Breaking Bonds: An Alien Romance Adventure

by E J Darling

  “Aren’t you supposed to do what I need you to do? I was definitely sending you ‘help me’ vibes and all you did was smile.”

  “Yeah, probably. I doubt I’ll be a very good slave to whoever bought me.” He probed her further, seeing if she’d let on to any information.

  Maevelin cleared her throat and darted her eyes away from him. “I actually have zero doubt you’ll suck at it. But like I said, you’re free to go when we get safely away from this shit hole. I wasn’t lying. I don’t want or need a slave.”

  “So, you bought me.” It wasn’t a question; she’d nearly come right out and said it.

  Maevelin nodded. “And I completely regret it.”

  “How the hell could you afford to spend seven thousand credits on me? You’re a slave.” He pointed to the bars on her wrists and revealed his own, still bloody from where they’d implanted them not long ago. “That’s obvious.”

  Maevelin turned and walked down the hall, avoidance obvious. Teak followed as her hips beckoned him to. “I’ve been saving money since I can remember.” She paused for a long time, and when she turned, she didn’t look at him. “I was buying my freedom.”

  Teak paled and closed his eyes, letting himself fall back against the cold metal wall. “Please don’t tell me you paid for my freedom with yours.” He whispered his word because even he didn’t want to know.

  The sound of a door sliding open made him look up and Maevelin stared at him, leaning against the door frame. There was something hollow and sad written all over her face as she chewed her bottom lip. “Believe me,” she whispered and looked at the floor, “I’m still trying to come to terms with it myself.”

  It fit now. She wasn’t the same beautiful female he’d kissed against her will. This one looked at him like she hated him. Hated the very air he breathed. He wanted to do something, wanted to make everything okay for her. He wanted to wrap her in his arms and hold her so she could finally let out all the feelings she was holding in. It wasn’t good to hold in such terrible feelings. She was going to crash hard when it finally hit, and he never wanted to be the reason for anyone’s heartache, especially hers.

  His master.

  Fuck. He didn’t want it, didn’t want that feeling in his chest that told him to protect, to keep her safe from any outside force or internal battles. Teak was barely holding himself together and the black Turnish blood of his was demanding he take care of her, to take care of what was his.

  He stepped close, but she closed herself off and crossed her arms in a defensive stance. Maevelin didn’t look at him, and instead, turned her attention to the cabin. “This is yours.” She wiped a tear from her cheek and cleared her throat. “You’ll be comfortable here. After we land, you can take what you need and find a way off Ascena Pura.”

  She pushed off the frame and walked back toward the lift. He grabbed her arm as she walked by and she gasped when he pulled her in tight. She struggled a bit, but it didn’t take long for her to melt into him. He didn’t know how, but he was going to pay her back every penny she’d spent on his freedom.

  “I’m going to make it okay,” he whispered and held his lips to her sleek blonde hair. It had a touch of red in it like it was kissed by a star, and he inhaled her soft feminine scent of something natural and sweet. His dick pulsed and he moved his hips away from hers so she wouldn’t get the wrong idea. The last thing she needed right now was to deal with his sexual frustration. “I don’t know how. But I’m going to do it. I’ll make it okay. I’ll make you okay.”

  “There’s nothing you can do.” Her words came out mumbled with her face buried deep in his skin, and it tickled when she spoke. “Just suffocate me now and let's all be done with it.”

  Teak laughed and pulled her away. “Never. We’re stuck together until we raise money for your freedom. It can’t be that hard right?”

  She gave him a blank stare, tears rimming her eyes. He smiled to try and lighten the tension. “I’ve been saving since I hit puberty and I still had a couple thousand credits to go.” She looked him up and down. “I don’t suppose you shit credits, do you?”

  He laughed at her words. “Not a chance.”

  “Well.” She stepped out of his hold and turned to the lift again, rubbing her eyes to remove the rest of the watery look, and stiffened like she’d just shut herself down and rebooted as someone else entirely. “Get some rest. We’ll be back to my planet in eighty-seven hours, give or take.” She walked down the hallway and disappeared into the lift without looking back.

