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Bella woke slowly, feeling groggy. The inside of her mouth tasted awful. The inside of her head felt even worse. She moaned, shifting a bit, and wondered why she was lying on something so hard and uncomfortable.

“Bella,” a familiar voice whispered urgently. “Bella, are you awake? Are you okay?”

“Alex?” Her voice came out as a hoarse croak. She forced her eyes open, blinking and squinting as the light blinded her for a moment. “Alex, what’s going on?”

There was a muffled whimpering sob behind her, and Bella tried to turn to see who was there, only to be pulled short by the bindings around her wrist, secured to a pole. She stared at the cording, horrified, before blinking and looking in the direction of Alex’s voice.

He was sitting up, leaning against another pole where his wrists were tied.

What kind of sick joke was this?

Memories swirled. Bella and her boyfriend Ken had come on vacation to Earth with his best friend, Alex, and Alex’s girlfriend Lisa. They’d only had a few days left before going home when she and Alex had gone out to a museum that neither Ken nor Lisa were interested in. Bella and Alex had come back early from the museum, feeling bad about deserting their partners, to find that Ken and Lisa hadn’t missed them at all.

Bella had been horrified. Alex had been angry. They’d both packed up their stuff immediately, ignoring the pleas from Ken and Lisa, and gotten in a taxi. She’d been so glad Alex had been there; Bella knew she was a bit of a pushover and, if it hadn’t been for Alex’s righteous anger, she wasn’t sure she would have been able to resist Ken’s manipulations and explanations. Not to mention her family had been incredibly approving of their relationship: Ken’s father was very influential when it came to assigning space in the housing installations. It had been Alex who had helped her realize she had every right to break up with Ken; that it wasn’t her fault he’d cheated on her, and that she needed to get away. Now.

But what the hell had happened after they’d gotten in the taxi? She remembered crying on Alex’s shoulder and then… nothing.

“I’m sorry, Bella, I’m so, so sorry,” Alex said miserably.

“What’s going on?” she asked again, her voice becoming a bit shrill.

“Shhh.” He did his best to be soothing, although it was obvious from the tension in his body he suppressed his own amount of panic. “Stay quiet.” There was enough of a forceful demand in his voice that she pushed down the scream that wanted to bubble up out of her throat.

Another whimper behind her had her scooting toward the pole so she could sit up the way Alex was and look around. A fragile-looking young woman was also tied to a nearby pole, although separated from Bella and Alex by about ten feet. With her big crystal-blue eyes, white-blonde hair, and slight figure, the young woman looked like a captured pixie.

“What’s going on?” Bella asked again, unable to completely keep the panic out of her whisper.

“I’m so sorry,” Alex repeated, looking even more miserable. “We should have never come to Earth… never gotten into that taxi…”

Slowly, the hazy memories coalesced. She remembered Alex asking the driver why he was descending into the city when they should have been ascending to head to the space port… The sickly sweet smell that had filled her nose and mouth, and Alex shouting…

“Oh my god…”

“Bella, it’s okay, be calm.”

“Calm? Be calm? How can you say that?” Her voice rose to a shriek, which cut off when metal scraped against concrete. All three of them turned toward the sound, and Bella’s breath strangled in her throat.

The biggest and most dangerous looking man she’d ever seen in her life filled the doorway. The room they were in felt much smaller than it had a moment ago. His cold gaze swept over all three of them but lingered on the little blonde, who whimpered again as his lips hooked up in a cruel smile. The man had the same white-blonde hair as the young woman, although his was barely half an inch long, cut very close to his head, and his eyes were a vacant, sinister grey. Bella didn’t blame the other woman for whimpering—she felt like doing so herself, and he’d only looked at her for a moment. There was something about him, the way he held himself maybe, that screamed violence and danger. This was the kind of man who would never be approved for immigration to the Moon, based on that alone.

With his dark pants and their many, bulging pockets, a grey t-shirt, and a vest that also looked to have filled pockets, the first word that went through Bella’s mind was ‘ Mercenary .’

