The Alien's Leash
Author: Loki Renard
Date: 2017-03-18T00:00:00+00:00
Keywords: Aliens; Fiction; Romance; Erotica; Paranormal; Science Fiction
Description: Lord Kyren Cirrus has spent years collecting unique and interesting creatures from across the galaxy, but the moment twenty-year-old Tara Dyrek is delivered to him he knows she will not be just another specimen to study. This beautiful, feisty little human will be much more than that. She will be his pet. Tara is none too pleased to have been captured, caged like an animal, and taken to a far-off world, but her protests are ignored and soon enough she is blushing crimson as she is thoroughly and intimately examined, then brought to a shameful climax by Kyren's skillful ministrations. Her new m
Publisher: Stormy Night Publications

Table of Contents

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

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The Alien’s Leash

By

Loki Renard

Copyright © 2017 by Stormy Night Publications and Loki Renard

Copyright © 2017 by Stormy Night Publications and Loki Renard

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

Published by Stormy Night Publications and Design, LLC.

www.StormyNightPublications.com

Renard, Loki

The Alien’s Leash

Cover Design by Korey Mae Johnson

Images by 123RF/mik38 and 123RF/Igor Trifonov

This book is intended for adults only. Spanking and other sexual activities represented in this book are fantasies only, intended for adults.

Chapter One

“Gitoff me!” Tara cursed and squirmed as she was grabbed by impossibly large hands. She’d been stuffed in a cramped container for what felt like forever, pushed into the confined quarters by two men who had materialized behind her while she had been foraging for food in the woods outside her village. Tara was used to all sorts of dangers out in the forest, but big men in armored suits weren’t among them. They hauled her out of the crate and held her between them as she tossed her head, her bright red hair flailing along with the rest of her as she glared with spitting green eyes at her captors.

“Who are you? What do you want?” The questions tumbled out of Tara’s mouth until the signals from her eyes managed to bang their way into her brain and she noticed that she wasn’t anywhere even vaguely familiar. The room she found herself in was pure white, the walls and floor and ceiling a seamless plane of material she did not recognize. It was lit without any obvious source of light. No candles. No lamps. Just a light coming from nowhere and everywhere all at once.

“Where am I?”

She continued to glare at her captors, two blond men whose muscles were rippling with the effort it took to keep her in their arms. She was much smaller than they were, but her struggles for escape were making it difficult to keep her under control.

They took her from the white room, carrying her past a window along the way. The view revealed a vast black nothingness, and below that, a bauble of blue and gray and green. Somehow—she did not know how—they were floating high above a planet. A planet that was not Earth. She knew what her planet looked like thanks to the old books stored in the library. The planet below was deeply alien. Even without knowing what Earth looked like, she would have known she was no longer near the planet she had been born on. There was a hollow feeling in her stomach, a feeling of pure distance that was echoed in what she saw outside the window.

“Who are you? Where is this?”

They still didn’t answer her. They didn’t even seem to notice that she was talking, which was odd. Everything had been odd since they’d pulled her from the forest. They’d given her something before they’d put her in the box. Something that made her feel all dreamy. They had poked and prodded her with all sorts of things, making her alternately uncomfortable and sleepy, and now that she was roused… angry.

They carried her into a smaller room and locked her inside it. It had another window, one she glued herself to, her hands on either side of it as it began to move. They were descending toward the planet below. It was a stunning sight, but a frightening one too. How could any of this be possible? The world she had grown up in was one of crumbled long lost technologies. There were records, here and there, of long lost wonders, but Tara had never thought she would see one. She definitely didn’t think she would be captured inside one.

Her attention was pulled from the window as the door behind her opened and her captors appeared once more. They were dressed strangely, in dark suits that were skin tight and made of some kind of material unlike any she’d seen woven by the seamstresses in her village. It was light and strong and she knew it could deflect a sharp blade because she’d tried to stab one of them with her gathering knife when they had taken her and it had slid off as if it were made of dull wood, not the sharpest steel the smith had in his forge.

“This one’s a fighter,” one man grunted to the other as he tossed Tara over his shoulder. “Fresh off-planet. He will be pleased.”

“I hope so,” his companion said. “If we fail him again that will be the end of us.”

“Who is he?” Tara snapped the question again. Again, they ignored her, and she wondered if maybe they couldn’t understand her. That was strange, as she could understand them perfectly well.

“Put the hood on her,” the other man said as Tara lashed out with an open mouth. “It’ll stop her biting and might settle her down.”

“Sure,” the other snorted. “I don’t know how you settle one like this, but I don’t think a hood is going to do it when half our stock of sedatives didn’t.”

They were talking about her like she was a horse that needed to be blinkered. She tossed her head around as they tried to put the hood on, but they got their way as they had before and soon the world went dark.

As one of them had predicted, the hood didn’t stop her fighting in the slightest, but it did stop her from seeing the world around her. She was carried through some space into another space and then she was placed on a soft surface, which did settle her slightly as it was the first comfortable thing she’d encountered since being taken. And then she waited. She didn’t know what she was waiting for, but nothing happened for a very long time. Every time she tried to stand up, she was pushed back down into a seated position. They still didn’t talk to her.

“He’s coming,” one man finally said to the other in the darkness.

“Shhh,” the other replied.

They fell silent as a door opened, then erupted into panicked sounding greetings.

“Lord Kyren!”

“Gentlemen…”

Tara heard a deep rumbling voice that was much more powerful than those of the captors, as if it belonged to a creature greater than either of them.

There was a pause and even with a bag over her head, Tara could feel the tension in the room rise. The masculine growl came again, deep with displeasure. “I paid for a six-month expedition and you bring me one specimen?”

The excuses began immediately, tumbling out of the big men’s mouths. “It’s a difficult planet to get anything from. And this one was a difficult catch. She fought us. Almost escaped. We couldn’t let her warn the others. We had to hunt her.”

“And?” The question was delivered in a low, unimpressed growl.

“I… it took time, my lord.”

The captors’ voices were becoming shakier and more concerned with every passing moment. It also sounded to Tara as though they were coming from closer to the floor, as if the men were cowering before their displeased lord.

There was a disappointed sigh. “Well, let me see what you’ve got. Bipedal, I see. I don’t have much capacity for bipeds—as you well know.”

The hood was pulled off swiftly and Tara found herself looking into the face of the most magnetically attractive man she’d ever beheld. He had eyes of bright nebula blue, slightly narrow in aspect as if he were perpetually examining everything around him. His face was long, and his jaw was quite square. Dark hair descended across his forehead and fell about his ears.

He was human, she was almost sure of it. Or maybe not. There was something super-human about him, both in terms of scale and energy. His skin was a healthy tan, as though he had been basking in the light of multiple suns. The hue of his skin made his eyes seem all the brighter and more piercing, ringed with dark lashes and punctuated by dark pupils, which expanded as he inspected her. He was much larger than she was, much larger than the men who had captured her. He must have been at least eight feet tall, and broad as well. Tara felt a quiver of fear deep in her belly as she looked at him and her skin tingled all over, goosebumps rising down her neck and arms. He was the strangest thing she had ever seen, attractive and yet also somehow fearsome.

His gaze had been angry when it first fell on her, but the longer he looked, the more the little lines around his eyes creased into marks of a smile.

“I send you across six galaxies and you return with one female.” His voice didn’t sound angry anymore. “Fortunately for you,” he said as a smile spread over his lips, “you’ve managed an exquisite and rare specimen. She is an original human, I take it. From Earth?”

“Yes, sir,” one of the groveling men said.

Kyren’s eyes lit up at the confirmation. “Have you treated her for radiation poisoning?”

“Yes, sir,” the man said. “Three injections, all delivered in the buttocks. She has been well throughout the journey. Our monitoring indicates that she is as healthy as can be expected.”

“Mhm.” Kyren put his hands on Tara, clamping her by the hips and lifting her as if she weighed nothing at all. He turned her over onto her stomach and Tara let out a little squeak as she was upended, her backside examined by the large man with the regal bearing. Her thighs were pressed apart, her sex parted by his fingers that were clearly practiced.

“And a virgin,” he said. “Very interesting. Have you given her the language implant?”

“Yes, sir,” the handler said. “The implant is set to input only. She understands us, but she cannot speak our language.”

“Is there a reason for that?” Kyren held her in place, his fingers still on her downy lower lips as he questioned his men.

“We set the implant to two-way communication, but she only had unpleasant things to say,” the handler replied. “We thought it best to deactivate the speech functions before presenting her.”

“Ah, so this one is a handful,” Kyren said, his tone somewhat affectionate. He seemed pleased by the revelation. “I do enjoy a spirited pet.”

“She will not accept her fate easily, sir,” the handler said. “That I can promise.”

“You will be paid your full fee,” Kyren said abruptly. “Leave us now. I want to be alone with my new pet.”

The men scuttled out of the room looking glad and relieved. Tara was left with her bottom in the air, the simple shift dress she had sewn herself floating about her armpits. It was perfectly suited for easy movement through the ravaged forests. It was not at all suited for providing any kind of modesty from hulking great alien men.

The man who now seemed to think he owned her ran his fingers over her bottom to the soft skin where her left cheek met her thigh and pressed against something there. She felt a soft click, as if he had manipulated something under her skin.

“There,” he said. “Now you can tell me your name.”

Tara didn’t say a word; instead she tried to squirm out of his grasp. It didn’t work. He gripped her easily, one large hand around her hip, the other around her thigh.

“Easy, pet,” he drawled. “There’s nowhere to run.”

His words turned out to be true. He held her in place and began to speak as he continued his examination of her sex, his fingers stroking her outer labia with a gentle touch.

“You are a fine specimen,” he murmured. “Unlike many creatures from your planet, or women on this one, you are fertile twelve times a lunar year and able to become aroused at any time. In fact, unlike the women of this planet, whose cycles are linked to a slower sun and who only become interested in intercourse once in a very rare while, you are hyper-sexed. Before the tragedies which befell Earth, it is almost certain you would have been mated well over a hundred times by now, likely by several partners.”

He spoke in scientific terms, but there was nothing scientific about his touch. It was animal and it made her feel more animal too.

“You must be so frustrated,” he murmured. “To be in the bloom of your womanhood and to have never been touched this way before. It’s not fair, is it.”

“I have touched… myself.” She used her words for the first time to make the admission.

He chuckled softly. “I imagine you have. I imagine you have rutted against everything you could, pushed toys inside yourself perhaps, but nothing as wide or as satisfying as the hard male flesh you need to spear between these lips.”

Tara let out a little moan, her legs spreading for his touch.

“You need to be played with, don’t you, pet?” His large hand stayed between her thighs, two thick fingers brushing lightly over her lower lips, coaxing the liquid of desire out from within her. It was a gentle and skillful stimulation that did not overwhelm, but rather enticed her toward further arousal. His words were like a song, delivered in a soft growl that put her into an erotic haze as his fingers found the little button at the apex of her lips and began to roll softly around it. She was wet, and he was using her juices to pleasure her.

“Some pets can be left for a long time without much in the way of attention. But not you. You need to be mated often. You need to reach climax daily to truly blossom. And you need to be filled here…” His index and ring finger parted her lower lips and the pad of his middle finger found the wet entrance to her body.

Tara let out a soft little moan. He was discussing her needs in what sounded like a dispassionate way, but there was an intensity to his voice, something in the way he held her that made her respond to him with increasing excitement. This was a man who knew precisely what she needed, right down to the smallest detail. He proved such by circling his middle finger just at the entrance of her body, then sliding it away, leaving her wanting more.

“Tell me your name, pet,” he urged as his fingers stroked higher, avoiding her pussy. “I need to get to know you before we go any further. I never take a woman before knowing her name.”

Woman, or pet? What was she? Both, perhaps? There was no choice but to talk to him. She wanted to. Had to.

“My name is Tara Dyrek,” Tara said, continuing to squirm as much as she could, though now her motion was no longer intended to get away, but to try to move his fingers back toward her pussy. “Who are you?”

“I am Kyren Cirrus,” her pleasurer said. “I am a lord of this planet and many things besides. Most relevant to you… I am a collector and curator of alien life. You are my latest acquisition.”

Tara squirmed around enough to look at him. There were a few lords on earth as well, men she’d never met, but had heard terrible things about. Most men did not survive on Earth, thanks to a virus that twisted them at conception. The ones who were strong enough to withstand the sickness and the radiated wilds were not usually good or kind.

“You can’t collect people,” she said. “That’s not right.”

He smiled at her, those stellar eyes gleaming.

“I do as I please, Tara,” he said. “And I take what I please. You please me.”

“Why?”

“You are unique,” he said, his hands tracing soft patterns over her skin, her thighs, her hips, her stomach… “you are beautiful, and you are part of an ancient bloodline. The human organism first evolved on Earth. Did you know that?”

Tara didn’t know what his words meant, but she knew what his touch was doing to her. Soothing her, making her anxiety fade with every sweep of his long, warm fingers. He was right in thinking no man had touched her before. There were none in her little village. Hadn’t been for years, not since she was young. The last time a man came, several babies were born, all of them female. Rumor had it that there were some men over the great river, but the bridge had been swept away in the old floods and nobody had risked making the crossing. Tara had accepted that she would live her life as the other women did. With her hand for pleasure and no man.

Her first introduction to males had been the two great hulking men who had captured her. They were rough and crude and they had cruelly deprived her of her freedom. She hadn’t found anything attractive about them at all, but Kyren was different. He had a beauty that was very different than any a woman could ever have. His face was chiseled with strong bones and his eyes drew hers irresistibly. She had not seen eyes like that before. Their blue was flecked with bright gold, their expression intense as he kept caressing her slowly and comfortingly.

“I don’t know much about anything,” she said, telling the truth. Her village was remote, which was why it had survived the worst of the disease that had struck down men and women alike, but was particularly virulent in men. She had been born into the ruins of civilization. Her house was in the remains of what had once been a small eating place. A big yellow ‘M’ still hung over her doorway. Nobody knew what it stood for. Tara liked to think it stood for Mary. That had been her mother’s name, and she liked it.

“I’ll teach you,” Kyren smiled. “I’ll teach you many things, pet, starting with what your body is capable of.”

His fingertips found the hard little nub of her clit and used her juices as lubricant as he rolled the tender bud between them. Tara grasped at the cushion, holding tight as the man who called her pet strummed her toward orgasm.

“Good girl,” he praised as his other hand rubbed the entrance of her pussy in slow circles, two fingers dipping a short way inside to swirl about the tight entrance of her body. Unlike other women, Tara had never pushed toys inside herself. She had rutted, like he said, ground her pussy against objects hard and smooth alike when the need got too much to contain. Being touched by another was a world away from touching herself.

Kyren pinched her clit lightly and made her body buck as she laid prone on the floor with her ass raised, her bottom bouncing as he stroked and petted her to a state of wanton desire that made her lose all sense of shame and shyness.

He had become master of her body and was urging her to heights of pleasure she had never found on her own. She lifted her hips high toward him, displaying herself in accordance with the strong instinct that was rising in her.

“Come for me, pet,” he ordered in a soft growl. The fingers that had been stroking her clit now landed in a light spank above it. Her orgasms, once experienced alone in the privacy of a rotting restaurant, now belonged to him. His fingertips landed more sharply a second time, slapping the soft padded flesh above her clit where the down of her pubic hair protected her.

* * *

Kyren watched as the young woman squirmed on his fingers eagerly. If she had been one of the civilized ladies of Udine, she would have been too mortified and genetically frigid to enjoy his touch, but this human hadn’t been taught to be modest with a man and she had been created in an environment where response to male desire was eager and immediate. She had been a little frightened at first, but her fear was soon forgotten as he toyed with her sex, strumming and slapping and rubbing her to climax.

Her arrival had been a great surprise. The traders who had brought her had been lazy of late, bringing him common specimens of little value and even poorer health. But with this catch, they had completely redeemed themselves. He was thrilled with her and beneath his formal clothing, his cock was rock hard with desire. He could feel it throbbing against the fabric. The flowering lips of her pussy were gorgeous, glazed with her juices and swelling by the moment as he played with her.

He wanted nothing more than to plunge his cock deep inside her and fill her with his seed, but she was a virgin, and more than that, she was a brand new arrival. She needed proper care, and a good, long fucking. In that order.

The high-pitched breaths coming from her in soft whimpers as her bare bottom gyrated before his eyes drove him to the very edge of his self-control. Her scent was alluring, and the closer she came to orgasm, the richer it became. She was woman, pure, essential woman, curves and petal-like lips dripping with need.

Kyren pulled his fingers from her sex and replaced them with his lips. It was a reckless act. Her fluids could have contained any number of pathogens from the distant planet from which she had originated, but something deep in his DNA compelled him to taste her. He parted her lower lips with his fingers, baring the delicate inner folds of her pussy and pressed his mouth to her sex, lapping his tongue along the length of it. She tasted earthy and rich and delicate and utterly beautiful. He played the very tip of his tongue along each of her folds and dipped it inside her gently. Her moan in response to the touch of his hot tongue made his cock painfully hard. He was pleasuring her, but torturing himself.

He pulled his tongue from inside her and began lapping at her clit with gentle but hot wet strokes. She let out a cry of need and ground back against him, her motions greedy and wild with desire. Kyren had to hold her hips to keep her in place as her squirming threatened to tip her off the pillow entirely. It was time she came. He needed to see her orgasm. He needed to feel it around his fingers, if not his cock. He pushed two digits deep inside her hot, clenching pussy as he continued to tongue her sex and in moments she was coming wildly, her bottom hole winking as her inner walls clenched at his fingers, which were not deep enough inside her to pierce her hymen, but deep enough for him to feel the strength of her climax.

Panting and moaning softly, she closed her eyes and kept her bottom high as Kyren stroked her mound gently.

“Good, pet,” he praised. “Very good.”

* * *

Tara had never before felt the way she did in that moment. Light and floaty, and oh so satisfied. She didn’t know how he’d produced such strong sensations in her body, but she liked them very much. Her pussy and clit were still tingling, and she was absolutely sodden with her own juices.

Kyren slid his hands away from her hips and allowed her to sit upright. Though that disappointed her at first, it did give her the chance to look around the room for the first time and take it in properly. It was very different from the white room. It was a large square with wood-paneled walls and a soft carpet beneath her toes. She was sitting on a large purple cushion, one of the many bold ornaments in the opulent space.

“Is this your house?”

“This is one room inside my house,” Kyren said with a laugh. “Would you like to see more of it?”

Tara nodded. She was curious where a man like Kyren lived. She didn’t think it would be anything like the village.

“If you’re going to come out of this room, you’ll need to wear this.”

He produced a slim silver circlet from his pocket. Tara didn’t know what it was until he slid it around her neck and it closed on itself in a seamless ring.

“Hey!” She tried to pull it off, but there was no way it was moving. It was as though it had welded itself shut immediately. She looked at him with a mixture of annoyance and panic. “What did you do?”

“That’s my collar, Tara,” he explained. “It performs several functions, but most important, it marks you as mine. The world you’re about to explore is very different from the one you’ve left. You’re used to running free, but you can’t do that here. You need to stay by my side, do you understand?”

She nodded slowly and suspiciously. The collar was a weight about her neck, not so heavy as to cause her any discomfort, but more than heavy enough to make her feel possessed.

“Collars are for animals,” she complained. “Take this off.”

“Collars are for pets,” Kyren corrected her. “And that is what you are. My pet.”

Chapter Two

There was something about those big green eyes looking at him out of that slim face with an expression of pure betrayal that gave Kyren a pang of something like… conscience. He did not usually feel bad about acquiring his pets. In fact, he prided himself on the fact that each and every specimen he took into his care lived a better life than it could have done in its original location. He was just as sure of that with Tara as with any of the others… and yet something about her gave him pause.

He could tell that she did not like the collar. She kept playing with it as he rubbed her gently back into a state of something like relaxation, moving his hands over her body in long, slow circles. The touch served more than one purpose. It not only made her settle a little, but it gave him a sense of her form. She was a little on the skinny side, which was not to be unexpected. Her hair had a rough quality to it, which he knew would soon change when she had been well fed for a few weeks.

Of course, touch could only tell him so much. The handlers who had captured her had given her basic care, but there was no doubt that his newest acquisition needed a medical exam urgently. Earth was not quite the habitable planet it had once been and what was left of the human species was suffering. Tara was in far better condition than most, but that didn’t mean she wasn’t carrying something that could cause illness.

A few collectors had tried to import from the struggling planet, but more often than not they got sickly specimens who didn’t last long, or fakes from nearby solar systems. Kyren could already tell that this Tara was an original. Precious and very rare. He was going to take very, very good care of her.

“Have you seen a doctor before?”

“Doctor?” She said the word as if she did not know it.

“Someone who knows how to heal people.”

“There was a medicine woman in our village.”

“And there’s a medicine man who needs to see you here,” Kyren explained. “I want to be sure that you are in good health.”

“I am not sick,” Tara said. “I have seen sick people.”

“Sometimes you can’t see sickness.”

Tara looked skeptical. “If you can’t see it, then it isn’t there.”

“Not quite,” he smiled. She was such a simple thing. Not stupid. He could see the intellect in her eyes as she watched him and the world around her. But she did not have the benefit of any kind of education and she had lived in a world of simple matter her entire life.

“Come,” he said, taking her by the hand. “The doctor is not far from here, and we will have an interesting walk on the way. I think you will find my home a pleasant place to be.”

Tara let him draw her to her feet. She was not very tall, slightly over five feet. He put that down to lack of nutrition in her diet. It was doubtful that there would have been very much to eat in her previous environment.

“My home is rather large, so stay close. I can find you, but you might find being lost rather frightening.”

He felt her hand clasp a little harder around his as they walked toward the door and it slid open. As the hall beyond came into view, she gasped and drew close to him. “How did it do that?”

“The door? There is a cavity in the wall which it slides into.”

“No.” She shook her head. “How did it move? You didn’t touch it.”

“The door can see us,” Kyren explained. “And there are little machines inside the wall which make it move when it sees us coming.”

“The doors have eyes,” Tara intoned solemnly. “This is a strange place.”

“Mhm.” Kyren reached down and gave her bottom an encouraging pat to move her forward. “Strange, but good.”

