A Claim for Calix: A Sci Fi Alien Romance (Tallean Mercenaries Book 4)

by Lynnea Lee

  The merchant had been suspicious since Emma never acted high, and the doses were too strong for human consumption, but he was unable to pinpoint the real thief. So instead of physically punishing her for a crime he didn’t believe she had done, the merchant had sold her to a breeding facility instead. He hadn’t particularly enjoyed her company anyway due to her strange scent.

  She wasn’t at the breeding facility long. The scientists working at the facility had been quite upset when they realized she was infertile due to the birth control shot she had taken back on Earth. They had sold her to the Meeting Ground shortly after.

  She had lucked out that the scientists had not confirmed the validity of her story. Not wishing to be used as a vessel to birth a bunch of human slaves, she had withheld the fact that the birth control shot was temporary. She led them to believe that she had sterilized herself permanently by choice.

  The scientists there had mentioned something about the strange way she smelled and concluded that the scent came from the sterilization. Patrons at the Meeting Ground had often mentioned it as well. They often complained to the manager that she smelled off, not bad, just off.

  Even though Emma only saw them in passing, the two women looked healthy, and she didn’t see any obvious signs of abuse. No bruises marred their skin despite being only half-dressed. Hope bloomed in her chest. The males on this ship cared for the slaves very well. She hoped Calix cared for his possessions similarly.

  Absently, she reached up to touch the bruises on her face. She considered herself lucky to have all her limbs and teeth still. She had heard so many stories about other slaves acting out. None of the stories had a happy ending. The females who had been difficult had it worse. Some were no longer among the living.

  It had been easy to pretend, safe on Earth, that if something like this ever happened to her, she would fight to the end. But that was naïve. The fighters ended up in the same place as she did, just with fewer teeth or broken limbs.

  Emma had learned to do as she was told. She needed to. She wanted to survive just in case the future was just a little brighter. Maybe this ship, and Calix, was the silver lining she had been waiting for.

  She needed to make sure Calix was satisfied with her so that he wouldn’t sell her. Emma had changed hands enough. She knew that her new owner would have his own wants and desires, but all slaves were trained in the same similar behavior throughout the Dominion. She reviewed in her head all the things her first master had trained her to do.

  They entered the crew quarters and stopped in front of a door. Cal pressed against a panel on the side of the door, and it slid open into a bedroom.

  They entered his room, and Emma turned—remembering her training—to help him with his shoes. But he kicked them off, not giving her a chance to help him with them. So, she took them and lined them up by the door neatly.

  He sat down on the bed, and Emma knelt as his feet, waiting for her first orders. She remembered all the times she had knelt by a male’s feet and realized that this was the first time she was not filled with dread, disgust, or even apathy. Emma was, in fact, nervous and a bit excited. Cal had shown her nothing but gentleness, and that, combined with his near god-like body, made her excited to serve for once.

  “Get up.”

  That was an odd request. She scrambled to stand back up. Cal did not look happy.

  “You don’t need to kneel by my feet. I don’t like it.”

  “I’m sorry, Master.” She risked speaking too much but wanted him to know she was willing to learn. “But I know that you will have your own have preferences. Please train me so I can learn to please you."

  His face clouded up even more, and Emma knew she had said the wrong thing.

  “Do not call me that. I am not your master.”

  He was irritated. Crap! She wasn’t making a good impression.

  “Tell me what you were taught before and tell me about your life after leaving Earth.”

  She stood there awkwardly before he pulled her down onto the bed next to him. Emma worried, what if he was unhappy with the number of owners she had had.

  “I was bought by a Dominion merchant at the first auction. He had a few other personal slaves.” Emma tried to breeze by this part, not wanting to tell him about the reason why he sold her. She didn’t want to give Calix the idea that she would steal anything, even though she hadn’t been the thief. “He sold me shortly to a—”

  “Do you know his name?”

