by Anna Adler
Chase realized this wasn’t going at all the way he hoped. He wanted the woman to find him attractive, but he didn’t want her to buy him. Absurd, because getting bought by a sexy female was his very reason for being on Silenia. But he already had Holly. And he didn’t want to be one out of many pets; he wanted to be the one and only pet…the only object of his owner’s lust and adoration.
But evidently his opinion didn’t matter because the woman—Ms. Hawk—and the man were now discussing business details. He was about to be sold to her. Chase wouldn’t have it. He needed to do something right now, and the fear of never seeing Holly again sent him out of his mind. He let out a furious roar and charged at the staff member. Both the man and Ms. Hawk jumped and yelped. Chase slammed himself against the glass wall, pounding at it with his fists, ramming into it with his shoulder and bellowing at the top of his lungs.
He needed to wreck this business deal. That was all he could think about as he pounded at the glass and made as much noise as he possibly could.
Holly. I need to see Holly.
Armed security rushed into the room. The suit guy put an arm around Ms. Hawk and hurried her away. The glass wall was opened and several stun charges slammed into him. The impact threw him back and he felt himself fall before his mind shut down.
Chapter 8
When Holly arrived at work, she realized something was wrong. The offices were unusually quiet and empty, and she heard commotion coming from the training floors. That was bad. Commotion always meant a misbehaving pet, and a misbehaving pet would either get punished or terminated. She had to stop it. Holly dropped her bag and coat on her desk and ran toward the stairs.
Her secretary was coming up the stairs, looking anxious.
“What’s going on?” Holly demanded.
“It’s the Lizardian hybrid that you’re training. He went into a rage and scared a client.”
“What? How could he scare a client? Clients don’t have access to him.”
“Someone put him in the display rooms.”
“Fuck! Where is he now?”
“The infirmary, I think. They’re going to put him down.”
A lethal injection. Holly’s vision swung violently and she grabbed the railing for support.
Chase. No!
She dashed down the stairs while jabbing at her wristband. She screamed curses while running because she kept hitting the wrong field in her wristband display. She tried to access the loudspeakers, but it wasn’t easy while running at full speed.
She ran into two trainers as she rounded the corner.
“Get out of the way!” Holly snapped and shoved them aside.
They were going to kill Chase. Some idiot had made a mistake and put him on display. His training wasn’t completed! He had misbehaved, and now he was going to pay the price for someone else’s incompetence. Holly was furious. She finally got the link to the loudspeakers.
“Everybody, stop what you’re doing!” she yelled at her wristband. Her sharp words echoed through the training facility. “Anyone who hurts a pet is going to answer to me, you hear me?”
She ran as fast as she could and reached the infirmary. A group of trainers and veterinarians crowded the room. She saw Chase. He was shackled to a wall, snarling at the people facing him. In front of him stood a veterinarian with a syringe in hand, but the man stood motionless, staring at the door as Holly burst in.
“Don’t touch him!” she barked.
The veterinarian jumped. “Ma’am! I was about to put him down, but…”
Holly pointed at the man menacingly. “I’ll jab that syringe up your ass if you touch him.” She cast a furious glance at the entire room. “This pet is under my training. No one decides his fate but me. What the hell is going on?”
“He went into a rage,” the guide in his dark gray suit said. “The client was seriously upset. She wanted to buy him, but now she doesn’t want to have anything to do with us.”
“Client?” Holly exploded. “Why was he shown to a client? His training isn’t finished!”
“He was on display.”
“He was in his cage last I saw him. Who the hell moved him?”
Joe stared at her, pale-faced and trembling. “I’m sorry, ma’am. I’m sorry. I thought he was ready. He behaved as if he was trained when I took him to the display rooms. I thought…I never realized…”
Holly strode to the young trainer who looked like he wanted to shrink into his boots. “What do you think you’re doing, moving pets without permission? Do you have any idea what you’ve done?”
