Page 10 of Leashed


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I am pleased to see her cross her legs at the ankles and sink toward the floor, sitting in a cross-legged position with her arm and hand stuck out toward me.

“Give,” she says.

I give her three pieces, which is a generous allotment. I want her to know that I am where food and comfort comes from. Once she begins to look to my kind, any of the Euphorians, for sustenance and affection, she will be mostly tamed.

Jennifer puts the entire chunk into her mouth, chews and swallows within a few seconds. She then proceeds to stand up again, resetting the behavior in the transparent attempt to gain more chocolate.

“Sit,” I repeat.

She does as she’s told with a smirk on her face. I give her another three pieces of chocolate. She thinks she is getting away with something, but in truth she is already becoming trained.

I may have been mistaken. She may turn out to be a fine pet after all. Her attitude will soften, and perhaps over time she will become quite content.

She gets up again, then sits again before I ask her to sit. Another three pieces of chocolate, another smirk from her.

It is safe to say that she is not harmed from her altercation on Earth. The mark around her neck will remain for some time and probably bruise. The males were rough with her. I shudder to think what fate might have befallen her if she had been left to their merciless perversions. Humans were once regarded as semi-civilized, but that is no longer the case. Many of them now give into the most primitive, animal instincts, caring nothing for the law or for anyone else.

I work with Jen, performing initial training all the way back to the ship, letting her take the majority of the bar of chocolate off me in a series of small obediences.

There’s a slightclunkwhen we dock, and that means it is time to put her into storage for the duration of the journey.

“Alright,” she says, seeming to sense the transition. “When do I get to go home?”

“I’m afraid you do not. I intend to take you to my home world, Euphoria, where you will be taken care of from this day until your very last.”

“The hell I am. I need to get back home. Thanks for the chocolate, but I have things to do. I was in the middle of a jigsaw puzzle.”

I happen to know what a jigsaw puzzle is, and I do not believe for a second that it is such a pastime that draws her back to the planet. Humans are often convinced that they have important matters to attend to in their lives, but absent dependent infants, I do not acknowledge them. Anything she might have happening in the life that made her so filthy and put her at such risk is unimportant compared to the life that awaits her.

“I am sorry,” I say. “But what lies ahead of you is a life of comfort…”

I do not get a chance to finish my sentence, because the docking process has opened the lock between the shuttle and the ship, and her presence close to the door has caused the sensor to register as someone it should open for.

She takes off running into my ship. I give chase. There are plenty of things inside the vessel that are not safe for a loose human to encounter. She’s faster than I expect her to be and agile around corners.

She manages to get all the way to the bridge before I grab her. On the way, I picked a small dose of sedative from my pocket. I know better than to allow loose humans on a shuttle or ship. The fact that she’s now wailing and shrieking and kicking dangerously close to the control console is my fault.

“Let me go! Take me back home!” She looks at me with wild, panicked eyes. She is afraid merely to be afraid. If she stopped and thought about it, she would realize she is now far safer than she has ever been. She is not capable of thinking, however. Her brain is in a state designed only for survival and escape. This is why I need the sedative. No logic or kindness will overcome this panic. She needs time, space, and the opportunity to process her new life.

“I am going to take you home,” I tell her. “It will be a new home, but you’ll love it just as much as this one, and probably a good deal more.”

With that, I pump a few sprites of human pheromones and a good dose of sedative into her face. The deep and panicked breaths she’s taking draw it all into her system and she goes immediately completely floppy.

I carry her to my human cargo hold. When I return from these trips, it is full of prime human stock. There is one bay left for this pretty young human. Most of the other bays are occupied by sedated, slumbering pets sleeping peacefully in cozy beds. Everybody will be comfortable and happy all the way to Euphoria. I settle my newest little captive into her bay, a small area with a bed and enough area to stand up, turn around, and lie down in. If my sedation protocol is effective, she will stay asleep until…

No sooner have I shut the door than her eyes flick open. I am shocked for a second. I’ve never seen a human wake up, certainly not that quickly.

“You think you can drug me down? You think you can put me out with a spray?” She pops up out of the bed, hands on hips, and glares at me with those furious dark eyes. “You better open this cage and let me go home, alien, or you are going to regret it.”

“I can’t open it. It’s not safe for you. I can give you another dose of sedative, or you can take a nap of your own accord. But you are not coming out of there until we are back on Euphoria.”

She draws her foot back and kicks the door hard enough to make the entire pod shudder. Fortunately, the other inhabitants are deep in slumber and do not stir. She can throw all the tantrums she likes in there.

My newest human acquisition is absolutely beside herself with rage. She begins to threaten me at the top of her lungs, her shouts muted by the thick walls of her translucent prison.

“I’m going to fuck your shit up, alien. I’m going to burn your world to the fucking ground if you take me there.”

I can understand her anger, though I would have thought she’d manage a little more in the way of gratitude. If I had not swept her up when I did, she would have been seriously hurt. I know that one gallant action does not make me any less of a predator stalking their failing world, but I hope to become a rescuer to those I do save.

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