Hers, Unbroken: A Science Fiction Romance

by Anna Adler

  “And you can’t realize this fantasy anywhere else?”

  He shook his head slowly. “A hybrid like me? Only in a simulator. A real-life female wouldn’t want to have me.”

  Holly frowned. “Why not?”

  According to his medical examination file, which she had glanced at on the way down, he was in perfect health. He was tall, handsome and strong. His muscular frame with its smattering of bronze scales was immensely attractive. He had pleasant manners. Every woman on Silenia would be glad to have him, especially if he was truly inclined to serve.

  “Your world is isolated, so I guess you don’t know what it’s like out there,” Chase explained. “We hybrids are unwanted. No race wants to have anything to do with us. Females don’t want to have sex with us. I haven’t even found a hybrid female who would want me, let alone cater to my personal preferences.”

  Holly was shocked. A prime specimen such as him treated like a reject? That explained why he might turn desperate enough to come to Silenia. The readings from his chip indicated he was telling the truth. She needed to be careful with him, but she wasn’t going to allow his termination. She gazed at him, thinking.

  As the head trainer, her job was to oversee the facility. She was no longer training pets herself, but in this case, she might have to jump in. Chase was something different and Rawley clearly had no idea what to do with him.

  “All right. I believe you’re being honest, but we will test your conviction.”

  He looked pleased. “Sure. Anything.”

  “You have to go through the pet training program. You might not like it, but you’re supposed to display absolute obedience.”

  “I understand.”

  “Do you, really? Master Rawley, your trainer, wants to terminate you. I’m going to take over your training personally.”

  A fire lit up in his golden eyes. “Yes. Thank you. That’s what I want. I want to deal with a woman such as you.”

  Holly looked at him sternly. “You won’t be dealing with anyone. You’ll be obeying orders.”

  “Yes. I can obey.” He put his palms against the glass eagerly.

  “I have to make a few arrangements.”

  Holly turned and walked away. She could sense the male staring after her hungrily, and it touched something in the pit of her belly. She knew she shouldn’t be enjoying this. It was wrong. Her feelings were wrong. But the idea of training this interesting male, getting to touch him and order him…this was the best turn of events she’d had the entire month.

  Chapter 3

  Chase couldn’t wait. He paced his cage impatiently while waiting for Holly to return. He fought the urge to punch the walls. He was full of energy and ached to get out of this box so he could touch her. The moment she had appeared before him, he thought he was dreaming. Finally, a female! And she looked every manner of promising. Beautiful, commanding, in control… Her dark, straight hair was tied back, her gray eyes sharp and intelligent. Unlike the crude Rawley, who treated him like an animal, Holly spoke to him as if to an equal. She was direct, but he sensed she cared about his fate, and she had looked at his body with appreciation. He was bare ass naked and women weren’t usually excited about that, but Holly didn’t appear the slightest bit bothered. Quite the opposite. Her gaze alone was a miracle to him. The first female he met on this planet, and she looked at him with interest in her eyes. What were the odds? Silenia seemed to be exactly how Jax and Alyssa said it was.

  The captain and his woman had told Chase and the rest of the crew their story. Silenians had the bizarre habit of keeping intelligent alien races as pets. Human-alien hybrids were also considered pets, not people. Being a pet meant being a pampered domestic slave, sometimes even a sex companion. Six months ago, the captain had gotten caught by Silenians. Because he was a human-alien hybrid, he’d been taken captive and sold on Silenia. Alyssa had discovered him in a so-called pet training center and bought him. She’d planned to keep him as her possession and sex toy despite Jax’s furious resistance, but they had fallen in love, and in the end, Alyssa had helped Jax escape the planet. Alyssa had even gone to prison for the part she played because Silenia considered freeing an alien a crime.

