19. Chapter Seven
Chapter Seven
B ayne
I wake with Willa wrapped in my arms. I’ve woken close to her many times since I met her, but it was always when I was in canine form.
Yes , WarDog sighs with contentment, her touch, her pats, her cuddles, her kisses, we were seldom apart. I feel a sudden surge of jealousy and resentment which I quickly suppress.
Since I’ve been walking on two legs again, I dreamed of sweet Willa in my arms, and here we are. My arm is slung tightly around her waist, her head resting on the fur of my shoulder and her little hand splayed out on my chest as if she’s seeking my heat. A small smile plays at the corners of her mouth. My lips tip into an easy smile knowing I make her happy even in sleep.
Nibbling at her mouth, I wake her. I get the privilege of seeing her first true smile of the morning.
“Bayne,” her grin stretches wider when she realizes she’s in bed with me. “I’m so glad last night wasn’t just a dream. You’re here, and you’re hot.” One eyebrow raises as if she just told a dirty joke.
I kiss her playfully, but when she kisses me back there’s nothing playful about it. Soon our tongues are exploring each other, then my head bends to her breast and she rolls onto her back in open invitation. I try to replay the events of last night, but she has other ideas.
She climbs on top of me, her knees above my shoulders as she faces my feet, and plays with my already hard cock. Although I want to pay attention to what my sweet Willa is doing to me, her bottom is less than a hand’s breadth from my face. My slow morning brain finally wises up to the obvious invitation, and within a moment we’re pleasuring each other at the same time. This must be one of the things the other males boasted about when they talked of the endless pleasure Earth females loved to give and receive.
When we’re both spent and panting, our heads finally near each other on the pillows again, Captain Zar’s voice booms over the comm.
“Males and females. I’m sorry to interrupt, but I’ve arranged with Captain Beast of the Devil’s Playground to meet today. His crew will be boarding within the hoara . When that is complete, the crew of both ships will meet in the dining room. I’ll comm to tell you when to join us.”
I wonder if Beast knows I’m no longer in canine form. Several months ago, Beast, Aerie, another gladiator named Ar’Tok, Willa, and I were in a holding cell on a slave ship bound for auction.
The moment Willa saw me I could sense her fear. Now that my thinking is clearer it’s obvious why. My canine form was huge, and my long, sharp teeth as well as my collar’s four-inch metal spikes must have been intimidating.
In order to calm her, I crawled to her on my belly, then nudged her hand with my nose. She instantly relaxed and began to pet me. From that first moment, we were inseparable—until I changed into my two-legged form.
Since then Ar’Tok mated Star, a human female he rescued from a malfunctioning satellite, and Beast and Aerie mated. We appropriated the slave ship and Beast, a natural leader, was elected captain. Along the way, we rescued more gladiators, most of whom are on his ship, the Devil’s Playground . I saw him at the dance last night but the chemistry between him and Aerie was so hot I doubt he was aware of anyone other than her.
Something big must be about to happen if the two ships have converged and we’re having a meeting of all hands.
“Think we have time for a bit more fun before we jump in the shower?” Willa asks, her face no longer the picture of innocence it was before. She looks wanton and sexy. How could I not oblige?
We’re both clean and dressed when Zar’s next announcement intrudes. Before we leave the room, Willa asks, “Are we . . .?”
Because of the animal inside me, my intuition is keen, but even with all of that, I have no idea what she’s asking. When I cock my head in question, my ears flicking, she clarifies.
“Do you want to wait until we’ve been together longer before we let everyone know we’re together? A couple?”
“Are you asking me to sneak to my cabin and pretend I didn’t spend the night taking you to the heights of pleasure?” My stomach clenches. I didn't realize the connection that felt so real to me might mean nothing to her. “Is that what you want?”
“No. I just wondered if you might not want everyone to know.”
“I’m proud to be with you, Willa. I’ll announce it on the Intergalactic Database if you’d like.”
