Kaitlyn O'Connor (8 page)

She hated to admit it, but she wasn
‟
t exactly happy that they hadn
‟
t. She
‟
d been aroused enough by Kael
‟
s touch, and touching him, that she
‟
d
wanted
a little more petting even before Dakaar and Balen had stroked her all over.

She couldn
‟
t decide if they hadn
‟
t tried anything more because they didn
‟
t think they could handle the tease of not being able to do more than touch, or if it hadn
‟
t crossed their minds to take that much liberty. One thing she was no longer in any doubt of, though, was that she found them desirable, regardless of the fact that they still seemed so alien to her she was as unnerved as she was excited by their touch.

She didn
‟
t think, though, that she was going to regret the offer she
‟
d made. She still had to surmount the cocks they were swinging—and she was more than a little uneasy about that. She
‟
d suspected
before
she
‟
d inspected them that they had to be huge considering the size of the men and it had still been a shock. No matter how hard she tried to convince herself that it was pure imagination, that they couldn
‟
t
possibly
be as big as they felt, she had only to cup the hand she
‟
d

„measured
‟
them with to see that the girth alone was going to be a serious challenge. If that wasn
‟
t bad enough, she
‟
d measured at least three palm widths in length—
not
that she intended to worry about that! That part was
their
problem! She was sure she could stretch to take on the girth. She
‟
d been designed to have babies, after all. She couldn
‟
t do a damned thing about the depth. They were just going to have to accept the limitations of fucking a human when they
‟
d been „designed
‟
for their own women!

Their women must be nearly as tall as they were to handle anything that long, she realized abruptly. She hadn
‟
t really considered anything beyond how she felt about the situation, and she at least had enough experience with men to know they weren
‟
t all that particular when they were horny—most of them weren
‟
t. It occurred to her abruptly, though, to wonder just how attractive she really was to them.

She
‟
d never been a sun worshipper and she
‟
d hardly seen the light of day after she
‟
d gone to work at the facility. Her skin was really pale—fish belly white.
That
couldn
‟
t appeal to them! It 35

didn
‟
t even appeal to
her
. Her hair was dark, but it was brown, not even close to black like theirs was besides having the hideous copper highlights—and she figured it must be a racial trait since all three of them had the same inky black hair—and she must look like a pigmy to them.

All of them had said she was pretty, but did they really think so? Or were they just saying so to make her feel good? Or had it just been so damned long since they
‟
d seen a female of any description that that was all it took to be pretty to them? She
‟
d never really thought she was pretty, but men had seemed to think she was. Dating had never been a problem for her—Not that she
‟
d gotten a lot of that in lately! In fact, not at all since she
‟
d gone in the „hole
‟
as everybody called it. Fraternizing with co-workers was frowned upon. Everyone was supposed to be serious and focused, not thinking about fucking. And they weren
‟
t allowed to get out much.

Depression settled over her. She
‟
d had one on again off again relationship in high school that hadn
‟
t lasted through her senior year, but then there
‟
d never been any talk about staying together once they graduated. She hadn
‟
t wanted anything else to come of it herself since she
‟
d already had plans for college. Sad to say, she hadn
‟
t had but one „sort of
‟
serious relationship in her entire life and that one had gone in the toilet as soon her boyfriend had found out she was considering taking the government job that had been offered. It had been nothing but an excuse, she knew. He
‟
d been giving off signals long before that that he was ready to move on—probably already had and just didn
‟
t have the balls to tell her.

She shook the thoughts off. It didn
‟
t matter. None of it did anymore. That was another life and it might as well have happened to somebody else. The only thing that mattered now was the slim hope that she might eventually at least find a way to escape the life she was looking at now, and surviving in the meantime. The Hirachi were interested enough to want to protect her and that was the important thing. She was just glad that she found them attractive enough it wouldn
‟
t be a hardship.

Well, scaling the monolith might be a little rough, but at least they seemed to be capable of gentleness and they were thoughtful enough to assure her they
‟
d be careful of her—not that that necessarily meant they would when it got right down to it. She did have
some
experience with men and knew that the minute their dick got hard their mind went on sabbatical! But she thought they seemed sincere and that they would try not to break her in half.

