Enslaved - Book 3: Trek Mi Q'an

by Jaid Black

Marty reveled in his lust, for it never failed to amaze her how out of control Kil became while he was buried inside of her. When she had first joined the harem, she had seen how dispassionately he had screwed the other bound servants. But every time he sank into her body he moaned and groaned and thrust into her over and over again with an overwhelming euphoria that bordered on the maniacal.

  “Kil.” She wrapped her legs around his waist and moaned as her flesh enveloped his with lusty suctioning sounds. The sounds of their bodies and flesh slapping against each other, the feel of his tight balls slapping against her buttocks, the scent of their combined arousal…it was wicked. Delicious and wicked. “Oh god.”

  “Mari.”

  When he couldn’t take anymore teasing, when he’d sank into her pussy until he’d found oblivion, only then did he grit his teeth and groan out his orgasm.

  As the bridal necklace began to pulse, Marty’s hands found his buttocks and squeezed. There were only three words that could describe how she felt just now, only three words that could convey the maddening euphoria of the moment.

  “How. Fucking. Groovy.”

  Chapter 26

  Cam’s eyes narrowed suspiciously at the whispering he saw going on between Kara, Jana, and Dari. On this the moon-rising after the Consummation Feast when all should be paying homage to the bride, groom, and their girl-child, the three princesses were sitting off by themselves across the great hall, whispering to one another under their breath rather than taking part in the celebratory, ritualistic function.

  His eyes flicked to Gio. Gio also harbored an uneasy feeling about their hushed talk, he could tell. The warrior’s eyes were narrowed and Cam could tell that his mood was grim. But then who could blame him? The embarrassment he had suffered from Dari’s escapade at the shopping stalls was widely known and whispered about.

  Gio’s only solace had been in knowing that Dari’s sire had publicly spanked her to teach her a lesson about betraying one’s Sacred Mate. Or future Sacred Mate as it were. Still, Cam had spoken to the warrior and knew his anger was still at its apex, knew even that he desired to remove Dari from her birth home that her channel might be guarded by his own sire and mani until she was of an age where he could claim her. Cam wasn’t certain whether or not Gio’s request would be granted, but he knew for a certainty that the petition had been put before the emperor.

  Cam’s jaw clenched as his gaze darted back to Kara. She was excited about something and that made him uneasy. Kara was always apprehensive whenever he came to visit her at the palace, not giddy with excitement. And yet there she stood in all her dark beauty, whispering animatedly to her cousins.

  Something was going on, he knew. Something he would not approve of.

  And he would find out what that something was.

  Chapter 27

  “My lord?”

  Kara was careful to keep her eyes lowered as she slowly removed her mazi for Cam in the privacy of his suite that moon-rising. She hadn’t wanted to come to him this eve for she didn’t wish any guilt pangs to overtake her. The course had been set. The proverbial conveyance was in motion. There was no going back. “You wanted to speak with me?”

  Cam said nothing, merely gazed at her nakedness as she disrobed for him. The lust in his glowing blue-green eyes aroused her as it always did and Kara felt her nipples plumping up for him. This, she told herself shakily, would simply not do.

  Kara’s gaze shot up warily to study his face. He had changed a lot over the years, growing from a laughing young warrior who had always teased her and made jests into an older warlord of thirty-nine Yessat years who rarely smiled and always managed to frighten her.

  He was grim and she didn’t have a care for it. But mayhap that’s the price a warrior paid when the blood of so many was on his hands.

  Kara was naïve and sheltered, but hardly stupid. Cam had started with nothing, had been born into this realm of lowly birth. He had fought for everything that was now his and would take no chances that any of it might be reclaimed. She admired him for his strength, yet paradoxically it was that very strength that frightened her so much.

  From having been born to a lowly trelli sand miner, to becoming a hunter, to garnering his own sectors and ruling over them…such progressions did not take place without proving oneself by taking out the enemy in much battling.

