His Human Vessel (Zandian Masters 5)

He leaned his face against the cage. “You should have told me you didn’t want the young taken from you. I would have let you raise it, if that was your desire.”

Bayla drew in a great shuddering breath, her eyes red, cheeks wet with tears. “I didn’t know,” she wailed. “I was s-so stupid!”

“No, not stupid,” he said firmly. “Never that. You were afraid. I should have asked more questions.”

“I w-won’t do it again. I promise. Can you culture another embryo?”

The brick returned to his solar plexus. “I’m going to try right now.” Heaviness descended into his whole being.

He reached a hand through the bars of her cage and brushed the tears from her face. “Go to sleep, Bayla.”

Chapter Eight

Bayla received punishment in every dream that night. Daneth whipped her, spanked her, paddled her, flogged her naked body again and again and, while she wept and mourned his anger, she never wanted it to stop. She deserved his punishment.

She needed it.

Only from him. In one dream, Prince Zander had picked up a leather strap and stalked to where she hung, suspended naked from the ceiling by her wrists.

She’d been terrified, but then Daneth had come and taken the strap from him.

She’s mine, he’d said.

Yes, she’d wept. Had opened her legs wide for him to whip her pussy.

She woke to an orgasm, though she hadn’t been touching herself. Her ass still hurt, but she loved the pain. She reached back to squeeze her cheeks, reactivating it.

The chamber was quiet—no sign of Daneth. She’d heard him come in long after she fell asleep, and then leave again before dawn.

She tested the door of the cage. Open. Daneth never locked her in. She rather loved that about him. He kept a cage for her but didn’t lock it. She couldn’t begin to understand why she adored her cage so much. Probably because it was hers. She’d never had her own belongings before, especially not plush, luxurious things like the cage and its furnishings.

She crawled out and padded to the washroom. After using the facilities and cleaning in the washtube, she emerged and dressed.

She didn’t want to leave the chamber for breakfast. Daneth hadn’t forbidden her to leave, yet she felt she ought to be confined. Or maybe she didn’t want to see what the Zandians in the pod thought of her now. Assuming they all knew.

The sound of something smashing made her jump. It had come from Daneth’s lab. She hit the panel that opened door to his lab and stopped short when she saw Daneth—her beautiful scientist—destroying his lab. Shattered fragments of equipment lay scattered across the floor. Daneth picked up a heavy instrument and flung it against a wall. When it didn’t completely shatter, he picked it up again and repeated the action until nothing but small shards remained.

“Daneth,” she whispered.

His head jerked up, and the misery she saw in his eyes made her heart stop.

“It-it didn’t work?” she forced the words out of her numb lips.

He shook his head. “No more eggs. The last viable one died in you.”

A sob choked her throat, but she held it back. Daneth needed her to be strong now. Weeping for what she’d done wouldn’t help anything. “I’m sorry,” she croaked. “You’ll have half-breeds. Lamira’s baby. You could breed me for more.”

He stared at her, his expression haunted. “You think I’d ever let another male near you for breeding?”

She drew back. “Not another male. With you.”

His lips curled in disbelief. Me? My genes are not worth breeding. I’m not a warrior. I’m nothing. An old scientist who never accomplished anything for his species.

“That’s not true.”

She had to shake him out of this desperation. Punishing her last night had soothed him—she’d seen the change in him, had loved it. If only she could get him to do it again, now. Change his focus, remind him of his power and virility.

She pulled off her clothing and cupped her own breasts. “This body was made for breeding, Master.”