Alien Slave (33 page)

“
You’re being very kind to
me, Wynhod. Thank you.”

His laugh was a bark. “I’m telling you
the truth, little fighter.”

“
Do you want sex?” Might as
well use what little advantage she had.

He gave her one of those long,
thoughtful silences. “I would enjoy making love. But only if you
want me in that way too. Sex, as wonderful as it is, isn’t what
makes me want to be with you.”

God, she wanted to believe
him.

Dani nuzzled her way from his shoulder,
up his neck, across his strong jaw, over his chin, finally finding
his lips ready for her kiss. Wynhod moved her from his hip so that
he held her chest to chest. Dani wrapped her legs around his waist,
feeling his cocks pressing hard against his formsuit.

He pushed her up against a column of
rock that she hadn’t known was there. Slight protrusions poked her
back, but it was mostly smooth. Dani liked being trapped between
the ungiving stone and the almost as stoic Nobek.

Between a rock and a hard place, she
thought and almost giggled. But feeling Wynhod’s hand between them,
unleashing his maleness from the formsuit replaced hilarity with a
surge of lust. A hard place, indeed.

His tongue plundered her mouth,
searching out all the softest, most sensitive spots. Meanwhile, his
cocks moved unerringly to her orifices, as if drawn by an
irresistible force. The tips of his cocks slipped just inside,
igniting her senses.

Dani only now realized Wynhod hadn’t
prepared her for anal penetration as the men usually did. Was she
still stretched from sex with Gelan hours ago?

She had no time to wonder as the Nobek
pressed into her. Her ass gave a little more grudgingly than
before, aching just a bit, but she took him with little trouble.
The bit of hurt only seemed to enhance the deep welling of pleasure
coming from both passages. She made herself soft with surrender as
Wynhod filled her utterly.

When his mouth released hers, Dani
sighed. No men had ever possessed her as wonderfully as the
Kalquorians. Sweet bliss, unaided by an intoxicating bite, pervaded
every cell.

She heard the smile in Wynhod’s voice.
“You were made for us, little fighter.”

Dani didn’t know if he meant
Kalquorians in general or his clan specifically. As Wynhod began
his steady, powerful thrusts, she decided it wasn’t important right
now to ask.

His driving hips moved her up and down
the rock face for an instant, then he circled her with his arms,
saving her hide from abrasion. Wynhod’s big hand cradled the back
of her head.

“
How does it feel?” he
growled in her ear. “Tell me what it’s like to have me inside
you.”

“
Like liquid starlight
pouring into my body,” she gasped. “Like it’s bubbling at full boil
and going to overflow at any moment and pour out of me.”

Dani had never considered herself a
poet, but the description of the delicious friction of his lengths
driving in and out of her sounded inspired to her own ears. Wynhod
filled her to bursting, stroking all the bits of her that sparkled
and fizzed with effervescent delight.

“
Do I please you,
Dani?”

“
Oh my God. It’s wonderful
what you’re doing.”

“
I’m not hurting
you?”

“
No. You can go
harder.”

He obliged her, quickening his pace
until he pounded her like a jackhammer. Dani’s head lolled in his
hand, animal-like cries fleeing her throat. His groin, smashed up
against her mound, stimulated her clit. A slow, rolling pulse of
exquisite sensation spooled in her nether parts. She drew heaving
breaths as her insides tightened.

“
Are you going to come for
me?”

“
Yes. Yes.”

“
Good.” He panted. “I am
close as well. I can feel you constricting all around
me.”

“
Getting …
close.”

“
So wet. So
warm.”

“
Uh huh. Hard …
harder.”

“
Fuck you
harder?”

“
Yes.”

Pounding. Heaving. Coiling up inside.
Electric shocks of desire.

“
Almost.”

“
Let it happen, little
fighter. Let yourself go.”

“
Almost … oh …
oh.”

“
There it is. Here you
come.”

“
Oh … oh …
please.”

“
Show me, Dani. Give
yourself to me.”

