Total pages in book: 60
Estimated words: 56021 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 280(@200wpm)___ 224(@250wpm)___ 187(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 56021 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 280(@200wpm)___ 224(@250wpm)___ 187(@300wpm)
“You could be useful,” he says.
“I’m incredibly useful,” I respond proudly. “I helped save a whole lot of lives, including my own. Yours, too, really. I’m the reason the escape pods work. They used to be filled with plunder and booty and the seals were fusing with the interior, but I got them all emptied out and remade the seals, which means you didn’t explode when you needed to escape. So you’re welcome.”
Zin
This human is mouthy, smart, and short. None of these qualities should endear her to me. Somehow, in concert, they are not absolutely entirely off-putting. Most are afraid of me, human and saurian alike. But I can see that she has described herself accurately. She has no time to be afraid of me, because she is too busy being curious about me.
“Can I touch your wings?”
“No,” I snap at her. “You are under guard, human. Act like it.”
“What am I supposed to do under guard?”
“You have clearly failed in the attempt to escape,” I remind her. “You will be punished for that.”
“Wrath can’t, because he can only touch Allie, or she’ll be mad.”
“I can touch whoever I like,” I tell her. “And I will touch you painfully.”
I wait for some acknowledgement that she is in danger. But she barely blinks. She smiles up at me, completely unconcerned.
“I’m a pirate,” she says. “I’m a pirate and an engineer.”
“And?”
“That means I’m too brave, too smart, and too damn sexy to worry about the likes of you.”
I didn’t know so much arrogance could be contained in such a small, soft, human package. I will enjoy whipping it out of her. I will enjoy breaking her down into something softer and more useful. I will enjoy finally having a human of my own, not just a hole to fuck, but a tool to use.
I smile at her bravado, my tongue lapping at the lower ridges of my teeth. I will enjoy this. Every moment of it.
Finally, the human begins to understand. Her instincts start to tell her what her mind has refused to. I see the change in her, a chemical thing that dilates her pupils and makes the fine hair on the back of her neck rise.
“Why are you looking at me like that?” She asks the question, now visibly swallowing something like fear.
As luck would have it, the forest is getting darker as clouds cover the sun. Bad weather has been threatening to roll in for hours now. Deep booms echo over the forest as it catches up with us, thick droplets pelting through the canopy of leaves as if it is barely there.
My wings extend out and over her as rain starts to fall, casting her trembling form in perfect shadow.
“My captive creature,” I purr. “You are only beginning to understand what I am, and you have not begun to experience what I will do to you. Your captains have been tamed, your companions have been mated, but you - you will be broken.”
“That’s okay,” she says, her voice shaking. “I know how to put broken things back together.”
Lightening flashes above us, casting my big dark form against the sky in an imposing silhouette. She cowers beneath my wings, sheltering from the storm underneath a barrier she already fears.
“Good. There is no limit to the number of ways I will break you. You will suffer, Casey.”
I use her name for the first time while making that threat, and I hear her whimper as she hears it in my vicious voice. This is much better. This is something much closer to respect.
“Why?” She whimpers the question.
“Because,” I growl. “I can. You, and your friends. Everyone you knew on that ship, all have been brought to heel. None of you will ever leave this world. You will live as mates if you are fortunate, and slaves if you are not. So you can be as flippant, and fresh as you like. You’ve lost your freedom, and you, specifically, belong to me.”
“Fuck off,” she whimpers, more out of force of habit than anything. She’s saying what she thinks she should say, because that’s what she would have said when she was a pirate. But she’s not one anymore. She’s just another captive human on an alien world. And she’ll be used as they all are, for our pleasure, and for our purposes. If she’s lucky, she’ll learn to love it. And if not? She’ll learn to love it anyway.