Tandy had gone willingly. Though she missed her loving family she had felt ready to be out on her own. She’d thought she could live the life of a Mistress—though she couldn’t help feeling guilty when she saw how some of the male slaves were treated. But she had promised herself that she would free all of Aunt Zora’s slaves the moment she took over her title and estates. And in the meantime, since she wasn’t a full-fledged Mistress herself, she had never had to train or discipline a slave.
A fact which she was now regretting—she could have used some practice before having to take on the massive Kindred! And it looked more and more like Mistress Sinda was leaning towards buying him.
“Are you sure we can’t look at the Baronthians again?” she asked hopefully. “That tall, skinny one with the blue skin and green eyes seemed like a good choice to me.”
“No, my dear—in order to take over your Aunt Zora’s exulted position, you must prove yourself worthy,” Mistress Sinda said sternly. “And it doesn’t hurt if the slave that you train looks impressive. It will help convince me and the other members of the Sacred Seven that you’re ready for this challenge.”
“So…we’re buying him?” Tandy felt her heart sinking.
“Let us check his shaft first,” Mistress Sinda said. “The size of a slave’s shaft is a point of pride for all right-thinking Mistresses of distinction. You—slaver!” she called, raising her voice and nodding at the Pongu who was hovering near the slave, his long, seven-fingered hands rubbing together nervously. “Show us his shaft.”
“Of course, my Lady! Right away, my Lady!” the slaver exclaimed. Reaching out with one hand, he drew the black loincloth aside, displaying a piece of male equipment that was truly impressive.
All three women sucked in their breaths and Tandy couldn’t help thinking that she was glad Yonnite culture didn’t allow males to penetrate females. The Kindred’s cock was huge—as long as her forearm and thick as her wrist and that was when he was completely flaccid. What in the world would he look like erect? She shivered to think of it.
The size of the Kindred’s equipment seemed to satisfy Mistress Sinda.
“Ah, good!” she said, nodding decisively. “This is the perfect choice for your first slave, my dear. Once you have him trained and broken, he will be a true credit to you with a shaft like that to display.”
“But—” Tandy tried to protest but the sale was already in motion.
“Come, Deelee,” Mistress Sinda called, beckoning to Tandy’s one remaining aunt. “Let us strike the bargain.”
“What a good idea!” Aunt Deelee came up to them with a smirk on her face. Clearly she didn’t believe the slaver’s words about how a Kindred wouldn’t hurt a female anymore than Tandy did.
She probably thinks he’ll rip me limb from limb and she’s hoping she’ll get to watch when it happens, Tandy thought glumly. Goddess, what a mess!
The slaver came over to their group, tugging eagerly on his braided forelock, sensing he was about to turn a profit. A cheesy, ripe odor like stale sweat and unwashed feet drifted from his grayish skin. Holding her breath, Tandy edged away from him. Before she knew it, she found herself standing in front of the huge Kindred again, looking up at him. His mismatched gold and blue eyes blazed down at her until Tandy had to look away, wrapping her arms tightly around herself.
“Don’t do it, little girl.”
For a moment, she wondered where the deep, growling voice was coming from. Surely not the Kindred slave? He couldn’t speak Yonnite, could he? She looked up at him uncertainly.
“Did you say something?”
“I said, don’t fucking buy me.” He glared at her, his Yonnite heavily accented with the guttural tones of his own language, but easily understandable.
“I don’t seem to have much choice in the matter,” Tandy said shortly. “And how can you speak Yonnite anyway?”
“I’m Kindred—we have a gift for languages,” he growled.
“So you are Kindred.” Tandy felt a rush of relief. Maybe Mistress Sinda was right. Maybe it would be all right to have this huge male as her first slave to tame after all!
But her relief was short-lived.
“Yeah, I’m Kindred,” he growled. “But when the fucking slaver told you my ancestry he left out the fact that I’m part Tenebrian demon too. It kind of overrides my Kindred genes, ya know?”
