The Naggian merchant nearly dropped the screen when we both saw her escape play out.
“Oh, Overlord! Your Honor!” he babbled, dropping to his knees, so that he was nearly out of sight behind the counter of his stall. “Please believe me, I never dreamed your little pet would do such a thing or I would have moved that Vornish knife off display! Oh please, your Honor! Forgive me!”
“Get up,” I said roughly. “It’s not your fault—she was obviously planning this and just waiting for the right opportunity to make her escape.”
Which I had foolishly given her, playing out the leash so she had plenty of slack to cut it and run free.
To say I felt betrayed was an understatement. I already felt the beginnings of the Master/pet bond forming with little one and I had thought she felt the same. She’d been doing sowellwith her training, acting so obedient and well-mannered.
And that’s all it was—just an act,an angry voice whispered in my brain.I never should have believed she would accept her new life as my pet so easily—never should have trusted that she would just forget about her home planet and be happy to come home with me to Korrigon Four!
She’d played me for a fool and for a moment, I considered not even going after her. But I couldn’t help remembering the way she felt in my arms—her soft, curvy body pressed against mine or lying submissively over my lap as I stroked and petted her. The soft little sounds she made when I pleasured her with mycandalla,which was presently lashing with anxiety. And the way she talked to me—asserting that she was a person, not an animal and standing up for herself when she refused to eat the human chow. I had especially liked that, though as a Master who wanted an obedient pet, I knew I shouldn’t.
The pleasant images of the past two days faded as I imagined some other male finding little one. Possibly hurting her…treating her roughly…maybe even killing or raping her!
The thought made me grind my teeth and I found that my hands had curled into fists. If I wasn’t careful, I would go too far and break my own rules about what a HighBorn Korrigon should and should not do. But just the idea of anyone else touching her made me feel so fucking angry I could barelyseestraight. I wanted her—she wasmine.And I was damned if I’d let any other male have her or hurt her!
“Goddess damn it!” I swore hoarsely and plunged into the crowd.
SIXTEEN
ELLI
The barber pole girl who sang everything led me deeper into the crowd of women milling around the side hall and then we suddenly turned a corner and were inanotherhall—one considerably narrower and gloomier than the one we had left.
A cool finger of unease ran down my spine.
“Uh, hey, we seem to be getting pretty far from the main hallway, aren’t we?” I asked the girl, who had a firm hold on my right wrist and was pulling me along. “And it’s kind of dark in here, isn’t it?”
“Yes, for my friend has light-sensitive eyes,” she sang without missing a beat. “But he’s very kind—I know he’ll like you.”
“I don’t know…he sounds nice but maybe I should go back.” I tried to put on the brakes, but the striped girl was stronger than she looked. She tightened her grip on my arm and kept dragging me down the dark hallway.
“Don’t you want to get back to your home world?” she sang, looking back at me. “This could be your only chance.”
“I think I’d rather take my chances in the main hallway,” I told her. “Let go of me, please!”
But her grip only tightened even more.
“We are almost there,” she sang. And then she dragged me aroundanothercorner into a space which was even darker.
“Hey, let me go!” I leaned back hard, trying to use my body weight as leverage and break her grip but it was too late. I heard a clanging sound and when I twisted my head to see behind me, I saw that someone had pulled a silver metal gate closed, effectively locking me in.
“Well, well,” a deep, raspy voice said. “And what do we have here?”
“I’ve brought you a new girl, Shadrack!” the barber pole girl sang. “She’s a Pure One from the Closed planet—she must be worth a fortune.”
Worth a fortune? Uh-oh. I had a sinking feeling in my stomach as I looked into the darkness, trying to see who or what she was talking to.
Once my eyes adjusted, the first thing I saw was a group of five or six women huddled together beside a tall gray pillar. Some of them had obviously been crying and all of them were wearing silver collars around their throats.
Then something moved in the corner and I realized the thing I had thought was some kind of support pillar was actually aperson. After a moment, I was pretty sure this person was the same kind of alien that Sir was—a Korrigon.
But this guy wasn’t nearly so nice looking as Sir. He had horns and full-black eyes and a tail, but he also had a scruffy looking beard that sprouted from his lumpish face in little clumps like sickly alfalfa sprouts. That was where his hair ended, though, because he was completely bald on top.
He also didn’t dress like Sir. He wasn’t wearing any kind of business suit, like Sir wore for one thing. He had a thick gut that was barely contained by the stretchy, green material of a garment that looked like a sleeveless T-shirt—the kind some people call a “wife beater.” His big, gray belly hung over the waistband of too-tight trousers that were an off-putting shade of salmon and were tucked into enormous green boots that matched the shirt.
And did I mention his smell? Well, hereeked. Have you ever been at a fish market or any supermarket where they sell raw fish? And have you ever gone there when the fish they were selling was starting to go off? Well,that’swhat this guy—this Shadrack—smelled like. Rotten fish. It was disgusting—to the point that I thought I might gag when he came near me—which he proceeded to do.