Their kind.
Rowan had looked over at Lis and the girl’s eyes had gone wide.
“What is it?” Rowan had asked and followed her gaze below. The boy must have heard them up in the window because he was staring up at it, at them, and even in the dark of night, Rowan had seen it or at least imagined the deformity that marked him. “It’s not possible,” she had said.
Guards had come to do their rounds then and the two had slipped into bed and pretended to sleep.
Was there a chance that this was Silas’ son? Was this why she had been given to him to breed? To create more of the male children with the slanted pupils? If so, if he were truly what she thought she had seen that night, then she knew for a fact that Commander Norrin would not return the boy to Silas. Silas would never get his son back. He would be too valuable to ever be allowed out of the colony.
* * *
The following morning, Rowan woke to knocking at her door. She climbed out of bed and slid her dress over her head before opening the door to find Kara standing outside, her face expectant, a bouquet of flowers in her hand similar to the ones Rowan had brought a few weeks earlier.
“Forgive me?” she asked.
Rowan smiled and pulled the younger girl into a hug. “I’m the one who should be apologizing. What I did,” she began, pulling back and thinking about the last weeks, about how determined she had been. “What I did was selfish. I didn’t think of anyone or anything but myself.”
“No, not selfish, Rowan. You were only doing the best you could in an impossible situation.”
“You’re nice. Come in, have coffee with me.” She walked inside and Rowan closed the door, catching Kara eyeing the strap hanging on the wall. “I’m going to hide it,” Rowan said. “I hate that thing.”
“Me too. But Silas was right, you could have died.”
“I don’t want to talk about it anymore,” Rowan said. “I want to forget about it.”
“You look better. Does your stomach still hurt?”
“No, just my butt.” She giggled as she made coffee. Once it was ready, the two went to sit outside. That was when Rowan saw her garden. Or what was left of it.
“I’ll help you replant it,” Kara said.
“In time.”
“Silas just told me the story of his wife,” Rowan said, hoping to hear more.
“Ina.”
Rowan nodded.
“I was twelve when it happened. I remember when she first came here, remember being so curious about her, about her strange eyes. I remember thinking how romantic and brave that Silas had kept her even when everyone wanted her sent away. Then everything happened. It was so sad. So horrible.”
“It still upsets him very much, I think. The loss of her, of the others.”
“I know,” she said. “He puts on a hard façade but I know. He hides it well, or so he thinks, but I know every time he looks at Ellis, he remembers it. In a way, I had thought you’d help him when you got here. I think you have too, but when you have to go…”
“But this is why they fear me, don’t really accept me?”
“They remember what happened and are afraid. That’s all.”
Silas cleared his throat in the doorway. Both women startled. “Kara,” he said, nodding. Rowan noticed he carried a small pouch with him.
Rowan saw the girl’s face redden but she nodded and tried to smile.
“Kara, Dr. Stone wants to see you this morning. He’s got some work he needs you to do for him.”
“Ok, I’ll head over there now. Thanks for the coffee, Rowan.”
“Thanks for the flowers. I’ll see you later.”
In a few moments, she was left alone with Silas. He looked very serious as he read something on his tablet.
“Did you get any sleep after I left?” he asked.
“A little,” she said, sipping her coffee, considering whether or not to tell him about what she remembered.
He put the tablet down. “I want to mark you with our tattoo. Are you opposed to it?”
That was strange. “Why?”
“I’d just feel more comfortable.”
“That’s all? You’d feel more comfortable?”
“Rowan, the colonies are becoming more and more unstable. I’m not sure where things will go, but I want to know that if I need to, I will be able to find you.”
“What do you mean unstable?”
“Pockets of rebellion, small but still, there. The people of the settlements have been joining secretly for some time now and I think now it’s grown too big for Norrin to ignore.”
“Are the other breeders ok?”
“They aren’t the target.”
“No, but if they’re not protected, they could be hurt. The people don’t look upon breeders kindly. They fear us.”
“I understand that but right now, I am trying to manage what is within my control, and you are within my power to protect. I’d like your consent to do this.”
“Who will be able to track me?”
“Only myself and the elders.”
“Does it hurt?”
“A little. Nothing you can’t handle.”
Rowan nodded her consent.
“Good,” he said, setting the package he carried on the table and unpacking it. Rowan watched him place a small black cloth down and onto it he set two vials, one a dark red and the other black, along with a thin and very sharp needle. Once he was finished, he turned to her. “Take off your dress and come here.”
“We’re going to do this right now?”
“Yes.”
“The needle looks very sharp.”
“It is sharp. Take off your dress and come here, Rowan.”
Rowan quietly slipped the dress off over her head and went to him. “Kneel with your back to me.”
She hesitated, but slowly did so and he settled on the chair directly behind her so she knelt between his legs.
“Good, now raise your hair up. I’m going to mark the back of your neck.”
Without questioning, she lifted the weight of her hair up off her neck and waited.
“It’s very important that you not move until I’m finished.”
