“Tell you what… you let usbreedthis one, and we’ll cut our fee in half.”
“WHAT?” Rona shouted.
But neither of the men seemed to hear her. Brundage was bobbing his head agreeably. His hands were clasped in a gesture of gratitude.
“Oh, thank you, sir!Thankyou! The woman is yours to use however you see fit. I promise, no man here will object.”
“What the fuck?” Rona snarled. “You don’t own me, Brundage! You can’t just give me away!”
But as she looked around the Common Hall, she could see that what Brundage had said was true. No one was coming to her rescue. Even the other women on the platform were backing away, leaving her to the mercy of the Mercs.
“It’s a deal then,” Aeron rumbled. “Zeth here will draw up the contract.”
One of the hooded Mercs stepped forward and took out a small tablet from his vest. Meanwhile the other one, the one named Murdok, grabbed Rona around the waist, and lifted her off the platform as easily as if she had been a child. When he set her down on the ground in front of him, her eyes barely came up to his chest.
“Are you sure you wouldn’t like to take a few more women with you?” Brundage asked. “One for each of you, perhaps?”
“That won’t be necessary,” Aeron answered. “My comrades and I split everything three ways.”
CHAPTER 4
The next few minutes were a blur. Rona didn’t even remember leaving the Common Hall. One moment, she was standing amid the crush of bodies, waiting for the contract to be signed. The next, she was outside on the dirty streets of the village with the stars overhead, and the three biggest men she had ever seen walking along beside her.
The cool night air should have been a relief after the sweltering heat of the hall, but it wasn’t. Rona was sweating twice as hard as before, and the last words Aeron had spoken were still ringing in her mind.
We split everything three ways
Including me, Rona thought.
The Mercs were going to split her. They were going to share her and breed her, whether she wanted it or not. That thought filled her with a sense of dread like she had never known before.
They’d walked maybe a hundred paces from the entrance of the Common Hall, when Rona caught sight of their starship. That machine had looked scary enough in the daylight. Now, under the cover of darkness, it looked even worse, like a big metal dragon crouching at the edge of town, waiting to swallow some unwary villager whole.
That sight was more than Rona could stand.
Her mind snapped, and her instincts took control. Before she was even aware of what she was doing, she had dodged past thelead Merc and was racing toward the shadows at the edge of town.
Rona was sprinting faster than she had ever sprinted in her life. Her legs were pumping like pistons. Within seconds, her muscles were burning, but she refused to give in to the pain. She had to get away. She had to.
If she could just make it to the hills. There were caves up there. Caves where she could—
Hsss!
Something coiled itself around Rona’s ankles, binding them together. Her own momentum tipped her forward, and she hit the dirt with a thud that knocked all the air from her lungs.
Then she was being dragged feet first, back in the direction she had just come from. She managed to twist herself over onto her back just in time to see Aeron towering above her, shaking his bearded head. A long, thin cord was coming from a device on his wrist, and the end of it was wrapped around Rona’s ankles.
“Hold her down while I untie her,” he growled.
The other two Mercs crouched on either side of her and held her in place. Their massive, gloved hands felt as sturdy as steel clamps around her arms. The one named Aeron knelt in front of her and started to untangle her feet.
“You’re quick,” he chuckled. “But not quick enough.”
Once the cord was sufficiently loosened, the whole thing slithered back into the device on his wrist.
Rona’s legs were free!
Still operating on pure animal instinct, she kicked her right leg, driving it up between the kneeling mercenary’s thighs.