She was just going to have to focus on making them really happy and hope they didn
‟
t lose interest—or if they did, that she could find other protectors that were equally formidable. She didn
‟
t think she was going survive long in captivity without protectors.

* * * *

Lecur hadn
‟
t bothered to lay down any rules for her, or the other women either, she supposed, but he remedied that shortly after her incarceration. She was sitting in the middle of her bed swaddled in her blanket when he suddenly appeared at the door of her cage in a rage.

Unlocking it, he stalked (waddled) across the room, snatched the blanket from her, threw it on the floor, and stomped it. “Stupid
dyrk
! You tink I pay good money have you…cover everyting up? You here make fighters horny, gods damn it! Dey fight better get to fuck woman after!”

Loren gaped at him in stunned surprise. He
‟
d seemed almost amiable when he
‟
d bought her, but then again, she
‟
d realized at the time that she had no idea what might
‟
ve put him in a good humor. She supposed that answered that!

36

“I was cold,” she muttered uneasily. “I won
‟
t do it again.”

He narrowed his eyes at her. Swiveling around, he studied the privacy tent she
‟
d made for herself and Loren felt a mixture of anger and anxiety surge through her. “You show dem what dey get or I come back and take dat! Understand?”

Loren nodded shakily, relieved at the reprieve. When he
‟
d slammed out again, she stared at the bars, struggling to calm herself. Thankfully, he hadn
‟
t seemed to notice the loincloth Kael had made for her!

She debated whether or not to take it off and finally decided not to. She
‟
d told Kael that she
‟
d wear it to cover up „his
‟
tup
and she would, by damn! If the bastard wanted it, he was going to have to take it!

She didn
‟
t know if the gladiators had narced on her and knew what Lecur had come down for or if they
‟
d just overheard the entire tirade, but as soon as Lecur disappeared, they began to parade past her door again. Sighing, she ignored them the best she could and focused on combing the tangles from her hair with the comb Balen had given her.

Kael had been right. There was no real way to count the passing time and she found that distressing in itself. They were brought food twice a day, but she suspected that there was no dependable schedule to it, no way to use it to actually keep time. Throughout the „day
‟
artificial lights produced a stingy amount of light that was more like an overcast day than a day of sunshine and then there was the sleep period where the lights were shut off, leaving them in an inky, cave-like darkness.

Apparently the bastard didn
‟
t see any point in warning anybody either. She
‟
d been on the toilet when the lights went out during the first sleep period and she
‟
d had to feel her way to the damned bed. The only thing the fish-man didn
‟
t seem to be stingy with was the food, but she was sure that was only because he wanted to keep his fighters bulked up. They left the „dungeon
‟
, as she
‟
d begun to think of the place, shortly after the first feeding and returned shortly before the second, sweaty and often bloody from training.

She shuddered to think what they
‟
d look like after an actual „game
‟
.

She had no idea when the next games might be held. She could hear the men talking among themselves, but they tended to segregate themselves by species and they spoke their native language unless they wanted to communicate with someone who didn
‟
t speak it.

Her second day, counted according to the sleep period, was marked by Lecur
‟
s arrival with a different sort of collar than the one the trader
‟
s robot had put on her. Naturally, she didn
‟
t have any idea that that was what was about to happen when he told her to get up and present her back to him. Not that she could
‟
ve done a damned thing about it, but she didn
‟
t think she would
‟
ve obeyed quite as quickly.

Despite her effort to preserve her scalp by lifting her hair out of the way, he managed to pluck enough hairs taking the collar off that her eyes stung and filled with tears, blinding her.

She didn
‟
t know he was simply replacing the damned thing with his own until she felt the cold metal settle heavily around her throat. She grabbed at it instinctively when she felt a choking sensation but he
‟
d already fastened it by then.

She spent most of that day focused on fighting off panic and trying to breathe. It wasn
‟
t that the collar was too tight to allow her to swallow or to breathe properly. It was the weight of it that gave her the sensation of choking but fortunately she
‟
d pretty much grown accustomed to that by her third day.

37

She hated it with a passion, but she managed to put it out of her mind for stretches of time.

She was still focused enough on it, however, that when the Hirachi arrived that evening she was ready to risk angering them by demanding to know what they knew about them even though she
‟
d already seen that they were very touchy on the subject of their enslavement.

