by Sinclair,Ava
Ingus Sprang was chuckling now. “I’m sure you’re wondering how she endures it. And I can promise you—it won’t be easy at first. But soon you’ll be as jaded as Mika. And being calm is important, especially with a Karnarian like this fellow. It would do no good to fight, not when he’s this excited.”
Iris glared at Ingus Sprang. “Excited?” she said disgustedly. The alien male remained immobile. “He’s not even moving!”
The trader laughed aloud now. “Oh, him? He’s merely a transport system for the actual thinking part of the anatomy, which is now imbedded inside this delicious little whore I’ve provided him. He’ll poke around in there, explore, have a look… he has eyes, you know. If it was one of his own race, he’d lay a pod that would hatch within her. She’s lucky that he won’t. The female of this species dies when the pod bursts open to deliver the young.” Ingus Sprang giggled now, making a flourish with his hands and mimicking the sound of an explosion. “Kerpow!”
Iris felt bile rise into her throat. She didn’t know what was worse; the sight of this alien female with this… thing inside her, or the fact that the giggling maniac beside her planned to profit from providing humans to creatures like it.
Soon enough it was over, and she sighed with relief. Then dread filled her again when the trader reached over, jerked her chain, and pulled her to within inches of his face. His eyes were glittering.
“I’ve saved the best for last,” he said. “You’ll like this, I think. A little show, just for you.”
He turned and snapped his fingers. Another door opened, and Iris felt her vision fade in and out, like a lightbulb struggling to stay lit. A huge alien walked in, his huge back hunched as he lowered himself to stomp through the door. He was wearing what looked like a crude loincloth over his already jutting cock. His body was covered in wiry dark hair. His brow was heavy and sloping, his eyes mean and stupid. But it was the tusks that made Iris instantly recognize this creature as a member of the race Zios had identified on the historical tapestry as the one that had raped his grandmother.
“He’s Gorlog,” Ingus Sprang said. “And a fine, randy specimen. The Gorlog don’t have much of value other than metal ore, but because we never know if we’ll want mining rights, it’s a good idea to have our human whores trained in how to handle their sexually aggressive advances. And I have found the perfect one.”
The door opened again, and now Iris was on her feet, forgetting that she was tethered. She’d almost reached Nora before the lead at the end of her collar stopped her short. The blonde had fallen coming into the room and now the Gorlog turned, snuffling out his wide nostrils, his tusked mouth curving into a feral smile.
“No!” Iris rounded on Ingus Sprang. “You cannot do this.”
“I can do whatever I want,” he said calmly. “I can have you sent away for rejecting me, and then destroy the Trogarians after they take you in. I can use my power to buy politicians, and soon enough will have enough on my side to guarantee Augustus Bron a cold reception followed by a long-overdue ousting. I can have any human female on this planet that I want, even the ones who didn’t want me.” He paused. “And their best friends.”
Nora looked up, her face a mask of shock as she saw her friend. The Gorlog was moving closer, and Iris reached out, catching Nora’s hand and pulling her close.
“Oh, how touching!” Ingus Sprang was laughing. “And all the more satisfying to see your terror, my dear, when the Gorlog has his way with her.” He paused. “But maybe…”
The Gorlog reached under his loincloth and grabbed his massive cock. He waved it back and forth. “Now. You promise me human.”
“I did. I did…” Ingus Sprang stood. “But if you can wait until tonight, my friend, I can give you both? Would you like that?”
The Gorlog snorted like a bull. “Now.”
“Both,” he said, drawing out the word. “Booooth. If you wait.”
“Both.” The beady eyes squinted under the sloping brow. The Gorlog was considering it. “Yes,” it finally said. “But tonight, you bring.”
“Of course. Of course,” he said. “Go along now. You’ll be fed a good dinner, my gift to you before the evening’s fun.”
The Gorlog lurched back through the door. Ingus Sprang clapped his hands together in glee.