* * *

Tara was not at all certain about the ‘good’ part. They stepped out into a grand passage that made her feel very exposed. It was so long and wide and it had so many doors at the sides. There were paintings on the walls and the ceilings were vaulted and bright and… it was all art. There were artists in her village who liked to paint their homes, but their homes were not so bright or grand as this.

She stood stock still, frozen with something like fear. She was used to smaller spaces, spaces that smelled like mud and dust and earth and animal. She was used to having places to hide, being able to scurry from one little overhang to another. Her house had many little round tables bolted to the floor, and a long counter behind which she slept. She liked the natural cover it provided, and the plants growing through the cracked floors provided additional comfort. There were no plants here. There was not a speck of dust in this house, not the slightest hint of mud, not so much as a dirty footprint on the expansive floors.

“Come along, pet,” Kyren urged her gently. “It is not far.”

She shook her head, paralyzed with fear. “I can’t.”

Tara tried to turn back and get into the smaller room, but Kyren held her firm and would not let her go. She began to panic, to make little squeaked noises of fear, but he still didn’t let her flee. Instead, he swept her up off the floor and into his arms. She instantly felt safer pressed against his body, his strong arms wrapped around her, her face pressed against his neck. He had made the large space much smaller. Tara curled up into a little ball, pressing her ear hard against his muscular body. She could hear his heartbeat, slow and steady.

“There’s nothing to fear here.” His voice rumbled through his chest. “You’ve come from a world of predators, but there are none in my home.”

She looked up at him, and did not quite believe him. There might not be foxes, or wolves, or eagles… but there was definitely a powerful creature who made her heart beat faster and her fingers and toes tingle, and her stomach flutter. All the same signals of fear, but with something else added… something that drew her rather than repelled her. Something that made her want to be close to him.

Kyren carried her through the great space and Tara watched the world go by from his arms. There was too much to take in. One room led to another, and then another. It seemed as though they never ended, and were all very different. And then there were stairs that moved, pathways that rose and fell between still more rooms. She was completely disoriented by the time they arrived in the room she liked least of all. It was cooler than all the other rooms and there was less in it. It reminded her of the place she had first been in when removed from her crate. It was cold, not in temperature, but in design. Everything was white, the ledges, the beds, the coat worn by the man standing inside the room, bowing to Kyren.

From never seeing any men at all, Tara was now finding herself surrounded by them. First her captors, then Cirrus, now this one. It was more than a little overwhelming and she was glad to have Kyren’s arms to hide in.

“Lord Cirrus…”

“Hello, Doctor,” Kyren said. “This is my newest pet.”

The doctor smiled at her and Tara eyed him nervously. He was not as handsome as Cirrus, or as tall. He had dark hair, cut short, and dark eyes to match. He was much larger than she was, of course. He was wearing a very stiff white coat with broad lapels and there was a strange smell about him, much like the one she’d smelled in the dark container she’d been shipped in. It smelled like the absence of everything, and it was frightening. She did not know how anything could have an odor like that, and she did not like it.

Cirrus’s scent was reassuring as she pressed against him. She didn’t know what she was smelling but it was some cross between metal and musk. He smelled powerful, and that settled her senses.

“What’s wrong, pet?”

“I don’t like him.”

“He won’t hurt you,” Kyren reassured her, stepping toward a low bed. He tried to put her down on it, but she clung to him until he gently peeled her fingers from his clothes and settled her on it. She found herself looking up at both men, her pulse racing as she looked for some means of escape.

“Is she human?” The doctor talked about her as if she wasn’t there. He talked the same way her captors had, and it made her like him even less.

“Yes,” Kyren said, pride in his voice. “Pure human.”

“I’ll have to calibrate my instruments, sir.” The doctor turned to a bank of shiny, bleeping, buzzing things and started to touch them in various ways. Tara watched him like a hawk to make sure that none of them looked sharp or otherwise dangerous. Of course, she did not know what was dangerous here. Everything was strange and new.

The doctor turned back toward her with something in his hand, and Tara let out a little growl. He stopped and glanced at Cirrus. “Perhaps she needs a sedative.”

“No. She’s been sedated long enough,” Kyren said. “With gentle handling she should not be of any concern. She’s shown no aggression toward me.”

“What is he doing?” Tara squeaked the question as the doctor approached her again.

“He has to look at you,” Kyren said patiently. “You need treatment, pet.”

“I am fine.”

“You’re almost certainly filled with parasites,” he said. “You’ve been living wild and that means you’re probably carrying myriad viruses and bacteria. The doctor will draw your blood and see…”

“No!” Tara wrapped her arms around herself and jumped off the table. “No blood!”

“It is just a little prick,” Kyren said, catching her by the back of her dress before she could run away. “I am sure you have been bitten by little wild creatures before…”

“Let me go!”

She tried to escape and he did not let go. The more he held her fast, the more desperate she became until finally she twisted about and sank her teeth into his hand. Hard. Hard enough to pierce the skin and draw blood. Hard enough to surprise him into letting her go. She escaped under a nearby bed and hid beneath it as best she could. It was poor cover, but it was better than nothing.

Kyren stared at his hand where she had bitten him. His expression changed from one of surprise to a patient calm. Tara had expected anger from her aggression, but there was none.

“And now I have been bitten by a little wild creature,” he observed. “We will both need to see the doctor.” He turned to the medicine man, whose expression had become quite grave at Tara’s behavior.

“She could be carrying any number of pathogens, sir,” he said. “You will need a blood draw, vaccination, and wound sterilization.”

“Fortunately you’re here to do all those things,” Kyren said quite calmly. “Now, watch, Tara. See how this does not hurt me.”

He began to take his clothes off, and in doing so, got her attention. She stared from under the bed as Kyren removed his coat and his shirt. His chest was nothing like hers. There were no soft rounds. He had broad shoulders, hard muscled planes. His body tapered toward his waist, powerfully lined at every part. She did not know if it was because he was a man or an alien, but he was as different from her as anyone could be. His appearance was pleasing, though. It did not frighten her. It drew her gaze and made her loins feel warm. This man was devastatingly attractive. His face, his form, they distracted her thoroughly from the attempt at escape.

He flashed a smile at her as she stared at him. The doctor drew close and put some kind of round cylinder to Kyren’s arm. There was a quiet whoosh and the doctor drew it away. There was red liquid in it—blood, Tara figured. How it had got there, she didn’t know. Nothing made sense out here. Light came from nowhere, blood could be pulled from the skin without any wound, metal could seal itself around her neck—and she could be taken as a pet.

“You see? Nothing to worry about.”

Tara did not agree with him, not at all. There was a lot to worry about. The doctor took the little device and pushed it into the buzzing bank behind him.

“The results will be a few minutes, sir,” he said as he returned to spread cream on the bite wound Tara had left on Cirrus. “But you will need another test in a few days. Some pathogens do not appear immediately and she has drawn blood.”

“Of course, Doctor. It is important to follow medical advice,” Kyren said, speaking in tones that made Tara feel as though he were speaking for her benefit and not really in the way he would usually have spoken at all.

“Now, your turn,” he said, turning his attention to Tara. He crooked his finger at her and his brows drew down over his eyes in a commanding way. “Come out from under there, pet.”

Tara stayed exactly where she was. She had no intention of coming out. Kyren’s little display had done nothing to reassure her that the doctor was safe. Just because the doctor had been gentle with him, didn’t mean he would be with her.

“I can come and pull you out,” Kyren said conversationally. “If I have to do that, I will spank you.”

“Spank me?”

“Turn you over my knee and slap your bottom red,” he clarified, in case she did not understand him. “I will punish you, pet, if you are not obedient.”

She scowled at him from under the bed, knowing that there was little in the way of cover there. She could easily be captured by him, but she didn’t want to go to him either. Especially not now that he was threatening her with a juvenile kind of discipline.

“You won’t do that.”

“I had you shipped across the galaxy,” Kyren said. “I have taken you as my own. And you think I won’t spank you?”

Tara stared at him. She had been distracted by how handsome he was and how nicely he had touched her in the beginning, but she could see it now, the ruthlessness of the man. He had all these people, all these resources at his disposal. He had the powers of a god at his fingertips. Spanking her was the least of the things he could do.

“Come out, pet,” he crooned, crooking his finger again. “I don’t want to have to punish you so soon.”

“I can’t.” She repeated her whine from earlier, and it was true this time too. She had wrapped her hands around the struts of the bed and her fingers were like stone. Like the animal he was treating her as, her instinct to hide was stronger than his orders could ever have been.

Kyren made a soft tutting sound and came for her. Bending down, he wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her from beneath the bed. Her fingers slid free of the struts and clutched at him instead.

“Try not to make this harder on yourself than it needs to be,” he murmured against her ear as he carried her back to the bed where the doctor was waiting nervously.

“Sir…” The doctor made a small uncomfortable grunt. “If I am to handle her, I would prefer she be restrained from biting. Human saliva can contain millions of bacteria, and as she is a fresh arrival and has yet to be quarantined, I do think sedation would be wise.”

From within Kyren’s embrace, Tara grinned at the doctor’s discomfort. Finally someone else seemed to be feeling worse than she was. She liked that she could make at least one of these men worry. Grinning had the double effect of baring her teeth, which seemed to make the doctor even more uncomfortable.

“You see, pet, now you have frightened the doctor.” There was a smirk on Kyren’s face, as if he thought the doctor was being silly. “Now we will have to promise him that you will be very good.”

“I’m not going to be good.”

“Oh,” he said in dangerously soft tones. “I think you will be. And I don’t think you’ll be biting again either.” He looked over his shoulder at the doctor. “Don’t worry, Doctor, I will hold her in a way which will make it quite impossible for her to hurt you.”

She felt herself begin to turn as he handled her over his lap and pinned her firmly, but relatively gently over his thighs. Her hem rode up, exposing her bottom and sex. When she tried to pull her skirt down, she received a sharp slap to her left cheek and her hand was pinned in the small of her back.

“If you bite again, I’ll gag you,” Kyren told her moments before she dug her teeth into his leg. “You won’t like that at all, I can promise you that.”

There was silky steel in his voice, a promise of something untold, but which made a little pang of excitement spark in her belly.

“Doctor, you can take your samples and all the rest here,” he said, patting her buttocks. “This end doesn’t bite.”

“I suppose that’s a solution,” the doctor replied, sounding brighter. “Though I will say, sir, if she is given to biting, we might think to remove the canines…”

“Not another word, Doctor,” Kyren growled. “She will not be harmed or altered in any way, do you understand? This young woman is worth more than you can possibly imagine. Yes, she is a little wild, but she is untrained as yet. Within a few weeks, she will be as docile as a lamb.”

Tara didn’t know what her canines were, but she did know that she really didn’t like the doctor anymore. He put the instrument to her bottom and she squirmed as she felt the slight pinch.

“Easy, pet,” Kyren said calmly. “There, that was easy, wasn’t it?”

The doctor had already retreated to a safe distance and had put the cylinder into the big hummy box.

“Well,” he said in wondering tones after a few long moments had passed. “She does have the human genome.”

Another minute or two went by, and the box made beeping noises to fill the silence, which was rather uncomfortable for Tara.

“No serious diseases,” the doctor added. “I’ll do a second sample to check for parasites and such.”

“No!” Tara grumbled.

“Yes,” Kyren said, rubbing her bottom warningly. “It won’t hurt, pet.”

“It won’t hurt, but it might be a little uncomfortable. The best means of taking temperature and testing the inner fluids is to probe the anus and vagina.”

“It bloody what?” Tara exploded with the question.

“Shhh,” Kyren said, rubbing her bottom again.

“The instruments might prove a little large for her frame,” the doctor mused, holding up a two-pronged device that was about the thickness of two fingers in one prong and three on the other, and about as long as one of Kyren’s fingers as well. It was an imposing instrument given where it was intended to go. “It might be best if you do the insertion, sir,” the doctor suggested. “You have a good hold on her there.”

“Yes,” Kyren agreed. “Hand me the apparatus, and lubricant.”

The doctor did both, happy to be rid of the task of dealing with her. Tara snapped her teeth at him as he stepped away and was pleased to see him flinch. It was worth the sharp slap Kyren gave her bottom.

“Hold still, pet,” he murmured down at her. “This could become uncomfortable if you struggle.”

He applied the lubricant to both her lower lips and her bottom hole with thick swipes of his fingers. Again, Tara was struck by how expert his handling was. He touched her without hesitation, slicking the lubricant between her lips and dipping it inside her pussy. It was a relatively brief but powerful touch that made her gasp and arch her hips.

“Easy, pet,” Kyren chuckled. “There will be time for a more thorough inspection of your tight little crevices when the doctor is not here.”

She blushed furiously and let out a soft little squeal as he moved to her bottom. That was a much more sensitive spot. She had never imagined anyone would touch her there, and she was even more surprised that it felt quite nice to have lubricant rubbed against the tight little hole. It was less pleasant when he began to press his finger into her bottom, spreading the muscular bud around his plunging digit.

“Oww!”

“Breathe and relax,” he advised. “This doesn’t need to hurt.” He eased his finger in a little more, then pulled it out and applied more lubricant. With each and every little plunge of his finger, she felt her bottom relax to allow him deeper. It was supposed to be a medical procedure, but Tara had never experienced any medicine like this before. The finger in her bottom began to twist and she felt the inner walls of her pussy begin to clench. It felt wrong, but it felt good. She was exposed, she was…

“Good pet,” Kyren praised. “You see, you can enjoy this. Medical examinations are not so bad, are they?”

He pulled his finger from her bottom and reached for the medical device. It was configured in such a way that it could be slid into both orifices at the same time, but he began with the probe for her vaginal canal first, circling the rounded nub of it around her damp lower lips.

Though it was rather thick, he slid the tip of the probe between her lower lips and pressed it inside the tight channel of her body. Tara drew in a gasped breath as her inner walls spread around it. It wasn’t very large, but it was large enough to get her attention… and just as the first probe slipped in, the second was following, pressing against her bottom hole, propelled by the way the first part was sliding deeper into her pussy.

Kyren was gentle but insistent as he worked the lubricated probe against her bottom and slowly, but surely, it began to enter her bottom. Her anus spread for it, opening around the hard, thick intrusion. His finger had prepared her such that it did not hurt, and the probe was not very long so it was soon seated fully inside her bottom just as the other end of the instrument was sunk inside her pussy.

Tara lay over Kyren’s thighs, compliant with the probes inside her. It was embarrassing and sort of uncomfortable, though not painful. Having her bottom stretched around the device gave her the feeling of being exposed in a deep way.

“Good girl,” Kyren praised. “See how easy it is when you behave yourself and do as I say?”

She made a little growling sound, just to see what would happen. Kyren gave her bottom another of those sharp pats that made her skin sting and the instrument bounce inside her.

“And see how unpleasant it can be when you don’t?” He kept his palm on her bottom as he addressed the doctor. “You can activate it now.”

The doctor pressed one of the buttons on his panel and the probes began to vibrate gently, sending tremors through her stretched flesh.

“Oh, my!” Tara stiffened and would have bounced up off Kyren’s lap if he hadn’t held her in place. The instrument’s motions were not grand in scale, but their effect was immediate and powerful. The deep massaging movement made tremors of pleasure shoot through her body. Her hips began to move in an instinctive grind, her bottom rising and falling over Kyren’s lap as a series of low moans escaped her lips.

“I think you like this, pet,” Kyren observed, running his hand over the curve of her cheeks.

Her legs were beginning to tremble, her muscles getting tighter as the vibrations seemed to grow. She grasped at Kyren’s legs, her hips grinding wantonly as she experienced a full stimulation of her most tender erogenous zones. In all her life, she had never suspected that having her bottom filled could feel so good, or that her juices could slick her thighs entirely and coat an object between them to the extent that when Kyren began to play with it and slide it back and forth, the probes slid in and out easily, fucking her with a gentle, but powerful motion.

“Come for me, pet,” Kyren urged. “A good strong orgasm is what you need.” He slid his hand beneath her mound and his fingers found the slippery little bud of her clitoris, usually tucked at the apex of her inner lips, but standing hard and proud now in response to all the stimulation. As he began to play with her clit, Tara could no longer contain herself. She erupted in a toe-curling orgasm, her moans and cries echoing off the walls as she ground hard against his hand, her pussy clenching around the vibrating probes, her bottom clenching hard on the vibrating instrument. One climax was followed swiftly by another as she rode a wave of stimulation that made her mind shatter. She was beyond words and thought, beyond everything besides the humming heat that drove her to an incredible peak, leaving her momentarily senseless.

When she became of the world around her again, the probe had been slid from her bottom and she was being cradled in a sitting position on Kyren’s lap. The doctor was processing the fluid from the probes, while Kyren rubbed her back and cuddled her close.

“I liked that,” she murmured softly.

Kyren’s answering chuckle rumbled deep through his chest. “So I saw, pet,” he said warmly. “You were very good.”

She smiled at his praise, even though he was a stranger to her, even though his praise shouldn’t have meant anything at all. For some reason, his words made her warm in her belly and chest. It felt good to have been good.

“Well,” the doctor said. “She’s remarkably clear. The transporters must have done a good job of her vaccination and decontamination. But,” he said before Kyren could speak. “I would recommend she be put into quarantine. Earth is a non-cleared planet. It contains numerous spores and bacteria which are archaic but potentially powerful and devastating to an advanced immune system. She has tested clear today, but some of those pathogens may be in a dormant phase. You and I are well protected against most of these due to our frequent vaccinations, but I would advise three months’ solitary confinement before she is allowed further contact with anyone from Udine. The risk of transmission of any diseases is small, but any risk is unacceptable.”

Tara bared her teeth at the doctor and let out a little snarl. She did not like that man at all. He had suggested terrible things one after the other. She knew what solitary confinement meant. It meant being alone. Alone was the worst thing in the world. He suggested it as if she didn’t have any feelings or sense, and it made her want to spill his blood.

“Please, Lord Kyren, contain your pet,” the doctor said, still nervous. Tara let out a little giggle as Kyren slapped her bottom lightly and shook his head down at her. Kyren wasn’t afraid of her at all. She didn’t know what was wrong with the doctor, but it really was fun to play with his fear.

“She is not dangerous,” Kyren said. “She has a fraction of the strength you do. This is mischief. You know better than to show fear to a fresh import.”

“They are usually sedated by the time I work with them,” the doctor replied, keeping his distance.

“Well, neither you nor the wider public are in any danger. I have no intention of letting this one come into contact with the Udanese,” Kyren reassured the doctor.

“Of course not,” the doctor nodded. “It’s just, on a surface examination she could pass as Udanese and therefore the temptation to…”

“Thank you, Doctor,” Kyren said, cutting the man off. “I am well aware of the regulations around imported exotic species.”

Tara looked between Kyren and the doctor, noticing the tension between them. The doctor had seemed slightly on edge since they’d come into the room, but now things were starting to feel almost hostile. The doctor didn’t seem to like her; that much was obvious.

“The Authority has been examining imports of late. They believe they are being used to hide taxable revenue… I usually keep my reports vague, but…”

“Do not worry, Doctor. You will be compensated for your discretion, as always,” Kyren said smoothly, his eyes narrowing a fraction at the doctor. “And additionally for dealing with this one.”

The doctor nodded. An agreement had been come to, largely in the silences between the words. Kyren picked up Tara and swept her out of the medical bay, much to her and the doctor’s relief.

Chapter Three

Kyren tried to compose his features into a serious expression. His pet needed to be chastised for her behavior; he couldn’t encourage growling and snapping, no matter how playful she was being.

“Well, I’d say you were a good girl for the doctor, but you weren’t,” Kyren said in a chastising growl. “I must say, pet, your behavior is leaving a lot to be desired. I will have to correct that.”

She looked up at him from the safety of his arms and gave him a little shrug as if to ask what he intended to do about it. Kyren smiled down at her. In spite of her behavior, he was not angry at her. She had spirit. The original humans were known for their bravery and resourcefulness. It was that spirit that had first helped them spread throughout the most inhospitable environments, enabled them to build a civilization beyond any before, and eventually took them off their birth planet and allowed them to spread through the stars.

Tara was a pure version of that spirit, and he could not expect her to be entirely obedient, or to submit easily. She would, eventually, but she would need proper training. He was looking forward to that. He had handled many wild alien species in his time, but it was almost certain that she would be his biggest challenge yet.

“Food,” he said. “What do you like to eat?”

“Meat.” She flashed her canines at him. “A nice crispy deer steak. That’s my favorite.”

“Well, we don’t have…” He stopped talking, realizing that it would be too difficult to explain to her why he couldn’t give her a steak. It had been a very long time since meat had been part of the diet in Udine, but it made sense that Tara was craving it. It would have been the best source of protein in the Earth wilds. She was used to simple fare. Charred meats, raw roots, berries, likely. The berries and roots he could accommodate.

He conducted his newest acquisition to his private dining room in his quarters. It was the smallest such room in his home, and he was reasonably certain that she would be comfortable there instead of in the larger spaces that continued to make her nervous judging by the way she pressed into his body every time they passed into or out of a new room.

Once she was safely in his quarters, he eased her down into a dining chair. He hoped she would sit, but instead of putting her bottom on the chair, she kept her feet on the padded surface and crouched there with her long red hair falling over much of her face. From what he could see of her expression, she was still very befuddled and cautious.

“Cook, two Flernger platters, please,” he said, speaking into the intercom in the wall.

“You can talk to the walls?” Tara’s eyes were wide.

“There is a system here which conducts my voice to various parts of the house,” he explained. “By pressing the button, I can summon my servants.”

“Servants?”

“People who perform various services for me.”

“Why?”

“Because I pay them to do so. I give them money, food, shelter in return for their service.”

“You must be very powerful,” she said, looking at him with curiosity. He noticed that she didn’t seem to be impressed by his power. It was simply another piece of information to be puzzled over, like the talking walls.

“There are certain advantages which come with wealth,” he said. “I prefer to use that power to help those in need, where I can…”

“And buy people,” she cut him off before he could sing his own praises.

“I’m not usually in the habit of buying… people.”

“You don’t think I’m a person?” She gave him a slightly curious, slightly offended look.

