Authors: Michelle M. Pillow
Tags: #Romance, #Fantasy, #Paranormal, #Werewolves & Shifters, #Demons & Devils, #Science Fiction
The Stubborn Lord (25 page)
The panther roared, bringing her attention back to the trouble at hand. Ulyssa recoiled, lifting her arms to protect her chest and face as she pressed into the stone wall. A dark blue banner waved near her nose as she turned her head away. The image of a styled panther fluttered before her. She whimpered, closing her eyes. Her body tensed, bracing for the initial attack. Silence followed and she couldn’t move.
“Shhh,” a gentle whisper soothed. “I didn’t think you’d be so scared of me.”
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Trading Teon (The Beast Masters Series) by Reagan Hawk
The Beast Masters Series, Book 1
Garon and Lorne, shapeshifting males of the Ralenium race, are fierce guns for hire in the universe. When a cargo ship transporting women charged with crimes by the Galactic Star Union arrives on their planet, the men make the traders an offer they can’t refuse. Planet Ralen is sorely lacking in women, and the males have an inborn desire to dominate, to tame females and to reproduce. When their inner beasts’ clocks start ticking and the burning need to spread their seed consumes them, they go on the hunt for the perfect female. Too bad both men want the same woman.
Teon, a lady with a place in high society, thought life as she knew it was over when she was wrongfully charged with a crime by her stepmother. A prisoner en route to a barren planet to serve her sentence, she’s presented with an opportunity to start over again on the planet Ralen. The catch is she has to be willing to be claimed by two males. Not just any males mind you, two burning hunks who are ready to fight to the death if need be to share her bed.
Trading Teon Excerpt
The ship thundered and then sputtered to a stop as it landed. Teon pushed at the rusted walls of her cell, frantically looking around, wondering when the slave traders would come for her. She was no fool. She knew what they were. They weren’t true Galactic Guards. They may have the badge and weapons, but under it all they were slave traders, pure and simple. Her hands, long since bruised and cut from the conditions of her cell, bled more as they scraped over the rough walls. She whimpered, the bite of pain a harsh reminder of her living conditions.
At least she was clean finally and out of the rags they’d been keeping her in. The traders had forced all the women into one large bathing chamber where they set about decontaminating them.
Her lips curled.
They wanted their goods clean and presentable. She’d been wrongfully accused of a crime, whisked away on a ship to be sent to a correctional facility in the far reaches of space, and then, before she reached her destination, her holders made a stop, selling her and so many of the other woman to the slave traders for nearly nothing.
Teon lowered her gaze. She could cry. The tears were there, ready and willing to fall but they’d do nothing. She knew. She’d shed enough already to no avail. The clothing she was in barely qualified, and by her people’s standards she was nearly naked. She was a lady. Not some street walker. Even the harlots who worked in the pleasing dens on her world dressed in more material than the slave traders had her in. The material was sheer, allowing others to see her nipples and her sex. They’d shaved the hair from her pussy, leaving only a strip of it down the center. They’d cleaned the hair from her legs and armpits as well.
One of the traders appeared. His head, very fish-like, was totally lacking in hair. They always wore masks of sorts unless they had tiny metal clips over the tiny holes where a nose should be. His eyes were slits and often his cheeks puffed out, reminding her of puffer fishes of old from Earth. He and the others like him sickened her. It wasn’t their appearance. She was used to non-humanoids. It was their mentality that revolted her. The fact they made a living in the most deplorable way—by slave trading.
“Come,” he said, the word drawn out in something of a hiss as he waved an electric prod at her. She’d been poked with it and shocked more times than she could count. As far as they were concerned, she had a bad attitude and she knew they’d be looking to unload her cheaply. That worried her. She wasn’t a prize in their eyes, and that meant she very well could end up in the hands of even worse universe trolls.
She followed him as he led her down the long, dark corridor. She spotted several other female prisoners and their gazes met. The women looked terrified. She was too, but only to a point. Life on the prison planets was no life at all. She’d heard the horror stories. She’d seen the transmission sent out when the prison planets culled their populations—often allowing races who fed upon humanoids to come and “enjoy the buffet”. Even being sold into the sex-slave industry was an end more desirable than a prison planet. Everyone knew that.
She shuddered.
The trader shoved Teon out the exit-bay door and she stumbled. He caught her by the upper arm, his grip iron-clad, sending pain radiating through her. She knew better than to whimper or show any more signs of weakness. They’d exploit it.
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