Captured: The Xandari Chronicles (Book One) (Dark Sci-Fi Romance)

by Raven Dark

  “Do you want my help or not?”

  He let out a resigned sounding growl.

  After a moment, I felt something rough deep in his fur. I spread the fur aside and saw it—a small sliver of brown glass. I carefully pulled it out and held it up for the dog with a smile.

  “See? All gone.”

  He licked my hand, pushing his head into my palm.

  “Everything okay back there, nayna?” Malek looked over his shoulder at me.

  “It is now.” I held up the glass sliver.

  Z’pheer got up and squatted in front of me, looking at the sliver. “Would you look at that.” He kissed my forehead and petted Tarku.

  “What’s going on in here?” Raul walked in, dropped his catch—three rabbit-like creatures that hung on a string—and came over to us. “You’re supposed to be cooking, nayna.”

  Sudden, fierce anger welled up, and I pushed to my feet, holding up the glass.

  “What is that?” He took the sliver slowly.

  “That was in Tarku’s foot,” I gritted slowly.

  Raul’s brow quirked and he glanced at his dog, then at me. His mouth was in an “oh.”

  For some reason, Malek and Z’pheer were both snickering.

  “You took that out of his foot?” Raul said softly.

  “Yes, jerkoff.”

  “He could have taken off your hand.”

  I shrugged and snatched the glass from him, stomping over to the cave entrance and disposing of the glass in a pail someone had left behind. “You’re welcome,” I snapped.

  His mouth opened three times and then he closed it. Bending and looking over Tarku’s paw and petting him, Raul looked genuinely flummoxed as to what to do with himself. He was also looking at me like I had two heads.

  “Are you going to punish me for touching your dog now?”

  “No.” His voice was barely audible.

  He still hadn’t said what he should have, and I couldn’t resist pushing. “We have a custom back on Earth, Raul.”

  Malek laughed into his fist.

  “This is the part where humans say thank you.”

  Z’pheer grinned.

  Raul dropped his shoulders and looked at the ceiling. Still struggling. Any minute the anger would kick in. He’d realize I was pushing him, and he’d probably make me pay. Oh, please, make me pay.

  He didn’t move.

  I pushed a little more. “No? Okay then. Barbarians don’t thank slaves. Got it, spaceman.” I marched over to the cook pot.

  When I looked back at Raul, he was running his fingers through his hair. He growled and stomped out.

  Leaving me as confused as he apparently was.

  Once the rabbit stew was ready, we sat around the fire eating while the men talked. Irritation bit into me once again as I served them their stew and then dished out my own. They were speaking entirely in Xandari again, effectively keeping me from understanding any of the conversation. Despite the occasional chuckle, the serious tones and mostly solemn expressions the men wore told me they were discussing something about what had happened to their world. Besides, I heard numerous mentions of the word Rith, telling me they were probably discussing how to deal with them. Still, it bothered me that they either didn’t trust me well enough to let me understand their discussion, or that they thought, as a woman and perhaps a human, it was none of my business.

  Probably both.

  I sat across from Raul at the fire and focused on my soup, quieting the useless anger that welled up in me for their shutting me out. Way of the world, right?

  Sitting cross-lagged on his blanket, Raul set aside his empty bowl. “Kahn, Vahashatai.” He wore a satisfied, tired look that was incredibly sexy.

  He was also still speaking in Xandari, though I knew that command well enough. Come. But I still didn’t know what the word Vahashatai meant.

  I sighed, suppressing the flutter in my belly at the slowly growing hunger in his eyes. Getting to my feet and crossing the cave to him, I let my irritation from earlier burn my attraction away. The man was so damn arrogant. I wouldn’t be one of those girls. One of those girls who let a man’s actions slide because she was a sucker for rippling muscles and a deep voice.

  I stood in front of him. “More stew, my Lord?” I said with false sweetness. The look in his eyes made it clear that wasn’t what he wanted.

  A secretive light danced in his gaze. To my left and right, Malek and Z’pheer chuckled as if I’d told a joke.

