Berrr's Vow (11 page)

“You’re not sleeping with me, damn it. Let me go, you big bully.”

He had the audacity to chuckle. “Rest much, Shanna. You will need it.”

She grit her teeth together tightly to bite back the scream of rage that was building. The conceited jerk thought he could just make her stay and make her want him. He had another think coming if he thought he could bully her. She’d been raised hard and she’d had to deal with all kinds of bullies in her life.

Her eyes wandered over his broad back and lowered to his nice bare ass.
Of course the bullies I’ve dealt with didn’t have his kick-ass sexy body.
The memory of him in bed with those women cooled off her warm thoughts quickly. He was a six-timing asshole.

She knew when he fell asleep. She could kick him now that he wasn’t pinning her but him sleeping was preferable to him trying to touch her. She closed her eyes, resigned that she was caught for the moment, but he’d have to let her up sometime.

* * * * *

The door opening pulled Shanna from her thoughts. It wasn’t Berrr back from his meetings but instead it was one of the house helpers with the black eyes and blonde hair. Shanna was at a loss for the woman’s name but she knew this was the one who called herself house lead and who took care of Berrr’s hair.

The woman had to be six-foot-one, maybe six-foot-two. She looked really unhappy to be standing just inside the door as they examined each other. The woman licked her lips and took a deep breath.

“I am not happy with you being here, human, but it is not my choice to make. Hyvin has ordered us to accept you fully and treat you with complete respect. He is running late so he has ordered me to ask you if you are hungry yet. He said you refused breakfast so I am to offer to hand feed you.”

“What’s your name again?”

She hesitated. “I am Ovoly.” Her mouth tensed and her fingers clenched at her sides. “I was house lead until you arrived but Hyvin has taken that title from me until you are accepting of that honor that he has given to you.”

“If you let me go I’m out of here. Why don’t you do that?” Shanna forced a smile. “Wouldn’t you love to see me gone?” She jerked on her wrists. “Just cut
me
loose and you can have your job back that I don’t even want.”

The alien woman sighed. “Don’t think I am not tempted but Hyvin has warned us that there will be dire consequences if we allow you to escape. He is a very smart male, he is Hyvin after all, and thought of this plan already. If you were to escape we would all pay heavily and there is nowhere for you to go that he would not find you.”

Shanna rolled her eyes. “He’s just a guy. Trust
me,
I can get lost anywhere, even on an alien planet. Do you know some guy named Oval? He offered to
bound
to me so maybe you have a way to get in contact with him to ask him to pick me up? I bet he’d come pretty quickly to get me since he really seemed to want me yesterday.”

Ovoly walked closer to the bed. “Hyvin would kill Oval if he came to take you, even at your request. You are a house helper but he is acting like you are his bound.” The woman looked damn unhappy as she spoke. “He told the guards he posted that if you try to escape they are to detain you but if they touch you he will kill them. He’s never threatened the guards to not touch us.” Her gaze flickered over Shanna. “He’s shared us with his guests and a few of his honored guards but the guards are now supposed to stop you from leaving if you break free without getting close enough to even brush against your body. It makes no sense but those are his orders.”

Shock ripped through Shanna. “He shared you with other men? Is that what you’re saying?”

The woman nodded. “We are house helpers and we proudly serve Hyvin in all ways as well as serve his special honored guests and friends. It is the Zorn way that males share house helpers if the company is much regarded on Zorn. Hyvin is an important male and has many honored guests come from afar to hold meetings with him.”

Shanna’s stomach clenched as she fought nausea. “You mean he could invite his damn friends over and offer me up to them? We’re talking about mounting, right?”

Ovoly looked furious again as her eyes narrowed with a nod of her head. “If you were a house helper he could and would but you only hold the title but none of the duties. Those were Hyvin’s words to us this morning while you slept.”

Wiggling, Shanna managed to sit up. She had to sit sideways on the bed since her wrists only had a few inches of movement. “I’m so confused. He said I was a house helper.”

Ovoly walked to the end of the bed, her hands gripping the bedding with white knuckles. She shook her head, spilling long blonde hair over her shoulders as she glared at Shanna.

