His voice grew stern. “I know you’re upset, but do not take your anger out on me.” He patted the ground beside him. “Come here,” he said more softly. “Sit for a moment. Have something to eat. You have not rested since Harald died.”
“I’m not hungry.” I sighed wearily and sank down beside him. “You’re right. I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have snapped at you. What happened is no one’s fault but mine.”
Kaal shook his head. “It’s not your fault either.” He reached for the jug of homemade whiskey. Took a slug and handed it to me. “Besides I didn’t say no one can escape from Zibaru. I said no one ever has.”
I brought the jug to my lips. Swallowed and shuddered. “Gods, I forgot how awful this stuff is!” It took a moment for his words to sink in. “Wait! You’re planning something, aren’t you?”
“I have to get you out of here,” he said. “You’re even more of a threat to Starn now than you were before. With his final act, the old man became a martyr to the Cause. But you’re still alive. Still able to stir up unrest among the prisoners because of what you stand for.”
“The warden stays in control of Zibaru by keeping his prisoners half-starved and exhausted,” he went on. “But we outnumber the guards here one hundred to one. You’ve given the others hope that if we band together we can rise up and defeat him. Just like we can defeat the Federation. Grain may feed a man’s belly, but hope will feed his soul.”
I looked at him, surprised. “That’s a very wise saying. Where did you learn it?”
“In your world knowledge is found between the pages of a book. In my world, wisdom lies in the words spoken by our elders when they’re gathered around a campfire under the stars.”
This time I wasn’t just surprised. I was stunned. I choked down another mouthful of Zibaru’s best hooch and handed back the jug. “I owe you an apology. At our first meeting, I saw only the clothes made of animal hides and the weapons made of stone. Like many others I was taught beings from worlds that did not possess modern technology were less intelligent. Incapable of deep thoughts and feelings. But I’ve never heard a learned scholar express anything more profound. My ancestors would have hailed you as a true Renaissance man. You have the body of a warrior and the heart of a poet.”
He grinned. “Don’t forget the cock of a stag radogo.”
“I’m not sure what that is but I’ve seen your cock. Based on that, I’ll bet the female radogos are always smiling!”
He pulled me into his arms. “No more talk. Today the gods blessed us. We are together and we are alive. Tonight we fuck... and then we sleep. Tomorrow we make our plans.”
“Yes, Master,” I murmured.
* * *
He was dominating as always but the sex that night had undertones of tenderness, as though having death touch our lives so closely made us value each moment we spent together all the more. He fucked me with long, deep strokes, taking both of us up slowly. And instead of commanding me to orgasm, he murmured, “Come for me, sweet Ree. I want to look into your eyes when our souls become one.”
He locked his gaze with mine. With one last thrust, he buried himself deep inside me, his cock pulsing as he filled me with his cum. My pussy spasmed around him. Lost in the depths of his eyes, I exploded. Shattered into a million razor-sharp pieces—then burst into tears.
Kaal stroked my hair and held me until my sobs were spent, his cock still semi-erect inside me. When he withdrew, he laid on his side, tucking me tight against his body with one arm around my waist.
Moments later, I could tell by his regular breathing that he’d fallen asleep. He never asked me what was wrong. It was just as well. I couldn’t have answered him because I didn’t know myself. I rarely cried and I’d never burst into tears after sex before. I only knew I’d experienced more than an intense orgasm. At that moment, something happened in me. Something overwhelmed all my emotions at once.
I laid there for hours, replaying the scene in my mind again and again, trying to figure it out. I knew I’d never find the answer in a book. “When our souls become one,” he’d said.
The realization didn’t hit me all at once. It didn’t even come as a coherent thought. It was more of a feeling. A feeling that grew until it filled me with a warm bright light I had no name for. So I called it joy.
Kaal hadn’t fucked me. It wasn’t just sex anymore—for either of us.
We made love.
Chapter Twenty
Kaal
I lay still for a long time after I woke, unwilling to make a move and disturb my mate’s rest. She was exhausted. She’d driven herself nearly mad with grief and remorse, blaming herself for Harald’s death.
