He is Male Therefore…

by Lora Leigh

  Coalition excuses were numerous. The sub - human labor population had no voice within the council members of the planets. They were looked upon as the animals they were originally created from. They were used, brutalized, hunted down and often killed just for sport. Even the outlying auction moons were no different as they were a death sentence themselves.

  The auction moons were run by the Swine who were too greedy, too cowardly to ever turn against the coalition. The Swine were one of the few species spared, but only because their cowardice was well known, and no human wanted the low paying, dirty jobs they took.

  “Marinus, you’ve been a vital link between the Rebellion and the Coalition,” Ansell reminded her. “Are you certain this is wise?”

  “Perhaps not wise, but my only course now,” Marinus shrugged. “I can do no more within the Coalition. The corruption there has grown too great. The failure of our ruling classes are too severe. Civil disobedience is only a matter of months away. The planets will become warring zones within a year.”

  She sighed as she foresaw the future of all she held dear. “We’ve saved as many as we could, Ansell. I’m running out of funds, support, and excuses. I’m already under suspicion concerning my lack of profit, and now my extermination lists are being scrutinized. I have little remaining time before the extent of my fraud is found. Better I openly join the Rebellion now.”

  “Perhaps interplanetary disobedience would not be so bad in the long run, Marinus.” He knew how much she feared such an event. “The Coalition has been making noises towards human-racial segregation in the past years. It reminds me of our history lesson from Primary, about the early years which were marked by racial wars, and fears within the human race. To return to the Dark Ages would be a terrible step for the Coalition to take.”

  “Yet they will take that step,” she warned him, her eyes locking with his as she voiced her fears. “There’s more talk of it every day. The ruling councils are now comprised of the purest of the Pale Race. It’s as though it were destined to come to this. Total rule by those whose values and beliefs are placed within the color of ones skin, and the strain of DNA they possess. When that final step is taken, there will be war unlike any of the planets have ever known. I won’t be caught on the side of the Coalition at that time. My name will not be placed in the record books as having once been part of what they are trying to build.”

  She glanced at the monitors which showed the outside activity. The form coming closer could not be missed or mistaken. His head held high despite the chains which bound him, his gaze fixed unblinkingly on the ship he was being led to.

  She took a slow, deep breath and told herself she really wasn’t worried about his reaction to the way she had bought him. He would know it had been necessary, she told herself as she rose from her seat.

  Surrounding him were half a dozen Swine, their wands held ready should he attempt to either escape or attack. They had no way of knowing how eagerly he would have come to the ship, even if he knew certain death awaited him. No use fooling herself, he was good and pissed, and there would be payback.

  “He’s here,” she announced softly, running her palms down her leather clad legs, then heading for the hatch doors. “Get ready in case we have any problems. We lift off as soon as the Swine are cleared.”

  Ansell nodded as he moved to the controls and began the pre-flight preparations.

  Marinus moved quickly through the ship until she came to the main hatch doors. There she pressed her palm to the control panel, and took an arrogant stance as the doors slid smoothly open. She lifted her own wand control from her belt, fingering the lever which extended it to its maximum three-foot length.

  “I’ll take him from here.” She nodded to the Swine as she activated the hold doors, and indicated to the captive that he should proceed there.

  Rage trembled along the bunched muscles of his arms, but he did as he was ordered. She then closed the doors, turning to the Swine who watched her with their, beady eyes.

  She lifted the pouch of diamonds from her belt, and tossed it to the head Control. Marinus stood impassively as he opened the velvet lined pouch, and poured the contents into his greedy little hands. He turned to face the unrelenting sun, allowing it to strike the stones and reveal the quality and depth of the payment he was receiving.

  “Very good, mistress.” he nodded his satisfaction then gestured the others away as he turned back to her.

  Marinus stood impatiently as he surveyed her, taking in her form- fitting pants, the low rough-terrain boots and scarlet breast cloth which covered only the required amount of skin. Lust blazed in his eyes, but he was smarter than he looked because he didn’t attempt to touch.

  “I hope you are pleased with your purchase, mistress,” he spoke, his voice low as her eyes narrowed on him. “Your payment is most worthy, but I would not seek a return trip within this quadrant were I you.”

  “And why would that be?” she asked him with a growing feeling of trepidation.

  “Because not twenty minutes ago, a message came over Coalition frequencies. Your credit for purchases of sub-human species has been revoked, and you are being sought for questioning of your practices of re-sale and possible non-exterminations.”

  “And yet you sold to me, Control?” she asked him softly. “Did you also sell me out?”

  For a brief moment the Swine regarded her with an _expression nearing intelligence.

  “None know that you were here, but I must relay the information soon. Be careful, mistress,” he warned her. “Those with the Rebellion will eventually be found and exterminated along with us sub-humans. Valor and honor are rare enough these days. It would be too bad were you to fall victim to the punishments meted out for it.”

  For a moment he appeared saddened, then his eyes dimmed, a disgusting little snuffle sounded from his snort, then he turned and hurried from the ship. Slapping her hand to the security plate, she quickly closed the doors, then contacted Ansell.

  “Get us out of here, Ansell,” she ordered him. “Coalition is already looking for me. They’ll receive notice soon that we were here.”

  She stood silently, feeling the acceleration of the ships engines as he powered up, and then the steady lift and stomach-jolting acceleration which would throw them out of the atmosphere. She braced herself against the cold steel walls, and closed her eyes against the reality of what was coming.

