Saved by the Beast (Kindred Tales)

“Oh!” She looked up at him, her dark eyes wide and uncertain as she pulled her gown closed around herself. Unfortunately, it only covered her breasts and the place they were pressed together was still visible. “Bard…hurt?” she asked in her broken Standard and pointed to the place where he was parting her. “Hurt…bad?”

“No, not hurt. Just fucked-up in the head,” Bard growled. “Here—I’m sorry, baby girl, but you can’t sit on me like this anymore.”

Picking her up by the waist, he moved her firmly to the other side of the loveseat and then got up himself. To his immense relief, she didn’t freak out or start crying again.

“Back in a minute,” he said gruffly. “Tiny—stay,” he added to the Ya’greer.

Then he went into the fresher to try and get control of himself.

7

Makenna wasn’t certain what to do. Had she made him angry somehow? He had seemed upset that his body had reacted to hers. And yet, wasn’t that the way it was supposed to be?

When a girl met the man who was meant to take her during her first ripening, their bodies naturally responded to each other. And Bard was very definitely the right man for her, she was absolutely certain of that. Couldn’t he sense it, too?

She hadn’t meant to show him her naked body so fully, but since they were meant to be together, there was no shame in letting him see her. In fact, she was rather surprised that he hadn’t touched her in some way. Why hadn’t he put his hands or his mouth on her in order to lay his claim on her, she wondered?

Do you want him to touch you like that? whispered a little voice in her head. Do you want him to touch you down there?

Unbidden images rose to her mind, memories of the last six horrible months. She had cringed away from the owner of the Pleasure House—Frogu, had been his name—every time he came for her to change her spreader.

The first time had been the worst, but it was painful every single time he changed it and she had felt shamed and dirty when he handled her body without her permission.

At least Frogu hadn’t seemed to get any pleasure out of this task—it was a routine chore to him, one he performed many times a week on the different girls who were being made ready to leave with the Trollox who had bought them. Still, Makenna sharply remembered the awful feeling of being forced to lie on the hard wooden table with her legs spread as he squirted the icy cold bio-solvent inside her, then worked his gloved fingers in and pulled out the current spreader. This was shortly followed by a hot squirt of bio-glue and another, larger spreader which opened her channel even wider.

The one she had inside her now was the biggest and it still hurt when she moved the wrong way. Makenna had fought when it was put in her. Knowing that it meant she was soon going to be taken by Biter, she had been desperate not to let Frogu insert it. He had backhanded her hard, leaving her crying and clutching her hurt face as he roughly yanked out the old spreader and shoved in the new one. Thank the Goddess it was in deep—not visible from the outside or Bard might have noticed it. What would he think if he discovered it there, inside her?

He’s going to notice it sooner or later when he wants to take you, whispered that little voice in her head. And then what will you do? What will he do?

She bit her lip, nibbling it with uncertainty and fear. She wished she could explain, but surely he must know some of what had been done to her already. He had rescued her from Biter, after all. He would understand that the spreader wasn’t her fault and wasn’t there with her consent, wouldn’t he?

Makenna didn’t know and she felt another stab of fury at herself for not trying harder to learn more Standard. But her time at the Pleasure House had been like a dark dream—a nightmare she couldn’t wake up from. Being slowly stretched to accommodate that beast of a Trollox and watching the girls around her either getting shipped off to their new Trollox owners or taken forcefully by the Trollox customers while she waited to be taken herself had been terrible—worse than terrible.

Makenna was afraid it might have made a mark on her somehow—like a hot stove leaves a burn when you touch it too long. Being in the Pleasure House had scarred her—both her body and her mind. The question was, would Bard want her when he understood that she was damaged goods? Or would he try to get rid of her—send her away from him where she would never see him again?