  Chase knew perfectly well that Silenia was no joke, but when he’d looked at Jax and Alyssa, the envy had gnawed at his insides. The captain was a human-alien hybrid, just like Chase, and hybrids were rejects. Chase had never experienced the love of a woman, and seeing Alyssa showering Jax with affection made his gut clench. Jax was banging her twice a day and everyone on the badly isolated ship knew it. The captain and his woman were happy.

  Once Chase had learned about Silenia, he hadn’t been able to stop thinking about the potential of such a place. A world full of gorgeous and wealthy human females who were keen to have sex with hybrid males? The mere idea of a place where hybrids were not only tolerated, but actually desired had driven him crazy. To imagine getting caught and having a sexy female show up and buy him, walk him on a leash, keep him in a cage in her apartment, and use him for sex whenever she was in the mood was something straight out of his darkest fantasies.

  Of course, he didn’t intend to stay on this planet, but maybe he’d get lucky like the captain, and he could persuade a hot Silenian female to come with him. Alyssa was excited to be living in a spaceship and working together with Jax. Perhaps Chase’s female, if he could snag one, would also be happy in his world.

  He had tried to push the captain to give him permission to go, but Jax denied him. Told him it was too dangerous. Completely fucking impossible, in fact. And stupid. In the end, Chase decided to steal a shuttle and go off on his own. Jax would skin him alive if Chase ever returned, but it was easy for the captain to give orders—he had everything he needed within reach. He had Alyssa. Chase had no one, and he wanted a woman of his own. He didn’t only want it; he burned with an all-consuming need, an obsessive longing that had become his purpose in life. He was thirty-six years old. Age was already beginning to chisel his face, reminding him that life was too short for missed opportunities. So, he had slipped out of his quarters during the ship’s night cycle and taken the nearest shuttle. The shuttle had fuel for one wormhole jump, enough to get him to the Silenian system and neatly arrested.

  Chase didn’t know what was going to happen next, now that he had gotten this far, but he didn’t care, as long as Holly was involved. When Rawley handled him, he obeyed, but it was tedious and humiliating. He hated it and he refused to talk to the asshole. But now, with the prospect of a female trainer, he was prepared to do anything. Any fucking thing she wished.

  Footsteps approached, but he recognized them as belonging to one of the male caretakers. A young man came over, looking important. He slipped some dry bread as well as a black cloth into the cage.

  “Put on the cloth,” the caretaker said and left.

  Chase picked it up and examined it. A simple black loincloth. This was the first time he was given something to wear. He wrapped it around his hips and ate the bread. He wasn’t hungry, but he wanted to do everything required of him now that Holly might return any minute.

  An eternity later, he finally heard female footsteps approaching, her heels echoing from the concrete walls. Chase bounced on his feet and went to the glass. He was so excited his chest heaved. Holly came into view.

  She looked stunning, as before. His gaze roamed over her uniform, the same uniform he’d seen on the male trainers so far, except she wore a black, curve-hugging skirt rather than pants, and a black jacket. The white blouse she wore under it was slightly open at the front, showing her creamy throat and a tantalizing hint of cleavage. The male trainers wore arm bands with the text “trainer” on it, but Holly had no such thing. Instead, she wore a small, golden pin on the lapel of her jacket. Her black boots were knee-high with narrow heels, and sexy as hell. In her hand, she carried a wicked-looking black rod. His cock stirred.

  She gave him a cool look up and down and said, “I’m just going to ignore whatever Master Rawley did with
you and start over.”

  “Right,” Chase replied, distracted.

  “Each of us have different methods, and we adjust them to the training needs of the pet, so it wouldn’t make sense for me to pick up where he left off. We’re back to square one.”

  “I’m good with that,” he said, captivated by how she casually toyed with the rod.

  “You will address me as Mistress.”

  “Yes…Mistress,” he said, struggling to recover his wits.

  “Silenia is a colony where only humans can be citizens. Alien individuals, including human-alien hybrids, are pets. You, Chase, are a pet. Pets don’t have rights. Every pet is owned by a training center until sold to a human owner, after which your human owner takes care of you until the end of your days. You might get sold to another, but you will always have an owner. There are no stray pets on Silenia.”

