“Sawagga,” he grunted, “there are females here, yes?”
The first Star Wolf--my blue-eyed one, who I sensed might be the leader—turned to him and chuckled.
“I decided to check after all,” he said. “Gall, you should know by now to trust my instincts. I know we’ve all been feeling the urge lately, jarr?”
The amber-eyed, tattooed Star Wolf--the one he’d called Gall—now scanned the cabin and the frightened passengers. His amber eyes turned my way, and then drifted to the left…
And went wide as they found my petite companion, Emily.
“Are they all so tiny, Sawagga?” he asked. “So fragile?”
And yet the way he absolutely devoured Emily with his hungry gaze left no doubt that he was intrigued by what he saw.
“No, they aren’t ALL so small,” the bigger, blue-eyed one replied.
I was startled when blue-eyes took several long strides forward to place a possessive hand on my shoulder!
The hand was absolutely huge, and there was a fierce pressure in his grip. I could feel the leathery texture of the palm through the thin fabric of my dress, and the nails were thick and sharp… like claws. Despite the tightness of his grip, I was grateful that he did not dig these into my flesh.
His size made me feel like a small child by comparison, and his presence as he loomed over me made me shiver.
And yet, I wasn’t truly afraid…
I tried to jerk my shoulder free of his grip. I knew that I should be offended by the casual way that he’d laid his heavy hand upon me, and so I tried to get free. But his hand held fast in a grip of steel.
Meanwhile his companion, Gall—the amber-eyed, tattooed one—let out a piercing howl which definitely sounded more animal than human.
He flexed his legs, shifted his weight back onto his haunches… And suddenly, he was leaping through the air, clearing several rows of unoccupied seats in front of us---
--Before landing in the row in front of us, right in front of startled Emily.
Gall grabbed Emily’s arm, just as my blue-eyed one had seemed to claim me. He leaned over the back of the seat towards her, one hand on her dainty arm… The other hand was spread out on her belly, sliding up to cup and squeeze one of her smallish breasts through the material of her linen dress.
Emily was trembling, her skin flushed, her cheeks rosy, nostrils flared. I realized that she was inhaling the animal scent of the Star Wolf in front of her.
I could smell him too, now, distinct under the sweet muskiness of my on blue-eyed captor. Emily’s Star Wolf had a more acrid, sharper scent to him that I found less pleasing.
But as for Emily… The scent seemed to be having an arousing effect. She writhed under Gall’s touch, not struggled but only responding. She moaned slightly as his hand on her arm slid down and off her wrist to her leg, pulling up the hem of her dress slide up her thigh underneath it…
I thought I remembered something else I’d read about the Star Wolves… That they had male pheromones that would make them irresistible to some human females. Or, at least, to human women who were compatible mates to them.
If that were true, Emily had to be very compatible with Gall.
Her eyes were practically glazed over, and completely locked on his face. Meanwhile, he bent forward, opening his fanged mouth to brush his hot tongue along her cheekbone.
The bigger, blue-eyed one who gripped me filled me with strange and conflicting emotions. But I still had a mind of my own, and I felt a protective instinct towards Emily… perhaps due to her smaller size and the naiveté that she had displayed.
“Let her go,” I told them, summoning all the conviction I could muster. I wasn’t sure what argument slavering beast-like space pirates would accept to convince them to release a young maiden in their grasp, so I added: “She’s too small for you.”
The big, blue-eyed one who gripped my shoulder bent lower, staring deeply into my eyes. “You are NOT small, and I LIKE that, yes? But I think there is a link between Gall and your friend there, and she would not want to be let go right now.”
Suddenly, there was the sound of an alarm blaring, and a red light began to flash in the cabin.
That was odd, I thought… If they hadn’t bothered to put on an alarm before, why do so now?
My captor raised on thick eyebrow in curiosity.
“Sawagga,” shouted Gall, “look…” He removed his hand from under Emily’s dress to point out of the window, where a sleek white vessel with blue and gold trim and wing-mounted plasma guns was approaching.
