Burning Ceres

Burning Ceres

Rune Series -
Ingwaz

By

Viola Grace

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This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters,
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Burning Ceres

Rune Series -
Ingwaz

Copyright © 2007 Viola Grace

ISBN: 1-55410-789-X

Cover art by Martine Jardin

All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented,
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Published by eXtasy Books

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Ingwaz
Meaning:

The creative force of an individual that will bear the fruits of the future.

The creative forces of masculine fertility, gestation, emotional growth, virtue, and common sense.
This combines with family love, caring, warmth, a lack of anxiety and a time of relief.

To everyone seeking a happily ever after.
Sometimes
happily
for now can count.

Chapter One

Ceres stumbled and fell hard. She scrambled to her feet and dodged down the nearest alley. Her heart was pounding in her ears and her chest was heaving like a bellows. She tried to still her breathing and crouched next to a waste receptacle. Her eyes and ears were alert for any sign of her pursuer, but she knew that by the time she heard something, it would be too late.

Why the hell
had she run from her family?
Oh, yeah.
The arranged mating.

So, her family was
Nyal
royalty, so they had a position to maintain, what gave them the right to choose the man that she would submit
to
?

On the day of the official ceremony she had run.
As far and as fast as her credit could carry her.

She had eluded capture for almost a solar year. Within that year, she had gone into heat five times. Each time she had bribed a medical team to put her in a tank at the medical center and to wipe their records of her visit after she left. The fake names that she had used had given her a bit of protection, but she
had been forced
to use the same identity twice. The last two heats
had been so close together that she had been
unable to set up a new name before she was forced to seek medical attention.

The tank had become essential two years earlier at her family’s home. She had begun attracting every male in the vicinity with her pheromones and it had caused quite the stir, even her guards had tried to break into her room one night to answer her body’s call.

That had been when her father had put his foot down and started to
make arrangements
for her mating. She had no say in the selection process.

The day before the official announcement and two months before her next heat, she ran. She was exhausted.

It would almost be easier
to just let
them catch her.

She sat up quickly, hearing a noise in the dark and steeled her nerves. If she could last out the night, she could contact her father and arrange to come home.
Kirkan
Avedis
might have a temper, but he would honour his daughter’s request to come in if she apologized.

A bright flare in the darkness let her know her time was up. She felt the pulse of energy a moment before she fell to the ground in a heap.

* * * *

“Ugh. Where am I?” She struggled to sit, but there were restraints on her arms and across her torso.

“You are on my ship,
Dame
Avedis
. I am taking you back to
Nyal
.”
A woman’s voice.
Low and sultry.
The type of voice that men fell over each other to get close to.

“And who are you?”

“
Asha
Timmons.
Alliance
Hunter.”
The owner of the voice stood and came close enough for her to see her.

It was one of the new races.
A Terran.
The blue-black waves of hair that fell down her back were just as alien to the
Nyal
as the bright blue eyes were.

Ceres’ own ivory locks and scarlet eyes were stereotypical
Nyal
features. Her dusky skin was the only aberration. The result of an ancestress
who
tumbled an Azon during a period of her own heat.

“What is an Alliance Hunter doing tracking in
Nyal
space?”

“Making a fair trade for some citizens who are being held slave in your solar system.”
She perched on the end of the bed and looked down at her prisoner. “I suppose that I should warn you, your father is really pissed. He has insisted that you be taken with no concern for your rank or physical condition.”

“Well, I imagined that he would be. It isn’t anything new.”

“Oh, have you been sold at the Great Arena before? That is where you are headed.”

Ceres went cold.
The Great Arena?
That was where low caste women
were auctioned off
to the highest bidder for mating, and slaves were processed for distribution.
The same slave trade that had kept
Nyal
out of the
Alliance
.

“You have to let me go. I need to get out of here.” She struggled against her bonds, frustrated when her captor just watched her. There was pity in that blue gaze, but also a stern determination.

“It is better for you to be in the clutches of your own people, than for one of my species to be trapped on a mining planet.” Her leather-clad legs crossed and she watched Ceres until she stopped struggling.

The com unit chirped.

“We are in
Nyal
space.”

“How long have I been out?”

“Oh, I kept you out for a couple of days.
No sense in having you getting all upset on me.
Your metabolism is running a little fast or you would still be out. By the time you hit the Arena, you are going to be in full heat.”

She groaned and banged her head against the mattress under her head. This was not what she had in mind when she thought about returning home.

Chapter Two

"Do you understand the protocol of the private sale?” Auctioneer
Zosia
paced up and down in Ceres’ cell.

“They can see me, but I can’t see them.” Ceres was tired of being naked in the cage. She had been stripped as soon as she arrived, cleaned from head to toe and put into a ‘single’ cell. She could feel her hormones rising, her mind fumbling around the ideas of sexual possession and her pulse pounding with every hour in the cell.

