Captured By The Babymaker (Kyrzon Breeding Auction Book 5)

by Luna Voss

  With that, he turns around and exits the tent. “Take her,” he orders his men. “The auction will be held in five days time.”

  Chapter Twenty

  Five days later, I’m struggling to feel hopeful. It’s the morning of my Auction Day— not the one I expected, but the one I got. The one where I haven’t seen my mate in almost a week, and I’m set to be sold to Warg, the incredibly unpleasant temporary leader of Clan Nerkesh.

  I sit in my cell, which consists of a thatched-roof hut with wooden bars on the door and windows. Once each day, the Kyrzons let me out to walk and to clean myself in a nearby stream, and twice each day, somebody approaches the hut to bring me meals. Other than that, I am alone, miserable, thinking about Karsh.

  I have no idea what they’ve done with my mate. I haven’t seen him since the day they took him away from me at spear point. On my second day in captivity, I heard a commotion on the other side of the settlement that sounded like fighting, and I even allowed myself to get hopeful that Karsh had escaped, and would soon be rescuing me.

  But that didn’t come to pass.

  And now it is time for me to be sold.

  I feel numb as I wait for my captors to collect me. I have no idea what an auction in the Far Territories is like. Hell, I don’t even know what an auction in Human Territory is like. I’ve never been to an auction before.

  I thought that thanks to Karsh, I would never need to.

  The loss of my future with him is devastating. For wonderful, golden moment, I thought I was in love, and that I had someone who loved me back. It had been beautiful feeling.

  I’ll cherish it.

  Through the bars, I see two Kyrzons approaching my cell, and I can’t stop bitter tears from trickling down my cheeks. This isn’t what I wanted.

  They stop outside the cell, and one of them opens the barred door. The moment he does, I start running as fast as I can, hoping to get past them. Unfortunately, it takes no effort at all for one of the warriors to reach out and grab me, his muscular arm catching my waist.

  “Nice try, human,” he smirks. “It’s time for you to be auctioned. And a good thing, too. It’s been far too long since we’ve had a human around here.” He licks his lips. “Especially one as tasty as you.”

  I get the very strong impression that this Kyrzon, too, would very much like to purchase me if he has the chance.

  Well, at least I have that going for me, I think to myself wryly, slipping into a sad sort of gallows humor. There’s no shortage of men around here who want me.

  The thought brings me no comfort. The only man I want is Karsh.

  The Kyrzons lead me to the center of the settlement, where there is a raised stone platform. I can see a big crowd of warriors assembled there. The bidders, I realize. And sure enough, I see that Warg is among them, standing in the front, noticeably taller than all the rest.

  “Get to it!” Warg growls. “Let the auction begin!”

  An older Kyrzon, not quite as muscular as his younger fellows, steps forward from the crowd. He’s clearly the auctioneer.

  “Warriors of Clan Nerkesh, you all know why we are assembled here.”

  The crowd roars in unison. I close my eyes, taking deep, unsteady breaths. The older Kyrzon continues:

  “Today, we have come to witness the auction of the human Selena. Warriors, which of you shall claim her?”

  The whole crowd roars again.

  “The bidding will begin at 15,000 power units,” says the auctioneer. “Who will bid 15,000?”

  “15,000,” growls Warg. “Get on with it.”

  “17,500,” I hear another Kyrzon shout.

  “20,000!”

  “25,000!”

  I focus on my breathing as the aliens bid for me. I try to picture Karsh’s face. I remember his last words to me: “I will never let you go.”

  “35,000 power units!” roars Warg, pounding his chest.

  “45,000!” yells another.

  “55,000!”

  I will never let you go.

  “75,000 power units,” Warg snarls, looking me dead in the eyes.

  The crowd falls silent. I guess Warg has won the auction. He steps forward triumphantly, his eyes flashing.

  “I told you we would be seeing more of each other,” he growls, staring at me greedily as he approaches. I keep my eyes on the ground in front of me, not wanting to accept this reality until the absolute last moment I have to.

  I will never let you go.

  There’s a sudden noise. The crowd gasps, and I look up, startled.

