Natalie blinked. “So?”
“So,” he went on, “you could buy your friends out of slavery. You have enough money to afford them.”
“Buy them!” she exclaimed. “I never thought of that.”
“It could be the only way you could get them out,” he told her.
“I would have to find them, though,” she pointed out. “That could be the hardest part of the project.”
“Someone would have to go into the gathering to get them,” he went on. “They would have to take your money and bid on your friends. If they succeeded, your friends would be free.”
Natalie’s eyes widened. “How would I know if my friends would be at the gathering?” she asked. “I would have to go without knowing whether they were there or not.”
“You wouldn’t go,” Kyan returned. “You couldn’t go. Females don't attend the gatherings except as slaves.”
Natalie wilted. “That’s true. I guess it couldn't really work.”
“Don’t give up so easily,” he replied. “There might still be a way. Just think about it. You wouldn’t be able to spend all your credits in your life. This could be the best use for the money.”
Natalie smiled. “I’ll do it if I can. I'll do anything I can to help out.”
At that moment, a bell rang somewhere overhead. Kyan went to a panel on the wall and touched it. “That’s the Commander's signal. I have to go up to the bridge. There's another gathering taking place, and the surveillance team detected another human present.”
Natalie gasped. “Another human! I’m coming with you. It could be one of my friends.”
He held up his hand. “You’re not allowed on the bridge. You have free access to the rest of the ship, but not the bridge. Go back to your quarters. If you want to help, you can help rehabilitate your friend after we bring her aboard.”
“No way!” Natalie shot back. “If it is one of my friends, I’m coming with you. I have to do what I can to help them, and no one is going to stop me.”
He spun away on his heel. “I don’t have time to argue with you. If you think you can do something, you can explain it to the Commander.”
Natalie hurried after him, and when they came onto the bridge, the Commander rose from his chair with his fists clenched. “What’s she doing here?”
Natalie squared her shoulders. “This is my fight as much as anyone else's. If there's a human down there, I have to help rescue her. I'm not leaving this bridge. If you don't want me here, you'll have to remove me by force. Just be warned that I will fight with everything I've got to stay here, so you better come prepared for anything.”
The Commander glared at her. “All right. You can stay. Just stand there and listen and don’t interrupt.”
He turned back to the Tactical station and the crew surrounded him. The Commander pointed to a computer screen set into the table. “The gathering will take place on the planet Krakith. The guests are just beginning to arrive. We'll lie low behind the fourth moon, and when they get started, we'll strike.”
One of the crew spoke up from another station. “Only seventy vessels are orbiting the planet. It’s an elite gathering, not like the last one.”
Kyan went to his own station and studied his computer screen. “I’m receiving a message from our agent on the ground. They got a special invitation for the unknown Eblian warrior.”
“Eblian?” Natalie gasped. “But that’s you! You're not going down there. You're not going to the gathering.”
“I always go undercover,” he replied. “I get invited because I’m a rare species and a respected warrior. That's how I got you out.”
“Isn’t it dangerous?” Natalie asked.
Kyan didn’t answer that question. He turned back to his read-out. “There’s only one problem. Every guest must bring a slave.”
“We don’t have anyone who can act as a slave,” the Commander pointed out. “We’re all male.”
“I could take a male slave,” Kyan suggested.
The Commander waved his hand at the assembled crew. “None of these men are smaller than you. You would attract too much suspicion. It would never work. Besides, the male-oriented representatives don’t usually mingle with the female slaves. You wouldn't be able to get close enough to rescue them.”
“Maybe we could get a volunteer from the local population,” Kyan suggested.
“That won’t work either. The Krakith females aren’t compatible with most of the representatives. They aren't sought-after as slaves. Anyway, there isn't time to brief one of them and get her to the gathering on time.” The Commander turned away. “Well, I guess we'll miss out on this one. Better luck next time.” The crew started to leave the Tactical station.
