Sister Katherine

by Tracy St. John

“I’m no Imdiko, used to taking care of someone. I’m made to protect, not nurture. I’m sorry I’m not better at this, Katherine.”

  She had to smile. “You’re extremely good at making me feel cared for. It’s just Dr. Degorsk said I would be fine after this. You don’t need to fuss.”

  He frowned. “But look at you. You’re so tiny. So helpless. How can I not worry over you when you’ve been ill?”

  She arched an eyebrow at him. “I assure you, I am not helpless. I have lived my life perfectly fine for many years without a Nobek to wait on me hand and foot.”

  One side of Miv’s mouth twisted upward. “Do I detect a challenge there?”

  Katherine crossed her arms over her chest and pretended to glare at him. “Do not let a quiet facade fool you, Kalquorian. It’s the quiet ones you have to watch out for.”

  His grin came out full force. “I’ll keep that in mind, my lovely.”

  Katherine swallowed. His smile, bright in his dark face, made her heart pick up speed. His people had attacked hers, had taken them prisoner. Yet she felt so much goodness coming from the fierce warrior.

  Miv blinked at her, his brow creasing with concern as she stared at him. “What are you thinking, Katherine?”

  “That I wish we would have met under other circumstances. I wonder how different it would have been if coming together under the hope of compromise had been possible, rather than meeting as enemies.”

  He looked at her. Really looked at her, as if thinking hard on her words. After nearly a minute of considering, Miv said, “I still would have seen a beautiful woman who deserves my strength before her, keeping all who would harm her at bay.”

  Katherine gasped. “Miv, that was lovely. You’re a poet as well as a warrior.”

  His face reddened a little. “Nobeks are often seen as brutes, especially by your people. It is true we live for the fight, hoping to die in glorious battle with dignity and honor. Our blood screams for danger and the opportunity to turn it back. But we feel, Katherine. We don’t often speak of it, but we feel.”

  She could see the truth of his words in his eyes. The intensity of his emotions lay bare before her, raw and urgent. Unable to help herself, Katherine leaned forward and stroked his cheek. She had to touch this courageous and sensitive man, needed to be in contact with this amazing creature of deep emotion that he dared not display for any but a few.

  Miv moved into her touch, coming closer. His face filled Katherine’s vision. She saw only him, and yet it was as if she saw all of creation in him. All the wonder. All the joy. All the heartache. All the danger. And all the splendor.

  His fierce visage softened. His breath warmed her face as he drifted closer. When their lips touched, Katherine felt a simultaneous jolt of electricity and a gentle melting through her being. The steel of Miv’s arms surrounded her, and she sank into the security of his protection.

  She was safe. Nothing could harm her when this man held her. Katherine felt it with all her soul.

  Miv’s mouth moved over hers, its demands gentle. The wet rasp of his tongue teased the softness of her lips and she gasped at the intimacy. Taking advantage, the Nobek’s tongue slipped forward to tease hers. Katherine tasted him.

  She couldn’t have named a flavor to describe him. Words like beast, primitive, hunger, and need occurred to her rioting brain. Perhaps his taste had no real name except that of man. And not just man. Miv.

  The strange feeling in her gut that Katherine had mistaken for illness, what Degorsk had told her was desire, grew huge. Her stomach roiled with the sensation that was heat and ache and need. When the kiss deepened and Miv’s tongue stroked hers, sandpaper-ish and utterly delicious, the sensation seared her until Katherine thought she might ignite. She thought she might know how a volcano readying to erupt must feel, with lava seething until it must escape in cataclysmic explosion. Her body trembled with the force of it.

  Miv’s mouth slipped from hers. Only now did Katherine realize that she had somehow ended up in his lap, her body cradled and held close to his. Suddenly the reality of what was happening crashed in on her, brought fully to consciousness as Miv looked at her with an expression of devotion, longing, and worry.

  His voice seemed to rumble through her sensitized body when he spoke. “You are not afraid of me, are you? I would not hurt you for anything, my Matara.”

  “I shouldn’t be doing this.” Katherine lay still in his arms, fearing the least movement would bring about her destruction. Not from Miv, either.

