Never, ever had that been his intention.
Kerrick thought Ariss wanted his wild, animal lust. She’d begged him for more, but now shock and fear twisted her stunning face. Before he could react, four strong hands yanked him off his knees, pulling his penis out of her with a violence that hurt him and must have hurt her, too.
Twisting his head wildly side to side, Kerrick was shocked to see two of his four palace guards. Meaty hands gripped his shoulders and brought his wrists together behind his back. Just as he opened his mouth to demand an explanation for them bursting into his room, for he hadn’t pressed the panic button this time, someone clonked him on the head from behind. The last thing he saw besides a sparkly spate of bright stars was Ariss reaching out … but he didn’t know if she grasped for him or the men she considered her saviors.
Kerrick awoke kneeling with his toes painfully splayed below his feet, the soles of which stretched to the limit of endurance and faced fully exposed behind him. Below his knees was a metal plate scattered with small seeds that dug into his flesh. His ass was high in the air since his forehead rested against the seed-scattered plate. He could breathe, but it hurt to do so, since his lungs felt lightly packed with sand from his awkward angle. Bound behind his back, someone had strapped his hands up toward his shoulders, stretching the muscles into the most uncomfortable position imaginable. He had no idea how long he’d been here, but it had to be a while given the various aches and pains that consumed his body.
Bare, bound, bruised, and at the back of his throat he tasted the bitter burnt wood of umer. Kerrick couldn’t move his head, but he didn’t need to look to know his cock was hard, his balls heavy from his denied orgasm. The guards interrupted him just as he’d been on the verge of filling Ariss with the most intense climax of his life. Once deprived of pleasure, his balls swelled painfully, demanding a release he couldn’t provide.
When he took a deep breath, he tasted Ariss’ scent upon his body. Even if he could get his hand wrapped around his prick, it wouldn’t do him any good; the umer would prevent his orgasm for hours to come. Obviously, he was being punished for what he’d done to her. Kerrick despaired that he hadn’t even been given a chance to plead his case, but worse, that he’d hurt Ariss.
The horrified look on her face filled his mind, tearing his soul to shreds. Never had he hurt a woman. Just the thought that he had hurt Ariss in any way tore his psyche apart and justified the punishing position he found himself in now. They didn’t need to discipline him, for he would rebuke himself for the rest of life. He thought he was giving her pleasure as he took a full measure of such for himself, but apparently, he’d been wrong.
So wrong.
If his head weren’t already forced to the floor, he would have hung it in shame.
“I told you he was in here.”
The masculine voice commanded Kerrick’s attention, but he was unable to turn his head to see who, exactly, was behind him. He waited for the mystery man to speak again in the hopes he could recognize his voice. Not that knowing who he was would do him any good. Or perhaps it would. Could he convince one of the recruits to set him free? Just from the scent alone, Kerrick knew he was near the training rooms. Sweat, leather, and the slightest tang of blood told him he was close to the practice floor.
“But he’s the Harvester,” another voice commented, wary.
Kerrick didn’t need to see him to guess this second man darted his gaze around, seeking not permission, but the security of knowing that he would not be punished for what he wished to do. Just his sly, sneaking tone of voice caused Ker-rick’s heart to pound. In addition, this second voice was closer, and Kerrick realized they were coming toward him. Gulping in terror, he realized he was kneel-bound, his ass up, exposed, and there wasn’t a damn thing he could do. Almost against his will, Kerrick understood exactly why they’d bound him like this and left him utterly alone.
Vulnerable.
The one word conveyed the truth and the dreadful knowledge of why he was where he was. In this place, he was just as exposed as he’d made Ariss. What was it they said on Tandth? Payback was a bitch….
“How the mighty have fallen,” said the first man, cupping his hand to Kerrick’s right butt cheek. Caressing him possessively, with a clear intent to do so much more, the man teased the barest brush of his fingertip into Kerrick’s crevice, the tip of his slender digit pressing threateningly against his puckered flesh.
