“A female dressed as a warrior!”
His voice was low and guttural, but I understood the words. It sounded like a dialect of Rydalian, a language I’d run into during my travels with my father. Perhaps he was a primitive species from one of the lesser planets in that star system.
Surprised by a female warrior. I could use that to my advantage too. I batted my eyes at him, trying to look both timid and alluring at the same time, then jerked my knee up between his legs, doing my best to ram his balls into his belly.
He grunted but instead of crumbling into a fetal position, he flashed me a grin and squeezed my breast harder. Hard enough to make me grit my teeth. I’d be damned if I’d make a sound.
“You were the one who screamed. You dress like a warrior but fight like a girl. I fight warriors. Not girls.” He tossed the knife aside. “I am your master now. Do not attack me again.”
“Fuck you!” I snarled.
I raked my nails over his face, leaving a trail of blood down one cheek. His eyes narrowed.
“I do not fight girls. But I punish females who disobey me.”
He got off me and I tensed, getting ready to make a run for it. But before I could move, he’d flipped me onto my stomach and yanked my pants down to my knees.
Dear gods. This alien bastard was about to rape me.
That’s when I screamed. “Jaden! Zeke! Help!”
Crack!
The sound of a hard palm connecting with soft flesh came a millisecond before the lick of fire seared my backside.
“Silence!”
He whacked me again, so hard the breath whooshed out of me. “They are not coming. They are dead.”
“Murderer!” I screamed the word at the top of my lungs.
His hand came down even harder than before, this time in a flurry of harsh swats.
Though I’d taken my share of blows in sparring matches, I’d never been spanked before. The searing pain stunned me. Spanking was an archaic form of dominance, practiced by primitive beings, primarily males, who lacked the capacity to use reason to control the behavior of their mates or their young. It had been outlawed on our world eons earlier.
And now I understood why. Not only did it hurt like hell, it was humiliating. Being held down and having my ass bared, then spanked like a naughty child, destroyed my dignity. Made me feel helpless and weak.
But it also awakened something deep inside me, a dark need I’d never felt before. Each stroke sent a fresh wave of heat through my backside and another kind of heat straight to my core.
I blamed my response on my amygdala. A vestigial remnant of the brain dating back to our earliest ancestors, it was known to trigger instinctive responses that originally evolved to ensure the survival of our species.
I told myself it was my amygdala that stirred the primeval urge to submit to this bigger, stronger male. One whose firm domination demonstrated he could just as easily use that strength to protect me and my offspring from nameless danger. Though I hated what he was doing, when his hand came down again, I felt my pussy gush.
The minute I became conscious of the thought, I banished it. How could I even think of such a thing when my dearest friend lay dead? At his hand. “Damn you to the seventh moon of Cyres!” I shrieked.
“I told you to be silent!”
He started spanking me again, his rough palm striking the same tender spots over and over. I concentrated on the burning pain, refusing to acknowledge the darker heat pouring through me. “Why? You’re going to murder me like you murdered Andreu. So get it over with. Kill me. Kill me now!”
He flipped me onto my back, clapped a hand over my mouth. Brought his face within inches of mine. “I do not kill females. There is no need. You are weak and easy to subdue. And I do not kill in cold blood, only to defend myself.”
He was a lying bastard.
I glared at him and started flailing. Kicking wildly, pummeling him with my fists. If I was about to die, I wouldn’t make it easy on him. I’d go down fighting till the end.
I caught him square in the nose, hard enough to make him wince. He let loose with a string of harsh sounds I didn’t recognize, probably primitive cuss words, and ripped off my shirt. Taking it in his teeth, he tore off a corner and crammed it into my mouth. Then he reduced the rest of it into strips and bound my hands together before running another piece over my mouth and tying it behind my head to keep the makeshift gag in place. Only then did he sit back on his haunches to stanch the blood streaming from his nose with the last remnant of my shirt.
We were both splattered with it. He daubed at a few spots on my face, then gave up.
“I need to see to the bodies,” he muttered.
Lifting me like a sack of grain, he draped me face down over his shoulder and made his way into the cave. He glanced around, then dumped me unceremoniously against one wall on my backside.
He sized up the cache of stripped-down weapons across the room. “No wonder you fight like a girl,” he remarked. “You rely on metal sticks to defeat your enemies.”
Unable to speak, I settled for shaking my head angrily and glaring at him, then realized my current situation proved his point. I’d thought I was proficient in hand to hand combat, but here I sat trussed up like a game bird ready for the oven. Nearly naked, pants down around my knees, bare ass hot and stinging. All because for once I hadn’t had my photon blazer on my hip. It was humbling to face the fact that our modern technology was useless if we came up against a savage’s brute strength while unarmed.
Bare ass hot and stinging. Savage brute strength. The words sent a wicked shiver down my spine. My pussy clenched at the image of being draped across his thighs and spanked again, then taken hard and rough.
Suddenly I was overcome with guilt for the filthy thoughts he’d put in my head. Damn the creature! He’d killed Andreu. How could I be aroused by such a monster?