“Yes, you’re a person… but… this is all more complicated than I can explain in a few minutes,” Kyren replied. “Just know I don’t intend you any harm. You are going to be very well looked after.”

She gave him a dubious look. He did not blame her for her skepticism. She was a very special case. An anomaly he had never dreamed of—though perhaps, when his collection had begun, he had dreamed that he might one day obtain a specimen of the distant past. He had never considered that the original humans might still be so similar to his own people. He had certainly never thought that the one he obtained might have a rare and delicate beauty that made his heart melt whenever he looked at her. He would have to be careful, or she would soon have him wrapped about her little finger.

Two maids brought the meal he had ordered. Kyren noticed that Tara seemed particularly interested in them. Her eyes did not leave the women for a single moment that they were in the room. The interest seemed to be mutual, not surprising given that Kyren rarely had female company of the kind that wore simple cotton dresses and crouched on their chairs rather than sat on them.

“They are your servants?” She asked the question as the maids left. “You have women who do what you tell them to do?”

“They work here, pet,” he explained gently.

“Are they allowed to leave? To go home?”

“Of course.” He saw where she was going with her line of questioning before she asked the next one.

“Can I go home too?”

“It’s different for them,” he said, removing the cover from the plate. “You’re not a maid.”

“I’m a… pet.” She said the words uncomfortably. “Is it better to be a pet or a maid?”

“For you, being a pet is the only option,” he said, pushing the plate toward her. “Here. Eat.”

Tara looked at the contents of the dish, a light poached fish on a bed of mashed roots. He thought she would surely be tempted, as it contained many of the same ingredients she might have eaten on Earth. But it was not to be.

She screwed her nose up and shook her head. “I don’t want this.”

“You haven’t tried it yet.”

“I don’t need to try it,” she said. “It looks weird.”

“It tastes good, pet. Try a little.”

His cajoling did nothing as Tara shook her head. He knew she must be hungry, but she was fighting his will. Refusing to eat was one way to control the situation. He couldn’t allow that. She was light as it was, and he needed to get some extra weight on her, but not at the expense of her obedience. All pets needed to learn that they ate when food was provided—not when they decided to.

“Very well,” he said, pulling the plate away from her. “I will eat it.”

She crouched there on the chair and watched him eat, those great green eyes solemn as they stared at him. He finished the plate quickly and pushed it into the wall slot where it would be sent back to the kitchen and sterilized.

“Well,” he said. “I think it is time you had a nap.”

“I’m not tired,” she said, predictably.

“You’re exhausted,” he replied. “You’ve been ripped from your home, transported millions of miles, and taken into the custody of an alien master. You need sleep, pet.”

“I don’t,” she insisted stubbornly. “I need to go back. To my home.”

“Listen,” he said. “I know this is not an easy situation for you. I know you are scared, and angry…”

“You don’t know how I feel,” she interrupted. “You can’t tell me what my feelings are. You don’t know me. I don’t know you. You should let me go back to my village. I want to go back home.”

Her words trailed off into wateriness, her eyes filled with tears, and Kyren wished nothing more in that moment than being able to actually send her home. It was out of the question however. Aside from the financial costs of such a journey, it would be unethical in the extreme to send her back to Earth, a planet ravaged by disease and radiation. She was better off with him than anywhere else. She just didn’t know it yet.

“You need rest,” he repeated. “You will feel calmer and happier when you have slept.”

“Why?” she whimpered. “Why won’t you let me go home?”

His heart threatened to break with hers. Unable to do anything to fix the situation, Kyren did the one thing he could do. He picked her up, pulled her close to his body, and held her tightly. She did not resist. She was soft against his chest, curling up against him for comfort against the circumstances he was responsible for. He stroked her hair gently and tried to explain what was happening to her.

“You are part of something special, pet. Something that has extended for many thousands of years. You are part of an unbroken line which began in the seas of a cooling primordial Earth and spread its tendrils throughout countless star systems. You are human.”

“I know I am human,” she sniffed. “I don’t know why it matters.”

“Because you are the first. One of the first. At one time, there was only one human species. But there are many now. All a little different, some so different you’d barely recognize them. You are one of the originals. You have a rare and important bloodline that must be preserved. You are priceless.”

“That doesn’t explain why you keep calling me pet. That doesn’t explain why I can’t go home. That doesn’t explain… anything… so I’m rare… so what?”

“You’re more than unique and rare,” he said. “You are…” He closed his mouth and shook his head. “At this moment, all you need to know is that you are mine.”

“You’re mean,” she sniffed, the tears beginning to flow again.

She was too tired for this, and Kyren knew it. He couldn’t explain centuries of culture, space exploration, and various other events to her in the first five minutes of her residence in his home. Ordinarily, he would have put his pet into one of the acclimation cages, a simple, easy to clean enclosure. That didn’t seem suitable for Tara.

He ran his fingers through her hair and lightly scratched her scalp in a way she seemed to find soothing. “You do need to rest,” he said. “And I need to tend to my business affairs. I don’t want to cage you, but I can’t leave you to your own devices. I think I will put you in my bedroom. The bed is comfortable, and you will be safe there.”

She offered no further resistance as he picked her up and carried her to his bedroom. It was not the sort of space he usually would put a pet in. There were lots of soft furnishings and valuable objects. If she should become violent they would all be at risk. But Tara had not shown many signs of violence, and he would not leave her long.

She was already a somnolent weight in his arms as she slumped against him, closer to sleep than she would ever have admitted. Kyren laid his prize down on the bed and turned the covers over her. She made a soft sound that could have been one of comfort as her cheek met the smooth silken pillow.

“Get some rest, pet,” he murmured, brushing his lips over her temple. “You will have more answers soon.”

He left, locking the door carefully. His home felt different now, a little more full than it had before. He liked thinking of her curled up in his bed. It had been a very long time since any woman had lain there, but it felt right that Tara should be there now. It was the most protected room in the whole grand complex, and she was the person he wanted to protect most.

Chapter Four

Having conducted his business, Kyren returned to check on Tara. There had been several hours of work to attend to, but he had only done an hour of it. He wanted to be by Tara’s side, not dealing with the musty minutiae of his everyday affairs. His business dealings, which usually enthralled him, were not enough to so much as distract him.

He opened the bedroom door quietly, not wanting to disturb her sleep. Upon looking in, he immediately saw that the bed was empty, the covers thrown back. He was not surprised that she hadn’t slept in the bed. She probably wasn’t used to that kind of comfort. It was quite common for his pets to choose a hard floor over a soft bed of hay if they had been raised in harsh conditions.

Not wanting to frighten her if she was asleep somewhere odd, Kyren quietly checked beside the bed, underneath the bed, and in every corner of the room. He checked in the wardrobes. He even checked in the drawers. He could not find her.

As he looked in the last possible hiding place, a nook between two wardrobes, and found it likewise empty, a chill went through him. His chest tightened with the sudden stress of the idea that he might have obtained the most precious pet of his lifetime and somehow lost her within minutes. Had she escaped? No. She could not have escaped. There was no way out of the room at all. He knew that for certain, and yet she definitely wasn’t there.

“Tara!” He called her Earth name as he hauled back the bedding for the second time, just in case she was somehow hidden beneath it. She wasn’t. The bed was bare. He picked the pillows up and shook them, as if she could perhaps fall out of them. All he got was a small puff of dust.

“Pet!”

There was no response.

He turned around, inspecting the room. There were no windows, just the light panels that projected pleasing outdoor scenes. There were a few vents, but they were the size of his palm. She hadn’t escaped through them. The walls were a foot thick and reinforced for safety. There was no way for her to have escaped… and yet… she was gone.

He hit the button beside the door. It connected directly to his security team.

“Sir?”

“We have an escaped pet,” he said. “I want every door in the place locked. Every window sealed. Every man we have looking for her.”

“Yes, sir.”

The compound was locked down with professional precision. Kyren’s men knew their job, and his keepers knew theirs. Every pet and person in the place was soon accounted for—apart from Tara. It wasn’t possible, and yet, it was happening.

“Sir?”

One of Kyren’s private officers had marched a young guard in front of him. The young man was trembling nervously, beads of sweat standing out on his face as he avoided Kyren’s gaze.

“What is it?”

The officer nudged the younger guard. “Tell him what happened.”

“Uh.” The young man cleared his throat several times before speaking again. “I was on security monitoring detail an hour ago. There was a maid… or a… a woman… she asked to be let out of your bedroom.”

Kyren stared. “My pet used the intercom and asked to be let out… and you did it?”

“She… uh… didn’t sound like a pet. She said she was locked in, sir. We had no reason to suspect anything. The maids do come and go quite regularly. Sometimes they forget their keys. We get multiple requests a day for access. She sounded just like one of them.”

Kyren’s jaw dropped. In the midst of his anger and concern at having lost his pet, it did not evade him that her escape had been nothing short of brilliant. The few seconds she’d seen the maid had been enough to give her the idea of impersonating one. She’d worked out how to use the intercom herself after seeing him doing it. And she’d been smart enough to manipulate the guards. He’d suspected it from the first moment he’d looked into her eyes, but now he was certain. Tara was smart. Too smart for her own good. Far too smart to be treated as a pet.

Chapter Five

Tara kicked the dress out from her feet for what felt like the fiftieth time. It was too long and it kept threatening to trip her up. The maid’s uniform had been stashed in a locker in one of the rooms she’d visited after getting out of the bedroom she’d been locked in. It came to the lower shin on most of the maids, but on her it went all the way to the floor and a bit beyond. It looked awkward, but everybody seemed very distracted with their own affairs and did not pay much attention to her. She was glad for the little hat that covered her hair and took attention away from her face.

Nobody gave her a second look as she hustled out of the grand arch of Cirrus’s home. She walked a very long way down a path that wound between other smaller buildings and statues and all sorts of things. Kyren didn’t have a home… he had a… castle, or a palace, or a complex… it was of a scale she could barely comprehend, but she kept moving down the path until she finally came to a gate with soldiers standing at it. Just like everyone else, they didn’t bother to look at her as she walked through it.

She was still scared, just as she had been when she took her first steps out of the room she had met Cirrus in, but the fear of captivity was stronger than the fear of the unknown. Her fright at the doors, the big halls, the strangeness of the trappings of the new world she found herself in had faded once the bedroom door had closed behind Kyren and she had laid there in his bed, slowly realizing that what seemed so surreal it couldn’t possibly be happening, actually was. She was truly destined to be a pet. The instinct for freedom was so much more powerful than the fear of the alien world she found herself in—and it was that instinct that kept her moving past each strange sight, smell, and sensation.

Once outside the guarded gate she found herself standing at the top of a hill that looked out over an endless city. Tara had never seen anything like it. She had never imagined anything like it. She stopped and she stared at the shining buildings that stretched as far as the eye could see, tall and gleaming in all different shapes and colors. It reminded her of a termite colony, but it was so much larger. There were remains of cities on Earth, but they were crumbling ruins and most of them were only discernible by bits of misshapen black rock in the soil. Some people said that millions of people had lived in them thousands of years ago. She hadn’t known that could be possible until now, looking out over the city. How many people must live here on Udine? How could they live all packed in so close to one another with no wild spaces? Where did they hunt?

As she stood entranced and confused by the view in equal measure, a big metallic beast rolled to a slow stop in front of her. She was surprised to see that there were almost twenty people inside, sitting on seats, looking very bored given the fact that they were stuck in the belly of a beast. She did not know what it was, but she mentally coined it a rolling whale. That seemed the best way to describe the size and motion of the thing.

Large doors in the front of the thing opened and a few Udanese people got out of the metal beast and walked past her, heading to other destinations.

“Are you getting on?”

She watched the people walk down the streets, wondering if she should follow them. Her stomach was starting to growl and she was hoping she could find some food soon. It had been a mistake to refuse what Kyren had offered her.

“Madam! Are you getting on?”

Tara suddenly realized that the man in the stiff uniform sitting at the very head of the rolling whale was speaking to her.

“Me?” She pointed at herself.

“Yes. You. Are you going to get on?”

She supposed she was. She stepped in the door that the others had stepped out of and moved to an empty seat. Nobody looked at her. It seemed as though they were trying very hard not to. She didn’t know why, but she was glad.

The rolling whale set off before she sat down, propelling her backwards into the embrace of the seat. She grabbed the edges of it, holding on for dear life as the whale picked up speed. It was very strange, to ride along faster than she could ever have walked or ran. A little scary too, but more fascinating than frightening. The other people all sitting so still and staid was calming, and they were almost as interesting as the contraption she was riding in. They were mostly men, but there were some women. They were all dressed in clothing that covered every part of their body, long skirts and pants and jackets that went all the way up to the neck. The hues were silver and gold, very fine and very imposing. Compared to most of the people on the bus, her clothing seemed simple.

Did they think they were better than her? The thought struck Tara as funny. She was an alien among aliens and they were more concerned by her dress than her strangeness. Though she was not all that strange, she supposed. She had two arms, two legs, and was roughly the same shape, if not quite the same scale. Their features were perhaps a little heightened compared to hers, sharper and more well defined. They had hard cheekbones and long straight noses. Their ears were larger too, but somewhat pointed at the lobes. In contrast, Tara’s snub nose and delicate ears seemed out of place. Or would have done if anyone had noticed. They were all taller than she, broader and with healthier skin, but they had not grown up in the wilds of an irradiated earth.

The rolling whale was passing through green fields that separated Kyren’s compound and surrounding areas from the city proper. There were a few small dwellings here and there, low shrubs growing in dense rounds low to the ground. Everything seemed very contained here, very controlled. She still wasn’t sure where they got their food from. There were no birds in the sky, no little creatures running about the land. She couldn’t see a single rabbit track or gopher hole. What had these people done with the animals?

As Tara watched the goings-on around her, she noticed that one of the ladies nearby had a small bag of food. The lady was reaching gloved fingers into the little crinkly baggie and pulling out round shining balls of something that smelled very sweet and utterly delicious. Tara did not know what it was, but the scent drew her nose and her eyes and made her stare. The woman seemed to find that concerning, as she tucked the bag away into a pocket and then looked pointedly in another direction.

Tara licked her lips. She could almost taste the food. Perhaps she could sneak just a little of it. The woman had put the bag in the pocket nearest to Tara, and now she was almost deliberately looking away. It was the closest thing to an invitation she could possibly get.

Rather than lean across the space between the seats, Tara got up and took the empty seat behind the woman. There was a quiet murmur of something like irritation from the other passengers. Apparently it was not proper to switch seats. Tara didn’t care. She was now behind the woman and the pocket with the food in it was right in front of her. All she had to do was slide her hand forward and slip her fingers into the little space. They found their target and a moment later she had the food in her mouth.

“Mmmm!” she moaned aloud, drawing disgruntled looks from several of the other people. It tasted better than she could have imagined. It was sweet and it was rich and it filled her mouth with flavor that made her want more. “So good!”

There was another disgruntled rustling around her. The sound of her voice seemed to be causing the others concern, though she did not know why. Perhaps she should have been more cautious, but food as good as this demanded some kind of expression.

Tara wanted more. Had to have more. She slipped her fingers forward once more, but this time she did not receive a delicious treat. This time the woman felt the movement and let out a sharp scream.

“Oh, my! She’s touching me! She’s stealing my things!”

The rolling whale stopped rolling abruptly as the people went into an uproar. Tara was afraid that they would come for her, but instead they seemed to be utterly desperate to get away. Even the man who controlled the beast’s motion and who had yelled at her when she got on was loath to confront her as his passengers clustered around the doors, clearly afraid of her even though she was so much smaller and so much weaker. Before the woman could flee, Tara grabbed the bag and shoved the contents into her mouth. The chaos was worth the deliciousness.

After a moment or two of unrestrained panic, the doors of the whale opened and the people ran out, leaving Tara to snuffle through the bottom of the bag. There were a few flecks of good tastiness left, and she was determined to get every single one of them on her tongue before someone inevitably stopped her. She was still nose deep in the treat bag when someone stepped into the rolling whale. Someone who wasn’t afraid of her in the slightest.

“Tara!” Her name was snapped angrily through the air.

Tara looked over the lip of the bag and saw two very annoyed blue eyes looking back at her. It was him. Kyren. He had changed since she last saw him and was certainly dressed far more finely than any of the people who had fled, wearing a long navy coat edged with bright gold patterns and dark boots that ran the length of his shin all the way to his knees. They emphasized just how long his legs were, and just how tall he was. He had to stoop to step inside the rolling whale.

“Tara,” he growled her name again. “Come here.”

Tara stared straight ahead and pretended she wasn’t Tara. It didn’t work very well. Kyren strode forward and grabbed her by the forearm, his large hand closing around her slim limb. He leaned down, his teeth flashing near her ear.

“Do not make any more of a scene than you already have,” he growled. “You are in more danger than you understand. The authorities have already been summoned.”

She didn’t know who the authorities were, but Kyren seemed worried about them. She allowed herself to be pulled from her seat, taken from the rolling whale, and put into something much smaller but similar in concept. A rolling cow, maybe. It had only four seats instead of dozens, but there was still a man behind the wheel. Kyren pushed her into the back of the contraption and got in beside her.

“You have been a very bad pet,” he growled before tapping the man in the front on the shoulder. “Let’s get home, and swiftly,” he said. “Do not stop for any Authority cars, driver. I will pay the fine myself if need be.”

The driver nodded and set the rolling cow into motion. It was much faster than the whale had been and the scenery was much more blurred through the windows as they traveled back up the hill they had just come down.

“You,” Kyren said. “Are in trouble.”

Tara was confused by his annoyance. He seemed to expect her to care what he thought. He didn’t understand that she didn’t owe him anything. He was a stranger who claimed to own her. She didn’t have to do what he said. Her only allegiance was to herself and her freedom.

“Smart though,” he admitted to her sullen silence. “That was an impressive escape.”

“Not that impressive,” she said, looking out the window. “I would have gotten away if it was really impressive.”

“No.”

“No?” She looked back at him, curious as to what he meant.

“There’s no getting away, Tara,” he said, his voice low and solemn. “That isn’t how it works.”

“What do you mean?”

“You’re wearing a tracker in that collar,” he reminded her. “And it’s damn fortunate that you are. If the authorities ever found that I’d let an unregistered, unaccompanied, un-quarantined pet out into public, I’d be heavily fined and you’d be taken away. There is a destruction order placed on all unregistered exotics thanks to some idiot a few years ago taking his carnivorous elequads for a walk. They ended up eating three ladies and a postman. Laws were made.”

“I’m not an elequad, whatever that is,” she argued, defending herself. If he was going to growl at her, then she was going to growl right back. “People didn’t even know I wasn’t a people like them.”

“That’s not the point, Tara. Where were you going? What were you going to do?”

“I was going away! I was going to go back home. If there are ships that can take me here, there are ships that can take me back. I was going to find one of them.”

“No,” he said heavily. “There is no away. There is no back. There is no home.”

His words made Tara go cold inside. She had seen Kyren as a somewhat kind captor. He had been much nicer than the men who took her at first. He had spoken to her softly. He had touched her in ways that felt good, but then he had locked her in a room and when she’d escaped from that, he had hunted her down and now he was talking in a way that left no doubt that he was not as kind as he had seemed.

“I hate you,” she said. “I hate everything about you. And I am going to get back home.”

“Is that right.” He smirked at her in that condescending way he had. He looked at her as if she didn’t know anything. As if she couldn’t possibly outsmart him—even though she had just escaped his big palace of a house, with all his technology and all his guards.

He thought she was stupid, like an animal. What he didn’t understand was that though her life on Earth had been simple, she was used to using every resource available to her. A woman was not strong, so she had to be smart. Hunting. Gathering. Navigating a wild world where there were predators of all kinds, where injury meant death. He thought she was too stupid to survive in his world. He didn’t know how wrong he was.

The tension Kyren was carrying in every line of his body faded as they returned to his grand home. He seemed relieved to have her back in captivity. He hustled her back into the house, into the grand bedroom that smelled of musk and man. She noticed that it was in disarray, drawers pulled open, blankets thrown all over the place, doors of every kind opened. The scene made her smirk. He must have been so shocked when he discovered she was gone.

“Take that uniform off,” he snapped at her. “You’re swimming in it.”

“I’m not sorry for running away,” she informed him, crossing her arms over her chest. She didn’t like the clothes, they were far too long and got in the way of free movement, but they also provided her with some kind of barrier and she wanted to keep them on for the moment.

“I know you’re not sorry. You will be.”

“I’m not taking this off.”

“Then I will take it off for you,” he growled, reaching for her. He caught her before she could dart away, and once he had her in his grasp, he did not so much take the uniform off as tear it off. The seams of the dress tore under his large hand as he bared her roughly, ripping the dress apart until she was entirely naked before him.

Certain she was about to be punished hard, Tara bit him. She bit him hard and more than once. She bit everything she could reach. His hands, his forearms, his coat—the latter was the least satisfying of the three targets. Kyren acted as though it didn’t hurt, though she could see the marks her teeth left with every snapping bite.

“I warned you,” he growled, pulling a strip off the uniform. He wound it around her head and mouth, making further biting impossible. “I warned you not to bite me again.”

She was naked now, totally vulnerable as he pulled her over his thighs. Tara swore impotently as his hand came down on her bare butt and she let out a loud yowl as the slap burst through her system, alerting her finely tuned survival instincts that there was pain and there would be more pain to come.

It was impossible to escape Kyren’s grasp by struggling. He was infinitely stronger than she was and he had a talent for grasping her in such a way that she couldn’t struggle properly anyway. As the slaps continued to land, making her bottom blaze like the red-hot coals of a fire, and her struggles continued to get her nowhere, Tara decided to change her response. She knew well enough that fighting wasn’t always the way to handle a problem. If confronted with a dangerous cat, it was better to freeze. So she froze over his lap, stilling her reactions so that even when his hand landed she didn’t move a muscle or make a sound.

After slapping her bottom a few more times and getting that total lack of response, Kyren pulled the gag out of her mouth.

“What are you doing, brat?”

Of course, she didn’t answer him.

“I see,” he said. “Well, Tara, defiance is still defiance whether it is biting or silence. You will speak when you are spoken to and you will stop these games.”