Those were the last words he said before a cool cloth cleaned the back of her neck and she felt the first prick of the needle. He didn’t speak while he worked and she remained as still as she could. He ignored the alerts from his tablet throughout the process of marking her. She wouldn’t describe the sensation as pain, but it was more of a dulled awareness. She felt each touch of the sharp point at her nape but even more the weight of his hand when he laid his fingers on her, their rough pads still soft in the gentleness of his touch. She felt so aware of him in fact that when he said the words signaling that it was over, she felt the loss of his presence so close to her as just that: a loss.
“Come, I will show you,” he said, helping her to rise.
He led her inside where he handed her a mirror and held another one behind her so she could see the reflection. The mark was about the size of a small plum, the pattern similar to the tattoo on his arm and more intricate than she would have imagined for such a small place.
“It’s beautiful,” she said.
He smiled. “Where are your hairpins?”
“There,” she said, pointing to where she had set them.
He collected the set and she watched his reflection in the mirror as he pinned her hair up.
“Commander Norrin will punish you for marking me.”
Silas met her gaze in the mirror. “Commander Norrin has other troubles now.”
When he finished with pinning her hair, his eyes scanned the length of her naked back and when they hovered at her bottom, Rowan found herself swallowing, her body already beginning to ready itself for him. When his hands lifted the weight of each buttock, her mouth opened and she sucked in a breath.
“Seeing your ass marked this way makes my cock hard,” he said.
He came to stand directly behind her then so she could feel the har
d length of him.
“But before I fuck you, I want to inspect your bottom,” he said, and still holding her cheeks in his hands, “Bend over, Rowan. Hold on to your ankles.”
She couldn’t help the sound that came from her mouth. She was dripping now and slowly moved to do as he said, keeping close enough that her body made constant contact with his. Once she was down, he made a sound like a growl and his hands moved to rub her bottom cheeks before he slowly knelt behind her. Shame flooded her cheeks but when his tongue began to lick her pussy, she didn’t care, didn’t care that he now stared into her most private places, that he now tasted her arousal as she moaned with pleasure.
He took hold of her bottom cheeks in his hands and pulled them wide while licking all along. His tongue would dip inside her before sliding forward to tickle her clit then back again, taking a little more every time, licking that space between her pussy and her ass before coming to circle the tight back hole, pressing the tip of his tongue against it while his fingers found her clit.
“I like this hole,” he said, still licking. “I think I’d like to fuck it soon. I think it will be tight and hot around my cock.”
Rowan moaned in response as her legs trembled.
“Down to your hands and knees. Keep that ass lifted for me.”
She was down in an instant and he resumed his work, licking her, focusing his attentions on her back hole while his fingers worked her clit.
“Your pussy is dripping wet, Rowan,” he said, stopping and rising to his feet. “Do you want me to fuck your ass? Look at my cock, do you think you can take my cock in your ass?”
She turned to look over her shoulder to find him standing above her, at his thick, ready cock. No, she wasn’t sure at all that she could take him there.
“It will hurt,” she said. “It’s too big.”
He went to retrieve the butt plug, one of the many they had sent with them when he had taken her from the colony. He then knelt once again behind her, his attention returning to her bottom.
“It will only hurt when I punish your bottom hole,” he said.
She wondered how he would do that; punish something so tender and private. Her face flushed red at the thought. She had been spanked before Silas had spanked her, but she had never been punished anally before.
“I won’t fuck it today, but we will work on preparing you to take me here,” he said, lubricating the plug. “This will start to stretch your little bottom hole. Now get your face down and lift your bottom up to me.”
She lowered herself down and his finger was at her back hole once again circling and massaging, then pressing into her. Rowan closed her eyes and her mouth opened while he slowly fucked her with one finger, then two. By the time he added a third along with his attention to her clit, she was on the edge of coming. But it was as if he knew and pulled his fingers out.
“First the plug,” he said. “You’re only allowed to come once you take the plug all the way inside your bottom.”
She stiffened instantly when he pressed it against her back hole. It wasn’t the largest one but it was still something to take it inside her.
“Shh, relax. Push against it.” Keeping her bottom cheeks spread wide, he pressed on, holding her when she tried to pull away. “You can take it, Rowan. Come on, girl, open up for me.” He slid one hand around her to finger her clit and when he did, she relaxed and felt the stretching of her hole as the plug slowly penetrated. “Good girl, that’s it,” he coaxed, taking more, moving slowly, pulling the plug out and pushing it in, teasing her with it. Her bottom burned but she tried to relax and push against it. It felt good, it hurt, it stretched and felt full and combined with his squeezing of her clit, she found herself moving her hips slowly, not pulling away but pushing toward him until finally, she took the widest part of it and her muscles closed around the narrow neck.
“How does that feel?” he asked, his cock already working its way into her pussy.
“Tight… good,” she managed when he began to fuck her.