“Rawley said I should move him,” he squeaked.
Holly swung her gaze to Rawley. “Is that true? You gave the order?”
Rawley’s face was red with anger. He shrugged stiffly. “It seemed to me the beast was ready. He ate out of your hand eagerly enough.”
Holly had an icy feeling in the pit of her stomach. “You spied on our training?”
“He was my charge first. I had the right.”
Holly felt violated. Her time with Chase was supposed to be private. The idea of Rawley spying on her was repulsive. “You had no right!” she snapped.
“He was ready to be sold. With all due respect, I think you were just coddling him.”
“He hasn’t passed the Obedience Test yet, you idiot. You fucked up, and now you think this pet should be killed for it?”
“You didn’t see what he was like.” He snorted. “Completely out of control. I thought it safest for everyone to put him down.”
“You don’t make that decision without my approval.”
Rawley scoffed. “You never give the approval anyway.”
Holly stepped closer to him, her eyes narrowing. “Come again?”
“You never allow the pets to be executed, even when they should be. I think you just like them too much.”
Getting emotionally attached to the pets was a bad quality in pet trainers. Holly knew she would lose her job if she was deemed unprofessional. She pointed at Chase.
“You know what that is? That’s 500,000 standard credits right there, a full million if we train him into a sports champion. Am I the only one here who thinks about the company’s profit margin? We’re not flushing valuable pets down the toilet just because your brain is having a lazy day, you hear me?”
Rawley only stared at her. Just as Holly was about to turn away, he scoffed. “Pet sympathizer.”
Holly pulled her stun gun and shot Rawley in the chest. He jerked back, swiping a heap of instruments off a table as he fell and landed on the floor with a clatter of equipment.
“You’re fired,” she said and holstered her gun.
Her secretary came in and rushed to whisper into her ear. “Sorry, ma’am. The director…Mr. Stone is here.”
Holly’s stomach lurched. Harold Stone was the owner of Interstellar Pet Training Inc. and her direct superior. He was a businessman and rarely involved himself with his staff, and him showing up now, was especially bad news.
“Shit.” She ran her fingers through her hair. “Tell him I’ll be right there.”
Her secretary hurried off and Holly cast an icy look at the rest of the crowd. “Put the pet back in his cage. Unharmed. And when Mr. Rawley comes to, tell him to gather his things and get lost. He no longer works here.”
Chapter 9
Chase drew a deep breath and groaned. His forehead leaned against the cold, white wall. He shifted, trying to ease the strain in his limbs, but to no avail. He was chained to the wall, face first, arms stretched above his head, ankles chained to the floor. He had a bad feeling about this shit. Blowing a fuse like that at the client and the suit guy hadn’t been smart, but at least he wasn’t sold.
Or was I?
He had no idea what had happened while he was unconscious. He wasn’t sure what his status was at this point. Being chained and helpless wasn’t as scary as the thought that he might not see Holly again. She had charged in to save him. He knew the other trainers intended to kill him, but Holly
stormed in at the last minute and gave Rawley a taste of her stun gun.
What a woman. Thinking about her made him proud. He would go to any length to get her. I need to see her. He began to yank at his bonds. He needed to get out of here and find her. What if they’ve done something to her?
She sounded worried when told the director wanted to see her, and her order to put him in his cage had been overruled. He was in a training room.
A furious roar emanated from his chest. He thrashed and struggled, but he couldn’t free himself.
He heard the hiss of a door opening behind him and he stilled. Then footsteps, the sound of boot heels clicking against the hard floor. A wave of relief went through him. Holly. She was angry, he could hear it from the way she moved in stiff strides, but pleasure flowed through him from her being near. He glanced at her over his shoulder.
She was still wearing her trainer’s outfit, and she was unharmed. But her gray eyes resembled a thunderstorm and she carried a whip in hand. A shiver of trepidation went through him.