The tears she shed after we fucked didn’t surprise me. On Rylos, females cried. Males expected it. They didn’t just cry when they were punished. They cried when they were happy. They cried when they were sad. They cried when they were angry. Sometimes they cried when they needed a good fucking—and then they cried after they got it.
The gods had delivered Ree to me, an alien from a far-off world. I took her as my mate, and, after a few firm lessons in obedience, she accepted me as her master.
But the little human had come to mean much more to me than a hot slit to shove my cock in whenever it got hard. In the time we’d spent together, she’d become a true mate. In our crude little hut we shared the joys and sorrows of day to day life, laughed together, spoke of our dreams, confessed our darkest secrets to each other. She was smart and brave, with a code of honor as strong as any Rylan warrior, and a warm, caring heart. The gods had chosen well for me.
My people knew fucking served more purposes than just relieving an ache in the balls or making a baby. From the wise elders in my tribe, I learned it wasn’t always about establishing dominance over the female. It was a way to celebrate, to provide comfort, to cope with stress, to bond.
Last night, we’d bonded. She gave me her trust, opened her heart to me, and I gave her my love. It was both my duty and my honor to protect my mate.
She was in danger here. I’d get her out of Zibaru—if it cost me my life.
* * *
“The Federation cargo ship keeps a regular schedule, arriving with supplies and leaving loaded with rare minerals from the mines,” Eldon said. “There’s only a small crew on board, since most of the operation is run by androids. They can be reprogrammed and so can the ship’s destination.”
Thomas nodded. “It’s an easy hack. That’s one of the jobs I did for the Cause.”
“Too bad you couldn’t hack the ship that brought you here,” Brynn remarked. He and a handful of the other rebels had crowded into our hut again, going over possible escape plans.
“Fuck you,” Thomas replied casually.
It reminded me of the ribbing Rhazi and I gave each other every chance we could. Even after all the time that had passed, a fresh wave of grief poured over me, as though I’d just suffered his loss. My mother, my sister, and her young—how were they faring now that he and I were both gone? If they had come to harm while I wasn’t there to care for them, I vowed I’d make the Federation pay.
“He couldn’t hack it for the same reason none of us have ever been able to hijack the cargo ship and escape. Starn controls us with those damn chips. As long as he has a handful of guards with wands, he knows he can squelch any escape attempt at the first sign of rebellion.”
I pulled out my knife. “Then we’ll cut them out.” I tossed it to Eldon. “You can start with mine,” I said.
“It’s not that easy, brother. The chips are attached to the nerves running through our spinal cords. They’re automatically activated to deliver unending shocks to the wearer if anyone tries to remove them. Plenty of prisoners have tried. The lucky ones died instantly. The others—well, they begged for death.”
“We need someone with advanced medical skills,” Ree said. “Someone who can surgically remove the chips without triggering the automatic shock response. I was never fitted with one, probably because I’m female. Starn
never expected me to survive here.”
“Even if there was a prisoner with those skills, it would take days, maybe weeks, for him to operate on all the rebels without getting caught doing it,” Brynn replied. “I doubt if Starn will wait that long for his revenge. We need to get off this rock as soon as possible.”
“We don’t need to remove the chips from everyone before we escape,” I pointed out. “Only from as many as we need to take out the guards and seize their wands. Then the rest of the rebels can storm the ship without being shocked. If we strike as soon as it arrives, we’ll have all the food and water we need still on board and plenty of room to carry the other rebels in the empty cargo bays where the minerals would have been loaded.”
“Now all we need is a skilled surgeon,” Thomas pointed out. He looked around the room. “Any volunteers?”
“I think I may know someone who can do the job,” Ree said. “Eldon, one of your tasks is to clean Rigo’s lab. Can you pull him aside and talk to him without being seen?”
“Talk to Rigo? Begging your pardon, miss, but I’d have to be as crazy as he is even to try. That giant might slice me into pieces on a whim.”
