Death Row 4 - The Mastering

by Black, Jaid

  Palming both of her jiggling breasts, it lowered its face and took one stiff nipple between its serrated teeth. It gently scraped the nipple, back and forth, over and over, until Nicoletta was groaning, climax knotting in her belly. Drawing the entire nipple into its mouth, the man-beast sucked hard, hickey-kissing her areola while suckling her stiff nipple.

  “I’m coming,” Nicoletta moaned. “I’m com—ohhhhh!”

  She screamed as an orgasm exploded in her belly, a violent euphoria that was as painful as it was pleasurable. The sub-human male’s growl grew louder as her pussy began contracting around its cock, trying to milk him of seed. He covered her totally then, his vampire hands possessively holding her bound ones in place, as he fucked her.

  Harder. Deeper. Faster.

  Over and over.

  Again and again.

  Nicoletta threw her cunt back at her captor, gasping as her eyes closed and her head lulled back on her neck. “What do you to me?” she asked again, her breath catching.

  He answered by fucking her harder, pitilessly. He rode her body like the animal he was, his sole focus on possessing her. Every warning growl told her she belonged to him, every branding stroke reaffirmed his dominance.

  The sounds of flesh slapping flesh reached her ears, mingling with his growls of territorial arousal…

  Harder. Deeper. Faster.

  Over and over.

  Again and again.

  The beast came on a loud, reverberating roar, a deafening sound that echoed throughout the jungle cavern. The sub-human’s entire musculature tensed and then convulsed, hot cum spurting like a geyser into her womb.

  Her breathing had never been so ragged. Her confusion had never been so acute. She had encouraged her sub-human captor to take her—it might not have understood her words, but it definitely understood her body’s actions.

  The beast haunted her soul in a way none other but Abdul could rival. It had been six months since she’d fled from either of them, yet they both owned her in ways she could never put to words.

  It was in the eyes. Something in the eyes pained her, beckoned to her.

  Their eyes could almost make her believe they needed her.

  It seemed like half of forever had gone by before either she or the creature moved. And then, surprising Nicoletta with a knowing she hadn’t expected, her gaze widened as she watched one vampire-black nail cut through her binds, freeing her hands.

  The creature moved off of her, taking to its side. But it was watching her, she noted. Its red gaze never left her.

  It was waiting to see what she would do, she thought, her heartbeat accelerating. It was waiting to see if she would try to run or choose to stay.

  Nicoletta rolled to her side too so that they faced each other. Her brown eyes were round, scared, her expression confused. Slowly, oh so slowly, one trembling hand reached for the sub-human’s heart and rested there.

  “What do you to me?” Nicoletta murmured. She closed her eyes briefly, dragging in a shaky breath. Her eyes flicked back open. “What do you to me?”

  Chapter 5

  “You set me up,” Abdul hissed. “Why should I not kill you here and now? Give me but one reason!” he bellowed.

  “B-Because you n-need me,” Maxim Malifé sputtered, his fear a tangible thing. “I knew nothing of this. I was as shocked as you—I vow it!”

  Abdul’s nostrils flared. The man he had trusted to run Kan Technology in his absence was lying and he knew it. He had made Malifé a very wealthy man—so wealthy that he now held the fifth highest position in the Hierarchy of Federated Earth. Finding out how that had been accomplished made his stomach turn.

  Abdul Kan thought Malifé had been handing over prisoners to Fathom Systems to put naught but bloody yen chips in their brains. He had no notion of the atrocities being committed, yet he felt himself responsible for every last one. He had handed those men over like lab rats to be experimented upon…

  He had led them like pigs to the slaughterhouse.

  “The scientists at Fathom Systems are so close,” Maxim promised, his eyes blazing.

  Abdul watched him, his gaze unblinking.

  “A few more years, old friend, and immortality shall be ours.” He waved a dismissive hand. “So a few men die. They were born dead. Nobody will miss them.”

  Abdul blinked, his expression incredulous. “You are mad.”

  Malifé laughed. “I prefer the word ‘inventive’.”

  “Mad.”

