Rescuing Reya (The Beast Masters Series) (4 page)

Altan
nodded. “There is more, brother. The female, she quells my Heat with a simple
touch but in the same respect, the beast has never wanted out more.
Utan
, she does something to me.”

Utan
gasped. “You believe her to be the one for you?”

“I do.”

“Cursed stars, the
Voxenites
’ air
is poison to certain people,”
Utan
said. “It sounds
as if this female is one of them. We must make haste.”

“Poison?”
Altan
asked, his mind on
the woman and her long blonde hair and wide blue eyes. She was so tiny. So
weak. “Is it fatal?”

“Without treatment, yes.”
Utan
pressed a button on his desk and a woman dressed in red sheer material entered.

Her gaze moved to
Altan
. He knew
her well. He’d fucked her on many occasions for coin, of course. He always paid
her above her going rate for her services. She began to remove the strip of
material covering her breasts.

Utan
rolled his eyes. “No. He seeks not services of the flesh. Seek out
Manuk
. Tell him we have a
Voxenites
’
poisoning.”

She gasped. “Yes, Master.”

She rushed away.

Utan
looked to
Altan
. “Where is the female?”

“I lost her scent near here.”

“The mines of
Tagun
still toying
with you?” his brother asked as he moved to
Altan’s
side.

“Yes.”

“Come, we shall search for her.”
Utan
moved outside and began stripping from his clothing quickly. He tossed his
pants at his brother and stood unabashed in his nakedness. “Can you shift?”

“Not with ease,”
Altan
confessed.
“The mines…”

Utan
nodded and shifted forms quickly. His massive black beast form was a
panu
or, as those
with ties to Earth called it, a panther.
Altan
liked
Earthly customs and ways. More than he should as a
Ralen
male. He followed behind his brother as
Utan
raced in
the other direction.
Altan
was prepared to run far
and work hard to keep up with
Utan’s
beast form. When
his brother came to a grinding halt, he nearly tripped over him.

Altan
gasped when he spotted the young female sprawled out on the ground. She wasn’t
moving. Emotions poured over him, causing his beast to push toward the surface.
Fur sprouted on his knuckles first, then the backs of his hands and his lower
arms. His shift wasn’t full and he knew why. The mines of
Tagun
.
He’d have to force a full change or be trapped as such.

Altan
moved to her side just as
Utan
was shifting back to
his human form.
Utan
touched his shoulder.

“She yet breathes, brother. Bring her within the House of
Pleasure. The healer has been summoned.”

Altan
knew his brother’s words were to be calming, but the fear of losing the tiny
woman, whom he had yet to learn a name for, was too much. His body knew deep
down she was the one for him. The woman he was to collar. He could also see
clearly how weakened she truly was. He could not lose her. To lose her would be
to lose himself. He knew as much, and from
Utan’s
expression he did as well.

Utan
nodded to the forest. “Go,
Altan
. Go deep into the
woods and force a shift. It must be done. You are too close to the Heat to
allow this to simmer. I shall watch over the female. I shall ensure healers
treat her and I will come for you should her condition worsen. Go.”

“Thank you,” he said, nodding and rushing off.

Utan
wiped the woman’s brow and spent far longer than he should staring at her
sleeping form. She was to be
Altan’s
when he returned
from his forced change. His brother was too close to the Heat to return until
he was in control. If that meant more than one day, so be it. So far, it had
been five.
Altan
would not risk the harm he could
bring to
Reya
should he return too soon and the beast
overtake him fully—it was unthinkable.
Ralen
had seen
such things occur in its history in times far past. The results of a male’s
beast taking control were whispered about among the people from an early age so
they fully understood what was at risk.

Utan
shuddered as he thought back to the story his uncle had told both he and
Altan
upon
Utan’s
sixteenth year.
It was the story of
Wanu
, a respected warrior and one
of the heads of the sectors. His Heat had come upon him swiftly and without
much in the way of warnings. His selected, a young female from planet
Tagun
, had been out with him, enjoying a picnic lunch near
one of
Ralen’s
many rivers.
Wanu’s
Heat overtook him, and in his crazed beast-locked state, he tore his love to
pieces.
Wanu
had remained in beast form and was
hunted and killed by his own men. The same men who had idolized him only days
prior were forced to end his existence and then clean up what he had done.

Utan
sighed. It was that type of past, those incidents that had once been high in
number, that kept women of the universes from flocking to
Ralen
to bond and collar. Though it had been over a hundred years since such a horror
had occurred, it did not matter. To the women of the many other planets, the
horrific events of old were as fresh today in their minds
 
as they had been long ago.

Mayhap the men of
Ralen
were
dammed. Cursed for the actions of their ancestors. It was hard to believe
otherwise.

He stared at
Reya
more, committing
her face to memory. Even with the knowledge she was to belong to another—his
brother—
Utan
couldn’t stop watching her. She was so
beautiful and something about her captivated him.

She
is to be your brother’s
, he reminded himself.

