by Ruby Dixon
“Gods damn it, there they go again,” someone says loudly. “Keffing human. Go to sleep already.”
I continue to stroke Chloe’s soft folds as her legs part for me. She’s half asleep, pressing her body against mine, even as I toy with her cunt. She grows slick immediately, and my cock hardens in response. I look up at the glass, filled with satisfaction to see that Noku’s watching me touch his female.
That he’s hearing her cries of pleasure.
The officer is speaking to Noku, but I don’t think the ssethri is hearing a thing. He’s gazing hard at Chloe as she squirms under my hand, panting.
“Jutari!” she cries, clinging to my neck. “What—”
“Say you’re mine, Chloe,” I tell her as I stroke that hard little bud between her folds. And I give Noku a sly smile as I do. Let him watch me pleasure his female. Let her grab on to me and demand that I own her, when she would not touch him.
Let him know that Sav Jutari Bakhtavis has taken what he wanted.
6
JUTARI
The implications of my actions aren’t felt until the morning.
Dremmigan chats with one of the guards as ration bars are delivered to our cell. He takes the stack of bars, hands them out and then saves two, moving to my side where Chloe sits next to me. She’s still flushed and embarrassed from my late-night “claiming” of her. I made her come against my hand twice and then licked her juices off my flesh. She’s embarrassed by the sounds she makes when I touch her, but I crave them.
I’m not a nice guy, either, because I’m going to make her keep giving them to me. I don’t care if the entire Haven prison knows that I make her scream when I touch her.
Dremmigan holds our ration bars out. When I reach for them, he pulls them back, tilting his head.
I growl at him. “What?”
“Done showing off your plaything?” His tone is cold.
I grin at that, baring my teeth at him. “No. I’m going to need to touch her again soon enough. Cover your ears if you don’t like it.”
“Jutari,” Chloe whispers angrily, embarrassed.
I don’t care. Drem just blinks his eyes in that third-lidded way that shows his exasperation. “Thanks to your stunt with the female, our group has been assigned harvesting duties for the next week.”
I grunt, taking the bars from him and handing Chloe one. Harvesting duties are a necessary evil. I don’t mind them because at least it gets us out of this cell for a few hours, even if it’s just under the red sky and thin air of Haven’s undeveloped atmosphere. “And?”
“And it’s thresher duty.”
I pause at that. Thresher duty is the most dangerous of chores and is usually given as a punishment. The enormous harvesting machines—the threshers—are automated, but they move quickly to mow through the special grasses that are grown here. Thresher duty means that the prisoners are in charge of clearing obstacles from the large threshers’ paths, or occasionally clearing the blades themselves. It’s not something that anyone looks forward to, unless you have a death wish.
Still…the threshers are in the fields at the edge of the prison compound. If we get out there, all that’s between us and the red cliffs of freedom is the electric-shock field that surrounds the prison. It’ll disable most humanoids with a single zap to their systems, like a shock-collar.
Except for me.
This is the chance I’ve been waiting for. I just grin at him, looking confident. “This is our moment, then.” I gesture for Chloe to eat and hand her my bar as well. She’ll need her strength.
She gives me a worried look but says nothing in front of Dremmigan. Smart little thing. I know she has questions, but she’s waiting to ask them. Good. I don’t want her to find out that Noku mentioned returning her to the women’s quarters. She’s staying with me, and that’s final.
“I thought you might say that,” Drem comments in that too-smooth, emotionless voice of his. “I spoke with the guard, and he owes me a favor. He’s got a friend working perimeter duty. This friend is going to meet us with a stash of food and water for our escape, plus extra breathers.” He clasps his long-fingered hands and watches me. “If you can get us past the perimeter, I’ve got us supplies.”
I nod. “I can get us past.” I’m a little skeptical of Dremmigan’s casual reassurance, though. That seems a little too easy to me, especially for something that a guard could get executed for. “That must be quite the favor the guard owes you.”
“Indeed.”
When he doesn’t elaborate, I give him an impatient scowl.
