“Master!” Ellie chirped, as if excited beyond measure and frightened at the same time. She pressed her fingers through the bars. “Master, it’s me!”
Master? That thing was Ellie’s master? That was what used to grope Ellie in public? That was what used to fondle her? …Ewe!
“My pet!” The reptile actually seemed alarmed. He moved to stand up, but the reptile next to him put a hand on his. He turned to the other one—which seemed to be his wife. “This was my pet that was stolen by the damn Swarii Commander!”
“This pet of yours was the one who the Swarii honored with an innovator’s award. Intelligence says that she’s created something that allows the Swarii to know our plans,” the reptile lady reminded tersely. “If she was ever there because she was stolen, she is surely there of her own free will now.”
Ellie was quick to disagree and to continue to act like she had been kidnapped. “Master—I couldn’t get back to you! I couldn’t find how to get back home! They forced me to work on their machines like I was theirs, and not yours like I truly am!”
Penny had a feeling that the Swarii didn’t lie too often, not even when they were captured, because Penny watched the lizards consider this. “Tell me, Pet… Have you been taken?”
Ellie paused, but then made a show of looking ashamed. “The commander has been using me as a bedmate the last year… They’re able to use us as sex slaves.”
And vise-versa, thought Penny, recalling how often on the ship that Ellie had taken Graham by the hand and pulled him to their bedroom to have her way with him. But she knew what Ellie was doing here.
The lizard sighed and nodded towards one of his guards and said, “Release them.” Without moving his lips… Shal’ta—it was different than the way the Swarii had used it. The Swarii hated to Shal’ta, although they had the ability. Half the time they’d still move their lips and use hand-gestures.
Either way, the top of their cage was soon opened and the scaly creatures reached in and pulled them out of their cage by their underarms like they were puppies picked up from a window display.
Apparently trying to do her best not to get tortured, as soon as Ellie’s feet touched the ground she bee-lined to the lizard, knelt down in front of him and put her arms around his feet. It was one of the most ridiculously submissive things Penny had ever seen done, so she just stood there, watching.
“Pet.” The female Frian was speaking now, and not looking as pleased as her Master—who must have been the Jazeel Penny had heard so much about. “You will tell us why you were awarded. The Swaraan broadcasts were very… shall we say… non-specific?”
“Mistress,” Ellie said, raising her head. “My friend and I invented a very, very popular cooking gadget. Makes very good, yet very unhealthy, food. Hopefully that will clog all their arteries and make them fat.”
“I don’t believe her,” the female snapped. “When she was kidnapped, that’s when things started to turn around for the Swarii. It cannot be coincidence! They’re always one step ahead! You’ve said so yourself.”
“Come here, Pet,” Jazeel said snapping his fingers at Ellie, who got out of her position and brought her face to where his hands were. He put them around her cheeks. “Are you lying to me?”
“Master, I live for you!” Ellie cried desperately.
Jazeel looked at the guards. “See if she is lying. If she is, she shall be punished. My wife does not believe her, and she has never been wrong about such things…” He sighed. “And take the ugly one back with you, too,” he said, pointing at Penny.
Penny made a face. She was the ugly one? Ouch…
She was picked up and carried underarm, which Thorton had done before, but these creatures were eight-feet-tall or taller—even taller than Dr. Fie!— and her feet dangled at least a foot off the ground when held this way. “Ellie!” she cried.
“Shut up!” Ellie snapped back, struggling.
It seemed like ages until they could talk freely again. Not until they had blood drawn and were sitting in chairs where a Frian was putting a device over their temples and faces. “What’s going on? What is this?” Penny asked her.
“Lie detectors, what do you think?” Ellie snapped back.
Penny kept her ‘Oh, Fuck!’ to herself, which was wise. It took a long time for them to ask her any questions. They asked Ellie most of the questions; although she couldn’t see their faces. The devices covered up most of her eyes.
At first, the questions were simple—what was Ellie’s name? How many fingers did she have? But then the questions got tough. “Do you have any loyalty to the Swarii?”, “Did you swear any oaths to the Swarii?”, “Do you get paid by the Swarii forces in any respect?”, “Are you an inventor?”, “Do you invent weapons?”, “Do you invent intelligence-gathering devices?”
