by Nina Croft
He shuffled closer, one long green tentacle stretching out toward me. In a moment of clarity, I saw it was covered in tiny little suckers. The tip trailed over my left breast, and I batted it away with my hand.
“Keep your fucking appendages to yourself,” I snarled and got a slap across the face with the end of the tentacle.
Ugh.
He chuckled. The sound made my stomach churn—these guys had really warped senses of humor.
As he leaned closer, a voice sounded from beyond the corridor. “We’re ready to go here. Hurry the fuck up.”
He backed off. “Later,” he murmured.
I pretended not to understand. Instead I marched to the shower. It took me a minute to work out how to turn on the water, with Mr. Grumpy Alien huffing in the background, but finally I got it running, and I stood under the lukewarm spray.
Heaven.
I was aware I had limited time. What I guessed was a soap dispenser stuck out from the wall, and I put some in my palm and washed myself, unable to hold back my groans of pleasure. I lathered my hair then just let the water flow over me, rinsing away the weeks of dirt and grime.
A hand grabbed me out of the water and shoved a towel at me. I dried off quickly, rubbing my scalp, trying not to think of what would come next.
Hopefully, Rekowski would be right behind me ready to rescue my ass before anything too unpleasant happened.
If he wasn’t, then…
I had no clue. Clearly this was outside the scope of my experience.
As the guard hustled me out the room, I tried to pick up my T-shirt, but it was kicked out of my reach. I wanted to say it had sentimental value but had a strange idea that wouldn’t mean anything to these guys.
We were walking—or rather he was walking, I was being dragged—down a long corridor, the same one I’d travelled with Killian all those days ago. So I was unsurprised when the corridor widened into a large open area with a number of smaller ships parked up and a huddle of women in the far corner. I recognized them—I’d shared a cell with them since I’d been abducted from Earth. Right until Killian had bought me. They were all there except Maria, who Killian had rescued at the same time as me—an act of mercy, since she’d been almost raped to death by the nasty tentacle people, and another girl—I think her name was Jayne. She must have been given to Killian in exchange for me when he’d returned me with my rash.
I recognized Sarah who I’d become quite good friends with. A redhead with an attitude to match. I liked her a lot, and a grin tugged at my lips.
An answering smile flashed across her face. She looked thin as well, but better than me. Obviously, no one had forgotten to feed the main group. No, it had just been little old me in my solitary confinement who’d starved.
They were tied together with collars around their necks and links of chain between them. My guard halted beside Sarah at the end of the line. She held a spare collar in her hand, attached to hers by a chain. He took it from her and clicked it shut around my throat.
Then he pulled a bar out of his pocket and handed it to me, patting me on the shoulder. I think he believed we had a connection.
“Later,” he said.
How about never?
But I took a bite of the bar and chewed. The food they usually gave us tasted totally disgusting. These were obviously the guards’ rations. Sweet and chewy, I closed my eyes for a second to savor the flavor. When I opened them, the guard was gone and Sarah stared at me, one eyebrow raised. “Have you been fraternizing with the guards?”
I grinned. “Oh yeah, I’ll do anything for a candy bar.” I held the bar out and she took a small bite.
“Oh my God, that is so good.”
“Worth getting up close and personal with a tentacle?”
She swallowed and looked thoughtful for a second. “There are worse things.”
And maybe there was. I took another bite and handed the rest to her.
“What happened to you?” she asked. “What went wrong with Mr. Super Hottie? Why did he bring you back?”
I glanced around. The guards were loitering not far away, and I knew they could understand us. I leaned in closer. “I’ll tell you later.”
She followed my look and nodded. “Okay. But I want to hear everything.”
“I don’t think everything is suitable for your tender, young ears.”
“Then I definitely want to hear it.”
Chapter Three
Ruby
“Fucking ouch.” I batted the woman’s hands away. “You know, unless aliens are into baldness, you are in danger of seriously reducing my value.” I held out my hand for the brush and raised a brow.