“Wait a minute,” Natalie cried. “I could pose as his slave. I could go with him, and we could work together to get the other slaves out.”
“Forget it,” the Commander snapped. “We just rescued you. You’re not going back.”
“But I want to,” she exclaimed. “I’m volunteering.” She rounded on Kyan. “You said there might be a way I could fight back against these pirates, and this is it.”
“You can’t go,” Kyan told her. “You have no training. You’re an unknown quantity.”
“I might not have any training,” she replied,” but I can fight well enough. You’ve seen that for yourself. I can handle myself down there. I promise I won't let you down. You have to let me go.”
“You’re not going,” the Commander snapped. “That’s final.”
Kyan hit a button on his console and the screen switched off. None of the rest of the crew was even paying attention to the conversation anymore. The Commander sat back down in his chair and looked the other way.
Natalie’s heart sank. How could she let this opportunity slip away like this? When would she ever have another chance to find out if her friends were alive or dead, or have a chance to help them? She had to get down to that planet at all costs.
She rushed to Kyan and gazed up into his face. “Please, Kyan. I know I’m totally untried, but please let me come with you. I can help you in a way no one else can. The pirates don't know what happened to me after the last raid. They don't know you're part of the Galactic Police Force. We can convince them the Eblian warrior stole me from Fo and made me his own slave.”
Kyan’s eyes crinkled behind his mask. “I couldn’t put you in danger again. You've been through enough.”
“I’ve been to enough of these gatherings,” Natalie told him. “No one knows better than I do what do expect down there. Please let me come. This is my fight as much as it is yours.”
His eyes softened, and his voice murmured behind his mask. “I couldn’t stand by and watch you used and abused again. It was bad enough watching the last time. I couldn't put you in that situation again if I could do anything to prevent it. Stay here and leave this to us. We'll find your friend and bring her here. That's when you can help.”
Natalie clamped her eyes shut and a single tear squeezed out onto her eyelashes. She started to turn away when the Commander spoke up. “Actually, this just might work.”
Chapter 9
Kyan exploded into the exercise studio with his arms flexed at his sides. “What do you think you’re doing?”
“I told you,” Natalie replied. “I’m coming with you. I want to help you free the slaves. That should be easy enough for you to understand.”
“How could you be so stupid as to put yourself in danger like this?” he asked.
“What are you talking about?” Natalie asked. “I thought you’d be happy about me trying to stop the Toom. I thought that's what you wanted me to do.”
“I put my life in danger to get you out of there,” he told her. “You’ve been given a life most slaves dream about, and now you want to throw it away. You should be building a life for yourself away from all this, not jumping for a chance to go back. What is the matter with you?”
“What do I have to live for?” Natalie cried. “Other than fi
nding my friends, what do I have in this whole stupid galaxy to look forward to? They’re the only Earthlings I'll ever see again as long as I live. Doesn't that mean anything to you? I thought you of all people would understand, but I guess I was wrong about you. You don't care what happens to me, so leave me alone.” She turned her back on him and fought back tears. She couldn't let him see her cry
He stood in silence and stared at her back. Then he stepped up behind her and put his hands on her shoulders. “Natalie.”
She rounded on him with all her ferocious power. She pounded his chest with her fists and kicked at his legs until her toes ached. “Leave me alone. I don’t need you.”
She railed against him with all her might, but he held her arms away from him with almost no effort at all. She vented her grief and rage until the tears streamed down her cheeks. In the end, he enfolded her in his arms and held her against his chest.
Natalie buried her face in his uniform and sobbed. All the tears stored up from months of slavery with Fo flooded out of her. The regeneration bed suppressed every negative emotion and left only contentment and pleasure in their places, but it couldn’t wipe them out entirely. Fo and his friends used her in the worst way. The pleasure and excitement she experienced only made the memory more heinous and perverted.
Kyan held her close through it all. His breath warmed the top of her head, and his voice washed over her. “You’re safe now. I'll never let anyone hurt you again.”