  She realized what she was to Cam K’al Ra. She didn’t try to fool herself for a Nuba-minute. She was the ultimate trophy of battling prowess. There could be no greater marriage prize for a man born to a trelli miner that the daughter of the emperor, the daughter of the wealthiest and most powerful warlord of the time dimensions.

  By virtue of their mother’s lineage, Kara’s sons would be proclaimed kings upon birth and her daughters would be princesses, even if not High Princesses as was she. Of course Cam K’al Ra coveted her, she thought sadly. Who could blame him? What warrior born to a trelli miner wouldn’t? What warrior born to a king wouldn’t for that matter?

  But she wanted more from a Sacred Mate, she reminded herself. She wanted to be loved not as a battle prize, but as a woman. And thus was the reason that the course had been set.

  “My lord?” she asked again, quieter this time. “You wished to see me?”

  He said nothing as he slowly rose up from his chair, nothing as he strode over to her, nothing even as he picked her up and carried her to the raised bed.

  “What are you doing?” Kara breathed out as he gently deposited her on the bed.

  He slid her hips to the edge of it and nudged her thighs apart with his large hands. And still he said nothing.

  “My lord?” she panted out as she came up on her elbows and glanced between her legs to see what he was about.

  Cam’s gaze clashed with hers as his thumb found her clit and worked it around in methodic circles. Kara gasped as she stared down at him.

  “There is no escape from me,” he murmured. “Not now. Not ever.”

  Her eyes darted about warily. He was suspicious and that wouldn’t do for a certainty. “I-I don’t know what you mean,” she said with feigned surprise.

  “Aye you do.” His tongue shot out and he licked one long path from the opening of her channel to her clit. Only then did he raise his head. “Heed my words well, Kara. Do not force me to punish you.”

  Cam summoned her gaze and held it for a protracted moment, showing her but the smallest display of the dominance nature had given his body over hers. He could command her to his will by wishing it done, make it so her body was immobile and thereby unable to flee if he so chose.

  Kara’s eyes widened. She had never felt so penetrated, so commanded to another’s will. And this by his gaze alone.

  By the goddess, she thought as he broke the mysterious hold on her and buried his face between her thighs to lap her into orgasm, this would not do for a certainty.

  * * * * *

  “Papa?” Dari asked softly. Her glowing blue gaze shot towards her mother. “Mani? What is wrong?”

  Geris swiped at her tears and ran from the apartments they kept in Sand City, too emotional to speak.

  Dari felt an icy chill of foreboding creep down her spine. That wasn’t like her mother for a certainty. Her mother never fled from a chamber in upset. She always stayed and held her own, no matter her state of mind. “Papa?” she asked quietly, noting for the first time that his eyes looked bloodshot from crying. “Papa what has happened?”

  “My brother…” he began hoarsely, his voice trailing off.

  “Aye?”

  Dak took a deep breath. “The emperor has granted Gio’s petition,” he muttered, turning around to pace the chamber.

  Dari’s eyes rounded. Her hearts’ rate sped up. “What petition?” she choked out.

  Dak stopped his pacing and swung around to face her. He ran a punishing hand through his golden hair. “A fortnight from now, when Gio returns to his homeland for good, you will accompany him. And,” he rasped out, “’tis where you will remain.”

  “
Nay,” she gasped, her stomach churning. She felt as though she was going to be sick. “Nay, papa, please do not make me.” She ran towards him and threw her arms around his middle. “Please,” she cried, “’tis sorry I am to have shamed you. Please do not make me go!”

  Dak plucked her up from the ground and held her tight. “I was given no choice, ty’ka,” he said hoarsely. “Your uncle thinks it prudent to strike this bargain that our two houses do not come to blows.” He sighed. “The King of Arak feels that you have shamed his son and desires that you be handed over immediately in an effort to save face.”

  “Nay,” Dari whispered against her sire’s neck. Tears tracked down her cheeks. “Nay.”

  “You will be treated with every care,” Dak said gently, trying to rein in his upset and anger on his daughter’s behalf that she might not be frightened for the future. He stroked her back. “I have not a care for the King of Arak, yet ‘tis for a certainty he will take no chances with your welfare.” He went on to explain, “Your betrothed is his only heir. He knows that his future dwells within your womb.”

