by Luna Voss
“You’re mated to one of the warriors?”
“Yes. Thorker is my mate.”
“And he bought you? On your Auction Day?”
“Of course,” says Kayla. “He paid 27,000 power units.”
“As in, he bid that much? He won you in the auction?”
“Yes, obviously” says Kayla, looking confused. “Isn’t that the way it works?”
“Well, Gurrak skipped the auction with me,” I admit. “He bribed an auction worker to let him into my dressing room, and then he forced him to let him take me away right there, without giving anyone else the chance to bid.”
Kayla whistles. “He must really like you,” she says, a little smile playing on her lips. “I’ve never heard of that before.”
I blush, glad that Kayla can’t see it in the dark. “I don’t know about that,” I say. “I think he just likes my body.”
My mind flashes to the memory of Gurrak groping me in the auction house dressing room, and my blush grows even deeper.
“Don’t be so sure,” says Kayla. “He’s been going to the auctions for a while. This wasn’t exactly his first visit. Do you think you’re the only pretty girl he’s seen? A powerful chief like him is one of the few Kyrzons on the planet that actually has lots of access to women. What did he pay for you?”
“150,000 power units,” I tell her in a small voice, feeling embarrassed. I think that’s a big number, but I’m not entirely sure.
The look on Kayla’s face makes it clear that it is. “150,000 power units?” she repeats, raising her eyebrows. “That’s… I mean, I don’t know if it breaks the bank, but damn, that’s a lot to pay for a Bride.”
I look down, my face burning.
“Oh, don’t look so pleased with yourself,” laughs Kayla. “You’ve still got to get through the specter of being an Unproven Bride.” She says the last words in a mock-spooky voice, wiggling her fingers ominously.
My face falls a little bit. I’d actually somehow managed to forget. According to the rules, I’m not even supposed to be talking to her.
“Aw, sorry, I don’t mean to freak you out about it,” she says, looking sympathetic. “It’s really not that bad.”
“Did you have to do all the same stuff too? Not talking, and all that?”
Kayla nods. “Yeah, pretty much. Except it wasn’t as public, since I wasn’t marrying the chief. It really isn’t that big a deal, I promise. The hardest part is the no talking. Well, that and the parts where you can’t kiss or take your clothes off,” she adds, laughing. “That part kind of sucked for me and Thorker.”
I let out a chuckle. “I was wondering about that. They’re really strict about it?”
“Yeah, they are,” says Kayla, rolling her eyes. “They’re strict about all this stuff. They take it pretty seriously.”
She leans against the railing, looking out over the settlement, and I join her. “What happens to me if I don’t prove myself as a Bride?” I ask her nervously.
Kayla looks down, hesitating.
“What?”
“You’ll be resold,” she says flatly. “Almost certainly to Clan Burbba.”
“Clan Burbba?”
“Another clan with territory near to ours that we have an arrangement with. You don’t want to be sold to them.”
“I don’t?”
“You don’t,” she says, sounding quite confident in her words.
Noted.
“So basically, it’s going to be a solid month before I’m able to get laid?”
She shuffles her feet awkwardly. “Well… You were purchased by the chief. I’m not saying that necessarily means you’re going to have wiggle room, but if you can convince him to bend the rules, I feel like nobody is going to want to pry too much, as long as you can keep it discreet.”
“Did you bend the rules?” I ask, raising my eyebrows.
She smiles mischievously. “A lady never tells.”
Something else enters my mind. “Do you know anything about the Kyrzon woman Zyzza?”
Kayla’s playful expression disappears. “Look out for Zyzza,” she tells me seriously. “You don’t want to fuck with her. It’s well-known that she has a thing for Gurrak, and she’ll sabotage you if she can. You don’t want to give her a reason to think you’ve broken the rules. If there’s anyone here that’s a threat to you, it’s her. Once you’ve proven yourself, you’ll have enough power that you won’t ever have to worry about her again. You can even banish her if you want. But until then, watch your back.”
