Enslaved Book III: The Gladiators

by Kaitlyn O'Connor

  Dakaar swallowed audibly, still completely unaware of the possessive fury emanating from Kael. “Lecur has bought her,” he said with a strange mixture of excitement and baffled anger.

  The statement sent a wave of cold over Kael, however, bringing him back to reality with a sickening jolt.

  He could not court her to claim her. He could not entice her with his prowess as a lover. He could not best Dakaar to prove his worth as a warrior and a protector and win her admiration.

  She was a slave … and she belonged to Lecur … just he did.

  He wanted to rage against the fates that he had lived when the aliens had come and taken him instead killing him. He wanted to grab Lecur and tear him limb from limb.

  Instead, he sought to calm the rage that threatened his own existence as much as it did Lecur’s as he watched Lecur bring the tiny creature that had so enthralled him closer and closer. It was some vague notion that he might still achieve his freedom and take the maid that gave him the strength to fight his natural urges. It was pride that made him hide the twin desires for the maid and the desire to kill from his expression to prevent Lecur’s satisfaction in knowing he felt it and could do nothing about it, but it was the little maid herself that chilled those emotions into a frozen wasteland at his core.

  She was far smaller even that he had realized, far more beautiful to his eyes … and as far from his reach as if she was still on her own home world. He could not have her. No matter how much it might tear at him to look at her and know he would not touch her, let alone claim her, he could not and it would be far better to kill that want before it consumed him.

  Even so, he could not prevent himself from studying her, as hard as he worked to hide the hunger he felt. He could not help but search her pretty little face for some sign that she felt at least a tiny bit of the same interest in him as he had in her. Could she see past their differences as he had? Or would she see only that his skin was yellow and he towered over her and be afraid?

  * * * *

  A jolt went through Loren when she discovered they’d left the auction area completely, but it wasn’t entirely for that reason. The aliens she saw standing in the corridor, apparently waiting for the creature, shocked her into silence.

  They were massive on an entirely different scale than the creature who was deluded enough he thought he’d just bought her. They looked as if they must be every bit of seven feet tall—they were certainly a hell of a lot taller than the average six feet she was accustomed to! And whereas her ‘master’ was more like a ball with two arms and two legs, the pair of yellow skinned aliens looked like weightlifters, massively muscular.

  The discovery that they were nearly as naked as she was shattered the comforting cocoon of shock almost as instantaneously as it descended over her. Beyond the leather-looking thing that cupped their genitals and looked like something a male stripper might wear, they were completely exposed—their feet, legs, torso and massive arms ‘blindingly’ bare. In a state of shock that made it almost impossible to assimilate what she was staring at, she gaped without a great deal of comprehension at the massive musculature of the beings, vaguely noting numerous scars at every stage from pale and knotted with age to fresh and angry red against their yellowish skin. They were tattooed, she thought, but the darkened designs on their massive chests didn’t look like anything nature would’ve created.

  “Take female and put in harem. I go back and look for another one or two, I tink. You come back din and guard.” He frowned thoughtfully. “No. You send Pin, Uster, Balen, and Mateo. Gods damned pirates try rob me udderwise.”

  That comment pierced her shock and Loren turned to stare at the creature in disbelief as he turned and abandoned her. Harem? Her belly knotted with a mixture of fear and revulsion, but she struggled to blank her mind to the implications. He couldn’t possibly think he could ….

  A hand settled on her arm that was big enough it engulfed most of her upper arm. She stared at the hand for a long, blank moment, and then looked up at the owner of the hand, discovering with a fresh jolt of surprise that, despite his size and his coloring, he looked human in the face. His features were sharp and his bone structure angular, but it was a surprisingly handsome face for all that.

  It took her several moments to realize that he was studying her with an equal intensity.

  “Come.”

  Loren gulped, struggling to call to mind some kind argument to escape the fate that apparently awaited her. “I’m not supposed to be here,” she said in a squeaky voice.

  His gaze flickered over her face. She thought she saw a flicker of pity, but she saw something else, as well—interest, sexual interest and it made her mouth go dry and her knees go weak. “You slave as we are. You no choose. Must,” he said in a deep voice that matched the massive scale of the man and sent a shiver down her spine.

  She was too awed and too unnerved to try again. She didn’t try to struggle when he tugged at her arm to get her going. The other one fell into step on her other side and she glanced up at his face finally and discovered that he was looking down at her with interest, as well. Surprise went through her to discover that he was more handsome than the first … actually, handsome in a different way. The first was attractive in a purely male way—his face and features appealing in their strength. The second was still manly, but more ‘pretty’. As absurd as it seemed to think it, even to her, the thought crossed her mind that he was ‘classically’ handsome.

  If not for the size of them, and the color of their skin … and the strange little nubs that ran up their arms and the columns of their necks … and the thin, feathery membranes at wrist, elbow and calf that looked like fins—they might almost have passed for humans. They had hair—long and inky black and worn gathered in a tight ‘pony tail’ that fell from the crown of their heads all the way to their shoulder blades—but it looked like her own hair.

  Actually, their eyes weren’t like human eyes either except in shape.