It was one thing to feel the soft probe of a tongue, or the playful finger of a lover in that defenseless area, but to feel the nasty invasion of a man’s unwanted prick caused Kerrick to shiver in alarm and clench his butt cheeks together protectively. So tightly bound was he, that Kerrick couldn’t even flinch. Instead, Kerrick whisper-growled, “Get your hand off me.”
The second man laughed, and Kerrick almost recognized his voice. He was pretty sure it was Ninder, a pale recruit from Ries with his shocking white hair and disturbing pink eyes. They gave him something that protected his skin and eyes from the light, some kind of pill, because Kerrick saw him take it once and asked. He’d seemed a nice enough man, well, a kid, really. The pickings must be slim in Ries for them to select a skinny little thing like Ninder. But why would he come in here? Kerrick hadn’t ever been anything but nice to him.
“And what are you going to do if I don’t?” the first man taunted.
Raw panic consumed Kerrick. If not for the umer, his balls would have retreated into his body from horror. As it was, they hung limp and lifeless, utterly without feeling below his hopelessly exposed ass. These two were going to use his unprotected bottom to sate their lust. A burst of total dread caused Kerrick to fight his bonds with a violence that netted barely a quiver of movement. The device held him so tightly bound there was nothing, nothing he could do.
“I think the gannett has you completely bound, and utterly helpless, phen’tabi.” When he whisper-hissed the last word, Kerrick knew exactly who he was. Uad from Plete. The word he’d used was an insult that called Kerrick a pretty boy with big balls. In other words, Uad thought he was a man who looked good but didn’t really have anything to offer because big balls didn’t necessarily equate with potency. The other word, gannett, must be the device that held Kerrick so utterly immobile.
Kerrick considered issuing threats. He could swear to punish them both once he was free, but he quickly realized the folly of such claims. They would suffer no repercussions for taking advantage of him in this device. If he hunted them down later, he would be in the wrong, for they truly had only given him the punishment he deserved. The entire purpose of placing him this way was to allow the recruits to abuse him. Such was the retribution he would suffer: a rape for a rape.
Another hand joined the first, this one cupping his left butt cheek. Together, they caressed, sending shivers of terror through Kerrick’s bound frame. He could easily picture Uad behind him, his copper hair glistening in the lights, his fathomless black eyes glittering with abusive lust. Again, Kerrick clenched his cheeks together as hard as he could, and actually succeeded in pulling them out of Uad’s hands.
“Relax, Harvester. I’m told it only hurts for a moment.”
Twin hands effortlessly pried his ass cheeks apart.
Kerrick bit back a cry of fear by clamping his bottom lip between his teeth. Cool air rushed over his sweat-covered flesh, but not enough to actually chill his burning anxiety. Nothing he could say would stop these two, not when they felt justified, not when his punishers left him so hopelessly bound and exposed. To protect himself, Kerrick wished his consciousness far away, into a safe place, but his mind refused to obey. Instead, his brain focused every bit of his attention on the exposed and vulnerable puckered flesh of his ass.
Thick, hard, and unforgiving, Kerrick felt the knob of a cock pressed greedily against his upturned bottom. In a horrible rush, he wondered if Ariss had actually wanted him to tease her in this place, or if he’d taken her acquiescence without due cause.
“Don’t,” Kerr
ick begged, his voice muffled against the metal plate at the bottom of his cage. Had Ariss begged him in such a plaintive tone and he’d ignored her? Gods, he’d been so determined in his lust, he honestly couldn’t remember anything but her lovely voice begging for more, not less, of his ruthless possession.
The man behind him laughed, and pressed forward.
Bile rose in Kerrick’s throat. If he vomited, he might choke on it, given his position. Moreover, he would be nose deep in his own filth, which only made him gag harder.
Kerrick braced himself for the worst but felt nothing. Confused, he thought perhaps the umer had dulled sensations in his ass, as well as in his genitals.
“I claim him,” a voice rumbled, setting the hairs on the nape of Kerrick’s neck to standing.
Kerrick recognized the voice immediately. His heart stopped beating, then hammered triple time in his chest. The two hands on either side of his bottom let go, but Kerrick didn’t breathe a sigh of relief. If anything, he held his breath tighter.