Great. Not only am I stuck going through this stupid ritual, but now I have a rival to watch out for.
“Thanks for telling me,” I say gratefully. “Is there anything else I should know now that I’m here?”
“You need to get better at not talking in front of other people,” she chuckles. “If it had been someone else up here when you dropped your communicator, you’d be in real trouble.”
I nod my head. “Yeah, that’s true. Thanks for being so cool about everything, by the way.”
She smiles. “You’re welcome. Oh, and Julia? The only restrictions on you being physical with Gurrak are that you can’t take your clothes, off, and that you can’t kiss. There are other things you can do have fun with him.”
“Like what?” I ask, leaning in.
She leans her head back and lets out a cackle. “Oh, my dear, sweet, innocent child… I’m going to let you figure that out for yourself.”
Chapter Twelve
After a little while, Kayla and I say goodnight, I go back down to the castle.
“Remember, no talking!” she calls after me in a loud whisper as I head back down the stairs.
When I get to my room, I drop the pieces of the broken communicator on the bed and try to put it back together. It’s no use. The thing is smashed to bits. I shake my head in frustration. Now even if Cleo does try to contact me by radio, I won’t be able to answer.
I fall asleep cuddled up in my bed, wishing I had Gurrak to cuddle with. In my dreams, I accidentally deliver a loud speech in front of the entire clan, while Gurrak, Zyzza, and the rest of the tribe laugh at me. They then sell me to Clan Burbba, who intend to eat me in a stew.
I awake just as they are putting me in a large cauldron filled with vegetables and broth over a fire. For a moment, I’m seized with fear before I realize where I am.
Then everything comes back to me. It’s morning. I’m in a castle. In Clan Gurrak Territory.
I belong to Chief Gurrak now.
…Unless I fail the test, and they sell me to Clan Burbba.
Memories from the last day flood over me. I think about Gurrak bribing his way into my dressing room, and how vulnerable and turned on I felt as he touched me. I think about him slamming the auction worker against the wall and forcing him to let him buy me. I think about the journey here, climaxing on the Kyrzon chief’s fingers as he took advantage of his single opportunity to have me naked.
The idea that I would get to experience my first taste of sexuality like that, and then be denied for the next month, seems so incredibly unfair. I’ve gone my entire life without the touch of a man, and then finally, after 20 years, not only do I have a man touching me, but a tall, handsome slab of muscle, who also happens to be an incredibly powerful war chief.
And not only that, but he seems to take a significant amount of pleasure in making me orgasm.
And now, I have to wait. I’m not allowed to do anything with him that involves getting naked. We’re not even allowed to kiss.
I think back to what Kayla told me last night. There are other things you can do to have fun with him.
Well, I can think of one thing I can do with him. It isn’t talking or kissing, but it does involve my mouth.
The very thought gives me a thrill. It feels so naughty.
I don’t even know what Gurrak looks like naked yet.
Without even getting a conscious signal from my brain, my hand starts to make its way under the covers. It creeps in between
my legs as I lie under the blanket, and I rub myself absentmindedly as I think about nonverbal ways to initiate with Gurrak what I’m thinking about doing to him.
I practically burst out laughing as I suddenly imagine myself catching Gurrak’s eye and unsubtly miming a blowjob. Hey, it would get the point across. But no. I’m definitely not going to do that.
I’d have to get him alone. That would be step one. I don’t know what the day in front of me holds, but hopefully it isn’t more rituals. I’m sure that at some point, Gurrak will want to find a way to make use of my more… carnal attributes.
Unless he’s all hung up on following the rules, that is. He doesn’t really seem like a by-the-book kind of fellow, considering the way he took me from the auction house, but I get the impression these are traditions he takes more seriously. I’ll need to make a special effort to make it clear to him that I’m not trying to disobey the restrictions placed upon an Unproven Bride.