“Yes, much better,” he said, as Iris glared up at him. In her arms, Nora was trembling uncontrollably. “It’s worth the wait for me, too. Tonight I will take both of you, and then I will sit back with you, my dear, as the Gorlog first has his tender way with your friend before having you as dessert.”
He leaned down, grabbing Iris by the back of her hair and jerking her head back. “You will rue the day you ever rejected me. You escaped the justice I had planned for you with the Trogarians. But I have not mistaken the barbarism of the Gorlog. It will thrill me to see the things that once raped the ancestors of your beloved Zios and Utak defile you. No one takes what I wanted!”
He barked for a guard, and Iris and Nora were taken from the main chamber down a sterile hallway and tossed in a room containing only a short bed attached to the wall and a small toilet.
As the door slammed shut, Iris leaned down to check on her friend, who was sitting stunned on the floor.
“Nora,” she said softly. “Nora, look at me.”
It took a moment for the blonde to raise her eyes to her former friend. They were now the eyes of a defeated woman, a woman who’d already experienced more pain and sadness than anyone should.
“Oh, Nora.” Iris wiped away a tear that trailed down a pale cheek. Nora was dressed in what looked like a beggar’s dress, the fabric and cut indicating that it was a garment she’d been given here, a garment designed to mock her social station.
“Iris…”
“Forgive me, Nora. If I’d only known…”
Nora pulled Iris’ hand from her face and turned away. “I hated you for what you did. That hatred sustained me. I blamed you for my lot, but when I was with Kang, the scrapper I was given to, I got a look at the life of the poor on this planet. And I realized everyone outside the domes is at the mercy of those within.” She looked at Iris. “You know, I think you were probably the only one who had the backbone to take a stand.”
Iris scoffed at this. “Had I known what it would cost everyone else, I’d not have done it.”
“That is part of how they control the masses,” Nora said. “If the scrappers don’t make their quota, they find their food rations limited. If one complains, even privately, and another overhears, he finds himself shut out of some of the wrecking fields.”
Iris nodded. “Was your… mate… good to you at least?”
Nora shook her head. “He was angry most of the time. And like any angry male, he took it out on me. I never conceived a child with him, despite his repeated attempts. I’m grateful for that, at least. The only thing worse than the life I had with him would be to have brought a helpless child into it.” She cocked her head. “And what of you?”
Iris swallowed. She didn’t want to tell Nora that she’d found love and protection. But she did not want to lie. In the quiet of the room, she told her friend the story of the Trogarians, of the brothers she’d first feared and then loved, of how they had conquered her both in body and soul, and how sweetly.
“I’m glad, at least, that you found happiness on this rock before you died.” Nora suppressed a sob. “That thing… it will kill us.”
Iris hugged her friend again. They were both trembling now. She wanted to tell Nora that she was wrong, that they would find a way to prevail. But how could she make promises she could not keep? How could she go to her death letting Nora down again?
“Come.” Iris stood and led Nora over to the little bed. Lying down, she cuddled her like one would a child, rubbing Nora’s hair and humming to her as she had hoped to one day hum to the son of Trogar she would bear. The Crone had said she’d bear a son. A tear came to Iris’ eyes. The Crone had been wrong. She’d faced down power, and the powerful were about to win. Zios and Ut
ak and the others would be tried and convicted for a slaughter they did not commit. They’d likely be executed. The Gorlog would kill her as it had killed their grandmother. Their bloodline would be severed.
She thought back to their decision to leave Earth. The Traoians had promised human females a better life with the mate of their choosing after a period of acclimation and training in Traoian culture and wifely skills. The people of Earth had been too willing to believe that they were sending their sisters and daughters to a benevolent planet, the one Augustus Bron had envisioned.
The evening stretched on. They heard noises, voices, activity outside. With each sound with each noise, Iris jumped, and assumed that Ingus Sprang was likely assembling some sort of audience for their death. Nora lay almost catatonic in her arms, paralyzed with fear as they grew closer to the moment when they’d be taken to meet their horrible fate.