“Good. You’re all awake.”

The cruel smile widened in anticipation, and Bella finally understood why her roommates had wanted her to be quiet.

* * *

After roping them together and hobbling their ankles by cuffing them with a short metal bar between the cuffs, Jordan—as he’d introduced himself—took Bella, Alex and the other young woman down the hall to a large, tiled room with a drain in the middle of the floor. It took every ounce of Bella’s willpower not to start screaming. It would make no sense for Jordan to wake them up and then kill them, but if that’s what he intended to do, this room would be the ideal place for it.

He removed the cords that joined them together and then grabbed Alex’s bound wrists. For a moment, Alex tensed, and Bella worried he would try to fight. Although Alex was a couple inches over six feet, Jordan was slightly taller than that, and had a lot more muscle. Alex wasn’t exactly weak-looking, but his muscles came from the body-conditioning every young person went through on the Moon. Jordan had obviously built his through far less reputable activities. Like beating people until they stopped making noises.

They didn’t know where they were, what other guards might be around, and Alex’s feet were hobbled along with his wrists. As much as Bella wanted to get out of here, now wasn’t their chance.

Fortunately, Alex knew that, too, because he relaxed and allowed Jordan to attach his wrists to a chain that hung down from the ceiling.

“Smart boy,” was Jordan’s only comment.

The little tic in Alex’s jaw indicated his rage. She’d seen that same tic when Lisa had tried to tell him she’d only fucked Ken because she thought he’d like it—after all, hadn’t they joked about swinging on the trip?

A moment later, Jordan had strung up Bella and the young blonde woman in the same manner. The young woman was even shorter than Bella had realized—her head barely came up to Jordan’s chest. Next to the huge man, she looked even smaller than before. Bella hated the little part of her that was relieved the giant was obviously more fascinated with the blonde than he was with Bella. When he’d put Bella’s wrists above her head, it had been with as little fanfare as he’d made with Alex.

While Jordan seemed to be gentler with the blonde, who cried silent tears down her porcelain cheeks, he also ran his hands over her body. Which, of course, just made her cry harder.

And what was wrong with her that she was wondering why he didn’t have that interest, as long as he didn’t?

Then Jordan pulled out a knife.

Now Bella couldn’t stop the tears either, and the other young woman started bawling outright. Alex began to struggle against the cords, yelling at Jordan to leave ‘the women’ alone.

“ Quiet ,” Jordan shouted. They all fell silent as he glared at them. “You’re all perfectly safe. Understood?” Bella nodded, Alex glared, and the young woman just cried some more. Jordan gave her a glance and ran his free hand along her cheek. “Quiet down, little one,” he said, firmly. Bella stared at him in surprise: he’d sounded almost tender.

Quickly, efficiently, he cut off the young woman’s clothes. She was tried valiantly to stifle her sobs, but had trouble with it, considering her body was stretched out and now exposed. She was a slight little thing, her breasts tipped with pink, pointed nipples like pencil erasers. Jordan tutted over the pale blonde hair between her legs. His hands ran over her body again, almost possessively, before he turned away from her and moved toward Bella.

Cold, slate eyes swept over her, taking in her tears. Unlike the blonde, Bella didn’t get any reassurance, but he also didn’t run his hands over her. Just the swift motions of the knife, a sharp smack to her bottom that made her cry out when he’d grasped her panties and she tried to twist away, and then he was done and moving on.

* * *

Geezus… Alex wasn’t going to look at Bella. he wasn’t going to look at Bella…

Alex snapped his eyes closed to keep from looking at Bella. It was so ridiculously wrong of him to even consider it in this situation. Sure, he’d always thought she was too good for Ken—whom he’d known was a bit of a dog even if they had been best friends—but Alex had never tried to picture her naked. The fact that she was dating his best friend meant Bella was off limits. Too bad his best friend hadn’t felt that way about Alex’s girlfriend.

