by Renee Rose
“Lium set up security recordings around the pod this solar cycle. I think you’ll find these interesting.”
Zander made a grumbling sound in his throat.
“These are the only two files of their kind. There is no other evidence of wrongdoing,” Daneth said.
“This is my chamber.”
She stilled. That was Gunt’s voice.
“I should get back to Prince Zander.”
And hers. She rolled over and opened her eyes, cringing to see the hologram of herself and Gunt standing in his chamber doorway. It unsettled her to see herself projected there, the fear and discomfort of the moment returning full force.
“I could help you around here. Protect you from the rest of them. Maybe even help you escape.”
“Oh sure. And all I have to do is what? Suck your cock?”
“Not all. But yes. That’s a start.”
“No thanks.”
Even knowing what was going to happen, it shocked her to watch Gunt’s huge hand shoot out and grasp her throat. Zander surged to his feet, his huge fist slamming down on his work screen.
“You think you’re too good for me, vecking human?”
The hologram flickered off and a second one—the one of her and Gunt that morning—played.
“Repeat.” Zander watched the tidbits one more time. When they ended, he stormed to the door, opened it, and slammed his fist into Gunt’s ugly face.
She sat up, watching in fascinated horror as the prince followed Gunt to the ground, continuing to beat his face with his fists until two more guards arrived at a run.
“My lord, may we help you? What happened?”
He climbed off Gunt and snapped his head to crack his neck. “Take him to a dungeon cell,” he growled.
They rushed in, seizing the unconscious guard’s arms and dragging him off down the hall.
When he turned to her, Zander’s purple skin looked paler than usual, his worried eyes searching her face. He came in, and the door slid shut behind him. His fingers curled into fists at his sides. He dropped them, though, and walked to the foot of the sleeping platform. “Lamira.” His voice sounded strained. He crawled up over her.
She turned her face away. It burned hot with the intensity of the moment. She wanted to hide under the covers, her emotions too raw to meet Zander’s eye after all that had passed between them.
“Lamira.” He tugged her shoulder when she rolled away, then released her. “Lamira, I’m sorry.”
The words sounded larger than the room. They filled the space, filled her.
“I made a...terrible mistake,” he rasped. “Terrible.” Out of the corner of her eye, she watched him rub his face. “I cannot undo it.” This sounded to be as much to himself as to her. He sat beside her, leaning on one arm and gazing down. He stroked a lock of hair from her eyes.
She still refused to turn toward him, feeling too raw, too wronged. Let him feel sorry.
“I will grant you a boon to make amends. What can I give you?” He reached out to touch her again, this time resting his palm on her shoulder—lightly—as if afraid she’d shrug it off.
She drew a breath. The most wicked part of her wanted to make him suffer—to drag out his obvious distress and refuse to allow him to make amends. But the image of the baby flashed in her mind again. That image had changed her. Profoundly.
“Hold me.”
“I beg your pardon?”
“The way you do sometimes after you breed with me.”
He shook his head. “No, you don’t understand. I will grant you a boon—make you a gift, or offer some freedom, as recompense for the suffering I caused you.” He sounded stiff, formal. Like they were at an official proceeding or hearing.
“All I want is for you to hold me.”
Was that moisture in Zander’s eyes? He blinked rapidly and pulled back the covers to scoop her up into his arms. With his back against the wall, he settled, cradling her like a baby.
“Like this?” His raspy voice sounded pained.
She leaned her head on the hard, sculpted muscles of his shoulder and drank in his heat, his strength. This was the male who would be the father of her children. “Yes,” she murmured.
He stroked up and down her arm in a non-demanding way, as he often did after breeding. “Why didn’t you tell me—no, wait—I know you tried to tell me today, but why didn’t you tell me when it happened?”
“I didn’t want to cause any trouble. I’m trying to find my way here—to make friends. To learn to get along in my new home.”
He stilled. “So you have accepted that you belong here? To me?”
Did she accept she was his slave and believe she belonged to him? No. She, like her father, believed humans should be free. But if she had to be someone’s slave...she’d pick Zander to be her master over all others. “I am getting used to it,” she said carefully.
He shifted her on his lap, and she winced at the pressure of her flayed skin brushing against his pants. He froze and lifted her into the air, scowling.
“Call Daneth,” he snapped.
His cuff produced Daneth’s head, floating right above her. She flinched.
“My lord.”
“Bring something to ease her pain.”
Daneth bowed his head. “Of course, my lord.” The hologram disappeared.
“You should have told me. You are my slave—my female—and no other male should touch you, especially not from my own guard. I will kill—” He broke off and closed his eyes, as if reining in his temper. “I would have protected you. Did something else happen between you?” His violet gaze was intent.
“No, my lord.”
“Is that truth?”
She nodded. “Truth.”
He stroked her cheek. “If it had—if he had raped you, would you lie to me about it?”
She tensed. She might lie. She wouldn’t want Zander to question the parentage of any child she conceived. “I told you, nothing happened. Remember how I begged you to let me go about the pod without a guard?”
Zander grimaced. “To avoid being with Gunt?”
