Noble Monster: A Scifi Alien Abduction Romance Standalone (Jannan Raiders Book 1) (2 page)

Mere Chattel

Irina tugged uncomfortably at the brand new obedience collar that had been locked around her neck. It had been explained to her that the device, besides containing a stronger version of the translator that she had been forced to wear in her ear for months, had its own pain inducer, a tracking device, and an explosive charge just in case her owner decided he wanted rid of her for good.

She had already decided that her best course of action, given that she had no chance of rescue, and no chance of mercy from the beast men, would be to goad her new “master” into killing her as quickly as possible.

The idea of suicide disgusted and humiliated her, but it was a better option than letting some thing from another world use her sexually. She had never in her life allowed a male to have his way with her when she didn’t want him, no matter how much he wheedled, threatened, lied, flattered or otherwise he did his best to manipulate or coerce her. She'd had a few consensual lovers, but she had also had to deal with a lot of piggish men among humans as well.

But circumstances on Janna were infinitely worse. No human male lived in a world where slavery and rape were accepted parts of society. She wondered how much more savagely men would behave if they
were
given the sanction of the law.

Here, day to day life was as close to Hell for human women as anything could come. It wouldn't be giving up to court her own death under the circumstances. It would instead be her only chance to live and die on her own terms, now that she was here.

“The following are your instructions for when we arrive at my home,” the man in the driver's seat of the hover car said in that same cold, neutral tone of command.

“You will be directed to your chambers. There, you will bathe, dress in the clothing supplied to you, and adorn yourself properly. You will then be taken to my private chambers for the evening. If I am pleased with your service, you will be given certain privileges. If I am displeased, you will be punished. You will do what I say, when I say it, or you will be punished. You will not talk back to me, or you will be punished. Understand that your entire continued survival depends upon whether I am pleased with you or not. Do you understand?”

She hesitated. While they were still on the road, he still had a chance to turn around and return her to the slavers for a refund. Once she set foot in his home, the deal was done.

She knew that if he sent her back, the slavers would do anything to keep her alive and try to break her spirit so that she could be sold again. She didn't want to give them the pleasure of trying. “I understand,” she said finally, her tone flat.

He spared her a glance, seeming mildly surprised at the lack of deference or fear in her tone. When she didn't go on, or look his direction, he turned back to his driving, and his lecture.

“You are not to leave the palace grounds under any circumstances. You are not to enter any of the areas designated as restricted under any circumstances. You will never refuse a direct order. It is in your best interests to ensure that I am kept happy with you.”

No it isn't,
she thought with a surge of bitterness.

He seemed confused when she kept quiet, and hesitated before continuing. “Your meals will be supplied for you. You will eat what is given to you. You are not permitted to drink intoxicants, and you are not permitted to attempt to steal food. If your rations are inadequate or you have trouble digesting them, you will tell me, and I will make the necessary adjustments.

“You may speak with and make the acquaintance of the other servants. However, you will not be allowed to fraternize with them. Your body belongs to me.”

She turned to look at him. He was one of the most beautiful men she had ever encountered in her entire life. But when he said such disgusting things to her, all she wanted to do was grab the steering yoke, yank it to the side with all of her strength, and kill them both in a crash.

“Do you have any questions?”

“No,” she replied, and she could not keep the hatred out of her voice.

He stopped at an intersection on the smooth steel road, and looked over at her. His expression had gone from neutral to deeply curious. “You seem upset.”

She couldn't help it. She was still in the car, but this was all so ridiculous and disgusting that she finally just burst out laughing. The sound bounced off the interior of the hover car, harsh and just edging on hysterical.

He stared at her in astonishment. “Did I say something funny?” The threatening edge in his voice would have intimidated her if she had any hope of survival in her head. But as it was, his ridiculous question only made her laugh harder.

“I seem upset?” She echoed in a sarcastic tone.

“Right, I can't imagine why I would be upset. I've been kidnapped, beaten, tortured, humiliated in dozens of ways, pawed at by a bunch of filthy animals, and now sold off to a guy who tells me garbage like 'your body is mine' with a straight face, and intends to spend the rest of my life raping me on a nightly basis. If any woman is capable of listening to the absolute insanity that is pouring out of your mouth without laughing, then she's a better actress than I.”

She closed her mouth and looked away, completely uninterested in his reaction.
Damn it,
she thought, her head already starting to pound. She'd promised herself that her rebellion would not take place until she had made sure that he couldn't return her to the slavers.

But then this big, pompous idiot had decided to try laying down the law with her, all the while acting as if the situation was perfectly normal. She just couldn't help laughing and being critical. It wasn't just a matter of pride. It was just that difficult to sit there listening to a lecture from Crazy Town and not say anything.

Oh well, it's done now. I might as well just deal with whatever he decides to do.

“What did I tell you about talking back?” He asked in that same cold tone. “Do you enjoy the use of the pain inducer?”

“No, but I'm sure that you enjoy using it on innocent women.”

He actually shut up then, and when she looked over, she saw him staring back at her in shock.

They spent the rest of the drive in silence. He did not turn the car around, and he did not try to speak with her again until they pulled in through the gates of the palace.

She had to admit; it was a damn nice place, especially after months in the slave-pens. The high walls of the palace were made of polished metal that gleamed in the sun, its top patrolled by a series of automated cameras and gun turrets.