We were in some sort of holding cell awaiting our turn on the block and being prettied up…or rather, having our hair torn out at the roots. Without at least three lots of conditioner, my hair had a tendency to turn into an uncontrollable monster. Alien soap clearly did not cut it.
“Here.” She slapped the brush into my hand. “You’ll feel the sting of the lash before too long with that attitude.”
I scowled, but at the same time, I knew she was right. I needed to channel my submissive side. But I was coming to think perhaps I didn’t have one. I’d always thought myself a quiet little thing, staying out of trouble, trying to be invisible. But a huge part of that was a matter of nurture rather than my fundamental nature. After my mom died when I was six, I’d been brought up in the foster system, where I’d learned being invisible was good. I used to think of myself as a John Conner type (another of my mother’s favorites), staying out of trouble so I could survive and one day save the world.
This time away seemed to have awoken the latent me.
But really, now was not the time to give my ballsy side free rein.
All I had to do was behave myself until I was rescued, and then I could bask in the glory and…
Something sharp jabbed me in the nipple and I jumped. “What the fuck!” I jerked back and glared at the woman.
“Nipple rings.” She gave me a nasty smile. “If they like them, you’ll be pierced.”
Oh, hell no.
“Hey, what made you so bitter and twisted?” I asked.
“I’ve been here a while. Wait until you have, Little Miss Sunshine. And we’ll see if you’re still smiling.”
She probably had a point. Presumably, she was owned by the slavers—enough to make anyone miserable, but there was no need to take it out on me. She’d been quite sweet with Sarah, who was sitting beside us, looking all nicely groomed, wearing a white see-through shift.
“Why do I have to have the nipple rings and she doesn’t?”
“Orders—you’re going out there naked.”
Ugh.
“Why?” I hated the whine in my voice, but really, was that in any way fair?
“Orders,” she said again. “So suck it up.” She dangled what I deduced were the nipple rings in front of my face, and I bit back a snarl. Sarah giggled—it was nice to hear her laugh, even if it was at my expense. But we were clean, fed, watered. Things had been worse.
And at least, if I was going to be naked, I didn’t have to worry about looking fat anymore. What was that about silver linings? I huffed out a breath, gritted my teeth, and nodded.
“Yikes.”
It hurt.
“They look pretty,” Sarah said and I could hear the amusement in her voice.
My eyes were watering. I blinked and peered down at the sparkly, dangly loops hanging from my nipples. I shrugged my shoulders and they bounced, uncomfortable but not painful. I could cope.
Next my tormentor held up a razor. Not a nice safety razor, but one of those open blades. Cutthroat.
“Er…what are you doing with that?”
She actually rolled her eyes at me, like I was dumb or something. “What do you think?”
I glanced at Sarah—nobody had attacked her with a cutthroat razor. “Again. Why me?”
“Well, they seem to think you’re something special. That means you
get special treatment.” She curled her upper lip. “I don’t see it myself.”
Actually, I didn’t either. I’d never thought of myself as anything special. Cute more than beautiful. But that explained why the woman was being such a bitch.
“And we have limited time. You were delayed. The market opens any moment. So raise your arms and hold still.”
She was good, I’d give her that. Five minutes later, I was mainly hair free and not a single drop of blood had been spilled. Underarms, legs, bikini area. Luckily, she hadn’t tried to get rid of all my pubic hair—I was attached to it—but left a strip down the middle.
Surely that was enough. But no. She delved into a bowl of sparkly stuff and pulled out a delicate chain, fastened it around my waist so it hung on my hips. Then she bundled my hair on top of my head and clipped it up there, tugging down a few loose bits. She stood back and gave a nod.
I’d been doing my best not to think about what was going to happen. Outside, I could hear the roar of what sounded like a huge crowd, and any moment now, I was going to be dragged out there, worse than naked.
A flush heated my skin, and I bit my lip, closed my eyes.
You can do this.
