HANDLING THE HYBRID
A KINDRED TALES NOVEL
EVANGELINE ANDERSON
www.evangelineanderson.com
Handling the Hybrid, 1st Edition,
A Kindred Tales Novel
Copyright © 2019 by Evangeline Anderson
All rights reserved.
Cover Art Design © 2019 by Reese Dante
This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places and incidents are products of the writers’ imagination or have been used factiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locale or organizations is entirely coincidental.
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Cover content is for illustrative purposes only.
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CONTENTS
Handling the Hybrid
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Epilogue
The End?
Deceived
Chapter 1
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HANDLING THE HYBRID
A KINDRED TALES NOVEL
Tandy has a big problem. She stands to inherit a huge estate and the title of her late aunt but in order to prove herself worthy of the exulted position and the money that comes with it, Tandy must train her first slave. And the slave she is given to train is huge—a muscular Hybrid Kindred with rage dancing in his mismatched eyes and fangs long enough to tear her throat out. How can she possibly subdue such a massive male without losing her life? Then Tandy has an idea—in the dead of night she steals down to her new slave’s cell to offer him a deal.
Vrox is enraged to be stuck in this situation. Captured by accident, he is determined to kill whoever tries to enslave him and escape at the first opportunity. But then the curvy little female who bought him offers him a deal—if he will pretend that she has mastered him, she will give him his freedom along with a generous settlement. Vrox is intrigued by the deal but he puts his own spin on the bargain. Whatever Tandy does to him by day to prove that she is a true Mistress, he is allowed to do to her by night, in the privacy of her quarters—including any kind of sexual punishment or mastery.
Feeling she has no choice, Tandy agrees to the huge Hybrid’s terms—never expecting to lose her heart. She thinks Vrox cares for her too, but when the huge Kindred escapes and she is left to face the consequences of their deception alone, she fears that her life is over. Will she survive after…Handling the Hybrid?
ONE
“This one, I think. Yes, he’ll do nicely.”
“What? Him?” Tandy stared in horror at the massive slave her Aunt Deelee was pointing to.
The male was huge—seven standard feet in height at least, Tandy estimated, with shoulders fully twice as broad as her own. And he wasn’t just tall and skinny, like the Baronthian slaves they’d looked at when they first entered the Flesh Bazaar—this one had muscles on top of muscles—which were all on display since the slave was stripped down and wearing only a black loincloth to cover his nakedness. (The bulge of his thick shaft beneath the loincloth made it clear to see that he was big all over.)
But it wasn’t just his size that intimidated her, Tandy had to admit—it was the naked aggression in the male’s mismatched eyes that made her want to get as far from him as possible. Wild black hair and a rough black beard framed a face that was as hard as granite. And those eyes—the right iris blazed like liquid gold and the left was a pure, piercing blue. They were glaring right at her, as though the slave knew they were talking about him.
But she and her aunt were speaking Yonnite—the language of their home planet which was ruled and inhabited mostly by women. It was clear this male wouldn’t allow himself to be ruled by anyone—so how could he know what they were saying?
“What’s the matter, niece—afraid you can’t handle him?” Aunt Deelee taunted. “A true Mistress of Yonnie Six—one worthy to inherit my dear departed sister’s wealth and position—wouldn’t shrink from taming even the largest male.”
“But this one looks so…so aggressive,” Tandy protested uneasily.
Indeed, the slave’s rage was almost palpable—shimmering in the air between them like heat haze in the desert. His long, muscular arms ended in bunched fists, as big as her head. A pair of black pain bracelets encircled his wrists and a thick black control collar was tight around his corded neck. But for those restraints, Tandy was certain he would have been down off the pedestal his seller had placed him on and probably ripping out all their throats! Yet, this was the male her aunt wanted her to tame! Was she mad?
“Of course he’s aggressive,” Aunt Deelee said dismissively. She patted her thinning hair which had been combed into an elaborate fan at the back of her head—like a bird’s plumage. “That’s the nature of an unbroken male. Your job, niece, is to break him. Until you do—until you prove you can master a slave and bring him to heel at your command—you will not be judged worthy to ascend to my sister’s exulted position.”
Tandy bit her lip and looked at Mistress Sinda, who had been standing quietly by, watching as she and her aunt spoke. The older Mistress had long brown hair and quiet gray eyes and so far she hadn’t said two words to either Tandy or Deelee. As one of the Sacred Seven—the ruling Council who governed Yonnie Six—she had been appointed the Judge of the Change. She would have the final say over which slave Tandy had to train and tame in order to earn her late aunt Zora’s position. She would also be the one to judge if Tandy had done a good enough job with the slave to become a proper Mistress of Yonnie Six.
