Page 36 of Taken to Kor
Erobu just grins. “They were loud.”
“They?” Herannathon turns his frown to me now. “You had her?”
“Centare.” I rub my face, but can’t stop smiling. I’m a shroving fool for her now, fully committed. Fully stuck. Incapable of extraction. And pleased with my captivity.
“I cleaned her with the torch and it was an…intimateexperience. When she woke, she was naked and staring at my cock like she wanted to take a bite out of it. My body reacted and I used the synthetic for as long as I could, but when she started touching herself, I had to get involved. I couldn’t just stand there while she struggled to find her own orgasm.”
Herannathon nods, face softening as if that’s the most natural explanation in the world. Perhaps, because it is. What I don’t mention, however is that there was no struggle involved. She’d have been fine all on her own, but I had no intention of sitting by idly like a failure. She had a male at her disposal to do that filthy business.
Me.
And she will always have a male at her disposal to do that filthy business.
And it will always be me.
“She enjoyed it?” Tevbarannos asks, looking genuinely interested. He is one of the youngest pirates aboard my ship and has not yet had the chance to participate in a shekurr of any kind. It may be that he has yet to even seek pleasure from one of Kor’s houses.
I nod. “She did.” Cursing and hollering as she was, there’s no doubt in my mind that she enjoyed it. I chuckle at the thought. The memory. The itch to return to her and consummate what we started. But I won’t… I won’t until she understands that I am hers and she is mine and I love her and she loves me and we will continue on this path forever until one or both of us dies, likely in battle, fighting side-by-side.
“So, that’s why you brought us here? To rub it in our faces?” Herannathon says. He’s got a small smile on his lips, but Erobu, who agrees with him vocally, looks closer to outraged. They both start shouting, and then Gerannu tries to calm Erobu, then Tevbarannos starts asking questions about the human female orgasm and what it’s like and I try to answer him over the shouting trio, and then we’re all silenced when the yeeyar at the end of the space parts andQuintenanrretwalks into the room.
“What’s all this racket about? The human females?”
“Centare, the humanfemale. The one Rhorkanterannu has taken for his own.”
Eyebrows shoot up at Herannathon’s statement. I feel myself get hot, a little embarrassed. Taking a female as a single male is not done. Or rather, it has never been done. Not like I plan to. My plates shift uneasily and I sit up straight, tense. I flex the fingers of my lower hands.
“Your own?”Quintenanrrethas both brows raised. His skein is open, revealing his silver eyes. They glisten with curiosity and, if I’m not wrong, a hint of delight. When I don’t answer, he plunks down into the only free seat in the center of the command deck where the other four of us already sit and Herannathon stands nearby. “Fascinating. You mean to mate with her like the monogamous species?”
Erobu laughs, “That’s unheard of. We’re pirates, not savages. And Rhorkanterannu is and has always been the model for the rest of us. He wouldn’t dishonor a female like that.”
All eyes turn to me and I open my mouth, but I choke both literally and figuratively. How do I explain to them — to these males who die and thrive by a code of honor that is the only truth all pirates share — that honor has nothing to do with it? That this has everything to do with the painful pressure needling my heart every time I think about my Deena with someone else?
She ismine.And she won’t belong to anyone else.
She doesn’t know it yet. She wouldn’t believe it, even if I etched it into her forehead. Whatever poison Mathilda wrought in her mind has corrupted her ability to see me as a potential mate, because she does not see herself as a potential mate. Maybe she did once, when I wanted her for shekurr. But that only makes me feel worse, knowing that these human females view shekurr as punishment.
“Don’t tell meQuintenanrretis right?” Erobu shouts.
Herannathon frowns at him. “There are plenty of females now, thanks to Rhorkanterannu…”
I cut him off. “Thanks to Deena.”
Herannathon tilts his head forward. “Thanks to Deena. We don’t need to squabble over one.”
“But what does this mean? If Rhorkanterannu sets a precedent that it is acceptable for one male to claim a single female, then therewon’tbe enough females for everyone. We’ll have to wage war against Voraxia and claim the few that they have…”
“Don’t be stupid. Even with our superior tech, we’d never win a war against Raku.”
“I wouldn’t underestimate our abilities, Herannathon,” Gerannu chimes in. “I’ve been working on some very interesting modifications to the particle re-arranger. I believe I might be able to bring someonefroma planet, rather than just take us down to it…”
“What does any of this matter! We’re not talking about war. We’re talking about females!” Erobu shouts, stomping his foot. All of his plates lift simultaneously.
“Enough!” I grit my teeth and curl my hands more aggressively into the arms of the chair. Even my shroving toes curl into my boots painfully in the time it takes for the room to settle. “Enough.”
I rub my face and plant my lower right elbow on my right knee. I drop my forehead into my hand and rake my plated palm over my face roughly. “Erobu is right. I’m setting a precedent that no pirate has ever set.” Erobu opens his mouth, one arm flashing in wild distaste, but I look up and pin him with my glare and he settles back into his seat. “But no Niahhorru has ever faced extinction like we do now, either. We have never had to turn to other species, but now we do, which means that we now face customs and cultures very different from our own.
“I know you were not there, brother, but when we brought the Rakukanna and the other human on board our ship — when we stole them from Voraxia’s Raku — they did not want to be had in shekurr.”