Holly came straight to him, grabbed his hair and yanked his head back. Chase grunted. Her lips touched his ear as she whispered, “We’re being watched.”
Chase went still. He stole a glance at the tinted windows covering the upper part of the walls of the high room.
“That asshole, Rawley,” Holly continued in a low, heated voice. “He did it on purpose because he knew something would go wrong. He did this to you, and now the director is making me punish you because the rumor has reached him that I’m too soft. None of this is your fault, Chase. I’m so sorry.”
“It’s okay,” he replied under his breath. “It’s not your fault, either.”
“Goddamn it, I should have seen this coming. You don’t know what kind of shit we’re in.”
“Hey, I’m just glad to see you again.”
Holly paused, as if trying to steel herself. “Chase…I have to hurt you. Director Stone said if I don’t, they’re going to kill you.”
So that’s why she carried a whip. The rod was only for directing, she had said, and he had never seen her carry anything else.
“I want to live,” he said.
He could handle pain, especially from Holly’s hand. Hell, now that he was getting to know her, he wanted it.
“Chase, I’ll do anything I can to save you. Do as I say and I’ll get you out of here alive.”
“Sure thing, baby.”
Holly blew out a breath. “Damn it. I’m so sorry about this.”
The situation struck him as so bizarre that Chase wanted to laugh. The assholes running this place were making her hurt him. He knew they were in serious danger, but he wasn’t half as scared as they wanted him to be. He was in this with Holly and he trusted her. His only real fear had been that he would never see her again. If only they knew he didn’t feel the least bit threatened now that she was in the room with him.
“Put your hand on my cock,” he murmured.
Holly released his hair. She slid her hand around him and down his bare torso. Fuck, he loved that about her, her boldness. Earlier in his life, if he used that line on a woman, he would get a look of disgust in return, or a slap in the face. To Holly, putting her hand anywhere on him was a pleasure and she did it without hesitation. She gasped as her fingers met his hard cock.
“The idea of you whipping me turns me on,” he said under his breath.
Holly only stood there in silence.
“Don’t hold back, you hear?” he added.
“I don’t want to hurt you.”
“Not like this, I know. But I’m going to enjoy it anyway.”
“You’re crazy, Chase.”
He flashed her a grin that only she could see. “Come on, baby. Let’s give them a show.”
Holly held his gaze for a second then stepped back sharply.
“You think I’m going to go easy on you?” she demanded in a loud, ice-cold voice. Chase heard the thin end of the uncoiled whip hit the floor with a light tap. “I’m not going to go easy. You’re nothing but a pet and you will learn your place.”
Chase braced himself and then the first blow fell.
Fuck, but the woman could hit hard. If he had underestimated Holly before, he would never do so again. She was fucking vicious. He ground his teeth as the lash bit into his back over, and over again. He tried to bite back the cries, but it got more difficult by the second. He grunted with each blow, snarled, and clenched his jaw.
When she finally stopped, he could only hang from his restraints and pant. Sweat and blood dripped off him into expanding red puddles on the white floor. The chains holding him released suddenly and he dropped. A flash of pain shot through him as he hit the ground, making him cry out. His back was on fire, but he was alive. If the assholes watching this show thought he was broken, they were mistaken.
Holly moved closer, coiling her bloodied whip. She attached it to her belt then pulled a leash from her pocket. Chase tried to get up, but she planted her boot on his shoulder and pushed him flat on his back. Chase winced at the pain of the wounds as his back rubbed against the floor, but he didn’t resist. She towered over him like a dark goddess, her beautiful face hard like a mask. Holly clipped the leash to his collar and gave it a sharp tug.
“Come!”
Chase rolled slowly to his hands and knees and tried to rise, but Holly made a forbidding sound.
“You will crawl on your hands and knees, pet.”
She headed toward the door, yanking on his leash. Chase crawled after her. Movement was painful, but he had to crawl briskly to keep up with Holly’s smooth gait.
