by Sue Lyndon
Now it’s my home for good, whether I like it or not.
“Goodbye, Mom. Goodbye, Dad,” I whisper to the stars. “Goodbye, Aunt Mabel.” Every time I remember I’ll never see my family and friends again, it’s a punch to the stomach. “Goodbye, Sheila.”
My best friend, Sheila, is three months pregnant right now. I was supposed to be Aunt Laylah to her little girl, or boy. I was supposed to be there for her as she embarked upon motherhood at a young age, mere months after graduating high school. Yes, I was going away to college soon, but I would have been a phone call away and also visited her as much as possible.
Only a handful of people know she’s expecting. What will she do without me?
I struggle to breathe and hunch over, wrapping my arms around myself.
What will I do without Sheila? Or Aunt Mabel?
My throat burns. Or my parents?
Sure, part of me resents my parents for strongly discouraging my interest in art, but I still love them and think they did the best job possible raising me under the circumstances, particularly after the tragic loss of my brother at such a young age.
I sigh and gaze longingly at the sky once more, wishing I could blink and my home planet’s moon would appear above me. Will Earth officials learn what happened to the passengers on the Stargazer and the humans on Tallia? Or will they simply discover the wormhole has closed and call it an unfortunate accident? Will they eventually realize the Kleaxians intentionally closed it?
The answers to these questions and so many more will forever remain a mystery. The not knowing part kills me. I long to see my parents once more to tell them how much I love them and promise I’ll be all right on Tallia, even if that last part is probably a lie.
It’s a cruel twist of fate that, a decade after losing my brother, they have lost me as well, especially after the lengths they went to ensure I never followed in his footsteps.
“Time for bed, Laylah.” Kenan’s deep voice pulls me from my miserable trance.
My spirits darken further. I don’t want to sleep in a cage. I don’t want to talk to him, either.
I rise, keeping my arms crossed, and stare at the ground as I move to walk past him. I can’t look at him. Not now. Not when I’m so vulnerable and lost.
But when he grabs my arm and tips my chin up, forcing my eyes to his, I’m powerless to stop him. I gulp, fearing he knows about my illicit talk with Heggal, but his next words abate this particular worry.
“I wouldn’t really have snapped your neck, Laylah.” His voice is gentle and his eyes gleam dark in the moonlight. “I wouldn’t have left you to die, either.”
My heart lurches. It’s the closest to an apology I can hope for. We both know it. I nod to acknowledge his little confession, not necessarily to accept it, and then he escorts me to the large master bedroom.
The door slides shut behind us and I tremble at being alone with him again, in the very room where not so long ago, he whipped and ravished me. A glance at the bed shows it’s been remade with clean covers. There’s no trace of blood anywhere. I wonder what the servants think of their master.
He pushes me toward the bathroom, and I venture inside and start preparing for bed. I wash my face first, and after I pat it dry I take comfort in the fact I don’t look as hellish as earlier. My eyes aren’t as red, and the pink mark from the slap has completely faded. In retrospect, he didn’t hit me hard enough to inflict any real damage. Not that it makes it okay.
I open drawers until I find a package containing what resembles a toothbrush. It’s larger than any toothbrush I’ve ever seen, but I use it anyway, along with a tube of something that smells minty. After cleaning up the sink area out of habit, I use the toilet, thankful he allowed the door to close behind me.
Pausing in the center of the bathroom, I stare at the door. I’m finished with my ablutions, but I’m not ready to face Kenan. Will he fuck me again? He’d also mentioned hurting me, not as punishment, but because he wants to hurt me, and that scares me even more than possibly having to spread my legs for him again.
It’s so fucked up. This whole day.
I should be enjoying a relaxing bath in my suite at the Tallia Grand in Capital Acres, the most popular tourist destination on the most southern continent, my virginity still intact. I should be planning which excursions into the wilds of Tallia I’m going to join during the next three months, pouring over brochures and booking the most exciting adventures.
