When they released her from her restraints, her legs wobbled, and she seemed like she might crumple to the floor.
Mozok ordered her to stand while Voso wrapped her in the ceremonial “robes” of chastity—a filmy cloth that secured in the back with a locked zipper. The cloth extended from her chest to her feet, wrapping her up tightly but comfortably enough to move. Just not to move in any way that would allow her to touch herself or move in a way that would end her torment. She would have all night to crave them.
Mozok ordered Voso to return her to her chambers, and she nestled her face close to his neck, her lips moving against his skin when he lifted her tiny frame and began to carry her. She murmured something over and over again, but Voso tried not to let her words into his mind or to understand.
But at the same time, Voso realized that he, at least, if not Mozok, would be craving her too. He might be able to relieve himself, but it would be a hollow relief.
He was dangerously aroused by, and intrigued by, Mina Groza.
He wondered if Mozok felt the same way, and that was why he had ordered him to take Mina alone.
“Sleep well,” Mozok told Mina as the two of them left.
Mina turned her head toward him. “I will,” she managed to say. And then she lifted an arm and extended her middle finger, in a gesture that Voso remembered as an extremely rude signal. It made Mozok snort with laughter, however.
CHAPTER10
Voso, as was his custom, bowed deeply upon entering the small room where Mozok like to spend his time. It was an antiquated custom, but one that he adhered to, and Mozok had long since abandoned requesting that he stop doing it.
The walls of the room were lined with vast, finicky aquariums full of his favorite sea organisms, a long, jelly-like fish similar to the Earth’s giant jellyfish, iridescent and blue, struck through with gleaming orange blood vessels that shimmered with its mood. They were peaceful to watch, and he enjoyed the small, aquatic space as a means to clear his head.
“I have returned her to her chambers,” Voso told him, choosing the Herstrakaa that he preferred to speak with Mozok.
“And her state of being?” Mozok asked, his mind cloudy and troubled.
Mozok found himself in a troubling state: the Human was weakening, exhausted by their attentions, very close to breaking, if he had to wager. And that was what he had wanted—it was still what he wanted.
And yet, the idea of her breaking under such duress and declaring an end to Trothplight, once his ultimate goal, left him feeling dismayed, hollow, bothered.
He did not like this.
He did not like his rational decisions being cluttered and complicated by messy feelings. He liked even less that he could not seem to find a way to analyze his feelings and reason them away.
He liked even less that thoughts about this Human crept to the forefront of his mind when he did not want them to. That even as he layered tones of cynicism and sarcasm on his words, he felt a thrill as he described to Mina what he should be trying to do in Trothplight. He felt a stirring deep inside of him. He had come dangerously close to losing control over his body and actually mating with her—which was something he wanted to avoid, if only because it would ultimately make him unable to resist her every request, should she ever discover what mating truly meant.
Perhaps she knew already.
Voso sat down in a chair that Mozok had purchased specifically to accommodate the Herstrakaa’s large frame. As usual, he minced no words and wasted no time.
“You almost formed a bond with her,” he said.
“A bond,” as the Herstrakaa termed it, was akin to a knot, formed in many species across the universe and even on Earth. In the Draquun, the forming of a knot was a biological process that would require many hours to subside, during which time Mina and Mozok would be inseparable: the base of his cock would swell and it would be impossible to remove. For hours, his member would swell and pulse, massaging the insides of Mina’s sheath. In Draquun females, this was a source of mind-altering pleasure; for hours, and once mated in this specific way, the female would be permanently attracted to the male who had claimed her. This was likewise true of the male. It was an irreversible force, and the only force that Mozok could not control if it happened to him.
But Mozok had no idea how such an event would play out with a Human female, and he did not at all like the fact that he had gotten close enough to that stage that Voso had observed it.
It meant that he was not in control of himself. It meant that, however he might be telling himself that this was purely business, his primal instincts had other plans.
And primal instincts were the one thing he could not maneuver or buy his way out of.
The last thing he wanted was for Mina Groza to have control over him.
Or to hurt her, which was a distinct possibility.
He simply wanted to keep the land of Old Celox out of the hands of the Humans. Trothplight had seemed, originally, like an excellent plan.
“I did not think it was a possibility,” Mozok said, frowning.
“Of course not,” Voso said solemnly. “And yet, you have come very close.”
