Merchandise (6 page)

Hearing the soft sounds she was
making was only making it difficult for
Brale
to
focus on his task. It would be easy to position his cock into her tight opening
and slide his way into her warm folds.
Stop
being distracted. We don’t have much time.

Without warning,
Brale
bit down, sinking his canines deep. Rivulets of blood
dribbled from the bite, but
Brale
easily caught them
with his tongue. J cried out against him, but she didn’t push or move away from
him.

“You’re doing great, J,”
Dyos
crooned.

Her eyes widened in surprise when
Brale
released the pleasurable pheromones in the air. “Oh.
It feels really good.”

Withdrawing his canines,
Brale
said, “I’m going to make you feel better in a
second.”

She squeaked when
Brale
easily lifted her off his lap and handed her to
Dyos
.
Brale
knelt below J,
parting her thighs as
Dyos
wrapped her in his embrace
to bestow his mating mark on the other side of her neck. Her pussy was already
wet when
Brale
put his tongue and lips to work.

“I can’t have enough of you, J,”
Brale
murmured.

Tracing her swollen pussy lips
again, he was debating whether to tongue fuck her or suck her clit when the
double steel doors of the bridge were forced opened.

Peering at Farr and his men from
J’s legs,
Brale
gave them a lazy wave. “Why
Lieutenant, you came just in time to watch the show.”

Farr’s face grew a visible shade of
crimson despite his golden skin. Hearing J cry out above him,
Brale
knew
Dyos
had completed
making her his.

“You filthy criminals dare defile a
precious virgin Breeder against her will? This is beyond unacceptable,” Farr
said with obvious outrage. “Unhand the poor female this instant.”

Plasma guns were pointed at them by
angry
Hadarian
warriors, parting them from J. In
seconds,
Brale
tasted the floor, and a boot was
pressed against the back of his neck. He grunted, not liking the fact he wasn’t
able to see J or Farr.

“I wasn’t taken against my will at
all,” J was insisting.

“I am sure the trauma of being
kidnapped by brutes has affected your brain, but fear not. You are now safe and
sound in our hands, female.”

Brale
quietly snorted, growling when more pressure was applied on the boot.
 

“My name is J, and I’m not
traumatized! Let go of me, or I’ll kick your balls.”
 

Brale
laughed. He had no fear Farr and his men would harm her. One could always count
on the honorable
Hadarians
to uphold their morals.

“It is quite all right, J. You are
fighting me now, but you will see reason.
Come,
let us
part ourselves from unsavory company.”

“Lieutenant, permission to
eliminate these scum?” one of Farr’s men asked.

The cold and calculating look Farr
gave them sent an unexplainable chill down
Brale’s
spine. What was the bastard planning? Why not kill them after obtaining his
prize?

The boot loosened, and
Brale
was roughly hauled up to his feet. He caught sight of
J, a
Hadarian
military jacket draped over her
shoulders, and Farr’s arm firmly wrapped around her waist. She twisted her
head, eyes panicked.

“It’s going to be all right,”
Brale
mouthed silently, relieved she visibly calmed
down.
 
Convincing J was easy enough, but
Brale
wasn’t sure how exactly he was going to get all of
them out of this mess.

Chapter Five

“Your sleeping pod will be located
just opposite of mine, so if you require anything, feel free to approach me,”
Lieutenant Farr was saying, but J wasn’t paying attention to his words.

J shivered in her chair on the
bridge, although it wasn’t cold. Farr insisted she cleanse her body from the “terrible
ordeal” she’d suffered, so she was now freshly showered and dressed in a spare
Hadarian
flight suit several sizes too big for her. Farr
had abandoned the primary pilot’s seat to join her on the passenger seat meant
for two.

Farr kept glancing at the bandages
around her neck, where
Brale
and
Dyos
had left their marks. She noticed the other members of his crew also kept
sneaking secret glances at her when they could, as if they could hardly believe
she was there.