“No, I won’t.”

He spanked her bottom sharply. “The more defiant you are, the more punishment you will receive.”

“I don’t care.”

“I think I can make you care,” he said, drawing his hand down her bottom. He clamped his fingers on her left cheek and spread it, pressing his digits to her bottom hole. “You were so sensitive here earlier,” he mused. “Could this be the key to your obedience?”

Tara tried to hide her reaction, the way every muscle low in her belly, bottom, and upper thighs contracted at his touch. Her anus was so sensitive. Even the lightest touch sent sensations shooting through her body. Kyren began to tap her there, relatively soft taps, but hard enough to make her jolt over his thigh.

“I can punish any part of you, pet,” he growled down at her. “There is no winning when you decide to fight me.” He pushed his finger harder against her bottom, making the ring of muscle give way. “I can take any part of you too.”

She didn’t understand what he was saying, not at first, not until she felt the hard ridge of his manhood pressing against her thigh through his pants. Tara realized then that Kyren was turned on, not just by punishing her, but by her resistance.

“You’re mean!”

“Mhm.” Kyren let out a chuckle. “I can be, pet. I can be mean in ways that will make you regret your disobedience. And I can be mean in ways that will make you come harder than you ever knew you could.”

His finger performed a slow swirl around her anus, teasing the sensitive little bud in a way that made her let out trembling little gasps and grab at his leg. She didn’t know if it was supposed to feel good—she was almost certain that it wasn’t. But it did.

The finger moved away and the spanking started again. It didn’t seem to be nearly as hard this time, or maybe it was but the tingling in her pussy was enough to distract her from the worst of the sting. Whatever was causing the difference in sensation, she was grateful for it.

“I require your obedience, pet. It might not seem fair. It isn’t fair, but I require it anyway.”

His words were beginning to melt into the slaps. Everything was starting to be one thing, one hot, squirmy, hard thing that she was falling into and being consumed by. She wasn’t sure of anything besides the heat in her bottom, the swelling of her cheeks and her sex, the moisture gathering between her lower lips.

He had set out to punish her, but instead she was floating toward climax. She felt more than a little triumph at the realization, thinking she had fooled him again. Just as she thought she was going to come, his palm landed not on her reddened cheeks, but the backs of her thighs. The sudden flare lower still made her curse and growl at him again.

“Stop it! Damn you!”

“I will not,” he said sternly. “I will do this until you learn your lesson.”

“What’s the lesson? That you’ll beat me if you get angry?”

“That you don’t run away.”

“I’m supposed to run away!”

He stopped and looked down at her, leaving her bottom and thighs burning with the slaps already landed. “What do you mean?”

“I was taken,” she sniffed. “I’m a prisoner. Prisoners are supposed to try to escape.”

She thought for sure he would keep thrashing her, but instead he picked her up and sat her on his knee.

“Look at me, Tara.”

When she did not obey, he put a gentle finger under her chin and turned her head toward him so she was captured by those bright blue eyes that in that moment, seemed so very kind and warm she could hardly reconcile them belonging to the man she needed to hate.

“You’re a prisoner, from your perspective,” he acknowledged. “With me, you wear a collar. Your movements are restricted. Your behavior is controlled. If you were back on Earth, you’d be free. You’re twenty years old, Tara. You’d have maybe ten years left if you were on Earth. Here, you have another fifty or more years of life to look forward to.”

“I’m going to live until seventy?” Tara laughed. “You’re a liar.”

“I’m not. Here you’ll be receiving a level of care which will mean you’ll get more than twice the length life you’d have where you came from. If you get a virus or an infection, it can be treated. If you break a limb, or twist an ankle, you won’t be crippled for the rest of your life. It can be fixed. I know you feel like a prisoner. But you’re much more than a prisoner, Tara. If you stop trying to run away for a few minutes, you might be able to understand that.”

There was something very different happening now. He wasn’t just punishing her for being a naughty little pet. He was also talking to her like a creature of intelligence.

“I don’t believe you,” she said, saying the words more because they were the first things to come to mind than any considered response.

“I am forty years old, Tara,” he said. “Do I seem that old to you?”

“Liar!” There was no way he could be forty years old. All the forty-year-olds she knew were marked by the sun, wrinkled, and missing most of their teeth. They were scarred and were usually very ill. Kyren was strong and in the prime of health.

“It is true, Tara. My species ages more slowly than yours, but more than that, I have always had good food and good medical care. I have had shelter from the elements. You will have the same with me. You will live a very long and happy life here.”

“I’m not happy now,” she said, squirming on her sore bottom.

“Well, no,” he agreed. “Because you’ve been punished. But if you behave yourself, there won’t be punishment. There will be reward.”

She looked at him suspiciously. “What kind of reward?”

“You will receive many rewards, pet. But I think the one you will enjoy the most is physical pleasure.” His hand slid over her thigh and cupped her pussy, covering her lower lips gently. His fingers spread her lips a little, teasing her with a touch that made her squirm her hot bottom against his thighs.

“This feels good, doesn’t it?”

“Mhm.” She bit her lower lip and ground her hips to press her sex against his hand.

Kyren kept playing with her sex, stroking her lips gently, lulling her into a state she was not familiar with. Her entire body was fizzing with a tight excitement that made her want to spread her thighs and grind her hips.

“I shouldn’t be rewarding you for trying to escape,” he murmured. “I should be spanking you until your bottom is bright red and your words are full of apologies. If you ever do something as reckless as leaving the house without my permission, if you disobey me, you will be one very sore, sorry pet.”

His lecture was probably supposed to make her feel naughty—and it did, but more than that it made her pussy quiver with excitement. Against all odds, it felt good to be chastised. Back home, she had looked after herself. Nobody cared if she went out into the woods by herself. Nobody worried about her at all. The villagers liked the proceeds of her hunt, of course, but she never had the sense of being taken care of. Kyren’s form of care was intense, but it was speaking to a need she’d buried deep since her mother had died and she had begun fending for herself as a teenager.

Kyren’s threats were supposed to be warnings of how to behave, but he was making her feel very cared for too. She spread her thighs wider and pressed herself back against his fingers, pushing her pussy onto the hard digits.

“Do you understand me, pet?”

She answered his question with a soft moan and a gyration of her hips. She understood him, but did he understand her? Did he know what she needed?

His hand met her bottom in a stinging slap, which, like his words, was subverted by her needy body. The heat met with the arousal already making her nethers melt and her pussy clench around his fingers. He spanked her again, and the result was the same, another gasp, another spasm of the tight muscles working her pussy against his hard flesh.

“You need to be mated,” he murmured. “You’re not paying attention to anything but what your genitals want.”

Maybe he did understand after all. Tara had never been handled by a man before, but her body had been made for a man, and it knew what it wanted. His fingers were good… but it was another part of him she craved. Some of the women in the village used carved phalluses to pleasure themselves and one another. Tara never had. Rubbing her clit had been enough for her, but now the stretching of her inner walls made her want something bigger and more satisfying.

When Kyren spoke again, his voice was husky and gruff with desire. “I said I would teach you many things. Let me teach you something now, about the anatomy of a man.”

He pulled his fingers from her sex and slid her from his lap onto the bed. Tara sat and watched as he began to undress, his body coming into view slowly. She had seen his chest and torso in the medical bed, but his lower body was just as much of a revelation. His legs were thick and muscular, defined in a way she had not known was possible. One of his thighs was nearly as large as her waist. As stunning as his power was, her eyes were drawn inexorably to a different part of his anatomy, a thick scimitar of flesh rising from the base of his abdominal plane.

Kyren saw her interest and moved closer, reaching for her hand. She allowed him to take it and direct it to his cock. She touched him tentatively at first, surprised at how hot and hard it was. The skin covering his member was smooth and surprisingly soft given how unyielding the flesh below was. As her fingers traced curiously over the ridges of his cock, it throbbed suddenly. Tara let out a little shriek of surprise and pulled her hand away.

“Nothing to be afraid of,” Kyren chuckled, running his hand through her hair in a reassuring fashion. “It does that from time to time when I’m excited.”

“You’re excited… by me?”

A flash of confusion lit his eyes. “You are a beauty, Tara,” he said after a moment. “Do you not know that?”

She blushed. Kyren was the most handsome creature she had ever set eyes on. She was attracted to him in a way that made her loins ache. He had been forward with her sex from the beginning, but she had not considered that he might find her as attractive as she found him.

He leaned down as she wrapped her hand back around his cock, and kissed her deeply, their lips and tongues meeting in a tender embrace. Kyren eased her back on the bed, covering her body with his larger frame as their kiss deepened.

Her hand slid from his cock as his hips moved back and she felt her legs spread around his thighs. And then she felt it… the large, flared head of his manhood pressing between the wet lower lips of her sex.

“Do you want this, pet? Do you want me inside you?” He murmured the question against her lips, letting his cock slide slowly up and down the length of her slit in teasing thrusts that made her moan an affirmation.

At that moment, with her pussy melting beneath his harness, she wanted nothing more than to feel him inside her. It was an instinct that did not need to be explained as she spread her legs wider and wrapped them around his body, lifting her hips in an invitation many millennia old.

She had waited her entire life for this moment, and Kyren did not make her wait any longer. The thick head of his cock began to slip inside her slowly, her slick pussy making it easier for his flesh to enter her. Tara gripped his shoulders, her eyes wide and locked on his as she felt a sensation she had never imagined was possible. She was being filled. A space inside her opening up for him, as she became something more than what she had been, a part of her emotional, physical being blooming around him.

There was a moment of resistance, a tightness inside her that was stretched and suddenly was gone, leaving a stinging sensation in its wake. She let out a whimper and he stilled his hips for a moment, keeping his cock buried halfway inside her as he kissed her long and slow. Her body relaxed around him, a warmth seeping through her loins as her pussy embraced him.

“Does it hurt?”

“A little,” she admitted. She hoped it wouldn’t make him stop. She was caught up in a desire that made the slight pangs of pain irrelevant. She wanted more of him. She wanted him deeper inside her. An instinct had taken hold that made her want to spread her thighs wider and push herself against his cock so that the throbbing head of him was as deep as it could go.

“It won’t hurt for long,” he murmured, brushing his lips over hers as his hips rocked slightly inside her, moving just enough to soothe away some of the sting.

He was being so kind. But she didn’t need kindness. The animal instinct was flashing through her, making her drench his cock with her juices, making her hips grind against him, and making her hands grip his muscular body tighter as she did everything she could to bring him deeper.

“More,” she whimpered. “Please…”

A slow smirk spread over his face. “The virgin becomes the eager lover,” he said as she squirmed beneath his body. “Patience, pet.”

She didn’t want to be patient, but she didn’t have a choice. Kyren had a pace in mind and he kept to it, his cock throbbing in her partially impaled pussy. She moaned softly, begging him with the motions of her hips to take her more deeply, fill her completely.

“Don’t worry,” he growled softly. “You’ll have more than you can imagine soon enough.”

He started to press deeper inside her again, his cock seeming thicker by the moment as he spread her bare pussy around his slowly surging member. She could feel the heat of his body, nothing between them whatsoever, his skin and hers pressed so tightly together as he moved ever deeper inside her until finally he was sunk as far as he could go, the hard ridge of his pubic bone grinding against her clit. He held himself there again and let her body adjust to the thick invasion.

“This is what you’ve been missing all these years,” he murmured in his husky voice of desire. “You were made to be taken and yet there was nobody to take you.”

He was right. She could feel the truth of it flowing through her veins. She needed this. Needed him. Needed to feel her most delicate flesh stretched around something hard and vital.

Kyren started to move inside her, his hips pumping in smooth motions that made his cock ride back and forth inside her, sliding out almost all the way to the tip and then pressing back, filling her all over again. She was still very tight, but with every stroke, taking him got slightly easier until he was moving smoothly in and out of her.

Tara relaxed into the rhythm of his lovemaking, his body making hers feel so good as he made it his own. He had called her his pet from the beginning, and now she felt truly as if she was his. A possessive streak inside her made her feel that he had also become hers.

Kyren’s mouth had traveled from her lips to her neck to her shoulder, kissing and licking and tasting her. She did the same to him as they were both overwhelmed with the desire to become one. They were hungry for one another, and what had begun as a gentle introduction to lovemaking soon became harder, faster, more passionate, and more consuming. He pinned her hands above her head and took her with thrusts that sank his rod inside her over and over again, her wetness evident in the sounds that filled the room, the strokes of her being fucked long and hard.

Tara wailed with pleasure, her pussy gripping his cock greedily as she found ecstasy in his arms. Her senses reached dizzying new heights, her head spinning, her breath coming in short gasps as every muscle in her body became impossibly tense and then very relaxed.

She had thought the probes in the medical bay had given her the most intense erotic experience she was capable of containing, but Kyren’s lovemaking was far more powerful. The surging of his manhood inside her as her nerves went into a pleasure overload made her clench and contort, grasping at him and wailing at the top of her lungs as he tore her orgasm from her.

His masculine roar followed her cries as his cock swelled inside her and he began to fill her with hot, thick spurts of what she knew was his seed. Her pussy was milking him, clasping and pulsing around him to draw his cum as deep inside her as it could possibly go. Her once virgin sex was bathed in his essence. She was finally filled in the way she needed to be.

Sated deeply, Tara lay on the bed, her cheeks and face and chest flushed with sweat and pleasure’s blush.

“You have… changed me,” she murmured, looking across at him as he lay down next to her, propping his head up on his arm.

“I haven’t done anything but make love to you.” He smiled down into her eyes. “But I’m sure I have given you what you have needed for a very long time. Your body is made to be joined. That is the nature of woman… and of man.”

“So I am a woman,” Tara murmured, looking at him with bright eyes.

“Yes…”

“Not a pet…”

Kyren turned on his back and pulled her atop him so that she could lie on his chest, her legs on either side of his as his seed dripped slowly from her pouting lower lips.

“I know you’re no dumb animal, pet,” he said, immediately slipping back into his usual name for her. “I know you’re at least as smart as the average citizen here. But you’re not a native of this planet, and coming from Earth means that according to the rules of our society, you very much are a pet. That means we have a few problems to solve.”

“How? How can I ever be a woman when I am a pet?”

He smiled and brushed his lips over hers. “You can be both. To the world, you are my pet. To me, you are my woman. My mate. The law says I own you, Tara. Neither of us can change that. And you do need training. You cannot live here without it. This is no wild world. This is a place of structure and technology. You fooled the people on the bus for a few minutes, and then your instinct took over and you caused a panic. I’m going to train you so that doesn’t happen.” He looked deep into her eyes and spoke words that gave Tara real hope. “I’m going to train you to pass for a citizen, Tara. You’ll always be my pet, but you won’t always have to live like it.”

* * *

Tara’s bright smile made him sure he had made the right decision, but it was with some reluctance that Kyren committed to training Tara. She deserved better than the life of a pet, continuously caged and kept from the experiences of the world beyond his doors. He would have to be careful not to civilize her too much. Though he had known her for a matter of hours, he was already coming to love her, not just for her beauty and her spirit, but because she reminded him most strongly of the part of himself that had been so terribly assaulted in being part of Udanese society. Udine was rich, but it was soulless. Kyren had been born to wealth and could have lived a life of pure pleasure without any concern, but that had quickly become a hollow experience, and so he had turned his wealth to another end.

He had become a collector of wildlife first out of a desire to conserve some of the ever dwindling species on far-flung planets, but as he had gotten to see the creatures for himself and forge a bond with them, he had felt parts of himself grow too. The more he came to know them, the more he gained an appreciation for the parts of himself that did not care for fine clothing and customs. The more he understood how primitive instincts still lived inside him, the brighter his life had become.

Udanese women were beautiful, but largely uninterested in copulation or coupling. The Authority had long ago declared Udine at capacity and insisted that ladies and gentlemen both take medication that dulled their sex drives. The population was now at a steady state and civilization was no longer in danger of overreaching its resources… but there was a misery among the people, a malaise that made them turn to various synthetic substances.

For a long time, Kyren had not known what was wrong. Then, one day, after watching a male rhinoraffe take its mate, he’d had an epiphany. Simply, and crudely put, he was made to fuck. All creatures were, and he was no exception. He stopped taking the mandatory medication and his vitality and mood had increased immediately. What he’d needed was a mate equal to the fucking… and now he had one.

His connection to her was not entirely sexual, however. It was far deeper than that. When he looked into Tara’s emerald eyes, he was reminded that in spite of everything that had been drummed into his ears since he’d been old enough to understand, Udine was not the center of the universe, no matter how much it pretended to be. It was an overgrown colony, and it owed its very existence to the human pioneers from so long ago. With Tara by his side, he had the courage to be bolder, and braver than before. He was reminded that his efforts to conserve the old ways were not in vain.

He looked down at Tara’s flushed form, smelled his seed on her, and saw the red round of her bottom. She was more beautiful than he could ever have expressed, and her sudden, unexpected arrival was a gift from the universe. Though they came from very different worlds, they had both been denied the essential sex act for far too long.

She was close to sleep, exhausted by the day. He felt a bolt of tenderness touch his heart as he ran his hand gently over the curve of her naughty bottom and pulled her closer to his naked form, his fingers sliding over her bottom, between her thighs to find the hot, wet center of her. Tara let out a little moan as he touched her gently, enjoying the sensation of her sex. She had been so tight, but so willing. His cock was already stiffening again with desire to be inside her, to feel her hot walls grip him as if life depended upon it.

She let out a little moan and he rolled her over, so her back was to him, then pulled her against him. His cock found the core of her easily and stiffened more as he slowly slid inside her again.

“Perfect,” he murmured softly, taking her very gently. Her pussy was tender, but he could not resist filling her for a second time. The urge to make his seed flow inside her was too strong. Kyren put his hand on her hips and helped her rock back and forth over the tip of his cock, pushing the head and first couple of inches inside her tight pussy, then sliding out again. It wasn’t a proper mating, but it was enough to satisfy his desire.

Tara arched her body, pressing her bottom back against him, making the handfuls of her breasts easier for him to grasp. He loved the way she responded to him, with a pure desire untainted by any self-consciousness or cultural conditioning. Tara didn’t know what she was supposed to want; she only knew what her body wanted. Her hips began to move under his hand, pushing her pussy further down his cock.

They made love until they fell asleep joined in their coupling, bodies from great distances fitting perfectly together as one, reunited across space and across time.

Chapter Six

And so Tara’s training began, with a series of rules around behavior and properness. Shoes were always to be worn, so he said. And chairs were to be sat on. Feet were not allowed on them, or on tables, but they could go up on the bed. Without shoes. Shoes weren’t allowed on the bed. Tara found it difficult to follow all the little customs he kept insisting on. As far as she was concerned, bare feet were the most practical and the surface was irrelevant.

She soon discovered that shoes were the least of her problems. Eating was the most complex thing in the universe, thanks to the Udanese insistence that making things more difficult than they needed to be made you a better person. Kyren was taking the whole procedure very seriously, which only served to make it all the funnier at times.

One afternoon several days after her training began, Tara was sitting at a long table with Kyren by her side. He stood with his hands behind his back, his posture stiff as he handed down instruction in the matter of what he called ‘proper dining.’ Tara couldn’t help notice that it didn’t involve any actual food. There was a pristine silver plate, empty; a goblet, also empty; and a wide array of bits of metal shaped and sharpened in various ways laid out on the sides of the plate in some arcane arrangement that seemed to have meaning to Kyren.

“These are knives, forks, and spoons,” he said. “We eat food with them, so that we do not get our hands messy. This is a custom from Earth. It’s old enough that I thought you might already be familiar with it.”

“I ate with my knife,” she said. “None of these are sharp enough to bleed a deer.”

Kyren drew in a long breath. “You do have moments of savagery, don’t you, pet.”

She smiled at him sweetly, and he continued to explain.

“This arrangement is one of the signs of being cultured. The more complex the arrangement, the more formal the occasion. I attend a great many dinners, pet. I would like you by my side. That means learning to use which of these implements is proper for each and every occasion.”

Tara shoved her head into her hand and looked at him under her lashes. “What do I get for being bored like this?”

“You forget so soon, pet. You get a modicum of freedom. You get a life outside these walls.”

“A life pretending to be one of you. One of your… cultured people.”

“That’s the price we must all pay,” he smirked. “Now, pet. This little fork here is for the Fillus. It’s a mollusk with red frills. Very tasty. The twisted prong allows you to screw the fork into the breathing aperture in the shell and remove the tender innards.”

“And you call me savage! You have torture forks.”

“The food is cooked at the time of consumption, pet. It is not in pain. Mollusks and simple creatures are the only sources of protein permitted. Large meat animals are strictly off the menu.”

“Yes,” she sighed. “I already know the food is bad here.”

“Except for the food you stole on the shuttle. If you are bored with the utensils, we could go over the rules of not stealing food from the pockets of other people,” he suggested. “You seem to have some confusion about those. Though, I can’t imagine taking food from people was safe on Earth either.”

“The village shared food,” Tara said. “There was no mine or theirs. If we had it, it was ours. I hunted and brought back my kills. I shared with everybody. I was the best hunter.”

Kyren did not seem impressed. “Things are different here. There are clear delineations of property. If it is not explicitly yours, then you best assume it is somebody else’s and not to be touched. Taking property, food or anything else, is a criminal act. You can be punished for it. The authorities are already investigating the incident on the bus, and my role in it. I am required to lodge papers regarding all my acquisitions. And now, I am concerned that if I register an original human, they will put the clues together. We are playing a dangerous game, Tara, you and I.”

She fiddled with the tool he called a spoon.

“I will thank you to pay attention,” he said sharply.

“I don’t know what these authorities or papers are,” she said. “I don’t think I care.”

“You didn’t have anyone making rules in your village?”

“Not really.”

“Well, here, there are many people. And here, those people are ordered by authorities. The rules are made and we must all follow them.”

She looked up at him again. “You must follow rules?”

“The wealthy have fewer rules, but there are still rules. Even for me.”

“For you.” She grinned at the idea of Kyren having to follow someone else’s rules. It seemed to Tara that he controlled the world. And it was true that he did control her world. But the world beyond his doors was bigger and broader than anyone might imagine and he was not in control of it.

