“Looks like our alien tracker was into punishing his prisoner, along with fucking her. I wonder if she likes it? What do you say, Davis, shall we find out when we’re on guard duty tonight?”
Behind us, Kaal made a rumbling noise deep in his chest. I heard a shout, then a crash, and turned around to see he’d lurched at Jensen’s back, knocking him to the ground.
“You fucking animal! Get off me!”
Three other soldiers rushed to haul Kaal to his feet and hold him back while he roared at Jensen. “Touch her and you die!”
The soldier backhanded him, a vicious blow that took him to his knees. “What are you going to do—beat me to death with one of your stone axes? Oh, wait, you can’t do that, can you? I got rid of all of them. Maybe you can make another one. I hear where you’re going is nothing but a fucking rock pile hurtling through space.”
He was right. I’d heard tales about Zibaru. Everyone had. It was reserved for hardened criminals, beings for whom the Federation decided death would be too easy a punishment. They were sent to the asteroid prison to work in the mines there and live out their lives as best they could. Only the strongest and most ruthless survived. Escape was unheard of.
I had no illusions about what awaited me. Females were rare on Zibaru. Those who ended up there didn’t last long. No matter what species she belonged to, if a female was lucky, she’d become the property of a prisoner mean enough to fight off the gangs who’d attack night after night, intent on taking her away from him. If her owner didn’t fuck her to death himself, she’d die of exhaustion from overwork or succumb to some bizarre alien disease. If she was unlucky—well, she wouldn’t survive the first night.
As for me? My bodyguards were dead, killed by my best hope for a protector, the alien lying crumpled on the ground behind me. A being from a primitive race who thought because he was a male, that made him my master. One too dumb to know when he’d been conned by an officer of the Federation. At the rate he was going, he’d be lucky to make it to Zibaru alive. I had to face reality.
If I was going to survive, it would be up to me.
Chapter Eight
Kaal
I hauled myself painfully to my feet, head down, blood streaming from my nose. Jensen’s blow had reopened the wound the female gave me but he’d done more damage to my pride than to my face.
Though it went against my grain, I decided to act cowed. I would be of no help to her or to myself if they beat me senseless or hit me with another pulse from that device again. I staggered backward, knocking against one of the soldiers who hauled me to my feet, smearing his shirt with blood when I twisted and scrabbled at him with my bound hands to keep from falling down again.
When we got to the transport ship, they threw me into a holding cell. They did the same with my female, locking her in a cell opposite mine. One soldier stood guard, but he must not have seen us as a threat because once everyone else left he got a visor out of his pocket, put it on, and immersed himself in VR. From the sounds he made, I guessed it was a porn vid.
“Are you all right?”
My voice was hushed but I needn’t have worried. The soldier’s pants were down and he was busy jerking off, accompanied by female moans coming from his headgear. Relief flooded over me. He was less likely to attack her while on duty if he’d already come with a virtual whore.
“I’m fine.”
She sounded cold, matter of fact—with none of the hysteria I’d have expected from a female who’d been captured by an enemy.
“Back there, in the cave, Nye called you Aria. I will not call you by that name. I’ve taken you as my mate. I will call you Ree. You belong to me now, Ree. I won’t let them hurt you.”
She uttered a sound halfway between a snort and a laugh. “Excuse me if I don’t take comfort in that. Exactly how are you going to stop them?”
The stone blade I’d managed to get my hands on when the guard who stole it from me hauled me to my feet dug into the small of my back. I’d slipped it into the waistband of my pants. Later I’d find a way to smuggle it into the prison. It was far too valuable to risk having it taken away by using it on one of these humans. I’d kill them with my bare hands if I had to.
But I’d run into males like Nye before and I doubted if he’d allow any of the men to fuck his prisoner. Asserting his absolute power by dangling a female prisoner in front of horny soldiers and declaring she wasn’t to be taken would be far more satisfying. On Zibaru there’d be no such rule. I’d need the blade—and any other weapons I could craft.
“How I stop them doesn’t matter. Only that I do it.”