Trading Teon (The Beast Masters Series) (3 page)

She
noticed them watching her as if she were a piece of meat to be fought over. It
was a good thing. If two men were interested in her, then it upped her chances
of avoiding prison or death. She continued to try to hide her bruises from
them, fearing they’d see her as damaged and move on to another woman.

Sara
quickly found herself under the attention of two males as well. One of the men
showing interest in Sara was even bigger than the males around him. He seemed
very taken with Sara’s red hair. Teon couldn’t blame him. It was alluring and a
color one didn’t see every day.

The
raven-haired man stepped closer to Teon. “Where do you hail from?”

His voice
was so deep the sound of it reverberated through her. She didn’t respond. She
couldn’t. Now that he was close, she got a good look at him and he was
gorgeous. His eyes were so dark, they too bordered on black. Thick lashes
surrounded them and his chiseled face screamed powerful male—the kind of male
who had but to twitch his finger and people would listen. She wanted to touch
him to see if he was hard all over. This wasn’t like her. She wasn’t the type
of woman who would pet a strange man. Sure she’d managed her fair share of
infractions on Earth in regards to sexual conduct, but this was too much.

“Do you
speak?” asked the man.

Again, she
said nothing.

He dragged
his gaze over her slowly, causing her body to heat. She shifted slightly. The
wetness between her legs grew and she had to fight to keep from moaning. She wanted
to be touched by him and wanted to be touched now. She wanted those long, thick
fingers to shove inside her pussy and ease the ache building there.

The blond
approached. He too was amazingly gorgeous. Did the planet produce a male who
wasn’t? And what was in the air that was making her so damn horny. She burned,
and if someone didn’t fix the problem soon she’d scream.

The blond
surveyed her. He inclined his head, his measured gaze sliding over her slowly
with clear appreciation. “She is certainly something to look at, isn’t she,
Garon?”

Garon. Now
she had a name to pair with the raven-haired man.

“Be gone,
Lorne,” said Garon. “This will not end well for you.”

“Are you
telling me you’re interested in purchasing her?” Lorne seemed amused at the
idea. Teon nearly took offense. “You brag about never wanting a woman—a
collared female to tie you down.”

Collared
female.

Teon
jerked at the statement. She recalled from her studies that the planet of males
took mates and did in fact collar them as a show of ownership. The idea should
have turned her off. Instead, she eyed the men coyly, wondering if either would
pick her to put their collar on.

Garon
exhaled and ran a hand over the bulge in his pants. “Yet the beast and I feel
the urge to reproduce upon us.”

Lorne’s
eyes widened. “
The Heat
has
come over you?”

“It
nears,” said Garon, refusing to look away from her. His very gaze was making
her hot enough to want to burst. If he touched her, Teon feared she’d melt or
simply ignite on the spot. “This one, though simple in the head, pleases my
senses.”

Simple in the head?

Teon
nearly kicked the man in the shin. She’d been top of her class with the highest
marks. She’d been educated in the finest of schools, and her tutors growing up
were the best money could buy. She’d always had the finest.

Until now.

She was
hardly simple, unlike him and his very barbaric ways and culture. She was from
Earth, known the galaxy and universe over for its cultured inhabitants. He
towered over her five-foot-six inch frame. She huffed but kept her head bent,
her hair still in her face.

Lorne
snickered. “Pleases your senses? Meaning you would be willing to buy her, claim
her and then sink your cock into her and her alone for the rest of your life?
If you were to collar the bitch, she’d be the only pussy you’d have until the
end of your days. Is that what you mean?”

Garon
puffed his chest. “Yes.”

Teon’s
dislike of the man faded fast. She wasn’t keen on being referred to as a bitch,
but with her current situation she’d been called worse. It was hard to hate a
guy who was willing to give up his bachelor life after having just one look at
her. Lorne moved closer and she was given a better look at him as well. He too
took her breath away. Men simply weren’t made that way where she was from. This
planet seemed stocked with nothing but eye-pleasing man candy.

Her pussy
dampened more and both men’s nostrils flared. They sniffed the air, their eyes
swirling quickly with a mix of colors. Garon’s dark eyes went to an icy blue
and Lorne’s green eyes went quickly to lavender. They moved in closer to her
and stiffened again.

She held
perfectly still, suddenly unsure how safe they were to be around.

Garon
stalked his prey. She was timid, shaking slightly in the thin shift that
covered her womanly curves just enough to tease his senses—both the man’s and
the beast’s. Her pink nipples were visible through the material. He wanted to
pinch them first with his fingers and then bite them to see what her face
looked like when receiving pleasure in the form of pain. He just bet she would
make a pretty little submissive. One who craved a guiding hand and order.