Holly stepped out of the room and halted. Chase stopped too. He sat on his haunches and kept his gaze on the floor. From his position, he could see a pair of expensive leather shoes, their owner blocking Holly’s path.
“Are you satisfied or do you want me to whip him again?” Holly demanded of the man before them.
“It’s all right,” an unemotional male voice answered. “I simply needed to see proof. Your reputation…”
“I train the pets with the most efficient methods available,” Holly retorted, her voice icy with contempt. “Death sentences hardly bring in the desired results. I always took pride in making money for the company.”
“Well, this one might still earn his keep. Take the creature to the infirmary to get his wounds treated. I expect you to be gone by noon.”
Creature.
Holly and the other trainers called Chase a pet, never a creature. He could see the distinction. Whoever this guy was, he didn’t think aliens were any better than dirt. The man stepped aside and Holly moved forward. Chase crawled after her. Once they reached the infirmary, Holly stopped and Chase sat back again. Holly handed his leash to one of the nurses.
“Take care of his wounds. I’ll fetch him once you’re done.”
He knew he couldn’t talk to Holly or look at her, but he touched his fingers briefly to her ankle to let her know he was all right. She stiffened then turned and walked away.
An hour later, the nurse had cleaned and bandaged Chase’s wounds. The pain on his back had dissipated into dull throbbing and the nurse allowed him to sit up on the treatment table. He was relieved when Holly returned, followed by a lower ranking trainer carrying a pile of clothes with a pair of shoes on top.
“Put these on,” she told Chase.
Chase was surprised. This was the first time he had seen proper clothes since being captured. And shoes, too. He had gotten used to being half-naked all the time.
Are we going outside?
Something Mr. Expensive Shoes had said remained in the back of his mind. “I expect you to be gone by noon.” Was that good news or bad news?
He knew he couldn’t question Holly, so he obeyed swiftly. The pants were simple dark blue jeans and they fit well. The socks and shoes were the right size too. The shirt he found strange. It was missing the left sleeve and had a cutaway detail at the front resembling claw marks, making the scales on his chest vis
ible.
“Everything clear here?” Holly asked the nurse in her professional voice.
“Yes. He’ll be fine. I’ve given him a salve to speed up the healing. Those wounds should be gone in twenty-four hours.”
Holly nodded sharply and took Chase’s leash. “Come on. Walk.”
Walk, not crawl. Chase was pleased with this development. He followed Holly out of the infirmary, along several corridors, and then through a large and luxurious lobby area decorated by white leather seats, polished tables and a large fountain. When they stepped out the sliding glass doors, they were in the city, and Chase couldn’t help but pause and stare.
White stone seemed to be the favored building material. White stone, brushed metal and glass. Everything looked so unbelievably clean, and the brightness of the sunlight reflecting off the gleaming surfaces made him lift his arm to shield his eyes. The sky was turquoise and without a single cloud. He dropped his gaze lower and scanned the streets. The pavement looked like you could eat off it. The surroundings were full of stylishly dressed people carrying shopping bags, talking on their phones or walking their pets. A few maintenance robots scrubbed the street, although it had probably never seen dirt in the first place. He didn’t see any vehicles on the ground or in the air. No driveways, either. The area between the tall buildings seemed to be reserved for pedestrians. Chase felt slightly light-headed. After several weeks inside the gray facility, the bright, open air felt disorienting.
His gaze returned to Holly. She had paused to look at him, and she now wore a different expression than when inside. Her furious stiffness had melted, replaced by an open look of quiet sadness.
“Come along,” she said softly.
“Where are we going?”
“I’m taking you home with me.”
Well, fuck. This was the best news he’d heard all day. He wanted to grab her and kiss her. He wanted to know how those pretty lips would feel against his mouth, but he couldn’t take liberties. Not now. Maybe later. His hands itched to grab her and pull her into his arms. She had saved his life.