After a long bouts of weeping, she collapsed against him, exhausted. Kyan swept her up into his arms and carried her back to her quarters, where he laid her on the bed. Natalie let her tears trickle into the pillow, but she didn’t have strength enough to sob anymore.
Kyan left the room and came back with a tray of food. He sat down on the floor next to the bed and set the tray in front of him. He handed Natalie a strange fruit and bit into another himself. When she copied him, a tangy juice filled her mouth and satisfied the hunger she didn’t know she had.
They ate in silence. After Kyan put the tray away, he rested his head against the bed and gazed into Natalie’s eyes. “I don't have to tell you what this gathering will be like, but you might find it different to go there with me than with the Toom.”
Natalie caught her breath. “What do you mean?”
“You’ll be going there as my slave,” he explained. “To make a convincing show of it, you’ll have to service me. Have you thought about that? You'll have to perform for me. I'll have to take you in front of all the others, and they'll watch.”
Natalie gulped. “I know.”
He fixed her with a hard stare. “It will be different to do it with me. It won’t be the same as doing it with strangers or even with those pirates. Have you thought about that?”
The image of the gatherings rose up in front of her eyes. There was Fo standing to one side taking bids, and there was Kyan coming up to the stage to take his turn with her. He lifted her leg to his hip and shoved his cock into the tunnel underneath. Her head lolled back and she moaned in ecstasy.
Her vulva tingled inside her jumpsuit, and her sweet nectar bathed her throbbing tissues. God, she would give anything to sit on him and twist until she drove herself mad. She would give anything to bend over and back her tight ass against his rock hard spike.
She fought for breath, and her voice choked when she tried to speak. “I would rather do it with you than with anyone else. I’m glad I'm going with you and not anybody else.”
His eyes widened. “I only meant....”
Natalie’s words came out in a rush. “I’ve been to enough of these gatherings in the last six months that I know what to expect. You don't want to watch me being used, but you must understand that the other guests are allowed to use me, too, not just you. It's the only way to convince them I really am your slave and to find the other Earthling females.”
He hesitated a moment. “I understand.”
Tears sprang to Natalie’s eyes. “You don’t want to do it with a woman like me. I understand that. I've been used by so many males of all different species. No man will ever want me again after that. I should find a lonely planet to live on, far away from all this. That's why your home planet sounds so nice to me.”
Kyan sat up straight, and his eyes flashed. “Don't you dare talk like that! Those pirates will pay for what they did to you if I have to spend the rest of my life tracking them down. They've ruined so many females they shouldn't be allowed to live. You've been through enough already, and now you want to fight for your friends and save them, too. Any man would be blessed and honored to share his life with a kind-hearted warrior like you.”
Natalie dropped her eyes. “I’m not a warrior, Kyan. I'm nothing but a lost little girl.”
He shook his head and settled back down on the bed next to her. “You’re so much more than that. Some day you'll understand that, and the man you choose will be fortunate indeed.”
She paused. Then she mustered all her courage. “Would you take your mask off—for me? Would you let me see your face, as you really are?”
His eyes bored into her soul. Then he stood up. He pushed the mask back over his head and let it drop to the ground. Then he took off his uniform jacket and let it fall, too. Natalie stared at him in wonder.
He really didn’t look that different from a normal human male. Long ropes of tight, curled hair hung down from the back of his head, and a delicate curve highlighted his mouth. Only his jade-green skin and jeweled eyes gave mute testimony that he was alien. He would certainly blend in well in the rain forest.
Natalie tried to squeeze her thighs together to stop her crotch from bursting into flame, but he must have sensed her rising tension. He sat down on the bed next to her and ran his hand up her arm. The energy rippled up through her body, and her mouth dropped open with a gasp.
“Kyan,” she murmured, “I don’t think I can....”
He interrupted her. “Do you trust me?”
