Ransom

He carries me from the detonation chamber out through his ship. I am not making notes of our position as I normally would. I am not keeping my eyes peeled with every step for hints at possible escape or destruction. It is as though I have completely stopped caring about all of that. All I care about now is the large alien who carries me as though I weigh nothing at all, and the sensations in my ass and soul.

Chapter Six

Astaria

He takes me to a chamber full of trophies and the smell of tanned skin. This must be his private bed area. The lights are low here, and the floor is covered with the skins of various alien animals. It is smaller than I expected it to be, but it feels unexpectedly cozy. This is a place to retreat, and an excellent location to lick one’s wounds. I am yet to cease crying. It is very frustrating to not be able to staunch the flow of tears from my eyes.

“You promised you wouldn’t hurt me if I let you take my clothes away,” I sob.

“I said I would not harm you. And I haven’t. Astaria, we could have both been killed. You could have been killed.” His voice is deep and rough with emotion I don’t understand.

“Why do you even care? My father will never pay your ransom. I will bring you nothing but bad luck and misfortune.”

He thumbs my chin up toward his eyes. “Where did you hear that phrase?”

“I don’t know.”

“I think you do know. I think that’s a set of words that have been seared inside you for far longer than you care to remember.”

“Maybe. I don’t know.”

“Of course you know,” he says. “Do you know what the difference between someone like you and someone like me is?”

“About two hundred pounds and some fangs?”

He laughs. “You’re adorable. Yes, but also no.”

I find myself reluctantly pleased at being declared adorable, and not because I am trying to manipulate him into thinking I am a cute little princess, but because he thinks that anyway.

“The difference between your kind of destruction and mine, is that I know what I am doing and why I am doing it. I am not acting out old wounds. I am moving toward a future of my choosing. You, princess, are a hurt little girl doing her best to function.”

“With murder.”

“Yes,” he agrees. “With murder.”

“Aren’t you angry at me for killing your guards? You didn’t even smack my hand for that, but you whipped me for the explosives…”

“My guards should have been capable of noticing your danger and handling you. Do not misunderstand me. Further hostility will not be allowed, Astaria. It is unfortunate that they have passed, but there is no danger greater than complacency. Every soul on the Dawnhammer should know that. You have provided us all with an excellent lesson.”

“So why weren't the explosives just another lesson?”

“Those put you at risk,” he says, tapping my nose with his forefinger, as if I am a small and very naughty puppy he is lecturing. “I will always punish you for putting yourself at risk.”

“You are so strange,” I say, utterly confused at his baffling priorities. It makes absolutely no sense for him to care what happens to me. Nobody else ever has, and for him to start now strikes me as very odd.

“We are strangers to one another,” he agrees. “It makes sense that we should think each other strange.”

We sit in his private chamber together for many hours. He has food brought for us, delicious food that satisfies my stomach, but I still feel a strangeness in my body. What he put me through was not just painful and embarrassing. It is confusing. I do not entirely understand it all.

“Blackmane?”

“Yes?”

“When you were punishing me…”

“Yes?”

“I felt something. Something that didn’t just feel sore. It was sort of tingly.”

“Yes,” he said. “You were soaked.”

“Soaked? What does that mean?”

“It means your pretty cunt was preparing herself to be mated.”

I blush furiously. He has not been overly crude up until this point, but what he just said is absolutely astonishing and makes every part of me seem to flush with heat. I feel that tingle again, which is ever so strange because he is not even touching me. I assumed it had something to do with being beaten, but it would appear my body is capable of generating the feeling without the touch of another creature, human or alien.

“Have I made you shy?”

“No,” I lie.

“I think I have. I think you’re just so innocent when it comes to your body and what you need. Let me show you.”

Blackmane

It is time to teach her a new lesson. Astaria is ready to learn. More than ready to learn. She long past the age when she would have been ready to mate. Her frustration must be almost unbearable.