“It is just the title that he must use since he is unable to
bound
with you but you are no house helper. He was very clear about your place with him when he had everyone come together to let us know he will never give you up.”

Shanna hated the frustrated tears that filled her eyes. She blinked them back but she realized the other woman saw them. “I just want to go back to Earth.”

Ovoly’s features softened. “I am trying to not hate you, human. I know you were forced to our planet from your own and I am trying to find empathy for you.” She swallowed. “Hyvin is already bound to Alluwn but they do not share a home or their bodies. He made it clear that you hold bound status without the actual title in his home. He will kill any male who touches you like you are his bound, he will hunt you down to bring you home if you run away, and as much as we all hate it, you are here to stay.”

Staring at the other woman, Shanna sighed. “Just because Hyvin Berrr said so doesn’t mean it’s going to be that way. Who is his boss? Can you get me in contact with him? I bet his superior could make Hyvin hand me over to someone else.”

Ovoly’s eyes widened. “You do not know?”

“Know what?”

“There is no one stronger, wiser or more powerful than Hyvin. He leads all of Zorn.”

Shanna stared at the Zorn woman while the blood drained from her face. She hoped she wasn’t hearing right. “What?”

Nodding, the Zorn woman looked grim. “Hyvin Berrr leads all of Zorn. He is the most powerful warrior on the planet. If you were to leave him he would just order all of his warriors to search for you. There would be nowhere for you to hide from him because no male who wanted to live would keep you from Hyvin.” Compassion filled the woman’s dark eyes, softening the look of them slightly. “There is no escape from Hyvin if you think you can run away. I wouldn’t even give it a few hours before you were returned. To anger Hyvin would be very foolish and it would make all of us suffer if he were to feel unhappiness at your actions.”

Mute with shock, Shanna just stared at the Zorn woman. Ovoly actually looked sympathetic now as she released the bed, inching to the side of it as she moved closer to Shanna, giving her a nod.

“You are bound to Hyvin for all purposes but the actual title and he will not be able to release his seed into your body to give you offspring. He has made it very clear that he wants none of us house helpers to touch him again for fear of making you never wish his touch again.” Ovoly’s features tightened with anger. “It is very selfish of you and I want you to revoke your demands of Hyvin to be in your bed alone.”

Shanna grew angry instantly while she glared at the Zorn woman. “Excuse me?”

Ovoly stopped feet from Shanna on the side of the bed. “We must respect you but he can’t order us to like you or be nice to you if you make our lives unhappy. You are a little female and you had better remember that there are six of us. We want to continue to share a bed with Hyvin and we want access to his body as well. We feel sorry for you being taken by force from your world but we will not suffer your strange ways of a male and female relationship. It is selfish and cruel to all of us house helpers to not have Hyvin’s touch anymore just because it makes you angry. When Hyvin returns from his meetings you will tell him that he is to continue to sleep in our bed and mount each of us every day like he did before you came. Do you understand, human?”

Shanna understood all right. “Are you threatening me, Ovoly?”

Ovoly blinked a few times. “I would never threaten the house lead, human.” Her mouth tensed. “It is a warning.”

The bitch is definitely threatening me
, Shanna thought, glaring at the woman. Worse, she was tied to the damn bed so if the Zorn attacked she wouldn’t be able to defend herself much. Ovoly was over six feet of muscled woman who probably weighed close to two hundred pounds with her beefy body and thick bones.

“Shall I feed you? I was ordered to offer you nourishment.”

Shaking her head, Shanna refused. The other woman might poison her for all she knew or feed her something horrible. No way did she trust any of Berrr’s house helpers now that Ovoly had made it damn clear none of them were happy to have a human in their lives.

Ovoly smiled coldly. “We understand each other, don’t we, human? Hyvin is gone often and you will be here with us at times for days and days when he travels far distances on Zorn.” Her look swept down Shanna’s body. “Do you know that there are many ways to inflict pain without leaving marks on even death-white skin such as yours?”

“I get it.” Shanna inched away as far as she could with her wrists tied. “You can stop now that you’ve made your damn point. There’s no escape and if I don’t get with the program—yours—you’re going to make me suffer a hell of a lot for it.”