“I…it…it does?” Tandy swallowed hard, feeling a cold sweat bloom down her spine. Tenebrian demons were a race of people so fierce that pure-blooded males had been forbidden as slaves by the Sacred Seven. That was because they were known to be murderous and destructive—utterly deadly to any female they didn’t like. And since no Tenebrian demon wanted to be owned or mastered by a Mistress, that pretty much included the entire the ruling class of Yonnie Six.
“That’s right, little girl,” the Kindred growled, his mismatched eyes flashing. “You buy me and I promise I’ll fuck you over and fuck you up.” His gaze flickered over her body and Tandy suddenly felt undressed in her traditional Yonnite Mistress attire of a high, split skirt that showed her panties and a half-cup golden bustier which showed off the berry-dark arches of her areolas. “And then I’ll just fuck you,” he snarled, a hungry light suddenly coming into those blue and gold eyes.
“How…how dare you speak to me like that?” she demanded breathlessly. “If you know enough to speak Yonnite, then you know that Mistresses never allow themselves to be penetrated by a male!”
“Oh, I’ll do more than penetrate you, little girl—I’ll defile you,” he promised in that low, growling voice. “I’ll fill you with my shaft and what’s more I’ll make you beg for it. We’ll see how long the other Mistresses want you around when my seed is leaking from your soft little pussy.” His eyes flickered down to the tiny golden triangular patch of her panties again, making her feel positively undressed.
“You—don’t you say another word!” Tandy gasped, covering her crotch with one hand to shield herself from his angry, lustful gaze.
“Or what, little girl?” He smirked at her, his cruelly sensual mouth twisting into a mocking smile.
“Or…or I’ll get the controls and activate those pain cuffs you’re wearing—I swear I will!” Tandy snapped.
“Pain doesn’t bother me much, little girl. Not when there’s a sweet little pussy that needs fucking.”
His words invoked a vivid mental image—one she would rather not think of. For just a moment Tandy saw herself pinned beneath him—his muscular back and ass flexing as he drove that monstrous cock deep inside her…
No! Quickly she pushed the disturbing thought away.
“I won’t have you talk to me that way, slave,” she said, frowning up at him—if only the damn pedestal didn’t make him so high above her! “I’ll punish you if you don’t behave.”
The Kindred went silent. Instead of saying anything else, he grinned at her fiercely—a sudden baring of white teeth in his dark face that made Tandy catch her breath. She stared at him. There, where a normal male would have his canine teeth—were those…fangs?
They were indeed, she saw, as she stared, mesmerized by his malice. A double set of long, white fangs as sharp as dagger blades on either side of his mouth. This slave wasn’t just dangerous looking—he was deadly.
Goddess, she thought faintly. He’ll rip my throat out! I can’t have him as my first slave to train—I can’t!
As if on cue, her aunt and the Judge of the Change came back with the very satisfied-looking slaver.
“Well, the deal is done.” Mistress Sinda dusted her hands together as from a job well done.
“Indeed it is.” Aunt Deelee was grinning unpleasantly, like a felinus that had gotten into the cream.
“You bought him?” Tandy asked weakly, hearing the tremor in her own voice but unable to control it.
“Credit from your late Aunt Zora’s estate bought him,” Mistress Sinda corrected sternly. “Now it’s up to you to train him and break him to your will, my dear.”
“And make him submit to you utterly. If you don’t, you’ll fail the Challenge of the Change and Zora’s estate passes to me,” Deelee declared, smirking gleefully at Tandy.
“We are all aware of the rules, Mistress Deelee.” Mistress Sinda frowned reprovingly at her. “And of course, we are all hoping that Tandace is up to the task. Zora believed in her enough to make her the legal heir to her estate—she must have seen something special in your niece to make such a decision.”
“Of course you’re right, Mistress Sinda.” Deelee backpedaled quickly. “Let’s hope our dear little Tandy here is up to the challenge.” She simpered at Tandy, her poison-green eyes wide with fake sincerity.