With a series of subservient mumbles, Ninder and Uad backed off, leaving Kerrick alone with Sterlave.
A new and terrible shame filled his aching body. For his handler to see him like this, and then to have him use him was beyond what Kerrick thought he could endure. If nothing else, Sterlave could use this moment to assert his dominance. Ker-rick had no idea what kind of man Sterlave was, but if he were anything like the men from Cheon, he would do anything to declare his authority.
“I swear I didn’t mean to hurt her,” Kerrick said, his voice muffled against the metal plate.
Sterlave uttered a noncommittal grunt.
Time stood still as Kerrick waited breathlessly for Sterlave to pick up where Uad left off. His heartbeat was loud in his ears, and his breath moved so quickly in and out of his lungs that he blew some of the seeds away from him, making them skitter across the metal with a sound that reminded him of the scratching feet of vermin upon slick tile.
Suddenly, the scent of Ariss rose off his body, enveloping his mind, twisting his guts, and he swallowed in abject misery.
“How is she?” Kerrick asked, trying to keep a desperate whine out of his voice.
Sterlave’s utter silence hit him like a blow.
Kerrick sagged, but his body didn’t move in the tight restraints. In his muddled mind, he couldn’t remember how many times she screamed before he’d noticed. So deep was he in his rutting lust that he didn’t even hear her cries. She must have been reaching out to the guards to save her, not trying to embrace him.
In one final indignity, tears pooled in his eyes and then fell straight down, splattering against the metal with silent shame. Kerrick did his best not to sob, because that would be the only way for Sterlave to know that he was crying, but his back quivered when he took a steadying breath.
Behind him, Kerrick heard the pounding of several feet that stopped short.
“Out,” Sterlave commanded, his voice filled with irritation.
Kerrick heard the steps retreating amidst mumbled conversations.
“What were you thinking?” Sterlave asked, his voice a harsh whisper.
Kerrick drew a deep breath. “I couldn’t wait for the next cycle.”
“So you snuck some yondie into your rooms?”
Kerrick paused, his mind racing. Sterlave thought he’d brought a paid woman to the Harvester suite? Was that what he was being punished for?
“She’s not a yondie,” Kerrick defended, his anger replacing his terror and easing the pressure on his pounding heart.
“I don’t care who she is; she shouldn’t have been in your rooms!” Sterlave’s voice rose in volume until anyone within the training room must have heard him. “Your paratanist was aghast when she caught you.”
More confusion followed the first dose. He wasn’t being punished for raping Ariss, but for having sex when he wasn’t supposed to? Rather than speculating any further, Kerrick asked, “What, exactly, am I being punished for?”
“For being an idiot,” Sterlave said, smacking Kerrick’s bottom hard enough to set his balls swaying. “You are to mate with your female counterpart, and only her, and only during the new cycle!” Another slap landed; this one hard enough to wrench a cry from between Kerrick’s gritted teeth.
“Stop hitting me!”
“Would you rather have me mounting you?” Sterlave asked, lowering his voice to a loud whisper. “If I’m not tormenting you in one way or another, someone else will. Do you get it now?”
No, he really didn’t, but Kerrick kept his mouth shut. Let Sterlave spank him like a rebellious child. That was better than a cock up his ass any day.
“Just be thankful Chur hasn’t come yet, because when he does, he’s going to be furious with you.”
Chur Zenge, the living god, the most mighty and influential Harvester ever. Just about the last thing Kerrick wanted was Chur coming into the room to see him ingloriously bound, especially when he really didn’t know exactly what he was being punished for.
“I still don’t understand what I did wrong. I was mating with the Harvester, just like I’m supposed to.” Kerrick tried desperately to defend what he’d done in the hopes Sterlave would release him.
After a pause, Sterlave growled, “You idiot! You still don’t get it, do you?”
Clearly, he didn’t. “Spell it out for me.”
“You are to mate with her at the beginning of each cycle, not whenever you feel the urge. The whole point is for you to be at your most potent.”
