by Zena Zion
What difference a month and different context could make? As he carried her in his arms into the towering main chamber of the hunting lodge, she barely got a look around at her massively timbered surroundings, before he was walking up the heavy wood stairs toward the loft that made up the second floor.
If he had done this with her as recently as two weeks ago, she would have panicked. But as they went, the first thing she was wearing that he got rid of was the collar around her neck.
He keyed in the commands with his thumb on the remote while he held her, and the collar snapped open, dropping from her neck on to the stairs behind them. She heard it bounce all the way down to the first floor, and rubbed her neck with her free hand, grateful to feel bare skin under her fingers.
The sleeping loft was enormous, and she realized that it had been designed so he could sleep there in either form. The entire floor was mattress. Assorted sizes and shapes of cushion, and various colors of fur blanket were scattered around its soft expense. A skylight overhead showed the clouds rolling by above them as he settled her gently onto the mattress.
He knelt at her feet, the gesture strangely humble, as he unfastened the low, soft shoes he had given her and tossed them aside. He kicked off his own boots and flung them in the same direction, then settled down next to her, and gently cupped her face in his hand.
“I had thought that I would be waiting forever for you to gain any interest in me. I had almost thought it hopeless.”
“And yet you kept me around?”
“Once I had you with me, I could only let you go if you asked me to. Releasing you to the streets of my world would have left you open to attack by another. Returning you to the slavers was out of the question.” He stroked his hands through her hair, and then moved closer to her for another kiss.
She got lost for a while in the feeling of his mouth on her, of his big, heavy body gently pressing against her, until she craved feeling him lying over her so much that she let herself settle back to the mattress, fingers dug into the fabric of his shirt to tug him down with her.
He tore the shirt taking it off, so eager that he threw it aside without a glance. She had half expected his skin to be leathery, given what he was half the time, but it was sleek and shivered sensitively under her fingertips as she ran her hands over him.
The whole time, as he kissed her and gently started exploring her body with his hands, she felt him restraining himself, his muscles tight with the battle between caution and need.
She remembered those nights in the seraglio, his attempts to seduce back when she had been too terrified and furious over the situation to respond. Back then; he had still walked around under the idiotic illusion that every human woman ever liked to be dominated in such ways.
She still hated that she had had to point out the error repeatedly until he had finally gotten it. Things had only changed when he finally had, and had started treating her like a lover instead of a slave.
She made the point by climbing up over him, startling him into stillness as she straddled him with her still-aching thighs. Worth the discomfort to see his eyes widen like that--and in this form, he was a much easier ride. She brushed against the bulge in his trousers with her fingertips and felt a shudder go through him, then settled in and started unbuttoning her blouse.
He held himself still, chest heaving, just watching as she stripped. She tossed aside the blouse and reached back to unfasten her bra. He groaned as her breasts spilled free, and reached up with eager hands to knead them and trace her nipples with his fingertips.
She gasped, shocked by how good it felt, and pulled him closer as he bent down to kiss them. His lips and tongue swirled over her skin, punctuated with delicate little nibbles, while all the while a low rumble of pleasure vibrated his throat, like a gigantic cat purring. When he finally started to suckle her, she let out a low sob of pleasure and reached down impatiently to unbuckle her belt.
He seemed obsessed with every part of her, suckling each nipple to hard points and keeping on until they were almost sore; running his hands over her back; sliding his fingers through her hair.
The whole time his eyes held an almost frantic light, as if he had been starved for her. She stood up to take her trousers and socks off, kicking free of them and standing over him while he gazed up at her worshipfully.
He scooted forward and took the straps of her panties in his hands, then tugged them down, kissing her belly and then sliding his mouth down below her navel, following the tiny sprigs of trimmed hair until he was kissing her mound, with the same passion he had lavished on her breasts.
His fingers parted her; then he cupped her ass with both hands to steady her as he delved his tongue into her folds and started delicately exploring her.
She whimpered and staggered, barely able to stay up as he started swirling the tip of his tongue over her most sensitive flesh. Her toes curled; her fingers tangled in his hair and she swayed against his supporting hands, barely able to keep from collapsing.
She could hear her voice rising in uncontrollable moans as he kept at her until she shuddered all over. Then her knees started buckling, and he caught her and gently lowered her to the mattress.
He unfastened his belt and slid his pants down, and she caught a glimpse of his manhood springing free. She threw her head back against the mattress, panting, body tingling, hungry to be filled by him. He wiped his mouth and settled over her, kissing her intensely as his hands parted her thighs.
His first thrust came slow and careful, sinking into her as his body jolted and shuddered with the restrained urge to push in deep. He groaned in her ear, and she gripped his buttocks and lifted her hips to him encouragingly until he finally entered fully.
For a few moments, he had to just lie there, trembling; she felt his heart pounding against her breasts. Then, propping himself up a little, he slipped a hand between them to finish the work his tongue had started.
He caressed her until she went rigid; until her hips started rocking under him, holding still the whole time, his breath shuddering in her ear. His fingers stroked and swirled until the pleasure drove her mad; she squirmed, nails raking his back, whimpering through her teeth as she felt the tension inside her build toward explosion. “Don’t stop….” she sobbed. “Don’t stop….”