“
Yes … oh … Wynhod …
oh-oh-oh-OH-OH-OH!”

The orgasm clenched her belly tight
like a fist, then flung her wide open, stretching her for eternity.
Sweetness and glory poured forth, bursting in a tidal wave from her
to engulf Wynhod too, and his cries joined hers as they were
overcome. She felt him rippling within her, sending liquid ecstasy
deep inside.

Dani clung to Wynhod even after they
calmed, even after he slipped from inside her to reluctantly
conceal himself inside his formsuit, even as he carried her back to
the shelter where Krijero had gone back to sleep and Gelan waited.
With every step the Nobek took, Dani’s mind chanted a mantra, as if
she might weave a spell with thought alone.

Keep me. Keep me. Keep me.

If only they would. If only she could
make them want her. If only she could trust in these men to not
break her already abused heart.

Chapter 18

Late morning found the little group
back in marshland. Dani had a hard time containing her excitement
as they got closer to the Kalquorians’ ship, only a few miles away
now. Despite her sore, cut feet she kept skipping ahead of the men.
Gelan and Wynhod helped the limping Krijero along, their shoulders
supporting the injured Imdiko’s arms, their arms slung around his
waist. He thudded along in obvious pain, but not one word of
complaint passed his lips.

“
Slow down, Dani,” Wynhod
called for the millionth time. Fortunately, no one seemed to mind
warning her over and over not to get too far ahead. Their smiles
were indulgent when she looked back to apologize and let them catch
back up.

“
Sorry.” She looked ahead
into the heavily wooded bog where the bright sun sent jigsaw puzzle
pieces of sunlight through the leaves. “Lots of standing water,”
she reported.

“
Probably from yesterday’s
storms,” Gelan answered. “I don’t remember the maps saying this is
a very low-lying area. Wynhod?”

“
Spots here and there, worse
as we get closer.”

They had nearly caught up. Dani turned
from them, stepping up on log, crossed it, stepped into a long
stretch of smooth, glassy water. She plunged down to her
waist.

“
Damn it.”

The men paused at the edge. Gelan blew
out a breath. “I cannot wait to be back in the mountains. I’ve had
enough of this lowland stuff to last me awhile. Hold still, Dani.
Who knows how deep this gets?”

He released Krijero and vaulted the
log. The Dramok waded out to Dani and picked her up, cradling her
against his chest. Dani would have preferred he help Krijero, but
she knew her protests would fall on deaf ears. It made her feel
good that they placed her welfare in such high esteem, but she felt
guilty nonetheless. She wasn’t badly injured, after all.

Wynhod supported Krijero as they
carefully navigated their way to join them. Neither man seemed to
mind Gelan’s election to carry her.

Dani was in perfect agreement with
Gelan’s disgust over the wetland. “If I never see another swamp,
I’ll be grateful. What’s your home like?”

They slogged through the water, the
water climbing the men’s thighs as they went deeper. Krijero
grinned at her, the expression easing some of the tightness on his
face. “Curious to know about where you’ll live?”

Wynhod said, “You’ll like it, little
fighter. Plenty of mountains to climb. You’ll have a couple of
rooms of your own. You can decorate them however you
like.”

Gelan added, “We’ll have to make a trip
to Joshada. They have the best craftsmen. There’s no better place
to buy furnishings.”

Krijero ticked off items as the water
rose to his buttocks. “A desk, vid, tables, seating. Shelves and
decorative items. Whatever else depending on your hobbies and
interests. I’m thinking the rooms between mine and yours, Gelan. We
can build a nice balcony for her off the exterior.”

“
The view from there is
spectacular,” the Dramok agreed.

Hope warred with mistrust. Dani looked
at the three men. “That sure is a lot of trouble for someone who’s
only going to be around for three years.”

They exchanged looks and slight nods
with each other. Gelan turned his attention to her. In a careful
voice, he said, “We’ve been talking, Dani. We’d like you to stay on
beyond your contract as our Matara.”