  “Pretty little ting. Your people all little like you?” the second one asked curiously.

  She blinked at him in surprise, finding once again that she had to ‘interpret’, for although the words sounded like English in her ears, his accent was thick and the sentence structure choppy. Her face heated when she realized he’d said she was pretty and then whitened as it dawned on her that he was … flirting. At least, she thought he was, and it was hard to convince herself he wasn’t given the way he was looking at her and the comment together. “I haven’t seen a lot of men as tall as you two,” she said finally, or as massive!

  “Look like tiny Hirachi woman … ‘cept dis hair and dis skin.”

  Apparently he noticed that she wasn’t especially happy with the comment.

  “I like. Is pretty. Different, still pretty.”

  He was an attractive male even if he was an alien, but his size unnerved the hell out of her. Not that she thought he was going to get the chance to hump her as he so clearly wanted to when the hideously repulsive creature that had bought her had told them to put her in his harem! And if that had been her only options—him or the fish-man—she would certainly have chosen him! But she didn’t even want to think about what might be lying coiled like a cobra in his loincloth when it seemed likely he was completely proportional!

  Unfortunately, it didn’t seem to have occurred to him that her genitals were also proportional to her size!

  In all honesty, she thought his size would’ve unnerved her without that possibility thrown into the mix. He looked big enough and strong enough to break something purely by accident and she didn’t want any part of her body broken or mangled!

  That being the case, she didn’t reciprocate even though it popped into her mind that it would be polite to tell him that she didn’t find him repulsive either—terrifying, but not repulsive. She smiled at him a little weakly instead of thanking him for the compliment. “You’re … Hirachi?” she asked tentatively. “You aren’t from this world, then?”

  “Di
s no world. Big habitat in space.”

  She’d thought it must be a space station and she was still dismayed. If it had at least been on some planet she might have had the option of escaping and running—and probably dying because she had no clue of how to survive, but it was deeply disturbing to think she didn’t have any options.

  “We Hirachi. Captured on Ach, brought here, sold. Master buy to fight. Am Dakaar. Shy one Kael,” he added, pointing to his companion.

  Loren transferred her gaze from Dakaar to the ‘shy one’ and discovered that he was giving Dakaar a narrow eyed look. “She is a slave, as we are,” he said tightly. “What are you about? If you want to keep your manhood, you’ll do well to ignore your cock’s interest in the little one. You don’t need it to fight.”

  Dakaar flushed. “The poor little thing is scared to death,” he retorted angrily. “Who does it hurt to try to calm her fears?”

  “Her!” Kael retorted tightly. “She has every reason to be frightened. You aren’t doing her a good turn to allay those fears when she is destined for the master’s harem.”

  Dakaar looked as sick as he felt. “Why would he want her for … that?” he demanded, hesitating over the term since it made him feel sicker to think of that creature pawing her. “ It’s clear she’s far more like us, despite her size, than she is his species.”

  “He isn’t interested in breeding,” Kael said sourly, “any more than you are.”

  “There’s where you’re wrong,” Dakaar growled. “My time is close and I cannot think of much else!”

  Kael studied him thoughtfully for a long moment and finally shifted his gaze to the woman. “Gods!” he muttered. “That wily bastard has bought her to tease us. I thought it strange that he sent us to take her back when he claimed he had need of guards!”

  Dismay flickered through Dakaar, and then a wild hope that he didn’t dare dwell upon let alone voice. “He couldn’t know we’re nearing our spawning time, could he?”

  Kael snorted derisively. “He is no fool. He would’ve discovered what he could about us when he bought us. You may be sure of that.”

  “Mayhap …?”

  “Don’t say it! Don’t even think it! She is a pretty little thing, but when have you known Lecur to do anything that was not something for his own comfort or to increase his wealth?”

  “What’s going on?” Loren asked uneasily, unable to follow the conversation since they’d switched to another language. She could tell the ‘shy’ one Dakaar had called Kael was angry, however.

  “Not mind him,” Dakaar said tightly. “Has only two moods—angry and foul.”

  Despite everything, Loren felt amusement flicker through her even though Kael sent Dakaar a look that should have singed his hair.

  Actually, she thought, maybe it was because he did. There was something so human-like in the exchange that it comforted her, even though it was unnerving to see an expression of anger on a face attached to a fledgling mountain.

  “This … uh … harem,” she said uneasily. “On my world, it’s a place where … uh … sex slaves live. At least, that’s the way my culture looks at it.”

  “Is same,” Kael said bluntly.

  Loren felt the blood rush from her face. Weakness followed it. Fortunately, Kael had maintained his grip on her. “Oh,” she said faintly, shuddering, trying to block the images that flickered through her mind.

  Glancing around for something to distract her from the horrible mental images, she found it very quickly in the stares of the aliens they passed. She only had one hand she could cover herself with, though, and she sidled a little closer to Kael to try to hide from their lascivious gazes. To her surprise, Dakaar responded by moving closer, his expression hard as he warned the bystanders away and tried to shield her from their gazes with his bulk.

