by Bethany Aan
“Go,” Hunter growled, nodding to the medics to let her go. “You owe Master Jace your life. Remember that. And remember… one last chance. That is all you get. The next time, there will be no mercy.”
Amy sucked in a sobbing breath and whirled, running into Rian and Lor. She grunted a the impact, staring up at them in horror. Rian’s expression was terrifying. He and his men were waiting for Hunter’s signal. He gave it. Rian nodded once and looked down at Amy.
“And with this incident, Phase Two of your Protocol will begin,” Rian said quietly, almost regretfully. He met Hunter’s eyes.
“Whatever it takes,” Hunter said softly, knowing full well what he was saying. “You will either tame her or break her. At this point, she has no rights under our law and is living on borrowed time. If she cannot be remediated, she will be released from this burden of life and into the next.”
Hunter knew that if Amy was able to strike again, there would be no help for her, no hope for her eventual remediation. He would kill her himself if she tried to harm anyone else. He sighed wearily. He hated this part of his job.
The confrontation over with, Arianna and Bev hugged each other, shaking with anger and tension, then their men took them aside and sat them down, Bev near Rom, who was praising her for her courage, and Ri beside Jace. Hunter knelt in front of her, taking her cold, shaking hands in his own.
“You are a fierce little protector, aren’t you, my little warrior?” he asked gently, offering her a proud smile. “I did not know you had that much rage within that small body of yours, but I feel as though you would have attacked her, if I had not been here, and would have killed her.”
“I feel like I’m going to throw up,” she said starkly. He chuckled, stroking her hair back from her face.
“You did well. And… I love you, too.”
She slowly slid her gaze up to his, thought back on what she’d said to Amy, and then bit her lip shyly as her cheeks heated.
“You do?” she whispered. He nodded, smiling tenderly at her.
“If I had not already, your stalwart defense of Jace and me this day would have cemented my feelings for you. I know now that you would go up against anyone or anything that threatened those you love, and I know from being in your mind when you said those things, that you would not hesitate to do mortal injury if such a thing happened.”
“I would kill or die for you, Hunter,” she admitted. He nodded.
“As you know I would for you,” he whispered, then kissed her heatedly as he swept her against his chest and held her to him.
Holding her close, he took her home and put them both to bed.
“So, little liar,” Rian said, once his team got Amy back to their quarters. “You have chosen to escalate our schedule a bit. Not the usual Protocol, but I am ever adaptable.”
“What does Phase Two mean?” she asked, swallowing, realizing that the men were all arranging themselves around her. There was no means of escape. Rian shook his head at her.
“Remove your clothing,” he ordered softly. Amy’s eyes widened.
“Hell, no,” she snorted. “I’m not having sex with any of you!”
“You will beg for sex with us before Phase Two is over with,” Lor assured her, stepping closer. “Strip, or we will do it for you.”
“You wouldn’t dare,” she breathed, snarling at the men. “I have rights. I can say no.”
“You lost your rights when you attacked your Commander,” Rian reminded her. “I can play back the video of Commander Hunter’s revocation of your rights and his absolution for us to do whatever it takes to turn you into a proper member of our society. You have chosen to find ways to circumvent our previous methods, so we must take further steps.”
He stepped closer to her, reaching up to grip her chin.
“Remove. Your. Clothing.”
“Screw. You.”
“So be it.”
Rian stepped back and his men fell on Amy, holding her gently but firmly, so that she was unhurt as they stripped her bare. When she was panting, naked, they held her arms, faced her toward Rian.
“Now,” he told her, “It begins. I wish this could be more fun, but you are, frankly, too scrawny and child-like for my men to enjoy themselves with you, so this will be a chore for all of us.”
He then went on to explain to her that she would not have clothing until further notice, would not go outside or see anyone other than them, until such time as she could convince them that she could behave herself. The men spent the next few hours educating her, sometimes by gentle force, in the various positions she would learn to assume at their commands, the household chores she would be responsible for… and the consequences if she did not follow orders.
By the time they were done, she was humiliated and even more furious at Arianna. The bitch would die for subjecting Amy to this degradation. That was all there was to it. She would die, if it took Amy a year to figure out a plan.
But she couldn’t do anything from in here. Scowling inwardly, Amy realized that she was going to have to play their game for awhile… fight at first, then capitulate so that they would let her back out into the population. She’d bide her time. There would be another opportunity. A smart woman paid attention and took notes. She’d figure out how to make Ri pay.
And maybe she’d figure out how to have some fun with this whole ‘Protocol’ thing, as well. A small smile touched her lips.
They wanted her naked? They thought to humiliate her? Oh yes… she’d be playing their game… but she’d play it her way.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
The next few weeks were perhaps the best of Arianna’s life. Jace was up and about within two days, and mostly back to his usual self by the end of the third. He was back on duty on the fourth, though no one would have faulted him for taking several more days to recover.
