by Shea Malloy
A traitor who wants her enemy’s touch.
A traitor who moans shamefully when it’s received.
Theron’s fingers slips into my underwear, his fingers sliding lower, parting me. He presses against my tight bud and I lift up onto my toes. I squeeze my eyes shut, and my lips too so that I don’t let out the cry rising in my throat.
“Widen your legs, Seela,” he growls. His fingertips design lazy circles on my sensitive flesh. I press my legs tighter together defiantly, constricting his hand.
“I’m not giving in to you,” I say, but my voice lacks conviction.
A triumphant smile curves his lips. It’s infuriating. I want to slap it off his face.
“You’re so beautiful when you’re stubborn.”
He releases my wrists at the same time he grabs hold of my underwear and yanks it down my thighs. Without thinking, I spread them to let the scrap of cloth fall freely to the floor. Theron seizes that opportunity to wedge his fingers between my legs.
His fingers curve up and invade my channel at the same time his mouth comes crashing down on mine again. My resolve has weakened considerably, assaulted by the things he’s doing to my body.
When I return Theron’s kiss, I do it angrily, fiercely.
Just because I’m finally giving in doesn’t mean I enjoy it.
Which is a lie because I do.
And I hate myself for it.
Hate him for it.
Yet I don’t want him any less.
What we’re doing feels inevitable. Fighting against it is like trying to contain a roaring fire with your hands.
His thick fingers fuck me as his tongue dominates mine. I grip the front of his jacket to push him away. Instead I open my legs wider for him. I fist his jacket and pull him closer as he swallows my whimpers of pleasure like if my capitulation gives him life.
He breaks our kiss, his breath warm on my lips. He palms my breast, rolling my nipple between his fingers. A wet sound comes from where his other fingers manipulate me to his will.
Each stroke makes me tighter, makes my breathing come faster, makes me lift my hips in desperation for the finish that his fingers promise me.
My body is pulled taut and straining.
He is right that he is my first. I’ve explored my own body but I’ve never felt anything like this before. Never been touched like this by anyone. Maybe he’s right, too, that he will be my only.
But Theron slows to a torturous pace that makes me tremble with frustration
“Theron…” I pant. I don’t recognize that voice. That can’t be me sounding so desperate. “You bastard…”
“I can’t give you what you want if you insult me.” He squeezes my breast and pushes a third finger into me, stretching me so that I cry out and rise up on my tiptoes. His hand must be drenched by how aroused I am. “But I can if you beg for it.”
I can’t think straight anymore. I just want release.
“You want me to say please?”
“No, that’s not enough. You can do better than that.”
“Then… please…” I grind my hips down on him. “…Please fuck me.”
He withdraws his hand from me to remove his jacket. Once he’s finally rid of his pants, he snares me around the waist and drags me to the floor.
His mouth covers mine in a hungry kiss I return with as much fervour. I slide my hands down his arms, caressing the even ridges of the scales on his skin.
He shudders at my touch and I delight in the low groan of pleasure he makes in the back of his throat. I didn’t know an Andrasari grew aroused from their scales being touched.
My head spins at the speed at which we’re moving. One moment we were arguing over one thing, the next we’re on the floor tangled together.
What we’re doing is wrong, forbidden even. I am a human slave and he is Andrasari royalty. If we’re discovered like this, I will be killed and maybe Theron too for violating the ideologies of his people.
We’re supposed to be enemies, so how did we end up here? Why is it that when he touches me it doesn’t feel wrong at all? Maybe he’s right that we’ve both been cursed.
He’s a mountain of hard, hot flesh between my legs and bearing down on me. His cock lays on my belly, rigid and warm. The weight of it… the length of it… I try not to tremble from the fear of being unable to accommodate him.
He puts his hand to my neck and there’s a gentle click. The collar slackens and falls away.
“I don’t want a slave,” he says as he angles his length against my slick entrance and slides into me. “I want you.”
I’ve sunk to the darkness with him and I realize that I don’t want to return to the light if I can’t have him with me.
His lips hover over mine, swallowing my gasp as he fills me, stretches me. There’s so much of him, almost too much. He has to withdraw and shove into me in order to fully enter me.
When he does, my back curves away from the floor. My walls tighten around him, but there’s no yield, no softness. His cock is hard and unforgiving. It’s going to destroy me.
And I’m going to love every single second of my destruction by this powerful dragon prince.
He releases a pained grunt as he thrusts into me. Puffs of his warm breath tickles my collarbone. That coil of pleasure he’d already wound inside me restarts its spiral. He’s not gentle. He props himself up on his elbows as he takes me rough and with animalistic desperation.
I’m heady that I made this strong-willed male lose his restraint. Around others, he’s reserved to the point of cold. But with me, he’s a beast possessed by lust and determination to claim me as his.
“Theron…” I gasp, shivering beneath him, my fingernails scraping down his broad, muscular back. I’m held in the grips of my climax, overrun by pleasure and heat sweeping through my body.
