by Candace Sams
Charlie jumped when Datron’s bonds actually gave way freeing one arm. Blood flowed heavily from his efforts to break the thick rope.
Goron laughed and pointed at his foe. Then he tucked the stone into his belt. “You thought to threaten my life in front of my men and cause me embarrassment when the girl was first discovered. I almost had you slain Valkyrian, but I am the one in control. Not you!” he growled, while digging his thumb into his own tattooed chest. “Hundreds of the admiral’s crew and staff will be present to watch you beaten then beheaded. But first, I will see horror in your eyes. Your friends will be butchered while you watch.” He moved in on Datron.
“You will also witness every moment of the girl’s eager sexual compliance. There is but one thing more I will do to show you that I am master of this situation.” He balled up one hand into a fist, put it in front of Datron’s face and shook it menacingly. “You and your piddling band of incompetent enforcers could not even hold your freedom when the girl bought it for you with her diversion. She, at least, showed ingenuity and courage while you led your group right into the hands of a traitor.
Datron looked away and Charlie glimpsed what she thought was deep regret and remorse in his expression. She wanted to shout Goron was wrong. That Datron and the Hyperion’s crew had all done their respective jobs, just as they’d been ordered. And no one could do more.
Goron’s words actually made Datron bow his head in shame.
“Keir Trask would never have been so foolish as to trust Radnor Caul. But then, you are not Trask’s equal and never were!”
Charlie wanted to run to Datron and hold him. She heard the rest of his crew trying to deny the statement, but Datron didn’t seem to hear. He eyes contained a glazed, sorrowful expression. But whatever self-pity he may have felt dropped away when Goron struck each of the other enforcers with his balled fist.
Rage returned to Datron’s countenance. It revived in a split second and grew exponentially as the guards began to beat Electra, Gilla, and Clitus to their knees.
He struggled against his restraints causing more blood to flow from his arms, chest, and neck, and anywhere the hard, thick rope touched.
She knew Goron would put the others to death and make Datron watch. And when the crew was aligned next to each other and on their knees as intended, only then did Goron raise his hand for the guards to stop.
But Charlie knew the respite wouldn’t last long. The next time the beating started, her three friends would die, and they’d die horribly.
“Ambassador Caul come forward,” Goron shouted.
“From behind the Ussarians, Radnor Caul strode forth. Once he stood before the enforcers and faced Goron, he took a deep breath and clasped his hands together.
Charlie wanted to spit on Caul. His duplicity caused this. Even the king had believed in this man and he’d betrayed them all.
“Ambassador,” Goron began, “Have you nothing to say to the crew of the Hyperion? It was you who lured them here. It was you who gave away the lives of fifteen Lucent constables, and it was you who offered up two cases of gems that were meticulously hidden and guarded for the last years they were mined. It was your job to see to the stones’ security, as well as having Lucent and Chiron destroyed before moving your colony to a new and better world. You have betrayed them all. What words can you offer these enforcers? What last comfort may you give?” he sarcastically goaded.
Caul lifted his head. “I-I can offer them the comfort of a swift death. The same as you gave the enforcers sent here from Lucent Constabulary. You killed them quickly and painlessly. Your men buried them out in the desert of this moon. Could you not at least afford Captain Mann and his crew the same treatment? If you are as in control as you say, then kill them now and be done with the torture.”
“Very good,” Goron magnanimously replied and briefly tapped the palms of his hands together in a semblance of applause. “Do you think the Valkyrian, his crew and the girl will thank you for your efforts on their behalf? Or will they curse you with their dying breaths?”
“I-I was only doing what I had to,” Caul insisted. “Your people were raiding Lucent. If I’d done nothing, you’d have eventually discovered that more stones were mined and would have come for them. You and your ilk would never believe they’d all been destroyed once Lucent and Chiron exploded. You’d come seeking us out on Dagor Prime System, thinking we still had more of those damnable gems hidden away,” he insisted. “Now that you have two cases of those cursed minerals, you can go away and leave my people in peace!”