  “No, I just knew him as Master.”

  Cal grunted. “You said he sold you, where did you go next?”

  “To a Dominion slave breeding facility. They were just starting to breed humans to keep as slaves since so many humans disobeyed and caused trouble. We didn’t have any Fietes with us.”

  “We’ve heard about that. Disgusting. These facilities need to be shut down. How long were you in there?”

  She fidgeted with the hem of her shift. “Not long. They found out I was infertile shortly after.”

  “Infertile?” Did he sound disappointed?

  Should Emma tell him the truth or let him believe she was infertile forever? Considering there was no way for Talleans and humans to procreate, she decided Cal deserved to know the truth. Maybe if he thought that her scent would improve, he would be more likely to keep her.

  “I took a birth control shot while still on Earth. It prevents pregnancy for three months, but I let the scientists believe it was permanent.”

  “Good. That was smart. And how did your first owner train you?” He didn’t ask why her owner sold her. That was good.

  She listed out the rules at her old home. “Always keep my eyes down. Never look anyone in the eyes. Never speak unless spoken to. Sit by his feet if I have no chores left to do. Help him remove his shoes when he gets in. Fix and serve his meals on time. Clean up after his meals. Never eat until after everyone else has eaten. At night, if I’m in his room, I sleep on the mat on the floor.”

  She looked around. There was no mat in this room for her. Maybe they had slave quarters on the ship. Emma had spent most nights at her first home in the slave quarters.

  “What is it?” He had noticed her glancing around the room.

  She hesitated, not wanting to question him or seem demanding. “There is no mat here. I can sleep on the floor.”

  He growled. She’d said something wrong again.

  “You will sleep wherever I put you.” Cal clenched his jaw. “Continue with your list.”

  “Yes, ma—Cal.” She went on to the list of sexual preferences. “When he was using me, I can cry, but I can’t push him away. If he hits me, I must thank him for the correction. If—”

  “Stop. Enough.” Calix’s features were tight with rage.

  Clearly, his rules were not the same.

  “I am a fast learner! Please teach me how to make you happy. I will do everything to the best of my ability, I promise.”

  He grabbed her by the arms and turned her to face him. “No, Emma. I’m not going to train you to be my slave.”

  No, no, no, she wasn’t even going to get a chance to prove her worth! Emma knew that if he gave her a chance, she could make him happy, and he would keep her. She wanted to stay on this ship, where they took good care of their humans and didn’t beat them black and blue.

  “Please, give me a chance. Don’t send me back. Don’t sell me. I’ll make you happy. I’ll do anything you want, and I won’t comp—”

  At the look on his face, she swallowed her last word.

  Cal was furious. He got up; his hands clenched into fists at his side. Then he stormed out of the room.

  What the hell was she going to do now? Her new owner was going through buyer’s remorse, and he hadn’t even bought her.

  Chapter 4

  Calix stormed down the corridor. He wanted to punch something. The way Emma cowered and begged whenever she thought she had displeased him damn near broke his heart. And when she begged
him not to send her back—Cal punched his fist into the wall. He would never send her back, not in a million cycles. If it were up to him, she would never leave his room again. But Cal needed Emma to want him, genuinely want him, not just pretend to like him because she thought he would desert her otherwise.

  “If you break my walls, it’s coming out of your pay.”

  “Fuck, Zey! I didn’t even hear you approach.” Calix turned to his captain and lifelong friend.

  “You were preoccupied.” Zeylum shrugged. “Shouldn’t you be in your room convincing your new female to stay? Don’t tell me she turned you down already. Maybe Vore had the right idea, and we should stop by a pleasure house for you.”

  Cal grumbled moodily at the comment.

  “If she didn’t turn you down, then what’s got you abusing my ship?”

  “I don’t think she is ready for that type of attention yet. I just had to tell her that I’m not training her to be my slave.” Cal resisted punching the wall again at the words.