He’d known he and Lisa were having problems, and they’d talked on occasion about swinging or threesomes, but he’d always thought they’d been mostly joking. Having her decide to fuck his best friend behind his back was not something he’d ever expected to have to worry about. And now he’d dragged Bella into those problems, too. Dammit, why couldn’t he have just gotten a different room in the hotel? Or joined Bella in hers where they could have cried on each other’s shoulders, rather than letting his pride get the better of him and insist on storming out and ending the vacation early?

Then they wouldn’t be in this mess.

Were they being taken hostage? Everyone knew young people from the Moon had supremely wealthy families, and it did happen every now and then. Or was this something worse? He’d always discounted the idea that the Wolf might actually take someone like him. The Wolf usually dealt in couples traveling alone or young men or women who were in a large group but were unattached. The whole point of traveling with Ken and Bella had been to ensure a kind of safety-in-numbers strategy.

Finished with Bella, Jordan stepped in front of Alex, jolting him from the whirling chaos in his mind. His thoughts were spinning round and round, distracting him, until he was forced back to the present by Jordan’s attention.

Jordan sliced the clothes from Alex’s body with the same brutal efficiency with which he’d eradicated Bella’s. Bella, with her fantastic curves and those beautiful, dark-pink nipples, that little strip of dark hair on her mound?—

Dammit, stop it!

He tasted bile in the back of his throat. It didn’t matter how beautiful Bella was or how fantastic she looked naked; he was just as much of a dog as Ken to be thinking about that right now. Hell, he was worse than Ken.

“Don’t try to be a big man or you’ll just get yourself and those girls hurt,” Jordan murmured, his voice low enough that Alex knew it was for his ears only.

Then the other man moved away again.

Jordan’s indifferent hands washed all three prisoners down with lukewarm water and soap. Well, indifferent to Alex and Bella; he lingered over Trish.

Alex had managed to exchange a few words with her when he’d first woken up, so he knew she was a scholarship exchange student in her second semester of college abroad. The little whimpering cries she made as Jordan washed her had Alex yelling again, but the big man ignored it. Bella was crying too. Alex hated himself for watching the tears dripping onto her breasts, especially when he felt a stirring in his groin as he looked at the creamy mounds with their pretty pink nipples.

Afterward, they were given mouthwash to rinse out the taste of their drugged sleep. It was strange how little things like a wash and a clean mouth could make his brain less fuzzy. Or maybe he was just finally waking up.

The three prisoners were hobbled with a bar that attached to their ankles, wrists tied behind their backs, and marched down a hall. The buzzing sounds of muffled voices came from a door at the end of it, and the muscles in Alex’s stomach tightened with tension. He couldn’t imagine how the girls must be feeling, considering their naked and vulnerable position and the abundance of lower, masculine voices coming from the end of the hall.

The stories of the Wolf rippled through his mind; the rumors and interviews with the released victims. The ones who had been willing to be interviewed had worn their time in captivity like a badge of honor. The others had returned to as normal of lives as they could without ever talking about what had happened to them. Alex prayed they had been taken by the Wolf, and that he would only be interested in them for a few days. Orgies and deviant sex for a couple days didn’t sound so bad. Much better than some of the possible alternatives, and it was a well-known fact the young men and women taken by the Wolf were always returned in good physical health—even the ones that were kept for months.

Horrible to know Alex hoped for them to be put in a position where they would be unwilling sexual participants in some seriously kinky shit, but that was better than being dead or maimed, right? Especially when they knew they would eventually be released, intact and basically unharmed.

He hoped.

* * *

The room Jordan led them into was almost empty, despite being large enough to hold a multitude of people. It reminded Bella of her history lessons, when they’d studied ancient Earth and the royalty who had ruled over the time period. There was even a slightly raised platform on which there was a table. Chairs were scattered around the table, six in all, but only one man currently sat there. Despite the feeling of being before a throne, the starkness of the room, the bright overhead lights illuminating every corner, the lack of luxury, made everything feel all the more threatening. This was not a place of leisure or comfort – it was a threat.

Not a king, but a despot sat on the hard silver throne before them.