She laughs. “I don’t think you have to go that far. I’ll just skip over ‘It’s Complicated’ and go straight to ‘In A Relationship’ on my Facebook Status.” She laughs again and grabs my hand. I have no idea what she meant, but she doesn’t want to hide the fact that we pleasured each other all night and half the morning.
The hallway is filled with people filing toward the dining room. Some of their relationships baffle me. Maddie and Stryker, for example. Sometimes they sleep together, sometimes they stay in separate rooms. Earth females can be complicated.
As we move to take our seats, Beast approaches me. He’s called a Pinnacle fighter, one of the ten top gladiators in the galaxy. The five rings on the bridge of his nose signify that fact. I’ve watched him fight; he’s a force to be reckoned with.
You’d never know it now, though. He has a pleasant smile on his face and reaches to slap my upper arm in camaraderie.
“Aerie told me of your transformation; I had no idea,” he tells me seriously. “I thought you were canine. If I’d known, I would have done everything in my power to help you turn back into your humanoid form.”
“I understand,” I assure him. He clasps my forearm in formal greeting as I clasp his. “I’m Bayne.”
“I’m glad to meet you, Bayne. You have a standing invitation to move to my ship if you’d like. You and your female,” he nods happily at Willa.
“Thanks.”
We take our seats after he walks away.
“I guess the word’s out,” Willa says as she grabs my hand and pulls it to the top of the table. It’s an announcement in case anyone in the room missed it. It makes me feel proud and accepted.
“Welcome all,” Zar says, a handful of paper notes clutched in his hand. “I believe you all know each other, although WarDog has changed his form. On two legs we call him Bayne.”
A few of the gladiators from the Devil’s Playgroun d nod and say hello from across the room.
“We have serious business to discuss. As you know, I’m the captain in day-to-day matters and if things are urgent. I thank you again for the faith you've put in me by voting me captain. My counterpart, Beast, functions the same way on the Playground . In long-term matters, we function as what the Earth females call a democracy.
“I will try to get everyone up to speed so you can all make informed decisions in the vote we’ll be having later today. While you all have time to think about the weighty matters at hand, our fabulous chef, Maddie has thrown together a celebratory feast.
“Before we discuss matters of war, let’s remember all the things we have to celebrate. There are no slaves on board these ships. Many of us have found loving mates and those that haven’t have found a tribe of our own where we are cared for and respected.”
It is gladiator custom to pound a foot in appreciation, which they do while the females clap. I pound my foot, glad to have only two of them.
“Back to the business at hand. For those of you who don’t know, many of us from the original ship were owned by the MarZan cartel. We fought our captors and overthrew the ship. That was about an annum ago. Since then MarZan has been pursuing us. According to them, we’re still their property.
“At times we’ve evaded them for days or weeks, once even a lunar , but they are always on the hunt. These are not nice people. They don’t treat their enemies well.
“We’ve made friends with a band of pirates on the Ataraxia . When we recently met up with them, they informed us one of their males, Sextus, the big blue Cerulean, was in the process of being flayed alive when he fought back and wounded the leader of the cartel, Daneur Khour.
“Although Khour’s face was destroyed by Frain acid, he has not become weaker. In fact, over the last lunar he has redoubled his efforts to find us.”
I reach around Willa’s waist and snug her to me. I wish I could allay her fears; she looks terrified.
“Beast and I have been talking. We believe it’s time to quit this game. We’re fighters, gladiators, warriors. We don’t like being prey. I suggest it’s time to quit running and become the aggressors.
“We aren’t as numerous as the cartel, but we have good, strong males, smart females, a fighting spirit, and the will to take back our own power and quit cowering and hiding in fear.
“Our intel suggests Khour has moved from his retreat on Ortheon to his compound on Fairea. Although it will be hard to penetrate, we have more males than he has guards. I believe if we put our heads together we can come up with a plan to vanquish him.”
“Fairea,” Brianna breathes, “one of my mates almost died last time we were there. It’s not my favorite planet.”
