Chapter 5
Ispend an uncomfortable and shameful night on the floor. My pussy and ass ache, my clit throbs like it might never be the same, and there’s not so much as a blanket to comfort myself with.
I half expect Kronos to take mercy on me, but he doesn’t seem interested in that. I guess I pushed things too far. I am caught between feeling sorry for myself, kind of seeing where they’re coming from, and being more determined than ever to fucking escape.
The next morning, Boss and Sharp are eating breakfast in the dining room slash lounge when I appear with Kronos.
I have some softer instinct to run to one of them, but I am not sure if they feel the same way Kronos does, and if maybe they too have the capacity for cruelty like him.
They look at me as I walk in, naked and messy and wearing Kronos’ collar.
I see Sharp’s lips tighten, and Boss’ eyes widen with something that I hope is empathy.
“Can I speak with you, Kronos?” Sharp asks the question quite stiffly, and I can only assume he is not pleased with the barbarian.
“Of course,” Kronos says, completely unbothered. “Shall we talk here, or…?”
“In private, I think,” Sharp says. He stands up and tosses his napkin down with a certain feisty derision that does not bode entirely well for what it is to come between them. He leaves the room and Kronos follows, still seeming entirely unconcerned by events.
I stay where I am, feeling uncertain and sorry for myself. All my native confidence has deserted me, and I am left unable to do anything.
“Come here,” Boss beckons when the other two are gone.
I go to him, because I know that disobedience will not be allowed and I won’t risk it anyway.
He reaches for me and draws me first into a hug, and then into his lap.
He is big, he is warm, and he feels like some kind of home.
He nuzzles me with his muzzle gently as I try not to cry. I don’t want to seem weak, even now.
“Was he mean to you, little calf?”
“Yes,” I whimper, curled up in Boss’ lap. “He was so mean.”
“He can be a real bastard, can’t he,” Boss says. “Best not to need him to intervene.”
So the other two will be nice to me, but if I am not obedient to them, then they will turn me over to Kronos to be tormented—which effectively means they are comfortable with what he does to me.
Boss’ big hand rubs my back and down to my butt. He makes the motion over and over, soothing me into some kind of relaxation. He’s being comforting, but he doesn’t seem mad at Kronos. Can’t really say the same for Sharp. He seemed pissed the moment he saw me.
“Did I do something bad before I disappeared? I mean, three years ago?”
“I don’t think we’re going to talk about it right now,” Boss says. “Things were complicated before you left. We were used to you running away. You do two things: make trouble, and try to escape it.”
“So it’s all my fault?”
“Nothing is all your fault,” Boss says. “We all have things going on. I’m wanted by the Harvesters, Sharp is an assassin in high demand, and Kronos, believe it or not, has his share of enemies as well. Your disappearance could have been linked to something to do with any of us, or none of us.”
I lean my head against Boss’ shoulder and close my eyes a little.
I am still sore and shamed, but I am starting to feel quite sleepy as well.
I haven’t had a lot of physical conditioning lately.
Selling pills in a club is pretty easy work.
My muscles are protesting at having had to do anything strenuous.
“I wish I could remember what happened,” I say. “I don’t know how I got to Earth. Did you take me there? Did you lose me on the planet?”
“You were consumed with the idea of preventing humans born on Earth being sold to aliens. You didn’t like the fact that there was an illegal trade in what’s called wild caught humans.
There are some captive breeding populations, but they never seem to supply enough humans to meet the demand for them, especially given half the births are not female, and a great many aliens are looking for vessel wombs. ”
“What a fucking horror show.”
“Life is all about exploiting other life. The snake eats its tail. Hard to avoid. You were mostly concerned with stopping women being abducted from Earth and sold to traders in illegal auctions.”
“Yeah, I think I know that already. Is there anything you can tell me that I don’t already know?”
“You’ve remembered some things?”
“I remember meeting you guys in the bar and trying to stop the auction.”
“That was the first of many times you tried to disrupt auctions,” Boss says. “You got a reputation for it.”
“I did?” I smile a little. “A good one?”
“One that gets a price put on your head. Though, like I said, we pretty much all have prices on our heads.”
“You’re wanted by Harvesters?”
