“The sooner, the better. This place makes my skin crawl,” Taio replied.
Taio, Rasha and some of the other crew members walked through one of the many overcrowded markets on the small dusty planet. The sun was almost unbearable, even for a male who grew up on a planet that circled two suns. He had his shoulder-length hair pulled off his face and secured at the nape of his neck. Still, the sun’s rays assaulted him. Xenaris had the harsh climate one would expect from a planet that was set too close to its sun.
The crowd of locals and visitors parted, giving him and his crew a wide berth as they took the time to look for goods that would be needed for the journey home. While the merchants saw unlimited credits when they looked at the royal crest, others saw mercenaries, warriors, guards.
Taio knew the effect he and his crew had on everyone, but there was no point getting back on the vessel just yet. It was docked on a space station, undergoing repairs. So while they waited, some of the crew picked up trinkets for loved ones, while others purchased goods for themselves. Taio purchased a gem necklace for his younger sister, Saia. Of course, the price had been exorbitant, but the necklace matched her eyes.
They walked by a crowd that suddenly went from a small hum to an eruption of roars. “The slave market is in full swing,” Rasha noted.
Taio sneered, his lip curled in distaste. He had no desire to stop by the slave markets Xenaris was famous for. In fact, even after forty-one birth cycles, bile rose in his throat at the idea of beings sold as if they were worth no more than an inexpensive trinket or bauble. He could not stand to watch as beings were sold into slavery while others enjoyed the melee it caused.
Slave trading had been outlawed many cycles ago on every planet in this galaxy except for Xenaris. At that time, Xenaris’ ambassadors petitioned the Galactic Council to legalize slave trading on their planet. After all, Xenaris was famous for its trading and hard-to-find items. The request had been granted with certain exceptions. Humane protection must be provided for those being sold.
As he was about to pass the podium where the slaves were being held, his eyes caught what had undoubtedly made the crowd erupt. Standing on the platform was a small female fighting two Tresdonians. They were short in stature but made up for it in their dense physical makeup. He’d had the opportunity to take one down during a job when he was still a mercenary. He knew from experience they were not easy to fight.
Yet here he stood, watching the small female use her flexibility to outmaneuver her captors and eventually free herself from their grasp. By the condition of her face, the Tresdonians had a hell of a time getting her to the auction block. She appeared beaten, with a multitude of bruises. He forced in a breath and clenched his fists as he noticed that one of her eyes was most likely lost, the swelling and discoloration of it alone enough to make him cringe. Shame, he thought.
As the crowd roared around him, he stood in awe. Using the muscles in her short legs, she caught one of her captors between them, squeezing her knees around his neck, taking him down. She flipped this way and that, taking full advantage of an arm that was obviously dislocated and useless to unbalance her other captor. With one down, she charged at the other, flipping him over her shoulder. Then she ran.
Taio looked on in puzzlement as the young female ran back toward the slave cage. No one escaped their captors only to run back to captivity. But before she got a chance to reach her destination, the Tresdonian took out a stun gun and shot the fleeing female in her back. She went down with a thud. The crowd went silent.
The Tresdonian advanced. He had to stop this. “Hold your position!”
The Tresdonian had no problem seeing from whom the order had come. Although he stood behind them, Taio towered over everyone in the crowd.
Looking to him, the Tresdonian dismissed his order and continued forward. Taio clenched his fists. He had no problem persuading the slave trader to follow his orders. The crowd parted, making way for him and his crew. Partly in hopes that their entertainment would continue with a new fight, since their prior entertainment was now lying unconscious face down in the dirt.
Taio blocked the Tresdonian’s path. “I’m going to assume the thickness of your skull has prevented you from fully understanding my order. I said stand down.” Taio spoke the last two words slowly. He placed his hand on the blaster hooked on the side of his belt.
“You have no authority here,” the Tresdonian said.
“Actually, as a member of the Galactic Council serving the Galactic Board and as a member of the Royal House of both Drazlan and Sonis, I have the authority to enforce the laws set forth to protect the galaxy.” Taio widened his stance, his hand flexing over his blaster. Shooting this slave trader would make him extremely happy.
The Tresdonian looked to the sky, as if lost in deep thought. Because of the Tresdonians’ thick bone structure, their skulls did not allow for proper brain growth. The Tresdonian was clearly having a hard time comprehending what Taio had said. His uni-brow scrunched in confusion and a scowl draped across his face. As humorous as the sight would have been on any other occasion, Taio was in no laughing mood.
“Since I don’t want you to hurt yourself thinking, I’ll give you the breakdown. While slave trading is legal on Xenaris, you broke the law by harming a slave who was not trying to escape.”
The Tresdonian widened his eyes. “She was running.”
“She was clearly running back to the gate. Not away from it.”
The Tresdonian looked down at the unconscious female and then toward the gate. It was apparent he was trying to figure out a way to explain his reasoning for breaking the law. Just because the law was in place didn’t mean it was always upheld. Hell, these creatures probably broke the law every day. This Tresdonian just happened to have the misfortune of breaking the law in front of a Galactic Council Member.
