by Renee Rose
That was why it had bothered him so much to see the prince with a collar around his human mate.
They entered the kitchen, and he pulled out a meal pack, unwrapped it, and added water to reconstitute it.
Mierna drifted in, a tube of cheap grain alcohol in her hand. “Good,” she said, jerking her head at Lily. “She belongs with you.”
He rolled his eyes. Mierna always had predictions about his future—some great destiny he had to fulfill. Excrement, all of it. He didn’t believe in destiny, and he sure as stars didn’t see any higher purpose in his life. He’d been cobbling together an existence as a smuggler for the past ten solar cycles, and the one thing he’d learned was never to make plans for a future, because excrement happened. He’d learned to play things by the seat of his pants, taking every moment he remained alive as a win.
“You sure she belongs with me? Last time she put a laser gun to my chest and stole my ship.”
The old Venusian nodded sagely. “There will be more trouble before it’s done. Much more.”
Despite his steadfast determination that fate did not exist in a universe of free will, her words made him tighten his lips. Would he have more trouble from Lily?
Probably so.
Her docile demeanor belied a quick-witted and devious character. One not unwilling to sacrifice others for her own gain.
He scowled at her, surprised when she shrank back from him. She was more sensitive to his thoughts than he’d expected. Another reason not to underestimate her.
Which didn’t mean he wouldn’t be sure to wring every bit of pleasure he could out of punishing her.
“Yes, have your fun,” Mierna said, waving her hand as if to dismiss it all. “No harm in it. Both will enjoy.”
He looked back at Lily and wondered if Mierna actually knew what he wanted to do to the human. He rather hoped not.
He handed Lily the paper tray with the reconstituted meal and watched her eat, wondering how else he might torture his little prisoner.
A wicked idea formed in his head. He searched the cabinets until he found the things he wanted—bree oil—a flavoring used by Depri for his food. It had a spicy, warming quality that would work perfectly. He also used a root vegetable as an aromatic spice. It, too, produced heat. Of course, the human was delicate. He’d have to watch her closely. But if it worked, it would be perfect for keeping her on edge.
She finished eating and deposited her waste in the incinerator, which immediately turned it to dust.
“Lift up your shirt.”
“Isn’t this your shirt?” she shot back, but her fingers reached for the hem.
“Did you get mouthy like that with your old masters, Lily?”
“No, Master,” she conceded.
“Good. Higher.” He nudged the shirt above her peach-tipped nipples.
He uncorked the bottle of oil and dabbed a circle on each breast.
“Why good?”
“I’m glad you’re willing to give me a little sass. It gives me reason to punish you.” He watched her face flush an enchanting shade of pink.
“Why do you like to punish?”
He dropped his hand to her pussy and rubbed the oil that remained on his fingers onto her clitoris.
She clung to his arms, her legs wobbling as he stroked slowly over her slit.
“Because”—he bent his head and murmured close to her ear—“it’s so vecking hot to control all the responses of a female.”
Her breath had quickened, fingers tightening until her nails dug into his skin.
“But why punishment?” She let out a sexy whimper and her eyes rolled back in her head.
He shoved her back against the wall and plunged his fingers deep inside her. “Because some little females deserve to be punished. Don’t they?” He pumped them in and out.
“Oh!” Her face had flushed a deep pink and her fingers flew to her breasts. The oil had started working.
“Do you deserve my punishment, Lily?”
The involuntary twitch near her mouth made him yank his fingers out of her. She’d been about to orgasm.
She sobbed, her big eyes both pleading and accusing as she doubled over and reached one hand between her legs.
“Ah ah,” he said sharply.
Her hand stopped just before it reached her sex.
“What did I tell you, pet?”
“No touching,” she whispered. She took on a feverish appearance, eyes glassy, body shivering. She cupped her breasts. “May I—”
He shook his head, and she froze.
Her brows came down in frustration, and she shoved at him, throwing her entire weight into his chest.
It was delicious. He loved the fight in her, He caught her up into his arms and held her off the ground while she kicked and scratched.
“Careful, pet. I don’t want to have to spank you again, not until that pretty bottom heals.”
“Oh the entertainment is in here,” drawled Jaso from the doorway. Janu stood beside him, and they both wore smirks.
Lily instantly stopped fighting, dropping her chin and turning sullen, her face still flaming.
He tucked her against his side, protectively. He didn’t mind a little humiliation, but any more would work against him and his plans to enjoy his lovely pet. Because truthfully, he needed her to enjoy his game, too, or else it wouldn’t be fun for him. She might fight him, curse him, say she hated him, but as long as her sensuous body continued to show signs of arousal and excitement, he considered her to be playing along. He knew, though, if he took things too far—if he gave her more pain than she could handle or humiliated her too much, that part of her would shut down. He’d already seen glimpses of how she checked out of her body. And he definitely didn’t want an empty veck-doll.
Not in the least.
“Come, pet. Let’s not give them a show. You may either have some alone-time, locked in my chamber, or you may come to the exercise room with me.”
