“I was alone and stranded; he shot me with something, and I couldn’t move. Then he put a collar around my neck.”
Ric nodded in understanding.
“You were left unguarded by your family?”
“I don’t have any family. I was traveling to a new job when my car broke down.”
“No family? Who guards you?”
“Women on my planet don’t have guards. Well, I don’t. I had a husband, but not anymore.”
“You have a strange world, if females are unprotected. I see how easy it is to capture them.”
“Does that mean you’ll take me back to Earth?”
“Only the Jorval, who stole you, would know the location of your home world. But have no fear. You will be guarded with us. You are not alone anymore.”
“What is a sheraz?” The question was out, before she could stop it.
Ric chuckled in amusement. “I knew you had awakened during our discussion. Did you hear it all?”
There was no way Kat was going to have this conversation with Ric’s huge erection poking into her backside.
She shoved off his lap, her bare feet touching the vibrating metal of the spaceship’s floor. He made no move to stop her, only watching.
Her legs were weak, but she locked them together to face him, glad she still had her clothes on at this point.
“I heard the ‘mounting’ part. So, what am I to be, your brothers’ sex slave?”
“Gol may have bought you, but you are not a slave, little pet.”
She noted he left out the ‘sex’ in his sentence. She hooked her hand on her hip. “Then let me go.”
“And where would you go? Your planet is sure to be far from the Hellious galaxy. Females who are unprotected are quickly stolen, as you have already experienced, and are sold, used and badly mistreated. Feel grateful that it was Gol and Hul who found you in the market, or your fate may have turned out dire indeed.”
There was no way Kat could argue with that, well, with almost all of it. “And who’s to say you’re not going to be as bad as any of those other aliens? You’re big, red giants compared to me.”
“Does the color of our skin offend you?” he asked, the first look of concern marring his handsome features.
Kat snorted. She had never been accused of being racist and wasn’t about to start, just because they were aliens. Hell, they were the sexiest aliens she’d ever laid eyes on to date.
“No, it doesn’t, but you’re really big and I’m so small. You could hurt me.”
Kat could have laughed at calling herself small. On a human scale she was overweight and unattractive. But here, next to this red giant, she was small. She felt delicate and very feminine next to their hard toned masculinity.
Ric rose to his full height and took a step forward. Kat took one back.
“My brothers and I are soldiers. The only creatures who should fear us are our enemies. We care for what belongs to us, little pet. We fight to protect what is ours and what we care about.”
She couldn’t help but be stunned by the passionate way he spoke. “To ease your fears about us, you may ask any questions you wish. But you do belong to us, is that clear?”
He’d made it very clear. Kat swallowed, pondering the implications of his words. Neither he nor his brothers would hurt her, and she believed them. But being called property grated against her humanity and pride. She could argue until she was blue in the face, but it didn’t change the fact she was stuck here and depended upon these Demos aliens for her survival. She hoped belonging to them wouldn’t be too bad.
Hold on, belonging to them? Something here wasn’t quite right.
Chapter Three
“So, I belong to Gol, right?” she asked, after a moment of hesitation, wanting to be clear, and half accepting the fact she was ‘owned.’
But it didn’t mean she had to just lie down and take whatever they were going to dish out.
“You belong to all of us; none of us has a single possession. All our actions impact on our brothers. When he bought you, he bought you for us all.”
“Oh shit!” The impact of his words sank in. “Four…” Her breathing became rapid, and she shivered in fright. It was bad enough contemplating having sex with one of these huge, muscled, albeit hunky, alien men, but all four!
“Kat? Are you ill?” Ric quickly grabbed her upper arms, before she sank into a puddle of panic on the floor. He gripped her around the waist, his other large hand spearing through her hair, holding her head firmly in his grasp, as he studied her face.
“I … I can’t.”
He looked puzzled by her words. He scooped her up, carried her to the bed, laying her down. Ric left her to retrieve an instrument she hadn't seen before from a wall panel.