Tandy wished with all her heart that Aunt Zora was still alive. She and Aunt Deelee and Tandy’s mother had been sisters and all three had been Mistresses of the female dominated planet—though Aunt Zora had ascended to the highest rank and held more wealth and esteem than the other two put together.
Then Tandy’s mother had brought shame on the family by running off with a male—one of her own slaves, of all things! It had been a scandal that rocked the entire capital city of Opulex—a shame that stained the family name so deeply many said they would never recover.
But Aunt Zora had held her head high and refused to be brought low by her sister’s shameful deeds. Nor had she abandoned her family ties, as Aunt Deelee had. In fact, in
stead of having a child of her own, she had elected to adopt Tandy when she was seventeen and raise her to take over her empire when she was gone.
Tandy knew how hard it must have been for Aunt Zora to take her in. Not only was she a product of an illegal seeding—(what the Yonnites called it when a male actually penetrated a female and made her pregnant instead of her going to an insemination clinic)—but it was obvious that she was. That was because her pale-skinned mother had fallen in love with an exotic slave—one that had been plucked by the slave traders from an obscure little planet called Earth. Tandy’s father had skin the color of rich, dark brown ebon wood, which no one on Yonnie Six had. Her own complexion was a creamy brown that echoed his deeper tones.
Her coloring, along with her long, curly black hair and deep brown eyes, made her stick out like a sore thumb among the lily-white Yonnites. It couldn’t be clearer that she had been born from an illegal union. And yet Aunt Zora had taken her in and named her as her heir despite all the whispers and backhanded, snide remarks from the other Yonnite Mistresses. She had done it with pride and loved Tandy as her own, refusing to listen to anything bad about her niece or her sister.
Aunt Deelee, of course, had been enraged when her older sister had adopted Tandy. She was only a minor Mistress herself, without even one whole floor of a building to call her own while most Mistresses owned entire buildings in the expensive cityscape of Opulex. If Tandy was out of the way, she would be the one inheriting the late Zora’s immense wealth and social standing.
Which is no doubt why she’s trying to pick out the most difficult slave in the entire Flesh Bazaar for me to train, Tandy thought dryly. Looking around, she could see dozens of slaves on dozens of pedestals who would make better, easier candidates for her first slave training. In fact, just about any male in the entire, echoing space filled with slavers and their wares would be preferable to the enraged male standing before them.
“I don’t think this one is right—I think we should look at the Baronthian slaves again,” she said quickly, glancing again at Mistress Sinda, who would make the ultimate decision.
The Pongu slaver, who had been standing quietly to one side of the massive slave’s display platform, clearly saw that he was about to lose the sale.
“By no means, kind Mistress,” he said quickly, tugging earnestly at the long, greasy, braided forelock which hung in the middle of his crossed purple eyes. “Though he looks fierce, this male is a Kindred. They are sworn never to hurt females because of the Goddess they all worship. You may do anything you like with him and he will be as docile as a lambkin.”
Mistress Sinda looked interested.
“A Kindred, you say?” she asked, frowning. “They do make excellent slaves. Which kind of Kindred is he?”
“A blending of the two most trustworthy and loyal types, my Lady,” the slaver said, tugging at his forelock obsequiously again. His thin shoulders hunched and his eyes nearly uncrossed themselves as he spoke earnestly. “Both Beast and Blood Kindred are in his ancestry.”
“I see.” Mistress Sinda nodded. “An interesting combination.”
“And rare!” the slaver exclaimed enthusiastically. “Because of a genetic anomaly in their DNA, the Kindred almost always breed male children. When the child is a female—which hardly ever happens—they almost always breed with their own type or are sent into a life of celibacy to serve their Goddess. The fact that one of the rare Kindred females chose instead to mate—and to mate with a different kind of her own species—is most unusual.” He pointed at the massive slave, still glaring at them. “This is a prime specimen—you will not see another like him here, even if you frequent the Flesh Bazaar for a thousand years.”
Tandy thought that sounded like a ridiculous exaggeration but Mistress Sinda was looking more and more interested.
“Tell me more,” she murmured. “Where was this male captured?”
“I caught him and his partner napping at a cantina in the G’nex system,” the slaver said eagerly. “The partner sold within a single hour—he was only a Blood Kindred and not nearly as rare as this one.” He nodded proudly up at the big slave. “This one is a warrior! He can be used to fight or trained to serve and protect. A correctly trained Kindred is faithful to his Mistress all of his life.”