But Capital Acres is gone, and I’m the prisoner of an alien who harbors an intense dislike for humans, despite being half-human himself. I have no idea on which continent I’m currently residing, and tonight I will have to sleep in a cage.
The door slides open when I finally work up the courage to return to the bedroom. Kenan is dressed in nothing but a pair of tight black underwear that clings to him like a second skin. This surprises me. Somehow, I’d expected him to go shamelessly commando.
The soft glow of the sconces lining the walls accentuates his spectacular physique. He probably doesn’t have an ounce of fat anywhere on his huge, muscular form. He looks like a dark-haired, reddish Viking warrior, with his immense build and the savage force emanating from him.
He disappears into the bathroom for several minutes, and I stand in the center of the room, reluctant to enter the cage and not daring to crawl into the bed.
When Kenan returns, he closes the space between us, and I shiver as he reaches for the tie holding my robe together. He yanks it loose and pushes the garment off my shoulders, leaving me completely bare to his carnal gaze.
Unable to hold his stare, I drop my eyes to his red, chiseled chest and stand absolutely still, waiting for whatever’s to come with a cold sense of dread. Exhaustion weighs me down and I suddenly long to curl up on the mattress in my cage.
In sleep, he can’t hurt me.
I hope he’s quick this time.
His hands travel down from my shoulders to cup my breasts. A hiss escapes me; I’m still terribly sore from his belt. His touch is gentle, though, to my relief, as he inspects each fading welt, even lifting my breasts to examine the damage done to the soft undersides.
I quiver and once again berate myself for the heat gathering in my loins. It’s difficult to remain indifferent when the warmth radiating from his body and his woodsy masculine scent entice me to lean into him.
Deep breaths. I concentrate on inhaling and exhaling, long and slow, to keep myself from surrendering to his careful touch.
Holding my right breast in one hand, he steps closer and wraps his free arm around me, giving my bottom a squeeze. I gasp as his hardness presses against my stomach.
“I know these hurt.” He gives my bosom a delicate caress, running his fingers along the most painful welt. “However, I’m not going to apply the healing salve to them as I did to your pussy. You’ll wear the marks from this punishment until they fade on their own, to remind you I expect your complete obedience. And to remind you to whom you belong.”
I stiffen and try to step back, but he strengthens his hold on me. “I’m very tired. Please, Kenan.”
He rearranges me in his arms and yanks on my hair, but not as hard as earlier. It’s a gentle yank that feels oddly intimate. He simply wants me to look at him.
My eyes collide with his stern gaze and a shiver ripples down my spine to clash with the ever-present aching in my core. The ache prevails and steals the momentum of that shiver to pulse faster and hotter.
I’m powerless to stop the spell he’s cast on me, a dark spell that makes me crave the very things I fear most—loss of control, loss of freedom, and pain followed by his gentle caresses. The comfort he gave me after whipping my breasts, and again after fucking me, is the only drug that’ll ease my trembling and calm the throbbing between my thighs.
“You’re lucky I was so lenient with you.”
“Lenient?” I can’t keep the note of disbelief from my tone, and I try to break the spell brought on by his nearness. He’s manhandled me, slapped me, wh
ipped me and more, and he thinks he was lenient. I shouldn’t be surprised by his declaration, but I am.
“Yes, lenient. I could have made you bleed, little human.” His gaze darkens and the fist in my hair tightens. “Perhaps I should have. You don’t seem very appreciative.”
You did make me bleed. When you stole my innocence.
An exacerbated snort breaks from me before I can stop it. “If you’re waiting for me to thank you for not whipping me until I bled, you’ll be waiting a long time. Where I come from, it’s considered wrong for a man to treat a woman with such brutal disregard and violence.”
In the back of my mind, a little voice pleads for me to shut the fuck up. But I don’t listen, and I press on even as anger flares hotter and darker in his purple eyes.
“On my world, men like you are locked up. You’re the one who belongs in the cage, Kenan. Not me.”
I expect him to hit me, or pull my hair harder, or angrily toss me into the cage. But he releases me entirely and moves to turn down the bedcovers. “Get in, Laylah.” When I hesitate, he adds, “I’m not going to hurt you or fuck you again tonight. I give you my word.”