“I told him that we would let him have a turn with the female.”
Hot, furious rage boils through my body. I jump to my feet, ready to wrap my hands around Dremmigan’s thin neck. “You what?”
“Calm yourself,” Drem says. “You’ll draw attention to us.”
I snarl at him. Like I give a kef if I draw attention—
“Jutari,” Chloe says in a soft voice, her hand seeking mine. “Please.”
Her touch eases some of the fury racing through me, pulling me back from the brink. It takes everything I have to calmly sit down again instead of rending Dremmigan in two like I want to. I sit next to my female and pull her into my lap, feeling possessive. “That’s not on the table.”
“Oh, it is a lie,” Dremmigan reassures me. “He can think that, but she will be going with us. I had to agree to something, though. Rumor has it that Noku’s superiors are leaving Haven today, and you know what that means.”
I do. It means he’s coming for Chloe. And Drem has correctly guessed that I won’t leave this place without her.
She puts her arms around my neck and strokes one of my horns. I don’t know that she realizes how erotic that movement is, since she’s trying to comfort me, but it’s making my cock ache worse. I’m tempted to throw her down on the floor and claim her—really, truly claim her—just to show everyone that she’s mine. It’s the barbaric side of me coming out at the thought of her being threatened.
Chloe is mine.
“How are we going to do this?” Chloe asks, voice low. “Do you have a plan, Jutari?”
I nod slowly, focusing on her calm words and not Dremmigan’s impassive keffing bastard face. I stroke a hand down her back. “The harvesters are easy enough to jam. We just need to figure out a way to get one to break down.” Or for someone to have an accident, but I don’t say that. I suspect Chloe doesn’t realize how bad of a man I am. She has an innocence about her, and it makes me…well, it makes me want to be better. To give a shit. To care, even though I stopped caring a long keffing time ago. But having her in my life changes things.
It changes everything.
“An accident is easy enough,” Dremmigan says in that cold voice of his. “Then we’ll meet at the perimeter.”
I nod. It should all be easy enough. I rub my tongue against the disk in my cheek.
Then freedom.
CHLOE
It’s nerve-wracking to be lined up with the other prisoners for Harvester duty. It’s going to be my first time going outside since I’ve arrived in the prison, and I’m not sure what to expect. It makes me a little nervous that in addition to a pair of cheap shoes, I’m given a thing that clips on my nose called a “breather.” Apparently it has little filters that go into the nostrils and make the air breathable, because it’s not quite there yet. I’ve seen a few aliens in the prison with them on, but I didn’t realize that was what they were for. I’m situated in line behind the lanky, pencil-gray alien called Dremmigan, and Jutari is behind me. Each guard that passes by makes me a little more nervous, because I expect someone to notice that I’m a girl mixed in with all these guys, and decide that no, I belong back in the female quarters.
I need to stay with Jutari. Not just because he wants to get out of here, but because he’s safe.
And because…I like him. Which is silly. Now’s not the time for a schoolgirl sort of crush, but I can’t help it. When he touches me, I get all giddy. It doesn’t matter that the si
I’d prefer to be alone with him instead of in a cell with a bunch of murderers, but I’m trying not to dwell on that fact.
As if he can hear my thoughts, Jutari grabs a handful of my hair and tugs my head back. The movement seems rough and possessive, but I know it’s because he needs to make it look like he “owns” me. He’s apologized multiple times for manhandling me. As long as he doesn’t hurt me, though…I kind of like being manhandled by him. It’s sexy and wrong all at once. “Be calm,” he murmurs to me. “Listen for my commands when we’re out there, and stay close.”
“I will.”
“The harvesters are dangerous. I’m going to keep you out of their way if at all possible, but if not, you have to be on your guard.” He strokes a hand down the side of my neck. “And be ready at all times.”
I nod as he releases my hair.
Both he and Dremmigan are calm as could be. It’s a little frustrating that they can show zero emotion about today’s big breakout, but I’m a nervous wreck. Drem’s already growled at me a few times for being a mess, but Jutari told one of the guards as he gave me a strange look that I was scared to go outside. It’s plausible.
