Chapter One
Isu
My love. My light. My captive.
She looks at me with that bright blue rebellious gaze that has been burning in my mind’s eye for a very long time. We have been separated by so much space, so much death, so much disaster. I never thought I would lay hands on her again. But here we are. She is in my grasp, and she will never leave again.
This little human has much to answer for. She looks so soft and weak, and I know she would protest her innocence if I would let her. She is anything but innocent. She is as guilty as they come, and no amount of soft quivering lower lip or tear haze in her wide blue eyes will change that.
She is going to pay for what she’s done. Her human sins are going to be absolved before my warriors. I will thrust myself into the soft core of her and she will be made mine all over again.
Human women are so delicate, so soft. They meet the world with a grace and beauty that belies their inner strength. This female I now hold captive is stronger than any of the warriors around her. She has traveled further, suffered greatly—and now she must suffer again, because there is no pleasure in this universe that does not come with some pain.
I want her more than I have ever wanted anything. Anyone. She is mine. Her soft human heart beats only for me. But possessing her means destruction. Loving her means the end of everything.
I do not care. I would see the universe itself destroyed in order to have her for my own. I would see every star burned to nothing. I would crush worlds. My desire for this woman is an endless hunger that has been tormenting me from the moment I gave her up in a futile attempt to save her. Now I understand something I did not then. She cannot be saved. She can only be conquered.
* * *
Aspel
“The human must pay!”
Master Isu’s alien voice rises in a roar of ferocity, anger, and absolute triumph. I tremble before him as flames leap around us, the heat from them making me sweat, my fear making me shake. There is a beast before me, one who is going to take everything I have to give and more. His alien dominance will be absolute. I know this in my soul. I knew it, I think, when I came here. I could have turned back at any time, but I went on, prodded by conscience and desire. Now I am in his grasp and it is too late to be afraid. It is time to submit.
“The wyrm requires sacrifice. You will not give up your life, but you will give your body.” His black eyes flick over me. “Every part of it.”
He and I have been through so much. I have loved him. I have adored him. Now I fear him. He is more than a tormentor or captor. He is the love of my life. But I think I might hate him.
“Strip,” he intones. “You do not deserve clothes.”
His kind do not wear clothes. He knows what mine mean to me. That is why he is taking them from me. He will take everything away, bit by bit until there is nothing left but the rampant desire that binds us in spite of the fact we are now enemies.
“I loved you once.”
His massive hand closes under my chin, long fingers clasping the sides of my face. “You love me still,” he hisses with that quiet but powerful rage that we now both share.
His kiss is rough and hot, ripe with the promise of what is to come.
“The clothes,” he rasps again.
I can take them off myself, or I can let him rip them from me. I don’t know which would be worse. I know that I don’t get to keep them either way. I know that life and death surround us, the flames giving his people energy.
I choose not to move. I choose to make him be the one to undo me. His low growl tells me he understands I’m not going to give him anything. He’s going to have to take it.
He puts his hands on my shoulders, runs them down over the swell of my breasts. His hands are hot like the fire, but they do not burn my skin, even as my clothes are singed away.
This was in some way inevitable. This was my destiny. I was made to be devoured by an alien, for my flesh to give pleasure. I am about to fulfill that destiny.
* * *
A year ago…
“That one’s not ugly.”
It’s not a compliment.
I stare straight ahead, blinking slowly from the sedating gas they’ve pumped into the inspection chamber to make certain that I will remain compliant and stay tender. I can hear everything they say. They said the girl ahead of me had a ripe rump and good white teeth. My assessment is less specific.