Beyond, she could see one of the rambling gardens that the beast-men were so fond of extending back to either side of the courtyard that they drove through. In the center of the enormous space, a single round tower jutted skyward, narrowing gradually as it rose.

It followed everything else she had seen of Jannan architecture: organic curves, impossibly tall spires and a tendency to build everything out of polished metal or stone. The tower had to have at least twenty stories on it.

Small, round balconies sprouted beneath many of the windows, almost looking like tiny leaves on the tall stalk of a plant. Now and again, she saw one of their fliers dart in or out of one of the windows.

They drove through the courtyard and into the vehicle bay at the base of the tower. A small cluster of servants in black and gold livery immediately hurried over to the vehicle. Kaelon got out and went around to her side as two of the servants reached up to unpack the hover car's roof pod of whatever else he had bought in town that day.

She fought the urge to flinch as he opened the door and reached in for her. When she did not take his hand, he grabbed her arm and pulled her from the car, a flicker of annoyance crossing his face. “You would do well to move more quickly when I want something from you.”

“I'm not doing well no matter what I try,” she retorted. Again, he gave her that surprised look, but didn't reply.

As the servants unpacked the car, and two others started going over it with what looked like diagnostic devices, her new captor led her to an elevator pod at the center of the vehicle bay. He had let go of her arm, but still stood far closer to her than she felt comfortable with.

This close up, his huge size was even more obvious. She could smell the clean, masculine odor of his body, a mixture of sweat and what smelled like a very good cologne, and suddenly wished that it wasn't so pleasant.

He was attractive. That was a problem. She needed to rebel with all her heart, and be as extreme and determined as possible about it, if she was going to convince him to hit the detonate button on her collar remote.

It wouldn't be easy to do that if she might have contemplated going to bed with him under better circumstances.
Get it out of your head. This man is an asshole who keeps slaves and is going to try to rape you later. Just keep that in mind, and see if you can't find something you can use as a weapon.

Dying quickly was her best option. But it might actually be
worth it
to die quickly if she managed somehow to take him with her.

“You are very quiet,” he commented as the elevator pod rose.

“Believe me when I say that you don't want to hear anything that I want to say right now.”

“What do you mean?”

She crossed her arms over her breasts. “Just exactly that. That little speech you gave about how I'm going to obey your every command and I'd better do this, and I'd better not do that, and I'd better be ready for you to fuck me tonight? The fact that you said it with a straight face and don't see a thing wrong with it shows just how sick you are. Not only are you a monster like the rest of your people, but you're also out of your damn mind.”

“I don't think I like your tone,” he said in mild disapproval. His hand slipped into a pouch on his broad leather belt and came out with the teardrop-shaped white-collar remote. “Am I going to have to use this?”

“Probably,” she replied in that same deadpan tone. “Not that you're going to be able to use it for much besides torture and kill me.”

He stood in thoughtful silence for a few moments as the elevator pod finally slowed. “You seem to be implying that I will not be capable of gaining your obedience.”

“Oh, you might be able to force me into doing a few things. But let's face facts. Your people are a bunch of kidnapping, slaving, murdering rapists, and because of this, you could never earn my
respect
.”

Confusion crossed his face. “Why do you keep calling us rapists? I haven't stolen anyone else's woman.”

She looked at him in open disgust as the door opened. “I don't think you get it. I don't belong to some other man. I belong to myself.”

“You belong to me,” he corrected in a firm tone as he led her out of the elevator pod and into a round lounge area.

It was enormous, its furniture all set against the curved sides, leaving a strangely bare spot at its very center. It almost looked like either the room was in the process of having something added to it, or that that space is used for some kind of performances.

There was so much about the beast-men that she didn't know, or that seemed completely nonsensical, that sometimes she didn't even bother trying to follow the logic of what they did or made.

She spoke as he walked her through the room toward the spiral staircase at its far end. “You just go ahead and keep thinking that. But the truth is, I'm a free woman who has been kidnapped and forced into slavery, and you're going along with it because you want to fuck me. And I guess, I can't stop you.

After all, collar or no collar you're bigger than stronger than me. And you'll probably force me to have sex with you, because you're a big, egocentric brute who doesn't think anything is wrong with it. But make no mistake. That doesn't make you my Master. It makes you my rapist. And that is all you will ever be to me.”

Something strange happened then. Instead of hitting the inducer button on the remote or doing something else to punish her, he stepped around in front of her, and took her by the shoulders. She froze.

He stared down into her face; his green eyes filled with what looked almost like worry. “I thought that you were properly trained.”

“Trained, nothing. What they teach us at the slave quarters is to be afraid of guys like you, to the point where we will obey any order that is barked at us. They don't wave some magic wand that makes us suddenly enjoy being a goddamn slave.

Some of us fake enjoying it in an attempt to live longer, because that is what you do with a rapist who could kill you at any moment. But no. If by ‘proper training’ you mean that I've learned to like this hell that I've been left in? None of us have proper training. What we have are no options at all.”

“And you hate me for this?”

“I hate you for profiting from it. I hate you for going along with it at all. I hate you for treating me like property. I certainly hate you treating my body like it's property. You can do whatever you want. I know I can't stop you. But if you're comforting yourself with the idea that when you force your dick into me it's something that I secretly like? You're wrong.”