  Five

  Teak felt lonely for the first time since he’d been sold to the Siipi slavers, but he’d been alone, eternally alone, forever. The door slid open at his card and closed behind him. He took in his cabin. The bed was wide and looked comfortable enough. He couldn’t complain, he’d been sleeping on a metal grate in a tiny cage for a week and his back hurt from the hard surface.

  Teak stepped into the bathroom, the washing unit was large enough for his taste, and there was even a toilet, his own toilet. He pulled his head out but caught his reflection in the mirror above the sink. He looked horrible. He was far from the captain he’d once been, far from the glorious Turnish male he’d always been, and looked exactly like the slave he was. His long black hair was a mess and fell all around his face and head. The braids had almost stayed together, but they were on their last leg, and bundled into a matted mess.

  He took his time to remove the ties holding his hair together. Turnish males had long hair to show their victories in combat, and when he let his braids out, the ends fell well past his waist. Defeat had never been an option for him, but as he stood there, looking at how far he’d fallen, his fingers itched. A small pair of sharp scissors caught his eye. He looked at them a long while, contemplating the rash decision. It felt right to accept the new part of his life, to accept the defeat. He blinked, looking at himself in the mirror once again, Then, went to work. He didn’t deserve the long locks anymore. He was a slave and he needed to look the part, not the proud warrior and intellect he’d once been.

  He took his time, cutting each mat as skillfully as he could with shaking hands. Accepting defeat felt impossible, but there he was, cutting off every reminder that he’d been a warrior. Reality gripped him, and he nearly buckled under the weight of it.

  When he was done, he dropped the metal shears into the sink with his hair, and Teak looked at his reflection. His once long hair now hit him at the shoulders, and he felt the weight of it leave him. Not just the physical weight, but the mental and emotional weight. He’d prided himself on his victories for so long that it all seemed to be lifted from him. He could start over, and perhaps on his way back up, he’d find the strength to grow it again.

  He inspected the washing unit and turned on the hot water, stripping from his filthy pants and stepping in. There were dispensers labeled for hair and body cleaner in Tallek and he used them both to clean himself. It felt so good to bathe again. The water pooling at his feet turned red from the Sapili dirt, and he was glad to finally wash the rest of Sapili Prime away, along with all the other terrible memories from the last week, the last two cycles.

  Maevelin’s tight curves pressed their way into his mind. He didn’t need to be thinking about the female that bought him, who now owned him in every sense of the word, but he couldn’t resist. Teak had never been owned by anyone in his life, but if it had to be someone, he was glad it was that tiny hellion.

  The feminine scent was still in the air. His Turnish traits of enigmatic lust reared their heads as he closed his eyes and imagined her with him under the spray of the hot water. Imaging washing her star kissed hair, lathering it up in his hands, watching the suds trail down her body, over the curves of her luscious breasts and between her thighs. He moved his soapy hand down his tightening abs and gripped his painfully hard shaft.

  He felt guilty, but he couldn’t stop. He couldn’t get her image out of his head as he stroked himself into pure pleasure. Teak hadn’t had a moment alone in too
long, and every emotion he had was coming to a head as he pumped his fist wildly.

  Curves. That sweet voice. The determination in her eyes. The need to take all her hurt away by holding her close and making them both forget their circumstances, even just for a little while. Pleasure built inside him and his cock grew more rigid as his imagination went wild. His hands on her soft skin. His face buried deep between her legs as she cried out his name over and over until she begged him to enter her. He pumped himself once more and the intense orgasm rocked through his body. It was blinding, had his instincts at their most primal level. He felt like himself again, strong, invincible. He slowed his pace and let himself feel and enjoy every single aftershock.

  “Fuck,” he moaned. Teak had never had an orgasm that powerful and he leaned his head back on the wall, trying to catch his breath. He could only imagine what it’d be like to experience the real thing.

