by Renee Rose
It’s then, as I turn to place the second Agrax in my bag, success flooding my brain with liquid gold, that I see the eyes of vipn. Red eyes, three pairs, one much lower to the ground. A young? What are they doing here?
I crouch and freeze, knife tight in one hand, the Agrax in the other, like a sword. My heart speeds up until it’s a blur of energy. I’m on a hair trigger, ready to react. The animals look as intent as I feel, and then the young one gives a raspy mewl of pain that is unmistakable. At that, the two taller animals bend down, one of them yelping in reply; the second looks back up at me and growls, a long, low angry snarl, and I see long teeth, wet with saliva. Poisoned saliva?
I cannot risk getting bitten. I drop the Agrax and reach into my satchel, feeling around until I grasp the smooth glass of my acid vial. Holding it at the ready, I wait, sick to think I could destroy an animal, even a vicious one, yet I know it may be necessary to save my own life.
The young one whimpers again and licks its leg—I can see clearly now that my eyes have adjusted. I notice something else—their scratch marks, claw marks, on the trunk of a tree where an Agrax grows.
I stand my ground, and inspiration strikes— without looking away from the animals, as if breaking eye contact will allow them forward, I shift the vial in my hand, crouch down, touch the Agrax with my fingers where I dropped it, and peel off a long strip of the thin bark. It curls up in my hand, releasing a pleasant, woody aroma. I toss it towards the trio.
The taller one growls more loudly, and howls, and my thighs quiver. But then it darts forward and grabs the bark in its mouth and retreats, dropping the bark at the foot of the other adult. She (I assume it’s a she) chews the bark, soft slick slurpy crunches, and then, to my surprise, bends down to spit the mouthful on to her young—onto its leg.
Sweet Mother Earth! These intelligent beasts are using medicine to heal!
I step forward, hoping to leave while they’re occupied, but the larger one snarls and acts like it is going to leap, and I freeze. I repeat my action; prying off a piece of bark, tossing it forward.
This time the larger one chews the bark, and when I move past their group, they don’t stop me. A few more feet, and I race as fast as I can, still holding my knife and the branch and my vial, not pausing to look back, until I am a mile out, then two, and I can barely breathe, heading toward Holla’s homestead.
I whirl around, half-expecting to see a hoard of furry monsters racing at me, fangs bared, but the field is empty, so I run again until my chest burns. I bend over, panting; when I look up, a sparkling dome refracts the sun into my eyes in a thousand shards, and I realize that I made it to Holla’s place. I lope up, and when she sees me, her whole face drops in shock and dismay.
“Riya!” She extends her arms for a hug, sees my knife, draws back. “Come into the dome.” She tugs my arm. “What are you doing out here, alone? Are you hurt?” She sits me down on a wooden stool. “What’s in Mother Earth is going on? Where are your mates?”
She glances out the dome at the tall grasses blowing in the wind, then to me. Even in my exhaustion, I’m careful to put my Agrax, my vial, and knife, back into my pack.
“I was running,” I rasp, and grab at my water packet.
“Save yours, I’ll get more,” she offers, and she fetches me a pitcher. Water never tasted so good. I suck it down, greedy for more, and she refills it.
Finally sated, I look at her. “Thank you,” I say. “I need your advice.”
She nods and takes a breath. “I expected you to come. But not like this.” She gestures at my sweaty, wild appearance. “What’s in your satchel?”
“My salvation,” I murmur, and I’m grateful she doesn’t ask me what I mean.
“So?” She quirks one brow.
“I would like to…” The words won’t come. “I need…”
She waits, silent, still.
“I cannot bear young.” I force out the sentence. “Is there any way you can help?”
Her eyes, so full of sympathy, meet mine. “That depends,” she says, “on the reason for the infertility.”
“Shock sticks.” I stick up my chin. “My fallopian tubes were scarred.” I squeeze my eyes for a second. “From all the electricity, over time.”
“Oh, Riya.” Her face falls. “I’m so very sorry.” The look in her eye tells me what she’s about to say next.