  Raul’s hand encircled my wrist, his thumb massaging the inside of it, sending flutters across the skin. “Iht tapp sen.”

  “The translator is still blocked, spaceman.”

  He pressed a button on that bracelet of his. It gave a quiet buzz. “Sit with me,” he said, presumably repeating himself.

  The words were a command, but there was an unsettling softness to his voice I’d never heard from him before. I froze, not daring to trust it.

  Since he’d stomped out earlier, the night had been calm and almost peaceful. I wasn’t eager to ruin the mood. Clucking my teeth, I turned and sat between his legs, crossing my own.

  Raul’s fingers gently pushed my hair off my shoulder. His arm slid around my waist, drawing me into his warmth. He dropped a kiss on my neck. I shivered with pleasure, and then stiffened in annoyance with his effect on me.

  “Still angry with me, Vahashatai?” he murmured.

  Why in the hell was he asking that? A man like him—a man who couldn’t bring himself to thank a slave—wouldn’t care if a slave was mad at him.

  “I’d be less angry if you’d tell me what that word meant.”

  He smiled against my shoulder and didn’t answer. I looked at the other two, but they only grinned, as delighted as him at making me squirm.

  “Answer me.” He swept my hair off my other shoulder and placed a heated kiss there.

  “I will always be angry with you, Raul.”

  He laughed softly and rubbed my side. “Good. I like when you’re angry with me.”

  That made my stomach flip flop. I heaved a sigh. It was useless to hope I could shut my responses off to him.

  “All right.” He squeezed my shoulders. “You’ll sleep with Malek tonight.” His tone clearly indicated he wanted me to leave him.

  “I won’t be sleeping with you?”

  Oh, for shit’s sake. I hadn’t meant for that to sound like disappointment. Although to my credit, there was an added reason I dreaded being anywhere near Malek. After the way he’d used and then discarded me almost in the same minute on the ship, I wasn’t eager for an encore.

  Raul made a pleased sound in my ear, obviously picking up on the disappointment. “I need to be alone. Go now.”

  Again, his words were an order, but there was that odd softness to it. It made him sound like a totally different man. I had no idea how to deal with it.

  I pushed to my feet and tried desperately to quiet the disappointment that squirmed inside me at the knowledge that Raul didn’t want me with him.

  And the worry that something was bothering the hell out of him.

  Laying on his blankets on his side, Malek’s eyes twinkled as I approached. He patted his blankets. “Come to me, my little shleta.”

  His voice washed over me, velvety and filled with lust. I sighed and crossed the floor to him, his scent filling my nose and making me crazy before I came within a foot of him. My chest constricted, my body trembling. Why did being anywhere near Malek always feel as if I was approaching a wild animal, a coiled snake waiting to bite the moment I drew close enough for the viper’s kiss?

  I’d barely laid down with my back to him before his arm closed around me like a steel trap, pinning me against him. He made a low, hungry sound in his throat.

  “Malek—”

  He cupped my chin, jerking it back, his mouth at my ear. “Not a word.”

  I wriggled into him, half grinding my ass into his cock, half trying to squirm out of his hold. His other hand slid down the side of my red dress. />
  “You know you want this. You know you’ve wanted my cock inside that tight little pussy ever since I fucked you in that shower stall.”

  I tried to speak, pushing his hand away, but my voice died in my throat, strangled by the truth in his words.

  Malek kept a grip on my jaw, but his hand stilled on my thigh. It took me a moment to realize he was talking to Raul and Z’pheer in Xandari. The others were speaking in their language as well.

  They must have blocked the translator again. And apparently, none of the men were tired enough to sleep.

  Figured.

  Malek said something to Z’pheer who was on his back to our left, his hands splayed on his washboard abs. Malek slid his palm over my thigh to my ass while he talked, kneading my cheeks before he slowly started to undo the first tie on the side of my dress.

  So, apparently I wasn’t good enough to be part of the conversation, but I was still expected to please him. The whole situation was made worse when I knew he’d only cast me aside after he was done. I glared over my shoulder at him.

