hard for her. As if she’d survived similar dark challenges on her home planet.
“No, you will do none of those things. They are too dangerous.” I stepped even closer, moving at a steady speed, not wanting to scare her.
“I don’t belong to you.” The female stood barefoot yet defiant. The rings in her nipples only had a plain chain strung between them… I was sure of it. No medallion hung pressed to the fabric covering her, none that I could see. I hoped suddenly that she was unadorned. Unclaimed.
She claimed her mate was dead, but what if she were mistaken? What if there was a male back on Trion looking for her?
I looked closely, uncaring if she noticed my interest. There was nothing that indicated a family medallion had been included in her adornments. Fark, I could even see the outline of a chain, the rings on her nipples. But no family medallion. No proper adornments. Nothing that would protect her. No claim by a mate.
Strangely, I could see the outline of something piercing her navel as well. This was not Trion custom.
So why did she have it? From what I knew of human females from Ivy, piercing was not a normal custom on Earth, and I doubted a pierced navel offered any kind of sexual satisfaction.
Perhaps she liked to be adorned. Liked the glide of metal over her soft skin. Perhaps, she would also enjoy metal binding her wrists and ankles as I filled her from behind.
The thought burst across my mind like a comet, and my casual inspection turned to lust. Perhaps she was matched to Trion because she needed to submit, to surrender to her lover. Perhaps her outspoken and independent side longed for an outlet, a place to feel safe, cared for. Protected. Perhaps, underneath the bluster lived a female with a truly submissive nature. Perhaps she wasn’t even aware of what she needed.
Not perhaps. She wasn’t aware. I’d bet my Spectra IV on that.
The realization made me smile. Fark. She would welcome my dominant nature. My need to control her pleasure. She would surrender control.
To me.
She held my gaze far longer than I thought possible for a fragile female, even when I placed my hand over my ion blaster to test her resolve. That move did inspire movement but not what I had in mind.
“Spare me the drama.” She waved a hand in the air. “If you were an asshole, you would have shot me already. I know a thug when I see one.” She turned away from me again. Dismissed me.
“You will not return to the market to search for Jirghogis,” I ordered. “They’ll capture you, and you will never be free of their shackles. You’ve shamed him and Ulza.”
“Bye!” She yelled the single word and waved the titan stick up over her head, the crackling sound loud in the enclosed space as she activated the weapon once more, tapping the electrified end on the bracing bars that held up the ceiling in this section of the dome. A loud buzz and crackle were accompanied by a shower of sparks that fell behind her like small fires before they hit the floor and died out.
I stood, undecided, as she disappeared around a corner.
I should allow her to go. She’d made her choice. I had done what I had to in order to save her. My conscience was clear.
“Fark.” That was a lie. She was going to get herself killed. I couldn’t allow that, and I had to know what it would be like to feel all that energy, all that angst, come from her in passion instead of rage. I could be that outlet for her. The conduit to her ultimate release.
If I could get us both out of Omega Dome alive.
5
Zara
I had no idea where I was going. I thought I was headed back toward the place where the slimy guy’d held me… waiting for what, I had no idea. But now I was lost. This was like an inner- city slum with no escape. There was literally a bubble over the place—the only way out, I assumed, was either by transport or a spaceship. I knew more than I wanted about transport, like the fact that it hurt like being blasted all over with ice, that transporting from Earth to Trion had worn me out, and that I had absolutely no idea how to operate one of the transport things, even if I could find one. That was one too many obstacles,