“Exercise room,” she said immediately.
Her answer pleased him, though he wasn’t stupid enough to believe it was because she wanted to be near him. He needed her close, though. Liked to look on her pleasing form, to feel her closeness, smell her scent.
Yes, the little human pleased him a great deal. Far more than he’d expected, although he might have guessed based on his initial reaction to her the day she stole his ship.
~.~
Lily had never been held against a male’s side while he walked. Even more intimate than the way he’d held her hand, it once more stirred her oldest memories. She’d been held. Picked up. She almost remembered the snippet of a song a female had sung to her.
To push back her panic at the swelling emotions within her, she searched for stable footing. “So how did you become a smuggler?”
He shrugged. “Scrappy trade for a scrappy male.”
“And your crew? You seem close.” She noticed he had the same crew as when she’d stolen the ship, despite the fact that they must have been grounded while he scrapped for a new craft.
“Jaso and Janu are my foster brothers. Their parents took me in after I escaped genocide on my planet.”
She nearly stumbled, so surprised by this revelation. So his scars didn’t lie—he had lived a rough life, like her.
“How old were you?”
“About eight solar cycles in Ocretian time.”
“How did you escape?”
They entered an exercise room. It had equipment along the walls, but the center had been left as open space and contained only a floor mat.
“I got lucky. I lived in the palace because my father was a worker there. A guard scooped me up with two other children—daughters of an important advisor—and got us to an underground tunnel the moment the invasion started. He tried to go back out and fight, but the tunnel was sealed from the palace end by an explosion. We walked in the other direction for many kilometers and exited through a long-abandoned docking station. The guard loaded us on a ship and flew us out of there.
I don’t know how—it seems a miracle to me now.” Rok rubbed his face. “Then we got shot down over Stornig and I was adopted by those dogs.”
“What happened to the girls—I mean, the female young?”
His face clouded. “I never knew. I don’t even know if they survived the crash. I was thrown from the ship and knocked unconscious. My foster family found only me when they came upon the wreckage.”
Jaso and Janu filed in, along with the other three crew members. It seemed this was an appointed exercise time.
The wizened Venusian peered into her face. “Do you like to fight?”
“Wha—? Oh, no.” She shook her head. She’d had docility trained into her at a young age with shocking forks. Any slave-child who showed aggression found herself immediately immobilized, pain shutting down her central nervous system.
“Me neither. Come—we’ll exercise on the equipment.”
She didn’t know how to use the equipment, either, as exercise also had been forbidden, unless a slave required certain training by her master, but she followed the Venusian after shooting Rok an inquiring glance.
“What are you called?”
She bit her tongue to keep from muttering, “slave.” Something about this crew made her far more at ease than she would normally be. “Lily.”
“I am Mierna.”
“Why haven’t you introduced your prisoner properly, Rok?” one of his foster brothers taunted.
She enjoyed their playful banter and the way Rok ignored it. She hadn’t been around such lighthearted ribbing before. Ocretions were always formal and stiff, with the class system fully regimented. No one teased in the pods where she’d lived.
Rok sighed and rubbed the back of his neck. “Come here, Lily.” He beckoned her back to his side.
She dutifully returned, keeping her eyes lowered out of habit.
“Lily, you’ve already seen Jaso and Janu, my brothers. This is Gaurdo.” He lifted his chin at a giant, rock-like being, almost as wide as he was tall. One of his legs had been amputated, and he had a metal post in its place. “And Depri.” He indicated the tall, thin being with brown skin and green eyes. “He is also a brother, of sorts.”
“Also from Stornig?” She wasn’t sure what made her think it was appropriate to quiz them, but no one seemed troubled by it.
“No, we met them on one of our early expeditions.” She wondered who “them” was, but something had clouded in Rok’s expression so she no longer felt comfortable asking.
“How about you?” she asked Mierna as the old female steered her back toward the equipment. “How did you become a part of this crew?”
“They freed me from imprisonment in Bangi. I had nowhere else to go, so I joined them.”
Her words sent such a streak of longing through Lily’s chest, she almost couldn’t breathe. Her present situation was not unlike what Mierna described. This crew had helped her escape slavery—although not willingly—and she had nowhere in the galaxy to go. She did not have a single friend or family member. Nothing. To be invited in as a crewmate on this aircraft would be a fate beyond her dreams.
She thought back to the day she’d escaped. What would’ve happened if she hadn’t stolen their ship? Rok had seemed content to accept payment for her fare in sexual trade. Would he have offered her a position when she told him she had nowhere to go?
She shook her head to clear the thoughts. She couldn’t think this way. Her situation wasn’t the same. She was wanted by the Ocretions—Rok couldn’t keep her aboard a ship that traveled through the galaxy on dangerous trade missions. She’d threaten the safety of all of them. He’d be accused of transporting runaway slaves and put to death along with her.
The males had begun sparring in hand-combat in the center, one on one. Her eyes followed Rok’s graceful movements. Though he was large, he moved with fluidity and ease, as if born fighting. The twins fought fast and dirty, lunging in, clamping sharp teeth on their opponent, but apparently not biting down.