Goron turned to Datron. “Tell me, Captain, what should I do with the man who betrayed you and your king? What should I do with a man who let his own constables be slaughtered so that he could live a life of luxury on a new world?” Goron gushingly asked. “His family would have seen him safely home, while your kin and the families of your crew and those constables will forever grieve.”
“I tell you, I did what I had to do!” Caul maintained in a loud voice.
Goron angrily shook his head in denial and pointed at the enforcers. “I can take my revenge against those who killed my brother only because of you. You have betrayed your allies twice. Once when you brought them to this moon, and a second time when you tracked them down in the desert and put them under restraint even as I battled the blaze the girl caused. You were so quick to imprison those who came to your aid. So fast in bringing them right back to me.” He snorted as he looked the ambassador over with disdain. “I have no reason to believe you will ever treat me—a perceived enemy—with any respect. I cannot trust you to keep any of these events or the existence of the Lucent Stones a secret. I can only exploit the stones’ powers if governments and their emissaries do not know they exist, and are not on guard against those who may be under their control.”
“Th-that is not so,” Caul urgently defended as he put his hands out in an appealing gesture.
Goron slowly shook his head in denial. “One day, the truth will be known, and you will say whatever you must to save your skin. You will take no responsibility for your part in this entire plan. You were always a coward, now you are an encumbrance.” He quickly reached out, pulled Caul forward by the front his robes with one hand, and began to choke him with the other.
Charlie turned away and shuddered. She heard Ambassador Caul’s dying, strangled gurgles, and knew when his body hit the dust. But she couldn’t bring herself to watch the murder.
Only when Goron ordered his men to take the man’s body away and bury it with the constables did she turn back and gaze at her friends. Their expressions were inscrutable. If the four Ussarians on Caul’s side ever meant to step up and avenge their castration, they’d had their chance and had obviously thought twice about the matter. She could only trust those who lives were about to be sacrificed, and her own instincts.
Goron finally turned to his men as he pulled the stone from its place beneath his belt. “Gag the prisoners. If one tries to utter a single sound, behead his nearest compatriot. Fear for their friends’ safety will keep them silent. The girl must hear only my voice, none other.”
Charlie tried not to shake when she saw a feral gleam in Goron’s dark eyes. He strode slowly toward her with the stone in his left hand, reaching for his belt buckle with his right.
Stone or not, she was being forced into this.
At that moment, some inner source of power came to her rescue. No soul but Datron Mann had ever touched her. If Goron thought she’d lie down willingly and give her body to a monster, then he’d just made a huge mistake.
Chapter Eighteen
“Remember our bargain,” Goron said, “I will be gentle if you do not resist. To do so is pointless since the stone will render you helpless. Despite what you may know of my race, many of us do not want to fight a woman when we take her. We prefer her willing and placid. The act is so much more enjoyable that way,” he asserted. “Come to me, Ima.”
She almost laughed. The son-of-a-bitch actually thought her name was Ima Bi
tch and what he planned to do wasn’t rape.
With his belt now loosened, his pants around his hips, and his undergarment-covered male-part engorged ready for the act, she backed away while shaking her head.
He reached for her and turned her around until her back rested against his chest. Then he brought his right palm up over her throat, closing his grip around it slightly so she would eventually be forced to breathe much deeper.
At the same time, he crushed the blue-green stone in his left hand then held the gritty powder against her face, covering her mouth and nostrils.
“Sooner or later you will gasp deeply for air, little pretty.”
Somewhere in her mind, Charlie actually saw Datron pulling against his ropes until sinew and muscle almost gave way. She sensed his three bound comrades did the same but she heard nothing except Goron’s whispered instructions.
Finally, when she felt as if she might go unconscious in the thin air, she took a shuddering, massive breath, and her immediate response was to listen to him, to stop struggling against a man five times her size.