  “It’s done,” Malifé replied. “The wheels are already in motion. And what’s more, I act upon the will of the Hierarchy.”

  “Of which I sit higher on the apex than you,” Abdul murmured, reminding him of his rank. “Nor do I believe for a second that a man such as Creagh O’Malley, a man whose position within the Hierarchy is superior to both of ours, would partake in such madness as this!”

  Abdul wrenched him around to face him, grabbing his tunic at the neck and pulling it tightly. The slighter Malifé’s eyes widened, his fear returning.

  “I will have no part in this,” Abdul hissed, his muscles clenching. “As of this moment your supply of prisoners is cut off.”

  “I don’t need any more,” he whispered. “We’ve infected hundreds already then released them outside the perimeter of the biospheres. All we do now is wait…” Malifé swallowed heavily, his eyes bulging. “And learn.”

  * * * * *

  Three nights later

  The gray-skinned creature followed her deeper into the cavern, careful not to let her get too far out of its line of vision as she made her way to a trickling stream that flowed from the top of the earthen lair like a small waterfall. For three days and nights it had fucked her practically non-stop. In her pussy, in her ass, in her mouth—it had taken her everywhere multiple times. She knew from experience her captor had to be tiring.

  “Now where will I possibly run to?” Nicoletta asked him without glancing back as she waded into the small pool the waterfall ran off into. “You are faster, stronger, you can see at night, and you’ve already caught me twice.” She cocked her head and smiled slightly at the sub-human male from over her shoulder. “I think you can relax while I bathe.”

  She didn’t know what was happening to her mind, yet she was alarmed it might have snapped. She no longer felt the fear that once consumed her. And, perversely, she was no longer wracking her brain for possible methods of escape.

  “I feel guilty, you know,” she told the creature as she stood in the cold pool and briskly rubbed her arms. The chill in the air made goosebumps form on her flesh and her already stiff nipples grow impossibly stiffer. “I’ve never been with any male save my Husband. Until you,” she clarified.

  She realized the creature probably did not understand her words. Somehow that made them easier to utter. “I’ve never stopped loving Him,” Nicoletta whispered, her gaze faraway. Her breath caught. “I doubt I ever will.”

  She blinked, her gaze coming back to the present. “But it doesn’t matter. You have no competition to speak of for He does not love me. And,” she said quietly, “He is dead.”

  Nicoletta went down to her knees, the water of the pool not even deep enough to cover her lap. She kept her back to the beast as she washed herself, the curious sensation that it was staring at the sign of Abdul Kan laser-etched into her right buttock hard to dismiss. She glanced over her shoulder and confirmed that, indeed, it was staring at the brand. She wondered if the creature knew what it was. Or perhaps the symbol of ownership only triggered a memory from a former life.

  “It means that I belong to another,” she whispered, looking away from him. “I suspect you won’t let that stop you, though.”

  And why should he—it? The sub-human desired her presence with a yearning Abdul never had.

  She stilled, alarmed by the direction her thoughts had been heading. Perhaps Abdul’s death had driven her mad. She couldn’t stay with the beast-man. She couldn’t even consider such a thing.

  “It’s the w
ay you look at me,” she admitted, comforted by the fact it couldn’t possibly understand her words. “Your gaze is familiar to me and yet foreign. Familiar in a way I don’t understand, foreign in a way I do.” She smiled into the waterfall. “I always wanted Him to gaze upon me in the way you do,” she murmured. “Every night I prayed to Cyrus, begging and pleading that my Master might love me.” Her sigh was resigned. “But that never came to be. And now He is gone from this realm.”

  The sub-human seemed to be listening, a fact that made her shiver. She shook her head, grinning at the insanity of the situation—and at herself for thinking for even a moment the beast knew what it was she was saying.

  She turned her head again, her grin fading as she took in the way it was staring at her. With yearning. With longing. With need.

  “Did you love a woman once?” she whispered. “Before you were infected?”

  The beast said nothing, only watched her, but then she had hardly expected a reply. She imagined she saw the answer in his eyes, though. They seemed to be absorbing her every whisper, drinking in the very sight of her.

