153. Chapter Eleven
Chapter Eleven
A erie
Beast carries me when we exit the hover. I protest that I can walk. “Of course you can, love, but I want you next to me,” his voice rumbles in my ear. It feels reassuring to have him so close, to feel his warm skin under my fingertips.
“Crom,” Beast says after we cross the cottage threshold, “are the remaining staff all female?”
“Yes, Sir.”
“Would you inform them that their services will no longer be required?”
“Yes, Sir.”
“I’m just Beast. And, Crom?”
“Yes, Sir?”
“Does Plenum give you credits to run the household?”
“Yes, Sir.”
“Please, Crom, call me Beast. Give each of them as much as you can afford—equal shares of what you have access to. Leave two shares for yourself. Tell the females to go back to their homes. Advise them to hide the money for several lunars . I wouldn’t want them accused of theft.”
“Certainly, Sir. Good idea.”
“Would you be so kind as to stay on the property until we leave the planet?”
“Yes, of course. Where else would I go?”
“Can you pick us up in time to be back at the auditorium at the appointed time?”
“Yes. Certainly.”
“Crom?” I ask, surprised by how shaky my voice is.
“Yes, Mistress?”
“Is Emmannee on the premises?”
“No, Mistress. All the . . . um, working females were sent off world recently.”
I guess my plan for revenge is foiled. Which is a good thing. Emmannee was just earning money any way she knew how. I shouldn’t hate her. Besides, I won the prize. His warm, granite-hard muscles are clutching me close right this moment.
Beast closes the door and sweeps me up the stairs to our suite. He pulls off the gold dress that Plenum dressed me in and tosses it out our door and down the steps. It’s not gold anymore. It’s covered in blood.
I’m watching all of this as if I’m underwater. Everything is hazy, like it’s a million miles away. I don’t feel my lips. Actually, I don’t feel my body.
Beast lifts me in his arms and doesn’t release me until we’re both naked in the warm shower.
“It’s okay, Aerie,” he croons while he washes me gently, as if I’m breakable. “You’re safe. We’re safe.”
He tips my head back and works shampoo through my hair. When I look down, I see blood still swirling around the drain.
“I killed him?” My lips almost feel normal; they’re not numb anymore.
“He’s dead, my love.”
I let his words soak in as I watch him carefully clean me, then himself. He turns off the water and towels me dry. My mind replays the last hour, and I try to come to terms with everything I just witnessed. No, not just witnessed. I killed a man. I’ll have to live with that.
No, Aerie , I tell myself. This isn’t something you’ll have to live with. This isn’t something you’ll have to carry around like a heavy burden of shame. He was squeezing the life out of you. He was prepared to kill every male in the arena, including the male you love—Beast. It was kill or be killed and you did the right thing.
The guilt that had been swirling in my belly is gone. It’s been replaced by . . . pride. I may be five-foot-one, but I’m strong. I’m capable of doing whatever needs to be done.
“What do you need, Aerie? Sleep? Talk? Food? Let me help you.”
What do I need? My foggy mind struggles with this simple request.
“Can we lie together? Can you pet my head until I’m asleep?”
“Yes, my love.”
“And you can keep using that word, my love. I like it so much. And don’t leave me? I got used to you always being close when we were in the pod.”
“Yes, my love,” his voice is warm and reassuring.
I don’t know how long I slept, but when I wake up, the first thing I see is Beast. Those beautiful green eyes are looking at me out of the most precious face in the galaxy. His face is different somehow. It’s softer.
“Did you sleep?” I ask.
“No. I watched you.”
“Boring, huh?”“Fascinating. I’d like to do it forever.”
My tummy does a dive, then rolls. His sweet face is serious—he’s not joking.
“Really?”
“I’ve been lying here thinking for the houra and a half you were sleeping. A male can do a lot of thinking in that amount of time. I looked at my life like a stretch of highway. I examined all of it, from the beginning to now.
