His Captive Mate Page 3

“Yes,” Jasmine nodded, “when she was talking to Daz. Once the ship had been struck, Daz went up to the front. I heard Ashea yelling. She was yelling that the ship had been shot.”

  The color drained from Zaer’s face as she breathed in slowly. It was not impossible what the girl was saying. The council had known that a day like this would come. But no one expected it to come so soon. And not in this way. Zaer forced a tight smile.

  “Tell me about Daz,” she said simply.

  Jasmine nodded.

  “Everyone was screaming. Screaming or crying. I—I was… I couldn’t move. I just stood there staring,” Jasmine’s voice cracked at the memory and Zaer reached over to touch her hand again. After a breath, she went on. “Daz? Daz was a hero. Ashea told her what to do, how to open the target. Then, when the other Tranquility shot a line over, she just started pushing us across. Clipping us on and pushing us out the door.”

  Zaer nodded, trying to ignore the tightness in her throat.

  “Then, I could see from the other ship that she went back to the cockpit. She was there for, I don’t know… it seemed like a long time. When she came back, she clipped up and… clipped up and jumped and then…” Jasmine’s hand shot to her mouth as she cringed and tears began to stream from her eyes. Zaer squeezed her hand and bit the inside of her cheek, trying to keep herself from crying with the girl. It wasn’t becoming of a commander.

  It took some time for Jasmine to compose herself. Sobs kept spilling from her each time she tried to resume the story. Zaer held her hand, pushing back her own grief until finally Jasmine managed to calm herself.

  “Right after she jumped,” Jasmine said, her voice quiet, “there was another bang and the engines screamed even louder. I couldn’t see what happened but the Tranquility began to fall. Daz must have felt it. She must have known she would get pulled down. We had to push the button. We had to let the rope go or we would have been pulled down with the other Tranquility…” Jasmine managed the last few words before breaking down into quiet sobs again.

  Zaer held her hand quietly while the young woman composed herself once more.

  “Jasmine,” Zaer asked quietly. “Did she have her crash suit on?”

  Jasmine looked up and nodded instantly, biting her lower lip. A wave of relief flooded through Zaer, the likes of which she hadn’t felt in a long time. There was still a hope that her daughter was alive.

  Chapter Four

  They walked in silence for hours, through thick jungle, through forest, through wide open meadows that turned into rolling hills. The men didn’t speak and Daz didn’t dare say a word. It wasn’t just that she’d never seen a man this close before—far less a group of them—but she had always been taught that all men were barbarians. Savages that were good only for one thing. Even if she had been the chatty type, what would she have said? Nice weather they had here?

  They had crossed rivers on makeshift bridges of rocks and logs. Like the simulators back home that Daz had played in with her friends so many times. But this was much different. This was real.

  When they had come to the bottom of a line of hills, one of the men spoke.

  “Sir, we should put the blindfold back on.”

  The man who had rescued Daz from her fate back in the forest where she’d crashed turned and looked at the man who’d spoken, then nodded.

  “Don’t worry,” he said as one of the others began to place the blindfold back over Daz’s eyes. “It’s for your protection. If you knew where we were taking you, you would be kept caged. This way you can be with the other women.”

  Daz’s heart jumped. Other women? There were other women here? How was that possible? She’d never heard of anything like this happening before. No one had ever said that other women had crashed while hunting, or been captured. They had told her the opposite—that what was happening to her now was impossible. The fabric of the blindfold tightened against her skin and she felt a hand on her arm urging her to walk.

  It was more difficult now, slower. With each step she wondered if she would fall. For another hour they walked like this. When finally they stopped again, the blindfold was removed.

  Daz gasped at the sight before her. She had expected groups of men huddled over smoldering fires, like the pictures she’d seen in class. This was a city.

  Giant walls rose up from the ground in front of her. A pair of gates swung wide open and beyond were buildings of all shapes and sizes. Daz stared wide-eyed and open-mouthed, unable to believe that the stories she’d been told about the planet were all lies. The leader’s voice snapped her from her awe.