“Bu-but I-I thought the cage w-was…” In my nervousness, my shaky voice trails off before I can say my bed.
“Most Kleaxian females sleep in a cage at the end of their mate’s bed, but now that I have you as my mate, Laylah, I think I prefer you to share my bed.” He pauses and levels a serious look on me. “You have much to learn about Kleaxian ways. Our females are expected to be obedient and sweet at all times, and the slightest offenses are punished severely. Had another Kleaxian male taken you from the Stargazer, you’d probably have been beaten bloody by now, Laylah.” There’s truth in his dark eyes. “The rest of the human females captured are likely not faring as well as you.”
A shudder courses through me, and I wrap my arms around my center, not to hide my nakedness, but because I’m falling apart. In the weeklong trip from Earth to the wormhole, I hadn’t really gotten the chance to know anyone aboard the ship. It was so crowded that every time I left my quarters I found myself awash in a sea of strangers, most of whom were wealthy tourists.
Over six hundred souls had been aboard the Stargazer, about half of them women. Though I hadn’t gotten to know any of them well, my heart aches for the horrible fate that has befallen them. I stare at Kenan as my throat constricts.
“Will some of them be hurt badly?” I ask. “The human females. Will any of them be killed if they aren’t…obedient enough?”
He shakes his head. “It’s forbidden to kill a female. In fact, the penalty for killing a female or causing her permanent damage is death. You will probably find this hard to believe, but we do treasure our females, our mates, even those from other alien races, like the humans.”
“You’re right. I do find it hard to believe.”
“By claiming you today, here on this bed, Laylah, you legally became mine. Until death parts us. I will treasure you.” He takes a deep breath and for the first time since I met him, he appears vulnerable. “I do treasure you. You aren’t Kleaxian, so you cannot feel it, but a bond has formed between us. You are my treasured mate, and I will spend the rest of my days caring for you.”
“You forced yourself on me, Kenan,” I whisper shakily.
“Would you rather I waited to claim you, so another Kleaxian male could challenge my ownership of you? Though my home is well protected, I did not want to take the chance. Once a Kleaxian claims his female, a light blue aura appears around her, which tells all other males to stay away. You can’t see it, because you’re human, but I can see it. You’re surrounded in a faint blue glow, Laylah, because you belong to me.”
I don’t know what to say, so I walk around him and crawl into bed. He tucks the covers up to my neck and gazes down at me with a tenderness akin to affection. Reverence, even. But, as soon as the emotion flickers into his eyes, he stands up and strides around the bed then slides in next to me under the covers.
His legs tangle with mine, so warm and so solid, and he props himself up on his elbow and reaches for my hair. But I stop him by touching my hand to his. I’m curious about his seven digits, and I thread my fingers through his and gaze intently at his hand.
“How many fingers do full Kle-Kleax …”
“Kleaxians. My mother was a Kleaxian princess.”
So it’s true. About him being a prince. Tearing my gaze from his hand, I peer into the recesses of his dark visage. “Do full blooded Kleaxians have seven fingers?”
When he shakes his head, his black wavy locks tumble over his shoulders. “Kleaxians of royal blood, like my mother, have eight fingers on each hand and eight toes on each foot. Kleaxians of the lower classes only have six. The half-human, half-Kleaxians can have anywhere from five to seven.”
I’m fascinated, and I want to know more about his people, but my eyelids grow heavier with each second. I cover a yawn and the urge to curl up against his chest falls over me.
But I can’t forget what happened the last time I was in this bedroom, and I draw away from him, wondering if perhaps I would be better off in the cage.
He stiffens.
“Laylah, you have nothing to fear if you obey me.”
“That’s not true. You said you would hurt me sometimes, simply because it pleases you.”
