Stolen

by Evangeline Anderson

  “That’s a great plan if you can make yourself invisible,” V’rex said dryly. “You think you can get through the gate, down the road to their launch site, and into one of their ships with nobody seeing you?”

  “I can do it—I’m small. Well, I’m short, anyway,” Penny amended, glaring at him. “I can do it!” she repeated.

  “Not without help,” V’rex said firmly. “You need someone who can keep you safe in the Deadly Jungle if you have to dive off the road and you get poisoned. And someone who can pilot a shuttle if you do manage to get to the docking site. ”

  “Are you saying you can do all that?” Penny put a hand on her hip.

  “Oh yes, sweetheart, I can keep you safe. And heal you, if I have to.” He looked so confident that Penny couldn’t help asking,

  “How?”

  “Thanks to my Kru’ell One side, I’m immune to most poisons,” V’rex told her. “And I can transfer that immunity to you by stinging you.”

  “You mean with your tongue?” Penny looked at him askance. His tongue had gone back to normal after the little display he’d put on, but she was still scared of the weird, needle-like appendage it could become.

  “Yeah. With my stinger.” He shrugged his broad shoulders, as though this was no big deal.

  “But if you, er, stung me again would you have to make me, you know…come?” Penny asked uneasily.

  V’rex frowned.

  “Afraid so, sweetheart. I can’t sting a female without giving her orgasms. What do you have against sexual pleasure, anyway?”

  “I don’t have anything against it as long as I’m expecting it and I’ve given my consent for it,” Penny snapped. “You can’t just go around making people come without asking first! It’s as bad as rape. Well, maybe not quite,” she backpedaled quickly. “But it’s close.”

  “Fine,” V’rex growled, looking irritated. “I give you my word as a Kindred and a warrior, I won’t sting you again—or make you come again—without your permission. But if we’re running for our lives and it’s a choice between dying an agonizing death by poison or enduring an unwanted orgasm from me, I hope you’d pick the orgasm over the poison.”

  “Of course I would,” Penny said, frowning. “I think that goes without saying. I just don’t want you sneaking up on me and poking me with your tongue when I’m not expecting it and I didn’t ask for it.”

  V’rex shook his head.

  “Prickly little thing, aren’t you? Don’t worry, sweetheart—I gave you my word not to sting you again without your permission and I don’t break my word.” He stabbed a finger at her. “But you are going to have to get a whole hell of a lot better at pretending we’re really fucking during the Mandatory Breeding Hour every day.”

  Penny frowned.

  “You really think it’s that important for me to pretend to be, uh, into it?” she asked, feeling her cheeks heat as she remembered the extremely realistic simulation of sex the big Hybrid have given earlier.

  “Hell yes, I do!” V’rex growled. “They already know that I’m not susceptible to their Goddess-damned hypno-whispers and after your little performance at the Unification Ceremony, I’m sure they have their doubts about you, too. So we need to act the part of a happy couple fucking each other’s brains out every night—can’t give them any reason to suspect we’re not being good little breeders and trying our best to get you pregnant.”

  “I’ll try…” Penny bit her lip. “I’m mostly worried about what they’ll do to me when I don’t turn up pregnant. I know they suspend the awful womb exams for a little while after the Unification Ceremony but eventually I’m going to get called back into the Breeding and Conception Center and they’ll find out I don’t have a bun in the oven.”

  “A bun in the oven?” He barked a laugh. “My people used to say a ‘chick in the egg.’”

  “Your people?” Penny asked curiously. “The Kru’ell Ones?”

  The amusement fell off his face at once to be replaced by a dark look.

  “Hell, no. Those were my father’s people. I might have half his blood, but I don’t claim that bastard’s culture as my heritage. I was talking about my mother—she was a Beast Kindred.”

  “Oh…okay.” Penny simply nodded, since this seemed to be a sore subject for him. “Anyway, I think we need to try and get away before I have to do another exam and they find out I’m not pregnant,” she said, steering the conversation back to more relevant—and hopefully calmer—waters.

