“It’s actually quite late by my timeline but I think I took you in the middle of your daylight hours,” he remarked as he sat on the edge of the bed, still holding me cradled in the towel. “Would you like me to synthesize some food for you? I haven’t read up yet on your dietary and nutritional requirements but I can scan the pamphlet the Commercians gave me if you like.”
“No,” I whispered, shaking my head. I still felt thoroughly shaken by my body’s reaction to his touch. I ought to feel violated, I told myself—I ought to hate him.
Instead, I found myself craving more. Not that I was about to tell him that. He was still the enemy—the bastard who had captured me. Bought me like I was a piece of chattel—an animal he could own.
If only his hands didn’t feel so good on my body. And if only he didn’t smell so good!
Because now that I was close to him and the lightly fragranced cleaning lotions he had used on me were washed away, I could smell my new Master’s distinctive scent and I have to admit, it was incredible.
Imagine the best, most expensive men’s cologne you’ve ever smelled and then imagine the scent of your favorite lover’s skin. Sir’s scent was like both of those mixed together. I wondered if he was giving off some kind of alien pheromone or something but whatever it was, it drew me like a magnet. It made me want to bury my face in his neck and breathe him in and never stop.
I clamped down on the urge sternly.
“Can I go now?” I asked, not meeting his eyes. “I mean, if it’s your nighttime, it’s time to rest, right? To sleep?”
“Certainly you may sleep if you’re not hungry.” He unwrapped the towel and set me down on the floor in front of the bed gently.
“Can I have a nightdress?” I asked, daring to look at him. “Or some kind of night clothes to sleep in?”
He shook his head.
“I’m afraid not—pets don’t generally wear clothing in my culture. Besides, I’ve always thought that a pet in clothes looks perfectly ridiculous.”
It wasn’t lost on me that I had thought the exact same thing—many times—while helping Great Aunt Maizy dress her doggies. But the idea of walking around naked all the time made me feel desperately vulnerable.
“Please,” I said, though I hated to beg. “It might not be part of your culture but it is part of mine. I need something to wear!”
“You’ll get something, little one,” he promised me. “I’m going to synthesize you a collar tomorrow after first meal. Won’t that be nice?”
“A collar?” I glared at him, angry all over again.
“Well yes, of course,” he said as though it should be obvious. “I must show my ownership of you, especially on the planets we visit together. It wouldn’t do to have you stolen away or mistaken for someone else’s property.”
“I am not your property!” I spat at him. “You might have bought me, but I did not consent to be sold!”
Sir’s brow furrowed warnningly.
“Nevertheless, you are now my pet. Are you ready to go back to your crate now and sleep?”
The thought of being locked in the claustrophobic confines of the crate all night sent a shiver of horror down my back and all the anger abruptly left me.
“Please, no!” I said quickly. “Please don’t lock me in there! I…I’m really claustrophobic. And now that you know I won’t, er, pee on the carpet, you don’t have to confine me like that—right?” I added hopefully.
He frowned at me.
“I also know you’re not trained to behave yet—you’re still very headstrong and disobedient. Why should I trust you outside your crate?”
“What if I gave you my word to behave?” I asked desperately. “Please, I’ll be good. Can’t I sleep somewhere else? Anywhere else? Even the floor—in fact, the floor would be fine.”
He shook his head.
“I don’t like the idea of you on the floor. What if I got out of my sleeping platform at night and accidentally stepped on you?”
“Okay,” I said in a tight voice that was less than a whisper. “What if…what if I slept at the foot of your bed? Since I’m your…your pet?”
I could barely force the word out of my mouth, but I couldn’t face the idea of going back into the narrow confines of the crate—I just couldn’t.
Sir’s frown deepened, furrows appearing on his high forehead between his curling horns.
“I wouldn’t want to kick you by accident, little one,” he said slowly. “And I don’t usually approve of allowing pets to sleep in their owner’s bed. But…”
“But what?” I said, leaning forward eagerly when he paused.
He sighed deeply.
“But I suppose I can make an exception, just this once. Provided that you give me your word you’ll stay on the sleeping platform and won’t try to go wandering around the room or my ship.” He pointed a finger at me sternly. “I’m prepared to be very strict about this. If I catch you out of the platform, you’re going straight into your crate no matter how much you hate it. Am I understood?”
