Though it had torn me up inside, we’d headed back to the transporter and got the hell out of there.
I had to admit, Diarus had impressed me. I knew he came from a fighting background, but hadn’t seen him in action before. I tried to tell myself that it should make me feel better about Tara going with Borys, but it didn’t. The idea of that son of a bitch touching her, and her feeling as though she had to let him, made me insane. I was going to torture myself with images of them together every second she was gone.
“Why aren’t you angrier about this?” I demanded of Miko.
“One of us has to hold our shit together, Nadeusz. And right now, I don’t think that person is going to be you.”
“I just can’t stand the idea of him touching her. You saw how he looked at her. He could be fucking her right now.”
I balled my hands into fists.
Miko’s lips thinned. “He won’t. He’ll want to play with her first. Make sure she’s terrified of him before he decides to take her.”
I scowled. “You’re not making me feel any better.”
“Tara knows what she’s doing. She just needs to work fast, so he doesn’t reach his peak. She won’t be the only human female in that house either. Borys may well have other favorites he’s busy with before he gets to her.”
I snorted. “I hope you’re right.”
“And she has Diarus in there with her, too.”
“He can’t do much. If he steps in and tries to interfere, he’ll blow his cover.”
Miko shrugged. “That’s still something, isn’t it? At least he’ll be there to step in. He’ll have to find a way to let us know when it’s time to get her out of there.”
“That’s even if she’s able to find what we need.”
“She’ll find it. I have faith in her.”
“So do I,” I snapped. “She knows that. I made sure of it before she left.”
“She’s not just yours, Nadeusz,” Miko said, a warning tone to his voice. “You know that’s not how things work.”
My scowl deepened. I knew I couldn’t have Tara all to myself. Velos! We’d just handed her over to another Trad, hadn’t we? With females so few among our numbers, it was only right that we had to share. While I could see she had a connection with Miko and Diarus, too, that didn’t mean I wasn’t allowed to try to get her to favor me. I would worship her, and take care of her, and give her the kind of pleasure she’d still be thinking about for years to come. Trouble was, we’d sold her to the nastiest son of a bitch on Tradrych, and while she was in the hands of someone else, I had no way of doing any of those things.
My blood boiled.
Movement came in the doorway of the room, and I turned to find Aleksy’s large form filling it. We’d come back before him, leaving him there to handle things in case anything went wrong at the last minute. I assumed by his presence that it had all gone to plan.
“She did well up there,” Aleksy said. “I was concerned she might find it too much and flip out. I certainly hadn’t expected her to go the extra mile.”
He was referring to Tara exposing herself on stage.
“She’s stronger than she looks,” I replied. “She knows exactly what’s at stake. More than us, even. She’s gone through it all herself.”
Jealousy burned within me at the thought of Aleksy and so many other Trads getting a good eyeful of Tara’s tits. I’d palmed those perfect breasts only hours before. I understood why she’d done whatever was needed to get herself noticed up there, but I also wanted to gouge Aleksy’s eyes out for having seen her like that. I didn’t know why I didn’t feel the same way when it came to Miko. Yeah, I was jealous as hell that Tara liked him, too, but I also understood and accepted it. He, Diarus, and I had all known her for the same amount of time, and under the same circumstances, and to have someone else muscling in right now felt wrong.
Of course, no one had needed to muscle in. We’d just given her to another Trad, instead.
Chapter Eight
It felt like barely any time had passed before the transporter was lowering itself out of the sky again. These things moved fast, and I barely felt the acceleration. My stomach was a twisted knot of anxiety, and I wished the two people I was in here with would do more than sit in silence.
The rear doors opened, and the magnetic forcefield holding us in place released.
“Come on! Out!” one of the security guards demanded.
We each got to our feet. Diarus had restraints around both his ankles and wrists, forcing him to move at a shuffle. We only had them on our wrists, since, I guessed, we weren’t seen to be a threat. I hoped I’d prove Borys wrong about that.
We didn’t have much choice but to climb out of the transporter.
I stepped out onto the ground and lifted my head, curious as to where we’d ended up. I was going to need to learn my way around this place, in particular the areas Borys kept to himself.
The building I found myself in front of was huge. A dome structure of shiny material somewhere between glass and metal—a material I was sure I’d never come across on Earth—and arranged in hexagonal panels that reminded me of a beehive. The ground was made up of the same desert sand that had been back at the facility when we’d been taken outside to wash and get some fresh air. Here, however, the outside space had been landscaped, with lush green foliage of thick-leaved plants growing in cultivated areas. We were enclosed in by a high wall, and I couldn’t see any sign of gates leading to the outside world. Of course, we’d landed directly from the air, so there was no need for a gate. This place was huge, and I tried not to allow myself to be intimidated. I’d be searching for documents somewhere in this building, and it wasn’t as though they’d just be lying around.
“You!” the guard snapped at Diarus. “This way.”
He shoved Diarus from behind, sending him stumbling. With Diarus’s ankles bound, he was unable to right himself and went face down in the dirt. I sucked in a breath and held back my urge to call out his name. I couldn’t make them aware we knew each other.