“You like that, don’t you.” He allowed himself a small smile. “You think it is funny. I assure you, the consequences of the authorities finding that you have been among the citizenry are not amusing.”

“You’re in trouble,” she said in a sing-songy voice. “They’re going to come and spank you.”

He snorted. “They are not going to do anything of the kind. I, on the other hand, am thinking you might need something to focus your attention. A stinging bottom should do the trick.”

“No!”

It was too late. Kyren took a handful of the back of her dress and lifted her up over the table, pushing the cutlery away with a clattering sound as he propped her against the hard wood and tossed the hem of the skirt up over her back.

“You will pay attention when I am instructing you, pet,” he said, his hand meeting her bottom with a sharp clap. “I am attempting to educate you for your own benefit. I am trying to keep you out of an enclosure, but frankly, if you will not take this seriously perhaps I will give you a dose of the life of a pet.”

“I am paying attention. I am paying attention now!”

“Of course you are. Do I have to thrash you every time I need you to listen? Should I spank you before I speak with you?” His hand met her bottom with every word, bouncing against her bare cheeks and leaving a hot sting in its wake. The lecturing was worse than the spanking. He was very stern and very displeased. His tone had taken on the dominant note she was starting to recognize as being a sign she had seriously displeased him.

“I was just playing!”

Her words caused him to spank her harder and faster, slapping her bottom to a hot stinging crescendo that made her squirm and flail, tossing the Fillus fork onto the floor along with its multiple companions.

“Playing,” he lectured. “This is not play time, pet. This is training time. And when I train you, I demand that you pay your full attention. Do you understand?”

“Yes!” she gasped and writhed beneath his hard hand. “I get it!”

“Good,” he said, softening the slaps a fraction. “The more I have to punish you, the more time we waste, the longer you will have to spend here… but maybe that’s what you want… hmm… pet?”

He pressed her thighs apart and put his fingers to her lower lips. “You’re soaked,” he said, the words sounding like the accusation they very much were. “No wonder my discipline is so ineffective. You enjoy it.”

“I do not,” she lied.

He probably thought he was being harsh with her, spanking her bottom the way he did, but Tara had been a wild hunter since her early teens. She was used to discomfort. There were no effective painkillers in her village. When she’d hurt herself back on Earth, there had been herbal tea and nothing else. She’d gotten used to pain. A spanking on her bottom, even a fairly hard one, was more stimulating than painful. He seemed to know that now.

“Pet, you continue to surprise me. You seem such a delicate little thing, but you are much stronger than you look, much more resistant too. You resent me, don’t you.”

She answered the table top. “I was abducted, and sold to you.”

“I didn’t have you abducted, Tara.”

“But you deal with people who do abductions.”

“They’re collectors, and usually when they’re dealing with lower life forms, they’re excellent at their jobs. You come from a planet which barely has any sentient life left. So your experience has been… difficult. If I had not purchased you, Tara, they would have sold you elsewhere. To another collector, perhaps, but more likely to a display of some kind. Or perhaps, a research facility… you are rare, and precious to me, but rare things are not always treated well. Especially not by those who see them as something to be studied… taken apart.”

Tara frowned against the table as his disturbing words sank through her. She didn’t know what he meant, exactly, about the research, but being taken apart was graphic enough for her to understand. “Are you trying to scare me?”

He laid a hard slap to her bottom, grabbed the hair at the back of her head in his fist, and pulled her up from the table, his eyes meeting hers with a serious gaze. “I’m trying to explain your situation, pet. Because you don’t understand it. You think these lessons are silly. You think they are a chance for you to test me, to get yourself into trouble, to take pleasure from the punishments I must inevitably give you. They are not. They are the gateway to a good life, Tara. They are the chance for you to fulfill the potential I see in you. They matter.”

Tara nodded slowly, inasmuch as she could with her head held so firmly by Kyren. “Okay,” she said softly. “I understand.”

“When I bought you from those traders, I took your life into my hands. It is a responsibility that I take very seriously. I want to be kind to you, pet. I want to be nice. But if you will not behave, I will not be nice or kind. You might think me strict, or cruel. You might even hate me. But I will pay the price of your hate if it means you are safe.”

She was squirming now as a range of emotions flooded her body. Almost from the beginning, Kyren had been the face of her imprisonment. The hunters, captors, traders, whatever they were, she had not known them long enough to feel much besides anger about them. But with Kyren, it was different. He had become the reason for every bad thing that had happened, from her capture to her distress at finding herself in an alien environment. She’d never really given him any credit for trying to help her. His insistence on calling her pet and acting as her owner had made her blind to what he was doing to help her survive in a society she did not understand.

“I’m sorry,” she said, wriggling from toe to toe.

“I’ve heard you say that you’re sorry before,” he said. “You were sorry, but you still didn’t understand. You don’t understand now.”

“I think I understand.” It was hard to talk while being held like a wild cat, spoken to like a spoiled little brat.

“I am sure you do,” he said. “I’m sure you think you do. You don’t know how little you know, pet. You’re very good at working with small bits of information. Like when you saw the maids here and decided to pretend to be one of them. That was smart, pet. Very smart. But the thing is, smart people make mistakes when they forget they don’t know enough.”

She stared at him blankly. Now she really was lost. His lecture was over her head. She did not think she was smart. Actually, she was very simple.

“I…”

He must have seen the confusion in her eyes, because he sighed and released her. “You need to dedicate yourself to learning, pet. To absorbing everything I tell you, and to obeying me.”

Tara nodded mutely.

“To motivate you, I’m going to need more than my palm.” He strode across the room and returned with a long slim rod in his hand that looked a lot like the bamboo plants Tara was familiar with.

“Bend over the table,” he said, gesturing with the tip of the rod. “I want to give you a demonstration.”

She could hardly refuse to obey seeing that he had just given her the lecture of a lifetime about obeying him. Tara slid back over the table, her ass arching high.

Kyren used the tip of the cane to flip her skirt back over her bottom. Then he pressed the length of the rod against her bottom and tapped it lightly in the center of her cheeks. It was a gentle touch and it was hardly anything to concern her. Tara found herself wondering what he was trying to prove—until the cane slipped away from her cheeks and he brought it down swiftly. There was a swishing sound as the rod cut through the air, and then a loud crack as it met her bottom.

For a second, there was nothing. And then Tara let out a shriek as a sudden blaze emanated from the spot where the cane had landed. She leaped up from the table, grabbed her bottom and danced about, swearing at the top of her lungs. The cane hurt like the blazes, and even though she was rubbing her cheeks, the heat and sting wasn’t going anywhere.

“Over the table, pet,” Kyren ordered sharply.

“No! That hurt!”

“It was intended to. Lay back down over the table.” He was stern and unyielding, pointing to the table with one finger, still holding the cane in the other.

“But I don’t want to.”

“I know,” he said. “That is very much the point. Now bend over the table, pet.”

Tara shook her head. Kyren was done asking and done ordering. He grabbed her and pushed her back down over the table, one hand firmly on the back of her neck. Tara yowled as the cane bit against her bottom three times in quick succession, bringing an almost insufferable blazing sensation. She flailed her legs wildly, kicking out at him without shame. If he could bring the cane down on her bottom, she could catch him with her foot.

“Kick me, and I’ll cane you somewhere even less pleasant,” he warned her. “I shouldn’t have to hold you down for this, pet. You should present yourself for my discipline.”

“I will never willingly present myself for this,” she shot back.

“You will,” he said. “Because that is what obedience means.”

“That doesn’t even make sense!”

Sense or not, the cane landed again, cutting across several of the other raised lines where the previous strokes had landed. The cane produced a blaze that set her entire body on fire. There wasn’t a part of her that didn’t clench when it landed. Kyren landed three more strokes, setting her whole bottom alight with the punishing strokes. Her cheeks were swollen and tender and very uncomfortable by the time he put the cane down, and she was whimpering softly.

“I don’t think you’re finding this arousing, are you, pet?”

He reached between her thighs and she felt his fingers swipe along the seam of her lower lips.

There was a pause, then a dark chuckle. “I see I am wrong.”

Tara let out a little moan as his fingers returned and began to rub between her lips, finding the little nub at the apex without trouble. In spite of the fact that he wanted her to be punished rather than pleasured, he didn’t seem annoyed at her response. He seemed almost… proud.

“You are a challenge, pet,” he drawled darkly. “I spank you and like it. I cane you and you soak yourself with desire.”

Tara would have denied it, but the intense heat from the cane had done just what he said. She was slick with juices and his fingers were skillfully rubbing her clit and lips in a way that made her hump her swollen, sore bottom in the air, and cause her hips to grind and gyrate with need.

She heard his pants open, and then his hand was clenching the back of her neck, pinning her in place again. She froze, thinking he might go for the cane—but it was an entirely different rod that met her flesh. His cock pressed inside her with one long, hard thrust. Her lips split apart around him, gripping his manhood eagerly. His thrusts were demanding and powerful, giving her very little time to accommodate him. There was no easy entry, no slow buildup. From the beginning, he fucked her hard, pounding her pussy and slapping her bottom at the same time, his palm catching the raised lines of the cane. Bolts of hot sensation rushed through her with every thrust and every slap. Tara moaned in a long wail, her cries of pleasure filling the room. There was nothing cultured or civilized about what he was doing, fucking his woman in a way that would not have been out of place in the most primitive parts of planet Earth. They came together in the heat of that carnal fire, Tara’s climax triggering Kyren’s as he flooded her bare pussy with his seed in a way that was becoming deliciously familiar.

He was breathing hard as he pulled out of her pussy and flipped her over on the table, looking down at her with an impassioned gaze as he slid himself back inside her and held his cock deep inside her creamy pussy so that they were joined as much as they could possibly be as he spoke the words she hadn’t known she had been waiting to hear.

“I love you, Tara.”

Love. She was loved by a man. Tara had never expected anything like it in her life. She had never thought she would lay eyes on a man, let alone feel the hot seed of one who loved her dripping slowly down the sensitive skin of her inner thighs.

“Now,” he said. “Let us return to your training.”

Chapter Seven

A week on from her capture, Tara woke one morning, opened her eyes to Kyren’s face, and felt her spirits rise as she took him in. In a very short time, he had become so much more to her than she had ever imagined. From a strange captor, a creature she didn’t understand, he was now the closest person to her heart in all creation. She had experienced friendships on Earth, but never anything like this. She found her thoughts going to him when they were apart, and when she saw him after a separation, even a natural separation like sleep, a smile rose to her lips. She could have walked out the doors of his home at any time and escaped into whatever wilds Udine might have, but she wanted to be by his side. She was drawn to him, and day by day, she found herself wanting to please him. She wasn’t sure if she was submitting to his training because she wanted to go out into the world, or because she wanted to see pride and approval in his eyes.

Did he feel the same way? She wasn’t sure. He was keeping her as a pet, after all. In some ways, his mind and his heart were closed books to her. She wondered if she would ever be able to understand his alien ways. Could a man like Kyren love a woman like her? Was she deficient in some way she wasn’t even capable of understanding? Worries chased themselves around inside her head, multiplying until she remembered that they were both lying in bed entirely naked, and that she could feel every part of him. If she wanted to know his heart, she could press her head to his chest and listen to the slow, deep pumping. Maybe that was enough. Maybe it had to be.

She tried to push the thoughts out of her head and snuggled closer to him, enjoying the warmth and security of his body.

“Hello, pet,” he said, speaking before he opened his eyes.

“Hello,” she said, nuzzling under his chin. She could feel the prickles of the stubble that appeared on his face overnight. It was the strangest thing the way hair seemed to sprout across his cheeks, chin, and jaw. “What are we doing today? More training?”

“I thought today we might both have a day’s rest,” he said, smiling down at her. “I thought I might take you somewhere nice, somewhere you’d enjoy. There is a garden…”

“Sir.” A subtle cough made Tara hide beneath the bedclothes as an attendant made his presence known in the bedchamber. Kyren’s closest servants had an unsettling habit of appearing here and there, usually when they were least expected and she was still not at all used to it and her prey instincts were always triggered by their slippery ways. “There are some gentlemen here to see you, sir. They are from the Authority.”

Tara felt Kyren stiffen next to her at the mention of that final word. Authority. In an instant, his body was taut like steel. His voice took on a terse note as he responded.

“Bring Tara something to eat, Smythers,” Kyren said. “I will see our visitors.”

He slid from the bed and began dressing, leaving Tara curled up beneath the covers. She didn’t know what was going on, so she couldn’t worry about it. She snuggled there in the residual warmth of their shared body heat until Smythers appeared with a plate of food. She was sitting up in bed nibbling at a plate of fried roots when Kyren returned half an hour later.

“Are we going to go to the garden now?” She knew, even as she asked, that the answer would be no. She could see the strain in his handsome features. Something had gone wrong.

Kyren shook his head grimly. “We are going to lunch.”

She cocked her head at him. It was a simple sentence, but his tone made it sound like a dark pronouncement. “Lunch? That doesn’t sound so bad. Why do you look so serious?”

“The authorities are here,” he said, his face graver than before. “The incident on the shuttle the other day has been traced back to me, as I knew it would be. They wish to see the young lady who caused so much trouble.”

It took a few seconds for the words to make some sense in Tara’s mind. “So they want to see me. They want to yell at me?”

“If that were all, I would not be worried. You are a pet, Tara. According to the law, and in their eyes, you are no different than an elequad…”

“You really have to show me what an elequad is one day,” Tara interrupted.

“Tara!” Kyren barked her name and made her jump a little in the bed. “I am trying to explain how badly this could go if they connect you with the pet I imported. I don’t believe they will, but there is some risk if they do. They already know what you look like, so there’s no denying it was you on that shuttle. You need to listen to me well…”

“How do the authorities know it was me? I mean, on the shuttle?”

“People saw you, Tara. The authorities used the surveillance from the shuttle to…”

“Surveillance?”

“In public, the authorities can see almost everything. They have machines that feed imagines and sound to…” He paused. “It’s complicated, but they’ve seen you, Tara, and I need to explain who you are. I’m going to explain away your rather odd behavior the other day by saying that you were under the influence of a drug…”

“Drug?”

Kyren stopped again to explain. “Something you eat or drink that changes your behavior. You must have had fermented hops or berries on Earth… alcohol…”

“Ah,” she nodded. “You’re going to tell them that I was drunk?”

“More than that. You’re going to tell them. And you need to keep your story straight in your head. So listen to me and listen to me well. Your name is Tara—”

“My name is Tara,” she interrupted. Kyren sighed and rubbed his hands over his face.

“I was about to say, your name is Tara Antigone, and you are the daughter of a trader. You were sent here from a colony named Mareyx, after getting into trouble there, and I am courting you. I took you as a favor to your father, a man named Erthan Antigone. Understand?”

Tara nodded slowly.

“Okay. So. What is your name?”

“Tara.”

“Tara…” He drew the word out, prompting her to remember the second part of her name.

“Tara… Antelope.”

Kyren let out a sound of pure frustration, which made her giggle.

“I am going to thrash you so damn hard if you don’t start taking this seriously,” Kyren growled at her, making the smile drop right off her face. “Tell me the story I told you.”

“My name is Tara Antigone,” Tara said quickly. “My father is a trader and I came from a colony because I’m bad.”

“Okay,” Kyren nodded. “Close enough. All you need do is stay quiet, speak when spoken to, and apologize profusely when I tell you to. They are unlikely to ask you too many questions about your past and I will endeavor to make the luncheon brief. I have explained to them that you are not feeling well, but are eager to make your apologies.”

“So, stay quiet, apologize a lot, basically what I’ve been doing since I arrived here,” she sulked. She didn’t like the way Kyren was talking to her. He was being so curt and so stern.

“This is not the time for your mischief, Tara,” he said with a frown at her flippant response. “I want you to put on the most formal gown in the wardrobe and I will escort you to the dining room. We will be serving a small meal.”

“I don’t know what my most formal gown is.” Tara shrugged. “They all look the same to me. Sparkly and glittery and…” She shrugged again. Kyren’s concern was making it difficult to think.

“Listen, pet,” he said more softly. “I’m sorry to have snapped at you. This is important and I admit I loathe that we have to do this. But all will be well if you simply follow my instructions. These people are a problem I’ve been dealing with for many years. They are petty bureaucrats with more power than is good for them, and they don’t know what to do with it so they spend their days making laws on top of laws and watching everyone so they can be there to pounce when a rule is inevitably broken. We will not always have to contend with them, but for the moment we have to play along.” He smoothed his fingers lightly over her cheek. “Will you play along for me, pet?”

She nodded.

“Good girl,” he said, his smile warming. “Now, let’s get you dressed.”

Saving her the trouble of trying to make a decision about suitable attire for the event, Kyren picked out a dress from the wardrobe, a low-cut gold affair that fell in a fitted sheath about her body as he dropped it lightly over her head and let it fall in a soft cascade about her. Tara loved the way it felt against her skin, cool and soft.

He chose boots for her too, similarly toned and fitted below the knee. Matched with a pair of earrings that clipped to her lobes and hung in soft spirals, she was soon transformed from a tousled pet to a rather elegant-looking lady—just as he intended.

“You are beautiful,” he murmured, his eyes appreciative as he ran his fingers through her hair, rough combing it into semi-tamed tresses. “Now come, pet, let us see how your training has served you.”

He took her by the hand and led her to the dining room. Tara rather enjoyed the way it felt to walk next to him in her expensive boots and alluring dress. The expression in Kyren’s eyes told her that she looked as good as she felt. Perhaps the training was working. Maybe she was starting to truly become like the Udanese.

“Gentlemen,” he announced. “Please allow me to introduce Miss Tara Antigone…”

Tara took the room in with a glance. There were around ten men at the dining table, and together they were already through five bottles of Kyren’s finest wine. The men themselves were of varying ages. Two of them were gray-haired, but otherwise spry in their physical form. They were not stooped or warped by age beneath their black coats that gave them an imposing appearance. Most of the men seemed to be of a similar or greater age to Kyren. A younger man was with them, a few years younger than Kyren, perhaps. He shared some facial features with one of the older men, and Tara imagined that he must be his son.

“Gentlemen, this is Tara Antigone,” Kyren said. “These are the gentlemen of the Authority, Tara, first among them Mr. Hywell Senior, Authority head and Mr. Hywell Junior, his son.”

Several pairs of eyes turned to her and Tara’s blush came naturally.

“She is very beautiful,” the younger man Kyren had introduced as Hywell Junior said. There was something about him Tara didn’t quite like. He was passable in appearance, well groomed, but there was something cold in his eyes, even when he smiled as he was smiling now. Something predatory. A chill ran down her spine, the same chill she’d felt back on Earth when she was in the presence of danger.

Kyren gave Hywell Junior a sharp look. Tara noticed that Kyren didn’t seem to appreciate the young man’s comment. Then he nudged her gently and she realized that she was supposed to make her apology.

“I am sorry,” she said, doing her best to remember the phrases Kyren had taught her. “For my behavior on the shuttle. I was… inappropriate. I see that now. I’m afraid I was not quite in possession of my right and proper senses.”

There was a brief pause as the men of the Authority looked at one another.

“You look quite different now than you did that day, Miss Antigone,” Hywell Senior said. His words explained the stunned fish expressions on their faces. They had been expecting the shabbily dressed rude maid. Instead they were meeting a fine lady. What power there was in clothing in this place.

“I was having a… rather bad day,” Tara explained. “I was new to Udine. My journey had left my senses rather addled. I am so sorry for the disturbance I caused.”

“Very nice,” Kyren murmured in her ear as he pulled out the chair next to his.

She sat, smiling as best she could at the men Kyren seemed to almost fear. They did not seem very fearsome to her, not even the one who gave her a bad feeling in her stomach. Not one of them was as strong as Kyren, and none of them were nearly as handsome.

The servants soon brought food, the mollusks that she did not care for, but she figured she had better eat what was served, lest their guests thought her strange in some fashion. Unfortunately, the meal was accompanied by a spread of cutlery that challenged her memory past the point of its capacity. She hesitated. Which fork was it that went with the swirly things?

Kyren coughed softly and picked up the third fork from the left. Tara followed his lead. The meal was conducted with a steady stream of conversation that had nothing to do with her misbehavior. It was a very dry conversation that she could not quite bring herself to follow, but seemed to largely involve interest in the construction of various buildings in the city. There was perhaps some hidden negotiation in the endless words, but Tara was not listening for it. She was, against all odds, bored.

“As I said earlier, gentlemen,” Kyren said as the authorities finished their meal. “I am very sorry for the trouble Tara caused. She has been troubling her father for some time, and I agreed to take her in, thinking a change of scene might lead to a better standard of behavior. It has already improved vastly in the short time since she arrived.”

Hywell Senior cleared his throat and took a long swig of wine. “There have to be consequences, you understand, Lord Cirrus. You are an eminent figure, and we are loath to cause you any embarrassment, but this matter cannot be allowed to lie. The incident on the shuttle has become quite famous, and without any official statement on the cause of the crime, and resulting punishment…”

“I assure you, I have disciplined the young lady most thoroughly.”

“All respect, Lord Cirrus, when a public crime is committed, a public investigation must be conducted. And a public consequence.”

Kyren patted his mouth with his napkin and nodded. “Tara, dear,” he said. “I think it would be best if you retired from the table. You have made your apologies, such as they can be made. The gentlemen and I will discuss the terms of this matter and I will inform you of the outcome.”

Tara kept her teeth gritted and nodded politely. She rose from the table as gracefully as she could, with Kyren helping her. She could feel all eyes on her as she left the room.

Breathing a sigh of relief to be out of the dining room, Tara went back to the bedroom and waited. And waited. And waited a little longer. The lunch had not enlightened her about the nature of the authorities, other than the fact that they didn’t seem to do anything besides talk.

Finally, Kyren entered the room, his long legs drawing her gaze first. She couldn’t help but notice yet again what a handsome man he was, how naturally masterful he was.

“What are you smiling at?” He asked the question somewhat sharply.

“You,” she said simply. “I like to look at you.”

Her words brought a smile to his face. “Are you trying to flatter your way out of trouble, pet?”

