Four
Orol had endured extreme torture at the Humanoid Alliance’s hands. They’d ripped his wings off multiple times. They’d carved him to pieces with blades. They’d stuffed him in a tiny chamber, forcing him to keep his wings tightly folded for multiple planet rotations.
None of that compared to the agony of not mating with his female. His cock pressed against the confines of his ass coverings. His balls ached.
Orol licked her neck and Rhea’s eyes opened, her cheeks turning an intriguing shade of pink. Exhausted from their bonding, she had fallen asleep shortly after he’d given her release.
That release had been solitary. He could have taken her. She’d been so lost in her bliss; she wouldn’t have resisted…much. But instinct told him to take it slowly with his distrustful female.
He ran his tongue along her skin, exploring. The wound on her shoulder blade had healed without leaving a scar. She was healthy once more.
That meant she was back to fighting him. “Why are you touching me?” She pushed against his chest, her hands on his body exciting him.
“I’m cleaning you.” And he was transferring more nanohumanics to her, adding another level of protection.
“You don’t need to use your tongue.” She wiggled. “You said there were cleaning cloths in my pack.” Her eyes sparked with fire.
“I want to use my tongue.” He circled her left breast, watching with interest as her nipple tightened even more. “And captives don’t ask questions of their captors.”
Her gaze lowered to a dagger strapped to his chest covering. She was thinking of stabbing him again.
“Try it and I’ll apply a hand to your backside,” he warned.
She looked up and he inwardly groaned. His female was taking that as a dare. She flicked the strap and withdrew the dagger.
He caught her wrist. “You’re human. You’ll never be faster than I am.” Orol forced her to slide the weapon back into the sheath. “Come here.” He sat on his haunches and patted his thighs. “I told you the consequences.”
“You’re not touching my backside.” The scent of her arousal filled his nostrils. His tiny warrior wanted this punishment.
“You’ve earned four strikes for the dagger.” He outlined what she could expect. “You’ll earn four more if you disobey me.”
She glanced at her boots. They were set out of her reach.
“You won’t escape me.” He wouldn’t allow that. “And the attempt will earn you more strikes.”
“I don’t like you.” She scowled at him.
Before he’d pleasured her, she had hated him. They were making progress. “Come here, Rhea.” He tapped his fingertips against his legs. “I won’t ask you again.”
“Humiliation won’t force me to spill my secrets.” She pushed herself to her feet, moved toward him, the action graceful, arousing.
This punishment would be applied to both of them. Touching her without mating would be agony.
She lowered her slender form over his lap, her breasts pressing against his right leg. Orol shifted her until her ass was in the air, her position more precarious.
“I don’t seek the same secrets from you that the Humanoid Alliance does.” He brushed her hair over her shoulders. The ends of the strands pooled around his feet, a puddle of softness he wanted to burrow his face into. “And you brought this reprimand onto yourself.”
Orol dragged his knuckles between her shoulder blades, down her spine, over her pert ass, and she quivered. She was so tiny, so delicate, so human. It would be easy to hurt her.
And knowing his stubborn female, she wouldn’t make a sound. She’d remain silent.
“You’ll count after every strike and thank me, your Master, for the reprimand.” He would hear in her voice if his hand was too heavy. “If you don’t comply, I’ll continue reprimanding you until you do.”
“Get on with it,” she grumbled.
“That’s not the way a captive should speak to her Master.” He placed one hand on the small of her back, holding her in place, and she jerked.
His lips twitched. His female was anticipating her punishment.
Orol swatted her left ass cheek, using only a fraction of his strength. Her body straightened. As predicted, she didn’t cry out. A pink handprint was left on her golden skin.
He’d marked her as being his. That pleased him.
“One.” Her voice was higher pitched than normal. “Thank you, Sir.” Her musk intensified. She was turned on by the spanking.
He waited until she relaxed and he smacked her right ass cheek harder. She sucked in her breath. Her fingers and toes curled. Her curves jiggled.