“There are herbs,” I begin, grabbing her hands, leaning forward. “Old traditions.” My voice shakes, and I realize I’m squeezing her fingers too hard, panting into her face. I release my sweaty grip. “Things the slave elders spoke of. I don’t grow them, but I think you do.”
“Those work for specific ailments.” Her voice is gentle. “There are herbs to bring on menses that have failed, and salves that can make a woman more fertile. However, if she is not fertile at all to start, the herbs will have no efficacy.”
“I need to try them.” I tap my foot.
“Riya.” She looks down. “The damage done by shock sticks is… irreversible.” She speaks slowly, as if to a child, but her voice is kind. “No herb can undo that. I’m sorry.”
“But it might not be that!” I stand up and pace, throw my arms out as if to explain. “It could be something else, and they just thought it was that.” I wrap my arms around myself. “The Ocretions are notorious liars, and sloppy, too, when they don’t care about a slave any longer. It’s possible that it’s… reversible. Even if it’s a tiny chance, I need to try.” Tears sting my eyes, and the exhaustion of the journey falls onto me like a stone. I sink back to the stool and bury my head in my hands before looking at her. “Please.”
She puts up a hand. “But first I need to understand your body, Riya. When do you feel the stabbing pain of ovulation, or do you never feel it? I need to understand the timing of your menses. And I’ll need to ask about…”
“Please. Without the questions. I need the herbs.” These are things I have not grown, although I know of them. They are not seeds that were included in my pack, and if I ask for them, others might ask why I need them. I’ve become somewhat of an experimenter, but I don’t want to risk questions.
I come closer and take her hands. “Please.”
She blinks and cocks her head, and then comes closer, until we’re almost nose to nose, looking into each other’s eyes. It’s not intimate in the same way I am with my mates, but it’s closer than I’ve been to another human.
“Have you been eating apples?” She steps back, looking at me, and darts a glance at my belly, then back up to my face.
“Apples? Mother Earth, I wish.” I smile. “Won’t it take years to grow a single tree? How I’d love one, though.” We grew apples on the agrifarm, but I was never allowed to eat them. Still, we sometimes ate the rotten ones discarded by the slave masters.
“Hmm.” She bites her lip. “I wonder.”
“What?” I put a hand to my lower back. I’m not accustomed to running and my body aches. I stretch out my calves. “I need to get back home soon.”
“I will give you the herbs,” she says, finally, and retrieves a packet of dried leaves from her supply. “They cannot work for the ailment you describe. They can, however, strengthen a pregnancy, and I am only giving it to you so you feel like you are doing everything you can.”
“Thank you.”
She says, “You have not told your mates.”
We look at each other for a second. “Can I trust you?” My voice cracks.
She takes my hand and folds the packet into my fist. “Know that I will always act in what I believe is the best interest,” she says, and this is as close as I will come to a promise of secrecy. I don’t wish to delve into what best interest means, and whether it’s mine, as long as I can have what I came for.
“Thank you.” I squeeze her hand. “I will repay you.”
She shakes her head. “You do what it takes to make your homestead and your family successful, and that is repayment for everything.”
I nod. “I need to go.” I s
tow the packet into my satchel alongside my other treasures.
“Riya, no.” Her voice is firm. “It’s getting dark and it won’t be safe. My mates will accompany you home.”
“No! I’ll get myself back.” I stand up, my tone fierce, and hurry out, hoping I’ll make it back before my mates come in for the night.
Jax
Riya!”
Tarren, Ronan, and I call at the tops of our lungs. We returned to the dome to find her gone. Simply gone.
My mind is going vecking crazy trying to figure out where she’s gone. What could’ve happened to her.
She knows better than to leave the site. We’ve warned her many times. I’m cursing the fact that we never gave her a comms cuff so we could communicate with her or track her, but it simply wasn’t necessary. Not when she never strayed from our homestead.
What the veck?
“Riya! Riya!” Tarren’s voice has gone hoarse. He’s already at the crest of the hills far from our homestead.
What if she’s been bitten by a vipn? Or abducted by some intruders? What if—oh veck—what if she fell in the mine?”