He had a business to run but had done little more than hover
over her since her arrival several days prior. He had permitted his women to
handle the day-to-day running of the House. It was not something he’d normally
permit, but he could not seem to pull himself from
Reya’s
beside. One of two of the women who worked for him raised a brow at his
interest in
Reya
, and one in particular seemed almost
jealous.

Reya
whimpered softly in her sleep and
Utan
touched her
hand lightly.

“I am here. You are safe,” he whispered.

She eased somewhat, falling into a deeper sleep once more.
He remained close. While her breathing was much better, she was still weaker
than she should be.

Manuk
,
a skilled healer, swore she would be well soon and that she would wake for
longer than the short bursts she had so far.
Manuk
also warned that the damage to her lungs was great and that some may be
irreparable. Only time would tell. But
Utan
was
impatient. He wanted to know she would wake soon and be healthy and right. The
idea of her suffering haunted him but he wasn’t sure why. It wasn’t as if he
truly knew the women in his bed.

It
feels as if I have known her all my life.

Utan
pushed her long blonde hair from her face and then wiped her neck with the wet
washcloth. He’d had some of his women cleanse the newcomer each day, but today
was different. He didn’t want them near her. He didn’t like the way they shot
him dagger-like looks when he lurked in her doorway. They acted as if he was
spending too much time with her and not nearly enough with them.

What fools they were.

He’d been very clear with each of them when they came to
work in his House of Pleasure that he had no interest in them sexually and
would not require their services in such a manner.

Each one had foolishly believed she would be the one to
change his mind. That she and she alone would somehow make him look past his
rule about refusing to mix business and pleasure. The last thing he wanted was
to bond to a woman who had serviced half a legion of men.

He sighed.

He wasn’t fond of the idea of women servicing men for coin,
yet he took good care of them. He ensured they were always safe, always had
food and lodging, and that they were paid well for their services. But he
didn’t feel the way they wished he would for them. He never had.
Altan
had no problem bedding several of them. Though even
his brother’s visits for sex had slowed greatly. It seemed the closer
Altan
came to his Heat, the more he realized the women of
the establishment did little to keep it at bay.

Utan
had fallen into ownership of the House of Pleasure and had not wanted to keep
it. Direct orders from those higher than he left him no choice. The houses of
pleasure were necessary evils on
Ralen
. Males
outnumbered females in numbers too great to count. Much had been done to
rectify the situation, but to no avail. The women did not come unless left no
other choice. Rumors circled the universe on how
Ralenium
males were cruel and hurt their women, how they kept them chained to the wall,
using them only for sex and nothing more.

Rumors started by those who were too weak to challenge
Ralen
directly. Instead they chose to exact their revenge
with words. Words that damaged the
Raleniums
’ chance
at survival. While they did have lives longer than most, it mattered not if no
young were born to carry on their legacy. Birth rates were down because of a
lack of females to reproduce with.

The women who came to the planet mostly came by way of slave
trader vessels. They didn’t respond to the positive ad campaigns the
Raleniums
had tried. The males would never hurt a woman.

Ever.

It was against all they stood for.

Utan
focused on the mouse of a woman in his bed. He himself was shocked he’d
demanded she be placed in his personal bed chamber. To date, no woman had been
within the walls of his room. It was his sanctuary, never to be soiled by the
taints of paid sex.

The woman stirred, her green gaze finding him. She blinked
several times before she gasped and sat up fast. The sheet covering her naked
form fell away and her pert breasts taunted him. His mouth watered and his cock
responded. It held great interest in this woman, as did he.

She covered her breasts with her hands and stared around the
room. “W-where am I?”

“You are safe within my home,” he replied, taken by her
voice as well. It was soft and small, much like she was.

She moved one hand up more, her arm still covering her
breast as she touched her upper chest. She took a deep breath and then smiled.
“I can breathe. It doesn’t hurt. How?”

“The toxins from the air onboard the
Voxenites
’
vessel have been cleansed from your system.” He continued to watch her, mindful
to stay very still on the edge of the bed for fear of scaring her with his
size.

She glanced down the length of herself. “Am I naked because
you wanted to examine your property?”

Confused, he tipped his head, his long, dark hair moving
over one shoulder. “Excuse me?”

“I’m yours, right?” she asked. “Your sex slave. I thought
the other one would get me. The one with the small scar on his chin. Um,
Altan
. Yes,
Altan
was his name.”

He hid his smile. “And you did not wish to be caught by one
such as him?”

She tugged at the sheet, pulling it up and over her breasts.
Her chin wobbled and he feared she might cry, something he wouldn’t be able to
handle. She took another deep breath and then boldly locked gazes with him.
“I’m an educated woman who has been reduced to this. It doesn’t really matter
who I belong to, I don’t want to be property, yet I am. So, while you may
technically own my body, my mind and my thoughts remain my own.” She dropped
the sheet. “Do it.”

Utan
leaned and drew the sheet up, covering her. His hands skimmed her nipples and
they hardened. His nostrils flared and the beast within wanted free. It wanted
to lay claim to her, his brother be damned. If he dared give in,
Altan
would go into the abyss and never return.
Utan
managed to control the moment and concentrate on the
tiny woman. She had a certain fire to her he was surprised to see.