“It’s the Galactic Patrol,” I said, not believing my luck. For a patrol vessel to be this close on the frontier--the gods must be watching over us!
The shuttle must have sent a distress call… And the Star Wolves most likely ignored it, thinking no one would come. But there apparently was a Patrol vessel in the area, and here they were to save us.
Yet… I was surprised by the ambivalence of my emotions.
If the patrol were able to take control of the vessel, these Star Wolves would undoubtedly be killed or imprisoned… Even if they managed to get away, after small delays I would undoubtedly be on my way to Fallow to again to wed the piggish farmer.
I did not like my destiny being out of my control, nor being claimed as anyone’s property.
But if anyone would claim me… This towering man with his dazzling pale blue eyes and his compelling scent would not be a bad option…
Fool, a wary voice in my head said, this lawless wolf would probably only rape and slaughter you.
There was a flash of intense purple light from outside the window, jolting me from my thoughts.
“Warning shot only, jarr?” my captor said, and he laughed. “They will not want to harm the shuttle. But we have what we need. Come, Gall.”
“ATTENTION!” boomed a voice relayed through the shuttle intercom system. “This is the Galactic Patrol vessel Paladin. Star Wolves, leave the shuttle immediately and surrender, or we will be forced to use lethal measures.”
“Ha! We will leave,” my captor said. “But surrender? Nooo…”
His companion, the amber-eyed Gall, nodded down to Emily. “I claim her.” He reached down and scooped her up into arms, where she hung limply, doing nothing to resist.
My own captor just nodded. “Yes, Gall, this is a good match--I can smell it.”
“You can’t just claim people!” I protested. “She must be in a state of shock, she’s helpless… You just can’t!”
“But what about you?” My captor asked, bending down so close that I could feel his breath hot in my cheek.
Flustered, I hesitated a moment…
Which my captor apparently took as some kind of permission.
Suddenly, he grabbed me and hauled me up out of my seat, his giant arm tight around my waist as my head was on his shoulder, his surprisingly soft, long hair ticking my nose.
“You can’t… Put me down…!” I protested feebly.
Chapter 4
He was running forward, carrying me as if weighed nothing. It was only a second before I felt myself falling along with him… I realized that we had plunged through the hatch, down into the cargo bay. It had to be a drop of at least twelve feet, but he landed on his feet, though I was jostled a bit by the landing.
The cargo hold was dark, and I could barely see.
Once my feet touched the floor, my captor grabbed me again and flung me up over his shoulder like a bag of grain. I was now hanging forward and face down, bouncing as he ran. I was terrified that, in his haste, he would smash my head against some crate or bulkhead.
But he never did. He moved swiftly and surely through the shadowed shapes of the crates and boxes crowding the cargo bay… I supposed as a “wolf,” with those eerie blue eyes of his, he could see very well even in extremely low light.
Finally I saw a source of light ahead, the faint blue illumination of the lights of the docking tube that connected the pirate ship to the shuttle’s cargo bay hatch. He c
arried me swiftly through the flexsteel-webbed white interior of the flexible tube and towards the pirate ship.
Gall was behind us, still carrying Emily cradled in his arms, I presumed… I could hear his footsteps behind us. There were other sets of footsteps as well from further back; other Star Wolves, I presumed, who’d been lurking in the cargo bay.
We soon emerged in the airlock of the pirate ship. From there, we entered a high, round-walled corridor inside the Star Wolf ship itself.
My captor didn’t stop, but continued on down the corridor. I presumed he would leave it to others to disengage the docking tube and seal the airlock. He carried me down the sloping corridor, which widened so that two could walk abreast.
Tattooed Gall came up beside. I turned and my head and could see that he was indeed still carrying Emily cradled in his arms like a child. She, for her part, was quiet, just staring up at him with a dreamy look on her face.
“Raaaa, Sawagga,” said the amber-eyed, tattooed one. “I don’t like running like this.”
