He’d heard the descriptions that seemed to echo what he was feeling. On the Mother Ship, human women who were preparing to bond with a Kindred sometimes ate Bonding Fruit. They described a desperate, overwhelming need to be filled, to be stretched, to be taken. It helped their bodies open, to accept the massive girth of a Kindred shaft.
This…this felt like that. He felt a need not to penetrate, but to be penetrated. The Love Vine wasn't just an aphrodisiac—it was a chemical command, rewriting his body's deepest desires—making him crave something no male should crave.
The need to be filled was growing—coiling tighter with every passing second. It was a physical pressure, a painful desire that made his whole body ache.
Fuck!
Braze was worried. If the Love Vine was anything like the Bonding Fruit in potency, this wasn't just about humiliation. He could have serious physical side effects—muscle spasms, pain, even tissue damage—if the desperate, clenching void inside him wasn't filled soon. Panic, sharp and metallic, cut through the haze of lust.
Fuck. Fuck. FUCK.
He was in deep, deep trouble here.
Some of his distress must have shown on his face because he saw Kaitlyn’s face go pale—saw the worry dawning in her eyes as she watched him. She whirled on the Empress, her voice cracking with a protective fury that sent a pain through his heart even stronger than the physical agony he was feeling.
“What did you do to him? What did you do to my husband?” she demanded.
The Empress raised her eyebrows, a nasty sneer twisting her pretty lips.
“Why, I merely gave him a taste of our Love Vine, as I told you, my dear—an extra strong taste. And now, if you want him to live through it, you’ll have to punish him.”
As she spoke, servants hauled a new apparatus into the center of the room. It was shaped like a wide, freestanding wooden doorway made of dark, polished wood. Across the top bar, a series of heavy, gleaming hooks were spaced evenly. Braze knew their purpose instantly—they were for manacles to hold a submissive in place—arms stretched overhead, utterly exposed and vulnerable.
A public display frame.
“How…how am I supposed to punish him?” Kaitlyn asked—her eyes were also fixed on the tall wooden frame.
“Why, by fucking him, of course!” the Empress purred, her sneer growing into a nasty grin. “Servants! Bring the punishment rod!”
She snapped her fingers, and two more servants scurried forward. One held open a velvet-lined case. Inside, nestled on black silk, was a double-ended shaft. It was made of slick, onyx veined in silver and to Braze, it looked like a masterpiece of cruel engineering.
One end was thick—intimidatingly so—with a pronounced, flared head and a textured shaft. The other end was slightly smaller, but still substantial, with a more tapered tip. The two ends met in the middle with a wider, ridged section clearly meant to sit against the wearer's body.
The other servant held a harness of intricate silver chains and supple black leather, along with a small crystal vial of clear, glistening lubricant.
“There—you see?” the Empress said triumphantly. “You’ll even get pleasure from punishing him. The bigger end goes into your pussy—unless you’re feeling extra savage and you want to take the smaller end yourself and fuck him with the larger end.”
She laughed, a light, tinkling sound that grated on Braze’s nerves like broken glass.
Kaitlyn stared at the “equipment” silently. Braze watched her expression cycle from confusion to dawning comprehension to utter, abject horror. Her face drained of all color.
Her voice, when it came, was small but firm.
“I can’t do this. I won’t hurt my husband this way!”
The Empress’s amused mask slipped, revealing cold steel beneath.
“Then I’ll find someone who will!” She raised her voice. “Aria!”
The bubblegum-pink woman appeared from the crowd, her spotted face alight with vapid curiosity.
“Yes, Your Highness?”
“I want you to strap on a cock and fuck this male. Show our guest how punishment is properly administered.”
Aria’s eyes lit up.
“Of course, Your Majesty! I just love a good punishment fuck!” She practically skipped toward the harness, her gaze raking over Braze’s body with eager interest.