The guard bent down and hauled Diarus to his feet, and pushed him again.
“Hey, leave him alone!”
Zoe’s shout surprised me.
“Shut up, girl. Worry about yourself,” the guard snapped back.
He must be taking Diarus to a different part of the building. My heart twisted. I hated seeing him go. Diarus could handle himself, and he’d been going undercover for far longer than I had, but I couldn’t help the protectiveness surging up inside me. I didn’t want to see him hurt or think that he might have to endure more violence, even though I had ordeals of my own to face.
Diarus’s back disappeared around the building, and I prayed it wouldn’t be the last time I’d see him.
One of the other security guards stepped forward, his tail lashing the dusty ground behind him. The air smelled dry, as though it sucked any moisture from the insides of my nostrils. How far away from the city were we? How hard would it be for Nad and Miko and the other rebels to reach us? Threads of worry wound inside me, but I did my best not to focus on them. I’d only just arrived, and I still had a mission ahead of me before I could even think about being rescued. I needed to find the locations of the other facilities and then I could think about how the hell I was going to get out of this place. It already looked like a fortress. A part of me wouldn’t have been surprised if there had been a moat on the other side of the tall walls surrounding the property.
“You two, this way.”
I exchanged a glance with Zoe and caught the fear in her eyes. Perhaps I’d just been being paranoid about feeling something had changed between us. I’d been allowed to give birth surrounded by people who at least cared if I lived or died. Her Trad birth would have been a very different situation. She might simply be traumatized by what she’d been through and was struggling to connect.
We were taken in the opposite direction to Diarus.
I returned my attention to the building. Like the wall s
urrounding us, I couldn’t see any doors or windows allowing access. I assumed we weren’t going to be entering the place via the sky this time.
The Trad placed a hand to one of the panels. A whooshing came from somewhere inside, and the panel pulled back, revealing an entrance.
He jerked his chin toward the building. “In.”.
There was zero point in refusing. After all, hadn’t I deliberately put myself in this situation? Zoe, however, was a different story, yet she didn’t cry or fight back. Had they broken her, back at the facility? My heart ached. She seemed to be a shell of the woman I’d gotten to know during our time there.
“Please, can we stay together?” I tried, not wanting to leave her alone.
But the guard laughed, raw and guttural. “I don’t think so. The polityk doesn’t want an audience when he comes to mate with you.” That laugh again, like nails down a blackboard and I shuddered. “Or maybe he will. I’ve heard he likes things a little on the freaky side.”
Revulsion seeped right down to my bones. At least I wouldn’t be able to get pregnant, thanks to the injection I’d been given before coming here. It was a mercy, despite the very likely possibility of having to force myself to be with Borys and make him believe we had something special. I glanced over at Zoe. Perhaps that wasn’t going to be the only reason now. If Borys was with me instead of Zoe, he might leave her alone, and if he left her alone, she wouldn’t fall pregnant again either.
We walked down a long corridor. This place didn’t feel like a home, at least not one I’d ever entered. It was too bare, more like a hospital or even the facility. Was this really where Borys lived? What did it say about him that his expression of who he was inside was no more than this cold shell?
The Trad stopped and placed his hand on the wall to open another of the almost pod-like doorways.
“Put out your hands,” he commanded.
I did as I’d been told, and he used a small, silver device to remove the restraints from my wrists.
“This is you,” he said, grabbing hold of my arm and shoving me forward.
Automatically, I reached for Zoe.
He batted my hand away. “No, you don’t.”
“Please, we can share. Just let us stay together.”
I’d expected her to beg as well—for her to want to stay with me—but she kept her head down.
The guard gave me another push into the room, and I staggered back. The moment I was out of the doorway, it slid shut again, closing off my view of the guard, Zoe, and the corridor beyond.
Tears filled my eyes, and I stayed in that position for a moment, my heart heavy. Would Zoe survive this? Perhaps physically, she’d have no choice, but mentally, I doubted it. She already seemed so different from the person I’d gotten to know before. We’d all gone through an insane amount—from being abducted from Earth, to finding ourselves pregnant with an alien child on another planet, and then having to go through the birth of that child. It was no wonder she was struggling to keep the faith that things would get any better. In her mind, things weren’t going to get any better. She didn’t know about the rebel group. As far as Zoe was aware, this would be our lives until we died.
I wished more than anything that I could tell her the truth, but I’d sworn to Aleksy that I wouldn’t breathe a word. I couldn’t go back on that promise, could I, even if it meant saving the life of a broken woman?
There was nothing I could do for the moment.
With a sigh, I turned toward my prison.
I frowned and narrowed my eyes. Unlike the stark, bare corridors outside, I seemed to have found myself in a bedroom that wasn’t unlike my bedroom back at my apartment at home. A large double bed stood center stage, complete with soft-looking sheets and scatter cushions. Nightstands were positioned on either side. There was a closet, which I assumed would contain the Trad-favored clothing of that strange, overly silky to the point where it almost felt wet, material. A bookshelf was lined with books.
