by Renee Rose
He shifted to work a hand beneath her, checking to see that the device was still in contact with her clitoris. He rolled it around as she panted and mewled beneath him. Finally, finally he fed every inch of his cock into her. The heat of her chastised flesh met his loins and the fronts of his thighs, the tremble in her legs made it hard not to pound into her.
“So good,” he grunted. “You feel so vecking good.”
“Yes, Master. Please.”
“You need your master to veck your ass, Leti? Remind you who owns this luscious little body?”
“Please, Master.”
Stars, her whimpered begging would be the undoing of him. He drew back and pressed in, again and again. When her begging turned incoherent, her mewls took on the high-pitched urgency signalling her orgasm, he let himself crest the peak again.
“Come, Leti. Take your pleasure, if you can.”
Her body shook beneath his as he drilled into her and released once more. He shuddered when she tightened around him, sobbing out her release.
“Good girl,” he murmured into her hair, lowering himself over her. “So yielding. So beautiful.”
Her breath came out in another sob, back shaking with its ragged release.
The need to take care of her came over him and he eased out and went to the washroom to clean himself and dampen a cloth.
She remained exactly as he’d left her, still bent over the pillows, her whipped and vecked ass in the air, her legs spread, limbs limp.
“Sweet female,” he crooned, gently wiping his seed from between her legs and ass. “Are you all right?”
“Yes, Master,” she mumbled.
He pulled the pillows out from under her and jockeyed the bed linens down to cover her. Daneth had given him an anesthetic spray, in case he wished to pierce her and he retrieved it. Humans were delicate. His female was probably in pain now, and he hated her to suffer because he’d lost control with her.
He applied the spray, startling her up out of her post-orgasmic reverie.
Her hand flew back to her ass. “What was that?” The fear in her expression disturbed him. She’d been so mistreated in her lifetime that she suspected only harm.
“Be of ease, little one. It’s to take away the pain. I regret any suffering I caused you.”
She blinked, her eyes bright with moisture.
Ice cold alarm rang through him. Why was she crying? Had he hurt her more than he knew?
She turned her face back toward the bedding. “Thank you, Master.” Her voice sounded choked.
He’d wondered whether he’d enjoy breaking her and now he knew the definitive answer. He vecking hated it. His strong, proud female should never be broken, especially not by him, the male entrusted with her care.
“Leticia, sweet female.” He knelt beside her on the bed and gently rolled her over. “What have I done?”
She pressed her lips together and shook her head, blinking rapidly.
“Forgive me. I’m not used to being near females—especially not human females. Every moment I spend with you—”
To his utter shock, she threw her arms around him and tucked her face against his neck. “I regret any suffering I caused you, too.”
He let out an astonished laugh as he pulled her in close and stroked her silky dark hair. A kaleidoscope of emotions flickered through him, but the primary one was the deep satisfaction evoked by holding his little female in his arms. Nothing had ever felt so right. The softness of her bare skin, her scent, the way she fit so perfectly against his chest. He kissed her hair, savoring the moment.
He’d been mistaken before—a fool. There was nothing he wanted more than to keep this little female as his own.
4
Leti woke to the sensation of heat against her backside. A heavy arm draped over her waist reminded her where she was. Her warrior was nested against her back, his large body curled around hers.
She hadn’t pegged him as affectionate, but she’d been wrong. He may be dismayed by his intense attraction to her, but he seemed to be growing just as attached to her as she was to him.
She shifted and her bare ass pushed against his cock, which instantly surged against her sensitive skin. The anesthetic must be wearing off. Somehow, the return of heat and pain came like an aphrodisiac. The buzz of sensation grew more insistent, dampening her folds.
Stars, if she didn’t know better, she’d think her new master had given her a dose of breeding hormones. She’d never wanted sex so often and with such desperation.
She slipped a hand down between her legs to take care of the situation and was shocked to find how swollen and wet she was. A whimper escaped her lips and she rocked her hips.