Then pleasure arched her back as it burst outward from her groin in waves; she wailed, thrashing under him as he gasped and started thrusting hard. The purring growls in his throat turned into harsh groans as they ground against each other; the force of his hips pushed hers into the mattress and sent fresh ripples of pleasure through her body.
Faster and harder he thrust into her, until it almost hurt; she felt his tremors grow stronger and stronger until he arched his back and went taut against her. His cock shuddered inside of her; his eyes squeezed shut as his voice rose in a hoarse scream of ecstasy.
After, cradled in his arms, she murmured against his neck, “How long can we stay here?”
“As long as you want, my darling,” he whispered into her hair, and kissed the top of her head.
Summer was a time of rest for the planet’s officials, apparently, and he took only a few calls in the next few weeks, as they lived peacefully and without visitors. She learned to love the feel of walking around without the collar on her neck, and the sight of his face when she woke up in the morning.
Afternoon and night and sometimes morning, they made love, and the longer it went on, the more she wondered if she could make peace with this world enough to stay with him.
They were a month and a half into their stay when she woke up one morning to a strange, deep thud that seemed to echo through the building. He sat up immediately beside her, peering around.
“Electrics are out,” he growled, eyes narrowing as his body tensed. “Could have been a lightning strike, but--”
Suddenly, something crashed through the armored glass above them. She saw the steel arrow-shape of a small rocket dropping toward them a moment before it explode
d, and filled the room with yellowish gas.
“Irina!” he called in shock and horror, already coughing. “Get--get to the cellar….”
She ran, clapping her hand to her ear to keep her translator from falling out as she made a mad dash to the shelter of underground. The gas stung her eyes, and as she ran down the stairs she saw the other windows shatter inward as their unseen enemy fired more gas bombs into the lodge.
Gagging, eyes streaming, she almost fell on the stairs, then dragged herself up and kept running. Behind her, she could hear the snarls and growls of Kaelon closing in battle with someone.
A huge figure stepped out of the thick mist in front of her and grabbed her by both arms. She caught sight of a mane of wild blond hair poking out around his gas mask, and knew. Torvin. Then his fist crashed into the underside of her chin, and the world went black.
Duel
Irina woke slowly in a small room that she had never seen before. Her arms were shackled in front of her and joined by a yard of chain, and she could see a chain leading from an ankle manacle to the steel frame of the cot that she was lying on. She sat up, chains clinking, and looked around warily.
She had been stripped bare. The only thing that her captors had left her with was the translator bud in her ear. She drew her knees up and crossed her arms over her breasts, suddenly aware that she was being watched.
Torvin sat in a chair across the room, shirt off, leering at her. She could see what looked like fresh claw marks crossing his hairy chest, striped in pink, shiny skin almost as wide as her hand in spots. Her lover’s doing; she was sure of it. Too bad he didn’t cut any deeper, or I wouldn’t have this problem.
“Ah, you’re awake. Good. I had thought you would sleep the rest of the week. It seems you're bit vulnerable to the gas we used.”
She stared at him as his yellow eyes swept over her body, and felt a surge of nausea. What if he'd done something to her in her sleep? She had no way of knowing. Better to assume that he waited until I woke, up so that he could make sure he had me good and scared. But she wasn't good and scared. As she watched, his wide mouth stretched in a smirk, she felt herself getting good and pissed.
“I noticed that he took your collar off. What a sentimental fool. And so unfortunate, too. Now he can't track where you are.” He got up lazily and advanced on her. She quickly suppressed a surge of fear. She would need all of her adrenaline for rage, and the will to fight.
He was huge and powerful, but every man had vulnerabilities. This particular one’s pushed out the front of his breeches as he walked toward her. “That means I can have fun with you for as long as I want.”
“Don't bet your life on it, creep.” Kaelon said he could sense me through the bond. I hope that that includes at a distance. I have to have faith in him. I can hold this guy off for a while even with the chains on, but I'm not going to be able to do it forever.
He hesitated slightly at the steel in her eyes, but then just laughed. “What can you do against me? I'm twice your size, and I'm a male. You're a mere female. You don't even have a shift form. What can you do? I'm going to make you service my cock until my balls shrivel up.”
“You are really disgusting. I wonder if your mother knows what she raised.”
“I killed my mother coming out of the womb,” he replied casually. “It's a problem in my family. As soon as I can, I'm going to make sure that I put a baby in your belly. One that'll kill you at its birth.”
I think you're a little late for that, asshole. She hadn't wanted to tell Kaelon yet, but the truth was that she had missed her period, and she was starting to feel queasy in the mornings.
It was really too soon to tell unless she got a test done, and she didn't know anything about how the local physicians handled such things.
Besides, she hadn’t wanted to get his hopes up until she was more certain. But now, she was glad of the possibility that she was carrying his baby. It would prevent his rival from going through with his plans, even if Torvin managed to rape her.