He strokes my hair behind my ears and his breath fans against my face like a soft, warm whisper. “Perhaps I didn’t choose my words very carefully at the time. I will hurt you sometimes, yes, for no other reason than it pleases me to redden your bottom or make you squirm and plead a little before I claim you, Laylah. But those aren’t the times you should fear me. Now, close your eyes and sleep. Tomorrow is a big day…the first day of your new life on Tallia.”
I open my mouth, preparing to ask about tomorrow, but his stern look silences me.
He draws me deeper into his embrace and my eyes flutter shut.
As the waves crash against the alien shore and the night insects buzz louder, I drift to sleep in the arms of my captor.
Chapter Seven
I awake to a knock on the door.
Blinking, I touch the bed beside me, discovering Kenan long gone; the sheets are cool. Sunlight spills in from the large window, illuminating the entire bedroom in a vibrant yellow-orange glow. Through the lush green trees, I spy the rising sun and a light-blue sky. The white, round ghosts of the twin moons rest beyond the sun.
Another knock sounds.
I sit up and clutch the covers to my chest.
“Come in!” I call, assuming it’s a servant. Kenan surely wouldn’t knock.
Heggal enters, balancing a tray of food in one hand and holding a dress in the other. He smiles and places the tray across my lap. He brushes his hand on my bare shoulder.
You must eat and dress, child. I believe Prince Kenan wants to take you to town.
“Town?” I stare at the blue gown he’s still holding. “A trip to town and I’m to wear that?”
It’s an elegant dress with layers of sheer silk, ribbons adorning the sleeves, and lace trimmings. It’s fancier than the bridesmaid dress I wore for my cousin’s wedding last year, a black-tie event, since Cousin Tammy married a senator’s son from New York, whom she’d met in college.
Another reason my parents had pushed for Harvard. They wanted me to marry well, just like my cousin. If I carved a successful career path in the sciences and married a wealthy man, surely I wouldn’t end up like my brother, sprawled in a pool of blood in a dark alley after a drug deal gone wrong. Ever since I’d spied the ripped up acceptance letter in the trash, my life hasn’t quite been my own.
Heggal hangs the dress over a chair and gives me a pointed look, nodding at my untouched breakfast. I sigh dramatically then take a sip of juice. Flavors explode across my tongue. It’s delicious and tastes similar to orange juice, but I would kill for a cup of coffee right about now. There’s a thin, fried meat reminiscent of turkey bacon, and a cheesy dish that reminds me of quiche. I e
at nearly the entire offering before pushing the tray away.
“Thank you, Heggal. It was quite good.” As he approaches to take the tray, I grasp his forearm. “Is breakfast always served in bed?”
Yes, child. Or, in your cage, if you sleep there. But Prince Kenan is an early riser and often skips the morning meal to oversee the goings-on in the towns.
“How close is the nearest town?”
A short walk through the forest. It’s beside the Carmuit Lake. It’s one of five towns on this mountain, and Prince Kenan and his warriors keep order in these five towns.
At my startled look, he continues.
The towns are relatively peaceful, but the prince acts as mediator when a dispute between neighbors arises. On occasion, when a crime has been committed, he serves as a judge, and even as executioner. Since the male humans are finally gone, his warriors will now mostly help repair buildings, homes, and bridges. With only a number of human females left on Tallia, and the Stargazer and Capital Acres destroyed, a time of great peace has arrived. Now Kleaxians can travel and settle anywhere on Tallia they wish, including the continent on which Capital Acres was located. Before their victory against the humans, that continent was entirely claimed by humans.
I release his arm and he takes the tray.
A time of great peace.
I don’t know whether to laugh or cry. Between Capital Acres and the Stargazer, thousands of humans have died for this so-called peace, along with my only way of returning to Earth.
The door slides open, and Heggal departs. Now that I’m alone, I bolt out from under the covers and rush to the window.
I gasp at the sight.
Kenan’s home sits at the top of a high, green mountain. Not far in the distance, I glimpse a sandy shore and what must be the clearest, bluest lake in existence. Boats glide slowly across the water, and there’s a large, busy dock. Beyond the dock rests the town. On the edge of the town, nearest to the trees, there’s a sleek gray ship.