  “That’s not good conversation to charm a female.”

  “It’s not good conversation for anything. She still acts like a slave, and I think it will take her a while to realize she is free.”

  “Give her time. Why don’t we go train and take your frustrations out on the mats before you break my ship?”

  Some good old regimented violence would do the trick to keep his brain occupied. “That would help.”

  They entered the training area, and Zeylum tossed Cal the leather caps for his claws. He snapped the caps on each talon and applied chalk to each tip. The caps were a mandatory safety precaution for training, no matter how careful they were otherwise, accidents still happened.

  Every young Tallean male had heard tragic stories of friends or brothers gutting each other while in play. Their claws were not weapons to be trifled with. The chalk was to mark their attack on the opponent.

  He tied his hair up and out of the way. Calix usually wore his hair to his shoulders, like a merchant, but it had grown out recently. Unlike Zey, who always wore his hair tied back, Cal preferred it down when not training.

  They fought each other round after round, punching, kicking, and grappling. Cal panted with exertion, and sweat dripped down his neck. He needed this, needed this vicious exertion, to distract him from the “distraction” sitting on his bed. As always, the two males were well matched. They had fought in play as youngsters, and they often trained now as grown males.

  They were eventually interrupted by a buzz on Zey’s comm.

  “I’ve lost track of time. I should spend more time with my mate. If you need more distraction from the female in your room, you should try out the new scenarios we downloaded for the training simulator. Some human programmers developed missions on Earth. I took Ashe to somewhere called the Eyeful Tower. She loved it.”

  “A tower? What’s so special about it?”

  Zey wiped the sweat off his brow with a towel. “No idea. It wasn’t even a particularly nice tower, just metal beams. Very primitive. Definitely not an eye full. But Ashe reacted as if it was the most romantic place she had ever been. I’ve programmed in a mattress that you can use in every scene. It comes in handy.”

  “I will make sure to take Emma in with me one day. Thank you for the training. I needed it.”

  “Any time. And if you ever need help with Emma, remember that I owe you for making sure Ashe and I came to our senses and worked out our differences. The other human females would help you out too.”

  Zey left, and Cal found himself alone with thoughts of Emma again. He knew his crew would back him up, but he wanted to do this on his own. Emma needed to learn that she was free, and if telling her that he didn’t want her as a slave didn’t work, he would have to try something else.

  His stomach growled. He would have to check out the simulations another time. He was hungry, and that meant Emma would be too. He had been so upset and stuck inside his own head that he had forgotten to feed her. Shame filled him. Cal needed to remember that he had a female to care for now.

  He brushed a stray strand of hair off his face and headed back towards his room.

  With Calix out of the room, Emma inspected her new surroundings. Like his own body and clothes, Cal kept his room neat and clean. There wasn’t even anything for her to tidy up.

  She got up from the bed, smoothed the sheet back down, rearranged his numerous pillows, and sat on the floor. It felt strange to be on his oversized bed. Slaves only slept on tiny cots in the slave quarters with thin mats.

  Curious, she opened the closet, expecting to find clothes, but instead found a collection of firearms, mounted in the cabinet. She closed the door quickly. They must not have ammo, or maybe they were replicas, collectible toys, like airsoft guns. Nobody left a human slave alone with a loaded weapon. Everybody knew human slaves were volatile, liable to shoot their owner or themselves, or both, murder-suicide style.

  She ventured a peek into the cabinet again. She wouldn’t know the difference, but they sure looked like real blasters and guns. And there were even energy cartridges lining the side of the cabinet. Emma closed the cabinet door, feeling like she’d done something horribly wrong. She looked around to see if there were cameras. Maybe this was a test. No cameras. She checked under the bed. No cameras. Or at least none that she recognized.