“Two.” Desperation wrapped around that word. “Thank you, Sir.”
“Two more to go.” Orol rubbed her heated skin, prolonging the burn. “This hurts me as much as it hurts you.” He could split boulders with his hard-on.
She turned her head and glared at him.
“That’s not a look of repentance.” He cuffed her, using more of his strength.
Her back arched. Her legs kicked. A tear dripped down one of her cheeks.
He would have felt guilt except wetness also bathed her inner thighs. His tiny warrior was finding pleasure in the pain.
She was perfect for him.
“Rhea.” Orol squeezed her ass cheeks, reminding her to count.
“Three.” She squirmed. “Thank you, Sir.” She bumped against the bulge in his ass coverings.
He stiffened, want and need cutting through his form. The damn female shifted toward him again, pressing her body against his leather-encased cock.
He had to remove her from his lap before he lost control.
“You’re a bad captive.” Orol smacked her ass, turning her pinkened skin red, and a sob escaped her lips. She brought her fist to her mouth as though attempting to push the sound back down her throat. Her shoulders shuddered. Tears soaked her cheeks.
It was too late. He’d heard that small sound of capitulation. This defiant female would be his. He slipped his hand, his palm hot from the reprimand, between her legs, and stroked her.
She said nothing, didn’t give him the words that would end the reprimand.
Orol needed it to end. He didn’t know how much longer he could resist her. “If you want more, I’ll give you more, but remember, the next time you find release, it will be around my cock.”
Her pause was telling. His tiny warrior was considering mating with him.
He waited, knowing she wouldn’t surrender that easily.
“Four.” She pushed away from him, avoiding his gaze. “Thank you, Sir.”
“I’m a kind Master. Ask for what you need and I’ll give it to you.” He licked her pussy juices off his fingers, relishing her taste, foreseeing victory.
Rhea was now as frustrated as he was. She would capitulate, ask him to mate with her.
He’d be inside her before the planet rotation ended. That knowledge eased his torment.
Rhea grumbled about arrogant males and things that would never happen while she rummaged through the pack. She found the flight suit he’d retrieved for her and donned it, her lips flattening as the fabric slid over her abused ass. The garment was the smallest he could find, gray like the previous one, but it remained too large for her, swamping her tiny body.
She parted her hair exactly in the middle, wound the strands into a tight ball, and secured it at her nape. Her expression became blank, the lines between her eyebrows, around her lips flattening.
Her disguise was complete.
“I still see you, Tiny Warrior.” Orol walked toward his female, watching her as she fastened her boots. “You can’t hide from me.”
“I didn’t say I was hiding.” She glanced at her weapons.
“Take them.” He preferred she be able to defend herself. “But don’t try to use them against me. I’m faster than you are.”
“Are you faster than a projectile?” Rhea grabbed a gun and aimed it at him.
Before she could press the trigger, he disarmed her. “I’ll reprimand you for this later.” He added both of her smaller guns to holsters on his chest covering. “We have to find your sister now.”
“What are you?” She slung the long gun over her shoulder.
Was she curious or was she sizing up her enemy?
It didn’t matter. He’d tell her. “I’m a modified humanoid.” Orol skimmed his fingertips over the letters and numbers inked on his cheek. “Half Oberon Flying Death and half enhanced human. I can outfly a ship, tear that same ship to pieces with my bare hands.” He extended his talons and then retracted them. “Survive projectiles, a dagger to the gut.” He looked at his female. “Detect the scent of your pussy in a settlement with millions of beings.” He sniffed the air and her face turned pink. “To use one of your favorite words, you will never escape me.”
She lifted her chin. “You’ll never find my sister.”
Rhea wouldn’t tell him where her sister was. But Orol hadn’t expected her to help him. She loved her sister and didn’t yet believe him when he said he wouldn’t harm them.
“Grab a container of beverage and some nourishment bars and put them in your pockets.” He could survive for planet rotations without drinking or eating. Her system was more fragile. “Leave the pack behind. We’re leaving.”