Paal’s hand slid up to cup her breast. “Are you touching my pussy?” he grumbled through a sleep-thickened voice.
“The spray wore off,” she told him. “It hurts again.”
“Mmm.” His fingers tangled over hers and he shoved one thick digit inside her. “And you need me to veck it better?”
“Yes, Master.”
“Stars, every time you call me master I want to veck you senseless,” he growled, rolling her to her belly and climbing over her. “You know that?” He rubbed the head of his cock over her juicy slit.
She laughed, a deep throaty sound that didn’t sound like her. “Yes, Master.”
He slid inside her and they both groaned. “You feel so good to me, Leticia. I lose my mind when I’m with you. Forget Zandia, I want to lock my door and veck you for an entire solar cycle.”
She gasped as he thrust deep again. “Just one?”
“Five,” he amended, pushing in again. “No, ten. Do males ever grow tired of vecking their females?”
“I don’t think so.”
It wasn’t exactly true. Males never grew tired of fucking females, but the same one? Yes. Masters grew bored quickly in her experience. Why did that bring such a sharp sense of loss to her chest?
She had a rule. No emotion.
Somehow, after less than one planet rotation, she’d already indulged in her cardinal sin—caring.
And he’d made it plain he wouldn’t mate her.
But none of that mattered when he wrapped his fist in her hair and tugged her head back. She loved his growl of dominance, his palpable excitement as he drove into her deep and hard. She moaned her pleasure, wanting it to go on forever, even as the need became too great to bear.
“I love vecking you,” Paal rumbled behind her. “Feeling this hot little ass underneath me, that tight channel hugging my cock.” He rubbed her scalp, burying his fingers in her hair before he fisted it once more. “This hair.”
His reverence for her changed everything. Yes, she was still an object for his pleasure, still a possession, yet her effect on him was so plain. It was better than any choreographed seduction attempt she’d made during her stint as a sex slave. More true and honest and real a connection than she’d had with any being, since the time she’d been taken from her mother at the age of six.
Paal pulled out and lifted her hips in the air until she stood on her knees. She brought her weight to her hands but he pushed her torso down. “No. Like I first had you. On the ship. I’ll never vecking forget how it felt.”
Her breath caught—not at the sheer ecstasy of his re-entry, but at the starburst of pleasure his words produced. And then the ecstasy caught up to her. Her mind took off, soaring body turned liquid, nothing but a willing vessel to Paal’s passion.
He gripped her hips and pounded into her until she screamed her need. “Yes, yes. Please, Master.”
His roar met her screams, matched them, swelled even louder and then she was sure they both shot into orbit. Pleasure spiralled all around, like a net holding them together, as she collapsed beneath him, mindless and replete.
He rolled her back to her side, tight against him and kissed her neck. “Never enough,” he mumbled as the arm around her grew heavier and he dropped back to sleep.
Never enough for her, either.
But that was because this wouldn’t last. She needed to remember, to remind herself before she lost her heart as quickly as she’d lost her mind.
A thunderous crash tore Paal from sleep. A scream ripped the air and his body flew back, crashing against the wall behind the sleepdisk before dropping back to the mattress.
Leti.
His arms flew out to catch her, cushion her fall.
The moment he ascertained her safety, he surged from the sleepdisk, lifting her to her feet. “Can you walk? Put this on.” He thrust a tunic at her as he yanked on his uniform and shoved his weapons in their holsters.
“Wh-what’s happening?” His female was smart. Though shock sounded in her voice and her hands shook, she moved quickly.
He flicked on the light, but it didn’t work. An alarm started up, blaring through the chamber, echoing off the walls. “I don’t know. Sounds like an attack. Come.” The pod tipped, sending them both sliding across the room.
He cursed and grabbed her leggings, but didn’t wait for her to put them on, just handed them to her before he took her hand. The pod rocked back to its starting position, but the floor and walls shook.