  Her sex hadn’t merely dampened. Like when she’d let Miv kiss her before, the fabric of her panties clung soaked to her crotch. It was blatant proof of how her body readied to mate. Her base nature had responded to the need to couple, to make children even though the man it responded to was not of her species. She desired Miv. Even fear for her virtue and knowledge of giving way to sin did not keep her from wanting it.

  “I shouldn’t be doing this,” she repeated, trying to convince herself.

  Miv cocked his head quizzically. “Why not? We were made for pleasure. Explain to me why a man and woman who are attracted to each other should not enjoy it.”

  Katherine arched an eyebrow at him. “I never said I was attracted to you.”

  He cocked an eyebrow back, mocking her with her own expression. “Yet here you sit in my arms with no seeming inclination to move. Your scent changes when we touch. When we kiss. You grow wet like me.”

  Katherine flushed. She looked away, unable to hold his knowing gaze. Utterly humiliated, she muttered, “That is a primitive nature response. Like you told me last night, it is not one I have to respond to.”

  “That is true. But if you are aroused as I am, why would we not explore it? Especially since you insist your God is loving and would forgive you the trespass that your fellow Earthers say this is.”

  Katherine struggled to find a way to answer that. She had been lulled by Miv’s outward brutishness and youth, never guessing at the cunning mind behind that feral facade. She had underestimated his ability to debate, not to mention his skill to awaken her sleeping desires.

  She was saved from coming up with a valid argument by Simdow’s arrival. The handsome Dramok’s expression glowed with pleasure to find her in the arms of his Nobek. Katherine blushed again.

  “Hello,” Simdow said. He sat next to them, and despite Katherine’s humiliation, she couldn’t help but return the beautiful smile he gave her.

  He leaned forward to kiss her forehead. “I received Dr. Degorsk’s report that your hernia repair went well. How are you feeling?”

  “Not bad. Miv has been taking good care of me.”

  Katherine attempted to pull free of Miv, but he tightened his grip on her, keeping her seated on his thighs. She frowned up at him.

  As if nothing had happened, Miv told Simdow, “My Dramok, I discussed Katherine’s disciplinary needs tied to her religious beliefs with Dr. Degorsk. He has given his approval for me to carry out her punishments, starting in two days if she wishes it. Only your permission is needed.”

  “Which you have.” Simdow looked to Katherine. “You will find Miv is extremely good with such things.”

  Well, at least she could look forward to that. Scourging was a pleasure she didn’t have to be ashamed of. “Thank you,” she said with sincerity.

  Miv regarded her for a moment before telling Simdow, “Perhaps you can help us figure out something. We were having a discussion about why Katherine feels it is wrong to pursue more intimate relations when she is obviously aroused.”

  Katherine’s face heated. She looked down at her hands knotted in her lap, wishing Miv would let her go. She did not want Simdow to know how she’d been passionately kissing the Nobek only minutes prior.

  The Dramok asked, “Why do you resist if you are interested?”

  “It’s wrong. I’m a nun, and nuns do not indulge the sinful urges of the flesh.”

  Even as she answered, Katherine thought of how she had touched Simdow this morning. How she had
wrapped her fingers around his hard, intimate flesh. How amazing it had felt to excite him and make him achieve pleasure. Her womanhood gushed at the memory, and she cringed to have no control over her reactions.

  “I see.” Simdow considered quietly for a few seconds. “What precisely, except for your duty as a nun, makes this sharing of bodies sinful? I need to understand the rationale of these concepts.”

  Katherine said, “Well, we’re not married, to start with.”

  Simdow seemed surprised. “Of course we are. Oh, it’s not marriage as you Earthers think of it, but we are bonded. You are clanned to us. It is our version of marriage.”

  She shook her head. “There has been no ceremony, no blessing of a priest.”

  The Dramok shrugged. “It’s not necessary in our law to do so, though we do have a ceremony that announces our ties to all. We don’t find it necessary to have anyone bless a union that takes place in our hearts and souls. Our acceptance of one another is enough in the eyes of our people.”

