Total pages in book: 69
Estimated words: 63580 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 318(@200wpm)___ 254(@250wpm)___ 212(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 63580 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 318(@200wpm)___ 254(@250wpm)___ 212(@300wpm)
My heart starts to beat faster, and then my pet moves on my chest and it settles again. The weight of her warmth on my body is very comforting to me. I know that nothing happens for no reason in this universe. My finding her upon my escape was not an accident. She’s meant to be for me.
I stopped believing in goodness when I was in that cage. I stopped believing in the power I wielded. I thought I would never come out of that enclosure, that they would take me apart eventually and I would die.
I was in poor shape when I tore into that internally flooding ship, and I still am, but my pet doesn’t seem to notice. The way she looked at me, she seemed to think that I was completely in control. She gave herself to me, she begged for me. She wanted me, even in this broken state.
And now I feel a lot less broken.
I snug her a little closer as she shifts in her sleep. I won’t be able to sleep until I reach the home realm. I won’t feel completely safe until I am back in that place. Then I will make my report, and we will go to war against those who were foolish enough to try to hold me captive.
* * *
The next morning, a continental breakfast is brought. This is comprised of toast, juice, and a sad croissant with a speck of ham hanging out of it.
“You have a human with you, and they love a croissant,” the steward says as he delivers the tray to the door. It’s a generous offering, and I accept it in that spirit. We are soon to realm walk, but I want to spend a little more time on this ship to be entirely sure I have not been followed. I suspect my enemies are able to detect realm walking signatures, and may even be developing tracking systems. It shouldn’t be possible, but these days all sorts of difficult things are becoming doable.
“Yum,” she says. “Breakfast! I could get used to this!”
She’s damp from the shower, and re-dressed in her spacesuit. It suits her very well, but I want to get her something prettier. Shorter, perhaps. A skirt, maybe. I wonder if she’d enjoy such trappings, or if she’d prefer something she could do things with. A little shuttle, when she is trained and I can trust her not to take off and escape.
“Eat up, pet,” I say.
She frowns a little. “Still on the pet thing?”
“Still on the pet thing?” I sit down across from her. “This is not a thing.”
“You don’t even remember my name, apparently,” she says.
She’s right, but I don’t need to remember her name when I can feel all she is in her mind.
“It’s Mara Bennett,” she says.
“Cute name,” I reply. “Would you like me to use it instead of pet?”
She shakes her head without responding. I can feel her mind. She wants to say yes, but she doesn’t entirely mean it. She likes the way the word pet makes her feel.
I, for the moment, let her think she still has her mind to herself. It won’t be possible to keep that illusion up forever. I’m not good at keeping my abilities secret, and it’s best she knows everything I can do sooner rather than later.
“I like the term pet, Mara, but it is what you are. I am going to keep you confined until I am sure that you have not run away. Humans bond through intimacy, so I am sure that you’ve already started to feel a closeness to me…”
“That’s so calculated!”
“It sounds that way,” I admit, leaning over her, grazing my teeth against the side of her neck. Her soft skin bears a series of small puncture holes where I bit her before. “My desire for you is anything but calculated. It’s pure instinct.”
I watch her shiver, and I breathe in the flush of pheromones released when she hears my words.
“And you want me the same way,” I tell her. “I know you do. You belong to me, pet. You have from the moment I pulled you out of that cracked egg of a ship, dripping wet and wide-eyed and ready to be taken.”
She mumbles into her toast and gives up some of the fight. She doesn’t want to win it anyway. She just can’t accept her place yet. I can feel her confusion, the warring impulses, and the anxiety about the important thing she’s thinking about on a deeper level almost always.
* * *
Mara
I don’t know why I am arguing with him. He’s a mind-fucking Psyon. I’ve heard rumors about how they are capable of getting into people’s minds, and moving time, and doing all sorts of fuckery. He calls me pet because I’m not his equal in any way besides the flesh. I kind of get it, even though it feels like a slight as well as something kind of sweet and very hot.