The door wouldn’t activate to open, but it had an emergency mechanical thrust which he used to jimmy it wide enough to get his shoulder through and muscle it open.
Meanwhile, Leti had hopped into her leggings.
“Let’s go.” He grabbed her hand again and they joined the other guards and servants running through the corridors for shelter.
The pressure in the pod changed, air growing thinner and noxious. Veck. His human. She wouldn’t last long without sufficient quantities of oxygen.
Knowing the lift wouldn’t work, he raced toward the emergency ladders, where a crowd already thronged. He pushed his way in to assist the weak and elderly, and the moment a gap appeared, held his hand out to Leti.
“Up, up,” he encouraged and she scaled the ladder, her bare and battered feet sliding over the rungs. He followed her, stopping to give a hand to the next few Zandians before he returned his attention on getting his human to safety.
“We are under attack. Follow emergency procedures.” Prince Zander stood on the landing, his mate and tiny young standing behind him. “To the fight ships,” he barked at the warrior in front of Paal reporting for duty. When he saw Paal, he thrust Lady Lamira toward him. “Our atmospheric system has been hit. Take all females and young to the crystal bath—the oxygen is most pure there.”
“Yes, my lord.” He extended his hand to usher Lamira and her screaming young first, then hustled behind with Leti. They passed Erick and Lady Taramina on the way. “All females to the crystal bath,” he relayed.
“That’s for human females,” Lady Taramina called over her shoulder.
“Wait, Paal.” Erick caught his mate around the waist. “Please, go with Paal.”
“Not on your life,” she gritted.
Erick growled, but conceded, waving Paal on with his other two charges.
The pod shook and tipped again. The Zandian infant screamed louder and Lamira pressed his tiny head to her breast, making soothing noises. They ran through the corridors, picking up Bayla from Dr. Daneth. Eslyn, the other Zandian female on the pod, and her four young were being lifted through a busted door that looked like one of her mates—probably Granit—had smashed open with his fists.
“Bring them to the crystal bath—Prince Zander’s orders,” he barked to Damon, another of her mates.
“Right behind you.”
Paal used the manual release to jam the door to the crystal bath halfway open. Leti took the infant from Lamira’s arms so the princess could squeeze through, then handed him in.
Paal eased Bayla and Leti through next, then followed to allow Granit, Laake and Damon to secure their own female and her young.
“One of us should stay to guard them,” Damon said. “What were your orders?”
“To get all females and young in here.” Paal looking around. “Who are we missing besides Lady Taramina?”
“My mother,” Princess Lamira said.
Veck. Master Seke’s mate, Leora. “I’ll go for her.”
“I’ll stay,” Granit said.
“Thank you.” Years of training with these warriors made it easy to negotiate in the moment of crisis.
Paal and Damon left the large, circular chamber at the center of the pod, dragging the door closed behind them.
He cast one last glance back at his little female and found her wide brown eyes on him. “You’ll be safe here,” he promised.
Stars, make it true.
Because leaving Leti felt like leaving a limb behind.
Leti dragged shaking fingers through her tangled hair and gravitated to Bayla’s side, since she was the only being she knew.
They were under attack. That much frightened her. But even more terrifying was the notion that Paal—one of the prince’s warriors—may never return.
No, she couldn’t think that way. Paal had a gift for operating under turmoil. She’d witnessed it when he rescued her on Jujo, and she saw it now. His movements were quick and efficient, his manner alert and assured. He had the training and the background to thrive in these situations. He would take care of himself.
The constant buzz of a comms unit came from the huge warrior standing guard at the door. She couldn’t hear everything—just terse fragments about fighter ships and engineering teams. The pod continued to shake and shudder as if it might collapse at any moment.
“You’re Leti, Mina’s friend,” the prince’s mate said, coming to stand close to her and Bayla. She bounced her knees and rocked the wailing baby.