  Chase listened, but he knew most of this already from what Alyssa had told him.

  Holly went on, “Silenia is a wealthy society and pet owners are the wealthiest citizens of all, so you can expect to live comfortably. Abuse of trained pets is forbidden, and it’s also socially frowned upon, so once you’re sold to a Silenian, you can believe that he or she will take the best care of you. You will always wear good clothes, and you won’t have to worry about food, accommodation, work, or medical care. Your owner will take care of everything. You will be loved like a family member, but you will not be free to go anywhere without your owner.”

  So, basically, I’m like a dog, Chase thought. Except I might get to have sex.

  “Your past no longer matters. Your owner won’t ask about it and I won’t ask you, either. Silenia requires you to start a new life, to be reborn into a new role.”

  Chase grinned. So it doesn’t matter that I’m a thief and a drifter? Convenient for me.

  He didn’t possess an education or lofty accomplishments, so he was pleased he wouldn’t have to impress his female with them. If all Silenians cared about was his body, he could deliver.

  Holly looked somewhat puzzled at his reaction. “Most pets find it difficult to let go of their past.”

  Chase shrugged. “I’m good. I didn’t have a great life anyway.”

  The most important things in his life—his friendship with Jax and the other scoundrels they hung out with—he wasn’t going to forget about them. He merely wouldn’t talk about them with Silenians. Easy enough.

  “Right,” Holly said drily. “Your name might be erased as well. Your future owner will most likely rename you.”

  Chase didn’t care about the details. He was only interested in the curvy female in front of him. “Whatever you say, Mistress.”

  “This training might seem harsh to you, but it’s designed to teach you your place in this society.”

  “You’re not going to mess up my head, I hope?”

  Holly paused. “How do you mean?”

  “Are you going to operate on my brain or use drugs to make me forget things?”

  She smiled briefly. “No. The training is based on psychological conditioning. You’re required to obey everything, every single day, until obedience is all you know.”

  Chase considered this. “Yes, Mistress. I can do that.”

  “You need to learn the rules of our society and act accordingly. It’s what’s going to keep you alive.”

  “All right.”

  “This place is dangerous to your kind. Disobedience will result in your death. My goal is to prevent that from happening.”

  “I appreciate that, Mistress. It’s mine, too.”

  She tilted her head. “And I get the feeling that you’re eager to skip the theory and move on.”

  “Yeah, baby.” He stared at her slender fingers. The way they wrapped around the rod was mesmerizing. He wondered if she was going to use the rod on him. “You can tell me all about this place later. I want to find out what you people do with your pets.”

  Holly tapped the rod against her palm. “What did you forget just now?”

  The disapproval in her tone made him shift his gaze to her eyes. Her hard expression confused him.

  “Proper address,” she clarified sternly. “You have permission to speak and you may ask questions…you’re supposed to learn, after all…but you will speak respectfully and you will address me as…?”

  “Mistress. I’m sorry, Mistress.”

  Holly nodded. She took a step forward and pointed at the front right corner of the cage with her rod. “Kneel here.”

  Electric excitement went through him. This was it. The first steps into his secret fantasy. He had never been down on his knees before a woman. Chase quickly moved to the appointed spot and knelt.

  Holly quirked an eyebrow. “Well, this is unusual.”

  “What is?”

  “It usually takes a month to get to this point with a new pet.”

  Chase was pleased. He would stand out positively from the other captured aliens and his sexy trainer would be happy with him. “Will I get a reward for my obedience, Mistress?”

  Amusement twinkled in her beautiful, steel-gray eyes. “In your case, the reward is the next step. You want to learn how this works, don’t you?”

  “Yes.”

  “Good. Because the sooner you’re trained, the sooner you get to pleasure your new owner.”

  “I like where this is going, Mistress.”

  “Good pet. Remain as you are.”