  “You did,” she murmured. Her eyes gentled—with pity or shared pain she didn’t know. “And I bet she loved you with her entire heart and soul.”

  It looked away and Nicoletta had the mad thought she had stirred something deep within him. She realized she was pinning human emotions onto an inhuman beast, a predatorial Neanderthal whose only instincts were to hunt, kill, and breed. And yet she found herself wanting to offer him solace.

  She was definitely going mad.

  Nicoletta was already on her knees so going down on all fours took but a second. She thrust her ass up high into the air, using her elbows for support as she spread her legs far apart.

  “I need to be loved,” she whispered. She glanced over her shoulder, wiggled her buttocks and smiled. “So do you.”

  The low growl began in his chest, a deep, deadly sound that she didn’t fear in this moment in time. Later, she would question her sanity. Later, she would worry for tomorrow.

  Two rough gray hands seized her hips from behind, making her gasp with a moment’s fright. She had forgotten how quickly it moved, forgotten too the fatal strength the beast wielded.

  Her sub-human captor sank his cock inside her cunt without preliminaries, his possessive roar making the tiny hairs at the nape of her neck fairly stand on end. She moaned as it began fucking her, his long, thick cock sinking into her pussy over and over, again and again.

  She threw her hips back at him, sucking in her breath as she met him thrust for thrust. The creature’s fingernails ran over the sign of her Master, its hand then palming the ass cheek it was branded into. Nicoletta’s forehead wrinkled with a curious sense of déjà vu for Abdul had always done the same when mounting her from behind.

  It fucked her harder, faster, its growl deepening.

  “Yes,” Nicoletta moaned, her tits jiggling beneath her as the beast rode her hard. The sound of cunt meeting cock permeated the cavern as the trickling waterfall flowed over them. She closed her eyes and let herself enjoy her approaching orgasm. “Yes, yes, yessss.”

  It rode her pussy without mercy as her vaginal walls began contracting around his cock. Its right hand never once left the brand of Abdul Kan as she screamed out her climax, groaning into the night.

  “Harder, Master,” she begged, unthinkingly calling him by the name of Abdul. Her teeth gritted as she gluttonously threw her hips at him, wanting fucked as deep and as hard as he could give it to her. Her nipples were so stiff with arousal they ached. “I want it harder.”

  The possessive growl grew louder as the sub-human male fucked her harder. She gasped and moaned as his cock sank into her cunt, lightning-fast motions that were as deep as they were territorial.

  She heard his breathing grow heavier, heard too the now familiar roar gurgling up from the depths of his throat. Nicoletta threw her pussy back at him as hard as she could, moaning with him as he convulsed and came inside her.

  This time when it was over she knew the sub-human male would be seeking the rejuvenation of sleep. And, indeed, after picking her up with a warning growl and stumbling with her body toward a resting place, that’s what the beast did.

  Lying beside him, she watched his gray chest rise and fall before her gaze flicked up to meet his. He was fighting the urge to sleep and he was losing.

  Nicoletta stilled. She realized why her captor was fighting it, of course. This was precisely how she’d gotten away the last time. The slumber of a sub-human male is deep, all-consuming, as though in hibernation. It’s the only chance prey has from escaping the one who hunts them.

  There was resignation in its gaze, a knowing. The beast realized it was falling asleep, knew it could not stop her from running, yet at the same time wanted to hold on to every second it could with her.

  “Sleep,” she whispered, reaching a trembling hand out to stroke his brow. Her breath caught from somewhere in the vicinity of her heart. “Close your eyes and sleep.”

  Chapter 6

  He wanted so badly to touch her, to hold her and tell her of his love for her just as he had when he’d first purchased her. But he couldn’t—not without chancing that he’d hurt her. Once when they had been making love, his heart soaring with emotion, he had almost turned, had almost killed his beloved Nica. She made him feel…

  The very thing he could not afford to do.

  And so, not knowing what else could be done, but also realizing he had to keep her away from him until he could find enough answers to beat Fathom Systems and Maxim Malifé at their madman’s game, Abdul had distanced himself from the wife he cherished. He had forced her to loathe him, to despise him, to detest the very sight of him…

  Inevitably, sadly, it had worked.