“No,” she frowned. “You asked me what I was thinking and I told you. Aren’t I allowed to have good thoughts about you?”

“Of course,” he said. “Though I don’t know if you’ll keep having such good thoughts. You are in a record amount of trouble.”

“I thought I made a good apology.”

“You made a beautiful apology,” he nodded, crouching down in front of her. “You did a wonderful job of sounding like a spoiled, but well-bred young woman.”

“I just tried to talk like you do.”

“You did well,” he smiled, patting her knee. “But I’m afraid it wasn’t enough. The authorities are asking for a greater punishment.”

“Why?” She stared at him.

“The day you were on the shuttle. Did you notice how panicked the people were when you stole that candy? That’s because there is almost no crime here, pet. There is no crime because outside a few sacred spaces, and private locations like this one, there are eyes and ears everywhere. You frightened those people because they are so used to being able to trust that others will behave according to custom that even a small deviation from the usual order causes concern. The authorities want to make an example of you. If they do not, a hairline fracture in the public’s trust is allowed to grow. People might start to doubt them and their ability to maintain order…”

“That doesn’t sound like such a bad thing,” Tara said. “I don’t like those men.”

“Whether you like them or not, they’re bringing charges against you. I’ve had to fabricate paperwork for you, Tara. I’ve had to call in a lot of favors…”

“So?” Tara squirmed and threw out every excuse she could think of. “This isn’t my fault. I didn’t know anything when I ran away. I didn’t ask to come here. I didn’t ask for anything. This is your problem. You fix it.”

“Oh!” His brows rose toward his hairline. “Oh, I see. So when it suits you, you are a free woman who wishes to be treated as an equal. But, now that you are in trouble, you are a little pet who can bear no responsibility for the consequences of her actions. I don’t fault you for running, Tara. But not knowing that there isn’t a crime isn’t the same as not committing one. If you are to be a citizen of this planet, you must be treated like one.”

“What does that mean?”

“It means I offered to pay a fine for your behavior, a very generous one, but they refused. This isn’t a matter of money. It was a matter of public unrest. It must be settled publicly.”

“What does that mean?”

“Back on Earth, long before you were born, people would deal with matters of public justice in many ways. Some were barbaric. Some were merely embarrassing. Fortunately, the authorities of Udine are not given to barbarism. They are fond of embarrassment, however. You embarrassed them on the shuttle the other day. Now they are determined to embarrass you in return.”

“What does that mean?”

“It means they are planning an official censure.”

“What. Does. That. Mean!?” Tara nearly yelled the question, which she had asked three times already and not received anything like an answer.

“It means,” Kyren said, his voice falling into a deep growl, “that you are going to be spanked long, hard, and publicly. And judging by your tone and volume, that might not be as unnecessary as I first thought.”

There was a quiet moment as his words sank in. The prospect of public punishment. Being taken over his lap, her bottom bared, her cheeks slapped bright red under the eyes of the authoritarian society. It would probably be painful and embarrassing… as much of her experience on Udine had already been.

“Oh. Is that all!” she finally said with more than a hint of sarcasm. “Why didn’t you tell me that in the first place.”

“Because I wanted to explain, pet. Rather than dragging you off to the center of the city and putting your bottom on grand display, I thought you might like to know why.”

Tara folded her arms over her chest and turned her head away from him. “Who cares why? There hasn’t been a why since I was taken. This, then that, all ending in my punishment.”

“Don’t sulk, pet,” he said. “It doesn’t suit you. Besides, there may be a way to avoid the public affair. Or at least, make it less public.”

“What?”

“The authorities were… taken with you at lunch today. They have said that if you were to submit to a more thorough discipline before their eyes, they have agreed to forgo the central square.”

“Soo…”

“They want me to punish you in front of them,” he said simply.

“So either they will watch… or everyone will watch.”

“I will leave the choice to you, pet. I can take you over my knee in front of millions. I do not like it as an option. It could lead to curiosity about you from wider afield. It could come out that you are not, in fact, a guest from a nearby planet. The more private affair will be more embarrassing, but I think it may distract the authorities enough that they will not inquire further.”

Tara sighed and looked down at him. It was a little strange to see him from this angle. He usually towered above her, but now he was slightly lower than her, his hand on her knee in a comforting way. The choice seemed clear to her. Better to be punished before ten than before millions, even if those ten were stuffy members of an over-class who seemed to have no humor or sense of leniency in their blood. She had to trust Kyren.

“I’ll do what you think is best.”

“Very well. The private punishment it is. Remember, pet, this is much more about a display of obedience on your part and control on mine than anything else. I expect you to do precisely as you are told. You can begin by removing your dress.”

Tara was confused. “You want me to look more civilized… by going out there naked?”

“They will take your nudity as a sign of true penance and submission to the Authority. It will please them, and…” he smirked in a handsome way that made her stomach do little flips, “it will please me. I admit, pet,” he said, tracing his hand gently across her cheek. “The prospect of displaying your beauty is appealing to me. You are mine, and I am proud of you.”

His fingers were at the fastening at the back of her dress, drawing it down so the gown fell first from her shoulders, then from her hips and into a silken puddle on the floor around her feet. In moments, she was quite naked aside from the string of pale jewels around her neck, and the earrings clipped to her lobes.

Tara caught sight of herself in the mirror, and even though it was her own naked form she was looking at, it felt somehow unfamiliar. She had filled out since her arrival at Kyren’s home. Her curves were pronounced, especially her bottom, which was fuller than it had been before. Her breasts were larger too, she had noticed them becoming weightier, but not truly seen how beautiful she was now her body was no longer in a state of frequent deficit.

Kyren pressed his mouth to the back of her neck, kissing and nipping her lightly as he ran his fingers over the circle of her collar. “I should remove this,” he said. “It wouldn’t do for the authorities to put two and two together and realize that you are my pet.”

The collar snapped open and he slid it from her neck. To Tara’s surprise, she immediately missed the feeling of it. It had become a comfort and a reminder that she was safe under Kyren’s protection. Without it she felt far more naked than she had when her dress was removed.

“Keep your shoes on,” he said, gesturing to the delicate heels. “And hold your head high. You are mine.”

There was an affection in his words that made her feel warm on the inside. Though she was about to be taken before a group of powerful men and publicly punished, the moment felt very intimate, as if it were really only between her and Kyren.

He took her by the hand and led her into what he called a drawing room. She didn’t know why he called it that, and she didn’t care in that moment because the couches and chairs that were almost always empty were filled with Authority members, and in the space between them was a long, low bench covered with black leather.

From the moment she entered the room, all eyes were locked on her naked form. They were drawn to her, seated moths gaping at a bright flame. There was a strange power in the display of her femininity, and she felt a flush of excitement as she realized it. A little trickle of desire appeared between her lower lips, but though the authorities were looking at her, she only had eyes for Kyren. His hand slid down her back and cupped her bottom, directing her to face the authorities.

“Remember what I told you.” He murmured the words softly in her ear. “They want another apology.”

“I am sorry, gentlemen,” she said, speaking the words Kyren had given to her in the bedroom. “My behavior was unforgivable, and I thank you for this opportunity to atone.”

It was all she could do not to grit her teeth as she was thanking the small crowd for her punishment, but Kyren’s hand on her bottom was enough to keep her focused on the task he wanted her to perform. She was doing this for him, because he thought it was important, and because he said it was imperative for both their safety. And, of course, because he never missed an opportunity to spank her bottom.

“Good girl,” he murmured in her ear before stepping back and raising his voice. “Over the bench, Tara.”

She straddled the soft, but narrow bench and lay forward upon it. Her legs were spread wide by the camber of the bench, and she knew that each of the men present was now enjoying a view of her bottom and her pussy. They could probably see the gentle gleam of arousal. Perhaps, if they were particularly sharp, they might be able to see the way her lower lips were swelling with every passing moment as excited blood flowed toward her sex. She took some glee in displaying herself more boldly than she really felt inside. If the punishment was designed to shame her, she wanted to appear as shameless as possible.

Kyren smoothed his hand down her back and cupped her left cheek, spreading it so there was no longer any doubt that her pussy and bottom hole were on display to the room. There was a rumbling among the men, a mass shifting in the chairs. She wondered if they all had erections already, and if they would try to hide them. Maybe they would feel the shame she was supposed to be feeling.

“Tara has been high spirited from the outset,” Kyren said. “It was my mistake to allow her access to the public before I had taught her a few lessons.”

“Then perhaps you should be over this bench,” Tara quipped.

There was a soft chuckle from somewhere behind her, then a sharp slap landed dead center of her cheeks.

“Hush,” Kyren said sternly. “This is punishment, Tara. Act like it.”

“She is very spirited, isn’t she.”

Tara recognized the voice. It was Hywell Junior, the man who had commented on her appearance. The man who made fear go trickling down her spine yet again. There was just… something about the man that made Tara very relieved that it was Kyren standing over her naked body, and not him.

“The colonies are notorious for their poor training of both sexes,” Kyren replied grimly, landing another slap to her bottom.

For a moment, Tara almost thought she was a wild young woman from a far-off colony. In a way, she was. She let out another little giggle, this time at how close the lie was to the real truth. It earned her several hard swats that turned her laughter to yelps.

“I expect to hear your contrition,” Kyren lectured sternly. “This is a serious matter. You have brought shame on the authorities of the great city. Your unruly behavior brought shame upon this house.”

He was laying it on thick, both with his words and his palm. The slaps echoed loudly around the room as he painted her bottom bright red. She knew it was red because the authorities could not help themselves from commenting.

“A brilliant hue,” someone murmured.

“Glorious,” another man added.

The slaps might have been loud, but they were being delivered with a cupped palm and were not overly painful. The sting was more invigorating than it was chastising and it was all Tara could do not to giggle as he made her bottom jiggle.

“Tell me you are sorry, Ms. Antigone!”

Tara buried her face in her hands and let out a sound that sounded passably like a sob. “I’m sorry,” she gasped through another barrage of slaps that landed slightly harder, but far from hurting her, only succeeded in making her wetter and hotter than before. Being publicly disciplined was one of the most arousing things that had ever happened to her. Her position over the bench pressed her sex against it firmly, and with every slap she was jiggled against the slick material. Between slaps, her hips began to move in a slow dance, a surreptitious attempt to pleasure herself in the midst of her punishment. It was very naughty, and she knew she would be in trouble for it if Kyren noticed, but she figured he was more concerned with putting on a good show for the authorities than stopping her from enjoying it.

The lecturing went on, as did the slapping, which made her bottom sting and tingle all the more. He was still not using a fraction of his strength; he had spanked her much harder on the day she had actually escaped.

“I am sorry!” she gasped between swats. “Oh, I am so deeply, deeply sorry!” The more she apologized, the more she was tempted to giggle, if not outright moan. The deviousness of it all was exhilarating. Her pussy was clenching, the inner walls wanting something to ride against. Her bottom felt swollen and tight, but still his slaps did not register as pain. They were little explosive bursts quickly propelling her toward one final internal detonation. The bench was becoming slick with her juices, her clit sliding across the smooth material over and over again as she rode it through her spanking.

“A hundred!” Kyren declared the number and stepped back, leaving Tara wriggling over the bench. She had not known that there was a number of strokes to be given. “Are you satisfied, gentlemen?”

There was a reluctant murmur among the authorities. Tara had no doubt that they wanted to see more, but this was not supposed to be a live show. This was supposed to be a punishment, delivered according to rules and regulations. A hundred swats had been given and myriad apologies had been tendered. Her penance was done. She could sense it, and soon the authorities were making noises that confirmed her suspicions.

“Stay where you are, Tara,” Kyren ordered. “I will see our honored guests out.”

The sound of ten men reluctantly leaving their seats and filing out of the room ensued behind her. Tara folded her hands on the bench and rested her head on them, swinging her legs as she waited for Kyren to return. Her legs were still spread, and the pressure of her motion against her clit was pleasurable. She was eager for him to come back and finish what he had begun… the sensual pleasuring that had to end with them climaxing together.

She soon heard Kyren’s footsteps, then felt his hand sliding along her back. His fingers curled in her hair and he leaned down toward her as his other hand cupped her hot bottom cheeks.

“You can stop giggling now,” he said sternly, his lips next to her ear. “I can tell the difference between contrite sniffles and stifled laughter. I barely touched you in front of them. I will do much more now we have our privacy.”

Tara’s eyes flew open in surprise. “Why?”

“Because…” he snarled in her ear. “One of them might have noticed that you were not as sorry as you were pretending to be. Because yet again, you engaged in risky behavior. And this time, you were warned how important this was.”

“They didn’t notice anything,” she argued. “They were staring at my butt. That was all they cared about.”

His palm landed against her bottom. The first thing she noticed was the sound it made, a loud crack that echoed around the room and was followed by a burst of heat and sensation that threatened to overload her nerves. She let out a cry of real regret and her toes danced against the rug beneath her feet.

“Kyren! That hurts!”

“Good,” he said. “I did not wish to punish you this thoroughly in front of them. I wanted to preserve your emotional dignity, even if the physical had been somewhat sacrificed. But I will not have you pull a stunt like that again. That was a serious matter, pet, and you took it far too lightly for my liking.”

“I did what you told me to do!”

“You took advantage of what should have been a serious punishment. You were on the verge of coming when I ended it. What would the authorities have said if you had orgasmed in front of them? What would they have done if they saw your cunt quivering in response to the punishment and their stares?”

His fingers slid between her legs and found the slippery entrance of her body. There was no denying her arousal, but Tara also had no intention of apologizing for it.

“I liked you punishing me like that,” she admitted. “It was hot, and you didn’t do it hard… so… it’s your fault I enjoyed it.”

“Oh, my fault!” He landed another hard slap, this time to her other cheek. “Well, allow me to make up for my earlier softness…”

“No! I just mean…” Tara gasped. “I mean it was hot. You can’t blame me for liking it when you touch me. “

“I suppose I can’t,” he admitted, thrusting two fingers deep inside her pussy. “And I suppose you can’t help being a hyper-sexed human who becomes aroused at almost everything. I should have known being bared before a group of men would excite you more than shame you. You can’t help it. Your ancestors reproduced in orgiastic circles…”

The history lesson was hard to take in with his fingers plunging in and out of her sex. Tara arched her back and held her hips high, taking every stroke until Kyren could stand it no more and loosed his cock. He took her by the hips and pulled her back to the edge of the bench before sliding deep inside her, his cock stretching her slippery inner walls.

Tara let out a sigh of pure satisfaction. This was what she had needed all along, him inside her, filling her deep. Kyren held her hips in place and used her with hard, fast strokes, fucking her at his pleasure.

“You are a naughty pet,” he growled down at her. “A naughty, fuckable little pet.”

Tara squealed with erotic delight, her pussy gripping him as he ravaged her tender body, his cock branding her with his possession. Her hips were trapped between his hands, locked in place so she could not do anything but take him. He’d lifted her an inch or so above the bench, so grinding her clit against the surface wasn’t possible anymore. Kyren was enjoying her hot pussy, making it clear that this was about his pleasure.

“What am I supposed to do with a naughty pet who gets wet when she is being punished?” He punctuated the question with hard thrusts that made her gasp and moan. “How can I train a girl who enjoys being bad?”

“Maybe you can’t…”

Her moaned answer made him chuckle. “Oh, I think I can, pet.” He pressed her back down on the bench and spread her cheeks, pulling his cock from her pussy. His fingers swept along the wet folds of her pussy and found her bottom hole instead, smearing her slick juices over the tight little bud… and then it wasn’t his fingers toying with her bottom, but the thick head of his cock pressing there.

“Relax, pet,” he murmured, running his hand over her back and down over her bottom. He took her hands, which had been grasping at the bench, and moved them back to her own hot cheeks. “Spread yourself for me.”

He was going to make her hold herself open for him. And he was going to take her bottom. Tara whimpered, but she knew she had to obey him. She had just taunted him, and now she was paying the price for that. She clutched her cheeks and held them open as his cock slowly penetrated her anus, the tight ring of muscle resisting him out of natural function as he speared into her bottom.

“Good girl,” he murmured, adding a little more lubricant from a bottle near the bench. It was almost as if he had planned this from the beginning, though Tara knew she had taunted him into this. The lubricant was cool and slippery and she felt it being pressed inside her with the plunging of his cock as it sank deeper and deeper with his every thrust.

It was slow at first, the thick head of him making incremental progress. He pulled out for a moment and massaged the insides of her bottom with the lubricant as she held herself open, whimpering and moaning as he made her most private hole ready for a proper fucking.

“You’re already being so much more obedient,” he mused, his fingers deep inside her bottom. “I think you might be trainable after all, pet.”

He pulled his fingers from her bottom and slid his cock back in. This time it was an easier fit; the ring of muscle at the entrance of her body was starting to relax and allow him in. He slid in slowly, but smoothly, the head of his cock finding the buttery hot warmth of her insides.

The feeling of being filled so deeply, so thoroughly was intoxicating. Tara’s body arched in response, the tight places relaxing as she gave herself to the man who had made himself her master. Her clit was tingling, her pussy clenching as if it were being filled, and her breath came in short little gasps as Kyren fucked her bottom long and slow.

The heat and the tightness were too much for either of them to contain for very long. As Kyren thrust harder and his fingers toyed with her clit, Tara began to lose control. Her bottom clenched around him, her hips grinding with need as he fucked her toward a mutual orgasm that came roaring through them both, drawing passionate cries and growls as Kyren filled her tight bottom hole with his seed.

“Good, pet,” he murmured finally, giving Tara much needed reassurance that she was forgiven for her earlier misbehavior. He patted her bottom lightly and gave her the order to let go of her cheeks, which she did feeling a secondary blush indistinguishable from the one the climax had given her. He had humbled her so thoroughly she could barely stand it.

Kyren sat down on one of the many fine couches and pulled her into his lap, kissing her passionately and running his fingers through her hair.

“I cannot lose you, Tara,” he murmured. “That is why I am so strict. That is why I will continue to be strict. You don’t understand how swiftly all this can change if the wrong people are angered. Udine seems to be a society of order, but there is always chaos beneath it. The Authority are good people to have as allies, very poor ones to have as enemies.”

“You don’t sound like you like this planet very much,” Tara observed. “You almost never say anything nice about it, and you live all the way up here, away from everyone.”

“I have my reasons, pet,” he murmured. “They do not need to concern you.”

“What does need to concern me?”

“Your training,” he said swiftly. “There is much more of it to come. We have barely scratched the surface thus far. The only reason the Authority men were not more suspicious is because they believe you are from a relatively uncivilized colony. But that excuse will not wash forever, and not for all things. There may be some social events we attend which don’t largely entail your bare bottom on display…”

Tara let out a little giggle. “Well, I hope not.”

“Sometimes I wonder, pet,” Kyren drawled. “You were so natural on display like that. One would be forgiven for thinking you like to be shown off…”

Tara blushed and hid her face in his chest as he chuckled, holding her close. “Oh, pet,” he murmured. “You are unique in all the world.”

Chapter Eight

As Kyren said, so it was. Training. More training. Language. Manners. Customs. Every day, Tara found herself absorbing some new rule. There were so many of them she could barely keep them straight in her head. Kyren was taking her training excessively seriously in her view, to the extent that she was starting to feel sexually deprived. Every night she was so tired she fell into bed before Kyren and fell asleep, and every morning he woke her early to begin her lessons again. The Udanese genetics seemed to give him less of a need for sleep, and much more energy while he was awake. Tara was having a hard time keeping up with his various orders and lessons.

She slumped into a chair in the lounge mid-lesson, glad to have the weight off her feet.

“No!” Kyren lectured sternly. “You sit before the men, but after the Authority wives.” He pointed at the loyal maids who were playing along with Tara’s lessons, pretending to be the wives of the authorities who had seen Tara totally naked being spanked over a long bench. Tara didn’t really see how seating order could matter given that fact.

“There’s a hierarchy to sitting? You people can’t just put your asses on the chairs?” Her tone held more than a little sarcasm.

“No. As I have explained to you many times, in Udine, there is an order to every movement. The most well-bred people are those who understand the rituals and customs the best. If you are going to fit in at the ball, you will have to learn these…”

“I don’t even care anymore,” Tara sighed.

“You don’t have the choice of not caring,” Kyren growled. “And believe me, pet, I can give you a reason to care.”

“I bet you can’t,” she said, pulling her feet up behind her on the chair. “Nothing you can do can make me care even a little bit about all this.”

The maids shifted uncomfortably. They were nice enough women, but they were always confused and a little disconcerted when Tara didn’t immediately do as she was told.

“Thank you for your help, ladies,” Kyren said, waving to them. “You may return to your duties while I deal with my disobedient pet.”

The maids looked relieved as they filed out of the room. One of them glanced back at Tara, giving her an encouraging little smile. Tara flickered a little smile back. She liked the maids. They reminded her of the women she had shared her village on Earth with. Kyren was forever finding her in their quarters. He accused her of trying to get out of her training, but it wasn’t that, it was feeling like part of a bigger group of women. It was Tara’s natural state and though there were many wonders and advantages to living on Udine, she missed the simple social circles of her home.

“You don’t have anything to smile about, pet,” Kyren snapped. She had annoyed him with her outburst; that was obvious.

“The most important training any pet can receive, even one who is passing as a free citizen, is obedience. I want you to be obedient to my every order. I want you to look to me for proper conduct. That could save your life.”

“Well, I don’t want to be obedient to your every damn order! I hate your orders! They’re boring!”

“Well, pet,” he said, his tone becoming very calm and calculated. “I don’t want you to be bored. Let me see what I can do to remedy your boredom.”

He scooped her up from the seat and tossed her over his shoulder. Tara squealed as she was suddenly confronted with a view of his rear… and the long way down from his shoulders. He’d never carried her like this before. Usually he cradled her in his arms. This was different—and it left her bottom vulnerable to his palm. He took advantage of that vulnerability, whacking her cheeks with every step he took toward the back of the house.

Tara still hadn’t seen more than a fraction of Kyren’s home. It was so expansive it would have taken months, if not years to see it all. He took her to a floor she had not been on before, one that was quite different from the homey, yet stately areas she had become accustomed to. This part of his home had more of a functional feel to it. The floors were not soft carpet. They were a smooth, hard surface. She could hear the way his footfalls sounded different on it.