Unless Ellie had a trick to get past this test, then the Frians were very unfortunately not stupid because they were asking all of the right questions.
And then they turned to Penny. Did she have any loyalties to the Swarii? Was she used as a bedmate? Was she an inventor? Was she an employee…?
“Sir? You might want to look at these results for the little human.”
Suddenly, they were asking Ellie questions again. “Was the Swarii Commander your only bedmate for the last three months?”
“Yes,” Ellie admitted shortly. Their devices were pulled off soon after. “What gives?” Ellie demanded.
“Is it over?” Penny asked hopefully.
“You’re nearly three months pregnant,” they told Ellie. You could cut the seriousness in the room with a knife.
Ellie’s mouth fell open, and then her eyes dropped to her stomach. “What?” she asked.
Penny didn’t know why, but fear clenched her gut at the announcement. Surely, this couldn’t be good…
The Frian looked at a lower one. “Tell Lord Jazeel. We might have a new species on our hands. The humans and Swarii can cross-breed.”
Ellie and Penny exchanged glances. Like fools, they had thought their new ship modification or the fledge was the most important secret. But now they realized that if Earth could be allied so closely with Swarii… Then their whole planet was in danger.
Chapter Fourteen
“There’s no chance you’d be able to get to them in time, anyway,” the admiralty was trying to tell Graham and Thorton as they sat all the way across the room. The admiralty had treated the disappearance of Ellie Masterson and Penny Hux like a trivial inconvenience. They wouldn’t put any effort into figuring out where they had been to, leaving Graham and Thorton to go through all the ground work. It was a loose-end. Nobody had seen them since they’d left Graham’s hospital room.
Nobody knew where they were at all until Admiral Jack Masterson heard a message on the fledge, where the Frians were discussing a new species of Swarii-crossbreed that they had gotten on a recon mission. That was all they heard, but that had been enough. There simply couldn’t be that many half-breeds that looked like humans.
But now the admiralty obviously didn’t want to arrange a rescue mission to one of the most deadly Frian planets—ironically the very same planet that Graham had met his wife on. “You don’t quite understand,” Graham said, leaning over. “I’m not asking for permission. I’m courteously informing you that we’re going and I’m taking my best men to do it.”
“We’re not going to allow any resources for this mission,” one of them replied after a long moment of looking very annoyed and very shocked. “And you have yet to be cleared by your doctor for duty.”
“I don’t need to be cleared.”
“It will take a week to get to that planet. Captain. They won't be alive that long. You know this. Why risk lives to rescue some corpses?”
Suddenly the door burst open and Jack marched in flanked closely by Michael, Tim and Tom Jonas. “Thanks for informing me that you were having a hearing about my finding, gentlemen. I can’t wait to return such a favor,” he said sardonically with his teeth gritted.
&nb
sp; “This isn’t a hearing. We’re not going to send resources for a rescue mission with no hope to rescue. Corporal Masterson is a loss, Admiral, but you understand that we can’t waste resources—”
“We’re all going on leave,” the admiral informed them. He turned to Graham and Thorton. “Us three.”
“Us six,” Michael grumbled. When the admiral turned, obviously about to protest, Michael said, “Look, we took basic training. We’re not going to let our girls die in the hands of a bunch of lizards. No argument.”
“Absolutely not!” Graham snapped. “You’ll slow us down.”
“We’re going.” Michael turned to the admiralty. “And fuck you guys. If it comes out that any of you’ve been sitting on any intelligence for the last five days, I’m going to make a personal guarantee that I will make the biggest stink that has ever been known! I will shove my boot so far up your asses you’ll taste leather on your deathbed.”
There was a very immediate reaction of fear… From all of the admiralty.
Jack’s jaw ticked. Suddenly, he had a very bad feeling that his underlings were keeping something very important to themselves for a very long time. “Boys? Get the ship ready.”
“What do you think you’re doing, Admiral?” one of the admiralty asked, looking extremely confused. “You can’t just—”
“Yes, I can.”