  “Dismissed.” The command was curt and dry. The men shuffled but stood in place until one of them spoke.

  “Sir, our orders were to…”

  “Your orders have changed. You are dismissed. I will take the girl to processing.” The men looked back and forth at one another as the tall one, the one who’d dismissed them, the one who’d saved her stared at the group. One by one they began filing toward the gates until they’d all walked off into the distance and into the city. Now Daz stood alone with the stern commander, who turned his gaze on her and looked her up and down.

  “Hawk. Hawk Agnon.” His voice was deep, dark, and smooth and he extended a hand as he spoke.

  Daz looked down at it, unsure of what to do.

  “Take it and shake it.” His voice left little room for debate and Daz gasped again at being spoken to in such a way. “It is our greeting.”

  “I will not.” Daz jutted her lower jaw out in resolution. She was not of the underclass, to be touching a man with her bare hands! The man, Hawk as he called himself, smiled an amused smile.

  “In time, you will. You are just like the others. So proud. So arrogant.”

  Daz’s face contorted with her shock at the insult. How dare he, a man no less, call her, a Sister of Tranquility, arrogant!

  “You’ll watch your mouth around me!” she snapped.

  “Or what?” the man answered, his question immediate and curt. “You’ll run again? Don’t forget what happened last time. This is not your home planet. There is order here but it is not the same that you are used to. Now,” Hawk said, stretching out an arm again, “you’ll greet a man properly, or I’ll teach you how myself.”

  Daz smirked, shook her head, and folded her arms across her ample chest. She barely saw his hand move through the air, and she felt his fingers clutching her arm only after he’d bent her over his lap. Then she felt his strong hand pulling at her trousers and a moment later she felt her rear exposed.

  “What are you doing to me?!” she cried, writhing on his lap in an attempt to escape his grip. His large, firm hand kept her in place.

  His answer came when the first few swats had landed on her round rump. She was powerless to do a thing about it. His grip was like iron.

  She’d never felt anything like the heat at each swift spank that landed on her flesh. After each blow, he would cross to her other cheek and Daz’s head swam and spun in pain and confusion. It felt like her rear had begun to swell. Having barely been touched by anyone, certainly not in such an intimate place, she couldn’t understand what was happening.

  It was utterly humiliating that this brute was spanking her in broad daylight, in front of the city walls with people watching. But what was even stranger was the way her body was reacting to it. Somewhere through the pain, that same warm feeling had begun to build inside her. The same feeling she’d had when she first saw the tall dark-haired stranger she now knew to be Hawk. She had no idea what it was, though it felt awfully similar to the way she felt when…

  The spanking stopped. Hawk stood her in front of him once again. Daz, too shocked to say anything, simply glowered at him as best she could.

  “It’s different here, Dazea. Different than where you’re from. You’ll learn, in time.” Hawk stood there, staring at her. A fury started to grow inside Daz at the realization of what had just happened. Her bottom stung now, burning red hot fro
m where Hawk’s large land had landed over and over. Daz clenched her jaw and stared right back at the giant man.

  “How dare you lay a hand on me?” she hissed, unable to control the rage filling her any longer.

  Hawk didn’t move. Out of the corner of her eye, Daz saw that a crowd had gathered by the massive gates. She wasn’t about to be further humiliated by making a scene. She tore her gaze from his and looked down and to the side. Her heart was pounding in her chest, her nerves frayed by everything that had happened. Though a sob had started to form in her throat, there was no way she was going to give this brute the pleasure of seeing her cry. Breathing deeply, she bit the side of her tongue, the pain of it overwhelming the emotions that were bubbling to the surface.

  “Come on,” Hawk said softly, reaching out a hand toward Daz. “You need some rest.”