He carried her into a room containing many devices of various kinds that reminded her a lot of the bench over which she had been spanked before the Authority.

“What are we doing here?”

“This is where you learn what the alternative to your training is,” he said sharply, setting her down on the floor.

His first action was to sweep the dress she had been wearing up and over her head, leaving her quite naked. Tara stood there, not knowing what to expect. Kyren was very displeased with her attitude, and she knew well enough that when Kyren was displeased, he took action—usually on her bottom. But he could have spanked her anywhere. Something different was about to happen, she could feel it.

“If you will not behave yourself, you will live as a pet,” he lectured. “You haven’t truly been shown what that is like. Now, that will change.”

She watched with wide eyes as he picked up a device comprised of a series of leather-looking straps attached to silver rings. She had seen similar things in old pictures of beasts of burden, but she couldn’t imagine how he would use it on her.

She soon found out.

Kyren fitted the straps of the leather harness tight about her body. It had loops at the back and between her breasts, and it split into two smaller straps that went along either side of her lower lips, leaving her sex bare to his gaze and touch. Somehow, the minimalist garment managed to present every erogenous zone to him in its most vulnerable form, her breasts raised by the straps running beneath them, her cheeks framed and held by the ones at the rear.

“A pet has no rights. A pet has no voice,” he said, sliding a rubber gag between her lips. “A pet must always be harnessed, leashed, and under control.”

Tara felt little thrills of excitement racing through her body. He was trying to punish her, but he was exciting her more than he seemed to know. Her nipples were erect in the harness, an obvious sign of arousal, one that he took advantage of when he procured two small metal clasps.

“Stay still, pet,” he ordered as he pressed one open then let it close around her left nipple, catching the sensitive bud in its cool embrace.

Tara let out a little whine as he adjusted a small wheel and made it sit tight around her nipple. Kyren ignored her whine and attached the other clamp the same way, putting a constant pressure on both. Zaps of pleasure went coursing through her belly and terminated at her clit, a feedback loop of excitement running through her.

He finished the ensemble with a long leash, clipped to the straps about her neck.

“A pet goes only where she is allowed to go, always at the end of her master’s leash,” Kyren growled. He proved his point by leading her about the room, and then out into the halls. Tara had no choice but to follow in his wake, her bound body entirely at his mercy.

He led her about the house, past some of the maids and guards. They knew better than to stare, but Tara felt a hot blush running the length of her body. She had worked so hard to be treated as a member of the household, and now she was being paraded like a wild animal. Though her pussy was still wet, she didn’t like this kind of embarrassment.

Kyren led her to his office, tied her leash to the desk, sat down and began working. He ignored her completely as he attended to his affairs, even when she whimpered or whined, he acted as though her discomfort did not matter at all.

Tara began to think that being treated as a real pet was not quite as fun as it had first seemed. Being this kind of pet meant being at his disposal, her own needs and desires irrelevant. So why was her pussy still wet? Why did she still have the urge to…

“Come here, pet,” Kyren ordered, snapping his fingers between his legs.

Finally, she would get some attention. It was with some eagerness that Tara shuffled forward, her leash preventing her from standing upright. She ended up kneeling between his knees, which turned out to be precisely where he wanted her. He unzipped his pants, let his cock free, pulled the gag from her mouth, and slid his cock between her lips in its place. The harness allowed him to keep a firm grip at the back of her neck as he began to fuck her mouth, moving her head up and down the length of his shaft as he plunged his cock over her tongue.

All she could do was moan and mumble incoherent little things as she felt his cock swell ever harder and begin to throb. She looked up at him and saw him gazing back at her with determination in his blue eyes, his handsome face cast in the manner of a man who only cared for his own pleasure.

Kyren fucked her mouth that way until he came, his cum filling the back of her throat until she swallowed it down into her belly. Then he pulled out of her lips, replaced the plug, and went back to work without so much as a word of acknowledgment or praise.

She sat there, her mouth bathed in his taste, her mind unable to fully understand what was happening. The tender but stern master was gone, replaced with this dominant alien who put himself first.

Tara had a long time to contemplate her situation, for Kyren worked another hour or so before untying her leash from the table and walking her back to the room with the harnesses; the pet room, so he called it.

She hoped that he would take the harness and leash off there; some of the straps were starting to feel a little tight, and she was thoroughly embarrassed by the exposure now. But he did not. He led her deeper into the room, where a barred enclosure sat on the floor. There was a thin blanket inside it, and a bowl of water on the floor, but nothing else.

“On your knees, pet,” he ordered, using his grip on the harness to push her into position. He strapped further restraints about her, pulling her arms back behind her so she could not use her hands. Then he held her in place, barely able to move, and kneeled down behind her. She was crisscrossed in leather, but the functional parts of her body were still available for Kyren’s use. He pushed his cock into her pussy in one long, hard thrust, making her gasp. There was a little discomfort in the intrusion, an ache and a sting from the plunging strokes.

As he had taken her mouth before, he fucked her pussy hard with his pleasure in mind, not hers, and came before she could, flooding her pussy with his seed. Tara let out a little whine of complaint. Kyren had never left her without an orgasm before.

“Oh, you want something, pet?”

The tone of his voice and the look on his face told her that her request would not be well received, even if she made it. This was punishment. Real punishment. She was not going to come. At least, not from anything he did in the moment. She squirmed, feeling his hot seed trickling down over her turgid little clit as she kneeled in place and waited to see what he had in store for her next.

“Pets don’t have to be civilized,” he growled down at her. “So you don’t have to worry about what forks to use, or titles to address people by. You don’t have to worry about dinner manners at all. Do you know why?”

Tara shook her head as he stepped away for a moment, then returned with a bowl of food and set it on the floor before her. “Because pets are fed like pets,” he said. “This is all you will eat from today.”

She looked at him, then at the bowl. She realized that she could not eat from it with her hands bound, except by putting her face to it first, and doing so meant putting her head down near his feet. It made her feel very small to have the little bits of civilization she had acquired stripped from her this way.

“And pets do not sleep in beds. Pets sleep in their cages in their kennels. So when I am done fucking your tight little holes, I will put you into the cage and you will sleep there until I decide to come and fuck you again.”

Tara felt her eyes welling with tears. Kyren knelt down in front of her, took hold of her collar, and looked deep into her eyes. There was an intensity in his face and words that made her pay close attention.

“Is this what you want, pet? Is this the life you desire for yourself? Because this is how the Authority would have me treat you. Day and night. For as long as you lived.”

She whimpered behind the gag. He pulled it from her mouth. “Speak, Tara.”

“I don’t like this,” she admitted. “I don’t like you like this… you’re mean…”

“It is mean,” he agreed. “And it’s selfish and it can even be cruel. This is what I have been trying to shield you from since you got here.” His fingers went to the clips at her nipples and set them free. Tara hissed as sensation came rushing back to the little buds. She squirmed in place, her pussy wet with more than just his seed.

As harsh as he’d been… there was something… sexy about the merciless Kyren.

He looked at her with a knowing gaze. “You want to come, don’t you?”

She nodded, a little scared that he might think she hadn’t taken the demonstration seriously.

“I think even if I had chained you up and fucked you senseless from the beginning, you would have liked it,” he murmured. “You love to be taken, don’t you pet? You love to be used, to have your pussy filled… to have your bottom thrashed. It’s what you need.”

She moaned as he slowly undid each of the restraints that had held her.

“I think you can have all that and more,” he said, smoothing his hands over her body where the straps had held her tightly, leaving pink lines in their wake. “But it is up to you, pet; you can choose to be a pampered pet who obeys her master and takes her lessons seriously. Or you can be this kind of pet. A fuck toy amusement and nothing more.”

He pushed his fingers inside her wet pussy, one hand on the collar at her neck as he drew her up to stand with him, pressed her back against the wall, and started to finger her welling cunt hard and fast, his palm catching her clit with every stroke.

“What do you want? Are you going to be a good pet? Or a bad pet?”

The wet slapping sound of her pussy being simultaneously spanked and fingered filled the room, along with Tara’s wail…

“Good!”

Chapter Nine

Tara’s behavior was much improved. In the following days and weeks, she paid much better attention to her studies, and Kyren made sure to reward her with the pleasure she craved. He was not always gentle about it, or even kind. Tara’s reaction to the harness and leash was enough to tell him that she could take more than he had first thought. Sometimes he would call her to him and take her mouth, as he had that day in the office, filling her with his cum, but then he would make sure that her greedy little pussy got what it needed too. Tara was essentially insatiable, and he filled her at both ends many times, fucking his seed deep inside her. He spanked her often too, sometimes because she deserved it, sometimes not. It always made her react with desire, and he never tired of seeing her tender pussy flower under his fingers.

She was the world to him, his most precious, prized possession. She was his heart and thoughts of her often filled his head as well. Kyren was in love, deep, abiding love that almost allowed him to forget that the world they lived in was not perfect, and that there were forces forever moving against them.

He received a sharp reminder of that early one morning, when Smythers woke him from sleep and beckoned him from the bedroom. Kyren left Tara sleeping angelically under the covers and went to see what the problem was.

“Sir, you have a visitor. An Authority man.”

“A single member?”

“Yes, sir,” his manservant said gravely. “It is Mr. Hywell Junior. He says he needs to speak with you urgently.”

That was unusual. Authority men always traveled in pairs at a bare minimum, so one could report on the other if it were necessary to do so. The Authority was a suspicious organization and monitored no corner of the planet more assiduously than itself. If Hywell Junior had come alone, he wanted something devious and underhanded, Kyren was sure of it.

“Make the alpha preparations, Smythers,” Kyren said. “I have an uneasy feeling about this meeting.”

“Yes, sir,” Smythers nodded, moving away smoothly to begin carrying out Kyren’s orders. Kyren dressed himself swiftly in attire fitting the meeting, a long black coat over tall black boots and black slacks. Little in the way of ostentatious ornamentation, much in the way of menace.

Hywell Junior had been put in the drawing room, and there Kyren found him, sipping Kyren’s finest wine with the demeanor of a man who knows that the upper hand is his. Smugness rolled off him as he turned his head and flashed the bright smile of a serpent. Hywell had been blessed with wealth and power, but not with looks. All the waxing and powdering in the world could not stop his face from having a certain… wormy quality.

“Kyren, how nice to see you!” Hywell’s eyes glittered with malice.

“How can I help you?” Kyren didn’t bother with niceties. Something unpleasant was about to happen, he could feel it in his gut.

Hywell Junior took another sip of his wine; apparently he was in no hurry. Kyren stood with his hands clasped behind his back and waited for the man to explain himself.

“Won’t you sit and drink with me?”

“I’m afraid I don’t have time for drinking, Master Hywell,” Kyren said grimly. Whatever the little snot was up to, he was enjoying drawing it out. A slow slurp filled the air as Hywell assaulted the glass with his foul little mouth, rubbery lips smacking in the aftermath.

“We asked you to join the Authority once,” Hywell said at length. “I always wondered why you didn’t take us up on the offer. There would have been more power, more wealth…”

“I have plenty of both,” Kyren said dryly.

“They—the others, thought you were worried about living up to the demands of the Authority,” Hywell smirked. “But I thought it was something else. Something much more simple.”

“Such as?”

“You don’t like us.” He swilled his wine and drained it to the dregs. “It’s as simple as that, isn’t it, Kyren. You don’t like the Authority. And not for the reason most people don’t like us. Not because you’re afraid of us, but because…” He paused for a moment, his eyes narrowing. “Because you think you’re above us.”

Kyren stood with his hands in the pockets of his coat, looking at the younger man who was now rising to his feet to confront him more directly. Unfortunately for Hywell, his height was not nearly a match for Kyren, who towered an easy foot or more above him.

“What do you want, Hywell?” Kyren tried to keep his tone pleasant, in case he was wrong about the Authority man’s intent.

“Tara.”

Kyren’s brow rose. “You want to see Tara?”

“No,” Hywell said, a smirk passing over his smug round face. “I want to own her.”

“Excuse me?” Kyren struggled to keep his temper. It took a great effort to contain the urge to set upon Hywell Junior and beat him out of the house. To his credit, the only outward sign of the sudden rage he felt was the slight rise of the vein in his forehead.

“I was taken with Tara, when we were here the other week for her punishment,” the young man said. “She is beautiful. When I returned home, I looked her up on her home colony. I wanted to see if her father might give her to me, rather than you, and so you know the strangest thing?” Hywell’s murky eyes lit up. “It took some time to confirm it thoroughly, but I am now absolutely certain that they have no record of her. Or her alleged father. But there is a record of a bipedal specimen being docked here the very day Tara appeared on the bus.”

Kyren’s blood ran cold. He had sensed this trouble brewing from the start, but perhaps the situation could yet be saved. “What do you want?”

“I’m not stupid, Kyren,” Hywell said. “I know she is a pet. I want the use of her. You put her on display admirably the other day. That tight little sex would please me well.”

“Out of the question,” Kyren snapped.

“You are so foolish.” Hywell shrugged casually. “If you will not give her to me to use, I will simply take her. You think you have money here on Udine, but your gold is held in our coffers, and your balance can be wiped at any time. You think you have this house, but you only have this grand place by leave of the Authority. You think that you are someone, Kyren. But you are no one if the Authority says so. And now I am going to go back and I am going to file a report. You will be jailed. Tara will be seized and brought to me. I will use her as often as amuses me until she is destroyed… oww!”

The Authority man staggered back, blood coursing down his face from his freshly broken nose. Kyren flexed his hand, rubbed his knuckles, and prepared to repeat the treatment.

“Assaulting a member of the Authority is treason,” the bloodied little brute sneered as blood trickled down over his lips. “You will hang for this. I will have Tara while you twitch on the executioner’s rope… and then I will dispose of her according to our regulations. Nobody is above the law, Kyren. Not even you.”

Kyren started toward Hywell again. The younger man let out a shriek of fear and scurried toward the front door. Kyren let him go. He had more pressing matters to attend to than the bloodied nose and hurt feelings of a freshly thwarted egomaniac. The danger he had anticipated was running scared for the moment, but it would return, and when it did, it would be unstoppable.

Chapter Ten

“Tara!”

Tara woke with a start to the sound of Kyren calling her name. “Huh?” She croaked the question groggily. There was a note of something close to panic in his voice, a very rare tone to hear out of his mouth. She opened her eyes to see him standing there looking stern and angry.

“What did I do?”

“Nothing, pet,” he said. “You’re not in trouble. I need you to get up and get dressed in your warmest clothes and boots,” he said. “It is as I had feared. The Authority men are coming.”

“For us? What’s…”

“Clothes. On. Now.” He shouted the order at her.

“Rude,” Tara scowled. “I didn’t do anything… hey!”

“Forget it,” he said. “There wasn’t time for arguing, and there isn’t time for clothes anymore. We have to leave.”

Kyren hauled her out of bed and tossed her over his shoulder, entirely naked. He carried her through the house and stepped through a pair of doors at the far end of a long corridor she had not been in before. To her immense surprise, she found herself in a huge space dominated by a small launch pad and a fairly large spaceship, which was just as tall as Kyren’s house. She’d always thought his home had a spire at the top. Now she realized that it was actually the nose of what had to be his own private space shuttle. Perhaps she should have been surprised, but she wasn’t. Kyren was full of surprises—as was his home.

He carried her inside the belly of the machine, up several flights of stairs, and sat her in a seat at the very top in a room covered with panels of instruments and several rows of chairs. There were already two pilots at the controls, going through the buttons and the lights with intense concentration. Kyren strapped her into the seat, the belt going between her naked thighs and pressing against her sex. The solid feeling of the belt holding her in place calmed her a little; her anxiety had been steadily rising since Kyren had woken her up yelling about Authority men.

There was a window next to her, through which she could observe the launch pad below. Through it, she could see servants carrying boxes into the ship. Several of them came aboard with them, all of them looking just as concerned as Kyren. Tara recognized his manservant, several of the maids, some guards, and more. They were moving in a swift, orderly way that made Tara think that this had been practiced. This wasn’t a blind panicked escape. This was an evacuation.

“Are we ready to depart?” Kyren asked the question of the pilot as he strapped himself in the seat next to Tara. “We have about three minutes before the Authority rams the gates, by my reckoning.”

“Yes, sir,” one of the pilots responded. “The doors are closed, and we are standing by for all souls on board to take their seats.”

“Kyren!” Tara grabbed his arm with more than a little concern. “What’s happening?”

He turned to her, pushed the dark hair out of his eyes, and finally gave her something resembling an explanation. “One of the men who was present for your punishment discovered our secret. He came to me, demanded you, and threatened your life. It’s time to leave Udine, pet.”

“But why are we all running away? Why is half the staff on the shuttle with us? I thought you said the Authority just wanted me?”

“That was before I broke Hywell Junior’s nose,” Kyren admitted. “The Authority will not look kindly on that, I am sure.”

Tara let out a little squeal that bordered on delight. “You broke his nose? Why?”

She watched as Kyren gritted his teeth at the memory. “After the threats he made, he is fortunate I did not kill him where he stood. If he makes the mistake of confronting me again in this life, I will not be as restrained. But that is not likely. We will not be coming back to Udine.”

The ship started to hum and vibrate as the launchers were powered on. All around them, Kyren’s servants and guards were taking their seats. She looked around at their faces, and saw a quiet concerned calm.

“What about your other pets? I mean, your actual pets.”

“I had been sending them off to various places from the moment you arrived,” Kyren said. “I thought there could be trouble, and aside from anything else, I knew I would have my hands full with you. They are all quite safe in other reserves off-planet.”

“But your house… the other servants…”

“The servants who remain behind have received their emergency severance. Enough money to start over anywhere else, and papers to get them off-planet if they choose. The house… that will be sacrificed.”

“Sir, we are ready to take off,” the first pilot interjected. “Waiting on your orders.”

“Go,” Kyren nodded. “There is no time to delay.”

He nodded and commenced the launch procedure. Within seconds there was a rumbling deeper than Tara had ever felt, a vibration that seemed to go to the very core of her, and then a pressure as the great machine broke the bonds of gravity and began to rise into the sky at an ever-increasing pace. She was pushed back into the soft fabric of the chair, the belt tightening against her chest and sex as the massive machine rose through the air.

“Look out the window!” Kyren shouted over the sound of the launch. They were already half a mile or so over the house, and when Tara looked, she saw what seemed like a miniature version of Kyren’s home. They were getting so high so quickly that it was dwindling by the second, but she saw clearly that it was surrounded with black Authority vehicles, and had dozens of little black ants who must have been men swarming around the locked gates.

“It’s empty! Well, empty of people and pets, everything that matters,” Kyren shouted over the noise of the laws of reality bending about their vessel. After the first twenty seconds or so, the noise abated significantly and became more of a smooth whooshing sound.

“Watch, pet!”

Tara’s eyes were still glued to the scene below when he pushed a button on the little device in his hand. A moment later, a great fireball erupted from the very center of his compound. It was followed by a series of smaller detonations that burned bright until they were covered by a billowing black cloud that eradicated the view. In a matter of seconds, everything Tara had known on Udine was gone.

Tara looked from the window to him with her jaw dropped. “You just blew your house up?”

“I did,” he agreed. “I always wondered what it would feel like to do that.”

Tears filled her eyes at the idea of everything being gone. It was all so sudden. She looked at Kyren and was sure she could see a faint glaze of tears in his eyes too, though he quickly blinked them away and replaced them with a confident smile.

“I’m sorry,” she whimpered. “This… this is my fault.”

“No, it’s not.”

“It is… I went on that bus… and I stole that candy… and you lost everything, because of me.” She began to sob and Kyren put an arm around her to comfort her as best he could while they hurtled toward deep space.

“Not because of you,” he reassured her. “Because of an oppressive regime. I made my plans long before I met you, Tara. Udine was a useful base for me for many years, but this was always the end game. It just came a little sooner than I expected.” He took her face in his hands and pressed a passionate kiss to her lips, looking deep into her eyes as he spoke again. “Even if it had been because of you, it would have been worth it.”

She opened her mouth to speak, but all that came out was a sob. She cried against his shoulder, for him, for all he had lost, for all she had come to regard as home. First she had lost her home on Earth, and now a second one had been detonated beneath her. Nothing seemed certain anymore, nothing but Kyren, whose strong arms held her through both their grief.

“Where are we going to go?” She sniffled the question against his shirt. “And did someone pack me some clothes?”

“Yes, there are clothes here for you, pet,” he smiled. “The crates you saw being loaded onto the shuttle contain everything we will need where we are going. Once we leave Udine’s atmosphere and borders, you can take the belt off and we can look for something to clothe you.”

“Where are we going?”

“I own a small planet in an adjoining system.”

“Of course you do,” she said with a watery attempt at humor. “You own people, why not planets.”

“Why not, indeed.” He smiled back at her. “I think you will like Cirrux.”

“Cirrux. That’s the planet’s name?” Tara wiped her eyes and looked at him with a slightly broader smile. “Your name is Kyren Cirrus. You named the planet after yourself.”

“I did,” he smiled. “Owners have naming rights.”

She looked into his face and saw a strength and confidence there. He was not mourning the loss of his home on Udine. He was already looking to the future. She wondered how it was he could be so sure of himself, how he managed to always make everything alright, no matter how bad it was.

She let out a little giggle. “Is there anything you can’t do?”

“I don’t know,” he mused, undoing their belts so he could hold her close and wipe away the tears she had shed. “I’ll let you know when I find something.”

Chapter Eleven

The trip to Cirrux was not a short one. Even at the incredible speeds the ship was capable of, it still took several weeks. That meant spending several weeks in rather close quarters with the Udanese people who had once been Kyren’s servants. Tara liked that a lot. On Udine, everybody had been forced to hold fast to their given roles, but little by little, those conventions began to slip on the shuttle. She got to know the women who had been maids much better than before, and form friendships with some of them, and she got to know all the relationships that had been taking place under her nose in Kyren’s house, but that she had never seen.

There were seven other young women on board, four older women, five young men who had been soldiers, and three older men who had been manservants on Udine, but now took a more openly advisory role. The more she got to know them, the more she realized that nobody’s presence on the ship was mere chance.