There were other men standing against the wall, guards perhaps, but they all faded into the background compared to him.

Bella’s breath caught in her throat. No one had ever seen a picture of the Wolf. No one even knew his real name or where he originated, but everyone knew the description. Tall, dark hair that he’d allowed to go silver at the temples—shocking in an age where almost no one retained their true hair color past the age of forty, preferring to use the various applications that were available to keep the appearance of youth— a muscular body, bright, piercing, green eyes that were hard as jade, a long Roman nose, and cruel lips. She’d always wondered how lips could be described as ‘cruel,’ but seeing this man she understood. They were thin, mobile, and the smile upon them was threateningly cold.

She shivered, and not just because of the chill in the room or because she was naked. Bella had almost forgotten her nude state, she’d been so ensnared by the powerful man at the end of the room. Now she shivered again and hunched her shoulders forward, all too aware of the ropes that kept her hands behind her, of the hobbles that kept her from fleeing.

Beside her, Alex growled under his breath. She flicked a glance at him, trying desperately not to look anywhere below his shoulders. Beyond her boyfriend—now ex—Bella didn’t have a whole lot of experience with men, so she hadn’t seen a lot of penises. The urge to look at one swinging so close to her was nearly overwhelming, but it felt way too intrusive. It wasn’t like Alex was unclothed by choice, and she could tell he’d been doing his best not to look at her or the other woman.

Jordan was leading them forward with the blonde in front, his hand wrapped possessively around her upper arm, towering over her in a way that might have been protective in another situation. Bella didn’t know what to think of it. She really didn’t know what to think of anything… Her head rang with the words “We should have stayed at the hotel” over and over again, but it wasn’t like hindsight was any help to them now.

“Jordan.” The man behind the desk stood as they approached, his gaze flicking over each one of them in turn. It was a quick visual inspection, but it felt very thorough.

Bella quailed and automatically leaned toward Alex for comfort. He was already chafing at the bit, angling himself forward so she was slightly behind him. The sharp, jade eyes noted his movement. Had Alex’s obvious protectiveness just helped or hurt them?

The smile across the Wolf’s face—it had to be the Wolf—wasn’t at all reassuring. “So, what have you brought me today, Jordan? A present?”

His voice was low, gravelly, and hypnotically seductive. Bella stared, shocked to hear such an appealing sound coming from the mouth of a man who was completely physically intimidating.

“You did say you wanted a replacement for Abby soon,” Jordan said, his voice indifferent. The big man didn’t seem at all intimidated by the Wolf, although something about Jordan’s stance said he respected the other man a great deal and he would follow where the Wolf led.

Abby…

Bella remembered the name and the face: a young woman with coppery-red hair and big grey eyes, assumed to have been taken by the Wolf while on holiday on Earth in Old Europa. Her picture and information had been on the newsfeed for months—not because people were worried about her return— once a young man who had been taken for a couple days had confirmed her whereabouts, but because everyone was so fascinated by the Wolf and his… predilections.

“Mmmm… I could be persuaded to take a blonde. It would make a contrast from Abby.” The Wolf’s face was serious, athough Bella got the impression he was teasing Jordan. It was obvious where the big blonde man’s interests lay. When he didn’t get a reaction, the Wolf continued. “Then again, it has been a while since I’ve had a couple.”

“We’re not a couple!” Bella blurted without thinking. Her only coherent instinct was to find some way to get out of this situation, and if the Wolf wanted a couple… Then, she was horrified as the blonde’s face turned to her with an expression of shock and despair. Had Bella just thrown the other woman under the bus? Would she really do such a thing to save herself?

“Not… a couple…” the Wolf said slowly, lingering over the words as if tasting them to see how he liked them. Examining her and Alex more closely now, he leaned forward, his sharp gaze obviously taking note of Alex’s protective stance and the way she huddled against him for support. Bella’s cheeks flushed as that intense gaze traveled over her body again. Her nipples had hardened in the cool air of the room, and she prayed the man didn’t read anything into it. She kept her mouth clamped shut.