Joy rose for an instant as she thought
they want me! It crashed the next moment as a little voice asked,
then why don’t they make me their Matara now?

They were giving themselves an out in
case she proved too much trouble during her servitude.

I’ll screw it up. I always do. They
won’t keep me past the contract.

Unable to keep the pain from her voice,
Dani shook her head. “It’ll never work. You’ll see. We’re not right
for each other.”

Wynhod scowled. Krijero lowered his
head to study the water, now nearly to his waist.

Gelan sounded disappointed, but he
shrugged his shoulders. “We disagree with you. No matter. We have
three years to change your mind.”

It’s not my mind that will change. I’ll
always want to be your Matara. You won’t. She knew that as sure as
LXS-42 was the worst rock she’d ever had the displeasure of
visiting. “You shouldn’t bother. You’re planning to spend all that
money and do a bunch of work for nothing.”

Wynhod growled, ferocity making his
face hard. “You will be our Matara, Dani. Be scared of it all you
like, but the decision is made.”

She said nothing, only laid in Gelan’s
arms thinking sad thoughts.

* * * *

Gelan hadn’t expected Dani to be
thrilled with their plans to make her their lifelong mate, but he
still experienced a twinge of disappointment at her reluctance. The
letdown was mitigated by the struggle on her expression, the
flashes of fear and pain.

Give her time. She’ll come around. She
already shows signs of wanting to be around us despite her
inability to trust.

It was Krijero all over again, except
in greater measures. Perhaps fate had given him his Imdiko as
training to win over Dani.

He was still thinking of all the ways
the clan would charm Dani into loving them when they finally
reached a rise of higher ground, taking them out of the fetid pool
of water they’d been wading in. No sooner had the men’s boots
cleared the swamp when Wynhod suddenly froze.

“
Down, Krijero!” he shouted,
and the Imdiko released his hold on him, crouching on the ground.
As Wynhod drew both blaster and knife, putting himself in front of
Krijero, Gelan put Dani on the ground next to him and drew his own
weapons.

Tragooms burst out of cover, squealing
and blasting as they heaved their blocky, armored bodies towards
the clan. With Dani’s screams ringing in his ears, Gelan returned
fire. Then the Tragooms were on top of them, and all was sweat and
blood, pain and fighting.

The clan was outnumbered, and the
bloodthirsty Tragooms seemed to be everywhere. Gelan was dimly
aware of Wynhod fighting, a savage grin eating up the Nobek’s face
as he took his enemies down. The thrill of destruction was on
Gelan, and elation burst with every tusked foe that took him on,
sometimes four at a time. Krijero rose and fell as his ankle failed
him, but his howls of delighted rage told Gelan he was holding his
own.

Gelan didn’t know why the typically
opportunistic Tragooms didn’t simply finish them off with blasters
rather than fighting hand to hand combat. He didn’t care. The glory
of battle filled his veins, and he killed the hated enemy, gleeful
as blackish Tragoom blood arced from well-placed stabs to chests
and groins, the most vulnerable parts in the armor-like Tragoom
hides.

Grunts and squeals and shrieks filled
the air. Blades flashed silver lightning in the dappled sunlight.
Blows thudded off thick Tragoom hides, honed knives found the
softer fleshy parts. The rancid stench of unwashed Tragoom and
rotted swamp vegetation blanketed the battleground.

Gelan saw Krijero go down yet again,
but this time a lucky Tragoom leapt upon the Imdiko, a
triple-bladed dagger rushing down to impale his heart. Without
thought, Gelan pulled a thin-bladed knife from his boot and plunged
it into the Tragoom’s eye, instantly killing the misbegotten beast.
Its dagger fell from its hand, the handle bouncing harmlessly off
Krijero’s chest.

Gelan pushed the carcass off his
clanmate and stood over Krijero, ready to fight on. But the
Tragooms had all suddenly disappeared, save the one Wynhod was
happily beheading. Seven corpses lay around their little
group.