The door opened. Iris pulled Nora to her, holding her in a protective embrace. Her friend whimpered. The lights, which had dimmed, brightened. An older Traoian, still large and muscular, his dark hair edged with silver, filled the doorway.
“Your name is Iris?” he asked.
She looked at him. So this was who’d they’d sent to deliver them to Ingus Sprang. She had no need to lie to the question that puzzled her.
“Yes,” she said. “But I beg you. Take me. Just me. Spare my friend. If one must die, let it be me. She does not deserve this.” Her voice was quavering.
The Traoian walked over and knelt. He laid a hand across hers. “You are very brave, little one,” he said. “But no one deserves to die. And no one will, at least not the ones who are innocent.” When she looked at him with questioning eyes, he offered a reassuring smile. “My name is Augustus Bron,” he said. “And I have come to save you.”
Chapter Eleven
It had been the act of honoring the Odh’s last wishes that led to the rescue of Iris, Nora, and the innocent Trogarian council. The Trogarians did not realize that the Odh leader wore a sensor that captured full details of their mission. The dying Odh in the cave had recorded everything from the ambush to the distressed expressions of Zios and Utak when he’d revealed that the Odh delegation had not been a war party but an invited trade delegation.
When the bodies were boarded onto the Odh ship, the suits communicated with the ship’s motherboard, initiating not just a launch sequence that put them on a course for home, but a distress beacon. By chance, the Traoian ship carrying Senator Augustus Bron and several others on a diplomatic junket intercepted the beacon, boarded the ship, and accessed the information that had been downloaded to the ship’s communication system.
Sickened, distressed, and furious, Bron had set an immediate course for home. On the way, he communicated the top commanders of TraoX39’s small but elite force whom he knew to still be loyal. By the time he arrived, there had been a swift military takeover of Ingus Sprang’s home and holdings. Sprang was apprehended, along with several other senators. Several minor players were all too eager to talk, especially when they learned that full cooperation would spare them the execution that awaited the major players.
Within the span of what would have been an Earth day, Ingus Sprang was facing charges of treason, intergalactic trade violations, and war crimes. The death he’d planned for his victims would come to him instead.
Iris and Nora were taken to Augustus Bron’s personal compound, where they were fed and allowed to bathe in palatial baths and dressed in glittering gowns befitting the upper class. And while the rescue breathed life back into Nora, who was smiling again after what Iris knew must have been a very long time, Iris longed for the one thing now missing amid all the comfort: her mates.
As they waited in a small anteroom, a woman walked in. She was human, and one of the most gorgeous people Iris had ever seen, even though she was no longer young. She was small of frame, but shapely, and carried herself with a quiet serenity that comes with both wisdom and dignity. When she saw Iris and Nora sitting there, she smiled.
“Welcome,” she said. “My name is Phaedra.”
“Phaedra?” Nora looked at the woman, glanced at Iris, and then looked at the woman again. “I have heard of you. You came here, like us. But as a slave.”
“Oh, yes,” Phaedra said. “That was when the full moons hung in the sky. It seems like a long time ago, but life seems to flash in the blink of an eye when it is a charmed one.” She smiled, and continued. “I was a slave. But my love sought to liberate me and other humans from forces that see us as inferior, or unworthy of rights. In a perfect world, the correction of these misconceptions would lead to permanent change. But ours is an ongoing struggle against cruel and bigoted forces that never seem to be fully defeated.” She paused. “My husband and I are sorry for what has happened to you. It seems women are still being misused and brought here under false circumstances and duress. Know that this is being corrected. Also know that you will both be allowed to stay here, on TraoX39. You will be given your own apartments in the elite section of the domes as compensation for both your being sent from outside our protection, and for the indignities you have faced.”
Iris was suddenly on her feet. “No!”
The elegant woman furrowed her brow. “No?”
Iris rose and walked over, taking Phaedra’s hands. “Please don’t misunderstand,” she said. “I didn’t mean to offend, or to appear unappreciative. But my mates were arrested—the Trogarian chieftains Zios and Utak.”