I’m more scared that someone’s going to take me away from Jutari.
We’re led down a long, metal-lined tunnel. There are guide-rails all along the walls and a bunch of signs printed with a language I can’t read. I imagine them saying stuff like “Keep your hands at your sides” or “Don’t shiv your co-worker” or fun things like that. As we walk, my steps feel springier, weirder. I originally think it’s the floors, but when we go through the doors and step outside into the red atmosphere, I realize that it’s the air here.
It’s so…weird. It feels too thin, and I suck in a breath through my nosepiece, as if I can’t get enough oxygen. Thin…and yet muggy. The air feels steamy and gross compared to the climate-controlled rooms inside. I move an arm, and it seemingly floats past me with little effort. Huh.
“Gravity here is lighter than inside,” Jutari says, touching a hand to my waist. “Be careful.”
I will. I follow along behind the line of prisoners as they walk the edges of what seems like an enormous field of greenery. It’s noisy out here—the wind batters and rips at my skin, coating me in blood-red dust in a matter of seconds. Over the wind is a constant mechanical grinding noise, loud enough to make me want to rip the bulbous translator out of my ear. I can’t see what’s causing it until one of the machines moves past us. The thing’s gosh-darned enormous and looks like a gigantic bullet with a huge rotating set of blades stuck to the front. As I watch, it threshes its way past us, plucking the grasses from the ground by the root and then pushing them into a compartment.
“What the heck is it doing?” I ask over the roar of the machinery.
“The rootlings have to be grown here. Once they reach a certain height, the harvesters pull them from the soil here and they’re planted in fields elsewhere on the surface. It’s part of the terraforming,” Jutari explains.
Rootlings? I pick up a fallen one near my feet. What I thought was grass is actually a very tiny tree of some kind. How fascinating.
“Keep walking,” a guard says over an intercom. “Do not stop until you’ve reached your assigned destination.”
Oops. I hurry to follow Dremmigan’s footsteps, wincing as I do. Between the thin, sweaty-feeling air and the gravity, it doesn’t help that the soil here feels slippery and loose. I’m totally going to fall on my ass if we have to run.
I really, really hope it doesn’t come to that.
We walk outside for what feels like hours. No one talks much, and when they do, it’s quickly shut down by a guard. There’s more of them watching the prisoners than I’ve ever seen, and I’m guessing this is where the majority of staff works—outside. I glance behind us and see an endless line of prisoners, all wearing the blinking shock-collars. Lots of people working in the fields today. “Is it this busy every day?”
“Usually,” Jutari answers me. “We’re just not on the rotation most times.” He bares his teeth in a grin. “This is our punishment.”
A punishment that’s going to allow us to escape—hopefully.
We get to the far end of the fields, and the cliffs seem enticingly close from here. It’s been a long slog in the dust, though, and I’m already exhausted.
“Get a ration of water and then into the field, prisoners,” a guard calls out.
A blur of red appears out of the corner of my eye. “Water pods,” Irita calls, holding up a clear sack the size of my fist. She tosses one at a prisoner and then holds it up again. “Be nice to me and you might get double.”
“No, you won’t,” warns the nearest guard.
“Okay, you won’t. Be nice to me and I won’t spill yours on the ground,” Irita amends. She hands a bag to Dremmigan, who heads out into the field.
“Come,” Jutari says to me. “Before they notice you’re female and put you on water duty.”
But Irita exclaims at the sight of me. “Kloo-ee! Look at you. Kef, your face is an absolute mess.”
“Irita, hi.” I’m kind of happy to see her and yet impatient at the same time. “I need to get out into the field—”
Jutari tugs on my hand.
“Come find me if you need water,” she says with a wink. “I’ll be here. Be careful out in the field.”
I nod at her and let Jutari pull me along. We move toward the edges of the big field, a spot that most of the prisoners seem to be avoiding. A harvester drones on in the distance, the sound growing gradually louder as it creeps toward our direction.
