Chapter 5
Natalie shifted from one foot to the other. She glanced around the transport bay, but of course there was nothing to see but Kyan. “So where are they?”
Kyan looked up from adjusting his belt. “They’ll be here. Don’t worry.”
“They still have ten more minutes before we’re scheduled to transport. Relax.”
“How can I relax at a time like this?” Natalie pulled the satin wrap around her shoulders, but she couldn’t keep warm. Under the wrap, her naked skin crawled. The atmospheric control blasted warm air into the transport bay, but the bare metal walls chilled her not matter what she did.
Kyan regarded her. “You should put your control collar on now.”
She stared at him. “Now? Why?”
“You can’t show up on the planet without it. You know that.” He rummaged in his pocket. “Here it is. I should shackle you before we transport, too.”
Natalie opened her mouth, but she couldn’t make her voice work. Why did this mission make her so anxious? Going back to the gathering didn't bother her. Ever since she saw Tina and Arno together in the training studio, she couldn’t make her peace with this mission. She couldn’t stand the idea of watching Tina perform that way, and she didn’t want Tina to see her perform with Kyan, either. Thinking about it made her skin crawl.
At that moment, the door slid back and Tina walked in with Arno. Actually, Arno walked in first leading Tina on a leash. The leather strap connected by a metal clip to her control collar. Electro-shackles held her hands behind her back, and she wore the same crossed leather harness over her bare chest that Arno wore.
Tina locked her eyes on Natalie’s face, but Natalie couldn’t recognize her friend. The woman she knew before had vanished and left a craven, submissive slave in her place. This slave wanted one thing in life: her master’s body. She wanted to lay herself at his feet and give herself to him, body and soul. Nothing else mattered, and nothing else occupied her thoughts. The smoky desire burned in Tina’s eyes. Her body, her heart, and her spirit belonged to Arno.
The big Eqel wore the same mask of hard determination. He owned Tina now, and he knew it. He was her master. He could do whatever he wanted with her, and she would obey and fall at his word.
What had he done to her? How many times had he taken Tina since that first time in the training studio? What had the two of them done together to prepare for this mission? Natalie dared not think. She would lose all her nerve if she did. She did her best to turn away, but she couldn’t.
She stared at Tina with morbid fascination. If she hoped to make a convincing performance down on that planet, Natalie would have to find some way of transforming herself into that craven slave, too. She couldn’t go down there the way she was. She would break the first time anyone touched her.
Kyan took hold of her arm and turned her toward him. He fixed her with his eyes, and the expression on his face sent a stab of red hot fire into her very guts. He wasn’t her tender lover anymore, either. He’d crossed the threshold to the other side, just like Tina. He was a master, too—her master.
In answer to her thoughts, he lifted the control collar and buckled it around her throat. The cold leather welded to her skin and burned her to her core. Kyan took a leash out of his pocket and clipped it to the collar. Natalie held his gaze, and a warm trickle of desire crept through her deepest tissues. Her delicate flower opened its luscious petals, and the nectar oozed down her thighs.
This was it. This was the change sweeping over her, transforming her into someone she didn’t recognize. He would drag her down into the underworld of insatiable desire, until nothing would satisfy her but to serve Kyan with all her being. She was his slave, now and forever.
He watched the change wash her reservations away, and he gave the leash a yank. “Who’s your master now?”
Natalie’s lips pouted open. “You are.”
He yanked the leash again, and her hands relaxed their grip on the silken wrap. It slipped off her shoulders and crumpled to the floor, leaving her exposed to the world. Kyan stepped around behind her, and the next thing she knew, the electro-field buzzed around her wrists. She could tug and struggle all she wanted, but she couldn’t move her arms. Her nether lips yawned open again, and a spurt of juice wet her thighs.
Kyan ran his hand up inside her legs to the moist thatch of hair between her legs. He brushed the dripping petals aside and sent a fresh flood of juice running down her skin. Natalie caught her breath, and her thighs opened to his hand.
Kyan hummed under his breath. “Good. Very good.” He brought his fingers up to his mouth and tasted the juice. “Yes. Very good.”
He strode around in front of her again and took hold of the leash. He nodded to her, and then at Arno. He tugged the leash to make Natalie follow him and stepped onto the transport platform. Natalie took her place behind him, and Tina took her place behind Arno. They exchanged no words. They barely knew each other anymore.
Kyan took a handheld device out of his pocket and pushed a button. The deafening crash of the transport beam struck Natalie’s ears, but she couldn’t move her arms to cover them. She winced at the noise, but as soon as it began, it was over, and she found herself standing among towering trees with a bright golden sky overhead. Pastel-colored clouds drifted in the firmament. Iron mountains jutted into the sky along the far horizon, and flecks of light twinkled across the landscape.
Natalie looked around, but Tina and Arno were nowhere to be seen. Her position as Kyan’s slave stopped her from asking what had happened to them. He would explain nothing to her anymore. He would make all the decisions, and she would follow and obey. She put all her trust in him.
He surveyed the surroundings. Then he gave the leash a tug. “This way.”
Natalie followed him without a word. Anyone who saw them would see a master leading his slave to the gathering. He led her through the trees to a wide open plain. Dozens of lights dotted the land, and more than a thousand people strolled over the field. The countryside rolled down to a deep, green sea beyond the Promontory.
Natalie let her gaze wander over the scene. Was Tina out there somewhere? What about Amber and Melanie? No matter what might happen to her, she had to keep her eyes open for her friends. That was their mission. She couldn’t forget that.
Kyan started forward, and the leash yanked taut. He nearly pulled her off her feet, and when she stumbled after him, she crashed into him from behind. He glared at her over his shoulder with another hard yank on the leash. She struggled to keep pace with him. She walked a delicate tightrope between paying attention to him and keeping her awareness on everything around her. Above all else, she had to serve him properly. He wouldn’t stand her stepping out of line.
He led her into the heart of the gathering, and the festivities were already in full swing. Representatives from every imaginable species worked their slaves from every angle and in every position. Screams and cries rang into the sky. Fires burned here and there, and chairs, couches, beds, and platforms stood open to the air. Males and females reclined against them, bent over them, rolled on them, and banged against them.
Natalie did her best to keep her eyes pointed straight ahead while scanning the crowd for familiar faces. Every scene presented a hypnotizing picture of lust and carnal desire that fired her own appetite for contact with this dizzying array of potential partners. There seemed to be a lot of dainty iridescent Syllics around, but the field contained just as many Trunklians, Corelians, and even Eqels, along with some species Natalie didn’t recognize.
But she didn’t see any Toom, and definitely no humans. Tina and Arno must be on the other side of the Promontory. Like Natalie and Kyan, they had to make a convincing performance before they could relax and start looking around for their friends.
All at once, Kyan stopped and Natalie bumped into him again. He spun around with his eyes blazing. “That’s the second time you’ve failed to keep your leash. I have no choice but to punish you.”
Natalie opened her mouth to protest, but she caught herself in time and dropped her eyes. “Yes, Master.”