Even so, she almost dismissed it when Kael had pulled her close to cuddle her. It was so comforting that she hated to spoil it—especially with Kael. She didn
‟
t know why him in particular unless it was because he was prone to be far more taciturn than the other two and seemed inclined to hold far more back than he allowed her to see.

She felt a need to know about the collar, though. The purpose of the first had been to control her to get her to auction, she knew, and she supposed it was left either because nobody bothered to take it off or, more likely, as a symbol of slavery since she
‟
d noticed right off that all the slaves seemed to wear them.

She sensed there was significance beyond the symbolism, though, and finally leaned away from Kael enough to actually study the one he wore for the first time. He stiffened when she touched it and she met his gaze. “Why do they put these on?”

His lips tightened and he allowed his hands to drop to his sides. “We are slaves,” he said tightly.

Loren frowned at him, but his face was completely closed and she saw he didn
‟
t mean to discuss it. She glanced at Dakaar and Balen and saw that they were as angry as Kael, although she was pretty sure they weren
‟
t actually angry with her. “It
‟
s just…so that anybody will know if they look that we
‟
re slaves, then?”

“It is for control,” Dakaar said flatly.

Confusion flickered through her. “It doesn
‟
t have a loop for a chain. How do they use it for control?”

“Blow head off wid it,” Balen said succinctly.

Loren recoiled in horror, lifting her hand toward her own and then halting before she touched it. She glanced from Balen to Dakaar and then Kael. “Really? I mean, you know this? Or they said that?”

“Old gladiator told. He see it.”

Loren felt nausea well in her throat. She swallowed sickly. “It
‟
s an electronic device, then.

Does it track, too? Or is it just set to alert them if you move beyond range?”

They frowned at her, but this time with less anger than curiosity—and even a little suspicion. “You know „bout deez tings?” Kael asked harshly.

She could see immediately that they thought she had some familiarity with slavery and they didn
‟
t think highly of her for it. She shook her head. “On my world, they have something sort of like this that they use to keep pets—dogs and cats—from wandering away from home. If they get beyond a certain range, it…uh…stings, nothing harmful to them, just enough to scare them, but they only work if you train the pet. If they get very far away, it doesn
‟
t do anything at all and once they learn that they don
‟
t pay it any attention.”

They still looked skeptical and anger surged through her. “It
‟
s a barbaric practice! It wasn
‟
t uncommon for people to enslave their enemies to use them for labor in ancient times, but that was hundreds of years ago! We don
‟
t do it now!” She hesitated as it occurred to her that the sex slave trade was still alive and well established, but she damned well wasn
‟
t going to say anything 38

about that when she could see she
‟
d be tarnished with the same brush in their eyes. “Mostly I suspected something because I
‟
m an engineer—was—well, I still am. I just don
‟
t have a career anymore. Could I…look at one a little more closely? I couldn
‟
t really examine the one Lecur put on me. I can
‟
t see it.”

The three men exchanged questioning looks, but Kael finally bent down and lifted his chin.

She didn
‟
t actually want to touch it after what they
‟
d told her, but she
‟
d realized immediately that she couldn
‟
t simply ignore it. If it was true about the collars, there would never be any hope of escape if she couldn
‟
t figure out how to disable it or remove it. “I imagine there
‟
s some sort of sensor that goes off if it
‟
s removed while it
‟
s hot,” she murmured to herself as she studied the apparently smooth surface for any sign of a crack that would indicate where the workings were housed. “If I could get one open and study it….”

“Blow up if try remove,” Kael said.

Nervous already, the comment made Loren jump and snatch her fingers back. She studied his face for a long moment and then looked at the collar again, studying the faint line she
‟
d finally discovered that she knew much be one edge of the cover. She straightened finally, considering what he
‟
d told her. “I guess that
‟
s that, then,” she said dismissively since she didn
‟
t especially like the suspicion in their eyes.

Kael
‟
s eyes were piercing. “You engin-eer. Tink can…break?”

Loren felt her color fluctuate. She shrugged, trying to act nonchalant. “I was just curious.

There isn
‟
t a lot around here to occupy the time.”

She knew he didn
‟
t believe her just from the look in his eyes but, to her relief, he allowed the subject to drop and they left shortly afterwards.