  There should’ve been guilt using fantasies of his new master in such an intimate way, but he’d never been a slave before, never even owned a slave, and the lines were thin in his mind. Teak hadn’t the first clue what that even meant besides fetching things one could fetch themselves, or using them to curb fantasies you didn’t want your loved ones to know about. Terrible, evil, sensual things.

  After another round of the same body tensing orgasm, Teakin stepped out of the stall and dried himself. He felt like new, fresh. He walked to the bed, naked, and saw clothes laid out for him. He wondered if Maevelin had brought them, but a more disturbing thought entered his mind, and he hoped like hell she hadn’t heard him in the shower. Even the thought of her being so close to him while he’d been having those thoughts was enough to make his cock twitch and want to run back into the shower and start all over again.

  The clothing fit surprisingly well, the black leather-like material seemed strong and well made. There were no sleeves, though. Instead, the shoulder part capped over his bicep with a harder, more durable leather, reminding him of armor. The pants were similar to the top, and he bent his knees to test the material. It stretched in all the right places and Teak was pleasantly surprised.

  Clean, freed of his fallen disgrace, and dressed in his new clothes, he eyed the bed and dropped himself on the soft padding. He bounced a little and his body sunk into the mattress. Holy hell it was comfortable. Teak rolled over on his back, the soft padding doing wonders for his sore muscles, and stared at the empty gray ceiling, trying to wrap his head around the last couple days. It didn’t take long before his eyes got heavy and he drifted off to sleep.

  Six

  Maeve headed to the bridge after dropping off a change of clothes to Teakin’s cabin, meticulously laying them out on the bed. She had to sneak the clothing out of the captain’s room, but they’d fit Teakin well enough and he needed them. She half wished to see him in there lying on the bed, maybe stripped of everything and secretly waiting for her to come back to him, but he wasn’t. The cleansing unit had come on in the bathroom and she knew he’d needed the time alone. Even if she wanted to open that door, to invade his space, to silently watch him, she wouldn’t have.

  Maeve was a coward in that aspect.

  Her eyes still burned with that terrible sensation to cry out all her frustrations. She’d shut down fast in the hallway when Teak asked too many questions, but they still lingered on the edge of escape. She wasn’t impervious to pain, to disappointment, or to any other emotion that everyone else felt, there were just things someone in bondage wasn’t allowed to do, and one of them was to show emotion when they should be invisible.

  Masters, the wealthy, and the ruthless didn’t care about the problems or feelings of those lesser than. Slaves were meant to be nearly robotic, and Maeve could do it better than anyone she knew.

  She found the captain exactly where she knew he’d be, sitting in his chair in the middle of the control room, the open glass in front of him looking out to the reddened sky of Sapili Prime. He had his back to her, studying what looked like video footage from just a moment ago with the three of them and Säiph entering into the loading bay. The moment the door slid closed he made a slow deliberate turn. He stopped once they were face to face, his wrought with disappointment.

  The Tallek, like Captain Aleroth Myler and her master, were a very unique race. They had reptilian features in their eyes and skin. Their outer body was pale and felt semi scaly to the touch, but still soft in a way, velvety. They walked, spoke, and made love like most other aliens. They were also intelligent, and made advances in space travel and medicine. But they had a mind for business and could turn emotionless in a second.

  Tallek were attractive where it counted, with slim humanoid bodies, and they hailed from the water planet of Ascena Pura. It was their home, her home by birth, and she wanted to get back there as soon as she could. There, she could get Teakin on a new ship, preferably one leaving for the other side of the galaxy, and send him far away. Why didn’t that plan make her feel better?

  “What’s wrong?”

  Roth silently stared, his eyebrows furrowed to show off just how disappointed he was in her. She crossed her arms over her chest defensively and looked anywhere but at him.

  “Say what you need to say, then.”

  “You’re an idiot, and what the fuck is that thing doing on your master’s ship?”