“Oh!”
Were they actual books, in English? That interested me far more than checking out the clothing.
A second door led onto a bathroom, which contained a bath as well as a separate, freestanding shower.
This wasn’t what I’d been expecting at all. I’d thought we’d end up somewhere like the hole back at the facility, with no bed and hard floors, but this felt almost luxurious. He wanted to keep us in comfort, though I didn’t know why. We were his slaves, weren’t we? We didn’t mean anything to him.
Why should he care?
A part of me was tempted to lie on the bed and feel sorry for myself, but I had to remember the reason I was going through all of this.
Of course, I wasn’t expecting to find anything about the other facilities in this room, but I still intended to pull the whole place apart, just in case. There was an Earth phrase we used about hiding things in plain sight, and I knew I would be pissed if I went through hell to get my hands on the plans, only to discover they’d been under my nose all along.
I started at the bookshelf, pulling each book out, checking behind it, and shaking out the pages before placing it back again. I wasn’t going to be disrespectful to the books by throwing them all around the room, no matter what I thought of the Trad who owned them.
I yanked open the drawers of the nightstand, and my heart stopped. I stared down at the contents. Small, smooth, silver items. A tube of some kind of liquid. A silky strip of material I could have mistaken for a tie or a scarf but knew wasn’t. I swallowed hard. These were sex toys. It meant Borys would be coming to me to do what he wanted. He wouldn’t be bringing me into his quarters. That was the opposite of what I wanted. Was that why the room was laid out so well? It wasn’t only to keep us human women happy, it was where he’d come to fuck us.
A rush of hot flooded over me, my face burning. My legs went weak, and I slumped onto the edge of the bed. A trembling took over my limbs, and I lifted my hands to cover my face. I couldn’t allow that to happen. I needed for him to let me out of this room so I’d get to search the rest of the property.
Shit. Shit. Shit. Shit.
I couldn’t bring myself to read. I knew there was no way I’d be able to shut my mind off for long enough to focus on the words. I had a private bathroom, but I didn’t feel comfortable enough to use the facilities. Doing so would mean removing my clothes, and though I was no longer being watched like we had been back at the facility, the thought of being naked made me vulnerable.
I still wore the dress I’d been put into for the auction. It definitely wasn’t comfortable, with its bone-like corset and long skirts, but I didn’t want to wear one of the Trad dresses either. At some point, I was going to need to change, especially if there was the possibility of having to run from the place, or even move quickly and quietly down the corridors, but I wasn’t ready to do that just yet.
Suddenly exhausted, I crawled back onto the bed and lay down. I wondered what Miko and Nad were doing now? Were they back at the rebel headquarters? What about Diarus? What would become of him? If I was kept locked up in this room, how would he be able to keep an eye out for me? I knew he was resourceful, and I couldn’t discount his ability to do his job. But if we were all completely separated, how would it work?
I felt completely alone, and that frightened me. The only other time I’d been by myself since all this had started was back in the hole, and even then I’d had the Trad baby inside me to keep me company. Now I was lonely, and self-pity washed over me.
I huddled into what was now my pillow, letting the tears fall. I missed home more than ever and wondered what had happened on Earth since I’d been taken. Did people understand the reasons behind the asteroid strike now? It had been months, so I assumed they’d figured it out. My best friend, Camille, worked in planetary science, and since I hadn’t come across her anywhere on Tradrych, I figured she was still safe on Earth. Tradrych was a big place, however, and there was always the possibility she’d been taken to a completely different part. I h
oped not. I hoped she was still on Earth, doing what she loved best and kicking Trad ass.
Chapter Nine
A knock came at the door, and I jerked awake, not even realizing I’d drifted off.
I’d been lost in my thoughts of home, remembering how things had been before we’d needed to worry about the invasion of a violent alternate race. I had the briefest moment where I couldn’t remember where I was—back in bed at home in Las Vegas, or in the pod in the facility, or even in the narrow bed at the rebels’ headquarters—but then it all came tumbling back to me.
I was in Polityk Borys’s home. He’d bought me as a slave.
Was that him at the door now?
I swung my legs off the bed and pushed my hair back from my face. I became aware of a low ache in my bladder and it dawned on me that I needed to use the bathroom, but that was going to have to wait for the moment.
Hesitating, unsure of the correct protocol in this situation, I called out, “Come in?”
I heard a click, which I assumed to be the lock, then the door opened with a whoosh, moving to one side to reveal a space. One of the security guards was outside. He didn’t come in but stood in the entrance, framed by the hexagonal doorway.
It was strange, the door opening in such a futuristic way, when the inside of the room was decorated as it would have been at home. I knew it was to make us feel more comfortable, but it was disconcerting. Did Borys think he could fool us into believing we were home simply with a bit of décor? Thinking we could step outside the door and go to Costco or the movies, or for a drink at a local sports bar, instead of discovering ourselves in the middle of a-domed shaped building out in a desert, with several moons high in the sky that were visible even during the day?
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