Page 13

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

-Clay-

THIS WAS IT , he was really going to do it now; I could see it in his eyes. He climbed up onto the bed, straddling me with his muscled purple thighs, and I squirmed and managed to get my feet up between us, planted flat on his chest. I pushed as hard as I could, grunting with effort. He weighed as much as a fucking cruiser. But I managed to shove him away a few inches. Not much, but just enough to get a bit of space between us so that he wasn’t directly on top of me. If he got me pinned, I wasn’t getting away.

I heaved again and a growl ripped out of him like a wild animal, lips pulled back in a terrifying snarl that showed the deadly points of his teeth. A shock wave went through me, passing over my logical brain and stabbing straight into the primal instinct to freeze, play dead, hope the predator left me alone. For a terrifying moment, I couldn’t move, couldn’t breathe. And just like that, what small opportunity I had was gone. He was on top of me, pinning me down into the soft material of the bed with his full weight.

“ Why are you trying to ruin this for us ?” He growled, and tore one of the sashes around his waist free; a long strip of bright blue, gauzy material that gleamed like silk.

Before I could react, he gripped my arm and began to wind the fabric tightly around my wrist. I gave up trying to pull my arm free and swung my other fist at him with a grunt. He caught it effortlessly mid-swing.

“Are you trying to make me angry ?”

He added my wrist to the other and I struggled against him, trying in vain to tear my arms from his grasp, but it was like steel. He bound my wrists, the fabric cutting into my flesh as I struggled, grunting and cursing.

This was insane. This was fucking insane.

“Get off me,” I gasped.

He released my hands, now tightly bound, and moved down my body, collecting one thrashing leg, then the other. He untied another sash from his waist and bound my ankles tightly with swift, firm movements. Now I was bound hand and foot, unable to move or fight back, the golden chains doing almost nothing to cover me. Panic filled me.

Finished with my feet, he dropped them onto the bed and knelt over me, taking my jaw in his hand. It was so big his fingers wrapped around either side of my face, cupping my entire head with hard fingers. I tried to pull away, but he jerked me back and forced me to look at him, his face inches from mine, his amber eyes burning into me like a flame.

I stilled. There was nothing else I could do but meet his eyes with a heated glare of my own. I hoped it didn’t show the complete terror I was feeling. I’d never been one to back down, even when I knew I was beaten, and I wasn’t going to start now, whatever happened next. I swallowed.

At that moment, my head filled with the same strange dizziness that I’d felt earlier. I blinked hard as my head spun.

It was also at that precise moment that my stupid dick decided it was actually quite enjoying itself. Before I knew what was happening, heat grew in my navel and spread downwards.

Oh God…are you serious? Now is not the time.

I squeezed my eyes shut. This could not be happening. I could feel my ears and neck getting hot, and knew they would be turning a blotchy red.

The bed jostled and jumped underneath me as Arcay moved, and the pressure eased. I opened my eyes to see him standing and looking down at me in the mess of sheets. His chest moved with his heavy breath, and something crossed his face. He blinked rapidly and broke eye contact.

“No,” he said.

No? No what?

He moved away from the bed and pulled what looked like a long, golden spear off the wall where it hung on a set of hooks. I flinched at the sight of it. He tossed it across the room and it embedded itself in the floor at the end of the bed, its shaft quivering. Then he came back to the bed and lifted me, raising my arms and hooking my bound hands over one of the now empty hooks, so that I hung with my back pressed to the cold wall.

I writhed furiously. “What are you doing?”

The air in the room grew hotter as he leaned in, his tongue passing over his lips in one swift movement. “I refuse to claim you by force,” he hissed. “You will offer yourself to me.”

“You’re fucking crazy. I’d never do that,” I said.

His lips curved, more a sneer than a smile. “You will not be able to resist. My pheromones are already taking control of you. It will not be long before you are begging me to claim you.”

My eyes went wide. Pheromones? Was that what was making me feel like this? Panic lanced through me at the thought of being unable to control my own body. I could feel the dizzying heat passing through me. My face grew hot, sweat prickling across my chest and back. I shifted, and the stupid, flimsy chains I was wearing swayed and tickled against the skin of my chest and groin, spreading lines of unwanted tingles.

He leaned in close to me, his face inches from mine. I narrowed my eyes, trying to fight against the heat burning in my chest and between my legs.

He growled and his wild eyes fell to my lips, the hot breath from his snarling mouth brushing against my face.