She nodded, unable to say any more.
He took her by the hand and raised her from the bed. He led her back into the main room and pulled one of the big padded chairs into the middle of the room. Then he pulled a loop of strong cable from his belt and held it up.
Natalie’s breath caught in her throat. The Police used these cables to tie their prisoners’ wrists together. What was Kyan going to do with it? Was he going to take over where Fo and his friends left off? Would he dominate her and use her, now that she didn't have the regeneration bed to recover? How could she stand that?
He smiled at her, and a radiant light spread over his face. “Don’t worry. They're for me, not you.”
He shucked off the rest of his clothes until only a pair of small shorts remained around his hips. He sat down on the chair and shackled himself to it with the cable. Natalie watched in stunned disbelief. Did he really mean what she thought he meant?
When he couldn’t move from the chair, he gazed up at her. “If you really want to come to this gathering with me, you must be comfortable with my body. I’m not your pirate master. I won't go with you any other way, and I won't take you until you're ready to give yourself to me of your own free will. I'm shackled here now, so you can explore my body without fear.”
“You don’t have to worry about that,” Natalie told him. “There’s only one part of your body I'll be expected to touch.”
Kyan cut her off with a curt shake of his head. “This isn’t about the gathering. This is between you and me. We're not going down to that planet until you know exactly what you're getting into. You don't have to do anything you don't want to do, but once we get down to the planet, you won't be able to change your mind. Find out now if this is really what you want. You're safe now, so don't hold back.”
Natalie surveyed his body. She wouldn’t hold back. No way would she hold back, now that he was giving himself to her without restraint. She didn't have to question whether she really wanted to do this. She never wanted anything so much in her life.
Her crotch burned, and sticky jiz bubbled out of her in rivulets. She could barely hold herself back, but she forced herself to move with infinite slowness. She wouldn’t get an opportunity like this at the gathering.
She probably wouldn’t be able to look at him once they walked in the door. He and every other male in the place would be all over her, behind her and on top of her and in her mouth. They would have her blindfolded and gagged and collared and tied and whipped and everything else. If she wanted to touch him, to learn what pleased him and what excited him, now was her chance.
She ran her fingers through his hair and stroked his smooth cheeks. She traced her fingertips over his eyelids, and he closed them to her touch. Natalie lowered her face and brushed her cheek against his lips. His warm, earthy breath blew into her lungs, and she traced her tongue down his neck to his chest.
She caressed his neck and shoulders. His green skin reminded her of a lizard’s scaly skin, but to the touch it was soft as down. She dragged her lips down his chest to his stomach, and he gasped for air. Then she came back up to his face and kissed him long and deep.
How long she’d waited for that kiss! She dreamed of it in the exercise studio and when he walked her back to her quarters. Now she could experience the depth of her passion for him, and he returned it in full. His tongue slipped into her mouth, and she hovered over him with her hair surrounding his face. It formed a curtain to protect them from the outside world. No one could intrude on this moment. No one could take it away from them.
Natalie broke away from his lips and followed the muscles of his chest back down to around his waist. Kyan groaned and panted, and his hips flexed up towards her. Natalie caught sight of the bulge in his shorts.
She slid both hands down either side of his hips, and his shorts dropped to the floor. His cock sprang free and rose rigid and fierce from his body. It wasn’t green like the rest of him, though. It was like any human cock except it was massive like the rest of him. Natalie understood that cock. She knew exactly what it wanted and how to please it.
She took it in her hand and petted it with tender loving care. She could love it and tend it and feed it and make it her pet. She bent to kiss its round wee head, but at the last moment, she hesitated. Maybe he didn’t want her to go that far. Maybe he only wanted her to get familiar with his body and didn't really want her to take him the way she'd been taken so many times in the past.
Alien Romance Box Set: Eblian Mates Complete Series (Books 1 - 3): A Sci-fi Alien Warrior Invasion Abduction Romance Page 6