  “Okay, fair enough.” She deserved that, she really did, but he didn’t have to blurt it out like that, nor did he need to have such disrespect. Teak wasn’t a thing, he was a being. “I didn’t exactly make the greatest decision out there, but I did the right thing. The Sca-riin were going to take him to a work camp.” She didn’t say anything about the Forga female or how those same Sca-riin nearly killed her. Maeve knew Roth wouldn’t care one way or the other about Teakin’s fate, but he was invested in hers. If he knew what really happened out there, she’d never be able to another mission alone.

  “You should have let them! You know nothing about him, Maevie.” He’d always called her that, ever since she was a little girl, and it still made her feel like a child that didn’t know any better. But she wasn’t, and she refused to acknowledge that the situation she found herself in should have and could have gone a different direction. It went the way her heart needed it to go, and at the end of the day, Teakin Kade was living and breathing. He was safe to be the last remaining Turnish male she knew in existence. Roth stood from his chair and stepped toward her. He lifted her chin with his knuckle and made her look him in the eye. “You’re too soft for your own good. You were almost out of here, Maevie.”

  “I’ll get there again.” It wasn’t a lie but damn did that prospect hurt.

  “Where is he?” Roth looked over her shoulder and she half expected her little accident, okay big accident, to be standing at the door. But she couldn’t feel his presence there and knew he wasn’t that committed to her anyway. “I’ll kill him for you and then this whole mess will be done. I’ll talk to Zeke about your slave debt and everything can blow over quickly.”

  Maeve stood frozen in horror. She didn’t know what part of his declaration she needed to address first, but it was probably the murder part.

  “You will not!”

  “This can’t happen, Maeve. He can’t come back with us. If I don’t kill him, Zeke will, and by that point I feel you’ll have gotten yourself attached.” Roth paused from his nonsensical ramblings and looked back down at her. “What species is he?”

  Maeve swallowed and took a step back. “Turnish.”

  “Fucking hell, Maeve. You found yourself a damn Turnish?” He paused and calmed himself, but she didn’t like the look of determination on his face when he finished. “He has to go. Zeke will kill him.”

  “You will not touch what is mine.” And that was that. “Give me at least that much respect.”

  Her body went rigid and Roth stepped back. He didn’t look happy at all, more like seething mad, but she didn’t give two shits one way or the other. He’d pissed her off, tried to get rid of her property, male, he
r… she didn’t know what she wanted to call him.

  Teakin. He had a name and she would use it.

  “Promise me you won’t kill him.” Maeve clenched her jaw and waited for a response that didn’t come. “Promise me.”

  Roth nodded his head once, but that wasn’t good enough for her.

  “Say the words.”

  A loaded silence filled the air between them. She could see Roth’s jaw clenching and working to try not to snarl at her, or whatever reaction he wanted to have. Then, his eyes closed. He took a breath and let it out. “I promise I will not kill the male.”

  “Thank you.” She didn’t like how it sounded on his lips, but she could look past that because all she wanted was to get off that fucking planet, and get Teakin far away from her.

  “We ready to go, then?” His voice was low, cold, and every bit of his anger was directed at her.

  Maeve wiped a tear from her eye, one she didn’t realize was brimming. She’d done too much of that today. “Yeah. We’re all accounted for.”

  Roth glanced her way once more before entering his commands into the screen in front of him. “Zekekiel is going to be pissed.”

  She turned and strode off the bridge, cursing under her breath. “I know.”

  The engines kicked on, and the floor vibrated under foot. She ignored it all and made her way to the kitchen. Ms. Capshook, whom Maeve nicknamed Cookie, stood over a steaming pot of something that smelled delicious, and Maeve’s stomach leapt at the prospect of a hot meal after the day she had. A black furry ball was rolled up in the corner of the kitchen on a plush cushion and she smiled. “Ms. Capshook?” She spoke loud to scare the old woman.

  She clutched her chest and spun around gasping. “My dear! Gave me a fright, you did.”

  Maeve smiled and gave her a sympathetic look. She knew the old gray haired woman got overly nervous when they had to come to Sapili Prime, or any other planet that wasn’t home. It had only been five cycles since Roth bought her from that place himself.