He unbuckled his belt as he advanced on her, a gleam coming to his eyes that she wanted to snuff out with a bullet. “You'll live longer if you just give in,” he advised in a mocking tone. His breeches hit the floor, and she glanced briefly over his fat, stubby erection.
“But, I know you're a fighter, and that's what I'm counting on. I'm going to have a lot of fun with you.”
She drew her legs up under herself further, knowing it looked like a protective gesture. In fact, she was bracing herself. She held both of her hands together, gripping the chain that linked them in her fists.
He stepped up to the edge of the cot, reaching for her. His breath smelled rotten. He chuckled as he pulled her arms away from her breasts--and then gasped as she lashed a foot out straight into his swollen groin.
He let out a startled grunt, his face going white, and his grip on her wrists loosened. She pulled her arms free, and swung her manacles against the side of his head.
He reeled, eyes going blank, and she kicked him in the groin again. He doubled over, and she brought the manacles down on the back of his head as hard as she could.
He stumbled back, desperate to get away from her, and she went after him, going to the end of her leg chain as she struck him again and again. Pain jolted up her arms with each blow, but she didn't care. She knew that each strike hurt him much worse.
“You like that, you piece of shit? Here's what it feels like to get beaten up by someone tougher than you. Do you like it? You enjoy that? You want more?”
He staggered back away from her, running into the far wall, and then turning around to lean on it and stare at her in astonishment. “You...you're a human woman! You're not supposed to fight this hard! What is wrong with you?”
“I'm fed up with your shit,” she replied in a deadpan tone. “Maybe you should have bothered to learn about human women before you went and decided what we were all like.”
He stared at her a moment longer, his chest heaving, and then pushed himself back up to his feet. The astonishment and fear in his face was converting to outrage as she watched. She braced herself for a counterattack.
He stood up and went for her, both hands out, blind rage in his eyes. She ducked aside, having gotten plenty of practice dodging beatings in this horrible planet’s slave pens, and swung the chain into his face.
As he reeled, she ran around him, very aware of the length of the chain attached to her ankle. If she miscalculated, she would trip, and he would be on her in a second. Before he could straighten, she jumped on his back.
She threw the length of chain around his neck, and used the manacles like a garrote, pulling back on it with all the strength in her arms and legs. He gagged and turned in a circle, thrashing, trying to shake her off, and she wrapped her legs around him from behind to hang on tight. She pulled back as hard as she could on the chain, hoping to crush his throat before he could get a hand in between it and his skin.
“You should have kept your distance, asshole,” she hissed in his ear. “Hey, you were the one who encouraged me to fight. You said it would be more fun. I guess you're one of those guys who likes getting his ass kicked--”
Unfortunately for her, he had been in more fights than she had ever even witnessed. Snarling in rage or fear, she couldn't tell which, he ran blindly forward, across the room, until the chain on her ankle went painfully taut, and pulled her off of his back.
She saw blood and pulled-out hairs fly as the chain scraped over his scalp. Then she landed hard on her back, just shy of the cot.
Maybe she hit her head harder than she thought, because for a moment, she could have sworn that she heard the flap of leathery wings outside. But even as he threw himself over her and struggled to force her legs apart, and even as she kicked him with the one leg that wasn't pinned under him, she sensed something.
It was almost as if she had just caught a whiff of Kaelon's cologne, but even subtler. She knew in that instant that he had found her.
Hope gave
her strength to keep fighting. Torvin kept trying to pin her down, even as he rubbed his groin grotesquely to try and regain his erection. Finally, he gave up and punched her in the face twice.
Her head bounced off the floor and she saw stars, going temporarily limp. “Finally,” he growled in exasperation. “That was too much fun to even be fun. You have no idea how to please a man.”
She spat blood in his face, and then smiled up at him as he sat back rubbing his eyes. “I don't see any men here. Just an animal that learned to talk.”
He snarled and raised his fist to slam into her face again. But before he could, they both heard an explosion outside.
Torvin raised his head in alarm. He sniffed twice, and his eyes widened. “How under the sun did he find us?”
Irina’s heart leaped, even as she recovered from his blows. I'm okay. I'm okay. He didn't rape me, he didn't break anything, and he didn't hit me in the mid-section. I'll be fine. Kaelon's here. “I think you're in deep trouble now, asshole.”
“TORVIN!” Kaelon’s dragon-voice was an ear-bending roar of outrage.
“...Now what did I just say?” She grinned up at him through sore teeth as he hastily started yanking his breeches back on.
Minutes later, he dragged her out of what turned out to be a small cabin, and into the clearing in front. Her lover stood there in dragon form, the corpses of four of Torvin's guards lying at his feet. He snarled low in his throat as he saw her nude, battered form.
The steel collar around her neck chafed hard as Torvin yanked her forward. “Back off or I will kill the girl.”
The dragon snaked his head forward until it was just a few feet away from them. “Let her go or I will kill all of your lousy servants, and reduce this place to rubble. Then, I will take three days to kill you.”
“You think you'll actually manage that?” He pulled back on her chain so that he could press up close behind her, using her as a meat shield again. He tried to put his hand on her breast, but a sharp elbow in his ribs made him back off slightly.