  Rejecting his outstretched hand, Daz put her chin high up in the air and waited for his lead. Hawk smiled slightly, shook his head, and put a gentle hand on her back, guiding her toward the massive gates. As soon as she felt the strength of his palm pressed against her back, the swell of confusing emotions rose inside her. What was she thinking? She was acting like a dirty breeder, enjoying the touch of a man! The other women would be disgusted if they knew. But they didn’t know. They probably never would.

  The thought gave Daz permission. Permission to revel in the stranger’s hand on her back. Permission to acknowledge that that wasn’t the only place she felt his strength.

  Chapter Five

  Hawk opened the large door to the clerk’s office and stepped inside. Taking his hat off, he let his eyes adjust to the dim light, then approached the small man sitting behind a makeshift desk.

  “Is she here?” Hawk asked quietly. The man behind the desk simply nodded and motioned that Hawk should go through. Hawk returned the nod and stepped through the fabric covering the opening to the room beyond.

  The space was cavernous and dimly lit. Hawk scanned it until his eyes came to rest on the small figure at a table. A strange burning odor filled the room, as it usually did, and Hawk tried to breathe through his mouth to avoid smelling too much of it. Not normally the kind of person to wait for anyone, this time Hawk stood quietly by the entrance until the figure turned around.

  “Hawk.” The blond-haired, green-eyed woman was just as curvy as she was beautiful and she smiled widely as she walked toward him. As she came closer, she realized there was something different about the man. “Why so serious?” she asked, a twinkle in her eye.

  “Hello, Gana,” Hawk said quietly. Though he wasn’t usually the smiling type, it was difficult not to smile back. Her charm was quite infectious.

  “Come, have some tea. Tell me what’s wrong.” Gana waved her hand toward another table where a tea service had been set out. As Hawk sat, she poured the tea slowly into two small cups, then took a seat across from him. “Well? Out with it.”

  “Gana…” Hawk began, then paused. He took a sip of tea, unsure of how to say what he was going to say. “Gana, I’ve met my bride.”

  Gana took the cup she was sipping from her lips, joy spreading across her face.

  “Hawk,” she whispered, putting her cup down. “From a hunt?”

  “From a hunt. Just today.”

  “You mean she just arrived today?”

  Hawk nodded.

  “She’s at my house. Sleeping.”

  “Alone?” Gana asked, seeming puzzled.

  “No. I’ve left a few men with her. She’ll be safe.”

  “Well, Hawk, I’m so glad, but if she’s just arrived today she hasn’t been trained. Is she of an easy will?”

  Hawk shook his head.

  Gana furrowed a brow. “But you think she will submit easily to this? Does she know?”

  Hawk looked down at the table before shaking his head again.

  “Hawk, how do you know?” Hawk looked up and met Gana’s gaze.

  “I just… knew when I saw her for the first time in the forest.”

  “Well, if she hasn’t been trained and she just got here, why have you come to me?”

  Hawk looked somewhat sheepish. “I thought you could tell me what to do. What must I arrange?”

  Gana smiled reassuringly. “Of course. The first thing is to take her to the doctor. He will inspect her. I can come with you and help but he’s become very good in his craft. Of course once she is seen to be healthy and fertile, we’ll have the public breeding, though I suppose if you haven’t trained her yet it’ll just be for show more than anything. I suppose you should take a lesson in how to mate. Though I always think those things are silly. The body knows what to do.”

  “A lesson? In mating?”

  “The elder council requires it. When she’s ready, come to me. I’ll help. The doctor is first though, that’s most important.” Gana smiled. It was always exciting when a new mate was caught. The Sisters of Tranquility kept quite a good front about how barbaric and backwards men were, but when the women came to know the truth, well, Gana had yet to see one who wanted to go back home.

  “Of course,” Hawk said, getting up and extending his hand.

  Gana got up with him and shook it. She walked with him to the door. “When you’re ready, come back.”

  Chapter Six

  The interviews with the other girls had gone much better for Zaer than had the one with Jasmine. The others were weak and too scared to have noticed much, though they all said that they had seen Daz in her crash suit. This came as a great consolation to Zaer. There was hope.