Orol sprinted across the rock and flung himself off the mountaintop. Not trusting his female to stay where she was, he didn’t fall far before spreading his wings. He soared upward, circled, found Rhea, as he predicted, hanging by her fingertips off a ledge.
The damn female was determined to kill herself.
He plucked her from her precarious perch, gripping her around her waist, and flew with her in the direction her ship had come from. She had been headed that way. He suspected she planned to meet with her sister.
“If you’re looking for my sister, you’re going the wrong way.”
“No, I’m not.” He grinned, her lie confirming he was correct.
She turned her head and glared at him over her shoulder. “Is detecting lies another one of your special powers? I can fool everyone else.”
“Have you lied to many beings?” How much of a challenge would she be?
“My entire lifespan has been a lie.” She frowned. “Didn’t they tell you who I was?”
They. Orol gritted his teeth. She still thought he was working for the enemy. “The Humanoid Alliance seeks to stop you and your sister from reaching the Refuge. Kralj, my boss, the Ruler of the Refuge, wants to know why. He sent me to retrieve the two of you.” He paused. “And you’re mine. That’s all I know.”
She pressed her lips together.
The damn female wasn’t going to tell him more. He’d have to figure it out himself. Orol reviewed what he’d discovered about her.
Her entire lifespan was a lie. She was being hunted by the Humanoid Alliance. She didn’t trust anyone.
“You’re a spy,” he concluded.
Rhea’s eyes widened, her response signaling another correct guess. “The Humanoid Alliance believed my parents were spies.”
“Because they were spies.” They wouldn’t be hunting his female and her sister if they hadn’t proof. “And you’re a spy also. Like your parents.”
“No, not like my parents.” Her voice was edged with bitterness. “Spies, and I’m not saying that was what they were, decide to enter that profession. A daughter of spies has no choice. If she knows what her parents are doing, she is as guilty as they are.”
His female would have uncovered her parents’ activities. She was highly intelligent. “That daughter would have to lie.” Sympathy swelled in him. She’d been forced to hide the truth.
“She would have to lie.” Rhea nodded. “The lives of her parents, her sister would depend on it. If she made a mistake…”
She turned her face away from his gaze but not before he saw the grief, the guilt in her eyes.
His female had made a mistake. He suspected her parents were dead. Orol drew her closer to him, splaying his fingers over her breasts, her stomach.
“Why are you touching me?” she grumbled.
“Because I can.” Not knowing what he was searching for, he surveyed the sands below them, looking for anything unusual. “Because I like touching you.” The sun was lowering on the horizon. His eyes adjusted for the dimmer light. “Because you like it also.”
Silence stretched.
She didn’t deny she liked his touch. Orol considered that a victory.
“Most beings think spies are the lowest of the low.” Her voice was barely audible. “They believe spies have no honor, no integrity, will switch sides for a handful of sunstones.”
She must have heard all of those comments and she wouldn’t have been able to respond, not without revealing her parents’ activities.
“They wouldn’t consider me to be a being.” He shared that fact. “The Humanoid Alliance genetically designed me, designed my brethren to be killing beasts, and that is how the humans view us. We don’t have honor or integrity because we don’t have souls.”
She covered his hands with hers. “I’m human and I don’t view you that way.”
“You’re mine.” She was no longer human and, at the moment, he was no killing beast. He was a horny beast, the urge to mate overshadowing the darkness within him.
First, they had to find her sister. Orol searched the terrain below them for any signs of her, scanning it with his enhanced senses.
His female tilted her face into the wind. Her lips curled upward ever so slightly, a hint of a smile another less observant male might have missed.
Orol’s chest expanded. It pleased him that she liked to fly, that she trusted him to keep her safe.
In the distance, the last rays of sunlight reflected off what appeared to be a metal panel, half buried in the white sand. Orol headed toward it.
His little human’s eyes weren’t as sharp as his were. Moments passed before she detected the panel. She then began to squirm, wiggling her pert ass into his groin.