“I’ll check the mine!” I shout to Ronan and run for the opening.
“Wait! Jax!”
I stop and whirl. Ronan points at a dot on the landscape. A small figure hurrying out of the damn forest.
My heart leaps into my throat. It’s Riya—it has to be. But what if it’s not? No, it is.
All three of us run for her.
Tarren gets there first and I pity Riya, because Tarren—when he’s mad—is a fearsome being to behold. Not that he’d ever harm her. But his sheer size and now the facial scar makes his visage terrifying when he glowers. And he is furious. I can tell by the set of his shoulders, the stomp of his feet. He’d been the most frantic out of the three of us—if you can quantify such things. His need to protect her and the helplessness of not knowing where to find her made him crazy with worry. And yes—there she goes up over his shoulder. Tarren claps his meaty hand down on her upturned ass as he carries her inside.
Ronan and I meet them at the dome, not that Tarren’s waiting for any being.
“Where have you been?” I demand, but Tarren carries our upside-down mate into the chamber. “To the forest? To look for Argrax bark?”
“I-I…”
I’m trying to make sense of what happened, but Tarren’s still in warrior mode. He drops her onto her feet, quickly spinning her to face away from him. He pins her hands to the wall with one hand and starts to paddle her ass with his palm, fast and hard.
“Ow! Ah,” She cries out, but I hear no indignation, and believe me, I’m listening for it. Because we don’t even know her story yet and Tarren’s already taking his frustration out on her ass.
No, she knows she deserves this, whatever she’s done. And I’m fairly certain I was right.
I pull a hoverchair around and sit, watching Tarren’s punishment. Ronan joins me in his own seat. The spanking isn’t too harsh, but Riya’s squeaks and cries are real. I suspect she’s more afraid than hurt.
I don’t blame her. Even I don’t choose to tangle with Tarren when he’s mad, and I’ve known him my whole life.
He spanks over her clothing, not bothering to strip her. I won’t make the same mistake. And yes, I do plan on punishing her next. I think we should each choose a punishment, because she scared the horns right off our heads.
As Tarren spanks her, the tension goes out of his face and the cords in his neck stop straining. I’m about to tell him it’s enough, but he seems to arrive at the same conclusion. He releases her and walks away without another word.
Riya stays in the position he left her, trembling. Her breath rasps in fast and hard. Her surrender, her submission here, has my cock throbbing. My anger and irritation are completely gone. Now it’s just about pleasure. My pleasure. Her punishment.
I stand up and stroll to her side, leaning against the wall where she’s still propped, her ass out and ready. Maybe she thinks Tarren’s going for an implement. Maybe she’s just afraid to move without permission.
“Take off your clothes, Riya.” My voice comes out silky soft, laced with danger and the promise of more pain.
She eases her hands from the wall and faces me, entreaty in her expression. Her lower lip trembles.
I stroke my thumb down her cheek. “You know why Tarren’s so angry?”
Her eyes dart to my cousin, who’s turned to stone where he sits in the corner.
Her head wobbles around like she’s not sure whether to shake it or nod.
“Because he was so afraid. We didn’t know what happened to you, Riya. We feared for your life.” I tilt my head in Tarren’s direction. “So this is what happens when you scare a giant warrior. You get a sore ass and a being who will require a very, very long cock suck to forgive you.”
I meant it to be sexy, but Riya’s eyes fill with tears.
I pull her into my arms. “Shh, sweet girl. He’ll get over it. We all will. But first we need to talk. And then there’s your punishment to discuss. And I believe I gave you an order.” I arch a brow at her.
She scrambles to take off her clothing, our strong little mate so contrite. I have to squeeze my cock through my pants to take the edge off my erection.
I sink back into my hoverseat to watch. “That’s it, beautiful,” I say when she finishes, and open my thighs. “Come here.”
She stands in front of me, awkward and blushing, her fingers knit in front of her pussy.
I pull them apart. “Hold them behind your back. I need to see what belongs to us.”
She sucks her lower lip in between her teeth, which nearly makes me groan. I want to be the one nipping that lip. Soon enough.
“So where were you, Riya? You went for Argrax bark?”