Her men doted on her, waiting on her hand and foot, praising her artistic and culinary endeavors, loving her whenever she allowed it… which was often. But when she was ready to learn something, they took her seriously and let her absorb as much information as she could. They never, through word or deed, implied that she was inferior because she was a woman, not of their species, or anything at all derogatory.
Quite the contrary. Because they were dealing with a new, unknown species, Jace and Hunter were fascinated by the women’s capacity for adaptation, problem-solving, and learning about their new home. With every day that passed, the men fervently hoped that their species’ could, indeed, produce hybrid offspring, because they saw the possibilities that could come of such a union. Procreation would create a new species, but that was fine, as far as the men were concerned. Theirs was a race that was on the verge of extinction due to the Solvari genocide. For all they knew, the Ishira outpost was the last of their kind. If they did not mate and breed now, they might not ever have the chance. And it was far preferable to have their people continue in an altered form, than to die out entirely.
As he’d suggested during their first week on Ishira, Jace held a voluntary testing session for intelligence using the scale from Thorsan, then administered one he found in Ri’s library to measure using the human method. Both tests were very different, but Ri, Bev, Kim, Chelsea, and almost all of the other girls were officially proclaimed ‘genius’ by both Thorsani and human standards. A good portion of the men also tested using the human scale, as they had already been tested using Jace’s method. The intelligence tests seemed to be on about the same level, which reassured Jace for some reason. The men were, to no one’s surprise, also genius level or just under.
While the Commanders and Jace puzzled at the fact that there were a disproportionate number of high IQ women among those abducted, for a solid week the men escorted their women with proud grins on their faces.
Jace and Hunter, and even Trey, Jax, and their teams were patient with her many questions, even when they had to explain the absolute basics of some of it. Like physics. She didn’t think she’d be a physicist anytime soon. There
was far too much complicated math. But both of her men were incredibly smart in the maths and sciences, which only made them more desirable and sexy to her. She’d always had a thing for hunky geeks. If either Hunter or Jace ever wore glasses, she’d be completely lost to her baser impulses.
Hunter caught the thought and made a mental note to wear his glasses soon. When they were alone. He was very interested to know what she considered to be her ‘baser urges’, considering the things they had already done together.
As time went on, the two species learned more about each others’ cultures, shared more of the stories and legends, the history and the ugliness. They learned what was funny in each, and created new tales for their new world. Many evenings were spent in large groups in the great hall, drinking tea or muskywine and trading information, songs, and tales of their worlds.
Several weeks passed this way, with Arianna basking in the glow of falling deeply in love not once, but twice, and at the same time. The men took turns loving her and while they occasionally shared her, more often they each wanted her undivided attention. She was happy to give it. She had never felt as sexy, desired, and genuinely wanted in her entire existence. She even got entirely comfortable being naked in front of both of them at the same time, perfectly at home in the body that they so obviously adored.
The other girls were equally enchanted with their men, and it was quite obvious that most of the women were having no trouble adapting to the Thorsani culture. The respect and freedom that the Thorsani men granted the women was such a refreshing change from the Southern Bible Belt misogynistic culture that the girls were basking in the ability to truly spread their wings and experience life without restrictions or condemnation. Hunter and Ri talked quietly about how wonderfully their people were integrating, how nice it was to see so many people falling in love, truly liking one another, respecting each other’s differences, and wanting to learn more. Ri even settled in to her role as Commander, allowing herself to believe that she held the authority Hunter had given her. He was slowly teaching her all the responsibilities that came with the position, and she was embracing them eagerly. She wanted to help him, wanted them to become a unit that would lead their people into the next generation. His fervent wish to do the same ended up in a night spent slowly enjoying one another, exploring body, heart, and mind, and eventually joining souls as their energies melded, binding them ever more firmly together.
A month went by. The cold snap that had made her shiver not so long ago passed. Late spring was very short but violent, with storms that swept through the land and drove all but the hardiest leaves from their trees. Wind and lightning brought some of those trees down and threatened the young plants in the communal garden. It took the efforts of everyone in the compound to save the small plants, but eventually they managed to get the glass tubes from the girls’ ship over all the little seedlings. Plans were accelerated for building a larger, permanent greenhouse and hydroponics building.
Trey and Ri spent many hours trying different grains as flour and various yeasts that they’d managed to catch as leavening. They got close a few times, but couldn’t seem to find just the right combination of ingredients to create the light, fluffy breads that both species had enjoyed on their home planets. When the combined heat from summer’s wrath and the ovens made it nearly impossible to remain in the kitchen, they decided to abandon the effort. Trey figured that the men had managed without real bread for more than a decade. Another few weeks or months wouldn’t hurt anything.
The mild spring days passed and the full heat of the first days of true summer pressed in on the compound. The humid, heated air was inescapable, and the women had a hard time acclimating to it. They were all from the South, but this heat had even a still, humid North Carolina summer beat. At one point, Arianna was overcome with sudden weakness from dehydration and heat exhaustion. Jace drew a cold bath for her and the men took turns keeping her company and draining the water as it became tepid. She ended up spending several days like that, the only method that seemed to keep her lucid during the worst of the heat.
