by Adara Wolf
Right. Right. Tracht had said he was invested in Alex. That he wanted Alex to stay with him.
It sounded like he cared about Alex.
If Alex started crying now, it would be beyond pathetic. He swallowed and said, “Kiss me, please,” and was so grateful that Tracht granted his request.
Even after the kiss ended, Tracht kept his forehead pressed to Alex’s, and they breathed in each other’s air. Tracht kept petting Alex, stroking his jaw and his hair, and it was so fucking nice after the hell of the previous day.
A knock on the door interrupted them. Alex whimpered when Tracht pulled away.
“Come in,” Tracht said.
Anna came into the room with grimace on her face. Her eyes were red and she wasn’t wearing any makeup. She looked old. Definitely older than Tracht.
“I—” Anna sighed and sat down in the other chair in the room. “I wanted to see how everything was going here.”
“Alex is doing fine,” Tracht said mildly. “The doctors say he’ll be in a cast for a few weeks. The new tooth has set well. The face—well. There probably won’t be any additional scars. Thank you for pretending to care.”
Anna flinched. “All right. I deserved that. I’ve been—I’ve been unkind.” She rubbed her brow, similar to how Tracht sometimes did.
She looked straight at Alex. “Johan said you tried to save him. And I think—no, I know—that if you hadn’t been there, Johan would have gotten more hurt. So, thank you.”
Was Alex still dreaming? Was he actually still trapped, but he’d dreamt up some sort of alternate reality where Tracht was nice and Anna didn’t hate him? He looked at Tracht, but there was nothing except careful blankness on his face.
“Uh, sure.” Alex’s face heated up. He had no idea what she wanted from him.
“I’m going to deposit a payment into your account,” Anna said. “You can use it to pay off your debt faster, or have it waiting for you when your service is over.”
Wow. Tracht’s nose twitched lightly, but he didn’t say anything, and that left Alex to try to figure out how to respond.
“Thanks?” It was kind of nice of her. There had to be some kind of catch, but since Tracht didn’t raise an objection, Alex wasn’t going to either.
The room fell into silence.
“Is that all you came to say?” Tracht asked finally.
Anna nodded. “Yes—oh, and Vasilis said to let you know that the acquisition went ahead without a hitch. He wasn’t going to let this get in the way of business.”
“That’s good to hear. I would hate for the saboteurs get what they wanted, no matter how indirectly.”
An awkward silence fell, then Anna coughed and stood. “All right then. I’ll see you both later. Johannes, let’s have dinner before you leave.”
Tracht waved, and then she was gone, leaving Alex alone with Tracht once more.
“Is she really gonna pay me?” Alex asked. If he had the energy to, he would have sat up or reached out to Tracht. He had to content himself with Tracht stroking his scalp lightly.
“I doubt she would lie about it. Do you intend to use it to pay off the debt faster?”
“No?” Alex closed his eyes. “What would I even do after that? And this way I’ll have some cash when it’s all over.”
He heard Tracht snort mildly. “What would you do, indeed.”
==
Dr. Singh stopped by at Tracht’s request, and she talked with Alex’s doctors to get up to speed on his injuries and recovery process.
“He’s got a lot of bad luck, doesn’t he,” Dr. Singh said, flipping through images of Alex’s fractured hand. “This is pretty nasty.”
With Alex slipping in and out of a drug-induced sleep, Tracht didn’t have much else to do than to talk with her. He’d gone to see Johan simply to keep up appearances, but the low-level hatred he felt for his nephew hadn’t abated yet.
“I’d say in certain respects he was very lucky. Having recently met the Nilsen clan, I am more convinced than ever that service to me is far preferable, and far less painful, than service to them would have been.”
That reminded Tracht that he owed Anja Nilsen a favor now. He should have done more research on her, found proper leverage. Maybe he could have waited just a little longer, until Koteas and her team had done their job.
The thought of Alex going through even one more round of torture was unbearable however, and at least this way he’d gotten to take out a little of his anger. He could also be assured that there would be no leniency given.
“Mm. If you say so.” Dr. Singh set her tablet aside and looked at him. “How are you, though?”