As if feeling the stares of the Tresdonian and Taio upon her, the slave in question began to stir slightly. A painful groan crossed her lips. Taio looked down as a delicate, bloodied and filthy hand reached out and wrapped around his ankle. Even in her current state, the female did not give up her fight. The hand gave a weak tug on his ankle, as if she thought she could pull hard enough to make him fall.
She was a small heap of dirt and blood, with black hair fanning out in a matted mess around her. He could not make out any facial features beneath the swelling and grime. The dirty rags she wore were pieced together. But he had to give it to the female—she was a fighter at heart.
“You take her.” The Tresdonian smirked, revealing a mouth full of missing teeth.
Head snapping up and coming back to full attention, Taio stared at the Tresdonian, thinking what he heard was a mistake.
“You take her,” the Tresdonian repeated.
Nope, he heard right. “I cannot take her. She’s your problem.” Taio flinched in disbelief at the mere thought of being responsible for a female child.
“You take her,” the Tresdonian said again. This time, he slowed down his words as if Taio was the one with a small brain.
“I can’t take her with me. I am not here to buy slaves. I am here to make you stop abusing helpless children.”
“She yours now. You take her.” The Tresdonian walked past Taio back to the holding tank, undoubtedly to bring out another slave to start the auction again.
“I am not here to buy slaves!” Taio yelled at the Tresdonian’s back as the crowd began to grow loud.
“You no buy. She free. We punished,” the Tresdonian said over his shoulder.
Realizing what had just happened, Taio stared at the retreating Tresdonian in consternation. He was about to move forward to argue his point but was stopped by Rasha’s hand on his shoulder.
“It would be useless to argue with him. If you don’t take her with you, someone in the crowd will take her or they will come back and get her.” Rasha motioned his head in the direction of the Tresdonian. “Either way, she’s as good as dead.”
“This I know,” Taio said, eyes
downcast. The female who had just taken on two Tresdonians now lay in a small crumpled heap at his feet.
“What would I do with a child in my care?”
“You could always give her to one of the families on Sonis. Births have been down again this year. There are plenty of couples that would be honored to adopt a child.”
Rasha was right, he thought. Maybe this would be a good idea. Although the population on Sonis was growing every year, they still had trouble conceiving and there were very few children being born. More and more people were leaving Drazlan to settle on Sonis, but the small world still lacked enough children.
He devoted a great deal of money to researching the problem, trying to find a solution. Bringing home a young child would make some couple extremely happy.
“You are right, brosir,” he said, using the native Drazlan word for brother.
Picking up the bundle at his feet, he tried not to cause pain to an already battered body. He met minimal resistance. She expressed her displeasure with slight murmurings as he slung her over his shoulder and carried her away.
Chapter Three
Where are the vibrations coming from? The constant soft hum faded in and out as Eva struggled to wake. A pulsating sensation stimulated every nerve in her body and seemed to increase as she became more conscious. Her dream about home slowly faded away.
Every fiber in her body felt rejuvenated. She stretched out an arm and hit the side of something hard and metal with a clank. She froze. She laid her hand flat on a solid, cool surface.
Huh?
Confusion and fear coursed through her veins as she struggled to open eyelids that felt leaden. How long have I been out?
With blurred vision, she looked around her trap. She had reason to panic. She was naked and in some type of white metal box with a glass top. Reaching both arms out to the sides, she could almost fully extend them, but not quite. The top wouldn’t allow her to sit fully upright. The glass was a foot and a half from the tip of her nose.
Looking up through the glass, she focused on the stark-white ceiling of the room.
Where am I?
The vibrations were coming from the box, making the whole damn thing hum. Why am I in here?
Unable to fight her rising panic any longer, she let out a bloodcurdling scream. The sound echoed off the metal walls. It didn’t matter if anyone could hear her or not. The panic of the unknown became too much to bear. The mere thought of why she could possibly be in a humming box stressed her mind as each second ticked by.
Calm down.
She closed her eyes again, trying to control her breathing. She retraced the events that had led up to this predicament. She and Ally had been standing together in the holding bay, waiting to see who would be taken off the craft to God knows where. She remembered that a group of short aliens had come in and started ushering many of the younger women into a separate area of the craft. She and Ally had been among those who had been chosen for the unknown.
Then, the auction block.
Allysan.
She could not remember what happened after that, but now there was an urgency to find the woman who had become her best friend, sister and companion.
With renewed energy, Eva opened her eyes. She had to assess her situation if she was going to escape. Placing her hands on the glass in front of her, she pressed lightly to see if it would open.
It wouldn’t budge. Locked.
Two golden faces came into view, peering down at her through the glass.
“Ahh!” Startled by their sudden appearance, Eva yanked her hands from the glass.
The two males stared down at her while she stared up at them. It was clear from their skin coloring they were not human, but at least they were humanoid. Their facial features were human enough for her. Did they come to rescue me? She dismissed the idea of a rescue just as fast as it had come. Even if they looked human, these males weren’t.