“No,” my captor said, his deep voice calm. “But we transferred some cases of gold and platinum before the patrol came. This was still a successful hunt, jarr? More successful than I would imagined.”
I craned my head up to look at him as he stared down at me, smiling broadly and showing those little fangs. He carried me so easily, such a powerful male animal, and his scent was intoxicating…
And yet deep inside, I felt ashamed, and I fought hard to resist and resent him.
This was wrong, after all. These Star Wolves claiming Emily and myself as extra booty along with the gold and the platinum…
“You can’t just take hostages like this,” I protested. “The Galactic Patrol will launch a search effort. They’ll be after you.”
“P’shaaa!” he laughed. “Hostages? You are willing guests. I know that the little one has accepted Gall’s claim already. And I think you have accepted mine, perhaps? I smell the need upon you.”
He said he could smell me? I felt even more ashamed… Yes, I was sweating and flushed and there was strange, warm tingling at my core… But if he could know that by scent, could I hide any of my emotions from him?
“This ship is old,” he added. “But it is fast, yes? We shall escape the Patrol soon.”
The ship shook suddenly, and there was the keening wail of a distant alarm.
A voice came over the pirate ship’s intercom. “Yaa, Sawagga! This is Rakh. They fired plasma bolts, but the plating absorbed it.”
“Remove us swiftly, then, Rakh,” my captor responded. “We shall take our prizes and go.”
There came a deep rumbling from the core of the ship, and I felt the sensation of motion. There was a strong pull of inertia which tugged even at my captor, forcing him to shift his weight on his feet.
“We will reach the hyperspace jump point before they even get near, jarr?” he told me. “Do not worry about the Galactic Patrol now.”
We emerged from the long corridor into a large chamber, so big that I guessed it had to take up most of the center of the ship. There were numerous other corridors leading off of it. The walls and ceiling were festooned with cargo netting, and there were stacks of crates and boxes of various sizes stacked along the walls. This had to be the main cargo hold of the pirate ship, then.
Although I noticed, curiously, that a large, round pool about twenty feet in diameter had been constructed in the center of the chamber, the sides molded out of fast-set insulation foam. The pool was filled with water, and circulating hoses ran to the pool to keep the gurgling water fresh.
Sheets and furs were scattered all about the floor of the chamber, as well as bottles, plasteel plates, and articles of clothing… Was this some kind of communal area for living and sleeping? It certainly appeared so. It made sense, after all, as wolves lived and socialized in a pack…
As we entered the huge cargo hold, my captor set me gently down on my feet.
He then wrapped one impossibly thick arm around me, his muscled limb pressing hard into my breasts, and pressing my back into his own chest. Even through the material of my dress I could feel the hardness and warmth of his muscles.
My breasts were squashed against his arm and my nipples burned with an irritating need. His clasp of me was so tight, that I thought that I could feel the slow and steady throb of his pulse as the blood flowed through his enormous body.
And that male scent of him still enveloped me, intoxicating. He’d said that I was a willing guest, that he thought I had accepted his “claim.”
Was he right?
I wasn’t fighting him anymore, I had surrendered for now to his possessive grasp upon me… But that didn’t mean I’d completely surrendered to him!
But, at the juncture of my thighs there was a tingling warmth. My heart was beating more rapidly, and I felt a burning in my ears and cheeks, realizing that I was flushed all over.
This wasn’t like me at all. Such a reaction to some feral pirate who’d bodily taken me from a shuttle in the midst of a criminal act…
I’d long thought myself indifferent to most men. Perhaps I’d hardened myself, knowing that in the patriarchal society of my home world it was unlikely that I’d be paired with a mate whom I truly desired, and who desired me with affection.
I had only surrendered my charms to a man once, and I had regretted it.
It had been with a lanky, golden–haired stable boy who’d had a huge smile and boyish charm. He’d led me to a vacant stall in the stables one night, asking me to help him check on the horses. I’d known what he really wanted, but curiosity and the excitement of the moment drove me to go with him.
