One
“Cut the attitude.”
The gruff order was snapped at a woman with purple eyes, green hair, and an expression of smirking resistance which was fast becoming familiar to her handler. She had been his for less than an hour, but already her personality was shining through. Brash, rude, and brave. Standing in the sheer-walled decontamination chamber, she scorned her bonds and William himself with defiant looks and words. It didn't change the reality of the situation. She was his, and he was already very proud of her.
A rare gene mutation made her quite singular in appearance, not just her hair and eyes, but her figure too. Though athletic, the wildling was curvaceous with ample breast and generous rump. Her breasts pushed the rough tunic dress she wore out and up so high it barely covered her shapely bottom. It was obvious from the tone of her skin and the amount of dirt built up across the same that she'd been running wild for quite some time. She was a woman without a city, closer to beast than person in some ways.
“I'm not going to be yours,” she said, her voice incongruously lilting and soft. “Ever.”
“You speak well for a wildling,” William observed. “You must have been raised in civilization, which means you know that you don't have any choice. Once you go feral you lose the rights citizens enjoy. You can be caught. You can be bought. You can be owned.”
Her gorgeous eyes narrowed to cat-like slits. “And you can go to hell.”
Clever. There weren't many wildlings capable of snappy wordplay. William could already tell that this one had a story, but he wasn't as interested in her story as he was getting her contained properly for transport into the city. Binding her arms and legs and carrying her had worked up to the wall, but now they were past the outer gate, things would be different. They were about to enter Albion, a city which considered itself a bastion of law and order—a citadel of technology and clean living.
Whilst arguing with his new pet, William caught sight of himself in one of the polished surfaces of the decontamination chamber. He was an imposing man, taller than most with a square-cut jaw and dark brown eyes set beneath a prominent brow. The cleft chin was inherited from his father. The curve of his lips, sensual and much more well shaped than most, was from his mother. He had been handsome once, before a brush with a wild boar had left a thick scar tracing from the middle of his left cheek all the way up to just below his eye. His thick dark hair was long enough to hide it and in his younger days he'd worn it down a lot. Now he preferred it tied back behind his head, scars be damned.
She should have been scared of him. He was more than twice her size and many times her strength and yet she stood there barefoot and defiant. If she had been male, he would have likely beaten her for insubordination. But, she was female. And she was pretty. He was not in the habit of unleashing beatings on women. Spankings were not out of the question though, and she was heading for one of those at breakneck speed.
“You're boring me,” she announced. “I'm leaving now.”
Her statement was laughable. There was no leaving the decontamination chamber. Security was tight and multilayered, from the gene coded ID badges everyone wore, to biometric scanners and automated systems which had probably already picked up stray skin sheddings from his new pet and analyzed them right down to the proteins. She'd only been within its outer walls for a few minutes, but the city already knew his pet better than he did.
“You were captured,” he said. “And be glad you were. You would likely be killed if you were permitted to roam the wilds much longer.”
“I could live in the wilds longer than you will live here in this tin can.” Her tone was derisive and arrogant. She tossed her long emerald locks, locking eyes with him defiantly. “I'm here because you need me. I'm here because your genetics are inferior. You cannot sense the radiation as I can, you cannot track the paths of prey, you do not see the world as it really is.”
In a sense, she was right. Wildlings with her mutation were capable of seeing the radiation which bathed much of the countryside surrounding the city. The radiation was one of the reasons the cities had first been built; it was the background noise of a war long past, a poisoned history which could still kill if one was not careful.
Cities were capable of growing their own food, but there was not enough room for the raising of livestock. Animal protein sold for a premium, and that was how William made his living. His new pet would help in that endeavor. Once trained, she would not only sense prey more quickly than he could, but she could lead him around areas of high radiation as well, limiting his exposure. She would be very useful one day. For the moment, she just had to be taught her place.