  “Agreed.” He frowned. “Which means I have to find some way of getting the Master Control away from the GL.” He tapped the shiny silver pain square at the side of his neck. “If I don’t, this little bastard will fell me like a fucking tree the minute I try to cross over the Compound’s perimeters.”

  “But…how are we going to do that?” Penny objected.

  “I don’t know—he keeps the damn thing on him all the fucking time.” V’rex shook his head. “I’d have to get close enough to him to pick his pocket—which I could do. I spent some time on the streets after my mother died and my father disowned me. But I don’t know if the ‘Glorious Leader’ would let me get close enough to snatch the Master Control.” He winked at Penny. “I’m not exactly the ragged little urchin I was back in the day when I could slip a diamond ring right off a female’s finger without her even noticing.”

  He spoke so casually of his childhood trauma that Penny didn’t know what to say. Was he telling the truth? But then, why would he lie?

  “You…grew up on the streets?” she asked uncertainly.

  “The mean streets of Chulx on Tenebrian Four.” He shrugged. “But that was only for a few years, until I joined my first gang.” He pointed at the black and gold tattoos that covered both arms and ran up the side of his neck. “Death Snakes. We thought we were so badass. I still have a soft spot in my heart for those bastards, even though I left them years ago to do my own thing.”

  Penny bit her lip. “It sounds like…you had kind of a rough childhood. And I thought I had it bad because my parents divorced when I was thirteen.”

  “Divorced?” V’rex frowned in apparent confusion.

  “Split up,” Penny clarified.

  “I had heard that humans don’t bond for life like Kindred,” V’rex remarked. “But it still seems fucking strange to me that you can pledge your life to someone and then just change your mind and leave them for someone else.”

  “Well, it wasn’t strange to my dad,” Penny said, frowning. “He decided to run off with his assistant at work—she was about fifteen years younger than my mom and a whole lot thinner and prettier.” She sighed. “That was when I developed an eating disorder. Of course most girls would go the route of anorexia or bulimia but not me—I went the other way.” She patted one thick thigh ruefully.

  “An eating disorder?” V’rex looked mystified.

  “Yeah. Rather than eating too little I ate, um, too much. Trying to drown my feelings with food, I guess. Of course, I haven’t been eating that much lately because of the way things are here, but I’ve still filled out a lot more than I like.” She gestured at her fuller breasts and hips. “I think it’s the effects of the stupid ‘Mother’s Milk’ they made us drink at the Breeding and Conception Center.”

  Penny didn’t know why she was telling him this. Maybe because V’rex himself was in such amazing shape with his cut abs and muscular build, she felt the need to try and excuse herself for having gotten even curvier over the last few weeks. Leave it to her to get abducted by a cult and instead of losing weight from the stress of the awful situation she found herself in, she had somehow gained it instead.

  V’rex still looked confused.

  “Since when is having luscious full curves considered a disorder?” he asked, frowning at her. “You’re an Elite—that’s what the Twin Kindred call a female blessed with extra curves. What’s wrong with that, sweetheart?”

  “A lot is wrong—at least according to my culture,” Penny said stiffly. She cleared her throat. �
��Anyway, sorry, I didn’t mean to equate my childhood to yours. Losing your mom and…uh, being disowned by your dad and living on the street and joining a gang is obviously way more traumatic than my dad leaving my mom and me being relentlessly teased in middle school for being, uh, overweight.”

  “You’re not overweight,” V’rex insisted. “That’s fucking stupid. And so is letting your past define your future. Yeah, I had a rough time coming up, but I haven’t let it stop me from becoming the most ruthless bastard in this Sector.” He grinned at her, showing sharp white teeth. “Now, back to our escape plan.”

  Penny raised an eyebrow.

  “Our escape plan?”

  He shrugged.