But even so, I still have some leeway. After all, there isn’t a rule at all about taking his clothes off.
My hand slips into my pants as I consider the act of removing his. I’m sure he would let me, if I put him in the right mood. The hard part is doing that without speaking a word.
Of course, if my experiences with him are any guide, this enforced celibacy is going to be killing him just as much as it’s killing me. He seemed very, very focused on enjoying my body during the time we’ve spent together so far.
I can’t stop thinking about our carriage ride together. The way he touched me, and made me come, and told me I was his.
There’s something possessive in the way he talks to me that triggers some kind of primal instinct within me. It makes me want to submit to him, to belong to him, to let him enter me and mark me with his cum. I untie the drawstring on my pants and push them down to my ankles to allow more room for my hand to move as I touch myself. A moment or two later, I kick my clothes off entirely, feeling hot.
Wow, do I get horny in the mornings. I keep rubbing my clit, focusing on the memory of Gurrak holding me on his lap in the carriage. I remember him ordering me to tell him that I was his property, and how submissive, how vulnerable, how utterly owned I felt as I did it. I think about him pushing his huge finger inside me, and I do my best to replicate the feeling with my own finger, biting my lip to release some of the built-up tension.
My breathing gets faster as I keep touching myself. I kick off my blankets as my climax builds, starting to get hot. I’m seriously turned on. I really wish Gurrak could be here right now. I want him to have his way with me. I want to hear him grunt in pleasure as I make his cock feel good.
Suddenly, there’s a knock on my door. I freeze. Shit. Bad timing. I scramble out of bed and throw on the Kyrzon pants and tunic that I just took off.
I’m a fraction of a second away from yelling “Yes! Who is it?” through the door, when I remember that I’m not allowed to speak. I close my mouth, very relieved to have caught myself.
Dammit, that means I have to actually open the door and deal with whoever is on the other side. I do my best to arrange my face into an expression like I wasn’t just interrupted masturbating, allow myself a single exasperated sigh, and then pull open the door to the hallway.
It’s Gurrak.
Awkward.
No, fantastic!
Fantastic, because he’s alone. I take his hand and pull him into my bedroom eagerly.
He follows me in, looking amused by my insistence, and closes the door behind him. “I trust that you slept well?”
I can’t answer him, so I just nod. I feel very warm under my clothes. Frankly, it’s uncomfortable. My heart is racing, my back is slick with sweat, and the place between my legs is crying out to be touched. I can feel the seat of my pants sticking to me, trapped by my wetness.
“You’re wearing your shirt backwards,” he tells me with a chuckle. I look down, and see that he’s right. Acting on autopilot, I start to pull my arms out of the sleeves so I can flip the shirt around.
“You’re not allowed to undress!” Gurrak says immediately, looking worried. He holds his hand out in a gesture that clearly says stop. “You can’t do that in front of me.”
I guess I’ll just wear my tunic backwards, then. I resist the urge to roll my eyes, and pull my arms back into my sleeves.
Gurrak seems oblivious to how obviously horny I am. And without words, I’m not really sure how to make my intentions known. It’s not like I can just take my clothes off in front of him.
I gesture to the bed, raising my eyebrows. He looks over, and it doesn’t seem like he takes the hint.
“You were comfortable last night?” he asks, smiling. “I’m glad to know that.”
I point to him, and then I point to the bed. I don’t know how to be any more clear than that.
“You want to know how I slept?” Gurrak makes a failed guess at interpreting my nonverbal communication.
I shake my head and pat the bed several times with my hand.
“Are you telling me that you weren’t comfortable last night?” Gurrak tries again, frowning. “I can send for another mattress, if that’s what you mean.”
I open my mouth in frustration, and then close it. He’s not getting it. Apparently taking super obvious hints isn’t exactly his strong suit.