He retied my wrists behind my back, so my breasts thrust out. I hadn’t been touched by a man since Dyllan died and I was acutely aware of his hands on my body. When his arm brushed against my nipple, it tightened into a firm red peak. The civilized part of my brain swore I’d kill him if he took advantage of my helpless state and pinched it. The primitive slut in me hoped he would.
Instead he turned his attention to making sure I’d be completely immobile. Turning his back on me, he pulled a handful of leather thongs out of a pouch at his waist. He used the longest one to bind my ankles together, wrapping it securely around them several times, then tying it tight. Though he left my pants pulled down, bunched around my thighs, he never even glanced at my pussy. I should have been relieved that he wasn’t tying me up so he could rape me, but he didn’t show any sign of experiencing the same sexual urges I was having. For some reason that made me even angrier.
When he was sure I couldn’t get loose, he bent down and collected a handful of parts from the weapons cache. He turned back to me with a warning. “Do not move. Do not try to escape. If you disobey me, I will punish you.” Then he headed outside without another word.
I took a good look at what he’d left behind. Even if I managed to get loose, there was no way I could cobble together a single weapon. Either he’d gotten lucky or this uncivilized being knew an awful lot about modern technology.
From where I’d been dumped I could only see one corner of the clearing outside the cave. I had no idea what he’d done with the other pieces from the weapons. He moved so silently I wouldn’t even have known what he was up to if I hadn’t caught a glimpse of him disappearing into the jungle with Andreu’s limp body slung over his shoulder. Despite my screams there’d been no sign of Jaden or Zeke. I was forced to believe him when he said they were dead too.
At first the chill of the damp stones lining the floor of the cave numbed the burning sensation on my bare bottom the way the shock of watching Andreu die had numbed my emotions. But after a while, the cold seeped in, along with the reality of the dire circumstances I was in. My ass ached. My face throbbed where the alie
n had hit me, each pulse sending a nauseating wave of pain through my head. I was trussed and bound. If something happened to him and he didn’t come back for me, I could die here. With the brute no longer near me, the lustful desires he’d stirred disappeared. I started shaking uncontrollably and my teeth would have chattered if not for the gag in my mouth.
I’d only cried one time since I was grown, on the day my father was murdered and my lover lay dying in front of my eyes. But when I thought of Andreu giving up his life to try and shield me from harm, tears began flowing.
Once I started, it was as though a dam burst inside me. All the emotions I’d held back for so long poured out. I grieved my losses. My friends, my family, all gone. I sobbed for all the brave souls who’d given their lives to the cause of freedom, now dead along with my father. I cried bitter tears of self-pity. Had I really fought all these years, only to die alone in the darkness of this cave, abandoned on a hostile planet?
For months, I’d wished I was dead. But when my nose started stuffing up from my crying jag, I panicked. With the gag in place, I couldn’t breathe through my mouth. I was suffocating.
The will to survive kicked in. Big time. My tears vanished and I forced myself to concentrate on taking shallow breaths.
I closed my eyes, exhausted. It was all too much to bear. My chest hurt from crying and my lungs were starved for air. I twisted my body, so I could wipe my runny nose on the leg of my pants and breathe.
The move scraped my sore butt against the hard stone floor. A jolt of stinging pain shocked me back to my senses. I could hear Andreu’s voice inside my head.
“You’re Aria DiMello, daughter of Gaius DiMello, commander of the Insurrection. Your lineage dates back to ancient Rome. Your ancestors were wise scholars, gifted artists, powerful leaders—and among them were the most ruthless bitches and bastards ever born. Are you going to let one ignorant savage take you down? As long as your heart is still beating, you fight!”
I started shaking again, this time with anger. My enemies might be strong, but I was cunning. The blood of the legendary Borgias flowed in my veins. I’d avenge the deaths of my dear friend and my protectors.
I’d slit the throat of the man responsible for Andreu’s death—and as I did it, I’d look into his eyes and smile.
Chapter Three
Kaal
The old man’s body lay heavier on my conscience than on my shoulder.
I jogged down the rough trail I made earlier, my progress slowed by tangled vines and the corpse I carried. My left arm held it in place so I couldn’t barrel through the underbrush as easily as I did before, using one hand to grab vines in my path and the other to slash them away. I’d sprinted though the jungle then, drawn by the faint echo of a female’s scream.
The wound the old warrior inflicted sent pain shooting through me every time my feet hit the ground, but I didn’t blame him. In his place, I’d have done the same. Attacked any stranger who I thought meant to do harm to my female. He was well past his prime, which made me regret what I’d been forced to do even more.
In my culture, we were taught to respect the elders of our tribe. During their many sols, they acquired wisdom. Sitting at the feet of my sire as a lad, learning from him as I listened to his tales—those were memories I treasured. Though I was saddened that my father’s life force was no more, I took comfort in the thought that his spirit was with our ancestors.
The female had clearly cared about the old man. She came after me fearlessly to defend him, though I was a bigger, stronger foe. I wondered if he was her sire—or perhaps, despite his advanced age, her mate.
Remembering how her breasts felt against my bare chest when she squirmed and writhed underneath me made my cock stiffen. I didn’t know which of the males had been her mate. The others were younger, stronger warriors. Maybe all three had claimed her. Now she belonged to no one.