  Warg falls to the ground dead, a spear impaling his chest. My eyes bulge. Immediately, pandemonium breaks out among the assembled Kyrzons.

  Then something catches my eye, and my heart leaps with the first true hope I’ve felt in days.

  On the other side of the crowd, I see Karsh pushing his way through the group of warriors, a sword in his hand. He wears not only his helmet, but a suit of armor that matches. It seems that the other aliens are too startled by his presence to know how to react.

  “The woman is mine!” he roars, pounding his sword on his armored chest. “Anyone who would take her from me shall die by my hand.”

  “What is the meaning of this?” the auctioneer demands, standing in between me and my mate. “This woman belongs to Clan Nerkesh, to be auctioned to the highest bidder. Already, you have dishonored your clan by showing her your face. And now, you come forth with this new treachery?”

  Karsh just stalks forward, the intensity of his approach causing the older Kyrzon to stagger. “The woman is mine,” he growls. “Fuck the rules.” He pulls off his helmet and throws it to the ground.

  Every member of Clan Nerkesh gasps.

  “You dare?” the auctioneer sputters, looking furious. “You dare to dishonor your tribe in this way?”

  “I would do anything for her,” growls Karsh, striding up to where I’m standing and putting his arm around me. “This woman is my clan, and I would die to defend her.”

  The warriors surrounding us growl ominously, drawing their swords. The auctioneer glares at us, his eyes narrowing.

  “Then die you will,” he sneers.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  The warriors start to close in on us. Karsh stands in front of me, shielding me with his body, his sword at the ready.

  Suddenly, one of the structures next to us explodes as a brilliant blue laser bolt splashes into it. Pieces fly everywhere, the remainder of it burning and smoldering. A faint whirring sound quickly grows louder, and Cleo bursts onto the scene, riding the hover-turret.

  “Stand down!” she screams, firing a series of staccato warning shots in the air, right above the heads of the crowd.

  An arrow whizzes past her face, and then another. Many of the Kyrzons in the crowd have bows, and they’ve opened fire. She swerves to avoid the missiles, and then is forced to retreat again as the warriors nearest to her charge bearing melee weapons.

  “Come on,” says Karsh, grabbing my wrist.

  I follow him, running as fast as I can, and we make our way through the crowd. There’s a laser blast next to us, and I feel the heat singeing my hair as a pair of Kyrzons next to us burst into flames. Cleo zooms in our direction, using her cannon to carve a path through the mass of attacking warriors. She slows down as she reaches us.

  “Take Selena,” Karsh grunts, grabbing me by my waist and hoisting me up to the hover-turret. I find my footing, grabbing onto a conveniently placed set of handles to keep my balance. Cleo slams the accelerator and we zoom forward, then turn around to assist Karsh, who is now surrounded.

  “Karsh, get down!” yells Cleo at the top of her lungs.

  My mate drops to the ground, and Cleo fires a burst of laser energy at his attackers, incinerating them in a blinding blue flash.

  “This way, I’ll carve a path!” Cleo calls to him, and opens fire on the Clan Nerkesh soldiers in between us and the closest way out. We make our way forward, Karsh sprinting to keep up with the hover-turret,
and soon, we’ve almost escaped from the throng of attacking warriors. Arrows patter into the dirt behind us, and several of them whiz through the air next to me. I turn around to look at Karsh, and see arrows clinking off of his armor. I’m relieved to see that it seems to be protecting him.

  With a final blinding laser blast, our hover-turret breaks out of the crowd, Karsh right behind us. We move through the Clan Nerkesh settlement, still pursued by countless warriors, until we reach the outskirts, where a tusk-ox is waiting. Karsh hops onto it, arrows streaking past him, and we take off.

  “Are they chasing us?” I ask Cleo wildly, turning over my shoulder.

  “Not for long.”

  She does something with the hover-turret’s controls, and we rapidly slow down in the air, turning around to face the settlement. Cleo opens fire, ripping up the ground in front of us, and doesn’t let up until flames leap up from the dirt, so hot that I can feel it on my face.

  “I’m pretty sure we’re good now,” says Karsh, staring at the blaze. “Let’s get out of Nerkesh Territory.”