  “Do not touch me!” she snapped, pushing away from him. “Cage me, spank me, do what You must! But do not ever,” she hissed, “touch me.”

  Her words were more devastating than a deathblow. He wanted to tell her that he loved her, that he would always love her. But her words made him feel, damn it. It made the demon in him rise to the surface.

  Abdul plastered a twisted smile on his face. “You think I need you?” he taunted. “I’ve three new wives eager for My touch. I do not need you.”

  The look of unadulterated pain and betrayal on her face made his heart wrench. I do not mean this! he wanted to say. Nica, you know I do not mean this!

  “Well then,” she whispered, her voice catching, her beautiful brown eyes filling with tears she was too proud to let fall, “You best go to them.”

  She smiled as she prepared to open her eyes, wondering what her captor would do when he saw that she hadn’t run from him. Their eyes opened at the same time. Their gazes clashed.

  Nicoletta’s smile faded, her face draining of color. Her heart began pounding in her chest, slashing against it like a rock, making breathing difficult. She wrenched herself up from the ground and backed away from him.

  “No,” she choked out, stumbling until she hit a rocky wall barrier. Her naked breasts rose and fell with every forced breath. “This is not possible—You are not possible!”

  He said nothing, only stared at her, as he slowly rose to his feet.

  She was losing her mind, she decided. She had to be. There was no other explanation.

  “Now you know My secret, Nica,” he murmured, his intense jaguar gaze filled with such emotion she had to look away. “The secrets I did My damnedest to hide for twenty-five years that you might not look upon Me with revulsion.” His sigh was long, weary, resigned. “And yet in order to keep it, I had to make you hate Me anyway.”

  She was going to faint. She was certain she was going to faint. Her heart was ringing in her ears it was pumping so violently.

  “I-I…”

  She swallowed against a dry throat, words deserting her as she stared at her husband—her allegedly dead husband who was very much alive. She had to be dreaming…or hallucinating. He and the creature—they we
re one and the same? No—no—it wasn’t possible.

  “Abdul?” she breathed out.

  “I couldn’t let you go,” he said softly. “You deserve to be free—Cyrus knows you deserve to be. And yet…” He walked toward her slowly, not wanting to intimidate her. “I cannot let you go,” he rasped.

  His expression was guarded and yet she could see the misery and loneliness etched into his face. His stance was tense and yet forcibly relaxed, as if he was trying his damnedest not to appear threatening even though his first instinct where she was concerned had always been and would always be to pounce.

  There was no way under Cyrus for Abdul Kan to appear non-threatening, Nicoletta thought. Her gaze flicked over his tanned, naked body, over the heavy muscles and battle scars. He was just as powerful and larger-than-life while a man as he was while a beast. Different and yet the same. Now she recognized what it was she’d saw in the creature—

  Abdul.

  His gaze found hers. “I love you, Nicoletta Isabella Carlotta Kan,” he murmured.

  She closed her eyes tightly to keep from crying. Her nostrils flared as tears streamed down her face anyway.

  “I love you, ana wahib.”

  Her heart painfully twisted. “Don’t do this to me.”

  Nicoletta’s eyes flew open, the anguish on her tear-streaked face plainly readable. “It took me twenty-five years to pull myself away from You,” she gritted out. “Twenty-five brutal years where I begged and pleaded with the ancient saints and to every god under the sun that You might say those very words to me one day.”

  “Nica…” His voice caught, the first time Abdul had shown a weakness since that long ago night when they’d been making love. “I have always loved you.”

  She held up a palm. Her legs were trembling so fiercely she could scarcely stand. “It is too late, Abdul,” she rasped out. “My love for You will always be, yet is there too much between us for anything to come of it.”

  His jaw tensed. “Can you not understand why I closed Myself off to you?” he growled, trying again to command the overwhelming urge he had to force her to stay. “If you had died at My hands I…” He sighed, his eyes closing briefly while he calmed himself. “I could not have bore it.”