Swearing, a groan of pleasure rumbling in his chest, Theron comes inside me. His flesh throbs, filling me with his seed. I clamp down on him tightly, hoping to milk every last drop inside my body.
An incredible wave of sensation and tingling warmth sweeps through me. My heart gallops as I’m suddenly filled with a burst of energy. It’s different than an orgasm but it feels just as amazing.
He nuzzles my neck, his hand gliding along my hip and thigh in a caress that’s far gentler than what we just did.
“You’re mine, always mine, Seela.” He says it softly like if he meant to keep the words in his head and has mistakenly said them out loud.
“Yes,” I whisper, too terrified of how true the words are to say them any louder. “Yes, Theron, I’m yours.”
16
Seela
—
Sleeping with your enemy shouldn’t be an invisible line that you might accidentally cross.
It should be a tall fence covered in poisonous spikes to deter you from climbing it.
It had felt so right when Theron’s hands caressed me, when his lips were against mine, when he rasped in my ear that he wanted me, when he brought me to levels of pleasure I’d never known existed.
In that moment, we had forgotten who we were supposed to be to each other.
Of course, after it was over we were forced to remember.
I wallow in guilt. However, I don’t regret because that would mean I would’ve made a different choice if given a second chance. I wouldn’t. I still would have let him kiss me and take me on his floor and relish every single second of it.
Worst of all, I would let him do it again.
And it’s for this reason why the guilt tightens my chest and weighs down my shoulders.
I really am a traitor. To myself and to my people.
While Xia was still in prison mourning the execution of her father by an Andrasari, I willingly let their prince claim my body as his. Several days later, his touch is still a phantom on my skin.
I try to pretend that all is normal. That I’m just another zevyet trapped in service to her zevyena. That when I close my eyes I don’t see the hunger in his gaze when
he loomed over me. That I don’t hear his moan as he came inside me.
That I didn’t mean it when I said I was his.
However, if I thought Theron was a bastard prior to what happened between us the night of Shihong’s execution, he really lives up to the name now.
The wall he usually has surrounding him is thicker, higher, and colder than before. He either harshly criticizes the things I do for him or rewards me with chilly silence.
His inability to look at me, and his avoidance from being in the same room as me for too long is proof enough that even though I don’t regret, he certainly does.
Seated in the main room, I try to pay attention to the book I’m reading. He’s in his office and he’s speaking. Maybe he’s in a meeting. His angry tones intrigue me. I abandon my book and draw closer to the closed door as his muffled voice becomes more coherent.
“…burning villages. Now they will fashion weapons from all of that stolen Rurium… That’s because you underestimated their intelligence. They’ve become coordinated—hold for one moment. I’ve an unwelcome audience.”
Oh, dear. I forgot Andrasari beings have that pesky ability to smell you from far away.
I’m about to hurry away when his door abruptly opens and he catches me.
We hold each other’s stare. I’m frozen where I stand, my brain at a loss for words.
“Is the rebellion getting stronger?” I finally ask.
“That’s none of your concern, human,” he says coldly. “Get back to whatever it is you were doing and stay away from this door.”
“We’re back to ‘human’ now?”
Goddess above, I need a trade. I need a new pair of lips because mine is defective and clearly has a penchant for getting me into trouble.
Theron regards me in amazement like if he can’t believe I dared speak those words. Frankly, I’m pretty amazed myself. I swallow and force myself to speak hurriedly.
“I just want to keep up to date on what’s going on. I haven’t seen anything beyond these walls ever since… ever since Shihong’s execution.” Heat floods my face as that ever present memory of what we did after Shihong’s execution jumps into remembrance with ease.
He stares at me in silence and I resist the urge to drop my gaze. Finally, a dark look of resolution crosses his features. Like if he’s come to some sort of decision.
“You need to leave.”
I hate myself that instead of feeling joy at his words, I feel panic.
“Are you releasing me?”
“Yes, I’m relieving you of your duties as my zevyet,” he says, his voice emotionless. “You will serve as a slave within the Andrak’s as well as reside in the areas designated for your kind. Gather whatever items you deem important from your room and find your way there.”
“Why?”
“I am your master,” he sneers. “You will do what I say without question, slave.”
He has said these words to me before countless times and they’ve left me unfazed. This time, they’re like a punch to the gut, winding me from the shock that it hurts.
I turn around before he can see the tears because I feel ridiculous for crying. Wasting my tears on him is bad enough, much less to let this bastard see them.
“There’s nothing important here for me that I need,” I say coldly. “Please give me access to the doors so that I can leave right away.”
He sounds the command to his security system. With squared shoulders, I march out of his quarters without a clue as to where I need to go. I take the lift to the lowest level and it’s only after I’ve stepped into the gloomy corridor do I realize I had the opportunity to escape.
I’ve been a caged creature for so long that even when my master no longer wants me, I still obey his orders.
Eyin comes into view before I can head back into the lift and escape this place.
“Why are you here, Seela?” she asks.
“I made a mistake.”
Let her believe I mean that I got off on the wrong floor. She doesn’t know that the mistake I made was the day I ran toward the dragon roaring in the forest so long ago.