  Cleo guns the hover-turret and Karsh spurs his tusk-ox, and we cover ground faster than I ever have before. Soon, the warriors chasing us are nothing but dots on the horizon behind us.

  Now that we’ve escaped, I can actually take in just how amazing it feels to ride on the hover-turret. We float through the air, the wind streaking past my face, blowing my hair, the scenery zooming by all around me. It’s different from riding a tusk-ox. It’s not so… bumpy. It feels almost like I’m flying.

  “This is amazing,” I say. “Cleo… I don’t have words. I can’t thank you enough for rescuing me.”

  “Thank Karsh,” she says. “I’m not sure he slept or even ate, making breakneck pace back to Drokal Territory after they captured you. You should have seen him when he stumbled into the great hall asking for help, I thought he was half dead. But all he cared about was rescuing you.”

  I glance at my mate, riding next to us on the tusk-ox. I don’t think he heard what Cleo just told me about him, but I make eye contact with him nonetheless, trying to communicate some sense of my gratitude and my affection. He looks at me and smiles.

  “I told you,” he says, raising his voice so that I can hear him over the wind. “Selena, you have my heart. All of it. I will never let you go.”

  Happy tears well up in my eyes.

  “Damn, I’m going to have to ask Karsh to give Drokal some pointers on being romantic,” Cleo whispers to me, stifling a giggle.

  Epilogue

  I walk through the Clan Drokal settlement, surrounded the small gaggle of other human women who insisted on helping me prepare for my mating ceremony, including Cleo. Truth be told, there wasn’t really much preparation on my end, but I was glad for their company. It means everything to me to have friends in my new life.

  Karsh’s preparation for the ceremony has been a bit more involved than mine, from what I understand, but I don’t know the details. I haven’t seen him since last night. For my part, I’m wrapped in a big, thick tusk-bear cloak without a single stitch of clothing on underneath. I can feel the soft fur caressing my naked skin as I walk. I had felt quite embarrassed to leave Castle Drok so incompletely-dressed, but Cleo and the other women assured me it was a necessary part of the tradition.

  Karsh and I live in Drokal Territory now. We’re officially members of the clan. We’ve been living here for about a couple of weeks now, ever since Karsh and Cleo rescued me from Clan Nerkesh, and I couldn’t be happier. Karsh now lives his life without his mask, and boy, is it nice to be able to kiss him when I want to. Not to mention see his face. My gratitude toward Cleo and Drokal for taking us in is immense. Even though we haven’t been a part of the clan for long, I already feel at home, and I’ve come to consider Cleo a close friend. I even admitted to her recently how Karsh and I came to meet each other, and found her reaction to be nothing but sweet and accepting. I haven’t gotten to know Drokal super well yet (he’s kind of serious and brooding, albeit in a hunky sort of way), but he seems to be a wise, strong chief who leads his clan well, and I can tell that Cleo is absolutely in love with him.

  Now it is time for Karsh and I to be officially mated in front of the whole clan.

  The other women lead me to an open clearing just outside the settlement. They’ve all already been through their own mating ceremonies, and they spend the whole time we’re walking out with knowing looks on their faces. When we get to the clearing, I see that the whole clan is assembled there. I gulp.

  “You’re going to be fine,” says Cleo, patting me on the shoulder. “You go up to the front, with the bonfire.”

  I look up to the front of the field, and see an enormous fire blazing, with a tall, muscular figure silhouetted in front of it.

  “Good luck,” whispers Lily, another one of the women I’ve gotten to know. She gives me an encouraging smile.

  I give each of my new friends a hug, and then walk slowly through the crowd up to the front of the clearing. As I get closer, I can see that the figure in front of the fire is Karsh. He’s completely naked, the orange light from the dancing flames casting his sculpted muscles into harsh relief. Stepping even nearer to him, I can see that his whole body is painted with intricate designs using some kind of red pigment. This body paint must be what he spent the entire day preparing for.

  An elderly Kyrzon steps forward from the crowd, his hair gray and his wizened face lined with wrinkles. He looks to be some kind of priest.

  “We gather here on this night to witness the union of Karsh and Selena,” the priest announces to the crowd in a loud, carrying voice.