She nodded. Her stomach rumbled.
Zander reached for the tray of food and picked up a piece of cheese. “You’re hungry.” He held it to her lips.
She closed her mouth and shook her head. “No, I’m not.” She instantly regretted it.
Zander’s eyes flashed and his body stiffened. “Even now you lie when I can clearly hear—”
“I meant, I’m too upset to eat.”
“I don’t understand.”
She sighed and rolled her eyes. “My emotions affect my digestive organs. My stomach feels like it’s tied in a knot. If I ate, it would make me sick.”
Zander’s expression grew sober and he drew her closer. “You’re angry with me?”
“A little,” she admitted.
“And what else? Your pain?” He ran his hand lightly over her swollen buttocks, and she hissed.
It was odd to have Zander always dissecting the things she said, never understanding normal human communication or emotions. It forced her into more self-awareness. And, for once, she wanted to confess the truth.
“You scared me.”
Regret made Zander’s handsome face droop. “I’m sorry, little human. Did you fear for your life? Your safety?”
She shrugged. “Maybe a little.”
“I admit I was...upset.” He used her word, as if trying it on for the first time. “But I would never cause you lasting harm. I wouldn’t take it too far. I know humans are delicate. I knew when to stop.”
She realized she believed him—perhaps she’d known it even at the time. Some little anxiety inside her settled.
A tap sounded at the door, and the screen on the back of it showed Daneth standing outside.
“Come in.”
She squirmed, trying to extricate herself from Zander’s arms, but he refused to let her go. He must have realized why she was uncomfortable, though, because he tugged a blanket up over her
.
“Stress levels are still elevated,” the doctor said, leaving out any greeting.
“What can you give her?”
Daneth produced a small gun.
“No.” She tried once more to scramble out of Zander’s grasp.
He caught her wrists in one of his hands and tugged them up, his other arm snugly around her waist. “Hush. This will make you feel better.”
She twisted around, her legs thrashing underneath her. “No, it will make you feel better. I don’t want to get—”
Zander held her immobile and the shot spiked in and out of her arm—a sharp prick.
“Ow!”
“It works on the central nervous system. It will calm her stress as well as alleviate pain. It should take effect in five minutes.”
“I didn’t ask you for that, you know—”she growled through clenched teeth, still thrashing against Zander’s hold.
Zander ignored her, looking up at Daneth. “How did you know?”
The physician shrugged. “She appeared genuinely indignant—as though she’d been wronged.”
~.~
Wronged. That was the understatement of the day. Guilt tightened his chest and made his heart heavy. Neither feeling was familiar to him. He made difficult rulings for his people every day, but he hoped he’d never misjudged a situation as badly as he had today.
Lamira stilled in his arms, her body growing heavy.
He watched her eyelids slide shut. “I asked for something to ease her pain, not put her out.” He ought to be kinder to Daneth, who had been wise enough to seek the truth and brave enough to show it to him.
Daneth studied her readouts. “She may have been exhausted—stress will do that to a human.” The physician glanced at the tray of food beside the sleeping platform. “She never ate?”
He shook his head miserably. “She said she was too upset.”
“She will eat in the morning.”
Heaviness overtook him. He needed to make amends to his delicate little human. Why hadn’t she asked him for anything? He would have made her any gift, though she’d never shown much interest in his wealth or finery. And then he remembered what she did care for. “I want you to purchase her mother. She lived on the same agrifarm where you bought Lamira. Can you arrange it?”
Daneth bowed. “Of course, my lord.”
“Has Seke seen the files?”
“Yes, my lord.”
“Thank you, Daneth. That is all.”
He waited until Daneth left, then said, “Call Seke.”
When Seke’s hologram popped up, the master at arms inclined his head to show respect, but said nothing. Because Seke was his teacher of battle arts, he did not grovel as much as the others did.
“You watched it?”
“I saw.” Seke was a male of few words.
“There are no other data files of the two of them?”
“No, they are the only ones.”
“Check on something else for me. Lamira said Gunt has been stealing crystals from the pod. I don’t know how she would know such a thing, but I’d like you to investigate before I address Gunt.”
“I’ll investigate.”
“Thank you.” He flicked the hologram off and sighed, looking at his lovely slave. He had just flicked off the artificial light when her lids fluttered open and she blinked unfocused eyes.
“You’re awake.”
“Mmm.” She smiled. The light of the giant Ocretion moon shone through the skylight, amplified by his crystal. It gave her a beautiful, bluish glow.
“You must feel better.”
She rubbed her cheek on his chest, creating a riot of sensation everywhere she touched him. “I do.”
“No more pain?”
Her cute freckled nose wrinkled. “Not much. And I feel happy.” Her smile widened.
He’d never seen such a glorious sight. It made him want to work for that smile every minute of every planet rotation.
She reached for his horns.
He choked on a groan, and his cock surged to attention. She ran her dainty fingers around the width of one horn, rubbing it until it grew stiff, then she shifted her attention to the second horn. “Lamira,” he choked, doing his best not to throw her on her back and pound her with his cock for a third time that planet rotation. “I don’t think you know what you’re doing.”
