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He carried on his conversation with his men as usual as though I wasn’t naked by his side. The more time I spent with him, the more I realized that his men had a great deal of respect for him in that they always responded with deference and not a single one of them leered at me even though there wasn’t a shred of clothing on my body. Vane had claimed me in the most thorough sense and all his men had accepted that without even a modicum of defiance. Unlike me.
I still balked from time to time and Vane was always ready to remind me of my place. Sometimes that involved him taking me shamefully in front of his crew. Sometimes he made me writhe beneath him as I screamed while he took me hard. Every single time though, I was left very sore and very sorry that I had challenged him in the first place.
A week passed and then another. We encountered no one on our trek through space on our way to a planet Vane had called Nassarc, some sort of black market where he planned to sell the rest of the Aberrants he had taken the day he’d claimed me for himself.
He hadn’t allowed me to go see any of them, even with him by my side. He ensured me that every single Aberrant was safe, healthy, and well fed, even going so far as to have Dr. Rackamar show me the records for Mari and some of the others.
Vane’s mark had neither changed again nor advanced any farther. The doctor had found no new anomalies and concluded that the virus had temporarily stopped progressing. He had instructed Vane to keep a very close eye on it because he was still uncertain if the prognosis would be good or bad.
I found myself hoping that the virus had stopped altogether. Although I hadn’t had a choice in his claiming of me, I didn’t want him to die or lose his mind to the mutations waging war inside his body. I didn’t want to admit it, but I feared losing him. I didn’t know if I would be safe without him.
The more time that I spent with Vane, the more I realized I was becoming fond of him. He never asked for anything more than I could give. He was fair, kind even at points. Even when my defiance angered him the most, he never raised a hand to me to maim me or really hurt me. I was more than confident that he would never kill me no matter what I did.
I was his and he treated me like a prize. His prize.
Chapter Eight
Vane
One morning, I brought Nina to the helm with me. I liked the feeling of her being naked by my side while I worked, but I also wanted her to become more comfortable in the daily operations of my spacecraft. Not only that, but I enjoyed showing her off in front of my crew. I knew she liked it too by the way her nipples tightened into hard pebbles and the slickness I always found when I slid my fingers between her thighs. If she begged me very prettily later, I might just allow her to come for me.
The Black Ranger had just entered the gravitational field of Kraken Prime, a small ancient planet that served as a fueling location for passing ships. It was where I had planned on stopping on the way to Nassarc. It wasn’t well traveled or heavily inhabited. Kraken Prime was quite remote, which was one of the main reasons I’d chosen this particular route to our destination. It was a place meant for those who didn’t want to be found.
I was pleased to see Nina enjoying the view out the window. Even though it was a small planet, it was still beautiful to watch our ship approach it. I was quite certain she’d never seen anything like it before and I enjoyed knowing that I could give that to her.
Then, Javier called me over to him.
He had noticed an irregularity on our radar. It was a very small, minor indication of movement, and in less intelligent hands would have been pushed aside as debris of some kind. Javier knew better though. He knew the signs to look for.
After some careful and very deliberate tracking, he’d recognized the signature.
It was the Shadow Star, a ship captained by a man who went by the name Greyburne.
My ship wasn’t the only one that roamed the galaxies in search of plunder. The Shadow Star was another. I’d heard of it before in passing, tales of ruthless cruelty around the men that sailed her. The rumors were much like the ones that surrounded me, only his involved tales of brutality against women and children, something I firmly stood against. Thus far, Greyburne had made no moves to attack nor did he increase his speed to catch up with my ship. Javier couldn’t detect any changes in their weapons deployment as they followed us. Outwardly, there were no signs of aggression, but that didn’t mean anything yet. They could be waiting for their opportune moment to attack and steal what was mine.
It was likely that word of my actions against the Earth vessel had begun to spread, that it was becoming known that I’d taken the Aberrants for myself. I hadn’t made any effort to hide what I had done. I never did. Greyburne probably recognized that I was carrying valuable cargo that he was guessing I hadn’t gotten a chance to sell yet. He was right.
My crew quickly informed me of our fuel reserves, and it was more than clear to me that we couldn’t make it to Nassarc without stopping somewhere very soon. Kraken Prime was remote and another stopping point wasn’t in range, so that left me with no choice. We were going to have to stop here, even with the Shadow Star on our tails.
“Very slowly begin to engage the gravity generator systems. I don’t want them to sense any increases in temperature or energy at its deployment,” I directed, clasping my hands behind my back. I was particularly proud of this aspect of my offensive weaponry. Unlike the more basic phase emitters and laser guns I had at my disposal, this system would focus an incredible amount of energy into a single point, compounding gravity and eventually causing an implosion of force that could decimate a planet, let alone a single ship. It had taken me a very long time to get my hands on such a devastating weapon because most people thought of it as a myth, that power like this couldn’t be mastered.
But it could.
And I had my hands on it because I had very powerful friends in very powerful places.
The only question now was whether to use it now or land on Kraken Prime and force the Shadow Star to ground with us.
“Javier, update me on the status of their systems,” I ordered.
“There’s no change in energy levels from what I can see. No change in shield strength or in weaponry beginning to engage. Their speed hasn’t changed and nothing about their advance suggests any aggressive tactics,” he answered.
From outward appearances, it seemed like the Shadow Star was just traveling along like we were. Perhaps they needed to fuel too.
But still I paused.
I knew better than to grow comfortable, especially in such close proximity to a potential enemy. I’d made that mistake even in the context of friends long ago and I had vowed never to do it again. Greyburne was a well-known rogue, but if he went after what was mine, I would teach him that I was a man to be feared.
I’d rip him apart, limb by limb, if he hurt my crew. Or the beautiful little human I’d claimed as mine.