Arms went around me. Sarah. She hugged me tight. “We’ll be all right. I know we will.” I hugged her back because she was trying to comfort me, and she was only eighteen and had had a shit life so far. I hadn’t had a chance to talk to her alone, to tell her everything that had happened, since we’d been brought straight here. And probably, now I never would. But I wished I could tell her that everything would be all right. And soon. Because once Rekowski arrived, no way were we leaving the other girls here. There was no point in saving mankind if you abandoned the people you cared about. If he thought we were only grabbing his fiancée and making a run for it, he would soon learn different. Though it did occur to me I had no way to force him to do anything. I would just have to rely on my persuasive skills.
I took a deep breath and stepped back, then patted Sarah on the shoulder. “I bet you’re going to be bought by a stunningly gorgeous alien, who will fall in love with you at first sight, and you’ll live happily ever after.”
“Humph.” That came from the woman beside me. I shot her a deadly glare—no way was she spoiling this fairy tale. I was sure it would manage to spoil all on its own, given time.
A bell rang, and outside the crowd fell silent.
“Time to go, my pretties,” the woman said.
As I shuffled past her, she leaned in close. “Hope you like pussy. I heard Princess Zurian is buying today, and she always buys the best.”
Alien pussy? I’d once shared a lesbian kiss when I was twelve and decided it was not an experience I wanted to repeat. I hadn’t even contemplated that option, and this was no time to start now. Otherwise, I was likely to plonk myself on the ground and bawl my eyes out. And that was so not behavior suitable of a savior of the universe.
…
Killian
A tic jumped in my cheek.
I hadn’t been back to Groth since I was eighteen when I’d killed a guard—slit his sadistic throat with a very blunt homemade knife—and made a run for it. I’d have died then, since there was no way off the asteroid. Hell, I’d been ready to die, but instead, by a strange twist of fate, I’d run into Zak. Literally. He’d been about to be tossed into the mines by his uncle as part of a royal coup to put his sister, Princess Zurian, on the throne. Luckily, his uncle hadn’t wanted any witnesses to his act, so he’d been alone, and I’d overpowered him and freed Zak. Then between us, we’d managed to kill, maim, or elude just about everyone we encountered, eventually stealing a ship and escaping the asteroid. I’d renamed the ship the Helldiver, and the rest was history.
Now I felt like I was the center of attention, as if everyone was staring at me and I had a giant sign saying RUNAWAY SLAVE emblazoned across my back.
And it was taking too long. The auction should have started by now. What the hell had gone wrong?
Christ, what if she hadn’t survived? Zak assured me that the tracking device was somewhere close. If she’d died, I was pretty sure they would have just dumped the body out the airlock and into space.
But what if she was injured or sick or—
“For fuck’s sake, boss, calm the fuck down,” Creb muttered from beside me. “You’re giving out vibes and drawing attention to us.”
I gave her a quick sideways glance. Creb was the third member of our small crew. Me and Zak had pulled her out of a brothel fight a few years ago after she’d strangled a customer. That was after slicing his dick off with his own knife. She was dressed in men’s pants and a shapeless coat, her red hair pulled back in a ponytail, and she’d made no effort to hide the scars that zig-zagged across her face. She’d put those scars there herself to dissuade any future men from considering her as a potential partner. Hell, she didn’t need the scars; she had enough attitude to frighten the toughest man away. She terrified the life out of me, but we got along okay as long as we respected each other’s boundaries. Well, as long as I respected hers. I didn’t really have any myself. I’m an easygoing sort of guy. She’d come with me to the auction as we’d decided that it was too dangerous for Zak to show his face. He was far too well known on Groth.
“I hate this fucking place,” I said.
“You were a slave here?”
“Yeah.” We never talked about personal stuff so this was a first. “In the asteroid mines.”
“A helldiver?”
“From when I was fourteen.”
“I heard about them. You were crazy guys.”
“We didn’t actually have a lot of choice.”