His eyes darken. “Yes,” he says.
“What are the other two wanted for?”
Just as I ask the question, we are rejoined by the other two brutal mercenary criminal aliens. Kronos has a swelling around his right eye. Sharp’s robe is ripped and singed. Have they been fighting over me?
“Did you guys just go and have rough sex?” I ask the question before I can stop myself.
The look Kronos gives me is enough to make me quiver in Boss’ arms. I hope he won’t let the cruel god take me again.
“No,” he says. “Sharp thinks I was too harsh with you. I think, given what you just said, I wasn’t nearly harsh enough.”
“She doesn’t owe us respect,” Sharp says. “She doesn’t owe us anything. We lost her. We let her mind be tampered with. She came to harm in our care. I understand she needs to be disciplined, but we have to take responsibility too.”
“She came to harm because she left our care,” Kronos argues. “And I’m going to make damn sure she doesn’t do anything like that again.”
“Will you take me away?” I ask Boss the question quietly.
He answers by picking me up and carrying me out of the room.
I don’t want to see Kronos right now. He scares me.
The things he told me about his feelings toward me have left me with a trickle of fear when I look at him.
He’ll do whatever it takes to break me, and that’s fucking terrifying, especially when I think about how he seemed all nice and sweet in the club.
It was Sharp who seemed to be the angry one there.
I don’t know what to make of any of them yet.
As Boss carries me away, I catch Kronos’ eye over the Minotaur’s big shoulder. I stick my tongue out. Fuck that guy. He thinks he can break me just because he can break me? I’m not going to spend my whole life submitting to him.
“Ow!” I yelp as the collar gives me a pulse of pain.
“Did you forget I installed that?” Kronos asks.
“Yes,” I pout.
He laughs, and Boss carries me away.
“Can you take the collar off me?” I ask Boss. “He can use it to hurt me.”
“I’m not going to undermine Kronos,” he says. “But I can help you avoid him if you want to be a good girl.”
“I don’t want to be a good girl,” I explain.
“I want to be a free woman. I don’t know what kind of relationship we had for the year we were together, but I know myself.
Even now with no memories. Deep down I know who I am, and what I need, and it’s never going to be letting some big blond alien dude control me. ”
Boss rumbles with amusement and sets me down on the bed. “You know, you and Kronos are a lot alike,” he says. “That might be why you have so much trouble behaving for him.”
“I thought Sharp was going to be the mean one.”
“We are all the mean ones in different ways when you need for us to be,” Boss says. “Now, let’s have a cuddle. You look like you need it.”
I curl up with him in bed, enjoying the feeling of his big, heavy body next to me. Nobody is going to be able to hurt me with him guarding me. Looks like Kronos came off second best to Sharp. I don’t think he could do anything to Boss. I think I know where my allies are now.
A few days pass, and I feel better. I thought I was going to be in a worse way after my ordeal on the electric sex thing.
I can feel the ache between my legs for a while and my muscles generally feel quite tired, but a few days after it’s the same sort of feeling you get after a big workout. Almost feels good.
I wake up before Boss and go get something to eat. Sharp is already up. He smiles when he sees me, and his usually taciturn expression melts a little.
“Hi,” I say, feeling a little shy.
“How are you feeling, pet?” He asks the question with some real concern.
“Okay,” I say, settling down in a chair that is too big for me, because it is made to the proportions of a much larger alien.
I do notice that there’s a smaller one that was probably installed with me in mind, but I don’t sit in that.
Like a cat, preferring to sit in the cardboard box the cat tree came in rather than use the cat tree, I decide where I go and what I say is fun.
I wonder how much of life is just a striving to feel independent in some way, clawing at a universe that gives us no real control for little scraps of some sense of being able to direct our fortunes.
Boss comes in after me.
“You were going to get breakfast without me?” He clasps his hands to his chest. “I’m wounded.”
“You were asleep!”
We tease each other for a bit before I ask the real questions.
“Can you tell me what I’m missing? Can you tell me my name?”
Sharp and Boss look at one another. “We always called you pet,” Sharp says. “You did not bring up your name, and we did not ask for it.”
“Wow. So we really got to know each other super well then,” I say sarcastically. “This is so ridiculous.”