Goron spoke his controlling words. “You want me more than you have ever wanted any man in your entire life. You will live to breathe, eat, and sleep at my discretion. You will crave my body in any way and will do all I bid,” he finished.
Then he let her go and turned her around to face him. He stepped away, smiling.
She gazed up at him.
“Ahhhh…the look of lust in her gaze is worth everything I’ve endured at your hands, Valkyrian,” Goron cried out. “She sees me as if the entire universe exists in my presence.”
“I want you,” Charlie whispered.
Goron briefly turned to his men. “Un-gag the prisoners now. Then stand behind them so they can get a very good look. Nothing they can say will make any difference. I will take the girl now.”
****
The moment he could utter a sound, Datron cried out his promise.
“Before the corridors of Valhalla, before all that’s sacred and right in this universe, your life is forfeit!” he loudly swore.
The Ussarian leader snorted and hitched up his britches just enough to approach Datron. Tied as he was, there was nothing in his life he’d ever desired more than killing the brute that’d put his hands on a woman who couldn’t fight back.
When Goron was close enough, the bastard raised his right hand and hit Datron. For one more time than he cared to count, Datron felt blood fill his mouth. But just like all the other times, he spit it out, ignored the pain, and strained forward as much as he could.
He glared at the Ussarian leader if for no other reason than to let the man know one soul would seek him out, for Charlie’s sake. He’d even rise from the dead to do it.
“You forget yourself, Captain Mann. There is nothing you can do. Resign yourself to defeat. You will be dead soon,” Goron returned in a low, angry tone. “As promised, I will have the girl now and she will come to me quite willingly. You will watch your friends die slowly before blessed death finally takes you. Fight what enemies you will in the afterlife but trouble me and bring grief to my family no more. On my brother Burl’s honor, I dedicate this victory. I take what I now know is something you cherish. Something that means more to you than any threat I could make to your life.”
With those words spoken, Goron stalked toward Charlie again and once more lowered his pants. She stood there, staring at the ground. There was a blank expression on her face.
Goron pulled her toward his body, and Datron felt actual muscle tear as he tried to free himself of his restraints.
“Charlie, look at me!” Datron shouted. “Fight it, baby, fight! You’re strong. I know you are.”
“Shut him up!” Goron ordered.
A split second later, Datron felt a crashing blow land against the left side of his head, but he fought the ensuing darkness to keep his eyes on Charlie and nothing else.
He should have known she’d try something like stow away on the Hyperion. He should have had her escorted off the airbase. He should have landed elsewhere.
On and on the silent self-recriminations raged. Too late, he could do nothing to change one single thing.
As if in slow motion he watched Goron take Charlie in his thick arms. The bastard’s stinking lips were only a whisper away from hers.
Then Goron swung his hips forward in a vulgar display of arousal, even as he tried to remove Charlie’s jumpsuit.
A thousand sparks went off behind Datron’s eyes. It was as if his mind was leaving and he could do nothing to stop it. Even his raging cries were completely silenced as one of the guards tightened a rope around his neck and closed off his air. But he threw his head backward, knocking his captor off balance and to the ground.
****
Charlie blinked several times. She opened her eyes wider and shook off the dizziness threatening to overwhelm her.
The sickeningly sweet smell of the dust lingered in her nostrils. With his hand closed on her face, Goron obviously hadn’t breathed anything in. But she’d most certainly absorbed what looked like three grams of crushed powder into her nasal passages.
Oddly, her short bout of dizziness was where the mind-control properties seemed to stop. She felt a little nauseous, but then Goron’s stench would make St. Leonard gag. Gratefully, even that was disappearing fast.
Had someone given Goron a spoiled stone? Maybe it wasn’t as powerful as it should have been or maybe she hadn’t breathed in enough of the powder.