“Yes… my lady?” She wasn’t quite sure how to address a fellow human, who in any other realm would be a slave just like her.
“Lamira is fine unless we’re in court. They’re very formal there.”
She tried not to gawk at the beautiful young mother. A million questions flitted through her head about how she’d come to mate the prince and gain her freedom, but now was not the time. Instead, she asked an inane question. “What is this place?” The room was circular with a domed ceiling. In the center of the ceiling a giant crystal had been embedded.
“It’s the crystal bath,” Lamira explained. “Zandians only eat once a week but they require regeneration from sunlight or Zandian crystal. Normally it would be too bright for our human eyes, but since it’s night, we’re safe. This room utilizes both. Zandians located all over the galaxy trek here to use this room on visitor’s day. If they don’t recharge, they grow weak or their growth is stunted.”
She kicked herself for not knowing such basic facts about her new master's species. She'd been holed up sexing him without even fully understanding their situation.
"Who is attacking us?" She'd better start with basic facts.
"The Finn. They must know we plan to attack soon and are taking preemptive strikes."
"Is this it, then?" Bayla asked, twisting a lock of dark hair around her finger. "The war?"
Lamira's eyes went unfocused. "Yes. This is it."
"Have they called in the troops from the training pod?"
Lamira shook her head. "No. I don't know. They're chasing the battleship that attacked, but it was only one small craft. The hit was strategic to take down our life support systems."
Bayla's big eyes grew even bigger, her pale skin paler. "Will we survive?" she whispered.
Lamira again took on an unfocused look.
"She's clairvoyant," Bayla whispered. "Like the Venusians."
Leti couldn't imagine how a human with any kind of special gift or gene mutation had managed to survive Ocretion slavery, but it explained why she might be a valuable mate for the prince. Not that her beauty and gentle bearing weren't enough.
Lamira turned her green eyes on Leti. "Your help will be needed to fix the systems."
Her hand fluttered to her chest. "My help?" She shook her head. "I'm sure you have me confused with another being. I have no training in en
gineering or electronics. I've been used as a sex pet since my adolescence."
A commotion at the door brought their attention there. Granit assisted another being in, shoving it to the side, then helped an older version of Lamira through the opening. Paal stood on the other side, his gaze landing on her.
Lamira pushed her forward and called out to him, "Bring your mate to Lium. Her help is needed to restore oxygen."
Confusion clouded Paal's face. Good—at least she wasn't the only one who thought the princess had lost her mind. "Forgive me, my lady?"
"Take Leti to Lium. She will be the being who fixes the problem."
"I'm sorry—"
"I don't know how she’ll do it," Lamira snapped, anticipating whatever protest Paal might give. "Just take her." Despite the order, there was an imploring look in Lamira's eyes, telling Leti she hadn't been in a position of power so very long. She didn't have the confidence of having her every order obeyed.
But Paal bowed. "Yes, my lady." He stepped through the opening and offered his hand to Leti.
She wanted to refuse. She already knew Lamira had mixed up her messages. There was nothing Leti could offer to solve an engineering problem. But she didn't dare refuse. Besides, she preferred to be at Paal's side if she was going to die.
He hustled her out of the chamber and they jogged through the corridor.
The air smelled horrible and burned her lungs. She coughed. "You know I have no idea what she meant—"
Paal held up his hand. "I know. Don't speak unless you have to—conserve your breath."
She nodded and followed his lead to a far end of the pod, where the smoke was thicker. He pushed her forward, toward an older, grizzled Zandian covered in soot and oil. "Master Lium, the princess says Leti can be of help. She has seen it."
She met his irritated glance with a small curtsy.
He waved her back. "Out of the way."
Right. That would've been her preference, too. Unfortunately, Lamira seemed to think differently. She backed up against a nearby wall to wait.
"I'm going to get you a helmet with oxygen.” Paal’s brows were low with concern. “I’ll return shortly. Remember—conserve your breath."