  He quirked a dark brow, daring me to challenge him and undoing the second tie, then the third. He jabbed the blocker on his bracelet.

  “You want to say something to me, nayna? If you think the spanking Raul gave you was painful, mine are worse.”

  Raul chuckled from the other side of the fire.

  I shot a daggered look at him. He was the one who ordered me over here, after all. Raul smirked.

  Not ready to ride another eight hours or more in that cart tomorrow with my ass burning, I deflated against Malek’s muscled frame.

  Malek continued to talk earnestly with Raul and Z’pheer, running his palm over my ass. His sudden fixation on my ass had me panicking. Everything I’d heard about anal sex warned me it was painful. And Malek was huge.

  He wouldn’t fuck my ass, would he? Curiosity mixed with the inklings of fear, my ass and pussy both clenching in invitation.

  Raul drank from a mug and replied to whatever Malek had said, his tone earnest while his eyes took in everything Malek did to me.

  Malek seemed to be listening with half an ear as he kissed his way along my shoulder, up the side of my neck to my ear. He responded to Raul in Xandari, then hit the blocker on his bracelet. It made a soft electronic sound as it deactivated. “Pull the dress up and show me your ass, nayna.”

  Oh, God. Even if he didn’t want my ass, there was still a burn between my legs when I moved, and Malek was a vicious alien when he fucked.

  My pussy ached. Raul and Z’pheer were both watching like hawks. Anger and humiliation fired my blood. I couldn’t bring myself to obey.

  “Resist and you’ll make it worse on yourself.”

  Grappling for a way to put him off, I looked over my shoulder at him. “If you’re that horny, go play with Z’pheer. Wouldn’t you rather have someone willing?”

  Malek’s eyes danced with lust. “Oh, I think you’re willing. Now, show me your ass. I will not ask again.”

  With a trembling hand, I jerked the back of the red material up to my waist.

  Malek hummed in approval and ran his warm palm over the slope of each cheek, causing every inch of my skin to grow hot. “The front too. Let me see your pussy.”

  Resentment seared a path across my heart. I shoved the front up to my waist, baring myself not only to Malek, but to the other two as well.

  Z’pheer said something in Xandari that carried a tone of amusement, something that didn’t translate. I looked into his gaze, then at Raul’s, desperation coiling inside me. The pupils in both men’s eyes had enlarged to blot out the irises almost entirely.

  The blocker beeped back on. Malek gave a sultry laugh at whatever Z’pheer had said and slid his fingers over my pussy, through my folds.

  God damn it, I was already wet.

  There was something insidiously sexy about this whole mess. It should have annoyed me to know they thought me beneath being included in the talk of men, as if I existed only for their pleasure, like a fine wine shared over a negotiation. I was pissed, but the notion also made me hot as hell. Their deep voices speaking in their guttural, barbaric language only added to the thrill.

  Malek’s fingers left my pussy before the blocker gave its electronic sound and his words switched to English. “Spread your legs, shleta.”

  I stiffened, furious at that name, afraid to see how much my sore pussy could take, even if I was turned on. Afraid to have him debase me and then stomp all over my heart again.

  He grabbed my thigh and placed my leg over his, keeping my legs open with his knees. “I don’t like being toyed with, nayna. When you’re told to do something, you do it.”

  I gave a small, humiliated whimper.

  His hand cupped my pussy while the other two talked back and forth. Malek didn’t acknowledge them. A few strums on my clit, and I was more than wet enough. My core throbbed.

  Behind me, I heard him working his belt and pants open. The sound made my breathing hitch, simultaneously making me want to rip myself from his grip and stroke myself right there.

  He shifted downward on the blankets. Getting a better angle.

  Drugging need mixed with my growing panic. Still not knowing which way he meant to take me, I tried to pull away from him.

  “Be still,” he growled. He wrapped my hair around his fist. I winced and twisted, the sudden sting and the absolute control he had too much with what I knew was coming when he was done with me. His mouth brushed my ear. “If you fight me, it will only make me want you more.”

  I went limp and he rumbled in victory. He slid himself slowly into me.

