by Reagan Hawk
She yanked at her hair, pulling it free from the fancy twists and braids they’d styled it into. Her wrists were still bound but she had enough movement to get the job done. Her long, brown hair fell free and she shook her head, using it to cover the bruises on the side of her face. As much as she hated the idea of being for sale, she hated the notion that the next stop was either the prison planet or death, because she didn’t think the traders would want to answer for their actions should Galactic Guards happen upon them. The traders would probably put the remaining women out the airlock in deep space. She wouldn’t put it past them.
Chapter Three
Teon needed to catch the eye of one of the men currently gathering near the ship. Most were shirtless, showing off impressive upper bodies. Many had scars marring their tawny flesh. Almost all had hair to at least their shoulders. And every one of them oozed dominance. She wasn’t used to warrior-grade men. Earth had been overrun by bureaucrats years ago, men who didn’t lift a finger let alone have a muscle to flex.
She’d blinked in surprise when the men first approached. Many of the other female prisoners had gasped audibly. The warriors were intimidating, yet something deep inside told her they were better than the alternatives. Prison camps and death held little offer of hope. At least this planet did.
Her sex moistened as her gaze swept over two of the men closest to her. One had hair as dark as night. The other was his opposite with blond, straight hair and slightly softer features. Both were close in height, nearly seven feet tall. Her gaze locked with the dark-haired one. She froze. It was as though he were looking through her. Her pulse quickened and she had the urge to run again.
Predator.
The word played in her mind again and again. He was dangerous yet alluring all in one. A mystery for sure. One she wanted to go to her knees before. The action felt right, like she should be offering total surrender. She held her ground but her knees wobbled. They wanted to bend to him. All of her wanted to submit to him.
Teon had a fairly good idea of which planet they were on. She’d managed to sneak a glimpse at the star charts before exiting the craft. Ralen, a planet on the edge of the Union’s territory, known for supplying armies and private security with able soldiers. It would make sense, especially seeing the sheer size of the men before her. She’d had a run-in once with a male from Ralen. He too was tall, muscular and screamed alpha male without saying a single word. They exuded dominance, and the very idea of that turned her on. She knew she shouldn’t be. Now was a time for fear and worry for her future, but damned stars nation if her pussy didn’t cream with each glimpse she stole of the sexy men before her.
She’d heard stories about the Ralen men being able to shift into various animals. She’d never seen it done but the source had been trustworthy. She bit her lower lip. If they could become animals…
She stopped her thought process. It would do her no good to start dreaming of being ridden by a beast man. Oh, but her body ached all the same.
Sara, a woman she’d befriended as best she could while aboard the ship, whimpered and moved closer to her. Teon touched the woman’s arm. “It’s okay. They won’t hurt us,” she whispered.
“But they’re…they’re huge,” returned Sara, her deep red hair blowing in the breeze, resembling fire.
“They don’t hurt women.” Teon remembered as much from her dealings with the Ralenium male. For all his chauvinistic outlook, he’d been outraged at the treatment of a council member’s wife. “It’s against everything they stand for. They are fiercely protective of their women.”
Sara relaxed somewhat but remained close to Teon. When one of the warrior males took a keen interest in Sara, she dug her fingernails into Teon’s arm. Teon patted the woman’s wrist gently and Sara eased her death grip. Half-moon circles remained on Teon’s arm, proof as to how scared Sara was with their situation.
“I promise, they won’t do anything you don’t want them to do,” Teon stated. As the words left her lips, her nipples hardened. She wanted so many bad things. Things that shouldn’t even register on her radar with what she’d endured over the past months. Still, her body demanded attention and it seemed to want it from these men.
Two in particular.
The raven-haired man spoke with the blond one. Each man sported markings on their arms and across their chests. They were similar to the branding some of the sectors of Earth used to identify the lower lifes, but these held beauty to them. She wasn’t sure of their meaning, but knew the markings did, in fact, have reason to be there. It was hard to pull her gaze from their markings, from their toned, muscled bodies.
She noticed them watching her as if she were a piece of meat to be fought over. It was a good thing. If two men were interested in her, then it upped her chances of avoiding prison or death. She continued to try to hide her bruises from them, fearing they’d see her as damaged and move on to another woman.
Sara quickly found herself under the attention of two males as well. One of the men showing interest in Sara was even bigger than the males around him. He seemed very taken with Sara’s red hair. Teon couldn’t blame him. It was alluring and a color one didn’t see every day.
The raven-haired man stepped closer to Teon. “Where do you hail from?”
His voice was so deep the sound of it reverberated through her. She didn’t respond. She couldn’t. Now that he was close, she got a good look at him and he was gorgeous. His eyes were so dark, they too bordered on black. Thick lashes surrounded them and his chiseled face screamed powerful male—the kind of male who had but to twitch his finger and people would listen. She wanted to touch him to see if he was hard all over. This wasn’t like her. She wasn’t the type of woman who would pet a strange man. Sure she’d managed her fair share of infractions on Earth in regards to sexual conduct, but this was too much.
“Do you speak?” asked the man.
