TWO
Devix’s mind raced.Dread, excitement, rage, and arousal coursed through his body, combining,growing, but he shoved those dark emotions away with force.
He felt it.
His Instinct.
He felt it for the first time in his entire life span.Just a light touch, however, for the sleeping beast was not fully awakened.
Devix refused to acknowledge what it meant.
The female pressed into his side, with her face hidden underneath a heavy dark hood, was quiet and tense.He heard her breaths, calm and steady, but the rapid beats of her heart betrayed her.She kept up with his quick pace, but Devix frowned when he noticed a slight limp, rage rising easily again, wondering if that Baquarianfilthhad hurt her, touched her before he’d retrieved her.
The streets of Petrika were mostly empty and those that came across their path left them alone.A group of Krevorags, shrouded in darkness, smokingtevvaxin front of a brothel, eyed them, but with one fierce look from Devix, they turned their scaled faces away.
When they entered a stretch of deserted road, the female finally spoke.“Where are you taking me?”
Fates, her voice…
Devix’s nostrils flared, his Instinct pushing again.In his leg coverings, his cock pulsed, as hard as a Luxirian crystal, and he feared it would rip through the fabric.Never had he felt such desire, suchneed.
Again, he ignored the rising alarm.And he ignored her question.
“Do you speak English?” she tried again, after a brief moment of silence.Her voice was pure sin, the sweetest sin imaginable.
Tamping down a groan, he finally grunted, “Tev.”
“Is that a ‘yes’ or a ‘no,’ big guy?”
Big guy?he thought, frowning.He could almost hear the scowl in her voice and he marveled at her bravery, her brazenness.Any other creature wouldn’t dare speak to him in such a way, in fear he’d rip out their tongue.
“Yes.”
Against Sarkon’s wishes, he’d received a language implant for the most widely used languages on Earth.He recognized her language as ‘English’ and he made a mental note to have the others wiped from his mind.He doubted he’d need them and they took up valuable space.
“Then you heard my first question,” she pointed out.The comment almost made him pause in the street, torn between laughing—which he hadn’t done in eight rotations—or taking her over his knee as punishment for her sharp mouth.
The image of her upturned backside, colored from the sharp swipe of his palm, made a dark growl rise in his throat.He didn’t even know what shelookedlike, but his imagination conjured a multitude of images.Striking a female was forbidden to Luxirians.Hurting them in any way was forbidden.But his mind was warped, tainted, blackened.The thought of punishing her in that way made hot lust rise in his belly, not disgust.
Just another reason why he’d deserved exile, he thought, quickening his pace with a deep scowl.
He’d truly become the monster he’d been accused of being.
Though he pulled her along quickly, the female began to struggle against him, her cloak-covered hands tugging at his arm that held her firmly in place at his side.
“Answer me,” she demanded in a low voice.Her tone became more pinched with his extended silence.“Answer me, dammit!”
Annoyance and intrigue battled for dominance inside him.Sarkon hadn’t wanted him to get a language implant because his employer had reasoned there would be no need for it.Devix’s only task was to deliver the Azatian’s newest pleasure slave.He didn’t have to speak to her to accomplishthat.
Perhaps it was because Devix lived mostly in isolation on Rozun and only ventured out around others when he made his deliveries but he found hewantedto speak with her.Or perhaps it was because she was the first creature to stand up to him and not immediately quake in fear.
Again, the female fought against him, struggling.Devix let her body slip away, wondering what she’d do, but he kept a firm grasp on her upper arm.
“I am sick and tired,” she rasped, taking a step back, “of being jerked around.I am sick and tired of being ignored.”Her voice was quiet but her tone was clipped and strong.Admiration for her courage caught him by surprise.“I don’t care if you hurt me.I don’t care if you hit me or touch me or drag me.Youwillanswer me and you will answer meright now.”
His jaw ticked at her words, dread weighing on him heavily when he wondered what had been done to her up until then.He knew she’d come from the Pit, a fighting tournament hosted by the Krevorags.Species from all Quadrants journeyed there to participate in the fights.The prize for the winner of each round was his choice of a pleasure slave.Devix had heard that the offered species of choice lately was human females, a newly discovered species from the Fourth Quadrant.They were rumored to be worthtonnesbecause their cunts could make a male see more stars than in their entire universe.
Sarkon had purchased the human female in front of him from the Baquarian fighter that had won her in the Pit.The price had been exorbitant.