For whatever reason, she was still Charlotte Grayson. She didn’t want to be under anyone’s control, nor did she care for the brute that had his hands all over her. She had no intention of playing mattress monkey with a nasty Ussarian leader or any of his minions.
“Lay on the crate behind you, little sweet. I will take you here and now so the Valkyrian can see and hear your cries of ecstasy.”
She pretended to be absorbed in every word he uttered. It was hard to do while thinking of just how many ways she could take his nuts off and hang them on the rearview mirror of her small cargo shuttle back home.
Anger, fiercer than anything she’d ever felt in her life welled forth. But she forced herself to show nothing but compliance.
She acted as though she couldn’t get on the crate. He grunted and smiled down at her.
“Here, let me help you,” Goron put his hands on her waist, lifted her to a seated position on the crate, and then spread her legs. Releasing his belt fully, he reached into his pants, and brought forth his manhood from its leather thong.
She gazed into his eyes and refused to look down. If her response sounded wooden, let him think it was because she was under the influence of that damned powder.
“I’m yours, Goron. Take me, my warrior. But first…come and eat at the Y,” she mechanically begged as she unzipped the top portion of her coveralls, revealing a lacey red push-up bra. Then, she spread her legs even wider.
He gasped as he gazed up and down her body. “I grow enormous for you,” he whispered. You will be my primary consort. I will put you ahead of all others I may take to my bed. As you wish, I will be most delighted to engage in oral pleasuring. The Valkyrian will go mad with rage. And perhaps you will even conceive a son for me this very night.”
Charlie took in the scene and quickly plotted with the help of an inner, courageous voice.
Goron’s belt, including his cellular disruptor pistol, now rested on the ground just behind the man. She waited, keeping absolutely still and gauging just how every move would work.
Goron ran one palm down the center of her chest and began to slowly unzip her coveralls further.
Somewhere in the distance now, she heard Datron’s feral cry of helpless outrage. It almost broke her hard-won control but she blocked it out. She had to get Goron off balance.
She waited until Goron started to pull her panties down.
With speed born of fear, Charlie clamped her thighs around his neck. Then she reproduced a self-defense move Sister Celestin
e had taught her years ago, when teenaged boys kept following everywhere she went.
She leaned back on the crate, gritted her teeth and used the surface of the large metal container for balance. She gripped the other side of the crate with all her might. Years of using her hands and arms, turning and tightening massive motor screws with heavy tekion wrenches, made all the difference.
When her tormentor’s struggles would have pulled her off the crate, she just clamped down harder and hung on.
Goron’s men were standing a few meters away. But she quickly noted their vision was somewhat obscured since they stood behind their captives. Datron’s unbroken wing was outstretched and fluffed in absolute fury which further blocked her actions from view.
It’d only take a couple of seconds for them to figure out their grunting leader wasn’t having sex. So she concentrated on keeping her grip as she cried out in rage.
She withstood Goron’s flailing arms and pounding fists, taking strike after strike to her thighs, lower legs, and upper body. If one pressed in on an attacker’s carotid artery just below the ears—and on each side of the neck—the blood would shut off from the brain.
Goron had to pass out. But that depended on if she could keep her thighs around his neck and hang onto the crate edge just a few more seconds.
A moment later, Goron slumped onto her.
Because he’d been leaning over, between her thighs, he hadn’t been able to back out of her hold. Motivation lent strength and purpose the brute couldn’t have possibly understood. But that notwithstanding, he’d come back to consciousness in about ten to twenty seconds, perhaps only a little longer if she was lucky.
Thanking God and Sister Celestine for this chance, she wasn’t about to be victimized again. Goron made the same mistake most men did. He’d believed her incapable of such a move; assuming that her mind wasn’t hers.
She swung one leg over Goron’s head while simultaneously re-zipping her coveralls. Then she put her booted feet against her captor’s shoulders and pushed him away with all her might. Goron fell backward and a cloud of red dust went up as his back slammed into the moon’s surface.
