Chapter Nine

 

Mina couldn’t muster even a smile during the back-slapping and congratulations that went on back at the training pod. The mission should be considered a success. All three galactacarriers had been restored, and apart from minor injuries, no one had been hurt.

The teams tried to make her the hero, but she refused.

A hero doesn’t get on her knees to service the criminal. She doesn’t let herself get dragged naked to his chamber to be kept as his pet. She sure as veck doesn’t need to be rescued and carried out lifeless by another male.

Another male who seemed to be suffering as much as she now.

He must be battling his own demons now. He’d never wanted to let her go in. Never wanted her to use her body as bait. He’d made it plain to her how much it cost him. But she’d insisted. And then he had to listen to her offer herself to another male.

A disgusting rodent of a male.

But as much as she cared about Erick and wished she could ease his turmoil, she couldn’t. She couldn’t see her way out of her own.

And the only answer she could see— the best one she knew—was to leave Mina behind.

She needed to get back to the palatial pod and figure out a life as Tara. Get to know her sister and father. Be without a male for a while until she knew her head from her ass.

Because she couldn’t sort through her tangled emotions around sex and slavery and the things she’d done.

It wasn’t Erick’s fault.

But she couldn’t be with him. Not now, anyway. Not until she knew who she was—away from her life as Mina.

 

~.~

 

Escorting Mina back to the palatial pod should have been an honor. At least she’d asked him. They were the first words she’d spoken to him since they returned from the mission.

But knowing she was returning in defeat, knowing she was resolved to permanently turn away from her life as Mina left him cold.

It meant he’d be shut out, too. Because he loved Mina.

Wait—that wasn’t true. He loved Taramina. All the parts of her. He didn’t see the distinction between the two. But she did.

She did, and that was all that mattered. He couldn’t make her accept herself or her past. Only she could do that. And he couldn’t convince her to keep him in her life if she’d decided to shut off an entire piece of herself. The piece with him in it.

The flight to the pod was silent, in the worst possible way.

The air hung thick and heavy between them. He wanted to give her space—knew she wouldn’t want him to harangue her about her choice. Yet, he also felt the apology from her. The extra politeness. The sad pursing of her lips when she looked at him.

But, veck that. He didn’t want her apology. He wanted her.

He just had to figure out how to get through to her.

And it wasn’t through sex.

They needed some other connection. But as much as he tried to come up with something, he fell flat.

He didn’t even know her Tara side.

Hell, she didn’t even know her Tara side.

So, he’d have to help her figure it out. What would a bright, ambitious female find interesting on the palatial pod?

It wasn’t caring for infants or plants. She wasn’t wired the same as Bayla or Lamira.

Maybe he could find her a job in research and strategy for the big strike to take Zandia back.

His mind was working so hard on a solution, he failed to notice the same ship had stayed behind them at the same distance for quite some time.

Veck. How long had it been there? Had it registered the training pod?

He flicked on communications to the training pod.

“Rok, this is Erick speaking. I have a tail. I don’t know how long it’s been on me, but I suggest relocation of Freedom.”

“Copy that. Can you lose it?”

“Yes, and I will, although there’s no point. The palatial pod coordinates are well known. But this isn’t the first time I’ve been followed. There must be a tracker on my ship.”

Part of him hoped Mina would show interest. He could put her on the task of finding the tracker, give her a sense of purpose. But she just sat there like the carved statues that used to adorn the palace in the capital of Zandia.

“Get rid of it. We’ll update the prince with the new coordinates.”

He ended the communication and for the sheer sake of outflying his followers, he put the ship into turbo mode and zipped around Ocretion airspace several times before landing on the palatial pod. He would have the ship thoroughly searched for a tracking device, but he knew what it meant—war with the Finn loomed bright and close. And, if they were smart, they would strike first, now that they had the galactacarriers.

As uncomfortable as the flight had been, he didn’t want it to end. He knew, instinctively, that the moment Mina walked off his ship, their relations would be over.

“Mina—Tara—” he called to her as she zoomed toward the hatch.

She stopped but didn’t look back, just hung her head.

Seeing her so defeated vecking slayed him.

“I’m sorry.”