“Me? I’m perfectly fine.”
She gave him a look, a reminder that they had been acquainted for near seven years by now, and she knew him far better than most.
In her mind, they were friends. Tracht thought of what he’d said to Alex, of how nobody else mattered, and wondered how he’d feel if it had been Singh in Alex’s position.
Certainly he wouldn’t have appealed to the Nilsens for help then.
“Don’t insult either of us by pretending you aren’t completely gone for Alex. There is no way you were unaffected by what happened.”
“As you say. It was highly stressful and unpleasant. I was ready to murder Anna if she didn’t shut up about sacrificing Alex for Johan’s sake.” Tracht smiled sharply. “Are you going to tell me that this is beneath me?”
She laughed. “Don’t be absurd. It would be very hypocritical, considering the relationship Charles and I have with Nadia. Anyway, it’s not like this is news. I noticed two months in that you liked Alex a lot more than the other ones.”
He wanted to deny it. He was fairly certain the real turning point had been their arrival on Atalanta, after Alex had saved him from being crushed by a container, but maybe she was right.
“Regardless,” Tracht said, “I do need to figure out how to reward him for—for not being dead. And then to punish him for getting into this situation in the first place. Any ideas?”
Dr. Singh was delighted to brainstorm with him.
==
The next few days were a bit of a blur for Alex. They went to the debt-leasing center and got Alex a new collar. Alex was invited to dinner with Tracht’s family and actually allowed to sit at the table with them. It was weird.
He could only use his left hand, so Tracht ended up cutting his food for him, which made his ears burn in embarrassment. Nobody else noticed though.
Johan was pretty quiet for most of the meal too, except he kept looking at Alex with these big eyes of his. It made Alex feel even more uncomfortable than Markus’s incessant questions.
As they were leaving, Vasilis ended up clapping Alex on the shoulder. “Seriously, thank you. When you’ve finished out your contract with Tracht, feel free to contact me and I’ll find a job for you.”
He mumbled some sort of excuse and hurried after Tracht, who had that air of impatience that was so dangerous on him.
“Looks like you’re all set for when you leave me,” Tracht said in clipped tones.
“Huh? Leave you?” Alex tried to figure out when he’d said anything about leaving, but drew a blank.
Tracht huffed a laugh. “Never mind. I’m being dramatic.” He placed his hand on the small of Alex’s back and led them to the street, where a cab was waiting to take them back to the docks. Back to the ship.
[Chapter 8]
Tracht hadn’t been kidding when he’d said he was going to coddle Alex for a week. It was amazing. Alex would easily place it as one of the best weeks of his life.
They watched movies together. Not the boring documentaries or the fucked up porn Tracht liked, but real movies. Action movies that Alex could really get into. Tracht commentated about how awful they were, but it was kind of funny and didn’t bug Alex. And Tracht even held Alex while they watched. They were cuddling, which was kind of awesome even though Alex remembered Nick being derisive about girly shit like that. Who cared wh
at Nick thought, anyway.
Alex liked cuddling with Tracht.
They took baths together while they were still docked, and Tracht took him out to restaurants. Then when they were in space, Tracht hand-fed Alex a bunch of awesome food and petted him and was just plain nice.
When they had sex, Tracht rode Alex, or gave him blowjobs. Not much getting off for Tracht there, which made Alex feel a little bit bad, but Tracht smiled and said he’d make up for it later.
Oh yeah, Alex didn’t need to wear the cock cage for that week. He’d almost forgotten what it was like to be completely free-hanging.
Alex got a bit cocky, but he figured he had to take the good stuff when he could get it. So he wrapped his arms around Tracht from behind—only when they were alone, he wasn’t that stupid—and stole kisses that Tracht grudgingly allowed.
The only downer was that Alex’s fractured hand meant he couldn’t really help Tracht with his clothes or boots. He did try, but it frustrated both of them when he didn’t have the coordination to do it one handed.
All in all though, Alex was flying high.
And then the week was over.
==
“I mean, has it really been a full week?” Alex whined.
Tracht looked at him without saying anything, and after a few beats Alex made a frustrated noise and raised his arms above his head.