The enormous war chief is still looking at me expectantly, waiting for me to take another stab at communicating with him. I’m struck by how handsome he is, how fiercely majestic he looks with his great beard neatly combed and his hair tied back. His arms are so thick, and his shoulders are so broad. Even for a Kyrzon, Gurrak is well-built. It’s like he was genetically designed to charm the panties off me.
Of course, he’s not allowed to charm any article of clothing off of me right now. Not while I’m an Unproven Bride. Right now, the most that he can do is look.
But I want him to do more than look. I remember the passion that flashed in his eyes when he undressed me in the carriage, and the fervent desire with which he touched my body.
I want to unlock that side of him again.
And so with that in mind, and feeling like I’ve run out of other options, I decide to do something daring. Something that would have made even a very slightly younger version of myself blush scarlet.
Slowly, and looking Gurrak dead in the eye, I drop down onto my knees in front of him. I kneel right between his legs, looking up at him, my lips parted suggestively.
Chapter Thirteen
Gurrak watches me, his expression still not revealing that he understands what I have in mind. Could he be any more clueless? Here I am, practically throwing myself at him, and he’s staring at me like he can’t think of any reason why I would be kneeling on the floor, looking up at him with my mouth hanging open.
“Are you okay?” he asks, seeming very confused. “Julia, what’s the matter?”
I bob up and down on my ankles in frustration. What more do I have to do? Finally, my capacity for subtlety completely spent, I just reach out and put my hand on his thigh.
His expression changes instantly as I touch his leg. Whether he understands what I’m doing or not, he’s clearly preoccupied by how close my hand is to his crotch. He looks down at me, his face suddenly intense.
“What are you doing, Julia?” he whispers.
I give him what I hope is a sultry look, and allow my hand to move higher. He inhales sharply as I find his bulge.
“Julia, what are you doing?” he repeats, his voice ragged. It’s not really a question. He knows exactly what I’m doing. I start to rub him more insistently, tracing the outline of his cock. He’s not even hard yet, and still he feels big. The warm, squishy mass that I can feel through his pants is already large enough to fill my entire hand.
And it’s getting less squishy by the second.
Less squishy, and a lot more sizable.
As I rub Gurrak through his pants, I can feel his cock stiffening and expanding. Pretty soon, the hard lump extends more than halfway dow
n his thigh, and I’m starting to wonder how much bigger this thing can possibly get.
It turns out, the answer is a lot bigger. I look up at Gurrak in amazement as his cock continues to expand, creating a big, cylinder-shaped lump in his pants that’s impossible to ignore.
My jaw drops, and I stare at it, shocked, still stroking its length with my fingers. Gurrak looks down at me, and he smirks.
“Find something you like, little human?”
I nod eagerly, my mouth still open.
Gurrak looks pleased by my excitement. He reaches down and cups my chin in his hand, stroking my lips with his thumb. Acting on autopilot, I take his thumb into my mouth, sucking on it gently, all while making eye contact.
He groans, looking down at me, and I see a hint of that same fire from before flash behind his eyes.
Good. I want him so turned on he can’t even think.
I suck his thumb in the absolute sexiest way that I can, looking up at him with big eyes. At the same time, I reach for his crotch and begin to rub him through his pants, exploring the outline of his shaft.
“You know,” says Gurrak, his voice low, “I just thought of something we could do that wouldn’t break your restrictions as an Unproven Bride at all.”
Waaaay ahead of you, dummy, I think. Finally, he catches on. I moan, sucking his thumb deeper, starting to unbuckle his belt with my hands.
“Oh, fuck,” Gurrak groans as I succeed in unclasping the buckle. “Such a dirty little human. So eager to play with my big Kyrzon cock.”
I blush, even as I confirm his words with my actions by struggling to pull down his pants. I’m incredibly turned on. My clit is throbbing. I wish so badly that I could touch myself, or that Gurrak could touch me.
But my attention becomes very singular the moment Gurrak’s cock springs free. I stare at it in amazement, my frustration forgotten.
How is this even real?