  “Well, you can always try to escape without me. And if we can’t find a way to get the Master Control off the GL, I’ll want you to,” he continued. “But I think it would be safer together—especially for you. I’ll want to be able to heal you and give you immunity to poison in the jungle. And speaking of healing you…” He patted his knee and beckoned to her. “Come here.”

  “What? Why?” Penny shrank back against the cold glass door of the shower stall uncertainly. “What do you want to do to me?”

  “Nothing painful or sexual,” he growled impatiently. “I just want to heal you—heal the place where I branded you with my initial.”

  He pointed to her upper left breast where the tiny V was still red and swollen and painful.

  Penny looked at him suspiciously.

  “Does this involve ‘stinging’ me again?”

  “No—I told you I wouldn’t sting you without your consent, didn’t I?” He frowned at her. “Look, you’re gonna have to get used to being around me—touching me and letting me touch you, sweetheart. How the hell are we gonna play the happy couple together if you shy away from me every time I reach for you?”

  He had a point, Penny supposed. But she was still reluctant to put herself in his power—he was so big and strong and unpredictable. Despite their long talk, she still didn’t really know him.

  “I’ll come to you,” she said. “But first tell me how you’re going to heal me. I need to know before I let you do it.”

  “I’m just going to lick you—just lick the place where I burned you,” he said simply. “My lust-honey is a little like a Blood Kindred’s essence—the blue liquid that flows from their fangs,” he explained. “It’s not just for pleasure—I’m also able to use it to heal the female I’ve Claimed for my own.”

  “But you didn’t Claim me—not really,” Penny protested. “I mean that crazy ceremony—”

  “Was when I swore to take care of you,” he finished for her.

  Penny frowned.

  “I’d like to establish one thing here—I can take care of myself.”

  “Not in this situation,” V’rex insisted. “We’re in enemy territory here—we need to take care of each other. Which is what we vowed to do.”

  “You also vowed to get me pregnant,” Penny pointed out. “But you’re not going to do that. Uh…right?” She suddenly wondered if she had pushed him too far. Just because he hadn’t raped her right away didn’t mean bad things couldn’t happen in the future. She thought of how Claudette had told her about the Spice which circulated through the air of the Compound and made all the males unbearably horny…

  “No, I’m not going to rape you—I thought we already established that,” V’rex growled, cutting off her worried train of thought. “But I am going to look out for you—whether you want me to or not.”

  “I didn’t say I didn’t want you to get my back,” Penny objected. “I mean, I think it’s a good idea for us to look out for each other—at least, as long as we’re here and until we can get away. I just don’t need you to take care of me all the time. I am a grown woman you know. I—”

  “Penelope…”

  His deep voice was serious and the fact that he’d called her by her name rather than ‘sweetheart’ or ‘little girl’ made Penny shut up abruptly.

  “Penelope,” he said again. “We might have been forced into that Unification Ceremony, but I take my vows to you very seriously. Now, I vowed to love, cherish, and protect,” V’rex went on quietly. “And part of cherishing is healing you when you get hurt—especially if I’m the one who hurt you.” His face twisted briefly in an expression of self-loathing as he spoke and Penny realized that it really bothered the big Hybrid a lot that he’d had to brand her.

  “I hurt you, too,” she pointed out, nodding at her name, burned on his chest. “Probably a lot more than you hurt me. Penelope isn’t exactly the shortest name to, uh, brand somebody with.”

  V’rex shrugged, as though his own pain didn’t matter.

  “I’ll be fine—Kindred are fast healers. But I don’t like letting you suffer.”

  “I’m not, honestly,” Penny said, touching her fingertips to the small V at the top of her chest to prove her point.

  But this turned out to be a mistake, since touching the fresh brand really hurt.

  “Ow!” She gave a little cry and yanked her fingers away as the dull throb turned into bright, burning agony all over again.

  “See?” V’rex said grimly. “You’re in pain. Now come here and let me heal you, Penelope.” He sighed when she still hesitated. “Look, I promise, it will only take a minute.”