Good. Tracht cuffed Alex’s good wrist to the headboard, then chained his ankles to the corners at the foot of the bed. He took a moment to make sure everything was secured properly and wouldn’t do more than discomfort Alex.
What a sight. Tracht drank in Alex’s muscled form, his thick cock resting against his thigh, his eyes silently begging Tracht to have mercy. Tracht himself was fully dressed in his uniform, save the boots.
“I’ve had a long time to consider exactly what to do with you,” Tracht said, and he saw that flash of fear on Alex’s face. Yes. The only person Alex needed to be afraid of was him. “But I can’t exactly risk damaging you more than you’ve already been damaged.”
Alex sighed in relief, which amused Tracht. Alex always lived in the moment, forgetting that there were things he hated worse than pain, right up until he was thoroughly humiliated and begging Tracht to please just hurt him already.
“First things first. Open up.”
“Huh?”
Tracht tapped on Alex’s jaw. He really needed a shave, but that was another thing Tracht had allowed Alex to lapse on during the reprieve week.
“Your mouth. Open.”
As expected, Alex locked his jaw and his eyes widened. It had been a while since Alex had balked at this violation. On the one hand, Tracht got to revel in this energy, knowing he was going to force Alex, loving the whimpers and shivers as Alex tried to suppress his fear.
On the other hand, Tracht was absolutely furious that his hard work at training Alex to accept his fingers had come undone.
“Alex. I hope this past week didn’t give you some sort of false impression that I was nice. Because if you don’t open your mouth right now, you might find yourself eating nothing but oatmeal mush from the floor for the next month.”
That did it. Oh, how the resentment burned in his eyes, but Alex opened his mouth and held it open.
Tracht waited a few moments, just to draw it out. He watched Alex squirm, heard him breathing heavily, and only when Alex’s body began to relax did Tracht reach out and stick two fingers in.
Alex shook his head and dislodged Tracht’s fingers. That hadn’t been a conscious move, Tracht could tell, because Alex froze and said, “sorry, sorry, sorry,” and quickly opened his mouth again.
Unfortunate, but Tracht would let it slide.
This time, Tracht placed his second hand on Alex’s forehead to keep him in place. He tapped lightly on Alex’s lips, rubbing the inside of them. Alex’s skin began to heat, and his face took on a lovely red flush. It was taking him a lot of effort not to move.
Tracht moved his fingers in further, running them along Alex’s gums and teeth. He lingered on the artificial tooth. Alex shuddered and whimpered, his eyes squeezed shut.
Would anybody else react as beautifully as Alex? Tracht kissed Alex’s eyelids, then resumed his exploration of Alex’s mouth. He pressed down on Alex’s tongue and rubbed the palate. Alex’s chained arm tensed.
“Mm. Lovely,” Tracht whispered into Alex’s ear. He ran his tongue along the shell of his ear, which made Alex shudder in other ways.
Then he withdrew his fingers, and he felt Alex relax immediately.
“Was that so bad?” Tracht asked as he wiped his fingers on Alex’s chest.
He waited while Alex recovered enough to answer. “No. I—f—why was it worse? It’s just your fingers.”
If he’d gone on a bit longer, he could probably have gotten Alex to cry. Tracht leaned down and kissed Alex soundly, letting his tongue retrace his fingers’ path. Alex’s cast-covered hand came up to grab his shoulder, and Alex whimpered in frustration when he couldn’t grip anything. Tracht smiled and broke the kiss.
“See. If you’d simply minded your own business, you’d have full use of your hand now.”
Alex turned his head away.
Tracht took hold of the cast and directed it to lie on Alex’s cock. It was half-hard, either from the fear or the kiss. Didn’t matter. He forced Alex’s fingers to curl lightly around his cock.
“But don’t let that stop you. Go on, I’d like to see you masturbate.”
“What? No, that’s gonna—”
“Going to hurt? Yes, I imagine so.” Tracht made sure there was no amusement in his expression anymore. “Do it.”
He saw Alex warring with it, his expressions flying across his face and making every thought known. For a few seconds Tracht thought Alex might actually refuse—Tracht was almost looking forward to it—but Alex decided to be wiser.