“The terrorist attack was a one-time thing. There have been no more incidents of that nature,” Zar says.
“Even if we kill him, wouldn’t his second-in-command just take his place?” Dax asks. He’s a huge male who spars with me often. I count him as a friend. He’s vowed not to fight in the gladiator ring again. For a mountain of a man, he has the spirit of an artist.
“Good question,” Beast answers. “He very well may, but we believe Khour has made this personal. Hopefully, whoever takes his place won’t be as obsessed with pursuing us as Khour is, especially after we attack Khour’s compound and kill a contingent of his males.”
More questions are asked, more whispering occurs at the dining room tables next to us, and people begin to mull this over.
“I’ll let you think about this until we reconvene at 1500. Here’s a vid of our adversary. They say Sextus ruined his face, but the only picture we have is from his younger days, before he rose in the ranks of the cartel, when he was just a foot soldier who reaped conscripts from more primitive planets.”
There are vid screens on every wall of the dining hall except the one with the large three-dimensional wooden sculpture Dax carved. It shows a peaceful hillside covered with flowers. He told me he’d teach me how to carve soon. I wonder if I could ever make anything half as beautiful as that.
The vid screens come to life and show a picture of a lavender male. I’m certain I quit breathing as my body turns to stone. On every screen in the room is a picture of the male who separated my mother’s head from her body in front of my young eyes. He’s the male responsible for stealing me from my planet and enslaving me in my canine form.
When I finally begin breathing again, the feeling of hatred overwhelms me. My fists clench as heat boils through my body. I taste blood and realize my fangs have bitten into my lower lip. Before I start crunching bones, I yank my hand out of Willa’s and lodge it in my lap.
Zar answers a few more questions, but that only serves as background noise as my mind catapults me back to that terrible day. I’d been unable to see details when my memories assaulted me before. I certainly see them clearly now.
He allowed a warring tribe of Skylosians to do his dirty work. They’d sacked the village, set it on fire, and rounded most of us up. When he pulled up in his hover, much of the slaughter was over.
I was still a teen, not yet twenty annums old, and had recently grown taller and stronger. Everyone in the village had remarked on how I was going to be a big male like my father had been. Sadly, my growth spurt would serve the cartel’s purposes well.
My eyes were riveted on the hover as it glided over the ground without touching it. We were a primitive planet, none of us had seen anything like it. The first things that emerged were shiny black boots, then Khour unfolded himself to his full height and strode to our band of males. We’d been herded into a small group at the point of knives and swords. Many of those who fought were slaughtered.
Just as Khour and four others of his purple race arrived, the remaining females were dragged to where the males had been gathered. My mother was among them. I’ll never forget her proud bearing even as the others cowered and wailed after watching the massacre of their kin and being ravaged by the males of the invading tribes.
Khour’s bristly black hair stood up on the middle of his scalp, having been shaved at the sides. It made him look even fiercer. I’d never seen anyone of another race before; our planet had never been visited by anyone from the stars.
I trembled, overwhelmed with all that had happened in such a short amount of time. The acrid smell of smoke stung my nose, the sounds of people writhing in agony in their death throes on the ground assaulted my ears. My friend lay dead—singed by the marauders’ magic weapon. That laser was centuries ahead of anything we would have developed on our planet. My people were decimated.
And there stood my mother, tall, proud, and defiant. She didn’t cower like the others, she stared that bastard straight in the eye. That must be why his attention narrowed in on her.
“That one,” he had said as he pointed with his chin.
My fingers squeeze my thighs so tightly it captures my attention for a moment. A soft growl bubbles from the back of my throat. I don’t care if I’m attracting attention from my shipmates, I couldn’t control my responses even if I wanted.
I watch in slow motion as my mother is dragged to Khour. She fights, trying to pull away but she’s no match for the two large males who have her in their grip. I never realized until just this moment how courageous my mother was to fight them in the face of all their weapons. She stood up to them with nothing but a hayfork. Even after being beaten and ravaged she still fought them.