Suddenly the heat exploded and flushed through me, mingling with my anger in a heady concoction that made me shift against him. A sudden, irresistible urge to surge upwards and cover his furious mouth with mine made my lips shake.

Is this the pheromones? I thought desperately, trying to clear my foggy head. It must have been, because kissing this monster was the last thing I wanted to do. What I wanted to do was punch him in his stupid, sculpted, handsome face again and again, until that smug expression was gone, and then grab him by the neck with both of my hands, and feel his pulse quicken as I licked up the line of his jaw—

Wait, no. I blinked, startled. Where did that come from? I wanted to fuck him up, not fuck him. I wanted to fuck him up so bad he would have to hold me down with his big strong hands, and show me how I wanted it—

Wait. Shit. I shook my head frantically. It was the pheromones, they were taking over my mind.

I realized he was pressed against me so entirely I could feel every slight shift, every twitch of his muscles as I moved against him again. When did that happen? My hips flexed of their own accord, grinding against him, and a low noise in his chest vibrated through me. He dipped his head over mine, his burning eyes engulfing me.

“You cannot deny me, omega. Your body is already calling to me. Before long, you will beg me to claim you. And I will.” His deep voice had me writhing, pressed between his hot muscles and the cold wall at my back. “I will have you. All of you. Body and soul, you will belong to me…but only when you beg me.”

I struggled to swallow the sudden dryness in my throat. Heat prickled my skin and my head swam with heady need.

No, no, I wouldn’t let that happen.

I thought I said the words inside my own head, but he spoke again, responding to me.

“You can deny it all you want. But you will beg me. You will offer yourself up to me willingly, and I will claim you as mine.”

I swallowed the groan that rose in my throat at his words and tried to keep still, but my skin was alive where he pressed against me. I clenched my hands. I couldn’t hide it much longer; the only thing that stood between him and my swiftly growing erection was a flimsy curtain of shifting gold chains. And at this rate, they wouldn’t be for much longer.

I gasped when he pressed his mouth against the side of my neck, hard and hot. His lips parted and he sucked the flesh into his mouth. I swallowed down another groan, flexing my hips.

He dragged his teeth across my hazy flesh, back and forth, as if seeking the right spot. Then he sunk his teeth in. Sharp pain shot up and down my neck. I cried out and strained against him, pleasure and pain mingling.

When he pulled away, something hot trailed down the side of my neck. I looked down. A single line of blood tracked down my chest and stained the golden chains bright red.

“You…you bit me,” I gasped.

He leaned back in and licked up the side of my neck with a flat tongue, collecting the blood, and circled the tender spot of his bite. He pressed down on it with his rough tongue. I hissed. To my horror, it felt good. Really fucking good.I stifled a groan.

He backed up a few inches, as flushed as I felt.

“The saliva will prevent the bite from fully healing, marking you permanently as mine for everyone to see,” he said breathlessly.

He pressed his face to my throat again, ran his tongue leisurely over my skin, and took one last long inhale, before he stepped away. This time, I had to hold in a groan for a different reason; I wanted him pressed against me again, keeping me pinned in place. I felt cold and exposed without him.

His eyes fell to my crotch, where no doubt my raging boner poked luridly through the screen of flimsy chains around my hips. He rumbled, low and throaty. I tried to block out the embarrassment and humiliation raging through me, but my vulnerability and his probing gaze only turned me on more. I was so hard it hurt. I tried to angle my hips away from him to hide how aroused I was.

“You see? Your body is already begging for me. It will not be long before your mouth joins in.”

I glared at him, cheeks burning.

“I won’t,” I said, teeth gritted so hard it made my jaw ache. My idiotic body could get as horny as it wanted, but I wasn’t going to give in.

He raked me with heavy-lidded eyes. “We will see.” Then he turned and, without another word, walked away, leaving me hanging. Literally.

“Hey,” I shouted at his broad back. “You can’t just leave me here.”

But he didn’t even look back at me. The door hissed shut behind him, leaving me strung up, chest heaving and muscles quivering.

I struggled but no amount of twisting, tugging or squirming would loosen the knots around my wrists. I looked down, and, sure enough, my dick was sticking out of the stupid chain curtain, rock hard and fucking ridiculous. I groaned again, a mix of humiliation, disbelief, and helpless burning horniness.