Knowing the
Hadarians
valued their females made her remember her primary purpose as a Breeder. Farr
and his crew were her rightful owners. J should be indulging herself in the
attentions of six drool-worthy muscled
Hadarian
warriors and putting all her training and talents to good use, but desire was
strangely absent from her system.

Farr cleared his throat and reached
out for her hand. “Little female, unfortunate and unpredictable circumstances
may have ruined our first meeting, but I can assure you that you will be
cherished and protected by my crew and
I
.”

J studied the
Hadarian
commander for the first time. He certainly embodied all of the ideal qualities
Breeders dreamt of when they envisioned a prince who would take them away from
their prison. To a Breeder, being claimed and purchased by a fierce but
honorable
Hadarian
was a dream come true.

She wondered if
Brale
and
Dyos
hadn’t found her first, would she have
fallen head over heels for
Farr?
J didn’t like
following that line of thought.

What was that old
Terran
saying?
Finders
keepers,
and
Brale
and
Dyos
had found
her first. Besides, something about Farr felt off, although she couldn’t really
explain it. Like he took careful steps to making sure she couldn’t see beyond
the polite heroic mask he’d like her to believe. What secrets did he hide?
Brale
and
Dyos
, at least, had
been honest with her from the start.

Farr reached out to touch her hair,
and she urged herself not to flinch or pull away. She’d endure him, be
compliant, if it meant keeping
Brale
and
Dyos
safe.

“If you permit it, I would like to
get to know you intimately, J. Perhaps we can start with something simple, like
a kiss?”

Taking her silence as a yes, Farr
leaned forward, his hands settling around her waist. Feeling the brush of his
lips against hers, J abruptly drew away, unable to help herself.
Stop it. Let him do as he pleases. The more
he believes you’re obedient and submissive, the easier it will be for him to
let his guard down.

J breathed hard. Where did those
thoughts come from?

No.
She knew exactly where. J might have been raised and bred for one single
purpose, but her creators failed to realize they had come out with a flawed
product, one that longed for freedom without even truly understanding what free
will entailed. Offered the ability to make her choices by
Brale
and
Dyos
, J realized she no longer wanted to assume
the position of a slave.

To her surprise, Farr let her go.
There was a grim expression on his face, but he didn’t seem angry or displeased
by her reaction.

“As I suspected, the mating marks
those two
scum
forced on you is affecting your state
of mind.”

“
Brale
and
Dyos
didn’t force anything on me. I wanted them
to mark me,” J angrily said, but she knew it was a losing battle.

A look of pity crossed Farr’s
features as he reached out to touch her cheek. J slapped his hand away, but he
didn’t let go. “It’s perfectly all right, J. We will figure out a way to
rectify this problem. My men and I had scheduled a mating rotation, but we will
have to delay our plans.”

J stiffened at the mention of a
mating rotation. She was hard-wired to please her masters. Monogamy wasn’t in a
Breeder’s genes. Normally she wouldn’t mind sleeping with a different man each
night, but a part of her mind now screamed it was wrong.

Only
Brale
and
Dyos
can touch
me. I belong to them, and they belong to me.
The words were a repetitive
mantra in her head that she couldn’t want and didn’t want to break free from.

“The Lieutenant is right. We shall
bid our time since we are in no rush. It will be weeks before we reach
Hadarian
soil,” Gael was Farr’s second-in-command and the
one who bandaged her neck. Unlike the others, who only seemed to have one thing
on their mind when they looked at her, there was an air of gentleness and
professionalism about him J rather liked.

The
Hadarians
weren’t villains, not really. They were only acting according to their nature,
J realized. Their race was dying, and the only way to repopulate was claiming
females from outside their planet. Unfortunately, she wasn’t the right fit for
their needs.

“I’m sorry,” J said softly. “I
can’t do this yet.”

Farr shook his head and patted her
arm. “It’s perfectly fine, J. Do you feel tired? Perhaps some sleep will do you
some good.”

“That sounds wonderful,” J agreed,
letting Gael lead her back to the communal sleeping pods the crew slept in.

“Gael, may I ask you something?” J
hesitated, wondering if it was fine to trust Gael a little.