She nods and her little tongue darts out to moisten her lips. “And to Holla’s.”
My gut twists. Our mate has been too lonely here. Lonely enough to sneak off without permission.
I show nothing on my face, though. “You knew we didn’t wish you to go in the forest unaccompanied.” It’s a statement not a question.
“Yes… Master.”
Damn. That has me grabbing my cock again and I don’t think she even meant it to turn me on. She’s simply defaulted to slave mode, which should make me hate the moniker. But I vecking love it. Almost as much as I love the submissive tone and having her standing before me naked. Because our mate isn’t weak. She’s a strong female who just traveled through the forest and located her friend all on her own.
“I know I speak for my cousins when I say we’re so vecking relieved you made it safely. But that doesn’t mean we won’t each punish you for putting us through such a fright. You didn’t even try to leave us a message?”
She rubs her pretty lips together. “I’m sorry.”
I stand from the hoverseat. “Ten with the strap. That’s my punishment for you. Spread your legs and bend over at the waist.” It’s not too cruel. We give her the strap on a regular basis, just for play, but I’ll give it a punitive tone. But when she obeys, and I get a glimpse of her pink, glistening core, punishment flies out the window. Oh, I’ll make her hurt, but I’m sure all of us will enjoy it. She rests her hands on her knees, but I think she could use a little reassuring contact, so I say, “Ronan, perhaps you’ll come over to steady her.”
Ronan grins. He, too, has lost all his ire. He sweeps his hoverchair in front of Riya and cups her chin, lifting her face to his. When she starts to straighten her back, he makes a disapproving sound in his throat and she adjusts, arching her ass out to me and lifting her face to him at the same time.
He runs his thumb over her lips. “Good girl, Riya.”
I snap the leather across her ass. She jumps and squeaks. Ronan holds her face captive, forcing her to look up at him, to be seen.
I let it swing again and again, laying stripes down her already glowing ass while Ronan pinches her nipples with one hand, and thrusts the thumb of the other between
her lips. I finish her strapping and let the leather fall.
The scent of her arousal fills the room. I don’t want to wait another vecking moment to put my cock in her.
“What’s your punishment?” I rasp to Ronan.
A wicked smile curls his lips. “I’m going to veck her hot little ass. She should know that when she’s punished, she always takes it in the ass. And we won’t let her come, either.”
“No, she doesn’t deserve to come, does she?” I agree.
I look over at Tarren, who’s still looking disgruntled on his seat on the hoverdisk.
I reach my arm around Riya’s waist and lift her to stand, her back pressing against my front. With my lips at her ear, I say, “You need to go suck Tarren’s cock until he’s smiling again. And while you do it, Ronan’s going to veck your ass. But don’t you dare come, little mate, or I’ll whip you again with the strap. Understand?”
She nods, her tongue darting out to moisten her lips. All three of us groan.
Tarren wastes no time stripping and lying down on the hoverdisk and Riya dutifully crawls up between his legs. I take my cock out and fist it, watching Riya take Tarren’s member into her mouth and Ronan position himself behind her to take her ass.
Veck, I might just come from watching, but I don’t want to. I’d rather come in her juicy little pussy. Still, as their sounds grow louder and needier, I have to beat my cock harder and my balls tighten.
For all his surliness, Tarren finishes first, his roar shaking the damn dome. When Riya licks him clean and pops off, I grasp her hair and pull her head up. “Do not come,” I warn her just before Ronan’s shout echoes off the glass and metal.
She whimpers, but obeys, her body going slack, into a purely receptive mode.
“Good girl,” I purr. I can hardly wait for Ronan to finish and pull out. I stand at the ready, clothes off, a wet washcloth in hand to wipe her clean.
I flatten her to her belly on the hoverdisk, my palm at her nape. “Spread your legs, beautiful. It’s my turn, and I’m tired of waiting for the sweetness that awaits me.” I rub the head of my cock in her juices. One thrust and I’m deep, right where I want to be. I groan. “Mmm, this pussy’s always so wet for me, isn’t it?” I croon, my eyes already rolling back in my head.