He’d taken my maidenhead, and given my little in return but some pain and discomfort. It had all been over very quickly, and he was quick to separate from me afterwards, as if disgusted by the flesh he’d just used.
I was worried about what he might say to the other farmhands. I never heard any gossip, but soon after he was caught by my uncle stealing harnesses and tackle from the farm, and the sheriff took him away to be hung for the crime. I’d felt badly when I’d heard that, but it strengthened my resolve to harden myself against the charms of men.
I’d decided that the flush of desire that one felt when approached by an attractive man was just an illusion, something nature designed to lead women into breeding and pregnancy and all the misery that came with it. Based on my experience, there wasn’t much in it for the female except pain and disappointment.
Except… Clutched in the arms of my Star Wolf captor, I wasn’t so sure of all that. Or at least, I wanted to be wrong.
The crew of the pirate ship began to emerge from the numerous corridors that connected to the cargo hold. Others came into the room from behind us… These latter were the pirates who had accompanied my captor and Gall and helped them to loot the shuttle. Between them, they carried two large chests of sparkling, super-hard diamondite alloy, each supported by null-grav buffers to reduce the tremendous weight. I guessed that these must be the chests of gold and platinum that they had plundered. They set these down at the edge of the chamber.
Now, the room was full of Star Wolves. About a dozen of them, not including my captor and Emily’s captor, Gall. They were all young, all muscular, and all male… There wasn’t a female amongst them.
Some had tattoos, some displayed jewelry and various piercings. Some had stripes of animal-like hair on their bodies and hairy legs and arms, while a few of them were nearly covered head to toe in fur. None were as big as my captor, but they were all large, powerful, with very hard, well-muscled bodies under that fur.
Most wore only tattered pants or loincloths, though a few were completely naked. Indeed, one of the Star Wolves emerging from the corridor opposite me, a strapping fellow with tattoos and fine yellow-brown fur, was fully nude, his long, heavy uncircumcised cock swinging as he walked.
I wasn’t shocked so much by the nudity as by the size of the organ between his legs, so big even in its flaccid state… W
ere they all so brutally endowed?
It didn’t look like an animal penis, it was a human male’s, thank the gods… But it was SO big, frightfully so.
I could smell them all as they gathered, the scent of them thick in the air. The scent of my captor was still strongest, of course, that musky sweetness which already seemed so damnably familiar.
But the scent of the group of Star Wolves was overpowering, a slightly acrid and singularly male scent, like breathing in a vapor of pure testosterone.
The gathered pirates seemed less interested in the crates of treasure than they did in Emily and myself.
The looks in their young, feral eyes were hungry and predatory. Some purred and growled softly. The naked one with the yellow-brown fur licked his lips and showed his fangs, and I saw his big uncircumcised organ lengthening with arousal, the head emerging from its sheath.
I wondered if my captor meant to share us with the crew… or if the crew would force him to let them all ravish us.
The thought panicked me for a moment. But my captor reached up with his free hand stroke my cheek, a gesture which was reassuring, possessive… And I felt my panic ease.
No, I thought… He said something about claiming me. And the way Gall is clutching Emily tight to his chest, I don’t think he intends to share her, either.
Just then, two more Star Wolves emerged from the corridor opposite me.
I was surprised that the one in the lead seemed older than the others. He had a hairy body, and a long beard—both of which were gray with age, turning to white in places. His body was sinewy and well-muscled, but numerous ugly old scars could be seen beneath the fur. His one eye was a sickly yellow, and the other was apparently missing, the socket covered by a rough leather patch. His jaw seemed slightly elongated, like an animal’s, with fangs protruding out of his ragged-lipped mouth.
He looked more feral, more beast-like than any of the others… Like a rabid beast, really. There was something distressing about him.
Behind him came another one of the pirates, one of the smallest she’d seen so far. He was a very young looking man, red-haired and wearing a blue flight suit, undone in front to show off his lean swimmer’s build and an auburn-furred chest with traces of snowy white down in the middle.
Seized by the Star Wolf Page 2