Tandy wanted to slap the look off her odious aunt’s face. Despite their different viewpoints, she had loved her Aunt Zora and missed her badly. And she didn’t believe her loving, older aunt, would have left her estate to Deelee even if Tandy herself wasn’t in the picture. Though Zora and Tandy’s mother had gotten along very well with each other, neither of them had ever been able to stand their middle sister at all.
“I have reason to believe this slave is more dangerous than the slaver said,” she told Mistress Sinda desperately. “He has already threatened my life and my…my virtue while the two of you were talking to the slaver.” She dropped her voice. “He said he’d penetrate me,” she whispered.
But the reaction she got to this news wasn’t what she’d hoped.
“He speaks Yonnite?” Mistress Sinda looked interested. “Perfect! You won’t even have to fit him with a translator-bead.”
“But he said—”
“Whatever he said is of no consequence,” her Aunt Deelee snapped. “And you can’t listen to slaves anyway—unbroken males will say the foulest things, just to try and get a rise out of you. The best thing to do is split his tongue the minute you get him home—that will shut him up.”
A low, animalistic growl rose from the deep chest of the prisoner on the pedestal and Tandy looked up at him in alarm.
“Hush,” she muttered to her aunt. “Didn’t I tell you he speaks Yonnite? He can understand every word we say!”
“Let him listen and learn something then.” Aunt Deelee’s poison-green eyes narrowed maliciously. “Something that you are going to teach him, niece. Because he’s yours now—you own him and there’s no giving him back!”
“Your esteemed relative is correct—all sales are final.” Suddenly the Pongu slaver was putting something into Tandy’s hands. Looking down she saw that it was a thick leather strap.
A leash, she realized, feeling sick as she looked up and saw that the other end of the leather strap was attached to the massive Kindred’s control collar.
“That’s right—he’s all yours.” Mistress Sinda smiled, as though she’d given Tandy a wonderful name-day gift. “And I speak for myself and the entire Sacred Seven Council when I say we look forward to seeing how well you train him.”
“Um…thank you,” Tandy mumbled, still feeling sick to her stomach. She clutched the end of the leash, hardly knowing what to do with it.
“Well, come on—give it a tug,” Aunt Deelee said impatiently. “He still has a control collar on—he has to do whatever you say.” She lifted an eyebrow. “Though of course, that won’t be allowed once you start training him.”
“Your Aunt Deelee is right.” Mistress Sinda nodded. “A control collar can give the illusion of control, even of the most savage slave. You will be allowed a pain collar and cuffs, though,” she said comfortingly. “We don’t expect you to train him with words alone, of course.”
“Of course,” Tandy said faintly. She looked up at the massive slave, still standing there on the pedestal. The slaver had pushed a button to lower it but even though it was almost all the way down to floor level now, he still towered over her like a mountain of muscle.
They locked eyes and he glared at her, as though daring her to tell him what to do—which was exactly what she was supposed to be doing, Tandy realized miserably. She reminded herself again that she wasn’t doing this for herself. Lifting her chin, she took a deep breath.
“Come,” she said clearly, speaking more to the control collar around the massive slave’s throat than to the slave himself.
The response should have been instantaneous—he should have walked over to her immediately. But the big Kindred didn’t move.
Because he’s fighting it, Tandy saw, feeling sick. Fighting the control collar—and winning!
Indeed, he was—every muscle in his massive body was tensed and the look of angry, defiant resistance in his mismatched eyes was unmistakable. His body trembled with effort but didn’t move.
“Come,” she said again, more forcefully. “Come to me now, slave.”
At last the big Kindred began moving as the collar exerted control over the motor functions of his body. Stiffly, he stalked over to her, his face an angry fist.
“Here I am, little girl,” he growled. “What do you fucking want?”
“Don’t let him talk to you like that! Make him call you Mistress, my dear,” Mistress Sinda urged her.
“You must call me ‘Mistress,’” Tandy said, again speaking to the collar.
“No. You’re not my fucking ‘Mistress,’” he growled, glaring down on her defiantly.
“Will you look at that? She can’t control him—she’s failing already!” There was no mistaking the glee in Deelee’s voice or the triumphant look she threw at Mistress Sinda.