Ree pulled the gold locket she always wore out from under her gray cloak. “Give him this,” she said, slipping it off and handing it to Eldon. “Tell him it’s from me and I need his help. Tell him I know his mama would have wanted him to help me.”
I knew the locket held a picture of her mother. It was her most treasured possession, the only thing she had left of her past life. “Ree, are you sure you want to give that up?”
“When Rigo looked at the picture of my mother, he said she looked like his mama. I saw the expression in his eyes. It triggered a fleeting memory in him—touched the sanity, the spark of humanity that’s still deep inside his soul. He was a boy once, long before Starn fried his brain and turned him into a beast. A gentle, kind lad who loved his mother.”
“A gentle, kind lad who grew up to become a serial killer, from what I hear,” Brynn declared.
“I’m not sure he ever killed anyone,” Ree replied. “He said something to me about the pretty ladies being dead already when he cut them up. It made me wonder if he was convicted of a crime he didn’t commit. He wouldn’t be the first innocent person shipped off to Zibaru. Don’t get me wrong,” she added. “I believe he was mentally impaired before Starn got hold of him and fried his brain with constant shocks. From what Rigo said, it sounded like he might have been a necrophiliac. If someone discovered him in the act and interrogated him, he could have confessed to murder as well, out of shame and confusion.”
The other men had expressions of disgust on their faces. “What’s a necro—feel-act?” I asked Thomas in a low voice. I wasn’t about to embarrass myself in front of my mate by displaying my lack of education.
“Somebody who gets off fucking dead women,” he muttered back.
I shook my head. And they called beings from my world uncivilized.
* * *
“Thank you, Rigo. I know your mama would be proud.”
The giant ducked his head shyly. I stood by, speechless. My mate had a gift. She’d seen something inside the brutish creature that no one else had seen. She’d treated Rigo as a sentient being, showed him respect. And he’d responded in kind.
We were in the laboratory with the door to the corridor barred from the inside. Rigo and I had manhandled one of the heavy metal cabinets in place to block it. The cargo ship was due to arrive in a few hours. It was my turn to undergo the procedure to remove the chip.
Eldon and I argued about who would go first. “Let’s face it, brother,” he finally said. “If that crazy bastard screws up and kills me, it’s no great loss. I’m an old man. Not much use when it comes to fightin’ them guards—or protecting your lady. She’s the symbol of the Insurrection, now more than ever. We need her alive and well—and she needs you to keep her that way. So let him practice on me.”
I wanted to protest but I knew he was right. And so was Ree when it came to Rigo’s medical skills. Eldon survived the procedure. Over the next few days, he smuggled the rest of our team into the lab, hidden on the cart of cleaning supplies he wheeled from room to room. The guards never searched his cart. They’d grown careless, lulled into a false sense of security by the power their wands wielded over the prisoners.
Of course, the jug of Zibaru’s finest spirits that Eldon passed around at the beginning of his shift went a long way toward their relaxed mood. He took it with him the first night, figuring he’d have a few swigs to give him courage before letting a mentally deficient giant slice the back of his neck open. One of the guards spotted it, so Eldon offered him a taste. Starn was notoriously stingy and his guards seldom got any of the monthly allotment of liquor shipped in for the prison staff. After sampling the hooch, the guard called his partner over and they confiscated the jug.
Eldon staggered out hours later. Woozy from the drug Rigo injected before performing the surgery, he managed to stay upright only by hanging on to the handles of the cart. He planned to get past the guards by pretending to be drunk, but he needn’t have worried. They were both passed out on the floor near the door with the empty jug between them.
The guard was waiting for Eldon the next night with a different partner. This time the crafty old man had two jugs with him—one for the guards and one for Thomas hiding on the cart.
After that it was easy. The other rebels didn’t have to wait for hours after the surgery so they could leave under their own steam. Eldon simply wheeled them out of the building and into the shadows, where they were spirited away to recover. I’d waited till last and asked Eldon to smuggle Ree in too, afraid to let her out of my sight for even a moment now that we were so close to escaping.