She gives me a strange look. “Do you want me to lead you back to Theron’s—”
“No.” I say sharply. Then I soften my voice and give her a tight smile. “It’s not necessary. I am no longer Nai Theron’s zevyet. I am now in service to the Andrak.”
She stares at me for a while and frowns. “He still hasn’t told you?”
“Told me what?”
She shakes her head, flashing a quick smile.
“Just speaking out loud. Nothing to concern you.”
I don’t believe her. As friendly as Eyin is, she is still Theron’s sister. If she’s anything like her brother whose temperaments change as often as the wind changes direction, it would be foolish to challenge her words.
“Since you don’t seem to know what to do with yourself, do you want to work with me in the infirmary for the day?” she asks. “There are still many injured humans from the fight that occurred after Shihong’s execution.” Her features turn somber. “His daughter is helping as much as she can, too.”
Xia. That night I’d stupidly promised her I’d help free her father was the last time I’d seen her. I’m reluctant to face her now.
Leaving her without at least seeing her once more is the coward’s way out. I need to apologize for giving her false hope only for her to have it brutally crushed.
“Yes, I’d like to help,” I say to Eyin.
She leads me away to the infirmary.
17
Seela
—
Rows of beds filled with infirm humans populate the infirmary.
The male Andrasari I saw my first time here, peers at a console’s holographic screen that’s littered with indecipherable text. He’s so engrossed in his work, he seems unaware of our entrance.
Standing beside a bed, Xia leans over a resting human some distance away. Cloth in hand, she wipes their forehead. She lifts her head from her task, glancing at Eyin before settling her gaze on me.
My chest feels tight and heavy with dread and guilt.
“Can I speak with Xia quickly before I begin?” I ask Eyin.
With a nod, she leaves me to check on a patient.
What a difference she is to her brother. Most of the time when I make a request of Theron, the first word to his lips is ‘no’.
Making my way over to Xia, I push thoughts of Theron aside.
“How are you?”
It’s such a trite question to ask, but I don’t know where to start. Her brown eyes don’t hold any hostility. Her lips curve up a bit and I relax marginally.
“I’m glad to see you’re well, Seela,” she says, avoiding my question.
I decide to launch right into what I want to say. “Xia, I’m so sorry—”
She raises a hand. “Don’t be. You meant well and I believe that you tried, but it was too late to save him.” There’s a waver in her voice as she speaks. “It’s my fault he died, anyway.”
“It wasn’t your fault,” I say forcefully. I hate that she blames herself for something like this. It’s hard enough to lose a loved one, let alone carry the burden of guilt that they died because of you.
I would know because I share her experience. If it weren’t for me, Ikkon would still be alive today. But because he chose to treat me as someone of value, he lost his life.
I lower my voice. “Ronan set it all up to have a scapegoat to torture. He loved nothing more than to kill humans. But he can’t hurt anymore now that he’s dead.”
“The bastard didn’t die, his Shifted blood saved him.” Xia’s hands tighten over the cloth in her hand, her voice like a chilled blade. “He’s already on his feet killing even more humans. See these?” She points at the collar around her neck. It’s a new one made of Rurium steel, a sinister gleam on its black coat. “It doesn’t just shock you like before, it explodes.” Even though her face is a mask of fury, her eyes shine with unshed tears. “I
saw them exhibit it on Jogen when he tried to escape.”
It’s the most horrific thing I’ve ever heard. My skin crawls. An awful sensation coils along my spine at the thought that Theron had a hand in this gruesome method to subjugate my people.
Xia’s gaze darts to my neck then focuses on me.
“Why aren’t you wearing one of the new collars? It was mandatory of all humans.”
“Theron—Nai Theron never told me about it. He has kept me chained away from everything since…” I don’t bother finishing the sentence. I know she knows when I’m talking about.
“I guess he doesn’t want to see you explode into several bloody pieces.”
There’s something in her tone that makes me nervous, as well as her intent stare that is gradually becoming suspicious.
I smile tightly at her. “I’m glad to see you, Xia. I should probably speak with Eyin now to see how I can help—”
Xia grabs my hand suddenly, her voice an accusatory whisper.
“You’re his lover, aren’t you?”
“Of course not,” I say, but I’ve spoken too quickly and my voice is too high. Even to my own ears, I hear how false my words sound. “I’m not even his zevyet anymore.”
Her grip tightens, her gaze feral. “You’re lying. That night we all got imprisoned, he cut his trip short and came back to free you, to protect you. When you told me you would help set my father free, you knew you had his ear, didn’t you? You knew that you could convince him to do it because you mean more to him than just a slave.”
“Obviously that’s not true because it didn’t work. Your father still died,” I say in angry, hushed tones. I wrench my hand free from her grasp. “You’re mistaken, Xia. I don’t mean anything to the Nai of Andrasar.”
“What was the favour you did for him, Seela?” she asks abruptly. When I don’t answer right away, she snarls at me. “What did you do?”
Don’t tell her.