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Present Day
The translator they’d implanted in Darcy’s ear allowed her to understand every vile word they spoke. They being the aliens who’d kidnapped her from a ship that was supposed to take her to meet a potential husband.
“Go. Don’t stop.”
Darcy shuffled forward with the others captured with her. Two women and a man. The man was a security guard she recognized. Like Darcy, the women had been traveling to another planet to meet men as well. All of them were involved in Earth’s Singles Program. SP, as it was referred to, was to help women find husbands off world due to the shortage of available men and dwindling resources on Earth.
The process wasn’t supposed to see their ship hijacked and the survivors kidnapped by what she assumed were space pirates of some sort.
“Wait!”
Their four-person group jerked to a halt in front of a doorway covered by a dark curtain. Beyond it, the low sound of various voices filtered through. She caught phrases, an odd alien word or two, then muffled laughter. Darcy straightened her shoulders and braced for whatever lay on the other side.
“One at a time,” the lizard faced man creature said. Then pointed at Darcy. “You, go through.”
Shivering, Darcy couldn’t have moved if she wanted to. Her feet remained frozen to the spot even as the lizard got in her face and yelled, his tongue flickering with each word.
“Gooo!”
“Let her be! Can’t you see she’s scared?!” The security guard from the ship shoved his way to her side.
Darcy watched in stunned horror as he was hit over and over with a club until he finally dropped to his knees, trickles of bright red blood dripping down his face.
Lizard man glared at her.
“Oh, God! Oh, God,” Darcy whispered, wrapping her arms around her naked torso.
“Go!” The menace in his slitted stare when he snapped sent Darcy forward with a jerky fast momentum.
The curtain parted and Darcy found herself standing on a four-by-four stage. An overhead light shined directly on her head and the crowd cheered and roared. The stage was built on a platform and gave her a slight height advantage.
Or disadvantage because Darcy had no way to look away from the leering crowd. Garbled words came at her from every direction. She twitched and turned, but at the curtain, the lizard man narrowed his gaze, his snout lifting to reveal sharp teeth. Darcy faced forward again.
Tension crawled up her spine. The things in the audience raised fists and shook them in the air. Some were human-ish. Others appeared to be straight from a sci-fi vid and bore no resemblance to a being she’d ever crossed.
Not that she’d crossed many. This SP trip was supposed to be Darcy’s first time meeting alien life forms. She’d been prepared based on the information in her packet to find a husband or partner that at least resembled someone from Earth. She’d narrowed her search to Enotia and Garulax. Enotia had insanely hot men and Garulax followed a two husband culture.
The audience in front of her was beyond what her brochure covered. There were some who looked liked lizard man with green scaly skin, snouts with nostril holes and funny eyes. She caught a range of skin colors and numerous appendages beyond the standard two arms and two legs.
“Do a complete turn, please.”
Darcy jumped at the voice coming from behind her. She swallowed and glanced over her shoulder. A bald-looking humanoid man joined her on the stage, a smile on his narrow lips. He twirled his three-fingered hand. “Turn so everyone can view the merchandise.”
Merchandise? “W-what?!”
“Buyers want to see merchandise before purchase is confirmed.” He continued to smile as if this was a perfectly normal conversation and nudged her forward.
“I’m being sold?” she whispered in disbelief.
When she didn’t move immediately, the man gripped her shoulders and pushed her again. Her feet stumbled clumsily. Her mine whirled, not wanting to grasp the reality of her situation. The voices from the crowd reached a feverish pitch.
This was some sort of alien sex slave ring. The gathered crowd shouting took on new meaning. They...they were here to buy her.
After turning her in a full circle, the man stepped away and started yelling numbers. Trembles started at her knees, working their way up to her shoulders. Sold. She was being sold at an auction.
Nausea swirled and her stomach lurched. All of the faces below the stage blurred. Darcy pressed a hand to her midsection. She wanted to scream, but her throat locked. Heat rose in her face then cooled and a dry sweat broke out on her skin.
I’m going to be an alien’s sex slave.
Darcy swayed, then caught herself. Now wasn’t the time to faint. She needed to be awake to see what her future held. Her lips firmed. She didn’t plan for things to go like this but she damn well wouldn’t be passed out on the floor while her future was being decided.
“Fifty thousand open credits. Paid in full. Today.”
Silence swept through the audience, followed by groans. The man on stage with her paled, the bulge in his throat popped and there was no missing the sweat dabbing his bald head. “Fifty thousand?”
Darcy stretched her neck and tried to see beyond the blinding spotlight to the voice but the alien who’d called out was too far away.
“Yes.”
Boots thumped down the center aisle. The previously bold aliens all jumped out of the way of the newcomer. Darcy waited, her world suspended for this moment in time. Her buyer had a darkly tanned face with a hint of red on the skin, thick thighs and a muscled body capable of crushing any of them present. His appearance was the epitome of threatening but what held Darcy memorized were the twin horns at the sides of his head.
Horns!
“Done.”
The man on stage gripped Darcy’s hand and led her to a set of stairs at the side of the platform. Voice low, he murmured, “I will send blessings that you die a quick death.”