“The brothers?” The woman looked at her, surprised. “The ones who took you against your will?”
“It was against my will at first,” she said. “But I learned more about being treated like royalty with them than I ever learned here, or ever could.”
“Go on,” Phaedra urged.
“I resisted them at first,” Iris said. “And they were harsh with me. I was punished. But I learned that this was their way, and that correction was part of the process of becoming theirs, and by becoming theirs, by submitting, I became stronger than I ever could have realized…” Her words died away. “I’m sorry,” she said. “I know it’s hard to understand.”
But the woman took Iris’ face between her slim hands and smiled. “Oh, no, my dear. I understand you perfectly.” She hugged her gently. “Let me take you to your men.”
* * *
A shuttle ride later, Iris found herself shedding tears of happiness as she was passed from Zios to Utak and back again, her arms hugging one and then both as they ran their hands over her and spoke words of reassurance and love.
She’d never been happier in her life, and could not stop thanking Augustus Bron and his beautiful human wife, Phaedra, for reuniting them.
Nora, not wanting to be left alone, had accompanied Iris to the suites where the brothers were being housed. Now she stood shyly by watching the reunion, and Iris only remembered her presence when she saw her standing in the corner. Breaking away from the men, she walked over and took the blonde by the hand.
“This is my friend, Nora,” she said. “We were on Earth together, brought here, and then separated after I rejected Ingus Sprang and was sent to the outpost.”
“And now,” said Phaedra, “she will also live a life of comfort and protection on our planet.”
“Or…” Iris turned to Nora. “You could come with me…” She looked over her shoulder, casting hopeful glances at her mates before turning back to her friend. “If there were mates for you, ones like mine, would you?”
Nora nodded, offering a hopeful smile.
Iris looked back at her mates again. “Is it possible?”
“It is,” Zios said. “We have several young men coming of age, strong men, future leaders. There is a shortage of females on our planet. You will be trained, disciplined…”
“Iris has told me,” Nora said, and blushed, biting her lip. “I would… I would happily submit to it.”
“Can we?” asked Iris with the tone of a child asking for a kitten.
“I don’t see how you can s
ay no, friend,” Augustus Bron stepped forward to clap the brothers on the back. “I was never able to refuse my human when she begged so sweetly.”
“Yes,” Utak and Zios said together. “If you want her to come, she is welcome.”
Iris turned to Nora, hugging her friend and feeling like the happiest woman in the galaxy.
Chapter Twelve
The Trogarians would be leaving TraoX39. Augustus Bron told the freed council that it would be his planet’s loss to lose the physical presence of a protective ally and force, but realistically, both sides knew that the unintentional slaughter of the Odh would have to be fully investigated by intergalactic authorities before the Trogarian peacekeepers could resume operations there or on any planet.
For Iris, this meant traveling to a second unknown planet. But when she’d dreamt of her son, her visions were never of the sands of TraoX39, but a lush and rocky place she knew was her true home as a Trogarian mate.
Their Traoian hosts had treated them well. The quarters they were housed in after their release were luxurious, the food and drink sumptuous. Augustus Bron was determined to right the wrong done in his absence, and that started with lavishing his falsely imprisoned guests with the best of everything in the days before they departed to break down the encampment at the foot of the Blood Mountains and head for home in the large ship camouflaged beyond the ravine.
But Iris could tell that the comforts she allowed herself to enjoy were lost on Zios and Utak.
“Grubs are better,” Utak said, squishing a small, ornately decorated cake between his thick fingers before depositing it back on the plate. He looked around. “Perfumed baths, cushioned beds so thick it’s hard to crawl out of them, robes as soft as down…What need does a warrior have of these things? All we need is a tent, some meat, and a mate to fuck.”
Zios, who was sitting nearby polishing a knife from boredom, glanced up. “We have no tent, and no meat.” He looked right at Iris. “But we do have a mate, and she has been neglected.”