“Kneel,” Khour ordered.
She didn’t answer back, just slowly shook her head. He ordered it again, but she continued to shake her head until he grabbed the broadsword offered by the Skylosian chief, strode the five paces to her, and sliced her head off.
My eyes slam closed. I wish I could shut out the vivid picture inside my mind—the way her head fell from her shoulders and landed on the ground.
Prying my eyes open, I force myself back to the present. I can’t stay in the past one moment longer. I stare at Willa, hoping it will calm and comfort me, but it doesn’t work. She’s attuned to me and knows something is terribly wrong. Her concerned gaze undoes me.
I can’t speak. The only way I can function is to put my features on lockdown so tightly nothing moves so no emotion can escape. But it doesn’t work. I feel the telltale tightening in my chest that signals I’m about to shift. I haven’t done so in front of anyone since I came aboard the Fool’s Errand .
Kill him. WarDog is enraged, growling, snarling, his fangs are dripping with the desire to rip out the throat of the enemy in front of us. I can’t stop him. I throw myself to the floor and feel the painful process as, in a matter of modicums , my bones change form, muscles rearrange, and my face grows a muzzle. The growl that tears from my throat catches everyone’s attention.
I’m sentient in my canine form, just more bestial. I’m a predator with heightened senses and single-minded purpose. Ten annums in the arenas where he was forced to fight for his life has changed him from a hunting companion to a killer. WarDog wants him dead and so do I. He killed my mother and members of our tribe, decimated our pack.
He is my enemy. Attack! WarDog growls and snarls then lunges at one of the screens and bites it until I hear a satisfying crunch although his mouth is pierced with pain.
Zar and Shadow jump from their seats, grab him by his mane, and yank him back from the broken screen. He growls loudly, saliva and blood dripping from the cuts in his mouth. The males are strong, but he continues to lunge, trying to break free of their grip. WarDog is out of control.
WarDog stop, I command him but I can’t force him to let me shift back.
Willa rushes to him and in spite of the males trying to keep her away, she pushes in and wraps her arms around his neck, whispering calmly into his ear. WarDog resists for a moment, then responds to her gentle touch and voice. I shift, shuddering in her arms.
“Does he do this often Willa?” Zar asks. I’m shocked at how calm he sounds after what just happened. This is one of the many traits that has earned him the title of captain.
“I wasn’t aware of any shifts since we came aboard.”
The room is silent. Everyone is looking at me. I swipe my mouth with my palm and see blood. When I glance at the vidscreen I see the bite mark.
“Care to tell us what’s going on?” Beast asks.
I pull a small shard of glass from my tongue. I’m mortified at my loss of control and that WarDog damaged the vidscreen, but I owe them an answer, “I know that male. I have reason to hate him. He’s responsible for the destruction of my home, the deaths of my tribe, my capture, and the ten annums of fighting, locked in my canine form,” my voice is the same timbre as the growl still resonating from WarDog that I’m barely able to restrain.
“I guess we know what your vote will be,” Zar says. “Let’s reconvene in two hoaras . Enjoy Maddie’s feast.”
Willa’s wide eyes and open mouth indicate her shock at my behavior. My gaze darts from hers and I see similar looks on the faces of the females in the room. The males are all standing with a protective arm around the females with looks of concern mixed with understanding. A wave of guilt washes over me. I terrified the females, terrified Willa. I need to gather control.
“Give me some time in my room,” I say as I hurry past her, not wanting to get too close for fear of scaring her even more. Everyone clears a path for me to leave. Filled with shame, I put my head down and rush from the room.
As soon as I’m inside my cabin, I rest my back against the cool metal and force myself to breathe.
Kill him , WarDog insists.
Calm! Is my response.
Placing my palms against the hard surface of the door I return to the present because some of my thoughts are still lodged in the past—in the burning village on Skylose.