“Out of all those milles of highway, it’s only the last one that I’d want to travel again. The one since I’ve known this tiny Earth female with the heart of a warrior. I could see myself with her for the rest of the journey.”
My eyes pop open. For a moment I forget to breathe. I don’t think I’ve known him much more than a week, and for a few of those days I thought he was the devil incarnate because he shouted another woman’s name during sex.
His huge, gentle hand just keeps stroking my head. His eyes are staring off into the distance. He’s putting no pressure on me to respond.
“I’m a reckless male. I know it’s far too soon. I never expected you to say yes to being my mate. I know you, Aerie. You’re a thinker, a planner. You’re not brash like me. You’d never agree to my proposal so quickly. I don’t even want you to. I just want you to know it’s there, a safe harbor you can retreat to.”
“Proposal?” You can take a lawyer off the Earth, but you can’t take the lawyer out of the girl. If he’s speaking of contracts, I need to know the details.
“I know nothing of Earth customs. Many species mate. My first master forced my mother and father to procreate. I didn’t grow up watching loving mates. But I’ve seen it on vids. My heart has always yearned for it. One female to be by my side forever.”
He reaches over, places his palms above my ears, and dips his lips to my forehead. There he bestows the most chaste, sweet, respectful kiss, then lays his head back on his pillow.
“I don’t want an answer now, love. I’ve made other decisions. Want to hear them?”
I’ve been sleeping like the dead, and the male next to me has been planning his future. It makes me smile to picture that. This handsome male never had the opportunity to think about a future before. I’m thrilled that now he has a future to ponder over.
“Yes. Tell me everything.”
“I can’t think too far ahead. But in the short term, I’d like to stay with the gladiators. I haven’t met anyone on board who isn’t a good person. They’re all trustworthy. I like them. I can see myself staying with them. I’d like for the gladiators from Trent to come with us, for us to man the second ship. But that choice is for Zar to make.
“If I have my way, my cabin will be shared with a female with short blond hair and a stilt-buying addiction. But we’ll see about that.”
“And fighting, Beast?” Dahlia’s words still ring in my ears. She said you never know how you feel about someone until you see them fighting in the sand of the arena. I may not know if I want to be Beast’s forever mate, but I know I never again want to see him risking his life in a gladiatorial match.
“I love to fight, Aerie. I was bred for it. It’s in my blood.”
I feel punched in the gut. Maybe I was seriously considering his proposal, but this is a deal-breaker.
“But I don’t want to risk my life anymore. I want to earn credits to help keep the ship running, and I’ll be honest, I love the sport. There are things called Cestus fights. They’re unarmed. I might have to fight two or three males at a time, it would be hard to have one Cestus fighter get in the ring with a Pinnacle. But I’ll be safe.
“I’d go in naked, fight until my opponents are knocked to the sand, then leave. It will be fun.”
I glance up at him and see his happy, relaxed face. Yes. In Beast’s world that’s what fun looks like. I guess I could live with that.
It’s a relief that Beast doesn’t expect an answer right away. How crazy would it be to say yes to a proposal after knowing a big, scary, green gladiator for a week? But so far, the idea of staying together with my new friends sounds pretty enticing.
“I’ll think about your proposal, Beast. But I was always taught not to buy a pig in a poke.” I splay my fingers on his chest and drag them slowly down his torso until I grab his cock. “Think we should test things out? Now that you’re a free male?”
His cock comes alive under my touch. I love the feeling of power this gives me. My eyes stay focused on his expression, watching every nuance of his growing arousal on his face as I feel it reflected down below.
“You want this now? After what happened?” he asks, his eyebrow lifts in question.
I can’t think of a better way to erase the feel of that asshole’s touch than to replace it with the fire of Beast’s caress.
“Promises were made, Beast. I distinctly remember you predicting certain things would happen when you were well and truly free. We’ve definitely crossed that finish line.”