“But if you go, then you need to get the emperor’s permission! He has to sign off on—” The Admiral turned to leave, flanked now by Graham and Thorton.
“Fuck protocol. The only thing I have to do is breathe and die,” Jack argued as he marched out. “I’m getting my daughter.”
Graham marched behind his father until he caught up. “The emperor’s going to have you shot,” he reminded his father, worried to bring him into this. “You can't do this without his blessing, Dad…” The head admiral had to set an example, he had to separate his personal interests for the interests of the federation… And he just told the federation to go fuck itself, essentially. His future was not looking very prosperous!
“I bet you anything that those bastards knew where she was all along and didn’t tell us. They just wanted her out of their hair now that they have her research,” he gritted in reply.
Thorton swallowed uncomfortably. He wasn’t used to this side of Jack—Jack the rule-breaker. “Graham and I should go alone,” he offered grudgingly.
Jack snorted. “You’re talking like you don’t think they’ll be alive when we get there. What did I tell you about losing faith?”
“Not to,” Thorton recited.
“Good boy. Get your big gun now.”
As soon as Thorton turned the corner, going to do just that, Peyton came to Graham’s side. “I heard Ellie and the redhead are stuck in Jazeel’s palace,” he offered, walking as if strolling calmly. “Now, if I was headed that way, doing an extraction mission or blowing up somethin', I sure would have asked someone that knew that place inside-out to come with me by now… Like someone who used to be Jazeel’s Prime Servant or somethin'…”
Graham smirked. “We just decided to go.”
“You decided to go before you even stepped into the admiralty, don’t give me that! You’ve known since breakfast.” Breakfast was at least two hours ago. The news of Ellie’s whereabouts was probably known throughout the galaxy by now, considering how fast news seemed to travel through the Swarii mothership.
“Beast—this is dangerous. I don’t want you to risk not seeing the birth of your firstborn child.”
“And I’m not going to risk you not seein’ yours! You’re not gonna to survive without me, I tell you what!” Peyton declared, swiping his hand through the air. “Besides, I saw Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum pass by two seconds ago like they were headin’ out somewhere. Now, I saw them in the shooting range, and it’s impressive that a lifetime of shooter-style video games was apparently not as big of a waste of time as I thought it would'a been—but you need someone with a brain that’s fueled by somethin’ other than porn, drugs, and Cheetos.”
Graham rolled his good eye around to Peyton. “Fair enough. What does your wife say about you coming with us?”
“She told me to come back with Ellie or don’t come back at all,” Peyton grinned. “And I wanna come back, Boss. So let’s get this done.”
Jack, who was still leading the way towards the weaponry, grunted with approval. “I tell ya what, Boy… You might only have five fingers, but you make up for it with the size of your nuts.”
Peyton exchanged a look with Graham, who was also surprised by his father’s comment, before saying. “Uh, thank you, Sir. But what matters more at this point are the size of my ass-stompin’ boots.”
* * *
Since Penny had hit Graham and Thorton with her car just after her birthday, she had come across plenty of times where she had found herself very nervous or anxious about what was going to come. That was all taking a backseat right now as she stood in the throne room of Jazeel the reptilian Frian prince, trying to keep from shaking uncontrollably as he stared at her with his narrow, yellow eyes like she was a piece of meat on a platter as she was dangled from the ceiling.
She remembered seeing some movies with BDSM scenes in it, and this seemed very similar. Not so much torture-chamber and more… well… dungeon. It was clear that Jazeel enjoyed watching this; especially as this man—who really acted more like Jazeel’s wife’s puppy dog—began to rip her clothes off. “Why are you doing this?”
“Because, Fireflower,” Jazeel said with disgust in his voice. Thorton used to call her that when he was making love to her; his tone filled with awe and respect. That was because Fireflowers were the Swarii equivalent of roses—beautiful, fragrant, and thorny as all hell. While the petals were soft as silk, the thorns were actually slightly poisonous. Thorton would sheer off the thorns before putting them on her pillow, but supposedly if he hadn’t, the thorns would shoot in a poison that would create an uncomfortable burning sensation. Frians apparently hated them; viewed them as weeds. “I’m tired of lies, and I’m tired of silence. I’ve noticed that when humans are uncomfortable, the truth starts to spill out.”