“I don’t know some of your words but yes, we will make you suffer greatly if you don’t tell Hyvin to keep things the way they were before you came and not feeding you, locking you in small spaces in the dark while Hyvin is gone will leave no marks on your body for him to see. It would be a pity if you told him anything and your hair caught fire by getting too close to the flame or you had an accident preparing a meal. Your fingers are so tiny that a knife would slice one off too easily but you look smart, human, so you have nothing to tell Hyvin about me or the other house helpers that would make him unhappy, do you?”

Dread pitted in her stomach as Shanna stared into the woman’s cold eyes. All signs of her earlier compassion were gone, leaving Shanna to wonder if it had all been an act in the first place as she shook her head no.

Ovoly smiled coldly and then turned, stalking across the room with a definite bounce in her step. Tears filled Shanna’s eyes the second the door closed and she was once again left alone. It was as if she were in foster care all over again when she’d first been sent into the system.

The older, bigger kids had terrorized her and made threats about what would happen if she tattled to anyone. Luckily she’d gotten bigger and taken all those classes to learn self-defense so she’d learned to fight back. She was facing six bullies now with a gang mentality and Shanna wasn’t going to get any bigger compared to those Amazon women. She was in a world of shit with no escape.

Hot wetness slid down her cheeks as more tears fell. She just wanted to go home but even if she managed to escape the house there would be no place to go where Berrr wouldn’t find her and no way to leave the planet Berrr ruled to go home to Earth.

Shanna drew up her knees and huddled, putting her face against her legs, and just let go of her emotions. She never was one to turn to useless tears but sometimes a good cry was the best way to get it out of her system. She used her knees to muffle her sobs when they gripped her. Her future was going to be a living hell and she knew it. She’d spent years of her life trying to survive her childhood so she could control her own future and now it all had been taken away from her.

A while later a hand touching her startled Shanna enough to make her gasp.
Her face jerked up, to stare in fear into a pair of sad, glowing bright blue eyes as Berrr watched her silently. He was leaning over the edge of the bed, his face close to hers, his large hand touching her calf. His mouth was slightly parted to reveal his sharp teeth and as Shanna stared at him, he brought a knee up high, making the bed dip as he climbed on it with her.

“Please, Shanna, do not shed tears.” His voice was deep but his tone was soft, gentle and comforting. “I am sorry I was later than I said I would be but I wanted to talk to my son Argernon and his human bound so I visited them after my meetings.”

Shanna forced herself to look away and lower her head. She used the baggy dress to wipe at her tears, sniffed a little and was embarrassed that he’d caught her crying. The bed moved more as Berrr settled down next to her to sit with his back to the headboard. She saw his other hand move for his thigh and she watched silently as he withdrew something from a pocket of his tight leather pants. She saw the sharp blade a second before he sliced through the belts that held her wrists. He threw the knife away, the sound loud as it clattered across the tile.

Shanna gasped but didn’t fight when Berrr suddenly lifted her, putting her sideways on his lap so her ass firmly was between his slightly parted thighs. Two thick, muscular arms wrapped tight around her to pull her firmly against his chest. He hugged her to his body, his chin coming down on the top of her head while he held her.

“I know this is hard for you and I know you must be frightened. I shouldn’t have tied you to the bed but I was afraid you would try to run away while I was gone and that would have been dangerous. Zorn warriors are very sexual and you are human, which makes you very desired. If you told them you were mine they would never touch you but I realize you are angry with me so I didn’t know if you would give them my name when you were caught.” He paused. “You would be caught.”

Shanna relaxed in his arms, actually feeling comforted and safe in his warm embrace. She knew she should fight him, tell him to go to hell, and just for principle, cuss him out for what he’d done by tying her to a damn bed, but she didn’t. She burrowed tighter into his massive chest. He smelled really good with the scent of leather, man and the woods. She needed the comfort so she took it where she could get it at that moment.

“I spoke to my son’s human bound and she didn’t want to be with my son when she was brought to Zorn. She was offended by Argernon having three house helpers in his home. She told me how it harmed her and I am very sorry for the pain you must feel, my Shanna.” He rubbed her back, holding her tighter still. “I wish you to know that there will never be other women that I will touch or will allow to touch me. From the moment I saw you there was no other female I wanted. Do you understand?”