“Yes, Sir,” I said, speaking the name he had given me to call him for the first time. “I’ll be good—I promise.”
“Well…” He sighed and ran a hand over his curling horns and black hair. “I suppose for tonight it’s allowed. But the moment we get to the spaceport, I’m buying you your very own pet bed. Understood?”
I nodded eagerly.
“Yes, all right. I understand.”
“All right then—come up on the bed.” He patted the bed beside him, as though he was inviting a cat or dog to jump up.
I might have been more offended, but at that point I was just so relieved that I didn’t have to sleep in that horrible crate, I barely even minded his condescension.
But getting up into the high sleeping platform by myself was easier said than done. As I said before, it was really high and there was nothing to use as any kind of step to climb up. Plus, the silver bedspread was really slippery. Still, I gave it a try. Gripping handfuls of the silver duvet in both hands, I attempted to pull myself up.
I go to the gym regularly but you know how guys often skip leg day? Well, I kind of do that same thing with my arms. So I’m afraid I don’t have as much upper body strength as I would like. Not nearly enough to pull myself up onto a bed that is chin-height on me. My feet kept slipping on the silver coverlet as I tried to drag myself up and I kept on sliding back down again.
Sir began making that rumbling sound again and after a moment, I realized he was laughing at me—just like he had when he’d found me in the clutches of the alien toilet!
“Hey!” I said sharply, panting. “It’s not funny—it’s not my fault… you have a bed… as tall as Mount Everest!”
“Come here, little one” he said. And leaning down, he held out his arms to me.
Though it went against all my instincts, I inched closer and allowed him to pick me up under my arms and swing me onto the bed, like I was a little kid or a doll—which was basically how I felt with him, size-wise, anyway.
“There you go,” he said, still rumbling with laughter. “You really are adorable, you know that, little one?”
“I don’t know any such thing,” I said with as much dignity as I could muster. He was looking at me with that expression on his face—the same one I always wear when I’m watching cute and funny cat videos online—and it pissed me off. “Do you want me to sleep at the foot of the bed?” I asked, deciding not to dignify his laugher any further.
He shook his head.
“No, as I said, I don’t want to kick you in my sleep. You can stay here beside me as long as you don’t kick either.”
“Don has never said I kicked,” I said. “And I never really slept with anyone else all that much.”
“Ah yes—the mate you left behind, correct?” He raised an eyebrow at me. “The one you claimed you were going to be Joined to when you thought I wanted you as my bride?”
“He’s not my mate, he’s my fiancé,” I corrected him. “But that means we were supposed to be mated. And we would have been if you hadn’t taken me away,” I added accusingly.
Sir shook his head.
“You’ll forget him soon enough, little one. He’s in your past now and soon enough you and I will form a bond. The bond between a Master and his pet is quite strong, you know,” he added.
Angry words filled my mouth so fast they nearly choked me. How dare he compare the bond of an owner and pet with the bond of two equal and loving romantic partners? How dare he condescend to me like this—acting like I was a puppy that was missing its littermates but would forget them soon enough?
Then I remembered I was only sleeping on the bed instead of the horrible coffin-like crate because my new Master was letting me. And if I went pissing him off before bedtime, I would probably wind up back in the crate.
So I only said tightly,
“I don’t think so.”
He frowned slightly.
“You’ll see. For now, it’s time to get some rest. I’m going to change into my nighttime attire.”
“Right—you get pajamas because you’re a real person and not a pet,” I muttered resentfully.
“That’s right,” he said matter-of-factly. He rose from the side of the bed and pointed a finger at me. “Remember, you have to stay on the sleeping platform or your privileges will be revoked.”
“Like I could get in or out of it without your help, Master,” I pointed out sarcastically.
He frowned but didn’t seem to take offense.
“There is that,” he said, nodding. “Well, give me half a mern to get changed and then we can get under the wrap.”
“I’d rather sleep on top of the covers if you don’t mind,” I said stiffly.
Sir shrugged, his impossibly broad shoulders rolling with the motion.
“Whatever you like, little one.”
Then he went to one of the blank walls and tapped on it twice.
A door slid open, revealing lots of the same kind of business attire he was wearing, as well as a few other items of clothing.
I wondered if the doors and appliances would work for me if I tapped on them as I tried not to watch my new Master undress. It would be rude to stare, right? But then I had a change of heart—if he got to see me naked all the time, I would damn well look at him naked too! I was going to watch all I wanted to, damn it!