Hunter and Jace became concerned, not just for her, but for all the women. The cool baths were fine and offered some relief, but the women weren’t able to stay in them all day. When Arianna asked if there wasn’t someplace cooler that they could stay for the summer months, Hunter wasn’t quite able to suppress the image of a beautiful valley with a tall waterfall and small lake. Arianna pounced on the image, demanding to know more about the place.
Hunter revealed the existence of the place, but cautioned that it wasn’t a place they visited often, due to work schedules and duties that had to be performed. But Ri wanted to know why they couldn’t go for a visit, just to see if it helped alleviate the women’s issues at all. Hunter worried about animal attacks, but Ri did a little research and discovered that in all the time the men had been here, there had only been two attacks on the compound, both in the dead of winter when wild creatures were desperate to find food and warmth.
Still, Hunter and Jace hesitated, their reason being that it would take a large group of men to escort the ladies to the falls, and they couldn’t spare that many people with so much to do to prepare for winter.
When the heat became too much for the women, they began getting so cranky that the men found themselves walking on eggshells around them. The only relief the poor Earthlings got was in the deepest hours of the night, when the temperature lowered enough that they could actually sit on their balconies without sweating. It was far from cool, but it was still better than the incredible heat of day.
And the worst part was that the men didn’t seem nearly as affected by it as the women. She had to wonder how hot their home planet had been, that this kind of heat was acceptable to beings with completely furred backs! She discovered, however, that when the wind blew, the men tended to turn sideways, against the breeze, and their fur ruffled up, catching the wind and sending it down to serve as evaporative cooling for them.
Arianna glared at her men the entire day, when she discovered that. The rat bastards had built-in air-conditioning. It simply wasn’t fair! Even more unfair was that the ‘slavers’ had apparently depilated all of the girls’ body hair except in the groin and on their heads. Even the fine downy hairs that everyone had were even finer and softer than Ri could remember. Normally, she would be thrilled to have had that done and not suffer through the process, but at the moment, she wanted every little hair she could grow to catch the breeze for her.
When the women could take the heat no more, there was an emergency meeting among them to figure out how they could alter their living conditions to a tolerable level. Arianna suggested lengths of fabric over the windows and doors, catching the breezes and offering evaporative cooling. That worked fairly well, but it was time-consuming and the fabric dried very quickly in the heat, forcing the girls to wet the lengths down more than once an hour. When Arianna, in a fit of pique, finally divulged the information about the waterfall and pool, the women gathered and had a quick sewing session to fashion impromptu bathing suits.
Once everyone had a suit, they went en masse in their skimpy suits to see Hunter, who was practicing sword-fighting techniques with his men. He nearly cleaved Trey in two when the second lieutenant stopped dead, his eyes locked on something behind Hunter. All the men facing in that direction also stopped, staring. This alarmed their Commander enough to whirl, his sword up and ready to face whatever terrifying threat was approaching.
He nearly took off his beloved’s nose.
Scowling at her for scaring him so badly, he took a few moments to calm himself before yelling at her in front of everyone. Then he noticed what she was wearing and lost all ability to think. She planted her hands on her hips, staring up at him with a militant look on her face. He barely noticed her face, though. His eyes stuck on the wisps of fabric she had fashioned into an outfit. It barely covered her, but what it hid only left him dry-mouthed, and what it exposed made him decide that sword practice could e
nd early and they could get straight to their evening romp.
But that thought got him a mental smack upside the head from his sweet Arianna, making him take notice of her stance, as well as the girls with her.
“What is the problem, little one?” he asked, lowering his sword and trying to Read the situation.
“The problem is,” Ri spat, “We’re hot. I’ve been telling you that this heat is too much for us, that we need help dealing with it. Your insistence that we’ll acclimate is bull crap. If you’re not going to figure out how to build us an air-conditioning system, at least during the heat of the day, we want to go to the waterfall.”
Hunter straightened, his brows knitting. She knew the reason he couldn’t build her an ‘air conditioner’. The cooling systems from the ships had both been catastrophically damaged. All of their coolant had either been lost in space or drained away once they’d landed.
“Why did you tell them about the falls?” he asked, his eyes narrowing on her.
“Because we’re desperate!” she practically shouted. “When I first mentioned going there, you shot it down, saying we’d acclimate. That was weeks ago, it hasn’t happened, and we’ve been enduring it as best we can. But we’re done now. No more. Unless you can give me a very compelling reason that we can’t go, my women are demanding, with my full support, that we be shown the way, and allowed to go there when we need to, to escape this heat. If you don’t want to take us, we’ll just have to wander through the woods until we find it.”
“Arianna,” Hunter said, shaking his head urgently at her threat. “There are dangers. The creatures of the forest-“
“You can send squads with us, or better yet, any man not on duty here can accompany his woman. We can make it a fun outing, if you like. Pack a picnic. Make it a party. I don’t care!”