“Are you going to be ready for me to fuck your little bottom hole tonight?” he continued while fucking her pussy. “Think about taking me inside your ass, imagine me fucking it like I’m fucking your pussy, hard and fast.”
She moaned as he spoke, sensation and anticipation combining, forcing everything but the fucking from her mind.
“In fact, when I get home tonight, you’ll be ready for me, naked and on your hands and knees, and you’ll ask me to fuck your ass.”
“Yes,” she managed, breathless.
When a moan came from Silas, she arched her back and lifted her bottom higher to him. He fucked her harder, his thrusts coming fast, the sensation of both holes filled at once almost too much but so, so good. When she felt his cock thicken and throb inside her, her own walls clamped down around both it and the plug, milking his cock, forcing his seed from him, sending her over the edge into an orgasm that stole all breath from her.
Chapter Thirteen
While Rowan washed, Silas read another alert from an informant. A group of rebel soldiers had been killed just outside of colony gates. He glanced at the closed door of the bathroom, making up his mind once again that telling her would serve no purpose, would only frighten her. He had decided this morning to imprint her with the tracking code after his meeting with the elders determined that Amro and soldiers loyal to him, after seeing a weakness due to the unrest within both the settlements and the colonies, had risen to fight against Norrin.
If Captain Amro were to succeed in killing Commander Norrin and taking over as the leader of the colonies, Silas had no doubt Rowan would be removed from him and that he would never see his son or her again, and given what he had done to him when he had seen the man trying to force Rowan that day Silas took her, he had no doubt his entire village would also be punished if only to satisfy Amro’s sick need for revenge.
The bathroom door opened and Rowan reappeared, her hair hanging long and wet down her back. She blushed when she saw him and lowered her gaze momentarily before holding the towel tightly to herself.
“Do you feel the tattoo?” Silas asked. The ink had a healing property in it that would seal the skin quickly so if all were well, she shouldn’t even notice it now. The molecular composition of this special ink allowed it to convert heat from the body into an electrical signal, and that signal was uniquely linked to the pattern of the tattoo, making the bearer of the tattoo identifiable to anyone with access to a tablet with the necessary sensors.
She touched the back of her neck. “No, not at all.”
“Good. Then there won’t be any infection,” he said, lifting her hair and inspecting his work himself. “It looks good and I can pick you up on my tablet,” he said. He’d already tested it.
Another alert flashed across the screen and Silas glanced at it. “Get dressed and I’ll take you to the clinic for the morning. I need to take care of some things.”
“Is everything ok? That thing has been going off a lot,” she asked.
“I don’t know,” he said, his attention on the screen again.
“Silas,” she began hesitantly as she dressed.
“Yes?”
“I remembered something I wanted to tell you. I’m not sure if it means anything or not and I don’t want to get your hopes…”
Another alert. “I’m sorry, can it wait until this afternoon? The council has assembled and is waiting on me.”
She looked like she wanted to say something but then changed her mind and nodded. Silas dropped her off at the clinic and rushed to the hall.
* * *
Rowan watched Silas go to the hall before walking into the clinic. Something was off, but before she could give it another thought, she heard Dr. Stone behind her.
“Rowan,” he said.
The memory of the previous night rushed her and she flushed a deep red as she turned to face him. It would be awkward but she’d just have to get through this.
“Dr. Stone,” she said.
&nbs
p; “How do you feel this morning?”
“Better than I have in weeks.”
“Good. I’m glad and I don’t ever want to hear of you doing something like that again. I won’t lecture you, I’m guessing Silas has already done that.”
Rowan smiled and nodded. The doctor was a kind man.
“We’ll stop talking about it. Kara is already here, why don’t you go out back and help her collect what she needs?”
Rowan nodded but when he turned to go, she reached out a hand to touch his forearm. “Thank you for helping me, Dr. Stone.”
He studied her, then nodded once before turning toward his office. Before he closed the door, she heard the same sound of the alert she had with Silas’ tablet. Rowan walked outside to find Kara working in the garden.
“Have you heard all the alerts?” Kara asked as soon as she saw Rowan.
“Yes. All morning. What’s going on?”
“I don’t know exactly. They try to keep it hush-hush but something is up. I’ve heard talk of ‘unrest’ but I don’t know much more than that.”
“Has this happened before where there are so many alerts?”
Kara’s expression darkened. “Six years ago.”
Rowan dropped her gaze, registering Kara’s meaning. “Silas tattooed me this morning. I don’t know what Commander Norrin will do about that but hopefully he’ll never find it.”
“Where is the mark?”
“Here,” Rowan said, turning and lifting her hair.
“It’s pretty. It’s his mark.”
“What do you mean?” Rowan asked. “His?”
Kara smiled wide. “It’s Silas’ pattern. Each of us has our own. He marked you with his specific pattern. You belong to him.”
“I don’t understand.”
“Did you see how upset he was when you got sick?” Kara asked.
“I didn’t see much of anything but I assumed it was because if I died, he would have to answer to Commander Norrin.”
Given to the Savage Page 15