I tried to pull it back, but he stopped me with a look. Apparently cuddling me while I slept hadn’t changed anything about our relationship during waking hours.
“Here. Eat.”
He handed me a neon pink fruit, the primary food source my companions and I had been subsisting on ever since we arrived on this planet. Shaped like a gourd, fat at one end and tapering to a narrow curve at the other, like a handle, it grew everywhere in the jungle on vines covered with sharp thorns. I still bore faint scars on one arm from the deep scratches I got the first time I caught sight of one and carelessly stuck my hand into the tangled vines to pick it. The fruit may have looked appealing, but its flesh was pulpy and bland to the taste. Though I’d eaten them till I couldn’t stand the sight of them, hunger won out. I grabbed it and took a bite.
I glanced outside. Night had fallen while I slept, leaving only a faint light from the planet’s pale yellow moon penetrating the darkness of the cave. With it came the unsettling noises of the jungle. Rustling, panting, the occasional shriek in the distance cut off midstream that left me with visions of fierce unknown beasts on the prowl, drawing nearer with every step.
He waited till I’d eaten my fill, then took the fruit back and finished it off, all the way to the tough woody part near the stem.
“Sleep now. We leave at first light.”
“Leave? Where are we going?”
“My work here is done. You will come with me to Rylos.”
“Your work? You mean hunting down my friends and killing them?”
“They were dangerous criminals.”
“You’ve been brainwashed by the Federation, just like all the other primitive beings they conquer. Our only crime was fighting against their tyranny.”
“You fought in the Insurrection?”
Naked, dirty, I gathered the shreds of my dignity and lifted my chin. “I’m one of the leaders.”
He sat back on his heels, staring at me with one eyebrow raised. “A female. Leading the Insurrection?”
“Not every world is as backward as yours, forcing women to call its males Master. Where I’m from, on Earth, females held positions of power in many countries before the Federation took over. My father was Gaius DiMello. I fought by his side until he was betrayed and murdered. The men you killed—Andreu and Jaden and Zeke—spirited me away to save me from suffering the same fate. As his heir, I’m the symbol of the revolution to beings all over the galaxy. Beings the Federation has enslaved.”
Instead of convincing him, my words seemed to amuse him. “Females in my world do not fight. They live to serve their mates.” He looked me up and down, making me even more conscious of my nakedness. “To please them.” He lay down and reached for me, pulling me toward him. “Sleep now. You will learn your place in time—on Rylos.”
I scooted back, pushing his arm away. “I’m not going to Rylos. My people need me. I’m waiting for a ship from Thela to take me off this planet so I can rally the forces and continue our fight for freedom.”
He shook his head. “No more fighting.Ineed you. You will be my mate. Warm my bed and bear me strong sons.Theywill fight, as brave warriors are destined to do.”
I started to protest but he yanked me against his chest and covered my mouth with his.
It wasn’t so much a kiss as an attack. A full-fledged assault on my senses. He grabbed the back of my head, fisting his hand in my hair as his lips crushed mine. His tongue forced my mouth open and then he fucked me with it. Hard and demanding, just like his cock. Taking me roughly and somehow making me love it.
I felt the length of him swelling against my belly as he rolled on top of me. My pussy clenched, then creamed. Primal instinct took over and I spread my legs.
He buried his cock in me, pumping in and out. Matching the rhythm of his tongue. When he let go of my hair and ran his hand under my body, I dug my heels into the dirt and lifted my hips for him. His fingers probed, then one invaded. I shuddered as he worked it past the tight pucker of my anus, sliding in deeper. Fucking me, claiming me, taking me prisoner in every hole at once.
With his mouth covering mine, I couldn’t even scream when the explosion hit. I shattered in silence, shards of my soul spinning away into the black void of the night.