  Dari couldn’t speak. She was numb—numb with shock and grief.

  “Gio’s training in the warring arts is complete. He will return to Arak to build his own forces. He will care for you well, pani.”

  Dari sobbed in her sire’s arms for long minutes and Dak made no move to stop her. He let her have her cry because for a certainty she deserved it. When at last she raised her head and her glowing blue eyes so much like his own found his, she had but one question. “Will I ever see you and mani again?” she whispered.

  “Aye.” Dak gently nudged her face against his chest again. His jaw clenched. “When Gio permits you to visit us.”

  * * * * *

  “I can’t believe you!”

  Zor grimaced as he ducked to miss yet another flying bottle of vintage matpow. In all of the Yessat years he had spent at her side, Kyra had never been so angered with him.

  “’Twas the honorable decision!” he bellowed, plucking his nee’ka up off of the ground to keep her from hurdling more bottles at him. “Dari committed a wrong, Gio was angered, as the representative of the Arak dynasty his sire demanded they be permitted to save face.” He placed her on the raised bed, then threw his hands into the air. “What was I to do? Had she been any other girl-child but my niece I wouldn’t have hesitated in granting the request!”

  “My own best friend,” Kyra said through narrowed eyes as she shook a finger at him. “Because of you my own best friend will not speak to me!”

  “She will calm down.”

  “Ha!”

  Zor ran a hand through his hair and grunted. “My brother is not speaking to me either, if it makes you feel better to know this.”

  “No!” she wailed. “It doesn’t!”

  “Kyra,” he sighed, “you are giving me the headache for a certainty.”

  “Good!”

  “Kyra,” he growled warningly.

  She took a deep breath. “I don’t know, Zor, maybe you did what is considered the right thing in Trek Mi Q’an.” She shook her head. “But the fact that the warriors of Trek Mi Q’an consider removing a fourteen-year-old child from her home the honorable thing to do—and for doing nothing more than shyly telling a warrior he was handsome no less!—brings home everything that is wrong with this place.” Her nostrils flared. “She is a scared little girl, not a face-saving trophy. You have treated her like a sacrificial lamb and I don’t know that I can ever forgive you for that.”

  “Kyra,” Zor murmured, “please do not say that.”

  She experienced a pang of guilt, since she was able to feel his emotions and knew that he was hurting. But a bigger issue was at stake. A bigger issue than her husband’s feelings, a bigger issue even than Dari being carted off to Arak.

  “Something terrible is going to come of this,” she whispered. “Something that will affect us all.” She stared into space unblinking. “Ari has foretold it.”

  Zor’s entire body stilled. “What has she foretold?” he asked warily.

  Kyra went into his arms willingly, needing his comfort. “She isn’t certain,” she said quietly. “She only knows that a danger to all of us is coming.”

  “Because of the bargain I struck?” he said in a rasp.

  “No.” She hugged him tighter. “But that was the catalyst.”

  Chapter 28

  “I’m so glad she appeared to me while I was dying, so you know she’s still watching out for you.” Marty sighed. “Oh Kil I’m so sorry.”

  She ran her hand over his strong jaw line after he finished telling her about the day he had lost his mother on Tron. She closed her eyes briefly and took a deep breath. “Your courage amazes me. I don’t think I could ever be so strong.”

  Kil looked at her as though she had gone daft. “Surely you jest, Mari. Never have I met a stronger or more resilient humanoid than you.”

  He smiled as he looked at her, never having thought it was possible to be this vastly content. Alone in the apartments he kept at the Palace of the Dunes, the deuce of them in ignorance of the mayhem brewing below stairs, his nee’ka was snuggling against him in his lap whilst she breastfed wee Zy’an.

  Marty grinned. “I must say, Mighty One, that your wench wooing is progressing in leaps and bounds. You’ll have to add an addendum to that handbook of yours. Compliments will get you everywhere, you know.”

