When he pulled out, he clipped her ankles to a hook on the ceiling, lifting her pelvis in the air with her striped ass on display.
She would have cried again, but she’d used up all her tears. She hung in her ridiculous position as numbness set in, a hollow right in the middle of her chest. She drew in a hiccupping breath and watched Zander turn away from her in disgust and stalk to the washroom once again.
He ignored her when he emerged, freshly washed. Walking to his work platform, he began flicking up holograms.
A light tap sounded at the door and it slid open.
“What?” Zander barked.
“Forgive me, my lord, but Lamira’s monitors show signs of stress.”
She couldn’t see Daneth from her shameful position, but she had no doubt he had full view of her most intimate parts.
“I don’t doubt it.” Zander’s voice was tight.
Daneth walked closer. She turned her face and closed her eyes as if that would keep him from examining her in intimate detail. “What happened?” he asked mildly.
“She offered herself to my guards in exchange for their help in escaping.”
“That is not true,” she gritted through clenched teeth.
“Do not speak, slave,” Zander thundered.
Daneth released her cuffs from their binds.
She rolled into a ball on her side, her legs and arms pricking with pins and needles as the blood returned to them.
“What happened to her back?”
Zander didn’t answer for a moment, and then his voice sounded close to the sleepdisk, as if he’d come to inspect her with Daneth. “I bred her up against a wall,” he said dully. “She told me I didn’t hurt her. Yet another lie.” The disgust in his voice made her chest ache.
“I will take her to the lab for monitoring, my lord.”
“No.” Zander’s voice was hard. “She stays here, with me.”
Daneth’s footsteps moved away then returned. He put the fluid tube to her lips. “Drink.”
She did because she was thirsty.
“Has she fed?”
“Not in hours, no.”
“I’ll send some food in. I recommend you allow her to rest. Stress will adversely impact her ability to breed.”
“Yes, well, so will escaping,” Zander snapped.
Daneth hesitated. “Of course, my lord.” He left and she heard Zander return to his work platform.
Several minutes later a soft tap sounded at the door again. She flicked the blanket across her body to cover her nudity and curled back into a ball.
“Shall I put the food in the cage, my Lord?” a subservient voice asked.
She tensed, waiting for his answer. She really didn’t want to go in the cage.
“Leave it over there by the sleeping platform.”
A small kindness. She