He started moving his cast against his dick. Alex hissed and stopped, a complaint on his tongue, but Tracht kept his expression stern. Alex cringed and started up again.
The cast itself was thin. Very sturdy, but the outer layer of it was rough and scratchy. It would feel like sandpaper against the sensitive skin of his penis. His cock softened. Alex grunted and strained.
Tracht’s own arousal only ramped up higher. He took a moment to press down on his cock through his trousers, and it was tempting to pull it out and shove it down Alex’s throat.
Patience, patience.
“Ff— Ugh. Hurts. Please, I can’t—” Alex gasped. Sweat dripped down his eyes, his whole body flushed and red.
Tracht remembered telling Alex that he didn’t like partners who gave in easily, who whimpered and begged him to hurt them. Tracht had been sure that once Alex got to the point where he obeyed commands, the novelty would wear off.
The thing was, even when Alex obeyed, it was never easily. He always obeyed with a layer of defiance, of resentment. Tracht drank it all up and marveled that he’d tamed this beast of a man.
He made Alex continue to jerk himself for another few moments, until Alex’s movements got slower and slower and his hips jerked unconsciously.
“Good boy,” Tracht murmured. He pulled Alex’s hand away, and he heard Alex sigh loudly in relief. His body seemed to sink further into mattress.
“Ss good now?” Alex slurred.
“What? That’s just the beginning.” Tracht lay down next to Alex and took hold of his sensitized member. Alex gave a pained hiss and flinched, but he didn’t move beyond that.
“I was thinking that there would have been one very simple way to prevent all of this,” Tracht said. He played with Alex’s foreskin, pulling at it and enjoying the way Alex squeezed his eyes shut against the pain.
“What was your mistake, Alex?”
“Shoulda minded my own business,” Alex said. “Got it. No more rescuing kids.”
“Oh, that’s definitely part of it. But before that.”
“Huh?”
“You couldn’t hold your bladder.
You wanted to get out of listening to the presentation, and you decided to use the facilities instead of waiting for another twenty minutes.”
Alex’s eyes opened and he stared incredulously at Tracht. “What? No! I really had to piss.”
“I’ve decided to revoke your toilet privileges for the rest of the week. Dr. Singh has supplied me with a catheter, which we’ll be using to empty your bladder.”
“You can’t!” Alex shouted, and he started straining against his bonds. His free hand pushed at Tracht, but he wasn’t putting any force into it.
Tracht stood up and slapped Alex’s face lightly. “I absolutely can and I will. We’ll start right now.”
He got the supplies from where he’d placed them under the bed. He had to take a moment to breathe himself back to calmness, because Alex’s struggling and shouting was far more distracting than it had any right to be.
“Please, Tracht. Please. Anything else. Just—you could whip me? Spank me? What about the ginger? Or, uh—a skirt. I could wear a skirt this week. Just not—”
Alex had to know that his begging was doing nothing to dissuade Tracht. Or maybe not. Tracht set the tools on the bed and took a moment to kiss Alex deeply, overcome with emotion. He used to kiss Alex because he knew it disturbed him; now he did it because he liked showing his dominance and his affection in one gesture. It didn’t matter that Alex enjoyed the kisses.
When he pulled away, Alex whimpered and whined, “Please, please don’t.”
“Alex, you know you have absolutely no choice in this. It’s a punishment for a reason.” Tracht kept his voice firm.
Alex closed his eyes and turned his head away.
Alex's breakfast had included a large glass of juice, and Tracht patted Alex’s stomach. He pressed down over his bladder, making Alex whimper.
“It’s catheters or wetting yourself. If you wet yourself, you’ll get another layer of punishment on top of that.”
Alex grunted but kept his mouth shut.
After snapping on a pair of thin surgical gloves, Tracht used the disinfectant wipes that Singh had provided to clean Alex’s cock. With the prepared syringe, he inserted the medical lube into the tip of Alex’s penis, making sure to drip it all in. As much as he reveled in Alex’s pain, he didn’t want to add infection or inflammation on top of everything else—the lube was specially designed to fend off infection.