Page 3 of The Captain's Pet
Wid understood what Joel meant. Life on New World Colony Seven hadn’t been easy to establish or maintain. While it beat staying on an overcrowded Earth with dwindling resources, it remained a hardscrabble existence. No one in the colony worried about becoming overweight or ever complained that they were bored. As miserable as he felt at the moment, given the night he’d suffered, he could still appreciate that at least he’d be able to fill his stomach.
Joel remained by his side, munching quietly for a few moments. Then, cocking his head, he said, “You don’t look so bad.”
Wid swallowed hard. “You mean considering that I was fucked up the ass all night?”
Joel snorted with his usual bravado, but an underlying vulnerability laced it. He made a circle around his own face with a finger. “Not so beat up.”
Wid rolled his eyes. “Yeah, well, he never hit me. Just wrestled me and held me down while he…” His voice trailed off. What was the point of saying it again? Obviously they’d all suffered the same fate.
The doors to the room opened up, taking their attention. Two more boys were dragged in by Travians, released and abandoned. Each human was battered and bruised and wore a dazed expression. Wid and Joel helped them find the facilities and showed them the food. Once the most important needs had been met, they filed into the water to heal. Joel hadn’t been exaggerating. As soon as the cloudy water lapped at Wid’s skin, the aches started to disappear. Sitting down on the ledge built around the interior of the pool, he winced only for a secondbefore sighing in relief. The stinging of his abused hole let up in seconds.
He tipped his head back against the sloping edge of the pool and tried to relax. He’d been given a reprieve, although for how long was anybody’s guess. There was no use in fretting about the future, however. He needed to rest and regain his strength. He was a prisoner and all the stories he’d ever read about wars and POWs said that the first rule was to resist and escape if possible. Well, resistance wasn’t going to get him anywhere given the Travian’s physical advantage. Escaping from a ship patrolling space didn’t seem very likely, either. Still, he refused to give up hope of getting home and had to do everything he could to increase his chances. If all he managed to do was stay alive, it would at least be something.
The doors opened once more and a collective gasp forced Wid’s eyes open. Stuart stumbled in, an alien hand shoving him from behind. The boy would have fallen if another kid hadn’t reached out and caught him. With a sneer, the red-headed boy’s captor marched out again. Wid bolted out of the pool and ran to help. While every boy there bore marks of hurt to one degree or the other, Stuart was a mess. There were more bruises than skin showing, one eye had swelled shut and his lip was split in two places. Three of his fingers were bent at an odd angle, and oh God, dried blood streaked the inside of one of his legs. He whimpered as Wid and the boy who had first caught Stuart helped him over to the pool. They waded in with him and set him carefully on the ledge. Wid cupped water in his hands and dribbled it down Stuart’s face.
“See if you can find a cup and bring him some water to drink, will you?” Wid asked the boy who still hovered over Stuart.
Joel swam up and started to mimic Wid’s efforts on Stuart’s other side. The horribly damaged boy seemed to breathe easier in just a few seconds. When one of the other boys brought himwater in a small bowl, Stuart was able to get some of it down. Everyone forgot his own aches and pains and miseries in the face of Stuart’s horror show. The boys were practically frozen in place, watching Wid and Joel try to help Stuart heal. It took a while, but eventually, the swelling on his face diminished. Stuart opened his eyes and gave everyone a weak smile.
“Thanks, you guys,” he said in a hoarse voice. “I feel much better for some reason.”
“It’s the water,” Wid explained. “It’s making us all feel better, at least physically.”
“Huh,” Stuart exclaimed in a soft voice. “That’s going to have to be enough for now.” Somehow he sounded years older than he had the previous evening, as if what he’d been subjected to had aged him quickly. He lifted his head more and scanned the room. “How’s everyone else doing, anyway?”
“We’re okay,” Joel assured him. “None of us were hurt as bad as you.”
Tears welled up in Stuart’s eyes, the vulnerable kid in him showing for the first time that morning. “He kept hitting me even when I stopped fighting him,” he said in a near whisper.
“Sadistic fucker,” Joel spat out, and all the others murmured their assent.