“You don’t have anything to be sorry for,” she snapped, turning and slumping her back against the hatch. She pushed her pale hair out of her face.

It took all his self-control not to crowd her, not to get up into her space, cage her against that door, press his body against hers and remind her how good—how incredibly good they were together.

“I don’t want to be purged along with whatever happened back there that you don’t want to think about. I want to know Tara, too. Is that possible, beautiful female?”

There was a pleading quality to her gaze, but she shook her head. “Maybe… I don’t know.” Her shoulders slumped. “I don’t know, Erick. But I don’t think so.” She turned back to the hatch and hit the button to activate the doors.

He waited until she’d left before he punched the wall, denting the metal with the force of his frustration.

He needed to let her go. She couldn’t have been clearer. After all the times he’d failed to respect her boundaries, this time, he had to do the honorable thing.

Even if it killed him.

 

~.~

 

Mina hated herself for hurting Erick.

And she hated everyone in the damn palatial pod. She hated the adorable babies and the laughing children. She hated the doting servants and every male who went out of his way to talk to her or flirt.

She hated her sister for being happily wrapped into Tomis. No, that wasn’t true. She was thrilled for Talia, even though she had baby fever and had started talking about her fertility and annual cycle.

Mina lay curled up in her sister’s room on her hoverdisk, watching her try on clothing from the shipment of goods the servants had ordered for the two of them.

“Aren’t you going to try anything on?” Talia asked, looking at herself critically in the mirror.

“I’ll look through whatever you don’t want.”

“Daneth says we still have a few more weeks of breeding season and my chances are excellent. Even if I don’t conceive this cycle, he can force a second season in a few lunar cycles, and I can try again.”

“That’s great.”

Talia looked over and narrowed her eyes. “What’s on your mind, Tara?”

“Nothing,” she answered, too quickly.

Talia dropped the gown she’d been holding and climbed up on the hoverdisk. “You’re lying. I know we don’t know each other that well, and we’re still getting reacquainted, but I know something happened while you were on the training pod, and you’ve been moping ever since. Was it something with Erick?”

Her face flushed, but she looked away. “No.”

It wasn’t. Not really. Except that was the part that bothered her the most. She’d thought cutting Erick out of her life would help her find her way onto a different path, but instead she just felt like a hole had been blown right through the center of her body. A giant gap remained, and it was a wonder she was still able to walk and talk. To breathe and eat.

“What did he do? Did he get too dominant? I can’t tell if Zandian males are always so aggressive or if it’s just breeding season. Or if it’s the fact that they haven’t seen a female in so long.”

Her heart had picked up speed, despite her resistance to the topic. “Is Tomis dominant?”

Talia snorted. “Mmm hmm. Especially when it comes to protecting me.” She mimicked his deep voice, “I’m your master. When I give you an order, you obey.”

Mina giggled. “And what happens if you don’t?” She shouldn’t ask that question. She really shouldn’t. Except she really wanted to know.

“He punishes me.” Talia waggled her eyebrows. “And he’s damn good at it.”

No, she didn’t want to know. This was her sister, after all. Oh hell. Weren’t sisters supposed to share about their sex lives?

“Erick’s dominant, too,” she admitted, then immediately wanted to cram the words back into her mouth.

Talia waited for her to say something else.

“I like it. A lot. But I’m having a hard time reconciling it all with what I did before.”

“You weren’t a house slave, were you?”

“You know I wasn’t.”

Talia slipped a hand over hers. “I’m sorry. That’s one thing I was spared.”

Tears burned her eyes, but she didn’t want them. How had she gone from having no shame while she was a pet, to being crippled by it? Was it Erick who brought on the shame?

She’d associated it with him.

But it wasn’t.

He’d never judged her. He’d been the one who had noticed she didn’t feel comfortable here on this pod. Had tried to help her find a place on Zandian Freedom.

How had she forgotten that?

“Erick...Erick found me in an intergalactic brothel. He planned to get me out, but I ended up stealing his Zandian crystal and using it to bust out on my own.” She smiled, a bit of her former courage, the sense of power she’d had returning.

Talia laughed. “That must’ve been hard for his male ego.”