“Potent?” The word rolled around in Kerrick’s mind, seeking a meaning to attach to. When the word landed, his eyes went wide, and he gasped. Now he understood exactly what he was supposed to do with Ariss. Mate. And they wanted him to fully mate with her, not just fuck her. He was supposed to impregnate her. If he could have shaken his head, he would have; instead, he gritted his eyes at his own pathetic ignorance. Once again, he’d been thinking with his dick, pleased beyond the nothingness that he got to fuck the most beautiful woman on the planet. He hadn’t thought beyond that.
But hopefully, it wasn’t too late now.
“Chur risked his life to change the Harvest ritual back to the original form, and here you come, destroying it because you can’t keep your cock in your loincloth for a paltry cycle.” Sterlave leaned over the cage, placing his mouth fractionally closer to Kerrick’s ear. “Do you know that before, a Harvester went the entire season without knowing the feel of a woman?”
Shock made Kerrick’s eyes bulge. A whole season without sex would have made him mad with lust. Even his own hand simply wouldn’t be able to pacify his passionate needs. “Wait, you mean you and Chur went a season without …”
With a laugh that was more a bark, Sterlave said, “Not me, because I knew exactly who I was going to choose when I became the Harvester.” Sterlave’s voice softened and became almost dreamy. “I challenged Chur to the death for her, so when I came to take her as my sacrifice, I claimed her as my bond-mate.”
Kerrick didn’t need to see him to know Sterlave’s face was a curious combination of pride, lust, and wry amusement. The tale about the passionate and rocky romance between Sterlave and the former empress Kasmiri was almost legendary despite the fact it had only started shortly after Kerrick became the Harvester.
“But if it was a fight to the death, then how are you and Chur still alive?” Kerrick asked, desperately trying to latch his attention on to anything other than his current precarious position.
“Again with your gossip!” Sterlave yelled, whacking the palm of his hand to the cage. The metal shook with the force of the blow, causing Kerrick’s teeth to rattle in his head. “I have never known a man who cared so much for idle talk as you.”
Chagrined, Kerrick clamped his lips together. Sterlave was right; now was not the time. “What will happen to Ariss?”
After a long pause, Sterlave said, “It speaks to your true character that you ask after her first, rather than yourself.” Another long pause ensued, then Sterl
ave asked, “Are you in love with her?”
Kerrick did not want to speculate on that answer, not naked with his ass in the air, so he countered with a stern, “Now who wishes to engage in idle chatter?” But Kerrick knew that once the question had been placed in his mind, he would worry over it endlessly. Especially after the way she’d come to him, and he’d thought Fana had been under that robe, and he’d immediately said no to sex with Fana, preferring instead to wait for Ariss. Not once in his life had he turned down a willing woman for another. But that didn’t mean it was love. Infatuation, fascination, even obsession, but not necessarily love.
“I do not know what punishment Ariss will suffer for her part, for each of you has violated the prophecy.” Sterlave moved away from the cage, his steps crunching through the scattered seeds. Just hearing them pop below the thick hide of his boots reminded Kerrick of how they dug into his knees and forehead like tiny, dull swords.
Violating a prophecy didn’t sound like a good thing at all. Kerrick guessed he should be grateful that they didn’t simply kill him. A thousand thoughts collided in his mind, none of them good. If they’d put him in this gannett, surely they would do something similar to Ariss. Gods forbid, they did something worse.
Panic caused Kerrick to blurt, “It wasn’t her choice.” He hesitated, thinking what else he could say to take the blame off Ariss and onto himself. “I made her have sex with me.” He gulped hard, and added, “I forced her against her will. I don’t think she should be punished for what I did.” It was a lie, but he didn’t care. Kerrick couldn’t bear the thought of Ariss being punished. Something inside twisted and almost died with the thought that they would allow others to rape her as they clearly allowed with him. His thoughts became a nightmarish swirl of horror that he would do anything to prevent. He would willingly let every recruit use him to avoid even one using her.
With a groaning sigh, Sterlave said, “And now you think that you can take her punishment by taking all the blame on yourself.” Sterlave paced in front of the cage, his crunching boots telling Kerrick where he was in relation to his bound form. “You must love her.”
[The Onic Empire 03] - Sinful Harvest Page 14