Well, her boobs were spilling out first. The Human Puppy popped one more button that sprung her boobs free, much to her mortification. Actually, no; she wasn’t mortified. She was horrified. She had no protection and certainly had no trust towards anyone else in the room. She had no idea how much she’d trusted Thorton before this very moment: she had been bare-bottomed over his knee, getting spanked raw, and she still hadn’t been as frightened as she was now. At least she knew, even if she hadn’t thought about it consciously, that Thorton had limits! Thorton would never actually hurt her.
She hadn't seen nor heard that Jazeel had any such limits. There was a whip in the corner, for god sakes—a real one, like the kind pirates used! And she had a horrible feeling that if she didn’t start saying something interesting, it was going to cut into her.
“You haven’t even asked questions yet!” she cried, fearing that Jazeel was dragging this out on purpose. She had remembered Ellie saying that for a Frian, Jazeel was extremely sexual when it came to humans. He was aroused by them, and he had chosen Lady Gahaal as his wife because she shared that ideology as well.
Puppy-Man pinched a nipple between his fingers that, while firm, were unnaturally smooth. He was a captivity-born human, she could tell that by the strange accent he’d use. Still, she wondered if he’d actually worked a day in his life, or if he was just serving as prime because he was Lady Gahaal’s favorite breeding stallion.
Jazeel continued not asking her questions.
“Ellie is just a gadget-maker. I work on programming. It’s no big deal!” Penny squeaked when the Puppy-Man turned and walked to get a nearby crop. Her eyes went as large as saucers.
“What is your relation to each other?” Jazeel asked as she watched Puppy-Man make a few practice swings, creating a ‘swishing’ noise through the air.
“We’re friends!” she
lied.
“That’s not what I heard. I heard that she’s more than a gadget maker. She’s making something that could hurt us.”
“Kitchen gadgetry! It can hurt us all by making us fat, clogging our arteries!” Penny said, but it must have sounded suitably lame, because with a ‘swish-swack’, the crop came into instant contact with… her breast.
She tried to rip her hands out of the cuffs that she was hanging by. The pain was startling enough to make her see white for a second. “I’m not lying!” she lied. “I’m not lying, I’m not! I’m not!” Another ‘swish swack’ rang through the air. “Aack!”
“Who is the father of my pet’s whelp?” Jazeel asked.
Penny was still winded by Ellie being pregnant at all. “I don’t know his name!” More lies. She didn’t know if Jazeel would recognize Graham’s name. She didn’t know if it was a secret. What she did know was that as far as the Swarii federation news network was concerned, Graham was a celebrity. He was a hero. People were curious about him, and his name was mentioned a lot… Nearly as often as his own father’s name was mentioned on the news, and he was one of the most powerful people in the galaxy! “He keeps Ellie locked up like a slave, making kitchen tools, singing like a parakeet with bare feet and…”
“Prime? She needs a few more whacks,” Jazeel said evenly.
“No, no, no!” Whacking suddenly stung her everywhere—her breasts, her nipples, her stomach, and then the prime began to peel off her skirt and leggings. That was an ominous concept! “Oh, please, please! I don’t know anything! I swear I don’t know anything!” she began to pant.
“You know, she has a sweet, youthful look about her, my love,” Gahaal finally murmured as she put her scaly hand on Jazeel’s knee. “She might start to tweet like a bird with a good dose of ginger up her bottom.”
Anything ‘up her bottom’ didn’t sound particularly good. Penny started stuttering nervously. “I… I… I’ll admit everything! When I was two, I broke my cousin’s toy train but I blamed it on my brother! When I was five I pushed Johnny Danvers off his bike and stole it for four days and he was too embarrassed to tell on me! When I was six I shaved the neighbor’s cat! A little later I shaved my brother’s head when he was sleeping and then blamed it on my OTHER brother. And then when I was seven—”
Learning to Blush: Swarii Brides, Book Two Page 27