I refused the injection Rigo offered. As a warrior, I’d borne far worse pain than a cut on my neck. And I couldn’t risk a drug fogging my brain or dulling my reflexes in the hours to come.
I did have a few hearty swigs from Eldon’s jug, just to take the edge off. Then I laid face down on the shiny steel surface.
Rigo’s first slice had me gripping the sides of the table. He’d wanted to strap me down. When I refused, he warned me if I moved so much as a millimeter during the surgery, he could accidentally sever my spinal cord and paralyze me from the neck down.
“I’m not going to move,” I swore. “Now get on with it.”
Willing my mind elsewhere, I concentrated on breathing slow and deep. Once he got going, the pain wasn’t any worse than when I slowly strangled the shapeshifting darwolf while it sank its fangs into me. Rigo kept up a constant patter, telling Ree lighthearted stories from his childhood. She laughed and exclaimed in the right places, but I knew her well enough to tell she was only half-listening.
That’s why it surprised me when I heard her squeal in the middle of one tale. The sound was cut off abruptly and Rigo’s voice died away a moment later.
Footsteps rang out in the sudden silence, coming closer. My heart sank when the bottom of Ree’s gray cloak came into view, with a pair of legs clad in a deep blue uniform behind her.
“Well, if it isn’t my two favorite guests,” Starn said. “The slut and the savage.”
My first instinct was to jump off the table and take him down. But Rigo hadn’t finished the procedure and I didn’t dare move. I was frozen in place, face down, unable even to turn my head and see him clearly.
“Please, don’t get up on my account,” Starn added, chuckling at his own wit. “I should have known you’d be behind it when I found two of my guards passed out in the corridor. Stinking drunk. Lucky you didn’t bar the hidden entrance on the other side of this room.”
I heard Ree mutter a curse. “I’m sorry, Kaal,” she said. “I should have remembered that.”
“That’s all right, my dear,” the warden said. “You were... shall we say... otherwise occupied the last time I came in that way.”
He leaned down so he could look me in the face, dragging Ree with him. The li
ghts overhead glinted off the blade of a knife he held at her throat. “Your slut was on her second... I believe it was her second but maybe it was her third... orgasm last time I walked in that door. Strapped to the very same table you’re on. Stark naked, legs spread wide, with two of my guards leering at her while Rigo’s fat fingers fucked her in the ass. Didn’t you ever wonder why she was so ready to take your cock there when she was tied up on the platform? He had her screaming and coming long before you did that night.”
I bellowed like an angry beast. Starn just laughed.
“Before I slit her throat I’m going to fuck her and make you watch. But the position you’re in has given me an idea. I think I’ll have her get down and suck my cock first. Right here, in front of your face. You’ll have a close-up view of her taking every inch of me down her throat.”
Ree stifled a cry.
“Get on your knees, bitch, and open your mouth,” he snarled. “And you’d better do a good job... or I’ll start carving up your boyfriend where he lays.”
She dropped to the floor in front of the table without another sound, our faces inches apart. Her eyes were bleak, all the life drained out of them. A trickle of blood ran down her gray cloak where the tip of Starn’s knife dug into her neck.
With his other hand, he fumbled with his pants. Pulled out his cock, already swollen and semi-erect, and brought it to her lips.
Chapter Twenty-One
Ree
Starn grabbed the shaft of his cock and shoved it in my face.
Seeing Kaal’s expression—a mixture of jealousy, rage, and revulsion—tore me to pieces. I couldn’t bear it.
My first impulse was to swear to Kaal that it wasn’t true. But guilt stopped me. There was a grain of truth in what Starn said. I never came but I did get aroused by the things Rigo did to my body that night.
I wanted to clamp my jaws around the bastard’s dick and bite it off. But I knew if I hurt the warden in any way, he’d take it out on my lover. Starn was cruel enough to sever his spinal cord where he lay and leave him paralyzed instead of killing him outright. The monster might keep us both alive for days, just to torment Kaal, making him watch me forced to do all manner of unspeakable acts while he was powerless to stop it.
Prisoner Page 10