Again, she said nothing.
He dragged his gaze over her slowly, causing her body to heat. She shifted slightly. The wetness between her legs grew and she had to fight to keep from moaning. She wanted to be touched by him and wanted to be touched now. She wanted those long, thick fingers to shove inside her pussy and ease the ache building there.
The blond approached. He too was amazingly gorgeous. Did the planet produce a male who wasn’t? And what was in the air that was making her so damn horny. She burned, and if someone didn’t fix the problem soon she’d scream.
The blond surveyed her. He inclined his head, his measured gaze sliding over her slowly with clear appreciation. “She is certainly something to look at, isn’t she, Garon?”
Garon. Now she had a name to pair with the raven-haired man.
“Be gone, Lorne,” said Garon. “This will not end well for you.”
“Are you telling me you’re interested in purchasing her?” Lorne seemed amused at the idea. Teon nearly took offense. “You brag about never wanting a woman—a collared female to tie you down.”
Collared female.
Teon jerked at the statement. She recalled from her studies that the planet of males took mates and did in fact collar them as a show of ownership. The idea should have turned her off. Instead, she eyed the men coyly, wondering if either would pick her to put their collar on.
Garon exhaled and ran a hand over the bulge in his pants. “Yet the beast and I feel the urge to reproduce upon us.”
Lorne’s eyes widened. “The Heat has come over you?”
“It nears,” said Garon, refusing to look away from her. His very gaze was making her hot enough to want to burst. If he touched her, Teon feared she’d melt or simply ignite on the spot. “This one, though simple in the head, pleases my senses.”
Simple in the head?
Teon nearly kicked the man in the shin. She’d been top of her class with the highest marks. She’d been educated in the finest of schools, and her tutors growing up were the best money could buy. She’d always had the finest.
Until now.
She was hardly simple, unlike him and his very barbaric ways and culture. She was from Earth, known the galaxy and universe over for its cultured inhabitants. He towered over her five-foot-six inch frame. She huffed but kept her head bent, her hair still in her face.
Lorne snickered. “Pleases your senses? Meaning you would be willing to buy her, claim her and then sink your cock into her and her alone for the rest of your life? If you were to collar the bitch, she’d be the only pussy you’d have until the end of your days. Is that what you mean?”
Garon puffed his chest. “Yes.”
Teon’s dislike of the man faded fast. She wasn’t keen on being referred to as a bitch, but with her current situation she’d been called worse. It was hard to hate a guy who was willing to give up his bachelor life after having just one look at her. Lorne moved closer and she was given a better look at him as well. He too took her breath away. Men simply weren’t made that way where she was from. This planet seemed stocked with nothing but eye-pleasing man candy.
Her pussy dampened more and both men’s nostrils flared. They sniffed the air, their eyes swirling quickly with a mix of colors. Garon’s dark eyes went to an icy blue and Lorne’s green eyes went quickly to lavender. They moved in closer to her and stiffened again.
She held perfectly still, suddenly unsure how safe they were to be around.
Chapter Four
Garon stalked his prey. She was timid, shaking slightly in the thin shift that covered her womanly curves just enough to tease his senses—both the man’s and the beast’s. Her pink nipples were visible through the material. He wanted to pinch them first with his fingers and then bite them to see what her face looked like when receiving pleasure in the form of pain. He just bet she would make a pretty little submissive. One who craved a guiding hand and order.
His cock throbbed, hard with desire for her. Her hair, a deep brown, covered part of her face from view. He didn’t need to see all of her to know she was the one for him. His body told him so. From the minute he’d caught her scent, he and the wolf who was a part of him knew they’d found the one.
Lorne was close. Closer than Garon liked to the woman he’d selected to be his—the woman he’d sire his sons upon. Lorne, a fierce warrior in his own right, was there, his gaze upon the timid beauty before them. The others who had arrived at the docking zone were zeroing in on their picks as well. The women brought in on trading ships seemed confused as to what was happening. Garon had a strong suspicion many were collected against their will, though the traders always assured them each woman either came willingly or held no rights as a prisoner of the Intergalactic Corrections Facility—therefore, she forfeited her rights to any and everything.
The Ralenium men, strong in both number and physical form, were in need of females. As had been the way for as long as Garon could remember. Stories his father had passed down were much of the same. The planet, ravaged by a great sickness long, long ago, had seen the decimation of their female population. The males were forced to look off world to mate.
Lorne eased closer to Garon. They’d both been to many worlds, bedding many women, but had yet to take a woman as their own. Neither had collared a woman. To do so was a sacred event and never taken lightly. Often Garon was forced to travel off world with the military, and while abroad he’d fuck his share of women. While home on Ralen, the only women present were already mated, members of one of the many Houses of Pleasure, or currently working a low-level job to earn their keep until they either decided to mate or join a House of Pleasure.
Houses of Pleasure were whorehouses filled to the brim with women who had no desire to mate but were willing to service the men’s needs in exchange for the proper coinage. Garon was guilty of frequenting them. He enjoyed getting his cock sucked without having to have any conversation, and the women he paid there knew as much. He also liked how kinky the women were. So many loved to be spanked before being fucked hard, and the beast side of him liked it rough. He liked to dominate in the bedroom. In fact, he could have it no other way.