  During her captivity with her first owner, at the breeding facility, or at the Meeting Ground, Emma would have considered stealing a weapon and shooting her owner before shooting herself. She was not sure she would have done it, but she would have considered it seriously. But she had no fatalistic urge to do so now with Cal, none at all. Maybe if he proved to be abusive, Emma would know where to go to end her suffering. But a part of Emma doubted Cal would abuse her.

  Another idea tickled her brain. What if he threatened to sell her? Would she consider ending her life quickly to avoid being on the auction block again? She forced herself not to go down that path of thinking.

  The next door she tried was the bathroom. She wondered if Cal would let her wash in the cleansing unit in here instead of in the common area. Emma quickly used the facilities and washed her face and hands. She stared at her reflection in the mirror.

  Who was this woman staring back at her? Emma had been about twenty-five pounds fluffier than ideal weight, according to her last physical on Earth. She could almost pass as normal weight now, almost. But this woman with sunken, sad eyes and bruises on her cheek was not her. She stared back at the stranger.

  She felt like bawling but didn’t want Calix to walk in on her crying. Her first owner had forbidden any tears from his slaves and punished them if he found them hiding and crying.

  Leaving the restroom, Emma opened the next cabinet, which was next to a small desk, and found the wardrobe. While his room appeared very neat and clean, and his gun cabinet had been immaculate as well, his closet told a different story. It was a mess. Sure, one shelf had tops and bottom folded up neatly, but the rest held crumpled up clothes shoved in and piled up.

  Finally! Something she could do! Emma went to work sorting out his clothes into piles, delegating one shelf for laundry and another shelf as worn, but still clean enough. He didn’t have many clothes, and a good portion of his closet consisted of protective gear, which she dared not touch. Emma found her job finished too quickly, and she was left with nothing to do again.

  Curious, she tried the door to the hallway. She put her hand on the panel next to the door, but nothing happened. She tried again, moving it first up and then down, and then to the sides. Nothing. Cal had locked her in. It was for the best; if the door had opened, Emma would have debated whether to leave to explore the ship. She didn’t want Cal to come back and find her missing.

  Emma knelt by the foot of the bed and closed her eyes. There wasn’t much left to do but wait for her owner to return.

  The sound of the door opening woke Emma from her sleep.

  “What are you doing sleeping
on the ground?” a gruff voice asked. Cal did not look any happier than when he had left. He did look sweatier, though, like he had worked out.

  “I—”

  “No, don’t answer. Next time, if you are tired, sleep on the bed. You don’t need to sleep on the floor.”

  Cal pulled his sweaty tank top off, revealing strong pecs and six-pack abs, and Emma couldn’t stop herself from staring. He was fit. Tallean males put on muscles easily in general, but Cal was head and shoulder above her old merchant owner. Emma wouldn’t mind giving Cal a back rub every night. And suddenly, Emma was glad Cal didn’t own any other slaves. She might get jealous over time.

  Back with her first owner, one of his first slaves had gotten attached to him and got extremely jealous whenever he picked another female to fulfill his sexual needs. Unlike the bitch who had framed Emma, this female was a good person and didn’t take it out on the other slaves. She simply borne the pain of a broken heart on her own and cleaned his home obsessively every time it happened. Emma had felt sorry for her. She was glad she wouldn’t have to experience that sort of hell.

  Cal opened the door to his closet and threw his sweaty top in without looking.

  Emma pushed back disappointment. But then, she was used to her work not being noticed unless it wasn’t done properly.

  His pants came off next, and Emma tried not to stare. It was difficult, and she was no saint. His cock was huge, and it wasn’t even erect. She had seen many alien dicks, but Cal’s was perfect.

  Again, he opened the closet to throw in his pants, but this time he paused.

  “You organized my closet.” He turned to her, and Emma tore her gaze away from his crotch.

  The tempting sight had scattered her brain to all corners of the room, and it took Emma a moment to collect her thoughts. “The bottom shelf is to wash. The second one up is for clothes that can still be worn again. If you don’t like it like this, I can do it the way you like.”