Maybe it was too late for the blonde, especially with the way Jordan had been acting, but Bella wasn’t going to do anything further to push the other woman to her fate. Bella wasn’t—wouldn’t be—that kind of person.

“Driver said there was another couple following them out of the hotel, begging for a second chance.” Jordan sounded both amused and smug. “From what I understand, these two caught their partners together. I thought you might find the dynamic intriguing.”

God… had it really only been earlier today when she and Alex had discovered Ken and Lisa together? It felt like ages and ages ago. It also felt small and insignificant compared to what they were facing now, although at the time, it had felt like the end of the world.

Bella blinked. The Wolf now looked at her and Alex with an increasingly arrested expression, his feigned interest in Jordan completely abandoned. A sick feeling rose in her gut as she realized Jordan had known exactly what would cause the Wolf to lose interest in the other young woman. And that Bella’s own words had confirmed Jordan’s supposition.

“You may have the blonde,” the Wolf said, waving his hand at the young woman, his cat-like eyes roving over Bella and Alex, very much like a large and dangerous predator.

Beside her, Alex growled “Trish!” and tried to move. The blonde’s name must be Trish. Immediately, several men who had been standing on the sidelines—practically unnoticed compared to the Wolf’s overwhelming presence, and to a lesser extent, Jordan’s—converged on him. One of them grabbed Bella’s ropes and held her in place as well, while the Wolf came down off the dais to examine her and Alex more closely. Alex struggled, and the three men who held him forced him to his knees.

Next to them, Jordan pulled Trish away and lowered his head to whisper in her ear. He held her against his chest in an almost comforting manner, only belied by the way his hand traveled down her naked back to caress her ass. The young woman started sobbing again, but Bella couldn’t focus on that. Not with the Wolf walking toward her.

Up close, he was even more intimidating. The grace with which he moved was elegant while giving off the impression of being deadly. The comparison to a large cat-like predator wasn’t far off. Strange that they called him the Wolf, really, although she knew it was more for his behavior than his looks. In appearance, in the way he moved, he was more like the holo-vids she’d seen of panthers, before they’d become extinct.

Her breathing shallowed, panted, as he circled her to look over every inch of her naked body. She closed her eyes and tried to pretend she was… well, anywhere but here, really. Anywhere else in the entire universe.

“Quite nice.”

Bella’s eyes flew open, and she squeaked as two hands hefted her breasts and caused her to look directly into the Wolf’s amused, emerald eyes. Beside her, Alex shouted to leave her alone. She would have cringed back, but the man holding her ropes had shifted behind her, making it impossible for her to move away from the Wolf’s explorations.

“I do enjoy a curvy woman.” The Wolf smiled down at her in approval. Her mouth was so dry, she couldn’t have answered even if she’d thought of anything to say. The moment he’d touched her, her mind had completely blanked and, as he gently squeezed her breasts to see her reaction, all she could do was whimper.

The gentle caress of his thumbs over her nipples made Bella shiver, and she inwardly cursed herself for the tingles that shot through her body.

This isn’t me. It’s not what I want. It’s not my fault. It’s just biology.

Maybe a little bit of the Wolf’s natural charisma had rubbed off on her, too. In another time, another place, she might have been incredibly attracted to him.

“Stop touching her,” Alex rasped from beside them, still struggling against both his restraints and the men holding him.

“Wait your turn, toy.” The Wolf didn’t look at Alex. His eyes were still on Bella’s face as he pinched her nipples and brought her attention back to him. The slight bite of pain and pleasure zinged through her, straight to her clit. “I’m playing with pet right now.”

Her insides chilled. These were his terms for them, his names for them. Pet and toy. He fondled her expertly and kept her eyes glued to his, and Bella wanted to moan in protest from the heat kindling inside her belly. It was so, so very wrong, and yet her body responded anyway, regardless of what she wanted.

“What’s your name, pet?

She licked her dry lips and forced herself to answer. “Bella.”

“And what’s toy’s name?”