  He grunted. “Mayhap I should add a chapter that deals specifically with taming heeka-beasts. ‘Tis a fine art not easily cultivated.”

  She chuckled as she gently lifted Zy’an from her breasts and handed her daughter over to the wench wooer for burping. “I doubt the warriors who read the handbook will head off to Koror on a bride-quest.”

  Kil lifted Zy’an onto his shoulder and gently patted her back. “I would have,” he said softly as his gaze found Marty’s. “I would have faced off every predator on Tryston and beyond to bring you back to me.”

  Her heart melted as it always did when King Grim Gruff said such sweet things to her. Especially since she knew that he meant them. She could feel his hearts beating rapidly, knew that he was wanting to hold her as close as a man could hold a woman because his need to be with her was always so all-consuming.

  “Tell me you love me,” Kil murmured.

  Marty smiled. He needed the love words. She could say them a thousand times a day and he’d still ask her in that arrogant way of his to say them again.

  She stretched up and kissed his lips. “I love you, Kil. I love you with all of my heart.”

  He grinned. “And I love you with all of my two hearts.”

  “Pig,” she teased.

  “Heeka-beast,” he teased back.

  They chuckled as their lips came together in a kiss.

  Epilogue

  Jioti Sector of Planet Tryston

  One week later

  He, a warrior not given to jest, had made sport of Kil for being too much the dunce to recognize his own Sacred Mate upon seeing her.

  A tic began to work in Death’s jaw as he strode from the conveyance launching pad and toward his estate. He was as much the bedamned dunce as was his friend.

  He had figured out that Kari belonged to him whilst attending the Consummation Feast. Try as he might, when the feast had finished he hadn’t been able to summon enough desire to take any of the bound servants back to the vesha hides. There had been but one channel he had desired to sample of, only one woman whose visage had lingered in his mind.

  But she was gone.

  He had instructed Kari to await his return in Crystal City before he had left for the feast. She had not waited. According to her former employer, she had hightailed it out of the sector the moment Death had turned his back. ‘Twas sore apparent that the Galian wench thought to deny him his rights by eluding him.

  Death grunted as he strode into his great hall and summoned himself a goblet of moonshine matpow. Were he not so bedamned angry at her for deliberately disobeying him he
would have laughed. She could run, aye, but she was naught but daft if she truly believed he would not hunt her down. She belonged to him. He could do naught else.

  Seating himself at the raised table, he laid his head back on the breasts of the bound servant massaging his shoulders. There had been a time when she had been his favored. Now he would give her to Gio as a gift.

  Gio. The fully trained High Lord had not been himself since having learned of Princess Dari’s behavior at the trading stalls on Ti Q’won. Truly, Death now wished he had said nothing to him. The young beauty had done naught but shyly flirt, yet Gio had taken the news as though the princess had invited him to sample of her virgin channel.

  Death’s eyes narrowed as he asked himself what he would do if he learned that Kari had so much as flirted with another warrior after fleeing from him. He grunted. He would kill the warrior is what he would do.

  Death sighed. He supposed Gio’s grim mood was understandable after all.

  Picking up his goblet, his thoughts turned to Kari as he sipped from it. He would find her the soonest, he silently vowed, and when he did he would never let her go again. He had come back to Jioti to regroup for a spell, to gather his hunters that they might aid him on his bride-quest.

  He needed Kari’s sweet, luscious channel. He needed her greedy, voracious mouth. And, he admitted with a resolved sigh, he needed her—period.

  He was a fool for having not recognized her in the first, he knew—a fool who would never again rest easy until she was firmly back under his dominion.

  Love of the hearts. When he had been captured all of those years back, he had been told ‘twould never be his. The evil one had made him believe those words, had made him believe he was a dead man walking.

  Death. It had named him Death. And he had offered the evil one no resistance for he had believed it.

  But Kari was his. He knew she was. And that meant that the evil one had lied. Mayhap if it had lied about that, it had lied about other things as well. There was but one way to find out.