“You really planned this,” Tara said wonderingly one evening toward the end of their journey. The pilot had announced that they were soon to be in orbit around Cirrux and that everyone should prepare for landing and egress. The soldiers were dressed in light, functional armor, and all had side arms. The women were also fully covered in similar style, tunic and leggings and long boots.

“Planned what, pet?” Kyren murmured the question as he helped her into her ‘suit.’ He was already dressed in his; the light armored plates accented his muscles and his broad frame. She loved how he looked in it, but she didn’t want to wear one herself. She preferred freer, less restrictive clothing. How could she move when her body was covered in hard fabric?

“Settle down!” He slapped her bottom as she wriggled free of the restrictive gray garment. “You need to wear this.”

“Why?”

“Because Cirrux isn’t settled like Udine was. There are wild animals.”

“So? There are wild animals on Earth, and I never wore armor there.” Tara swung her leg out of the way as he tried to grab her foot to slip it into the tunic.

“Cut it out,” he growled. “Put your pants on, Tara! I shouldn’t have to argue you into your clothing!”

She could tell she was on the verge of getting spanked long and hard. Her butt was stinging from the single slap he’d given her, and it was an easy bet that a whole lot more would be coming if she didn’t do as she was told.

“Fine,” she sighed. “But seeing as you planned everything else, you could have planned me something better to wear.”

“What are you talking about, pet?”

“The people here, you have enough to start a small colony… enough young women… enough men trained to protect… people who know how to maintain and construct buildings… people who know how to tend gardens…”

“Of course,” Kyren said. “I told you, pet, Udine was an unpleasant inconvenience for me. My presence there was an accident of birth—and it proved to be an excellent place to consolidate wealth and power, but I never intended to live the rest of my life there. I was born Udanese, but that never meant I had to stay there. Cirrux is the destination of my choosing.”

“But you were already so wealthy and powerful on Udine,” she said, scowling a little as she pulled her leggings on. “You could have taken over the Authority…”

“And become them? No.” He let out a dark chuckle. “I know you think I am power obsessed, pet, but I have no interest in subjugating an entire civilization. I’m looking for a new kind of freedom. Well, actually, a very old form of freedom. The freedom to live as I please with those I love and care about.”

Tara heard the passion in his voice and smiled. She liked this Kyren better than the one who had lectured her about forks and not sitting on tables. This was the Kyren who made love to her, the wild, free man she had always felt whenever he was inside her.

“We will be making land imminently,” the captain announced over the speakers. “Please proceed to the bridge, take your seats, and strap in. The atmosphere is thicker and more turbulent than Udine’s and we are expecting more resistance as we pass through at speed.”

Tara and Kyren rushed to the bridge, where along with everyone else, they took their seats for the final descent. There was a hum of excitement in the air, an anticipation of new things, and a little anxiety for what they were about to do. Kyren reached out and held Tara’s hand, settling her as the shuttle began to pierce the smoky veil that had hidden the planet from their eyes.

The warning was not an exaggeration. As they entered orbit and then broke it to make descent, the shaking was so intense Tara could feel her teeth rattling in her head. And then suddenly, just as had been the case when they took off, all was smooth. The shuttle had cleared the outer layers of Cirrux’s atmosphere and was curling down toward the planet’s surface. They landed on an elevated grassy plain and after a few post-flight checks, the pilots declared it safe to exit.

“Come, pet,” Kyren said as they joined the others in removing their restraints. “Let’s explore our new home.”

He took her by the hand and together they led the crew down toward the new world. At the base of the ship, the exterior hatch had been opened and a warm, natural light was shining through it. Tara felt herself drawn toward it; there was something so idyllic about the quality of that simple sunbeam that told her that no matter what lay beyond the hatch, it would be good.

She was reminded of the last time she had stepped into a new world. She had been so afraid back in Udine of new spaces and open doors. She remembered the first day there, how scared she had been to explore the hall… and now she could not wait to run out into this new world.

All it took was a single step, and there she was.

Kyren had to grip her harder by the hand to stop her from running clear across the open grassy plain as she let out gasps and cries of pure joy at what she discovered outside the shuttle doors.

“Kyren!” she shouted. “It’s home!”

Cirrux was the most beautiful place Tara had ever seen, rolling fields and bush with a river running through it in a silver ribbon heralding from distant mountains. It was home. She could feel it in her gut; even though the Earth she had known was covered in scrub and dust and irradiated dirt that could make you sick, some part of her had always known what the world was supposed to be—and this was it. A world as Earth had once been, a world that hadn’t existed for a long time before her birth. Filled with the strangest feelings of nostalgia for something she’d never seen, and joy at coming home to a place she was not from, tears ran down Tara’s face.

Kyren’s arms wrapped around her from behind as he pulled her against his body. “You like it, pet.”

It wasn’t a question. It was a statement, and a correct one.

“I’m not sad,” she sniffed. “I don’t know why I’m crying.”

“Because this is beautiful,” he said. “And it’s ours. It’s our birthright. It’s what we were always supposed to have. Earth, Udine, they are poisoned in different ways. This is pure. And it is all ours. As far as the world curves.”

Struck by the beauty, Tara suddenly felt a fresh worry rise. “What if the Authority come here?”

“The Authority have no power outside Udine,” he said. “They are not interested in planets like this one. There are too few people to control and there is too much work to do. The Authority are interested in maintaining their stranglehold on the society of Udine and Udine alone.” He squeezed her shoulders reassuringly. “We’re safe now, pet. Just as I told you we would be. I would never have let anyone harm you.”

As Tara and Kyren looked out over the world that was theirs to explore, the crew was already at work constructing a shelter that emerged from small boxes and expanded into soft dome shapes, strung together and covered with soft panels that hardened into an impervious skin once applied.

It dawned on Tara that life would be quite different here in many ways. They would not live in the grand home and with the advanced technologies that they’d had on Udine. They were going back to basics, to a simple way of life.

“I just realized…” She turned to Kyren with a grin. “This is my world,” she said, her eyes gleaming. “I know how to hunt. I know how to find the roots we’re going to need to survive. We have some supplies, and maybe some seeds for crops, but until they come in, you’re going to need a hunter gatherer… you’re going to need me.”

Kyren bent down and pressed his lips to hers. “That’s right, pet,” he agreed. “Your instincts and skills are going to be an important part of our survival here. You can teach some of the others to hunt too, and to forage for food…”

“Yes!” Tara grinned, pulling away. “I’m going to be in charge!”

“Not in charge,” he warned, patting her bottom gently to remind her of her place. “But an important part of our little colony, and an equal to any in it.”

Chapter Twelve

Kyren had dreamed for years of establishing his colony on Cirrux. Whenever he’d had to deal with the Authority one time too many, he would remind himself that there was a better, purer world waiting. In spite of his many grievances with them, he’d never quite had the courage to quit his comfortable life, the endless access to all the resources he desired, the riches and pleasures of civilization—he’d put up with the tyranny of the Authority because it had been easier than fighting for what was truly right. He had been among the highest citizens on Udine… but he had not been a full man until Tara came to him and gave him something worth fighting for.

She was utterly in her element on Cirrux. So much so that keeping up with her was a challenge at times. She had been happy, in a way, on Udine, but on Cirrux she had discovered a purpose—and she was glowing for it. He had seen her many times, racing through the forest, catching small creatures for the cooking fires with an alacrity none of the other settlers could match. She had always been stunning to him, but in the dappled shade of the forest, he saw her in quite literally a new light. She fit into the world in a way he did not. Her bare feet moved over the loose leaf in a way that made him want to very much tell her to put shoes on, but he remembered that she had much more callused soles than most, and the connection of her feet to the ground below was important to her.

He followed in her wake, keeping an eye on her, armed with a heavy weapon that could be brought to bear if any of the less friendly, larger creatures might make an appearance. He’d told her a hundred times to slow down, but she didn’t seem to understand the concept.

And now he’d lost sight of her. Kyren stood still and listened for the light swishing sound of her moving through the trees. He heard nothing.

“Pet? Tara?”

His chest felt tighter as he considered the possibility that something might have happened to her. She insisted on running off into the woods, claiming she knew what she was doing. He had chastised her for it multiple times, but she seemed more than willing to take whatever disciplinary consequence might ensue rather than changing her behavior.

“I am going to put a chain on that collar,” he growled to his absent pet. “I am going to whip that bottom…”

“Hiiieeeeeeeee!”

Tara came bursting out of the bushes and knocked him backwards onto his backside. Together they rolled several feet through leaves and mud, getting thoroughly covered in the stuff. Kyren held her tight so she couldn’t run off again, and was about to chastise her when he saw the grin on her face. Instead of a lecture, he cupped and patted her bottom as he sat up with her in his lap.

“That was naughty, pet.”

“No, it wasn’t,” she disagreed, unsurprisingly. Her eyes were bright with mischief, her face lit up with the pleasure of her prank. “It was just playing. We never played back on Udine. We were always trying so hard to be something we weren’t. I was, anyway. I don’t have to pretend to be a civilized hyper-advanced alien anymore, do I?”

“No, pet,” he smiled, patting her bottom. “But I’m not going to pretend to be anything other than what I am either.”

“A cranky old man?”

“Your master,” he corrected her as his palm met her bottom hard enough to make her yelp. “The man who keeps you in line. We might not be on Udine anymore, but you’re still mine, and I’m still going to keep you in check.”

“Oh, yeah?”

“Yes, pet,” he growled, nipping her neck.

“You’re mean,” she said with a broad grin as she settled into his arms. They had rolled to a ridge clearing that looked out over the forests and valleys. It was one of the many stunning lookouts on Cirrux, where the scenery never disappointed.

“Look!” Tara squeaked the word as she pointed into the distance.

A herd of large, slow-moving creatures was passing by in the valley below. They were massive with humped backs, long tails that swayed behind them and necks almost as long, with little round heads set atop them.

“Elequads…” Kyren said. “You always wanted to know what they were… well… there they are…”

Tara stared, her jaw dropping at the majesty of the beasts. They were covered in jeweled scales, emerald and yellow covering their bodies from tip to tail. Each and every one of them had to weigh at least as much as a rolling whale…”Someone tried to take one of those out in Udine?”

“It was a juvenile,” he smirked. “So it was much smaller. It was also carnivorous. The young eat meat, but as they grow they become too large to hunt faster prey, so they eat leaves.”

She smiled at him, her face bright with amusement. “You know everything about everything on this planet, don’t you. Is there anything you don’t know?”

“I don’t know when you’re going to stop being a brat,” he said, kissing her. “But you know what I do know?”

“What?”

“I’m going to love you forever, my pet.” He drew her into his arms and they sat together in the paradise between the worlds they had come from, a place better than both for so many reasons, but most of all, because they would share the freedom, the joy, the beauty, and the peace of it for as long as they lived.

The End

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More Pet Play Books by Loki Renard

The Hunter’s Pet

Sarah has lived her life in the wild lands, far from the city-dwellers who regard her as little more than an animal. Making use of her quick wits and the natural camouflage provided by a rare mutation, she has avoided being claimed as some hunter’s pet… until now.

For a man who must venture into the wilds to bring home food for the people of his city, acquiring the right hunting pet can be the difference between life and death. From the moment William laid eyes on Sarah he knew the beautiful green-haired creature was the only pet he would ever want, but training her will prove far more challenging than he could have ever imagined.

William feeds, bathes, and cares for the new pet he has captured, doing his best to win Sarah over with kindness, but when her defiance continues he must resort to more forceful measures and at last he spanks her bare bottom long and hard. Punishing Sarah earns him only a temporary respite from her rebelliousness, but even as her continued defiance drives him to his wits end William knows she is quickly becoming much more to him than just a pet.

To her surprise, living in William’s house brings Sarah a peace she never felt while running wild in the forest. When he teaches her both how a good pet should please her master and how a skilled man can please a woman, she cannot help but yearn for more. But when tragedy strikes and Sarah and William must leave civilization behind, will she stay by her new master’s side?

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A Short Leash

Caged by a neglectful master, Sierra dreams of the freedom she had in the wilds, far from the city-dwellers who use women with wild genes as hunting pets. When her inept owner tires of her biting him, he brings her to Master Kade, a specialist trainer. Upon seeing her pitiful state, Kade confiscates Sierra from the fool who mistreated her and takes her as his own.

From the moment Sierra lays eyes on Kade, she’s sure of two things: the muscular, scarred man carries the same wild gene she does, and just as importantly, he is used to getting his way. Sierra has no intention of being trained without a fight, but she soon learns that her new master is more than ready to make her obey, even if that means a hard spanking on her bare bottom. As much as she resists him, Kade quickly proves he can be gentle as well as firm. Being in his arms makes Sierra feel safe, and when he takes her to his bed she finds herself satisfied in a way she has never felt before.

Her training reaches a new level when Kade allows his best friend, a doctor, to thoroughly, intimately examine his pet, leaving her blushing with shame yet helplessly aroused. Doctor Charles is everything Kade is not—debonair, educated, and a model citizen—yet Sierra finds herself irresistibly drawn to his quiet dominance. Between Kade's wild appeal and Charles' calm allure, Sierra isn't sure where her future lies, until she discovers that while a pet cannot serve two masters, she can be shared by them.

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The Marine’s Pet

Artist Sarah Digby has always been a free spirit. Maybe the parties she throws get a little too loud and run a little too late, and maybe her little dog has become something of an unholy terror in the neighborhood, but that certainly doesn’t give anybody the right to march into her house and scold her like a naughty child.

But Sarah’s neighbor Austin Black isn’t just anybody, he is a Marine Corps sergeant used to giving orders and having them obeyed. When he finally has enough of her bratty behavior and sassy attitude and takes matters into his own hands, she soon finds herself bare-bottomed over his firm thighs, receiving the first spanking of her life. Afterwards, Austin informs Sarah that from now on he’ll be keeping her in line personally.

In spite of everything, Austin’s dominance leaves Sarah longing for more, and as her submission grows deeper she is surprised to notice that her art begins to flourish like never before. But when Austin makes it clear that he wants her not only as his lover but also as his pet—a pet he will cherish and care for but also train and punish when needed—Sarah is unsure if she is ready to belong to him so completely. Can a girl like her truly surrender her heart to a man who will expect her to kneel at his feet and come when she is called?

Buy on Amazon

The Doctor’s Pet

Tessa is sick and tired of working both day and night shifts at her nursing job in order to keep up with not only her own bills, but those of her wildly irresponsible little brother as well. To make matters worse, when she has the opportunity to interview with the tall, handsome new surgeon at St. Heaths, Dr. Kirk Saunders, she is so stressed that she ends up treating him disrespectfully.

Certain that she has blown her opportunity, Tessa is shocked when the doctor escorts her into his private office, bares her bottom, and gives her the first spanking of her life. During the painful, embarrassing punishment, Kirk informs her that if she is going to work under him, her insubordinate attitude isn’t going to be tolerated and she will be expected to submit to his guidance, control, and discipline.

The doctor’s firm hand and stern chastisement satisfy a deeply buried need that Tessa has long sought to hide even from herself, and before she knows it she is agreeing not only to work for him, but to accept his particular form of dominance outside of the office as well. After bringing her to his home, Kirk explains that he plans to train her to be his obedient, well-loved pet, and soon she is wearing a leash—and even more embarrassingly, a tail—and learning to do exactly as she is told. Though the entire arrangement leaves her blushing with shame, Kirk’s absolute command of her body also excites Tessa far beyond anything she has ever experienced.

But despite the pleasure and comfort Tessa finds in Kirk’s strong arms, her financial and family problems still exist, and she is convinced that telling him about her struggles will only cause him to leave her. When Kirk finds out that she has been lying to him, can he find a way to prove to Tessa that no matter how badly she behaves—and no matter how thorough and humiliating the resulting punishment may be—she will always be his cherished pet.

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The Alien’s Pet

When an injured stranger breaks into her small-town veterinary clinic late at night and demands that she assist in treating his wounds, Serena Spiers knows right away that something is amiss. Though he is undoubtedly handsome, the intruder’s oddly colored eyes and extraordinary height leave no doubt in her mind that he is not of this world.

Seeking to escape her predicament, she treats his wounds and then does her best to discretely sedate him, but a tranquilizer shot proves far less effective than she had hoped. Her captor is none too pleased by her attempt at subterfuge, and before she knows it Serena is blushing crimson as she is held firmly across his muscular thighs, completely naked, while her bare bottom is soundly spanked.

Serena’s ordeal is just beginning, however. It turns out that her alien visitor is a high-ranking commander among his people, and when he realizes that the discovery of her encounter with him could put Serena in grave danger, he takes it upon himself to ensure her safety by bringing her along as he leaves Earth behind. But his people have very specific rules about transporting primitive species aboard their ships, and she will not be treated as his guest or even as his prisoner, but as his pet.

She will be expected to submit to him completely, and any defiance will earn her a painful, humiliating punishment. Yet despite her fury at the indignity of it all, Serena cannot help reacting with shameful, helpless arousal as she is stripped bare, thoroughly examined, and then claimed in any way her new master pleases, sometimes in full view of the ship’s crew. Can she learn to yield to the pleasure that results from his conquest of her body, or will she spend the entire voyage with her bottom sore both inside and out?

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The Barbarian’s Pet

Captured, stripped bare, and brought before the barbarian king whose men she had the audacity to resist, eighteen-year-old Sariah can only assume she will be made his slave. But her conqueror has other plans for his beautiful, spirited captive, and Sariah will be much more than an ordinary slave. She will be his pet, trained to come when he calls, heed his every command, and please him in any way he demands.

Sariah does her best to remain proud and defiant, but the handsome, dominant warrior proves quite adept at teaching his pet obedience by means of his firm hand applied to her bare bottom. When she persists in her rebelliousness, Sariah quickly discovers that a mere spanking is far from the most humiliating punishment a naughty pet can face, and before long she has been fitted with a tail and put on display for the king and his men.

To her surprise, however, in spite of her circumstances Sariah soon finds herself craving her new master’s touch, and when he claims her fully his skillful lovemaking brings her pleasure beyond anything she has felt before. But can she ever hope to find lasting happiness in the arms of the man who has made her his pet?

Buy on Amazon

The Billionaire’s Pet

As far as twenty-seven-year old Ellie Jones is concerned, she is not only the youngest CEO in her company’s history, she’s also the best. So when Daniel Treville—one of the richest men in America—purchases the company and wants to lead it in a new direction, Ellie is not about to give up power without a fight.

Daniel is not a man to be trifled with, however, and when she defies him Ellie quickly finds herself pulled over the handsome billionaire’s knee for a painful, humiliating bare-bottom spanking. Yet despite her outrage and embarrassment, Daniel’s firm chastisement leaves her unbelievably aroused, and when he takes her long and hard on her own desk it is by far the hottest thing she has ever experienced.

But Daniel has much more than just a good, hard spanking planned for Ellie. He has it in mind to own not just her company, but her as well. She will remain CEO, but she will also have a new role as his sexy, submissive pet, and soon enough Ellie finds herself naked except for a tail in her bright red, well-spanked bottom, being taught to please her new master properly.

Though she cannot deny the fact that Daniel’s dominance sets her ablaze with desire, Ellie still has a thing or two up her sleeve, and he will have to work hard to keep her in line. But when she takes her defiance too far and ends up in over her head, will she end up losing Daniel forever?

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The Alpha’s Pet

When troublemaker Sacha Wallace is banished after plotting against her brother, the alpha of one of England’s oldest packs, she’s deposited in front of the mansion of the powerful Russian alpha Alexei Chernov. Though she is both aroused and intimidated by the dominant wolf’s stern demeanor and formidable presence, Sacha does her best to be as difficult as possible.

Alexei has no qualms about stripping a troublesome female bare and punishing her thoroughly, and Sacha’s prideful defiance earns her one painful, embarrassing spanking after another. Determined to tame her, Alexei sets out to make Sacha his pet, and soon she is blushing crimson as she is taught to obey his every instruction, eat from his hand, and kneel at his feet wearing nothing but her collar.

Though submission does not come easily for Sacha, being made to bend to Alexei’s will excites her in a way nothing ever has before, and his masterful lovemaking sets her blood on fire. But when Sacha’s presence leads to turmoil within the pack, will Alexei cast her out or claim her irrevocably as his mate?

Buy on Amazon

The Warlord’s Pet

Eighteen-year-old Celeste Casperia is accustomed to the privileged status which accompanies her position as the daughter of the governor of several star systems, but after her father provokes a conflict during a meeting with a powerful rogue general and then flees for his life, she suddenly finds herself held captive by a man with no concern whatsoever for her dignity.

When the daughter of his arrogant but cowardly rival ends up as his prisoner, General Alistair Clark sets out to teach the proud, defiant girl a lesson in humility. He informs Celeste that from now on she will be his pet, and as such she will learn to kneel at his feet, eat from his hand, wear his leash and collar, and obey his every command if she wishes to avoid his firm chastisement.

Celeste is left blushing crimson as she is stripped bare and put on display, and her attempts to resist her shameful ordeal merely earn her a deeply humiliating bare-bottom spanking. Yet in spite of her circumstances, she cannot deny her body’s response to the general’s dominance, and soon enough she is begging for him to take her hard and thoroughly. But when her father seeks vengeance against Alistair and his entire world, will she come to the aid of her new master?

Buy on Amazon

Additional Stormy Night Books by Loki Renard

The Lord’s Bride

The Brat, the Bodyguard, and the Bounty Hunter

Mail Order Brat

The Barbarian's Bride

Masters of Eden

The Firm Hand of the Law

A Difficult Patient

Tamed by the Knight

Doctor Knows Best

The Rebel’s Mate

The Doctor’s Captive

The Ranger and the Runaway

The Alpha’s Captive

Corrective Treatment

Tamed by the Bear

Humbling His Bride

The Firefighter’s Woman

Claimed by the Kings

The Doctor’s Command

Taken by the Alphas

Loki Renard Links

You can keep up with Loki Renard via her blog, her Twitter account, and her Goodreads profile, using the following links:

http://lokirenard.com/
https://twitter.com/lokirenard
http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4262126.Loki_Renard