Page 17 of Sawoots Story

I shift against the bed. I didn’t get that feeling from Garrick or his men…but it makes me wonder. Would they have the same sadistic urges as the rest of the species?

Would I like it?

Her cheeks burn, and I lean forward, serious now. “Something else my friend told me about—she’d taken more than a few spankings during her years in the harem.” I squeeze her hand to give her strength. “It’s going tohurt, Tash. I can tell you that.”

She snorts bitterly. “Good. Iwantit to hurt. I want to at least feel something for taking the punishment instead of Chris and those idiots…” Then she lets herself laugh, despite the stress of the situation. “It’s still going to hurt less than lashes—and it’s better than facing a firing squad.”

I bite my lip.

Tasha’s too focused on her own problems to notice, but I’m suddenly thinking about something else.

Garrick. The thought of being pulled over his lap, his huge hand coming downhardon my ass. How easily he would hold me against him while I struggled, taming me like a wild filly. I wouldn’t be able to move aninchunder his iron grip. Markrin and Tar’ank would watch with hungry eyes, lust building and building until it exploded like a volcano and the three of them take me under their control.

Could he break me?

Would some part of me…enjoybeing broken?

Tasha looks over at me. “So, your friend who was in the harem. She said that this is how Aurelians show affection? By spanking you until you can’t sit down?” She snorts. “They really are a fucked-up species.”

As much as I resent the species for what they did to my friend, sometimes I have empathy for their plight. I have to shrug. “They sure are—but can you blame them for being so messed up?”

When you know their story, you can’t help but understand their motives. Understand? Yes. Agree with? Not a chance.

“Yes, I can!”

“Let me explain.” I hold up my hand so she won’t interrupt. “They all thought they were going extinct, you know—the Aurelians, I mean. They’re all male, and they can’t sire children naturally—so their numbers were dropping with every Aurelian who got killed before making it to one of those cryo-chambers.”

I rack my brain, piecing together the information I got from Nami and cross-referencing it with the drunken tales of men in bars who rant about the species. “It’s only been in the last couple of hundred years that their species even hadhopeof continuing,” I nod to myself as Tasha listens intently. “It’s only been since then that the Bond has been active again, and triads of Aurelians have found a Fated Mate and been able to have sons naturally.”

I shift on the bunk bed, imagining the slight possibility that I could be Bonded to one of the Triads on this ship. “Now, there are a dozen or so Bonded triads spread across the universe—and their species is growing in numbers once again. But that just drives the rest of the Aurelians crazy—knowing their Fated Mate is out there, somewhere, but that they might never find her.”

That’s why more and more Aurelians are going Rogue. They can’t deal with the thought a woman could be their Fated Mate. When they get the scent of a potential mate, they can’t control their Mating Rage. They shatter all the laws of their Empire andclaimwomen.

“I’ve heard about this…Bond.”

I run my hand through my hair. The Bond terrifies me…

And in a dark, instinctual way…it excites me.

“My friend who’d been in the harem,” I explain, “told me that she was heartbroken when she found out she wasn’t Bonded to her triad. She’d had this foolish notion thatshe’dbe the one to beat the odds and be their Fated Mate.” I laugh, bitter. That’s the reminder I need to never trust an Aurelian. “Long story short? She wasn’t—and she quickly found out that no woman can compete with an Aurelian’s desire to find thatonehuman woman capable of bearing their sons. They treated her kindly…but she became just one more woman in their collection, and they ceaselessly sought out more. That’s ultimately why she left. You can’t be in an Aurelian harem if you’re the jealous type—because unless you’re that triad’s Fated Mate, you’ll never be enough for them all by yourself.”

And that is why I never succumbed to my lust for the species. Not because I’m scared of them. Not because they disgust me. No, I’m drawn to them. I’m drawn to their proud dominance, their utter confidence and the way they stride through a crowd of human men like Gods. I’m scared of that lust boiling up in me until I can’t control it. I’m scared of losing my heart to a triad, and being treated as nothing more than a toy.

I need a distraction from my dark thoughts. “Well, Captain, spanking or not, how are you going to get usoutof here?”

She smiles, and I’m instantly reassured. “I’m working on it,” she vows. “I just need to figure out Captain Aelon and his triad first. He holds all the power. If we want to get out of here with our skins intact, weneedto get the better of him.”

I agree with that. Aelon is the key to this ship. He is the one with ultimate command. He’s the one who will determine our fate.

But my thoughts are always drawn to Garrick and his triad. I feel like I’m being pulled towards them like driftwood shot down a raging river to the ocean. I’m more out of control than when we were escaping the Toads.

“I need to find out what motivates him,” she tells me as she looks for the angle to get us out of here, “because it sure as hell isn’t loyalty to the Aurelian Empire—and that might be the key to getting ourselves out of this.”

I rub my temples. I feel like I’ve been tossed around. The brief nap made me a little groggy when I need to be clear.

Tasha looks up at me with sudden urgency, and I don’t like the look in her eyes. “We might be in more danger than we think,” she warns me, and if Tasha is concerned about the odds, I should be panicking.

“We might? How so?”

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