Mierna handed her one end of an elastic band attached to the wall. She followed Mierna’s action, pulling an elastic band out and in with her arm in different positions, mimicking it. Her muscles grew tired after only a few repetitions, but she kept at it. If she planned to escape and survive, she needed to become strong. These beings could show her how. Perhaps even teach her to fight.
The old Venusian nodded as if she knew Lily’s thoughts. “Your destiny is much bigger than you see now. Do you know that?”
A tingle ran across her skin. She’d always had the sense that something came after. That sexual slavery wasn’t her only episode in life. That belief had kept her from desperation or depression. Kept her from contemplating suicide, like some of the other girls.
But the Venusian might say such things to everyone. She hadn’t said anything specific, and it probably didn’t mean anything.
“I-I don’t know,” she murmured.
The old being nodded again. “You do know. You have always known. A great destiny. You will help many other beings find freedom and peace. Rok does not believe in destiny, yet he, too, has one he must face.”
Her doubt increased, even as the hairs on her arms stood up. For a few months, she’d believed such a thing. She’d been a part of an escape plan and had learned to survive in the wilderness. She’d thought they might build a new human community of free beings.
But it had been too good to be true. Just when she’d started to care about something, it all had been destroyed. Every being she’d grown to care for, every hope and dream crushed.
And now she was on a ship, rushing to her death.
“You will not die yet,” the old Venusian said softly, turning away to repeat the exercises with her other arm.
Lily’s breath caught.
The female did read thoughts.
Chapter Three
Rok couldn’t wait to get Lily back into his bedroom for her final torture. Keeping her on edge all day had been his own delicious deprivation, as well. He’d been hard for her all planet rotation. Stars, just having her in the exercise room while he sparred made his aggressive hormones flow to a height he’d never before experienced. He’d nearly harmed his brothers twice, throwing them to the ground. In the end, they’d gone four-on-one instead of the usual two-on-one, because no one, not even Gaurdo, could hold him back.
They’d accused him of showing off for his slave.
Perhaps he had been. Her green eyes followed every move he made, though he sensed neither approval nor disapproval at his performance. All he knew was her mere presence in the room gave him the knife-like certainty of winning. He supposed it was a primitive response to enable a male to protect his mate.
Not that he considered Lily his mate.
He kept her close to him all day, pinching her nipples and rubbing between her legs every moment they were alone to keep her wet for him. Her scent filled his nostrils, inciting lust sharper than the crack of a whip.
Which, sadly, he wouldn’t be using on her.
He didn’t mind—what he had in store was far better.
He fingered the aromatic root he’d cut into perfect form and wrapped for her punishment. “Come, Lily.” He picked up her hand.
She glanced up at him through her thick lashes, lips parted, the copper sheet of her hair falling over one shoulder. By the Zandian moons, she was lovely. So vecking lovely. Maybe he wouldn’t return her to Zander. The prince didn’t deserve two females this beautiful. He could make it part of his price for leading an army of airships on the Finn. One hundred thousand steins and your mate’s sister as my...what? Slave? No, he’d been thinking mate.
Vecking excrement.
He ushered his slave into his chamber and locked the door. “Since your bottom is too tender for more punishment, I had to devise another means to exact retribution on you today.”
She didn’t flinch, but her pupils narrowed, and she tensed. She was a little warrior of sorts, too. The kind who remained alert to all dangers, bending but neve
r breaking.
He shifted the sitting platform to the middle of the room and sank into it. “Take off the shirt.”
She pulled it over her head in one fluid motion and tossed it on the floor in a small show of defiance.
His lips twitched. “Pick that up and fold it neatly, pet. You know I won’t tolerate insolence.”
Something deadened behind her eyes, and he regretted whatever he’d said that had triggered her emotional shutdown. He definitely didn’t want her disengaged.
“Or, rather,” he tried to fix it, “I’ll punish you for insolence. That doesn’t mean I don’t expect it now and then.”
It worked. She returned, curiosity flickering behind her eyes. “What made you like this? How did you learn you liked…” she swallowed, seeming unable to finish.
“To punish?” He smiled. “I had a lover—Depri’s sister, actually. She loved pain. Loved to have control forced away from her, to be held down and hurt in a way that didn’t cause lasting harm.”
“What happened to her?”
He’d known she’d ask the question, and braced himself for the sharp jab that always lanced through him when he thought of it. This time, though, it seemed less painful than usual. “She was killed during a transaction.” To the day he died, he would regret not going instead of her. It should have been him who had fallen that day.
Lily paled. “I’m sorry,” she murmured.
He shrugged. “It’s been a long time. Almost four solar cycles now.” He needed to redirect this conversation before his mood went south. “But I learned many things with her. How to torture a female in the ways that fulfill the most.” He flashed a wicked, promising smile. “Now, lie over my lap.”
Her eyebrows lifted. “I thought you weren’t going to spank me.”