  Once they’d all bathed, they donned the white robes they wore normally but Zaer did not let them go back to their homes. They would all have to be inspected. Often, during such excitement, things would get broken and she would not have women who were not whole in her ranks. If they were no longer pure, they would have to be sent a level down, perhaps as handmaidens, but possibly so far as below decks.

  “Where are we going?” one of the women asked as she led them down another long corridor. Zaer held up a hand for silence and the woman quickly took her place in line and stopped talking. Zaer could sense the nervous energy behind her. When they came to the door of the examination chamber, Zaer held up her hand again.

  “You will each wait your turn here. Once each is finished, I will come to get the next. Understood?” Zaer asked, knowing that the women would not ask her to explain again. They all nodded quietly, though each of them stared at the floor nervously. Forcing a smile, Zaer took the first by the hand and led her through the door.

  The room inside was expansive enough and curved so that everyone seated could get a good view of the table in the middle of the room. As soon as the girl saw it, Zaer felt her tense and she stood still.

  “Relax,” Zaer cooed, “there is nothing to be afraid of. Just a simple examination, like you’ve done before.” But it wasn’t exactly that. The woman stared at the members of the medical council who were assembled in the room, prepared to watch as she was inspected. Zaer felt her tense even more as she realized what it would mean if she wasn’t whole.

  It was kept as common knowledge that the women of the upper decks, the ones who went on the hunt, had by far the best life of any of the citizens of Tranquility. Often, in the rare situations where a girl was sent lower, there would be a great mourning, almost as if someone had died.

  Zaer, who traversed all the decks regularly, of course knew the truth of it. It wasn’t quite the case. Of course the women in the lower decks had to work a little harder, but they had the handmaidens who cared for them and their lives were just as fulfilling as those up top. It wouldn’t do to let the ones on top know that. Their purpose was to keep their place of privilege so the lower decks had someone to look up to, admire, and respect. Contact between the classes was kept to a minimum.

  “Come now,” Zaer whispered to the woman, who had begun to shake slightly. Even if it did turn out that something had ruptured, Zaer would be there for her, to help her through the t
ransition. Reluctantly, the young woman shuffled toward the table in the middle of the room and with Zaer’s help, mounted it. Zaer spread her legs slightly, putting each of her feet into a stirrup, then pulling up the robe to reveal the woman’s carefully shaven pussy.

  Her slit was delectable. The creamy skin folded over into perfectly puffy inner lips that made Zaer want to bend down and taste her freshness. The man who had been standing in the corner, waiting, approached and Zaer stepped to one side and held the young woman’s hand. The woman gasped at the sight of a man coming toward her.

  “Relax, dear,” Zaer reassured her, “not all men are savages. This one is a trained doctor and just wants a look at you.”

  “Has she been cleaned?” the man asked, looking sternly at Zaer.

  “She’s been bathed,” Zaer answered. This seemed to satisfy the man and he turned his attention to the young woman spread before him.

  “A beautiful slit that is,” the man said as he parted the folds of the young woman’s flesh, revealing the pink softness of her inner lips.

  “It is,” Zaer said, looking back down at the woman’s opening.

  The man moved his hand down the soft folds, causing the young woman to shudder and look up at Zaer who gave her a consoling look and petted her hair. The woman looked down between her legs, craning her neck to see what the man was doing. The man continued until he came to her opening. Gently, he pulled her apart with two fingers of one hand and pushed another finger slowly inside.

  “What’s… what’s happening?” the young woman asked. “What’s he doing to me?”

  “Shh,” Zaer whispered, “he’s just checking to see if you are intact.”

  As the man’s stiff finger pushed deeper inside, the young woman’s mouth opened. Suddenly, a pleasure she’d never felt began to overcome her.

  Zaer looked down at the man. His finger had penetrated quite deeply into the young woman’s soft pussy and Zaer wondered if it might mean that the woman had been broken. When the man looked up, he confirmed her suspicions with a shake of his head.