Defying the Prophet: A Military Space Opera (The Sentience Trilogy Book 2) (41 page)

“As long as you insist on
acting
like an animal, then I will treat you like one,” Drix assured her. “When and if, you can begin behaving like a civilized Rak female, then you’ll be treated accordingly.”

“Agh! I HATE you,” screamed a thoroughly indignant N’raal.  

“With the collar on, at least you’ll be free to leave your room,” answered Drix civilly. “The radio transmitter embedded in it will enable us to find you when you try escaping into the forest… I really wouldn’t suggest that you do that, though. There isn’t another Rak facility within a hundred-thousand body-lengths from here, and there are some relatively large and dangerous indigenous predators out there, who might find a tender Raknii female delicious.”

Amazingly, N’raal found herself all out of poisonous words, so she just spat at Drix’ retreating back as he turned and left the room, leaving the door open behind him. N’raal sulked on her bed for several turns before finally adventuring out of her former prison in search of food. Obviously the monster her father had shamelessly given her to, had left instructions for the servants to cease bringing meals to her room. She’d already tried refusing to eat, but frustratingly that tactic seemed to have no effect whatsoever on her captor, and just made her belly hurt. N’raal finally admitted to herself that she really had few options if she wanted to survive and cursed her feminine weaknesses in finding herself lacking the personal will and physical discipline to sustain her hunger-strike. Even if she had, evidently he was content to let her starve, if that was truly what she wished. 

N’raal felt the beginnings of despair encroaching upon her, as she found herself thwarted at every turn. Her family had totally abandoned her here, leaving her at the mercy of this… this damned
alpha
that her father had inexplicably given her to. Her father had disposed of her — sold her like a herd-beast at market. She’d never heard tell of any other bonding ceremony, where the bride was trussed, gagged and bonded totally against her will. Of course, she never considered that, in all of recorded history, there’d never quite been another Raknii female in such blatant, open rebellion against a bonding arranged by her family. 

Almost all bondings were arranged among her people. Few, if any, really had any personal say in the selecting of their bond-mate. It was merely the way of her people. Her family had technically done nothing
wrong
in arranging a bonding for her… except in NOT asking for her opinion beforehand, and then not heeding her wishes afterwards.

What was it that possessed my father to actually
do
something like this to me?
 

N’raal had always been able to browbeat her family in general, and her father in particular, into always giving her, her own way. What had changed so suddenly and turned her life upside-down? 

Drix! It was that damned alpha!

The monster himself hadn’t even given her the satisfaction of returning her taunts. He remained frustratingly polite and respectful — whenever he wasn’t actively laying down the law to her. Even when he was, he remained so maddeningly
civil
about the whole thing. He was just so damned
matter-of-fact
about it all. N’raal had never been dominated by anyone before, and she didn’t like the feeling, even a little bit. Dealing with Drix felt like pounding her head against a piece of sheet steel. He was just so incredibly… unbending. 
Damn him!

Another source of despair for N’raal was the fact that her family had left her behind when they returned home, and now she was totally alone. For the first time in her life, she was all alone and horribly frightened. Her damnable heat-cycle was almost upon her, and she was horrified at the prospect of her body preparing itself to be penetrated by a male’s…
thing.
The prospect of her hormones compelling her to lay forward with her tail up, with her naked sex exposed and presented for a male’s pleasure terrified her.  

The whole prospect of being mounted and penetrated by a male had always petrified N’raal. The very idea of a male’s long, thick sex organ thrusting in and out of her body, both disgusted and frightened her. She knew that it just
had
to be excruciatingly painful. She didn’t care what kind of
lies
the females in her father’s household had told her… she knew better. And soon, when her heat reached full potency and she could no longer hide the scent of her condition any longer, Drix would come for her. Large, powerful, unbending Drix would come for her, and he would take what he wanted from her… and she was powerless to stop him. N’raal hated feeling helpless most of all.

* * * *

Even N’raal eventually found herself exhausted from the energy expenditure of maintaining such a high levels of caustic truculence, and she retreated into caustic silence instead. She found herself wandering listlessly, exploring the compound she found herself abandoned in. Others were respectful and tried on occasion to be helpful, only to be met with a silent glare that spoke louder than a shout. Fortunately, she saw little of Drix, who was off somewhere, running his little war, supervising his region or whatever else it was that occupied his time. For that she was grateful… she’d be seeing quite too much of Drix, soon enough. Her time was approaching, however much she might wish it otherwise.

One day while she was wandering through the kitchen area, she found hope — hope in the form of a slim, deadly fang-blade someone had carelessly left lying on a counter. N’raal’s eyes widened when she first spied the blade and she meandered towards it without altering her pace, hoping to avoid drawing notice to her movements or her intentions. When she reached the counter, she slowly turned and faced away from the blade, searching for anyone who might be watching her. When satisfied she was unobserved, N’raal slowly reached behind her and finding the handle, reversed the blade where it lay against the inside of her arm as she brought her arm down, hiding the fang-blade between her arm and body. With her heart in her throat and her pulse racing, N’raal forced herself to appear calm and she slowly walked out of the kitchen with the blade still hidden against her body. 

When she got outside, she slowly drifted towards the edge of the forest and, finally concealed from view and hidden amongst the closest layer of trees, N’raal brought the fang-blade up and examined it closely. Long and thin with a very sharp, pointed blade, N’raal stabbed an adjacent tree, to test its strength. 

This will do…  This will do nicely.
 

Satisfied, N’raal slipped the fang-blade down into her bodice and proceeded directly towards her room, where she could hide her newly found treasure. For the first time in sub-cycles, N’raal felt the beginnings of a smile coming on.

When that monster tries to stick his… his
thing
in me, he’ll find himself the one being stabbed, instead.

END