Alex growled, but she didn’t look at him. Looking away from the Wolf probably wouldn’t be treated so lightly a second time. “Alex.”

“Bella and Alex. Pet and Toy. I like it.” The smile he gave her was not at all reassuring.

Then he slid one hand down her stomach, and Bella moaned. Not because it felt good, but because she knew what he would find when he probed between her pussy lips, and she had no doubts that’s where his fingers were headed. With his other hand still on her breast, squeezing and kneading and teasing her nipple, the Wolf moved his hand between her legs. Her muscles strained as she automatically tried to press her legs together, tried to stop him from touching her, but the bar Jordan had secured as a hobble had more than one purpose.

When the Wolf’s fingers came away wet, coated in glossy fluid, Bella closed her eyes again. She couldn’t look. The Wolf laughed, and something slick spread over her lips. The smell of her musk filled her nose, and she felt sick with the humiliation.

“Pet’s wet, Toy.” The Wolf moved away from her. Bella opened her eyes to find him advancing on Alex, holding his fingers in front of him with the evidence of her arousal. “She’s such a very good pet already, I think we should reward her.”

“Sir.”

A deep voice from the end of the room caught everyone’s attention. Bella craned her neck to see who was speaking. Another man came forward with a redhead by his side. She was naked, her hands behind her back, and her head bowed so Bella couldn’t see her face. Jewelry jingled on her nipples, and flashes of gold shone from between her legs, indicating something there, as well.

“Ah.” The Wolf sounded satisfied. “Slave. I have good news. You’ve been replaced. You were a very good slave, and you can now go home to your family.” He said it with all the joviality of a man bestowing a great privilege.

The woman’s head came up sharply, and Bella recognized Abby from the holos. Her eyes were wide as she took in the scene before her, and the most astonishing array of expressions flashed over her face—relief, disappointment, hope, and finally sympathy as she looked at Alex and Bella.

“Thank you, Master.”

“I’m not your Master anymore. Go and have a good life.” He waved his hand and turned back to his newest playthings. Bella caught one more glimpse of Abby’s face, and the relief was back, as well as the strangest impression the Wolf had somehow hurt the young woman’s feelings. And then she was turning, led away by the man who had brought her in.

Bella knew the drill from the news vids. At some point today or tomorrow, Abby would arrive at the shuttleport, safe and sound. She’d be hounded by reporters the moment they realized who she was. Her family would be notified. They’d probably be there to greet her the moment she landed on the Moon and to do whatever they needed to maneuver through the social minefield that was part of being a returned “guest” of the Wolf’s. While many of the younger members of their Society saw it as a point of interest, or even a badge of honor, there were just as many who saw the returned persons as damaged goods. Not that they’d say anything so insensitive in public, of course, but the stigma as well as the fascination, was there.

Bella had always been fascinated. And she hadn’t blamed the victims. Although she hadn’t thought she’d ever be in their place, either.

“So, Toy, what do you think we should reward Pet with?” the Wolf asked as if he hadn’t just released a young woman back to her real life after months of keeping her in a position of sexual slavery.

“Freedom. Let her go.”

Bella stared at Alex, astonished. Would he really try to send her away at the cost to himself? How could she leave him here, even if the Wolf agreed? She’d never forgive herself.

The Wolf laughed uproariously, so she knew it wouldn’t happen anyway. But at least he found them amusing right now. She’d gotten the impression he enjoyed toying with them, playing with them, but if they bored him, he’d find other ways to make them interesting. And Bella really didn’t think she wanted to know what those other ways might be.

“Oh, I do like spirit.” The Wolf’s eyes glowed as he looked down at Alex with the same speculation and interest with which he’d examined Bella. “You two are going to be quite delightful. In fact… I know.” He turned back to Bella and rested one hand on Alex’s head. Alex tried to toss it off, but the Wolf just gripped his hair tightly and jerked his head upright hard enough that Alex grunted with pain. “Bella, Pet—you get a choice. Do you want me to fuck you right now? Or do you want Toy to fuck you?”