My body was crying out for release that couldn’t come. I needed something, anything. I squirmed, my hips flexing in an aborted thrust into thin air, making the gold chains sway and brush featherlight touches against my dick. I moaned, desperate and frustrated out of my mind; but with my hands tied above me there was nothing I could do but squirm in painful arousal.

That absolute asshole.

I threw my head back and shouted every curse word that I knew.

What the hell had just happened? Thank fuck he left when he did, because I was on the verge of letting Arcay do whatever he wanted to me. And worse; I had almost asked him for it.

Shit, he was right. Whatever was happening inside me, I had no control over it. I had to get out of here.

Or I was going to give in.

***

MY ARMS WERE numb. I didn’t know how long I’d been hanging there, but it was enough for my erection to have softened and my arousal to have cooled, leaving a sick feeling in my stomach. I had been uncomfortably hot before, but now I was shivering. I was basically naked, and my hair stood up in goose pimples.

When was that indigo asshole going to come back and let me down? He wasn’t going to just leave me here, was he? I wondered about my crew; where were they now? Was everyone ok? Would they come back for me? Even though I was sure they wouldn’t leave me behind, a small part of me feared they would. But no, Caldwell wouldn’t let them. He’d make them come back for me, he wouldn’t leave me here like this…

Would he?

I jumped when I heard the door open; someone was moving around in the main room. The movement shot pins and needles down my arms, and I grunted at the pain. My fingers were stiff and numb, and every movement was agony. The noise drew nearer, and an alien stepped into the room, but it wasn’t Arcay. I recognized him as the smaller alien from before, Frowny, and he was followed close behind by the other one, Excited. He spotted me instantly and quickly looked away, while Frowny didn’t even look in my direction once. They set about collecting the discarded bowls and spilled food.

I shifted, trying to relieve the stabbing pain in my hands and the ache that throbbed through my arms, and managed to make it worse.

“Hey,” I hissed.

They continued to tidy up without looking at me.

I tried again, louder this time. “Hey, could you loosen my hands a little? Please?”

Excited glanced up at me for a moment, before hurriedly looking away again.

I pitched my voice slightly more desperate. “I need to get out of here and get back to my ship, my people.” What could I say that might convince him? “I can give you something, anything. I can pay you.”

Did they use the same currency as us? It might be useless offering them money, for all I knew they didn’t use any. I tried to think of something else that might be of value to them, but I was drawing a blank. What did I actually have that I could offer besides money? I dropped that line of thought before it got too depressing and tried another.

“My captain will be grateful if you let me go, he’ll reward you. Hell, the emperor himself will reward you. He can give you whatever you want.”

The Emperor of Earth wasn’t exactly generous, but they didn’t know that It was worth a try, right? But still, they ignored me. Excited, who was closest to me, hunched his shoulders as if trying to protect himself from my words.

I was getting desperate now, I needed to get the hell out of there before the big, purple asshole came back. I didn’t know what I’d do if he did the pheromone thing on me again.

I tried one last time, my voice wavering. “Please, help me. I just want to get out of here. I don’t belong here, I’m not one of you. I want to go home.”

I must have sounded really pathetic, because Excited finally looked up at me with an uncomfortable grimace. Hope mingled with embarrassment as he studied me, because even though I was stretched out against the wall with my hands tied over my head, he was finally responding to me.

He edged closer to me, glancing at Frowny, who had his back turned to us as he cleaned the spilled food. Excited flicked a button on the translator that now hung at his waist on a belt, turning it on. My heart pounded with relief at the thought of finally getting some help. But instead of reaching up to untie me, he shook his head and spoke in a halting whisper.

“I am sorry, I cannot.” He gave me a pained smile.

Frowny looked up and glared at him, hissing something.

“Please,” I said, pouring everything I had into it. He was my only hope, the only one who had been even slightly nice to me this whole time.

His face twisted with regret.

“It will be better for you if you just do as he says, human omega. He is not as bad as he seems to you.”

“Stop speaking to him,” Frowny snapped, and Excited gave me one last look of apology, before he turned away and snapped at the other one.

“Keep your undergarments in place, I was not going to do anything.”

Frowny glared at me, clear warning in his eyes as he gathered the last of the bowls and they moved back towards the door.

“Wait. Just—” I slumped back against the wall as they left. “Oh come on.” Sheer frustration took over, and I struggled with everything I had, pulling at my hands and twisting my body like a fish on a hook. The muscles of my arms screamed in pain, but the bindings held fast, and I shouted at the empty room. “Fuck.”