  Miv added, “And unlike Earthers our bond is for life, except in extreme circumstances.”

  “My acceptance of this situation was never part of it,” Katherine pointed out.

  Simdow sighed. “No, the vagaries of wartime make the union between victor and the captured not necessarily one of mutual agreement. Empress Jessica tried to change that, but this is the way it has been for centuries. The Royal Council would not agree to alter that.”

  Miv nodded his agreement. “Usually Kalquorians eventually release their concubines and servants captured in war. However, your race is the first we could breed with, and with extinction looming on the horizon we will not be giving our mates up.”

  “Especially since clanning is an unbreakable union. But you will not be our prisoner, Katherine. You will be our equal once the war is done and you accept your place in my clan. For all intents and purposes, you are our wife.”

  Katherine swallowed. She wanted to argue with them that this was not acceptable to her religion. That was not the truth, however. Earther soldiers indeed claimed vanquished women as their wives.

  My religion, if it recognized Kalquorians as valid children of God, would have to recognize my servitude to them. It would have to ordain our union.

  Miv broke into this stunning conclusion. “If I understand it correctly, nuns do not take husbands. Therefore you are no longer a nun, having been married – clanned – to us. Isn’t that true?”

  Katherine stared at him, though what he’d said was not as shocking as the new thought that had just occurred to her. She abruptly realized that she could not return to her convent or Earth. Ever.

  If Earth’s fleet came right now and attacked Simdow’s ship … if it, in fact, made them surrender, the nuns of Europa would not be saved. Katherine and all the other women taken as prisoners would be considered ruined after having been captured by the Kalquorians. It would be assumed they had been defiled by their captors, made to perform sexual acts. The Church would express remorse. The courts would deem it unfortunate. Yet the nuns would probably all be placed in work camps for their sin of having known men outside of God’s approval. Not only would Katherine not be a nun, she would soon be dead.

  And the children … would Earth judge the poor little innocents as having been corrupted too? Would her little Marci and Darci and all the rest be worked and beaten and tortured even though the aliens had not laid a finger upon them?

  Katherine’s voice shook with the horror. “You have no idea what you’ve done to us.”

  Oblivious to the full extent of the invasion’s effects on the women and girls of Europa, Simdow nevertheless looked sympathetic. “I am sorry if this makes you angry or sad. You are a victim of a war that isn’t your doing, my love. I only hope to make your life from now on one of joy. That you will someday accept us as your husbands.”

  Katherine swallowed. He had no clue all her choices had just been stripped away. “I don’t know if I can do that. It seems wrong.”

  She lied. Now that she knew her only chance at life was to remain with the Kalquorians and to become a member of Simdow’s clan in truth, a part of her wanted nothing more than to explore the opportunity.

  Simdow asked, “Did it feel wrong to touch me the way you did this morning?”

  It had not. However, even backed into a corner with no way out, Katherine could not bring herself to admit such a thing. “I shouldn’t have done that. I don’t know what came over me.”

  “You don’t lie very well, my love.”

  Katherine’s shocked gaze met his. She gaped at him.

  Simdow offered a knowing smile. “You are curious. You want to touch and be touched, if only to satisfy that curiosity.”

  She stiffened and then tried once more to climb off Miv’s lap. When he refused to let her go, she spluttered, “What do you know of what I want? You’re an alien. Our ways are nothing alike.”

  “Then let’s discover exactly what I know.”

  Simdow suddenly reached up the skirt of her gown, his hand going straight to her crotch to cup her. Shocked by the clandestine touch, Katherine yipped. She jerked and tried to move away.

  The sizzling elation that charged through her belly was every bit as startling as Simdow’s fondling. Even as she tried to get away, her movements were hampered by a warm weakness that poured through her limbs. It was as if her own body battled her will, determined to enjoy the pulses of pleasure that greeted Simdow’s caress.

  His hand withdrew, leaving Katherine feeling cold with loss. A whimper escaped her throat, as if to beg Simdow to touch her again. She was aware of Miv watching it all carefully, his body tense with alertness even as he kept her imprisoned on his lap.