  She entered commands on her wristband, and the glass wall opened. Holly produced a coiled, black leash from her pocket.

  “You understand how your collar works, don’t you? If you try to touch me, it will hurt you.”

  Chase knew exactly what kind of excruciating pain the collar could deal. Rawley had tortured him with it several times, trying to make him talk. He hadn’t given in, despite the pain. Holly probably thought he might attack her now that a wall was no longer between them, but Chase wouldn’t dream of hurting her. He rather wondered if she might hurt him…for fun.

  You’re a messed up scoundrel, Decker.

  Regardless of whether she would give him pleasure or pain, he was eager for it.

  “Do not move a muscle,” Holly warned him as she leaned closer. Chase remained motionless. He stared shamelessly down her shirt, at the perfect mounds of her breasts, as she reached down to clip the leash to his collar. Holly must have known what kind of view she was offering him, but she remained perfectly composed. He liked her better by the minute.

  She straightened up. “You’re required to move according to my instructions. Are you ready to do that?”

  “Yes, Mistress.”

  The training was a piece of cake so far. Respect the Mistress, kneel, wear a collar and follow a leash…he knew it would drive those crazy who didn’t want to be here, but for him these conditions were no strain. He couldn’t wait to move on to the more challenging lessons.

  Will sex happen at some point?

  “You walk when I tell you to walk. When I stop, you stop.”

  “Yes, Mistress.”

  Holly stared down at him, evaluating. Chase guessed she was trying to detect signs of reluctance, discomfort, or brewing rebellion, but he felt none of those things. He was eager to move on.

  “Follow, pet,” Holly said.

  She took a step back and pulled on the leash. Chase scrambled up and moved to follow her.

  “Here,” she said, pointing behind her with the rod. “You will walk behind my right shoulder without touching me.”

  Chase obeyed. The sensation of the leash pulling on his collar caused a pleasant shiver.

  Shit. You’re really into this, aren’t you, Decker?

  He had been chained before and those times he never enjoyed it. The only thing making this occasion different was the sexy woman holding the leash, but that was all he needed. Holly led him down the corridor and through the door into a different area. In his five days with Rawley, the man hadn’t given him anything to wear and hadn’t taken him outside the cage. He’d been tr
ying to make him talk, that’s all.

  They reached an empty, windowless, white room. From what he’d seen of the facility so far, it had no windows, so Chase had no idea what Silenia looked like outside this building. The door closed behind them. Holly walked him to the center of the room and turned to face him.

  “You’re doing fine so far, pet.”

  Chase grinned at her.

  “You’re enjoying yourself?”

  “Yes, Mistress.”

  She gave him a long, evaluating look, perhaps trying to detect if he was lying. She checked her wristband for something and returned her gaze to him. Chase had no reason to lie.

  “Very good,” she finally said. “I’ll be very happy if you enjoy your training. That always produces the best results.”

  She stood in front of him and looked him slowly up and down. She let his leash drop to the ground. “You’re a good-looking specimen, pet.”

  Oh yeah. That’s what he had hoped to hear. Her words made him puff his chest. His hybrid traits weren’t an eyesore to this Silenian woman, as they were to so many others. He wasn’t sure if she expected a reply, so he only grunted. She circled him, slowly. She touched the tip of her rod to his arm and then lightly skimmed it over the skin of his back. The wicked caress gave him a shiver and made his cock harden. Chase clenched his jaw to keep himself from groaning.

  “Mistress?” he asked, his voice strained. “What are you doing?”

  “I’m training you,” she replied in a knowing tone.

  “I’d say you’re out to seduce me, Mistress.”

  “It’ll help you pay attention.”

  “You already have my attention.” He reached out, wanting to touch her, but she gave his wrist a forbidding tap with her rod.

  “Keep your hands to yourself.”

  “But—”

  “Your body doesn’t belong to you, pet,” Holly said, coming to stand before him again. “It belongs to your owner.”

  “Is that you?” he asked hopefully.