“A bit, but he took it like a champion.” She turned and sat cross-legged, facing her sister. “Here’s my situation. I like him—a lot. He definitely likes me. But…” She couldn’t finish, because it sounded too lame to say out loud. But he reminds me too much of the place I met him? That wasn’t even true. She’d been empowered, even as a slave back at Prium’s and Dorhock’s. It wasn’t until she came to the palatial pod that she lost her strength. It was fear of her father’s judgement. Or her sister’s. Or other beings on the pod.

“But what?” Talia prompted.

“I don’t even know. Actually, I think I just figured it out.” She scrambled off the bed.

“Good. Figured what out?”

“Erick accepts who I was and what I’ve been. But I guess I didn’t. Or I didn’t believe anyone here would. So I tried to push him away. I know. It doesn’t make any sense.” She walked to the door but stopped when some being tapped on it.

Bayla’s holograph projected into the room. “Is Tara in there? Your father is trying to kill her mate in the Great Hall. Come quickly!”

Her heart jammed up into her mouth. “What?” She hit the panel to open the door and flew out, followed by Talia and Bayla at a run.

In the Great Hall, she found her father crouched over Erick, pounding his fist into Erick’s face.

“Stop!” she screamed, launching herself at her father. “Get away from him.” She wedged her body between theirs and draped her torso across Erick’s.

Leora shot forward from where she’d been shouting on the sidelines and caught her father’s arm, pulling him back.

“Why weren’t you fighting back? What in the hell is going on?”

When Erick just panted and looked at her with pained eyes, she understood. He thought he deserved this. Someone had told her father something—either what she’d done at Neo’s or what had happened at Prium’s, and he was exacting his own form of punishment.

She stood up and put her hands on her hips. “What do you think you’re doing here?” she demanded.

Her father’s jaw muscles twitched. “He forced himself on you. In a vecking brothel.”

She didn’t think, just swung her own fist and landed it squarely on her father’s jaw. She knew he could’ve ducked. He was the Master at Arms, after all, but he let it fall. Maybe he was too stunned to believe his own daughter would punch him.

She advanced on him, swinging again. This time, he ducked. She jabbed a finger in the center of his chest. “You don’t get to exact retribution on my behalf. You don’t get to decide what’s wrong or right about my sex life.”

He flinched. She felt a ripple of shock go through the room, which had filled with a hushed audience.

“I am a grown female. I have a past, not so different from many of the females on this pod. I don’t have to be made ashamed of it by my father or any other being who believes I was dishonored. I won my own freedom, and I make my own decisions, now.”

She stopped and served a hard look to every being in the pod. “I’m a warrior, same as you. If I choose to use my body as a weapon for the Zandian cause, I’ll do it, and I won’t be made to feel ashamed for it. Not by any being.” She looked over at Erick, who had climbed to his feet. “Including myself.”

He opened his arms, his expression soft.

She ran into them, pressed her face against his solid chest, and let him squeeze the breath right out of her.

“Tara,” her father began, rubbing his forehead.

“It’s Mina. I go by Mina, now.”

“Mina,” he said softly, a touch of sadness in his tone. “That’s nice. Mina, I’m sorry if it seemed I was judging… your experience. If you don’t have a problem with it, neither do I.”

Relief came so swift and hard, she burst into tears.

Her father’s face flashed alarm, but Erick sifted his fingers into her hair and murmured endearments. “It’s all right, pet. No one judges you. You can be anything you want to be here.”

“I want to be yours,” she choked, shocking herself.

“Good, because I was planning to do everything in my power to convince you to give me another chance.”

“It’s yours.”

“Say, I’m yours.”

She laughed through her tears. “I’m yours...I think. Let’s try it out.”

Erick’s brows dipped. “I’m aiming for more than trying it out, Taramina. But I’ll take that for a start.”

 

~.~

 

Erick hooked his forearm under Mina’s ass and hauled her legs around his waist. She looped her arms around his neck and let him carry her from the Great Hall and their spectators.

“You’re a mess,” she murmured, gazing down at his bloodied face.

“I’ll clean up in the washtube.”