Her smile grew naughty. “Oh, I think I do.”
Zandian moons. She was smarter than he gave her credit for. He had underestimated her from the start, and now the entire fabric of his existence was unraveling beneath him as their dynamic shifted into something new.
He raised his eyebrows. “You want me to breed you again?” This time he was the one trembling from need.
She pushed herself up to her knees and straddled his waist, placing the heat of her pussy directly over his clothed cock. When she took hold of both horns, a shudder ran through him. All Zandian moons, when had she gained such control over his body?
He shoved his pants down and she climbed on, her naked body glowing in the moonlight.
She brought her lips to his and they were sugar-sweet, soft and—he groaned and gripped the back of her head to dominate the kiss, taking over, thrusting his tongue between her lips and nipping her.
She rocked her pelvis, taking his cock deeper into her glorious channel.
“Lamira…” He gripped her hips, careful not to touch her welted bottom, and helped her ride him, lifting and lowering her over his cock.
Soft tendrils of her hair fell against his neck, shocking his skin with the new sensation. Her intoxicating scent filled his nostrils.
He tilted his head to suck one of her beaded nipples then lost his concentration when she moaned, low and lusty.
“Veck, Lamira, veck.”
She gave a keening cry, her inner thighs clamping around his hips, her lush ass undulating, breasts bouncing.
He wanted it to last forever, but the urge to drive to the finish took over. “On your hands and knees,” he barked.
Her unfocused eyes blinked slowly, as if she were too dazed to comply, so he helped her, lifting her off him and pushing her down the way he wanted her.
He entered her, gripped her hips and pumped, forgetting to be gentle with her swollen bottom, slamming his loins against it.
Her tight pussy squeezed him like a glove, and she lifted her hips back to meet him. Oh moons, oh yes. His thighs tightened; cum surged down his shaft. He yanked her back against him, buried to the hilt, and shot his load into her canal.
She tightened around him, a good little slave, always waiting for his climax before she went off.
“Good girl,” he purred, reaching around to stroke her little button and prolong her spectacular finish.
He set off a fresh wave of squeezing and her knees collapsed beneath her, sending both their hips to the sleepdisk, still connected.
“Good little slave,” he murmured, biting her neck. “You took my cock three times in one day without complaining.”
Not that she’d complained much if at all after the initial deflowering. No, she was a willing breeder—a perfect slave. A loyal slave. She hadn’t given herself to Gunt, hadn’t wanted anyone but him.
He bit the shell of her ear. “I’m sorry I punished you, Lamira,” he murmured in her ear. “I wish I could take it back.”
She turned her face to the side and laid her cheek on the sleeping platform, her eyes soft, face relaxed, as if thoroughly satiated. “I’m going to have your baby.”
He stilled. “I beg your pardon?”
Her eyes snapped to focus and she shook her head as if shaking off her dreamy state. “I meant someday. Never mind.”
He stroked a lock of copper hair behind her ear. As usual, he didn’t understand his little human. They spoke the same language, but her words didn’t make sense to him. It didn’t matter. They had enough for now. He eased them both to their sides, his cock still inside her. He stroked slowly in and out of her, to savor the sensation.
Lamira emitted a contented sound and pulled his arm around her, bringing it to her breast. With a soft sigh, her eyelids slid closed again.
He wrapped his longer body around hers a curious sense of well-being flowing through him. Was it happiness? Did this little human make him happy?
If only they could learn to communicate. If only he could trust her.
~.~
Her dreams were full of Zander. Zander angry, gripping the horrible strap. Only this time she wasn’t scared. You’re mine, he said. Mine alone. I will not share you.
Yes, master. She dropped to her knees and reached for his cock.
Then Zander was buried inside her, murmuring in her ear. Zander fighting with Master Seke, his beautiful muscles rippling, his movement graceful like poetry.
She woke on an empty platform. She sat up. Zander’s clothes and gold arm cuff lay on the sleepdisk and the sound of water rushed from the washroom.
She reached for the cuff. On the agrifarm, the foremen had used handheld communication devices. Zander’s was state of the art, sleek and beautiful. As a human, she’d never been permitted to use any kind of device, but she’d looked over plenty of shoulders to see how they worked. In fact, she’d longed for one. She had a list a light-year long of the things she’d like to research. But they were mostly farming related. What would she search now, if she could?
Something about her new situation. Something to help her understand Zander better.
“Search Zandian Genocide.”
Nothing happened. Right. Because they were programmed only for voice recognition. She remembered, once, seeing someone borrow a device.
“Guest user.”
A light flickered on.
“Search Zandian Genocide.”
A hologram hovered, showing images of airships bombing the capital of Zandia, Zandians running and screaming from burning buildings. A dispassionate voice over gave the facts of the date, which had been nearly twelve revolutions around the sun ago.
She realized she had something more important to research. With a trace of excitement, she said, “Search Leora Taniaka.”
A hologram of her mother appeared, with the name of the agrifarm where they worked beneath it.