  She was still almost relieved when they turned into one of the buildings along the thoroughfare. They climbed several flights of stairs. When they reached what she realized must be the top floor, Kael touched buttons on a security pad and a door slid open. Giving her a slight nudge to get her inside, he released her arm. By the time she’d whipped around, the door had closed again, sealing her in.

  She sank weakly to the floor where she stood, feeling fear and hopelessness seep into every pore. As unnerving as she’d found both Dakaar and Kael, they’d seemed at least a little sympathetic and protective and she’d hoped ….

  She wasn’t certain what she’d hoped. That she might fare better with them?

  She didn’t know that and the truth was she couldn’t think of any reason at all to suppose that. The creature that had bought her hadn’t seemed cruel. He’d actually seemed pretty jolly, but then again she had no idea what had put him in such a good mood. It could’ve been plans that she wouldn’t like at all.

  The urge to cry assailed her. She struggled with it by force of habit. Her parents hadn’t approved of such an indulgence. If anything happened to make one feel like giving in to their emotions, it was very likely the worst thing to do. Keeping calm allowed some possibility of remedying the situation and giving in to hysterics was no help at all.

  She didn’t see how calm reflection was going to help her get out of her current situation, though, and it was pretty damned hard just to keep her mind off of what she very much feared was going to happen once the fish-man returned.

  She didn’t know if it was a good thing or a bad thing that she wasn’t a virgin. The fact that she wasn’t certainly hadn’t seemed to discourage anybody from bidding on her! And she also wasn’t sure it was terribly helpful that she knew exactly what she had to face. Maybe she would’ve been more afraid if she was still a virgin and only had an idea, not experience, but she had no idea what that … thing’s penis might be like. She had to assume he had one and was planning on using it, but could she count on it being anything like she was familiar with?

  She didn’t think so and the worse of it was, she kept thinking about those things growing out of its head and picturing a penis that was similar.

  “Oh god!” she muttered at the thought, surging to her feet and looking around a little wildly for any possibility of escaping. In the back of her mind, she knew it was useless. They were on a space station. She couldn’t run far enough or fast enough to keep from being caught and she suspected runaway slaves would be punished. And she didn’t really want to find out how they were punished. Beyond that, the fish-man had mentioned his fears of pirates, which seemed to suggest this was a very bad ‘neighborhood’. She had a bad feeling that the entire station was a hideout for every sort of lowlife imaginable.

  She could be wrong, but it almost seemed that the fact that the place appeared to be primarily populated by males almost insured that likelihood.

  A jolt went through her when she searched the perimeter of the large room for any sign of a window she might be climb out of and spotted a creature very like the fish-man lounging sleepily on something like a daybed at the far end of the room. There were several others that differed very little lounging or seated on pillows around her/it?

  It spoke to her when she focused on it, but she didn’t understand the language at all. The round face creased in a look of displeasure when she didn’t response.

  “Speak Unduleze?”

  “I guess so,” Loren said doubtfully.

  “What you be? No see ting like you ‘for.”

  “Human,” Loren responded uneasily. “From Earth.”

  The thing frowned. “No know dat place. Why here?”

  There was something about the tone of the question that told Loren it/she wasn’t going to be pleased to discover she was an addition to the harem and the others didn’t look too happy about it either.

  Far be it from her to try to steal the fish-man’s attentions! But could she convince them of that? And would it matter even if she did? He was going to do what he wanted to do and since they couldn’t take out their anger on him, she was going to be the target.

  “I don’t know,” she said unhappily.
“I wasn’t told anything.”

  The creature got up and undulated toward her. It almost seemed impossible that it could’ve been bigger around than the fish-man, but it was. She—Loren decided it had to be a female even though she was damned if she could tell that it looked more feminine than the fish-man—looked her over with contempt. “Lecur buy at slave market?”

  Loren swallowed a little convulsively, wondering if she was about to have a fight on her hands. “Yes.”

  “Din know why here!” the creature spat.

  “Actually, I was kind of hoping he had something else in mind. My people would buy me back,” she added on inspiration. Not that she thought the bastards that had put her in this position would, but surely her parents could come up with something! “I was stolen.”

  The creature grunted. “I stolen. They stolen. You tink I be here I not stolen?”

  Loren smiled with an effort. “Well then! We have something in common, don’t we? Neither of us wants to be here.”

  “I here first! Am concubine now!”

  “Oh! Well … uh … congratulations?”

  “You smartass?”

  Loren felt tearful all over again, but she knew it wouldn’t do to appear weak, especially when she was out numbered. The others hadn’t gotten up, but that didn’t mean they wouldn’t if there was any sign of trouble. “No. You seemed proud of it.”

  “Am!” she snapped angrily. “Lecur very rich! Have many gladiators.”

  Loren blinked at her, suddenly recalling the scars all over the two men who’d escorted her and Dakaar’s comment about being bought to fight. That was what he’d meant, she thought, horrified.

  Abruptly, she realized that what they faced, regularly, was a good bit worse than having to face the stinky fish-man wallowing on her and poking her. They were scarred all over. They hadn’t gotten those from fist fighting!

  Of course, there was hell and then there was hell! “The Hirachi that brought me here are gladiators?”

  The creature’s eyes narrowed assessingly. “You like dim Hirachi?”