can even think not to get dropped.
He had just been playing with me in the forest, I realize in those short moments. Staying a few feet behind me just for the thrill of chasing my ass down.
My “No, don’t!” is barely out my mouth, before I’m seated in a chair with what looks like a pair of beautiful Xalthurian gold cuff bracelets snapped around my wrists.
This jewelry isn’t a gift, though, I quickly discover when I try to get up and defend myself. Nothing happens, my body doesn’t move or even jerk. It’s like I’m completely paralyzed.
And a pair of immobilization cuffs.
Curse words explode in my head as I realize why he commanded his servant to bring him immobilization cuffs.
I want to fight, but I can’t. What is he going to do to me now? Take me against my will for sure, I know. Maybe even beat me.
I hold my breath and squeeze my eyes shut, since my breathing and face muscles are the only ones I seem to have any control over still.
Instead of fighting him, I suppress the new tears of frustration. I refuse to break down in tears again, even though I’ve never felt so helpless in my life.
This time I’ll be strong, I determine. This time I won’t let him see me cry—
“You will tell me who you were shouting at through the window,” his voice says above me. “You will tell me if he is the one who helped you figure out your little stable scheme. You obviously had help of some manner to hide so well.”
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