“She’s exquisite,” said Lorne, still showing a keen interest in the brown-haired female.
A low growl started deep in Garon’s throat. His beast pulsed within him, wanting free and to attack Lorne. “And she is to be mine.”
Arching a brow, Lorne cast an amused glance in Garon’s direction. “Really?”
Before seeing the woman near him, Garon would have said no. He liked his freedom. He liked getting to fuck who he wanted, as often as he wanted. The newcomer changed things in him. He couldn’t explain it. There was a certain vulnerability with an edge of hardness there. She would be a fine mate. She’d bend to him in the bedroom and she’d keep him on his toes out of it was well. He simply knew this to be true.
If he tried to explain it out loud, he’d sound like his father and his grandfather, with their talk of mates and women destined for them. That was absurd. This woman would do. He could collar her with ease. She was one he could see himself burying his cock in and not tiring of it or her. As for loving her… No. He did not even know her name, let alone have a stirring of love for her. She excited his cock and caught the wolf’s attention. No more. No less.
So why was he so on edge with the knowledge she’d drawn Lorne’s attention as well? He glared at his longtime friend. “Take yourself from here and find a woman of your own to collar. This one is taken.”
Lorne simply smiled as he leaned closer. “Why? We have shared many whores. Why not this one?”
Garon shoved Lorne and snapped his jaws at him. The Ralenium men were well aware of how they were viewed by other races and worlds. Most frowned on the orgies they were famed for. They were free with their sexuality and had no qualms about partaking in the act publically with either the opposite sex or the same. In fact, quite often they would have festivals devoted to the very thing. Mated pairs would arrive and join in the festivities, having sex where all could see, putting on quite a scene. And the whores would filter in, their sexes for sale to all who wanted to play publically for the night. It saddened Garon deeply that in all the universes he’d traveled, and all the worlds he’d been to, sharing one’s bed with someone of the same sex still held stigma when so many boasted of progress and enlightenment.
Earth was one of the worst offenders. Narrow-minded fools.
Garon rolled his eyes. “Lorne, continue and I will beat you senseless.”
Lorne licked his lower lip, his gaze drifting down the length of Garon. “You do like it rough.”
The tiny woman near them gasped. Her blue eyes widened as she tilted her head up, gifting them a full view of her face. Both men made odd noises. She was even more beautiful than Garon had first thought, with beauty the likes of which he’d never seen. As he spotted an angry, purple bruise over her right cheek, the very cheek she’d hidden with her hair, the beast in him rose. His nostrils flared as he pivoted, glaring at the traders who stood near their ship.
“Who dared to touch her?”
The traders exchanged worried looks as Lorne moved in quickly, pushing Garon back. The Ralenium men knew if they dared to attack the traders the shipments of eligible women would stop. Already the shipments were few and far between. Already the Houses of Pleasure were understaffed and too many men went without sex or a mate. Already a great number of Ralenium males had been driven mad with the sickness from The Heat, said to come from being unable to mate. It was inborn in them—the driving need to bond with a woman and to reproduce. They could no more deny it than to deny the part of them that could shift into a wolf.
He glared at the Voxenites traders, infamous for their underhanded ways, and wondered who had harmed the woman. The men wore containers over their faces, holding a red liquid of sorts. Garon knew it was a breathing apparatus and that without them, most of the traders would die. Lorne pushed at him more. “I want them dead as well but this isn’t the answer. If you continue to show your hand, they will put too steep a price upon her head.”
He was right.
Lorne took point. “You marred the merchandise. Do you think we’ll pay full price for this group?”
The traders talked amongst themselves. One stepped forward. “Half,” he said, his voice muffled with the breathing apparatus in place. “You will pay half or we will leave.”
“For the lot?” Lorne said. “Half? Have you abused them all as well?”
Jaston puffed out his chest. “We will pay half for the lot. Now leave.”
Never before had they purchased all the women brought forth. The men of Ralen always confirmed the women wanted to stay. This was different. The abuse was clear. They could not permit these traders to keep any of the females.
The females huddled together and Garon was surprised to see the one who sparked his interest take a leadership position among them. She and two others began calming the women.
“Shh,” she said to one who had begun to cry. “It could be worse. We could be back on board with the walking and talking fishmen.”
“You heard what the guards told us before we landed,” another said, sniffling. “They said these men are cruel and will rape and kill us if we misbehave.”
Rape and kill them?
Garon and the rest of the Ralenium warriors spun around to face the traders. Several of his men lost control and shifted forms. As they roared in animal form, looking every bit as fierce as they were, many of the women screamed. Garon would try to soothe the women’s fears, but first he had to deal quickly with the traders. He took a step in their direction. The traders shared one look and then ran for their ship. They were on board in the blink of an eye. Garon gave the hand signal to the main control center to release the electronic hold they had upon the vessel. Within seconds the traders were in flight.