He rolls me onto my back and my hands fly to his shoulders as he straddles me without putting an ounce of his weight on me.
I’d think with an invitation like the one I gave him, he would be inside me by now. But I should already know not to underestimate this male. He doesn’t want it now . He wants it great .
He leans to lip me, just his lips mock-biting mine. His earthy scent surrounds me. The feel of his soft skin delights my fingertips—soft skin stretched over hard muscle, an intoxicating combination.
I open my legs, nestling him in the cradle of my hips. I was born to be lying in this position under this particular male. It feels so sexy, and so right.
His tongue invades me, striking up a rhythm that will feel divine later, when he’s doing other things to me.
My skin is already burning for him. I need his touch—everywhere. As if he read my mind, he sits on his knees and glances down those perfect cheekbones at me. A slow, sensual smile stretches across his face as his palms travel along every inch of my skin that he can reach. Every cell he touches lights on fire.
Arching my chest, I give him a visual clue. My breasts may be small, but they’re oh-so-sensitive. When he finally cups them, then plucks both nipples at the same time, I lift off the bed.
A few more moments of this and I open myself even wider for him, rubbing against his straining cock.
His head dips to lave one nipple, then the other, and I sink deeper into pleasure. He licks and nips and tantalizes the tips with his mouth and hand.
I’m having a love/hate relationship with foreplay. I want it to go on forever, yet I want him to pierce me, then ride me. Without my own awareness, I find my hands have moved to his shoulders and I’m pushing him downward.
“You want this, Aerie?” he husks as he kisses down the middle of my torso from breastbone to mons. Fun smacking sounds accompany his journey as he licks and nuzzles his way south.
He pulls my thighs farther apart, a harsh yank that, far from hurting, is the sexiest thing he’s ever done. It’s his sign of ownership. I love it.
His thumbs open me wide, but he pauses to spear me with his gaze.
“I’m going to make you come until you beg for my cock. Then I’ll think about giving it to you,” he says with a lazy smile. If any Earth male had said this to me, I probably would have kicked him out of my bed. With Beast? I just want more of all that masculine power and control.
Then his mouth pounces on my clit. No more foreplay. None needed. Just that tongue circling and teasing. I think he’s making deep, satisfied sucking sounds on purpose, just to tantalize me.
“I hate you,” I tell him.
He stops long enough to say, “You deeply wound me.”
Are we playing? At a time like this? How did he make this happen? It’s amazing. Even more amazing is that he gets right back to the very serious business of pleasuring my needy little nub.
He adds a little more pressure and I fly over the edge, my head thrown back against the pillow in ecstasy.
As soon as my moans stop and my thighs cease quivering, he attacks again. And later, again. Each orgasm makes me need him more, because he’s yet to penetrate me. Although he’s giving me release after release, my need is mounting, too. I need him inside me. Not fingers, this time, either. I want the real deal.
“Beast. Please.”
He doesn’t deign to answer. He just attacks me again. I’m so on edge my orgasms are coming faster and faster. He barely needs to suck or lick me before he bestows more delicious pleasure.
“Now,” I put command into my voice as my hand slips down in search of his cock. He just grips my wrist, slams it into the mattress near my head, stretches down and makes me come again.
He’s having far too much fun abusing me like this, and truth be told, so am I.
“Please,” I say after another two rounds of pleasure. My neck feels like I have whiplash from thrashing back and forth against the pillow.
“Please what,” he asks, a seductive smile slashing across his face.
“Please, oh powerful Beast, give me some of your big green cock.” I don’t even know how I managed to string all those words together, but they came out of my mouth through rubbery lips. He grants me a deep, masculine, chuckle and places himself at my entrance.
“You want this?”
I thought I’d made myself perfectly clear the first ten times, but he wants me to beg, I’ll beg.
“Oh yeah. Beast. Fuck me.”
He slips just the tip inside me. I was so desperate to feel his penetration that my entrance quivers in response.