Don’t let them fool you, Eva. She tried to read their intentions as they began to talk to each other in a language she couldn’t understand.
She kept her eyes on them. She didn’t know where she was or who these men were, but she was prepared to fight if they let her out. She tried to relax her body by concentrating on pacing her breathing. This was the only way to stay flexible and ready. Un-balling her hands, she relaxed them on her chest, instantly feeling the warm, smooth sensation of bare skin.
She snapped her head down. The men above her were taking in the full, unrestricted view of her naked body. She had forgotten all about her lack of clothes. What the hell is going on here! She maneuvered one arm over her breasts and the other hand to cover her pubic area.
“No freebie peep show here!” she yelled. “Nothing to see, move along.” She wished it would be that easy to send them on their way.
It was obvious she had not been successful at escaping the auction block. These men had bought her and were now holding her captive to use as a sex slave.
“Ha! You wasted your money, buddies. I’m nobody’s sex slave. I’d rather die and take one of you with me than give in to this.”
Her voice vibrated off the wall as she continued to bellow her thoughts about the situation to the men on the other side of her confinement.
“I see that her voice has returned.” Rasha peered down at the female in the healing tank. “What do you think she is yelling?”
“I can’t understand her dialect any more than you can,” Taio said, trying to keep his voice even. He feared it would crack as though he were a youngling seeing a naked female for the very first time.
His body still reacted the same way it did the first time he had seen her cleaned and placed in the healing tank. His heart quickened, his stomach flipped and his cock hardened at the mere sight of her. He had been relieved when Ship informed him that the child he had been ogling was really an adult female.
That had been two rotations ago—since then, he’d checked on her progress every day. Sometimes multiple times a day. Her species did not look much different than his. She was smaller, with long, silky black hair and skin toned lighter than his. But the best news of all was that she matched him anatomically.
He watched her perky breasts rise and fall with the rhythm of her breathing. He couldn’t wait to cover her large brown nipples with his mouth. The dark hairs nestled between her legs seemed to beckon for his fingers.
“I know you can’t. I was wondering what she could be saying. Do you think she is trying to thank us for saving her?” Rasha asked.
Taio hid his smile. She was trying to shield herself from him. It didn’t matter. The memory of her delectable body was burned forever in his mind.
He could imagine his hands holding onto her hips, helping her rise up and down on his cock. His gaze traveled down to her shapely legs. He imagined running his tongue along the length of them.
Suddenly aware that Rasha was looking down at his female and seeing her naked just as he was, he straightened, taking his eyes off the healing tank and looking at his second-in-command. He didn’t know if Rasha had similar thoughts, but he needed to claim her as soon as possible. When Rasha didn’t immediately straighten and look up, Taio peered at him through the slits of his eyes.
Finally straightening, Rasha looked at Taio with a confused look on his face.
“I find it strange that we do not know her dialect. Ship cannot find a trace of it in the databanks.”
Knowing his longtime friend was truly puzzled and did not have thoughts that ran to the lascivious, Taio relaxed a little.
“Ship is contacting other vessels in the area of Xenaris to find out where she came from. Once that is done, we will be able to get a dialect on her.”
Just then, Ship’s voice spoke throughout the cabin.
“I have received multiple reports regarding the female’s species. The reports state the Loconuist originally brought her race to this sector. I am currently trying to locate the Loconuist vessel to obtain additional information.”
“Than
k you, Ship,” Taio said.
If anyone could find out about the female’s unknown race, it was Ship. The entity would find him the information he needed.
But it didn’t solve the problem at hand. He had to let her out of the healing tank whether he understood her or not. That was what prompted Rasha and him to the infirmary in the first place. Ship had alerted them she was waking up. He had wanted to be on hand to explain where she was and what had happened to her firsthand.
“Well, should we let her out?” Rasha asked, looking down at her through the glass.
Taio pressed the button that would open the glass door as wild eyes stared back at him.
Chapter Four
It took all of her training to pace her breathing as she watched the glass top silently slide down a hidden track. She lay in place, staring as the top slowly opened, freeing her from the metal coffin. Determined as she was to focus on keeping her breathing under control, she couldn’t ignore the two overly large males staring down at her.
She willed her eyes from the sliding glass top to focus on the males. Both of them were huge and extremely muscular. Well, muscular may have not been the right choice of words. These men would have put Arnold Schwarzenegger to shame.
They each had an elaborately designed tattoo that covered one side of their faces. The tip of a light-blue and indigo-colored wing covered the cheek of one of the males and extended down his neck and chest, his shirt obstructing her view of the rest of the picture. Rising from underneath the other man’s shirt up his neck was a dark-blue animal arm with red scales on it, its claw wrapped around his right eye.
Although similar, each man had distinguishing characteristics. One looked at her with curiosity, the other with fire in his eyes. One was handsome, but the other was downright gorgeous. Not model gorgeous. His features were too sharp and hard for modeling. His lips were full, with high cheekbones that rose to lavender-colored eyes surrounded by dark, full lashes a girl would die for.
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