  My eyes rolled back in pleasure, all the hotter with the knowledge that he didn’t give a fuck if I wanted him or not.

  With my heartbeat thudding hard in my ears, the men’s voices sounded as if they were coming through a thick fog. Malek must have turned the blocker on again, because I heard him say something to the others in Xandari. His tone was deadly serious, and I caught the word Rith more than once. He continued thrusting in and out of me the whole time.

  Jesus, the man could probably fuck his way through a natural disaster. The goddamned barbarian was probably discussing how to obliterate their enemy, and here he was in the middle of another fucking sexcapade. He slid in and out of me, taking his time and enjoying every thrust like a man enjoying his meal at a summit. It didn’t hurt; I was too damn wet. His fist kept a grip on my hair, just tight enough to maintain control and keep me from escaping.

  I was starting to groan and rock my hips, the sensations and the scent of him driving me fucking crazy. I caught Z’pheer’s and Raul’s eyes on me. Watching my body flex with the movements.

  Watching their woman getting fucked.

  Malek started to pump a little faster, his grip on my hair tightening. His responses to the others were becoming laced with need.

  His control was breaking. Fuck, so hot.

  I moaned and bucked my hips.

  The sensations must have pushed him too close to the brink. Right in the middle of a sentence, he released me and growled what sounded like an order, not seeming to realize he wasn’t speaking English.

  When I didn’t obey, Malek rolled me over onto my stomach, shoved me up onto my knees and pushed my legs apart. He grunted something with that word shleta in it and thrust into me, a single, greedy stroke.

  I whimpered, half pleasure, half shame. He wrapped my hair around his fist again, pulling my head back. Gripping hard and without mercy, letting me know exactly what I was.

  “Ah! Fuck, Malek…” I couldn’t figure out if I was more livid or needy. He didn’t give a damn at all.

  Whatever he said in response, the tone had me thinking it was some insulting order to shut my mouth.

  Shit, I almost came from the words alone. I wailed and clawed at the ground, rocking into him.

  “Fost sen, nayna. Fost sen tua tam vraka ia shleta hak tan.”

  I understood just enough of his words for humiliation to sear my cheeks
. He cursed and pounded me like a man possessed. I heard the word shleta repeatedly. He grunted and growled orders and what I assumed were epithets or insults, the gruff need in his voice making his words sound more barbaric, more alien.

  I screamed, thrashing.

  Raul gave what sounded like a gruff curse as if what he saw excited him. It sent me higher, knowing the sight of my getting fucked was making him hot. Z’pheer moaned, and I heard his cock slicking in his fist.

  Malek’s thrusts turned savage. “Mm, ai shleta. Fost! Fost! Fost!”

  His hips slapped mine.

  “Kahn, shleta.”

  I cried out and white lights slashed at my vision.

  Malek hammered me a handful of times and roared, filling me with come.

  He slumped with me against the blankets, his heavy frame pinning me to them. It made me feel incredibly small and fragile, trapped.

  The blocker buzzed. “Did you like that, my little shleta?”

  Humiliation kicked in. I turned my face away from him. “No. Stop calling me that.” God, I sounded like a brat.

  Malek gave a satisfied groan. His licked my cheek. “If you didn’t want to get fucked, shleta, you shouldn’t have teased me like that.”

  “Teased you?” I shot my head up. “How?”

  He smirked and rolled onto his side beside me, facing Raul and Z’pheer.

  Raul shifted his bulging package in his pants, and Z’pheer lay on his stomach, panting, his abs painted with come.

  Malek tapped my ass again. “Roll your gorgeous self over. Lie so I can see every perfect inch of you and wait until I’m ready for you again.”

  The others chuckled, shaking their heads at him.

  Malek grinned.

  I gritted my teeth and rolled angrily onto my back. I wouldn’t tell him how hot it made me to lay before him like a prize, breasts and pussy bared for his use. Waiting until he was good and ready to fuck me again.

  I laid the way he instructed. Legs spread wide, arms above my head so that my still hard nipples pointed at the ceiling.