I could still smell the juices of her pussy where they’d been smeared on my skin when I carried her into the cave. I’d been without a female for too long and my body demanded release. I told the alien I wouldn’t fight her. But the gods had delivered her to me, and I’d take her as mine. She was wild, with fire in her belly. Our sons would be fierce warriors, our daughters beautiful and as submissive to their mates as their mother would learn to be to me. Taming her, teaching her to obey me, punishing her long and hard when she did not, were challenges I looked forward to. I picked up the pace, anxious to get back and begin her training.
It didn’t take long before I came to the place where I’d left the other bodies. I laid the old man beside them, then built a fire and piled the dead atop it, setting their spirits free to join the gods, as befitted brave warriors. Though the Federation called them dangerous criminals, they had fought with dignity. No matter what their crimes had been, I would not dishonor them by allowing their remains to be torn apart by scavengers. Only those who died in disgrace deserved such a cruel fate.
Unlike mercenaries from other species, I took no joy in ending a life. I’d been chosen for this mission because I came from a world similar to this uninhabited planet. It was the last place any trace of the fugitives had been noted. The Federation had ordered me to track them down and eliminate them. Take no prisoners. But they never told me the escapees had a female with them.
She wasn’t a hostage. No unwilling prisoner would take the side of her captor and attack me, a possible rescuer. Whether she was a criminal as well or just an accomplice who aided their escape, I did not know. Perhaps I never would.
When it came to the males, I had to defend myself when they ambushed me. But though I took the lives of her companions, I would not take hers. She may not have been their prisoner. But now she’d be mine.
* * *
By the time I returned, she’d managed to scoot her way across the floor of the cave to where the parts from her weapons were scattered. A quick glance told me several pieces were missing. She’d chosen well. Sharp objects that could slice through the cloth binding her hands, then stab straight to the heart or rip a fatal slash in an enemy’s throat. My respect for the female went up a notch. Though she fought like a girl during our short battle, she’d shown glimpses of a warrior’s heart hidden under those lush breasts.
I approached her warily, as I would any worthy foe.
“I sent your companions to the gods,” I said.
Instead of bowing her head in respect for their passage, she stared back at me, her deep brown eyes unreadable.
“I gave their spirits the departure they deserved,” I went on. “They died with honor, as befitting warriors.”
Though I didn’t say it, I’d had another reason for dispatching their remains quickly. I did not want the ghosts of her dead mates lingering in this world to curse me when I fucked her.
And fuck her I would—long and hard. But first I had to punish her disobedience.
I circled behind her and untied the scrap of cloth around her head. She spat out the gag, coughing and retching.
“What is your name?”
“What the fuck do you care?”
I ignored her disrespect for the moment. There were more important issues to deal with. “You belong to me now. I want to know what name I should call you.”
“Belong to you? Never,” she raged. “Untie me now—or you can call me your worst nightmare!”
“Fine. Don’t tell me. I’ll call you whatever I want—and you will call me Master,” I added, my voice hard.
“Master? More like monster,” she retorted.
Her fire fed my hunger to claim her. Every show of defiance would make her taming more challenging—and her submission all the more satisfying.
I sank to the ground beside her and dragged her over my lap face down. Her ass still bore a faint red mark from my hand earlier and she screeched when I delivered a stern whack to the same spot.
“You will address me with respect—or you will be punished,” I declared, punctuating my words with more spanks.
“Fuck yo
u, asshole!”
I smacked her harder. She bucked and writhed, but her wrists and ankles were still bound and there was little she could do to stop me. Instead, she let loose with a string of curses. I made note of a few unusual ones, so I could have her explain their meaning later.
Though she struggled like a wild tessara, I could smell her arousal building again. It seemed this female responded to being disciplined. That, and her nearly naked body writhing on my lap, made my cock swell. I spanked her again, then ground myself against her pussy. She gasped and her curses died off.
Time for her training to begin.
“Call me Master,” I ordered.
“Fuck y—aaah!”
Her curse ended in a shriek when I delivered a solid whack.
“Master,” I said, then waited for her response.
“Bastard!”
I spanked her again, hard enough to draw a muffled cry of pain.
“I will continue—until you call me Master,” I declared.
“Asshole!”
It became a war of wills. Though she was stubborn, I held the power. I began spanking her steadily, giving each painful whack time to register before delivering the next. Her ass reddened under my hand. I could feel the heat building on her tender skin.
By now a Rohyndan female would have been thoroughly chastened, pleading for mercy and swearing to obey. But this alien seemed unfamiliar with the rituals of punishment. She struggled to hold back tears, grunted in pain with every harsh whack from my palm, but refused to utter the word that would stop me.
After the next smack, I ran my hand over her hot red cheeks, then dipped a finger between them. Her pussy was wet, dripping with the juices of her arousal. She froze, then bit off a moan when I slid it inside her.
“Call me Master.”
She squirmed on my lap, and I worked my finger in deeper.
“Master,” I repeated.
Her pussy clenched around my finger and I stifled a groan, imagining that hot wet sheath squeezing my cock.
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