“My dear, you cannot allow such disrespect.” The Judge of the Change spoke quietly but there was a stern look in her gray eyes. “If need be, you must use this.” She put the remote control for the pain cuffs into Tandy’s hand and closed her fingers around it. “Go on,” she urged quietly. “You can do it.”
Tandy clutched the little black rectangle in one sweating palm and the end of the leash in the other.
“Call me Mistress or…or I’ll be forced to use the pain cuffs,” she told the big Kindred, though she really didn’t want to. Still, she couldn’t see any other way to get him to obey her.
“No,” he said again, glaring at her. “I told you—you’re not my fucking Mistress and I’m not your fucking slave. I—”
Tandy pointed the remote at him and pressed the red button. She hated to do it—she didn’t really believe in her heart that males should be treated like this. But again, she wasn’t doing it for herself. She thought again of the urgent message her Mother had sent.
“Please, Tandy—if you can help…”
With an angry roar, the huge Kindred went stiff and then fell to his knees, like a tree with its trunk severed falling to earth. Every nerve in his muscular body was on fire right now, she knew—that was how the pain conduction worked. It spread through the body until the agony was unbearable—until a slave would do anything to make it stop.
Tandy let off the button but kept the remote pointed at him.
“Say it,” she demanded desperately. “Call me Mistress, Kindred.”
His thick throat worked and for a moment no sound came out. Then a single growled word emerged from his sensual lips.
“Mistress.”
He said it with so much hate and loathing that Tandy shivered. She couldn’t help remembering his promise to fuck her—to penetrate her and defile her with his seed. Goddess, how was she going to manage him once the control collar came off?
“All right,” she said, putting down the pain remote. “That’s better. Now come on—we have to go home.”
The big Kindred looked like he wanted to say something else but he didn’t. He got stiffly to his feet and followed obediently when she tugged on his leash.
“There now, see? That wasn’t so hard,” Mistress Sinda said brightly. “Come, my dear—let’s all go home.”
She and Deelee walked ahead, speaking in low voices, leaving Tandy to drag the massive Kindred along in ominous silence behind them.
They were almost out of the Flesh Bazaar with its many slaves displayed for sale when he finally
spoke again, in a tone so low Tandy knew it was for her ears alone.
“You’re gonna be sorry, little girl,” he rumbled in that low, menacing tone. “You’re gonna be so fucking sorry you bought me—I’ll see to that.”
TWO
Vrox was pissed off—no more than that—enraged.
How dare the curvy little Mistress with the exotic creamy brown skin and big brown eyes presume to buy him and try to tame him like he was some kind of a fucking pet?
He glared at her diminutive form as she led him out of the Flesh Bazaar and into the docking bay which was filled with vessels of all shapes and sizes. Though he would never normally speak to a female the way he’d talked to her, he’d been too angry to stop himself. Also, he’d been trying to warn her off—hoping some other hapless wanna-be “Master” or “Mistress” would buy him. Some asshole who had just come into a bunch of money and thought having a personal slave would make them seem more important. Someone like that would have been easy to get free of.
But not the Yonnites—when it came to owning slaves, they were hard core.
Fucking experts, he thought angrily, eyeing the pain cuffs that had made every nerve in his body feel like it was on fire. When the Yonnites took a slave it was for keeps—they had been holding males against their will for centuries and that rich tradition of male bondage meant they had the technology and the know-how to keep him prisoner if he wasn’t either very fucking lucky or very fucking smart.
Right now Vrox didn’t feel smart at all. The slaver who’d captured him and his partner, Dannen, had literally caught them off-guard. They’d just finished a hard run through the Telgar system—dropping supplies to one of the oppressed planetoids the central Telgar government kept under their thumb by nearly starving the colonists to death. There had been a near miss—they had almost been caught by a cadre of ships from the Imperial Telgar fleet—but had gotten away at the last minute with nothing more than a few laser blast scorches on the side of their ship—The Lady Fair—to show for it.
Handling the Hybrid: A Kindred Tales Novel Page 2