  “May their children be many,” every Kyrzon in the crowd chants in unison.

  The priest now steps up to Karsh, who stands tall, his chest forward. “Karsh, formerly of Clan Nerkesh, you are new to our tribe. You stand now as a full warrior of Clan Drokal. Karsh, I have but one question to ask you. Is Selena your woman?”

  Karsh beams, the pride evident on his face. “She is,” he says.

  The priest walks over to me, and I feel myself trembling slightly as I look up at him. “Selena, representative of humankind, you are also new to our clan. You stand now as one of us.” I gulp, feeling the eyes of every alien watching. The priest continues: “Selena, I have but one question to ask you. Is Karsh your man?”

  I stand up tall, speaking in as firm and clear a voice as I can: “He is.”

  The priest nods and takes a step back. “Then it is time for your mate to carry you through the fire.” He turns away from me, facing the crowd. “Selena, you may now disrobe.”

  Every single Kyrzon in the crowd follows the priest’s lead, turning their backs to me. I glance at Karsh, who nods. Taking a deep breath, I allow the tusk-bear fur cloak to fall to the ground.

  My mate picks me up in his arms, cradling my naked body. I feel his flaky body paint against my skin. “I love you, Selena,” he whispers, leaning into give me a kiss on the lips.

  “I love you too,” I whisper back. “You’re not really going to carry me through that bonfire, are you?”

  He smiles. “Not quite. Trust me, little one. You’ll see.”

  He carries me past the fire, and I’m relieved to see a bed of coals next to it. Okay, that makes more sense.

  “Ready?” Karsh asks me, preparing himself to sprint across the coals.

  I take a deep breath. “Ready as I’ll ever be. Please don’t drop me, okay?”

  He kisses me on the forehead. “Promise.”

  And with that, he runs across the bed of glowing coals, holding me tightly in his arms. I feel a moment of heat, and then just like that, it’s over.

  Karsh puts me down, picks up my cloak, shakes it off, and drapes it once again over my shoulders.

  “Clan Drokal, you may now gaze upon my mate,” he announces to the crowd.

  All of the assembled Kyrzons turn around, as does the priest.

  “Then you are mated,” says the older Kyrzon, his eyes flashing with approval
. “Karsh and Selena, I welcome you to Clan Drokal as man and wife.”

  * * *

  By the time we get back to Castle Drok, Karsh is groping me openly in the turbo-lift, kissing my neck against the wall as we head up to the floor of our new bedroom. I’m relieved that the rest of the clan is still making their way back from the mating ceremony. I get the impression that it’s typical for them to linger in the field a little bit, and give the new couple a chance to get back to their bed in privacy.

  It’s a good thing too, because I would have been mortified to run into any of my new clanmates in the hall. I know that Kyrzons aren’t quite as stuffy as humans are about sex, but still, Karsh and I are being pretty over-the-top.

  It’s our wedding day. You can’t exactly blame us, can you?

  Karsh is still naked, which doesn’t exactly help with my self-control. And by the time we get to the door of our bedroom, I’m half out of my cloak, and Karsh is taking the opportunity to touch every part of my naked body that he can.

  “Let’s get in the room, at least,” I giggle as he kisses my neck, his hands grabbing my butt.

  He opens the door, pushes me in, and then closes it again, his eyes blazing. “Cloak off,” he orders me. “I don’t want anything hiding your beautiful body from me now.”

  For the second time tonight, I let my cloak fall to the floor. I stand against the wall, looking up at him, my nipples hard and the place between my legs tingling. I’m ready for Karsh to claim me the way a man claims his wife.

  First he kisses my lips, his mouth greedy, dominant, and then he trails down my jaw to my neck. I gasp. He makes his way lower, past my belly button, and my heart starts to pound as I see him drop to his knees in front of me.

  “I want to find out what that little human pussy tastes like,” he whispers, making direct eye contact.

  I shiver. Karsh starts to kiss my mound, each of his enormous hands cupping one of the cheeks of my ass. For a moment, he buries his face in the dark curls between my legs, taking in my scent, as though he needs to experience my womanhood in the most direct way possible.