“Of course, you may ask me anything
as long it is in my capacity to answer.” Gael placed down the spare blankets he
was holding, and sat beside her on her allocated pod.

“I don’t exactly understand how a
mating works.” Her hand crept to her bandaged neck. Remembering
Brale
and
Dyos’s
heated mouth on
her flesh made her cheeks flush slightly. “Is this mark somehow influencing my …
heart and the way I’m feeling?”

J felt ridiculous for asking, but
after Farr’s repeated assertions she was reacting this way because of the mark,
she needed to know if her feelings for
Brale
and
Dyos
were genuine.

“Farr would disapprove of me
telling you this, but I detest lying, even if it is needed to turn you against
your two pirates.” Gael let out a heavy sigh and finally looked at her, his
gaze heavy with an emotion J couldn’t place.

“A successful mating mark can only
be made with the full consent of the parties involved. The mind may be
influenced and moved by modern drugs, but I like to believe the heart is the
stronger muscle.”

Gael ran his hand slowly up her
thigh. J wasn’t sure why she suddenly felt wary of Gael. She backed away, but
there was nothing to back away against. The pod was meant to fit one.

J could try to fight and run, but
she was no match against a well-trained warrior. Besides, even if she got past
Gael, where would she run?
Nowhere.
She was in space
and stuck inside a cruiser filled with
Hadarian
warriors.

“By mating you and placing their
mark, they made you untouchable. In our culture and religion, a mating is
considered a sharing of hearts and souls. It goes against our precepts to take
what already belongs to other men. That is why Farr and the rest of us cannot
take you immediately, but there are ways to dissolve that taint.” One large
hand fastened across her wrist like a heavy shackle. “If you happen to
conveniently forget you are mated in the first place, the ties between you and that
filth would slowly disappear. Tell me, J. Is your heart stronger than your
mind?”

J squirmed, but Gael easily shoved
her small frame against the wall of the pod. “Don’t make this harder for me, J.
Since the others couldn’t stomach such a despicable act, it falls to me.”

His free hand disappeared into the
pocket of his flight suit, and reappeared with a syringe loaded with a clear
and transparent fluid.

“What is that? Why are you doing
this, Gael?” J whispered. Her eyes trained on the needle. Old fears resurfaced.
J had never liked needles, but they were unavoidable when one was raised in a
lab.

“This will not hurt, J. It is only
a memory serum, and it will wipe away all your unpleasant memories of twenty-four
hours before,” insisted the hard-eyed warrior.

“Don’t do this, Gael. Please,” J
pleaded. She clawed and kicked at him, but it was like fighting against a
living, breathing wall of muscle.

“Our race is dying. To survive, one
must be ready to do even the most evil deeds,” Gael said sadly, as if that was
sufficient explanation. Without warning, he slid the needle into the side of
the neck.

J only stared at Gael’s sorrowful
expression, feeling numb. Time moved sluggishly. Her tense muscles began slacking,
and her heartbeats began to slow.

Why had she fought so hard, when it
was easier to yield?

The image of her two pirates, once
clear and vivid in her mind, began fading away, like a far memory. It seemed
important she remember them, but the more she tried grasping at the memory, the
more it hurt. J couldn’t even remember their names anymore.

The giant
Hadarian
warrior, Gael, she remembered fuzzily, helped her lie down on the pod and
pulled the covers over her shivering frame.

“The hardest part is over, J. My
crew and I will take good care of you. We will treat you like our princess. Now
sleep.”

He leaned over and kissed her on
the forehead as if she was a child, hand stroking her cheek.

“Okay. Sounds nice,” J agreed,
settling
herself
against the pillows.

Gael was absolutely right. After
spending her entire life in a cell, wasn’t this all she wanted, to see the
world outside her prison? Wasn’t J living the ultimate dream, being fawned on
and revered by an entire
Hadarian
crew? Why did her
insides feel so twisted?

She suddenly felt so tired. Perhaps
she’d feel much better after a long nap.