Fraggin’ hole. He pressed his lips together. His female would tempt a rock.
“I see it.” He reassured her, hoping she’d stop moving. He was one wiggle away from busting out of his ass coverings.
“It’s nothing.” Her words told him it was something. “It’s a scrap piece of metal. We should look over there.” She pointed to the right. “I saw an object.”
“You didn’t see anything.” He carried his female toward the metal panel.
“I did.” She waved her arms. “It looked like an escape pod.”
“Is it still closed?” He peered at their target, not liking what he saw. “Because the escape pod we’re approaching is open.” There was no sign of the sister.
“What?” Rhea stiffened. “Is it in one piece?” She gripped his arms. “Tell me it’s in one piece.”
“It’s in one piece.” The door didn’t appear to have been forced open. It must have been unlocked from the inside. “Your sister survived the drop.”
“Are you saying she didn’t survive whatever happened after that?” Rhea’s voice rose.
“Someone didn’t survive.” Orol landed with her on a sand dune a couple of strides away from the escape pod. A corpse lay on its front, crimson coating the back of its chest covering. The being appeared to be male, had the purple skin and white hair common with the local clone communities.
“That’s not my sister.” His female pulled on his hands, trying to free herself. “She doesn’t have purple skin.”
“Silence.” Foreboding coiled low in Orol’s stomach. There was only one clone community residing in the area and he was familiar with their activities. His female might be in danger.
Rhea must have sensed his alarm. For the first time in their relationship, she obeyed him, becoming quiet, still.
Orol turned his head, slowly searching their surroundings. He didn’t see any being, didn’t hear any breathing other than their own, didn’t smell any strange scents.
He reluctantly released her. “Stay close.” They might return.
Rhea ran to the escape pod, ducked her head inside the small space. She must not have found a body because she stepped back and looked around them, shielding her eyes with her hand.
Rhea glanced inside the escape pod a second time as though expecting her sister to reappear. Orol shook his head. His female didn’t even believe her own eyes.
“Do you see her?” she finally asked.
His distrustful, doubting female was leaning on him to find his sister. Orol stood straighter. “They’re gone.” But he had a theory of where they were going.
“They?” She gazed at him as though he had all of the answers.
He had some of them. “This male.” He sliced off the being’s head with his talons and held it up for her to look at. “Is a clone, one of three. They’re slavers. They earn their credits by stealing females and selling them to the fighting rings.”
“Slavers.” Rhea’s lips flattened, her reaction pleasing him.
Orol didn’t like slavers, had worked in the past to combat them. That was one of the reasons he’d started fighting in the rings.
The other reason being the way it sated the darkness within him.
That deadly part of him was thrilled the sister’s abduction would force him to return to the battles, allowing him to unleash his need to kill.
Anticipation drummed through his veins.
“Then we’ll locate these slavers.” Rhea returned to his side, her small chest heaving. That he would have to leave her to fight was his only regret. She gazed up at him. “Buy her back if we have to.”
“We’ll be too late.” Orol dropped the severed head. Her sister was a blonde. They were coveted as prizes. “See these?” He stepped to the right and crouched. Circles had formed on the sand. “They’re from a ship.”
“You said you could outfly a skimmer.”
“If I knew where the skimmer was going, I could outfly it.” He scanned the horizon. It was flat in all directions, devoid of any ships. The slavers were long gone. “But I don’t know where they’re headed.”
Rhea opened her mouth.
“The location of the fighting rings changes with every battle.” He blocked her next suggestion. “It’s only shared with beings on the inside.” The organizers were wary of strangers. Not everyone on Carinae E approved of the battles and some of the protesters embraced violence as a countermeasure.
“Are you one of the beings on the inside?” His female clasped his arm, hope reflecting in her eyes.
“No.” Orol had to admit. “Not anymore.” He’d resisted the call for solar cycles, hadn’t fought in the battles. “But I know someone who is.”
It was time to visit an old friend.