Handling the Hybrid Read online

  Well, if the Goddess is pleased with you, she’s got a fucking strange way of showing it, pointed out a little voice in his head. Look at you now—no good deed goes unpunished, right?

  He tried to think. Was it Dannen or Vrox himself who suggested a stop in the G’nex system on Gigi Prime for a celebratory drink? The party planet was conveniently on the way to their next job and they had, according to Dannen, the best G’brethian ale in the entire galaxy. Vrox had agreed to stop and one ale had turned into many—so many, in fact, that the two of them were completely blind-drunk by the time the greasy Pongu slaver came along and offered to buy them just one more round.

  Stupid idiot—you should have said no! You got yourself into this mess by taking that laced drink he gave you, Vrox raged to himself. He’d woken up hog-tied with nerve-inhibitor bands in the back of the slaver’s ship, already on the way to the Flesh Bazaar with Dannen bound in a similar position beside him. Before they knew it, they’d been stripped and put on display for any and all takers—Dannen had been bought almost immediately and Vrox himself shortly thereafter.

  Vrox was almost as worried about his friend and partner as he was about himself. The Blood Kindred was big enough and strong enough to take care of himself but he had been bought by a cruel-looking older female called Mistress Tornflesh. She had taken one look at Dannen’s shaft and fangs and nodded decisively.

  “Yes, I must have him for my collection,” she’d told the Pongu slaver. “Name your price and wrap him up quickly—I need him for my pain-display tonight.”

  Pain-display? Dannen and Vrox had exchanged apprehensive glances but they were helpless—held firmly in place by the control collars and the pain cuffs they both wore. All Vrox could do was mutter, “Stay strong, Brother—I’ll be coming for you as soon as I get out of this.” And then the older, cruel-looking Mistress was leading his friend away with quick, angry jerks on his leash.

  Vrox fully intended to rescue his partner—but how could he do that when he was still a prisoner himself? And how in the Seven Hells was he going to get away under the current circumstances?

  He’d heard the older Mistresses tell the curvy little one that the control collar would be removed—that was something at least. But it was supposed to be replaced by a pain collar and that was no fucking good. The fiery agony pulsing through his nerves was more than painful—it was debilitating. Just a jolt from the Goddess-damned cuffs he wore had brought him to his knees, though he had resisted as long as he could. So how much worse would it be when he was wearing a collar that delivered pain jolts too?

  Goddess, I’m in big fucking trouble here, Vrox admitted to himself, as he watched the shapely ass of his new Mistress sway in front of him. Though he shouldn’t have let it, the sight distracted him. She really was an exotic-looking beauty, he had to admit. With that creamy brown skin and those big brown eyes, not to mention her lush, full curves—she would catch any male’s eye. She looked like the kind of female he would have liked to lay down and take his time with—the kind that would purr with pleasure before he finally took her.

  Except here on Yonnie Six it was the females who took the males and even the thought of a female being penetrated by a male was enough to fill the women who ruled this planet with disgust.

  That was why Vrox had threatened to defile the little Mistress with his seed—he’d been hoping to scare her off and he knew it was the worst threat he could make. The part about him having Tenebrian demon in his ancestry was bullshit, of course, but he’d known it would catch her attention. Indeed it had, too—he could still remember the look of naked fear in her big, brown eyes.

  But his growling threats had done no good—she’d bought him anyway. Or rather, her older relatives had. His grasp of High Yonnite was getting better the longer he heard it spoken, but Vrox still wasn’t quite certain why they’d decided to buy him even over the little Mistress’s protests. They seemed to think she had to train him or break him as some kind of a test or a challenge from what he could gather.

  Well, it was a challenge she was damn-well going to fail, Vrox swore to himself grimly. He was going to do everything in his power to escape from this situation and go find out what had happened to his friend. And the Goddess help anyone who got in his way—even the curvy little girl who demanded that he call her “Mistress.”

  He would do whatever it took to get away.

  Three

  “What am I going to do? What am I going to do?” Tandy paced in her room, hardly seeing the opulent decorations her late aunt had lavished on her.

  Aunt Zora had owned the Sky-needle—the tallest building in all of Yonnie Six—and it was located right in the center of downtown Opulex. Tandy’s room—or rather her floor, because her aunt had given her an entire floor of the massive building all to herself—was the second from the top. Aunt Zora had reserved the penthouse floor for herself, though Tandy had just as often been up there, spending time with her as they talked about books or art or music.

  Her late aunt had been a lover and supporter of the arts. Rather than going to the pain shows many Mistresses enjoyed where they watched slaves put through their paces, Aunt Zora had preferred the theater or the symphony.

  Tandy had been relieved that her Aunt hadn’t liked what she termed “cruel entertainments.” Having a father and brother at home who were treated by her mother as equals, she didn’t like to watch males being dominated or tortured. Aunt Zora’s staff consisted of an aging butler, a personal chef, and a driver to take her whenever she wanted to go out. All three males were almost as old as her aunt—which was to say in their sixties and seventies—and all had been devoted to Zora in every way.

  “Harmony in a home is important, Tandace,” her aunt used to tell her. “You can’t have harmony if your staff is in constant fear that they’ll be whipped or punished. You must rule them with a loving hand.”

  Which was easy to say if the males you were ruling had been born into captivity and were used to being dominated by a woman, Tandy thought grimly. But how in the galaxy was she supposed to tame one who had been caught in the wild—one who most definitely didn’t want to be tamed and broken to her command?

  She thought again of the massive Kindred growling, “I’ll do more than fuck you—I’ll defile you,” and shivered. Now there was a male who wanted absolutely nothing to do with being dominated and he was currently locked in her own private punishment and play room right now, waiting for her to do something with him.

  “What am I going to do?” Tandy asked herself again. Failure wasn’t an option. She thought again of her mother’s tearful message. Her family needed help—needed money—money which wasn’t going to be available to Tandy unless she passed this test and was judged worthy to have her late aunt’s power and estate settled on to her. Until then, she was living off of aunt Zora’s estate but with only enough for daily expenses—which wasn’t nearly as much as her family needed.

  Money, she thought desperately. If only everything didn’t cost so much! If Aunt Zora was still alive, I bet she’d give Mother the money with no problem—no questions asked. She was always so open-handed and generous. Nothing like Aunt Deelee is.

  Deelee. She’d thought of going to her remaining aunt privately—of trying to make a bargain with her and telling her that she would give up Aunt Zora’s estate if only Aunt Deelee would give her the money she needed in return. Though it was a considerable sum, it would be a drop in the bucket compared to the rest of her late aunt’s fortune.

  What stopped her from offering the deal was Deelee herself. The woman was conniving, greedy, and grasping. She had been banned from several of the best restaurants in Opulex due to her habit of dining and dashing and she was constantly trying to get services for free. No hairdresser in town would work with her because she had a habit of agreeing to one price and then haggling and complaining about their work once her hair was complete, until she wore them down to a lower amount.

  Even worse, she was a thief. Once when Tandy had been out