“What do we do out here?” I ask Jutari, wincing as my feet stick into the muddy, churned ground. “Other than try not to get run over.”
He picks up one of the tiny saplings and sticks the roots into the dirt. “We replant so the harvester can grab them on a second pass. And we watch for breakdowns in the machinery.” He gives me a quick look. “And we wait for our chance.”
There don’t seem to be many people at this end of the field, but Dremmigan’s also nowhere close. “Not right now?”
“Not right now,” he agrees. “We need to wait for the guards to get bored. They’ll be less alert later in the day.”
“Gotcha.” I step forward and pick up a fallen sapling. The ground is littered with them, the earth churned to a gritty, muddy mess from the passes of the harvesters. As I watch, one zooms past not too far from where we stand, and someone jumps out of the way of the machine. Jeez. “There has to be a better way to do this.”
“There is,” Jutari tells me as he begins to work. “But we’re cheap labor.”
Good point.
“Stay near me. If you get tired, let me know. I’ll carry you on my back if I have to.” He reaches out and puts a hand on top of my head, then strokes my hair. “I don’t want anything to happen to you. You’re mine.”
And I melt at that. “I’m nervous.”
“Don’t be. I have you.”
Strangely enough, that confident statement makes me feel better. “Can I have a kiss for luck, then?”
He tilts his head, surprised. “Kiss? I don’t know what you mean.”
“Do your people not kiss? Mouth on mouth?”
Jutari’s eyes gleam with interest. “I think it would violate several hygiene laws on many planets.”
“Oh.” I’m disappointed to hear that.
“But I will kiss you.” He glances around and then picks up another sapling. “Not here, though. When we’re alone for the first time, I’ll put my mouth on yours.”
I’ve never heard anything more romantic.
“Rumor has it that you’re breaking out today.”
I choke on my water as Irita offers me another baggy of it. I’m standing on the edge of the field while the men work nearby. It’s blisteringly hot and muggy, and even though it’s windy, it’s not doing much other than to make me dirty. It’s like I’m trapped in a hair dryer, and it’s miserable. Jutari doesn’t seem affected, but he watches me closely, and I think he worries I won’t be able to make our escape. He might be right—it’s only been a few hours of field work, but I’m exhausted. When the last thresher zoomed past, I stumbled as I got out of the way, and though it wasn’t close, I had a brief flash of how my death could have gone down. Not good. I look over at Irita out of the corner of my eye. “Where did you hear that?”
“Everywhere. One of the guards with a small dick has a big mouth. That’s usually how it goes.” She shrugs. “I thought I’d warn you, though. Dremmigan’s not to be trusted.”
I glance over at the smooth gray alien, worried. He started working at the center of the field and has been slowly making his way to the edge. Jutari has been creeping closer as well, though he’s moving so gradually as he works that it seems natural. “Did…did you want to come with us?”
“Kef no, little one. I’m good where I’m at. Trading pussy on the outside’s the same as trading pussy here.” She plucks my empty water-sack from my hand and puts it in the discard bag strapped to her hip. “But I did want to pass a warning. Your partner’s not to be trusted. Watch your back, that’s all I’m saying.” She saunters past me. “And now I have to go. Good luck.”
I ponder her words as I step onto the field and move toward Jutari.
“Careful,” he warns me as I stumble into a tracked groove. He reaches out and supports me with one big blue hand. “Do you need to rest?”
“No. I’m all right.” I glance back at Irita’s retreating form. With the red haze of the planet, she’d be invisible if it weren’t for her jumper. “Jutari…I’m worried. Irita said she knew about our plan. Said not to trust Dremmigan.”
He straightens and glances over at the gray alien, then back to me. “It’s too late to turn back now.”
“But what if—”
Jutari brushes at my cheek, and I realize he’s wiping a smudge of dirt away. “It must be today, Chloe. Noku will move you out of the cell tonight, if I am right. I refuse to let him touch you. So even if I must put my faith in Dremmigan, we are going today. One way or another.” His voice is low. “The thing to remember is—”
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