The words were the last blow and Darcy shuddered at what was to be her fate.
***
Nikol burst through the door open to Lothar’s office. “What do you think you’re doing?”
Seated behind his large desk, Lothar lifted his head and his mouth twisted in a cruel snarl. “Watch how you speak with me.”
His anger too great to heed the warning, Nikol marched toward the desk, pounded both fists on the surface and gritted out between clenched teeth, “I said: What. Do. You. Think. You. Are. Doing?”
The only response was the narrowing of the black eyes staring back at him. Aggression vibrated on the air between them. Nikol refused to stand down. Lothar did things to enrage him all the time but he’d gone too far this time.
Lothar sighed and tapped a finger on the top of the desk then without a semblance of guilt on his face, he rocked back in his seat. “Someone told you about the shipment of bliss, I gather.”
A sustained usage of bliss resulted in its users going crazy and committing murder while under the influence. Those who retained their sanity often died a painful and immediate death from the attack on their nervous system. After complaints had reached the Majad, Lothar had been ordered to withdraw from manufacturing or selling the drug.
“I gave the Majad my word we would stop selling it. If he finds out about this, I’ll look like a liar,” Nikol spat.
Lothar had directed him to pick up and deliver an extremely large shipment, claiming it was high-level trade merch. One of the crates had dropped and broken open to reveal the thick packs of bliss inside. Otherwise, he’d never have known.
Nikol hated that he’d had any part in putting more of the dangerous product out. Year by year, his very sanity was challenged by the things he did on behalf of Lothar. This latest was shoving him closer to an edge he wasn’t sure wouldn’t break him.
“My brother will not punish you. It’s obvious he’s favored you since your youth. Even my useless daughters seem to be under his protective eyes.” Lothar said the last on a sneer.
Probably because only one of his younger daughters had been placed in a kitse. Hauka also happened to be deliriously happy and in love with her master. Much to everyone’s surprise, Beren appeared to return her feelings and treated Hauka as precious. She held First Placement and was expecting his only babe so far.
It helped that Beren was one of Majad Renik’s closest allies and governed one of their largest nations. He’d do well to never jeopardize the relationship with their ruler.
“Niko.” Lothar stood and came around the corner of his desk, his dark eyes glinting. “This was a one-time thing. A favor for an ally. The credits transferred will go far.”
It had nothing to do with credits. It was about spite at being told what he could and couldn’t do by his brother. With the large business empire Lothar had amassed, he had no shortage of credits and by default, Nikol was a very wealthy individual as well.
Marenia kept their edge by ruthlessly crushing opposition. They owned a large portion of the trade in this part of the Alliance vector and threats of retribution minimized the number of those willing to steal from them.
Of course, if they were actual members of the Alliance, they would fall under their range for protection and a host of other benefits. Unfortunately, Lothar wasn’t responsible for that bit of fuckery. Nikol knew the Majad would never agree to align with an organization that was vehemently opposed to the way their societal structure subjugated women. Renik assumed this was the best and only way for their women to be safe and flourish no matter how many times Nikol broached the topic.
He straightened and backed away from any potential physical contact. “Don’t ever use me like that again.”
Outwardly he maintained his mask, but inside he seethed at this latest act of betrayal. The man who’d contributed to his birth was a schakal, a beast found in the wilds of Marenia, which fed on its pack without remorse.
Lothar lost his feigned jovial attitude, his black brows clashing downward. His voice lowered to a deep rumble when he replied, “Or what? What do you think to do to me...son?”
Nikol knotted his hands at his side. They stood close enough he could drive his fist into the gloating face in front of him. The vision alone filled Nikol with pleasure. Still, he kept his hands to himself. Lothar’s guards would react to the slightest sign of provocation. They’d been trained under brutal conditions to do no less.
He had to respond to Lothar’s taunt, though. He couldn’t let his father get by with this slight or he’d seek to trick him more and more until Nikol crossed an invisible line he wasn’t even aware of creating.
“I don’t think you want to find out. Father.” He spat the last word.
Lothar stared, his black eyes smoldering before going blank. In the next moment, he relaxed on a loud booming laugh and clapped Nikol on the shoulder. “Every time. You do it every time. Just when I question if you could truly be my son, you prove it.”
Lothar dropped his arm and stepped back to lean his hip on the edge of his desk. “I know you don’t often trust me, but you have my promise no more bliss.”
Cheating and stealing was a way of life for Lothar. His word wasn’t much to go on, except this time Nikol believed he meant the words he uttered. His father didn’t toss around promises especially ones he had no intention of keeping.
Nikol eased his shoulders and let out a breath. “No more.”
“No more.” Lothar agreed, the half-smile still playing about his mouth. “We should share lunch. I’m feeling good for some reason.”
Never. If he could avoid it, Nikol never willingly spent time with him. He backed up and changed the subject. “I’m eager to return to my kitse.”
It was an excuse Lothar would understand. “Ah, very well. Perhaps you will make a son this night.”
Ignoring the hopeful note in his voice, Nikol turned and left. He was never raising a child under the same roof as the one who’d killed his mother and forced him to abandon his brother.