  Long moments later, she disengaged the locks to the hold and stepped carefully inside.

  The breath whooshed from her body as she was thrown against the wall then trapped there by the warm, muscled contours of the man she had bought.

  “You play with fire, perhaps once too often, Marinus,” he snarled against her cheek, baring his teeth and allowing her to feel the scrape of the feared incisors.

  She cried out as she felt those teeth at her throat in a sensuous scrape. Her head falling to the side as his tongue tasted her bare skin, and his hands clasped her hips, pulling her tightly against him.

  “Perhaps I just missed the heat,” she groaned as his fingers released the clasp at her side, and her utility belt fell to the floor.

  She whimpered as she felt his hands go to her back, and knew by the sudden loosening of the waistband of her pants that he had jerked the closure of them open.

  “You dare to treat me as you would a piece of meat for sale,” he growled low in his throat as his nails bit into her bared flesh.

  She made no excuses, though she felt a small spark of anxiety lance through her stomach. She had never seen him like this, enraged and yet desiring her as well. The change in him was frightening, yet terribly erotic.

  Her hands clenched the hard muscles of his arms, feeling the silky down that covered them, the heat of him.

  Her fingers flexed as she reveled in the feel.

  “You have nothing to say to me?” he asked her as he ripped the breast cover from her body.

  She moaned low in her throat as his hands covered the bared flesh, and she wond
ered how much longer she would be able to stand on her own.

  “You know it was required,” she gasped as his teeth scraped her collarbone and moved lower.

  “I am not a piece of meat to be bartered, mate.” He jerked her against his nude body as his hands pushed her pants lower.

  She felt the swell of his manhood enter her immediately, and she cried out at the sensation, the fullness of all she had been missing in the weeks she had searched for him.

  “Never,” she cried out, the erotic feel of him taking her in such a way it was nearly more than she could bear. “Let me undress...”

  “I think not, temptress.” He raised her, his hands gripping her thighs, spreading her just enough to allow him to sink to the hilt inside her. Just enough to tease her with the touch she needed. “Take me in this way, so you will know the punishment should it ever happen again.”

  Punishment had never been meant to feel so damned good, Marinus told herself with hazy pleasure.

  He backed her into the wall, holding her steady then began to plunge powerfully into her. She screamed out at the sensations, hanging helplessly in his grip as he pleasured her in a way he never had before.

  She begged for release, she cried out for more, and when her climax tore through her, she felt her breath lodge in her throat, unable to cry out so intense were the sensations, the pleasure gripping her.

  He met her in her release, groaning her name, his teeth biting into her neck as he trembled against her.

  Her hands gripped his powerful back and she felt the shiver that rolled over his skin and she knew that his pleasure in her had been powerful.

  It was long moments later before he released her then gently pulled her pants back to her hips, refastening them slowly.

  “I have missed you, mate,” he whispered against her lips as his hands caressed her arms. “More than you know.”

  “As I missed you,” she sighed as she laid her head against his chest, feeling the beat of his heart beneath her ear, content that at least for now, she was where she belonged.

  “When must you return to the Coalition?” Callan hated the time he was forced to spend without her, she knew. Hated the danger she faced.

  “There is no chance of return now,” she told him quickly what had happened in the past months since his disappearance, and the Pride’s capture. She detailed the growing unrest within the planets and the measures the Coalition was beginning to take.

  “We must gather the Lions together then,” He moved away from her releasing the door to the hold so the could move to her quarters. “One place. A location where we will be safe while we plan our next move.”

  “I’ve already arranged it.” She nodded as they moved through the ship. “They are being taken from their respective locations and being transferred to the Allerron.” She spoke of the starship which had been stolen years before from the Coalition. One of the few which still existed as the Coalition felt that explorations of other galaxies were a waste of funds. “We meet Demalina in a few days time and pick up the Pride. Then we will rendezvous with Allerron ourselves. From there, we can decide what to do.”

  They entered her room and Callan moved quickly to the bathing quarters, and Marinus listened as he stepped into the cleaning unit and she knew he would be thankful to thoroughly clean the memory of the pens from his mind. She removed his clothes from the compact closet and laid them on the large bed they would share later. Then she changed her own clothes, dressing in her more traditional outfit of snug pants and hip length, tunic style shirt.

  The clothes she had worn earlier not only aroused Callan’s lust, but his sense of possessiveness as well. Callan had marked her as his months ago and the thought of another man seeing her bare flesh in such a manner enraged those possessive instincts.

  Before meeting him, she would have been angered over this. Yet, as she had grown to know him, to learn his ways, and the parts of him that made him that man he was, she had conceded the smaller things to him. It was little enough, especially considering the fact it was not her preferred style of dress.

  “We need to...” Callan began as he entered the room, stopping short as he watched her adjust her utility belt over her hips.

  She turned to him with a quizzical look surprised as his fingers caressed her cheek.

  “Only this moment,” he whispered, “did I realize how I have missed you. We will fight together from now on.”

  She smiled up at him, and nodded. He was male, therefore he wanted her at his side, wanted to know she was safe and that she was his. His male arrogance was an innate part of him. His confidence and position of power among the Prides ensured that he would always be given to issuing orders.

  She wouldn’t always take them but she knew she would always respect them. His race was one that would never be conquered and the coming battle with the Coalition would test not only the resolve of the Lionmen, but also their formidable strength. It was a battle she knew would change the course of the Coalition and of history itself. A battle they might never win completely, yet neither would they lose.

  ~The End~