Human Pet Prison (Possessive Aliens #7) - Loki Renard Page 0,17
scythkin warrior. My genetics are designed to be impressed by all this muscle and danger.
He holds the collar out. It’s not what I expected. I thought it would be harsh iron or maybe spiked leather. You never know if scythkin are going to choose ancient human or advanced alien when they make aesthetic decisions. It’s neither of those things. It is smooth and thick and round… and pink.
With me on my knees, he has to reach down to put the collar around my neck. I feel it slipping against my skin, smooth, cool, and calculating, just like the creature who created it.
It clicks into place and tightens almost imperceptibly. I feel a sharp pinch right at the back of my neck. I let out a yelp of surprise more than pain.
“That’s a probe,” he says. “It’s connected to your spine via a flexible cable. The collar reads your vital signs, your hormonal levels, and various other statistics we deem relevant. You will have no secrets from me, Silver. I will know your body more intimately than you know yourself.”
“Good for you.”
This invasive collar is just one of my problems.
“I wouldn’t recommend trying to remove it. Unless you have the special tool, you risk ripping your own spine out.”
Okay. Maybe it’s a major problem. Still, I’m used to major problems. My entire life is made up of them. You could say my life is one big major problem.
“You don’t have anything to say about that?”
“Should I? What do you want? More begging? You didn't like it the first time I tried; I don’t think it would be any more real this time around.”
Warden
I love the way she looks. So resolutely rebellious. I can't tell if she’s not afraid of what the collar means, or if she just doesn't understand it. Silver does not strike me as a stupid human. She may be even more intelligent than some scythkin. The collar is going to make it impossible for her to escape, even if she somehow manages to leave the ship. It also has the added advantage of being adorable.
“It’s pink,” she says. “Didn’t think that would be your color.”
“It’s not my color. But it is yours. You are beautiful. I have never seen a human woman with such intensity behind the eyes.”
She snorts. “Are you trying to flatter me, alien?”
“I’m not flattering you. I’m telling you the truth. You are beautiful, and you are cold. You are the kind of woman who…”
“Shut up. Don’t tell me what kind of woman I am. Just get on with keeping me prisoner.”
“You are my prisoner. There’s no doubt about that. But what I do with you as my prisoner, that is up to me.”
“Are you threatening to ravage me?”
She doesn’t want to say the shorter, harsher word beginning with “r” that she really means. Humans are so obsessed with words. Specific sounds which change nothing in the real world, but change absolutely everything in their minds.
I don’t dignify the question with a response. If I wanted to hurt her, or violate her, I could have done both the moment she came off the ship. In the time I have had her in my custody I could have physically destroyed her and emotionally ruined her.
She knows I have been merciful. I don't know what they did to the IHPZ. I do know that they didn’t make so much as a dent in the unseen armor around her heart.
“I have fed you. I have pleasured you. I have shown you mercy. You will have all the things a human needs. But you will have to earn them. And the way you will earn them is through obedience. Crawl for me.”
“Crawl for you? Why?”
“Human infants crawl before they learn to walk. They are born without the ability to move at all. They are, in a certain sense, larval.”
“I don't think that’s… what that is.”
“Of course you don’t. You like to think of yourself as advanced, when in reality you are a very simple animal with very simple needs, and even simpler motivations.”
Asshole. I knew he was an asshole. They’re all assholes and monsters. Most alien species I have encountered consider humans one step above meat, if they bother to make the distinction at all.
I’ll play along. He wants me to be his pet. He wants to imagine me small, and weak and dependent. I have been all those things at one time or another, but I am not any of them now.
I am on hands and knees, moving