The slick traces of cream that her body was producing had enough pheromones in them to drive every male guard out of the area where she
was being held
. It was worth castration if they touched her, so they left before it was uncontrollable. Only female guards
had been allowed
in her vicinity since.

She
hadn’t
bothered masturbating, as she knew from experience that it only made the heat worse. It turned her body from a simmer to a boil until the very air burned at her flesh. It was the reason for the tank. Immersion in the thick liquid kept her body from stimulation and let her ride out the hormone wave.

That option was not available to her as she faced auction. They wanted her heat
;
the hotter the better.

The private auction was the only concession to her rank that
had been allowed
.

“I will be dressed in the sheerest fabric you can find, chained at the neck, belly, wrists and ankles. The bidding will start and as soon as it stalls you will bring me out and begin to describe me in graphic terms.”

Zosia
nodded, elegant in her simple tunic and sandals. She was one of the best auctioneers available and the commission that she was going to receive of Ceres’ sale was astronomical. “That is precisely it. You will be asked to pose seductively, and the gown may be taken from you if we don’t get enough response.”

Ceres sat on her bunk and closed her eyes.
Great, just great.
It was one of her little fantasies to
be ogled
by strangers.
But
she had always hoped to keep it a fantasy.

“Fine then, Dame
Avedis
, get up and follow me.”

Silently, Ceres followed the woman who was about to sell her to the highest bidder. She
was bathed, dried and denied any perfumes for enhancement
. She
was then subjected
to being chained. Silver cuffs
were put
on her wrists and ankles, a collar was wrapped around her neck, and a slender chain was placed around her belly, hanging just below her navel and drawing attention to the slight tuft of hair at the juncture of her thighs.

“Huh, I didn’t realize that they made silk gauze that thin.” It was the only thing she could say that would calm her nerves as the
l’nal
spun silk
was draped over her shoulders, and tucked under the belly chain
. The chain was an integral part of her clothing, as it kept the silk from sliding and floating off her as she walked to the holding area where they attached her final chains.

Her collar received a tangle of chain, one attached to her right wrist, one to her left, a center link to her belly chain and two more light chains leading to her ankles. Though they were delicate in appearance, they would support her body weight with ease. She
wasn’t
going anywhere.

She fidgeted and waited for the signal that all parties invited had arrived. Behind an opaque screen, they were gathering to bid on her. She heard the murmur of masculine voices behind that curtain and shuddered as a wave of lust rolled over her. They would definitely see what they were bidding
on
.
A
Nyal
royal female in full heat.

A blue light flickered on above and
Zosia
took the stage. She greeted all of the participants and began a description of Ceres’ bloodlines and family connections. Then she got to her age, twenty-five, and the number of heats that she had had since maturity, seventeen.

This last had a murmur of interest in the audience. It was rare to have a woman that hot blooded. She would be an excellent breeder, and with her family connections, the child would have access to all of her properties.

A white light lit in the preparation room and Ceres shuddered. The bidding had begun. Long minutes passed and a red light flared to life. That was her cue. The bidding on the invisible woman was over, and they now wanted to justify further expenditures in the flesh.

“And here she is, my lords, look at how fine her features are drawn, those lush lips touching your body, those elegant hands on you, stroking you.” Ceres was blushing; it was only going to get worse.

Zosia
took a light crop and lifted her chin. “Nobility in every movement, imagine her begging for your touch.” The crop floated down to her breasts and flicked over one tip. “Responsive to the least touch, her nipples tighten from this little caress.”

Ceres was looking blindly into the
audience,
her face was on fire as the auctioneer continued the stroking of the crop down her body. She could smell her own heat, and by the murmurs in the audience, they were beginning to catch her scent. The flashing numbers on the podium climbed higher.

“And the clever
curve of her belly, my lords, take
a good look at the graceful and sensitive curve.” The crop trailed lower and she shuddered hard as it hit the crease between thigh and hip.
“Ah, a sign.
She is in heat, my lords.
Her sixth this year.
Until her body is satisfied, it will continue to flare to life for you.”

The numbers climbing on the podium were a blur.

“Now, my lords, to show you her lower limbs and the center of the flame that burns within her.”

A number began to blink frantically on the podium.
Zosia
turned her head and froze. “The auction is over, my lords. Please accept my thanks and the thanks of the Arena for attending this auction. The highest bidder may collect his purchase in the offices.”

Confusion broke out behind the curtain and angry mutters carried over to Ceres’ ears.

Zosia
bowed to all of those who attended and hustled Ceres off the stage.
Not an easy task, given her restraints.

The linking chains were swiftly removed and a heavy cloak thrown over her shoulders. A green light indicated that her buyer was waiting, and she
was quickly given shoes and dragged toward the office
.

She
didn’t
even dare to ask who purchased her. She
wasn’t
quite sure she wanted to know.