“You might need a visit to the crystal baths, too.”

He nipped at her breast. “All I need is you, beautiful.”

“Talia said Tomis punishes her.”

The suggestive lilt to her voice made him chuckle. His pet was angling for his dominance. “I’ll bet she isn’t nearly as naughty as you, pet. Does she get her ass vecked after her spankings?”

Talia squeezed her thighs together around his waist, squirming.

“Don’t think I won’t make you pay dearly for walking away from me. Especially after I finally completed a heroic rescue of you.”

She laughed.

“I know you prefer to rescue yourself. I would’ve preferred it, too, sweet female.”

He entered his chamber and walked straight to the washtube, bringing them both in without removing any clothing.

“Wait!” The water spray started. Mina giggled. “You’re crazy!”

He ripped her loose blouse from her body and slapped a breast. “Crazy for you, pet. Too crazy to wait to get you naked.”

“That doesn’t even make…oh!” He yanked her leggings down and nipped her inner thigh. “Sense.” He kissed and nipped up her inner thigh, but the water level had risen too fast, and it covered his head. He stood, lifting his head out of the depths of water and laughing.

She tugged at his clothing. “Not fair.”

“Oh, it’s never fair between you and I. Remember? I’m the master, and you’re the pet. I’m the male who smacks your ass and makes you scream. The one who gives it to you exactly the way you like to get it. Right, pet?”

“Y-yes, Master.” Her eyes glazed over with lust.

He claimed her mouth just before the water level covered their heads, and he kissed her right through the submersion. He was still kissing her when the water began to drain. He whirled her to face the wall. “Brace yourself, beautiful. And stick that ass out for me.” He quickly shucked his clothes as she moved into the position he described.

There wasn’t much room in the washtube, but he managed a few slaps of her ass before he lined his cock up with her pussy’s sweet entrance and pushed in.

“Oh stars, pet. It’s better every time. I will never sink into your wet heat without believing it’s the only thing keeping me alive.”

She giggled. “I don’t think my pussy is that special.”

“Oh it is, beautiful. Believe it.” He withdrew and thrust into her again, sending her up to her toes with the force.

“Is this my punishment?” she asked, voice husky.

“No, pet. This is just me letting off some steam.” He wrapped his fist in her hair and pulled her head back as he shoved his cock in deep again. “By the time this night is through, I promise every inch of your body will have been punished… and rewarded.” Another hard shove. “And this is just round one with your sweet pussy. I plan to pound you so hard, you won’t walk straight tomorrow, and I’ll have to spend the entire day kissing it better.”

Mina’s knees buckled.

He caught her around the waist, stabilizing her hips for his thrusts. In and out he pistoned, eyes rolling back in his head with the pleasure of it all.

“F-fuck me, Master,” she gasped, reverting to the Ocretion word for sex.

He loved it. Somehow it sounded more crude, invoking memories of the brothel where he’d first claimed her.

“I’ll fuck you,” he growled. “I’ll fuck you long and hard and teach you that there’s no way you can live without me.”

“I can’t,” she agreed. “I can’t live without you.”

His heart exploded with satisfaction. Three more strokes and he came, his shout echoing in the washtube. The shower was on the oil cycle, spraying their bodies with a fine mist of aromatic oil, and he used it to slide his fingers down her belly and rub the sensitive bundle of nerves at the apex of her sweet pussy.

She went off, clawing the wall of the washtub, screaming, “Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes!”

“Yes, you’ll be my mate?” he challenged her, slapping his loins against her ass with another hard thrust.

“Yes,” she moaned.

“Yes, you’ll let me pierce you?”

“Yes.”

Now his own knees almost buckled, but with relief. He dropped his mouth to her neck and kissed and sucked his way to her shoulder. “That’s good, pet,” he purred. “I promise I’ll figure out everything in the universe that puts light into your eyes and deliver it to your feet.”

“Erick.” Her voice sounded choked, so he pulled out and whirled her around. Her arms shot around his neck as she blinked back tears. “I know you will,” she whispered. “That’s why I love you.”

He leaned his forehead against hers, not kissing her, just breathing her breath. “I love you so much, Taramina, daughter of Seke.”