I look around the room which holds no personal belongings because I have none. I inventory every stick of furniture and metal rivet on the walls.
I occupy my brain by counting rivets. It soothes me. I allow the past to fade back into my memory. When that doesn’t work, I try to shove it back. The picture of my mother’s beheading fades to gray, then becomes smaller, then finally disappears. I believe I was happier when I had no recollection of my early life.
As I regain some semblance of peace, my canine stops his furious pacing in my head.
Kill our enemy, tear out his throat, protect Willa. He spears me with his angry stare.
He’s practically frothing at the mouth, pushing hard to be released to hunt and kill. He spent too many years in the fighting pits—I can’t let him control me. Now he's embarrassed me in front of the males I’m coming to regard as friends. He scared Willa and the other females.
What if I shift and can’t change back? I stand over him in my mind, asserting my authority and commanding his obedience. I force him to submit and push him into a corner of my mind until he sits, his head hanging and his eyes cast down.
I hold onto the only thing besides Willa that can give me comfort. Revenge. Zar just gifted me many things. He told me the name of my enemy and gave me the means to vanquish him. I will not rest until that male is dead.
Willa
Bayne’s been gone for at least an hour. I gave him space, but now I wonder if he could use the company of a friend, or at least some food.
I juggle a tray heaped with food as I knock on his door. When he doesn’t answer, I call, “Bayne! I thought you might be hungry. I’ll just leave this plate on the floor out here. Are you okay?”
After waiting a moment, I set the tray down and move to leave. Relief floods me as I hear the pneumatic snick of the opening door.
When I see the expression on his face, my hand flies to my throat in automatic self-protection. His eyes are slit, his nostrils are flaring, but the scariest thing I see are his bared teeth. Is he going to shift again? I shouldn’t worry. One thing I know is that no matter what happens, he won’t hurt me in his WarDog form.
“Thanks,” his tone is a low growl.
“W-want company?”
If I didn’t know he was alive I might think he’s a statue, that’s how still he is as he considers my offer. I hadn’t realized it would be such a hard question.
“Yes,” he says as he nods tightly. The expression on his face softens and he finally looks me in the eye as if he's seeing me for the first time since the door opened.
After taking the tray from me, he motions me to enter.
“You okay?” I don’t want to be intrusive, and doubt he wants to talk, but as of a few hours ago our status was ‘in a relationship’, so I should at least ask.
He sags onto a chair at the small table in the corner and gestures for me to take the other seat.
“Until recently, I hadn’t remembered much about my time before permanently shifting into canine form. Bits and pieces have been sifting in. Seeing Daneur Khour’s face filled in many of the blanks. How much do you want to know?”
I grab his hand from his lap and squeeze, making sure I have eye contact. Dear Lord, he looks haunted. Whatever is hiding behind his gorgeous golden gaze must be tragic. The answer to his question is easy. “As much as you feel comfortable telling me, Bayne. Now, or later, or never is okay. Just know one thing. I’m here for you.”
He lifts my palm in his and presses it against his cheek, then to his lips for a soft kiss. “Such a good female. I doubt I deserve you.
“Raiders came to my village when I was not yet twenty annums old. They set it on fire, molested the females, killed most of the inhabitants. My mother was one of those females. Then they rounded up the males they could repurpose. I was one of those, my function was to fight and make money for my owners. The invaders were led by an offworlder with purple skin. Daneur Khour.”
“It all just flooded back?”
He nods.
“Want a hug?”
His answer is to scoot his chair back and open his arms. I sit on his lap and snug my hip against his belly, pressing my cheek against his chest. He’s naked since his shift. I hadn’t noticed until just now.
There’s not much a person can say to a revelation like that. I won’t even try. What I can do, though, is provide the comfort of my embrace. He dips his head and lays it on the pillow of my breasts.
As passionate as our lovemaking was last night and this morning, what we’re doing right now is far from it. It’s interesting that I feel more like a mate now than I did when we were writhing naked in the sheets.