Wid stared down at his own body. His bruises had already turned yellowish and hardly any ache remained. He’d been lucky. As brutal as the captain had been with him last night, forcing himself on and into Wid, he hadn’t gone out of his way to hurt Wid gratuitously. Even as Wid had struck him, the alien hadn’t hit him back. Funny how his standards had fallen. Funny as in fucked up. To feel like he’d gotten off lightly having been only raped and not beaten? His world had been turned upside down and for the life of him, he couldn’t see how he was ever going to right it again.
Chapter two
“Theystopstrugglingonceyou mount them.”
“Of course they do. They’re so puny, your cock takes up half their body.”
All of the males around the strategy table laughed. All except Kell. He didn’t see the humor in any of it. May the Mother and all her Handmaidens damn whatever bureaucrats had decided that he and his crew should be rewarded with human sex slaves. Granted it was a novel solution to the problem of petty vandals in the occupied territory, given that they weren’t allowed to summarily execute them. Still, when he’d first learned that human captives were en route, as a gesture of appreciation for the crew’s dedication to their open-ended deployment, he’d very nearly contacted High Command to demand they end the mission if they were so concerned. It would have been an act of supreme insubordination, something far beyond his normaldeportment. The military was his life’s work, as it was for virtually all males of his class. Command of this vessel proved his worth to High Command and his home world. Refusing a rare gift would hardly have spurred his career. His first officer already coveted the position. He’d do nothing to fuel a change in leadership.
He couldn’t deny that he’d taken great pleasure in using his prize, either. His cock throbbed at the mere memory of how it had felt to drive himself into the less than willing body. The boy was so pretty, with smooth skin covered in soft hair. A poor substitute for his mate, but still…alluring and exotic. He wondered briefly if his mate even knew about the human pets. Probably. Marielle moved in the highest circles of government. Little escaped her notice, but she’d likely shrugged it off as of little concern. All males fucked younger ones before mating and after. It was the Travian way of life, long accepted and even expected. Many even formed lifelong loving bonds. Females paid scant attention to what games males played with each other. It didn’t matter in the least.
If only the human had been in his bed by choice. Rape did not sit well with him. Always before, he’d coaxed willing cadets into his bed to enhance their standing and to satisfy his needs. The younger males enjoyed themselves, too, and racked up bragging rights about catching a senior male’s attention. Many of his crew had paired up with others to break the monotony of their patrol of this pathetic corner of space. He cared not so long as order and discipline remained. As their leader, however, he couldn’t risk showing favoritism. So he’d remained celibate since bidding Marielle and the eligible male bed partners of his home world farewell. Until last night, when he’d certainly made up for the lack by forcing someone for the first time in his life.
His stomach clenched in revulsion even as his dick continued to twitch with the memory. He couldn’t soothehis own conscience by claiming that he’d acted by command performance, either. Once was duty, nonstop throughout the night was pure indulgence. His only obligation had been to infuse the human with his scent, proclaim to everyone onboard that the boy was his. Instead, he’d remained joined to his pet, driving his seed so hard and so deep, it was as if he’d been trying to breed him. He should have taken more care, gone slower perhaps, at least attempted to prep the boy. At the time, he’d justified the swiftness of his invasion as a kind of mercy. Get it over with so they could both sleep. Yes, that had been the plan and he’d tossed it out an airlock in his brain the moment their bodies had joined. Hardly a proud moment. He never lost control. Almost never. Circling the invaded territories had warped his mind, apparently. He’d been deployed too damn long, his whole crew had. That was the problem.
He’d do better tonight, though. One fuck just to mark the boy anew, no more.
His first officer’s voice pulled him from his reverie. “Don’t let their acquiescence fool you. They aren’t like cadets back home. These little bitches are conniving and willful. They need a heavy hand and often.”
Kell turned to frown at him. Garen was a dedicated crewmember, although a bit too rough around the edges for Kell’s tastes. The back of his neck always itched around the male, as if he had to watch out for an attack.
“Have a care, Garen. All of you,” he added scanning the room full of officers. These were mostly the top-tier for the ship and therefore the lucky recipients of Command’s largesse. There were only so many slaves to go around.
“They are gifts from High Command and should be treated as such. It takes very little effort to control them because they are so small and weak. And Garen is right, they aren’t cadets. Lying with us isn’t an honor or rite of passage for them. Of coursethey are going to fight us until they have time to accept their situation.”
Garen inclined his head in Kell’s direction, although somehow the sign of respect didn’t come across as such by the arrogant man. “Understood, sir. I only meant to caution everyone that these creatures can’t be trusted.”