Tandy didn’t believe a word of it—you only had to look at the massive slave to know he was vicious. She had never heard of any breed of male who refused to hurt women because of their religious beliefs. But Mistress Sinda was clearly being taken in by the slaver’s hard-sell.
“Yes…yes,” the Judge of the Change was murmuring to herself and nodding thoughtfully. “This could be the one indeed.”
“Really?” Tandy couldn’t believe her ears. Despite her reserved silence, she’d had the idea that the Judge of the Change—if not exactly on her side—would at least be fair and impartial. Now she was beginning to wonder if her malicious Aunt Deelee had paid Mistress Sinda off.
“Yes. Now, listen, my dear…” Mistress Sinda put a cool hand on Tandy’s upper arm and drew her away, out of earshot of the hopeful slaver and her smirking aunt.
“Mistress Sinda, I really don’t think—” Tandy began but the older woman cut her off.
“I know he looks intimidating but the Kindred really do make the best slaves—they are without equal,” she said calmly. She fixed Tandy with her quiet gray eyes. “You’re old enough to handle yourself, Tandace. Your Aunt Zora kept you under her wing for five cycles but you’re a grown woman now and it’s time to step out on your own. You know I can’t judge you able to take her place unless you can train and subjugate a slave.”
“Yes, I know…” Tandy swallowed hard. “It’s just—he’s so big. And I never heard of any male who refused to hurt a female—especially if he was taken against his will as this one was.”
“What the slaver said about Kindred not hurting females is correct,” Mistress Sinda told her. “And you will always keep him in a pain collar and pain cuffs as well, just in case.”
“I know.” Tandy nodded unhappily. “But there’s still a risk.” She had heard of aggressive male slaves breaking free before, despite the pain-conduction devices that most Yonnite Mistresses used to control them. And this particular slave looked like he would be the type to power through even the biggest jolt of pain to get his freedom.
“Life is a risk,” Mistress Sinda said serenely. “You cannot be a leading Mistress of Yonnie Six if you are afraid to take risks and do what is difficult.”
“I guess not.” Tandy swallowed hard and reminded herself of why she was doing this—it wasn’t just to earn her Aunt Zora’s position and money—though that would be nice to have. But there was much more at stake than just an impressive mansion and enough credit to buy a small moon. If that was all, Tandy would have walked away from the deadly-looking slave and told Aunt Deelee she could have the title and inheritance. But she also had to consider—
“I tell you, my dear, I think you’ll be surprised at how malleable this male is once you take him back to Zora’s estate,” Mistress Sinda said, breaking into her thoughts. “In fact, the only thing you need to be careful of is the fact that…” She lowered her voice even more and breathed into Tandy’s ear, “Kindred are very easy to love.”
“They’re what?” Tandy murmured back. This was the last thing she’d expected to hear from the always proper Judge of the Change.
But Mistress Sinda was nodding.
“You heard me, my dear,” she said. “I had a Kindred slave myself once—when I was not much more than your age. He became devoted to me and I…well, I am ashamed to say I treated him as more than a slave.” She shook her head. “Thank goodness my mother found out and traded him away or I might even now be living in disgrace on the far side of the planet.”
“Like my mother is,” Tandy said flatly.
“Yes, I’m afraid so.” Mistress Sinda sighed. “That’s the only thing I worry about—with your family history and the weakness in your bloodlines…” She
trailed off, looking at Tandy critically.
“You think I’m going to let myself fall in love with him?” Tandy glanced over her shoulder at the glowering, massive male and shivered. “Uh, I don’t think you need to worry about that, Mistress Sinda. Honestly, there’s no way that’s going to happen.”
“Oh, I know you’re determined not to repeat the sins of your mother,” the Judge of the Change said quickly. “But the fact is, you did grow up in a household where males were treated as equals.”
“My father and my brother, you mean,” Tandy said tightly.
“Shush, my dear—do not claim them in such familiar terms!” Mistress Sinda looked shocked. “But yes—I fear that your upbringing might lead you to treat this Kindred as an equal—though nothing could be further from the truth. Males are less than the dirt beneath our feet and we must never forget it.”
“Of course they are.” Tandy nodded mechanically. These were the beliefs she’d been hearing and living with ever since she’d turned seventeen and her Aunt Zora had adopted her. Tandy’s mother had allowed the adoption because Tandy had showed signs of dominance at an early age and she’d thought that living with her older sister would be a good life for her daughter. Plus, she and Zora had always been close, even after her disgrace, and she knew her older sister was lonely and needed someone to love and care for.
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