  Simdow’s voice was soft. “I know you are frightened, but you are also wet with arousal. Your underclothing is soaked with it. Deny this.”

  Katherine could only stare at him. She couldn’t utter the words that should be pouring from her mouth, the words that would say she despised him, that she hated what he’d done, that she found him and his carnal urges disgusting. She could say none of these things nor deny the powerful throbbing of her body in the wake of his touch.

  He nodded. “I thought not. Katherine, I am, according to Kalquor’s laws, your Dramok. I am one of your husbands. We are on board a Kalquorian ship, which means we are in Empire territory and subject to those laws.”

  She looked at him, looming over her. Held helpless by Miv. She was their wife and prisoner, subject to whatever they wished with no choice in the matter. She’d never felt so small and defenseless in her life.

  So why did she also feel safe? As if the very men who had the right to make her perform unspeakable acts would also defend her from all harm? Even now, with Simdow asserting his rights over her, his and Miv’s presence were like a fortress made to defend her, not cause hurt.

  “I wish to touch my wife in an intimate manner.” Simdow’s voice was a gentle caress even as his words brought a jolt of fear through her soul.

  Katherine’s protest quavered from her lips. “You promised. You said not until I was ready.”

  “I said I would not force mating on you. I will keep that promise. However, Miv and I should be allowed to touch you as you touched me this morning. To bring you the pleasure you brought us. Does that not seem fair?”

  More than ever Katherine regretted the impulsive act this morning that had brought this upon her. She had pleasured Simdow, encouraging him to want further intimate acts. Her rash behavior had driven him to assert his rights as conqueror. Katherine was trapped with no way out.

  She bowed her head in surrender. “I suppose it is.”

  “Good. We will start by removing your clothing.”

  Katherine did not fight the two men as they lifted her gown from her body. She bit her lips as she acquiesced to Simdow tugging her panties off. Then Miv laid her down on the bed. As the men looked down on her, Katherine staved off the urge to cover herself with her hands. She was theirs. Perhaps as long as she didn’t
fight them they would remain gentle with her.

  Please don’t hurt me. Please.

  As if he could hear her desperate thoughts, Simdow whispered, “Relax, my poor, frightened love. We’re not going to harm you.”

  He lay down next to her and tilted her chin up. His kiss was slow and sweet, just as Miv’s had been earlier. Katherine’s senses went dizzy at the tenderness of it. Some instinct remembered how it had been to share such an embrace with Miv, and her lips parted without her conscious control. Simdow’s tongue entered, stroking hers with delicious longing.

  Katherine reeled from the intimate contact. She forgot to breathe for several seconds as Simdow coaxed her tongue to twine against his, tasting each other deeply. Had she not been laying down, she would have fallen. As it was, Katherine felt as if she plunged from a great height, the ground beneath her having given way.

  Her pulse thudded, its reverberations seeming to center in her sex. She was aware of her secret folds flooding with erotic invitation. For a few liberating seconds, she didn’t care. All that mattered was the warm mouth carefully plundering hers and the delectable thrills it spawned.

  Simdow pulled back just enough to whisper against her lips. “Trust us, Katherine.” He released her chin. An instant later, a soft touch drifted over the cleft of her womanhood.

  She inhaled sharply as her insides liquefied and a stab of pure want ruptured her every thought. Her legs jerked apart. Simdow’s fingertips stroked the exposed petals, and Katherine’s body arched in a paroxysm of feeling.

  “That’s it. I’m only touching you a little. No one’s harming my lovely little girl. Let it happen, my love. Let the sensations take you.”

  His fingers continued to explore, tracing every fold and nook of her. Katherine’s insides felt as if they must boil over in a frenzy of molten excitement. She’d never known anything like this enchanting mania of bliss, this constant commotion that excited and bespelled all at once. The enthrallment only increased as Miv’s mouth closed over one breast, gently drawing on her flesh. His tongue brushed the tip of her mound with care, and the sensation slivered straight down to where Simdow’s hand investigated. The Nobek sucked delicately as he plucked the other nipple, sending shards of quaking elation through her body.