  At last, Penny allowed herself to be lured over to the big Hybrid. She was still wary of him, but she let him pull her down to sit on one of his broad knees so that he could reach the spot where he’d branded her.

  Then, he simply leaned over and pressed an open-mouthed kiss to the small wound. Penny tensed to have even the gentlest contact hurt, but at the first touch of his tongue, instead of pain, she felt a soothing relief. It almost felt like the big Hybrid was putting some kind of warm, healing gel on the brand.

  Ohhhh,” she whispered as he lapped gently at her burned flesh. Without knowing she was doing it, she lifted her hand and slipped her fingers into the long, silky hair at the nape of his neck. The strands were so black they were almost blue and they slid through her fingers like silk as the big Hybrid continued to heal her.

  It was a very intimate position—more emotionally intimate than their previous encounter on the bed, Penny thought. And though he had sworn he wouldn’t be giving her pleasure, she couldn’t help feeling some anyway—a warm sensation as though a big, gentle hand was stroking all over her body.

  Strangely, she didn’t mind it. Maybe because this time she had agreed to him touching her, and she had been ready for it. It did begin to get a little intense after a while, though. Her nipples began to throb and her breasts were aching while her pussy—which had been much better for a while after getting the big Hybrid’s seed all over it—was throbbing again.

  But that could be the lingering effects of the Mother’s Milk, which she’d been forced to drink in the dormitories of the Breeding and Conception Center every single day, Penny told herself. And the fact that her breasts were still full of the sticky nectar.

  Or maybe it was his warm, spicy scent that was making her feel so strange. It had frightened her before, when she’d thought he was going to rape her. But now that she felt safer with the big Hybrid, the dark spice that breathed from his warm skin seemed to have an erotic effect on her she was powerless to resist…

  At last, just when she was getting uncomfortably aroused, V’rex pulled back. He looked at the place he’d been licking closely, examining it with a critical eye. At last, he straightened up and nodded at Penny.

  “All right—you’re healed. I wanted to be careful to heal the burn but leave the scar in case anyone looked for it. But I think you’re okay, now.”

  Penny looked down at the top of her left breast and gasped in surprise. The capital V burned into her flesh looked like a brand that had been done a year ago. It was nothing but a slightly pinkish line now—not at all disfiguring. In fact, owning to V’rex’s elegant handwriting, it almost looked like a fancy tattoo rather than the remains of a brand.

&
nbsp; “Oh!” she exclaimed, tracing it with her finger. “Oh, you healed it! You healed me,” she added, looking at him. “Thank you, V’rex.”

  “Glad to do it, sweetheart. Just part of my vow to cherish and protect you.” His deep voice had dropped to a soft growl and Penny suddenly realized she was still carding her fingers through his long, thick hair.

  “Oh, uh…” She pulled her hand away rather reluctantly and started to rise. But V’rex’s arm around her waist tightened for a moment and he held her there.

  “If you ever have need of healing again, let me know,” he rumbled, looking her in the eyes. “Like I said, I take my vows seriously.”

  “I…” Penny licked her lips. “I believe you,” she said at last, her voice coming out much more breathy than she liked. “And thank you, for that. Let me know if…if there’s anything I can do to, uh, cherish you back. Not that I can heal you, or anything,” she went on quickly. “But if you’re in pain and there’s anything I can do to, you know, help you and…uh…uh…” She was getting lost in the pale golden depths of his eyes, she realized.

  “Yes, sweetheart?” he prompted.

  “I don’t know what I was going to say,” Penny admitted, feeling foolish.

  “That’s okay.” He gave her a smile that centered more in his eyes than his mouth. “We don’t always have to talk.”

  For a minute, Penny thought he was going to kiss her. And for a minute, she almost wanted him to.

  Then she reminded herself of where she was and who she was with. She might have made a temporary alliance with the big Hybrid out of necessity, but he was still the dangerous space pirate she’d been warned about.