“I heard they only took volunteers.”
I shrugged. “Maybe I was bored.”
She quirked a brow. “Or maybe you were crazy.”
A bit of both probably. I’d had a choice—a short lifetime mining, exhausted every day, never seeing the light, always hungry. Or an even shorter life, diving headfirst into hell, searching for the natural ore seams, hoping you could catch the edge and save yourself before you crashed and burned. I’d been given a cybernetic arm to help with that, and a cybernetic eye to make me more efficient.
What had sold me was the fact that the helldivers actually got to the surface occasionally, and just maybe that would be my one chance of escape. It was worth an arm and an eye. And actually, the cybernetics came in handy, though they were covered now, with gloves and an eye patch, as part of my disguise.
“Hey,” Creb said. “Something’s happening.”
Indeed it was, and my heart thumped as a grill on the opposite side of the square slowly rose.
We were in a large courtyard area. I’d never been here before, but Zak had said it was where the slave auctions were always held. He’d described it perfectly, including where we could stand so we could see everything but not be too prominent. Opposite us was the entrance to the holding cells and to the left was the display area where the slaves could be seen and examined before they went to the block. The block itself was a big cube of black rock in the center.
We were at the back of the crowd and planned to stay there. Once Ruby was purchased, we’d follow her and her new owner back to wherever they came from and then work out a plan to extract her from there.
The first of the girls were appearing in the entrance now. I searched their faces for Ruby, but they were all strangers. Though they were dressed in see-through shift dresses, I was too wound up to even appreciate them.
Where the hell was she?
They lined up, blinking at the light, hunched over, some shaking.
I hate goddamn slavers.
Then everything stopped, because there she was. Right at the end. Unlike the other girls, she was naked. My first thought was—she’d lost weight. Had the bastards not been feeding her for the last two weeks? My second thought—well, actually it wasn’t a thought, more of a reaction—my dick twitched, then stiffened.
“Close your mouth, boss,
you’re drooling.”
“Of course I’m not drooling.” I sniffed. “This whole thing totally disgusts me.”
She patted my arm. “Of course it does, but you might want to fasten your coat.” She nodded down and I followed the look to where a truly impressive erection was straining to escape from my pants. I fastened my coat and turned my attention back to Ruby.
Her hair was bundled up on her head, revealing her slender throat encircled by a narrow silver collar. My gaze dropped, then fixed in place. Jewels dangled from her nipples, jiggling as she walked. And a silver chain hung from her hips. Her pubic hair was almost gone, only a narrow line of blond curls remained. I’d liked her pubic hair, but it would no doubt grow again once I got her out of here. There, see, a positive attitude. I would get her out of here.
Finally, I forced my attention upward to her face. I’d been avoiding that because I didn’t want to see her hurt or scared. But instead, her expression was…pissed off?
I seriously hoped that would change.
She was in no position to be pissed off.
She had to be meek and submissive and do what she was goddamn told.
That way she might keep out of trouble long enough for me to rescue her. Again.
And this time, she was coming whether she liked it or not.
Non-negotiable.
I willed her to look in my direction. Maybe if she knew help was at hand she would behave differently, be more sensible. Though good sense hadn’t seemed one of Ruby’s strong points. Unfortunately, I’d hidden myself in the crowd too well.
But maybe she picked up on something because her expression smoothed out, and she leaned across and spoke to the redhead beside her. The girl nodded and then a lash streaked between the two of them and broke them apart.
Ruby stepped back, opened her mouth…
Don’t say anything…
And shut it again. Thank God.
I exhaled and scrubbed a hand through my hair.
One of the Bhaxian guards shuffled over—God they were ugly bastards—and touched her arm. She turned his way, smiling as he handed her something. Food? The creep. She broke the bar in two and tossed half to the redhead and then stood nibbling it, looking around her, seeming oblivious to the continuous stream of people who passed, eyeing her up. One spoke to the guard and he was allowed past.