I stared at his broad back pointedly, looking my fill of the man who had abducted me.
If Sir knew I was watching, he didn’t show it. He probably didn’t care if I watched or not, I thought resentfully. I mean, who gives a damn if their dog or cat watches them undress?
He toed off his tall black boots and peeled down the tight black trousers quickly. The boots he stood just inside the closet but the trousers he sent down a kind of chute, which appeared when he tapped on the wall beside the open door. The shirt went in next and then the vest, which was long on the sides but cut short in the back, presumably to make room for his tail.
Speaking of his tail, it was interesting to watch it flow and twitch as he moved. The root of it was directly above the cleft of his buttocks, which I admit I also watched—he had a great ass—I mean, for an Alien Overlord, anyway. Though truly, it would have looked good on any man. It was high and tight and firm—the kind you’d love to squeeze, though I was betting I wouldn’t be allowed. I doubted the bond between a Master and his pet extended quite that far.
But it wasn’t just his admittedly impressive physique I was interested in—when he was fully naked, I could see the purple undertones of his marble-gray skin again. He almost seemed to glimmer faintly in the dim blue glow, like an otherworldly creature. Which of course, was what he was, even though he was bipedal and had two arms and legs and a face which was mostly human. Well, except for the full-black eyes and the curly horns.
He pulled on a pair of loose black trousers, half turning to me as he did, and I caught a glimpse of something that looked decidedly unhuman.
My God—is that his cock or an elephant’s trunk? was my first thought. Thank God he doesn’t want to try to stick that in me, was my second. I had been right about our equipment being mismatched—that thing would never fit inside me—it was way too big.
Then the trousers came up and the Alien Overlord’s cock was out of sight—well, except for the sizable bulge in the silky black fabric.
He headed back to the bed and I turned over quickly and lay on my side, facing away from him. I didn’t want him to know I’d been watching him. He went around to the other side of the bed and climbed under the silver coverlet. Then he turned on his side, sighed deeply, and apparently drifted quietly off to sleep.
I lay there frozen for a long time, curled on my side of the massive bed. I held myself tight, my knees drawn up to my chin and my arms wrapped around them. I was trying to process my day from start to finish—trying to cope with what was happening to me—but it was damn hard to do.
How could I possibly have started my day picking up Princess Prissy from the groomers and ended it in the bed of an Alien Overlord who claimed I was his pet? It just didn’t seem possible but here I was and no matter how much I opened and closed my eyes, the scene didn’t change. I was still in Sir’s bedroom bathed in the eerie blue gloom and that appeared to be where I was going to stay.
By now my Mom would probably be frantic. Great Aunt Maizy would have called to complain that I was gone, deserting in the middle of the doggy ceremony and Mom would have asked my sister, Taylor, to go check on me. When nobody found me anywhere, they would probably tell Don, who would also be upset. Though probably not quite as much as my family, I admitted to myself.
Still, the point was, everyone I loved back on Earth was no doubt worried about me and I couldn’t even tell them I was alive and well. Sir had talked about taking me to other planets and from there we would presumably go back to his home galaxy and who knew how far away that was? I was literally light years from home and nobody knew where I had gone and that I was never coming back.
Tears came to my eyes, stinging and harsh, and a sob rose in my throat. I choked it back down with difficulty. I didn’t want to wake up my new Master—he might get mad and make me sleep in the crate and after the day I’d had, I simply couldn’t handle that. But I couldn’t quite stop the tears from flowing.
I lay there feeling miserable and trying to cry as quietly as I could for a long time, but finally my tears dried up, leaving a sense of determination in their place. I had to get out of here and get back to Earth. But how?
Well, if Sir had a ship that could take him all over the universe, then other people must too, I reasoned. And he had talked about taking me to other planets. So all I had to do was slip away from him and find someone headed back towards Earth. Basically, if I could just ditch my new Master, I could hitchhike home. See ya later, you big gray dickhead. So long and thanks for all the fish.
That’s exactly what I’ll do the very first chance I get, I promised myself as I dried my eyes on the silver bedspread. The minute Sir turns his head, I’m off like a shot to find someone who can take me home.
Feeling comforted by having a plan, I was able to relax and finally, I drifted off to sleep.