“Aerie,” his voice is serious. All humor is lost as his gaze finds mine. “Aerie,” he breaths again as his lids close and he loses himself inside me.
He slides deeper, in small increments. Filling me. Allowing me to stretch to accommodate his girth.
“Perfect,” he murmurs even as I was thinking the same thing.
He slides to the hilt, in a movement so deeply satisfying I feel something inside me crack open. It takes long mindless moments before I realize this has nothing to do with physical pleasure. It’s a union. A rich connection we share.
In this space, I realize time is truly meaningless. When souls unite like ours have, the stretch of time we’ve known each other fades to insignificance.
It’s not about seconds or minutes or hours. It’s about this. About us. “I love you,” I murmur into his ear.
“And I you,” he responds as his rhythm increases and he unleashes himself inside me. He takes me to physical paradise several times before he spends inside me with a grunt of satisfaction so deep and loud it speaks volumes.
The physical bliss is nothing, though, compared to the euphoria I find in his arms.
Resisting the urge to sleep after all that pleasure, I bask in the look he’s bestowing on me.
“I almost lost you,” I tell him as I sweep his dreads off his forehead. I don’t say it now—I can’t. But in this moment, in the privacy of my mind, I already know that I never want to lose him again.
Beast
I comm'd the Fool’s Errand and spoke with Zar at length. They’ll land in three hoaras . We have plenty to do between now and then.
I stand in front of the closed crimson drapes in the auditorium. We’ve all spent a lifetime in the arena below. I imagine none of us have any desire to look at it for another modicum .
“Congratulations! Every person in this room is free.”
Everyone whoops and hollers. There are fifteen gladiators, including me, plus Aerie, and Crom.
“A group of friends will land in about three hoaras . They’re good people. One is a good forger and will provide papers for all of you. You’ll all walk out of here not only free, but with the paperwork to prove it.
“You’ve probably dreamed of your freedom since you were enslaved. I’m here to tell you it will not be as easy as you imagined.”
I see confusion on a lot of faces. If someone had told me a week ago that being free wouldn’t taste delicious, I would have called them a liar.
“You’ve known one way of life for a long time. Being free means change. Change can be hard. It involves making choices. Perhaps for the first time in your life.
“Your first choice starts now. I spoke with Captain Zar. He’s a good male. He’s agreed to take anyone on who wants to join us. It will involve work and sacrifice. Ships don’t fly for free. People don’t eat for free. If you don’t earn your way by fighting, you’ll have to learn a skill that will help the group.
“It will be a challenge and an opportunity. Some of you have homes to return to. Zar said he will take you there if that’s your wish.
“It’s not safe on Trent. The authorities will hear of this and the arm of the Federation will arrive sooner than we’d like.
“My thought is this: we spend the next two hoaras stealing everything worth taking from the hoarder who sucked the very life from our bodies. You’ll know what’s valuable if it’s in a place of honor.
“If you want, keep a few trinkets for yourself. We’ll all need credits to start our new lives. The king’s share, though, should go to the ship that will either house you for the near future, or will return you to your home.
“I’m not your master, your owner, or your boss. I don’t make the rules. What do you say?”
They talk among themselves. Watching this makes my chest swell with pride. Before my very eyes, I see males who have never made their own decisions, never been allowed to have even the smallest control over their own lives, discussing matters of great urgency. And they do it well.
“We agree it’s a fine plan,” Erro reports. “We all have a lot of thinking to do, but this Captain Zar sounds like he will give us time to figure it out. Most of us have never been inside this or any other building on this property, but we’ll go through and take anything we think is worth credits. We’ve agreed on five personal items each, the king’s share goes to our new captain.”
“Fine,” I say as I nod with a smile. “One error, my friend. The king’s share doesn’t go to the captain, it goes to the ship, and the ship is shared by the people. All the people, even you if you remain on it. It goes to food and fuel and fun. By Vorhee’s left nut, I swear there will be fun on this ship. And no masters.”