His cock
throbbed, hard with desire for her. Her hair, a deep brown, covered part of her
face from view. He didn’t need to see all of her to know she was the one for
him. His body told him so. From the minute he’d caught her scent, he and the
wolf who was a part of him knew they’d found the one.

Lorne was
close. Closer than Garon liked to the woman he’d selected to be his—the woman
he’d sire his sons upon. Lorne, a fierce warrior in his own right, was there,
his gaze upon the timid beauty before them. The others who had arrived at the
docking zone were zeroing in on their picks as well. The women brought in on
trading ships seemed confused as to what was happening. Garon had a strong
suspicion many were collected against their will, though the traders always
assured them each woman either came willingly or held no rights as a prisoner
of the Intergalactic Corrections Facility—therefore, she forfeited her rights
to any and everything.

The
Ralenium men, strong in both number and physical form, were in need of females.
As had been the way for as long as Garon could remember. Stories his father had
passed down were much of the same. The planet, ravaged by a great sickness
long, long ago, had seen the decimation of their female population. The males
were forced to look off world to mate.

Lorne
eased closer to Garon. They’d both been to many worlds, bedding many women, but
had yet to take a woman as their own. Neither had collared a woman. To do so
was a sacred event and never taken lightly. Often Garon was forced to travel
off world with the military, and while abroad he’d fuck his share of women.
While home on Ralen, the only women present were already mated, members of one
of the many Houses of Pleasure, or currently working a low-level job to earn
their keep until they either decided to mate or join a House of Pleasure.

Houses of
Pleasure were whorehouses filled to the brim with women who had no desire to mate
but were willing to service the men’s needs in exchange for the proper coinage.
Garon was guilty of frequenting them. He enjoyed getting his cock sucked
without having to have any conversation, and the women he paid there knew as
much. He also liked how kinky the women were. So many loved to be spanked
before being fucked hard, and the beast side of him liked it rough. He liked to
dominate in the bedroom. In fact, he could have it no other way.

“She’s
exquisite,” said Lorne, still showing a keen interest in the brown-haired
female.

A low
growl started deep in Garon’s throat. His beast pulsed within him, wanting free
and to attack Lorne. “And she is to be mine.”

Arching a
brow, Lorne cast an amused glance in Garon’s direction. “Really?”

Before
seeing the woman near him, Garon would have said no. He liked his freedom. He
liked getting to fuck who he wanted, as often as he wanted. The newcomer
changed things in him. He couldn’t explain it. There was a certain
vulnerability with an edge of hardness there. She would be a fine mate. She’d
bend to him in the bedroom and she’d keep him on his toes out of it was well.
He simply knew this to be true.

If he
tried to explain it out loud, he’d sound like his father and his grandfather,
with their talk of mates and women destined for them. That was absurd. This
woman would do. He could collar her with ease. She was one he could see himself
burying his cock in and not tiring of it or her. As for loving her… No. He did
not even know her name, let alone have a stirring of love for her. She excited
his cock and caught the wolf’s attention. No more. No less.

So why was
he so on edge with the knowledge she’d drawn Lorne’s attention as well? He
glared at his longtime friend. “Take yourself from here and find a woman of
your own to collar. This one is taken.”

Lorne
simply smiled as he leaned closer. “Why? We have shared many whores. Why not
this one?”

Garon
shoved Lorne and snapped his jaws at him. The
Ralenium men were well aware of how they were viewed by other races
and worlds. Most frowned on the orgies they were famed for. They were free with
their sexuality and had no qualms about partaking in the act publically with
either
 
the opposite sex or the same. In
fact, quite often they would have festivals devoted to the very thing. Mated
pairs would arrive and join in the festivities, having sex where all could see,
putting on quite a scene. And the whores would filter in, their sexes for sale
to all who wanted to play publically for the night. It saddened Garon deeply
that in all the universes he’d traveled, and all the worlds he’d been to,
sharing one’s bed with someone of the same sex still held stigma when so many
boasted of progress and enlightenment.

Earth was
one of the worst offenders. Narrow-minded fools.

Garon
rolled his eyes. “Lorne, continue and I will beat you senseless.”

Lorne
licked his lower lip, his gaze drifting down the length of Garon. “You do like
it rough.”

The tiny
woman near them gasped. Her blue eyes widened as she tilted her head up,
gifting them a full view of her face. Both men made odd noises. She was even
more beautiful than Garon had first thought, with beauty the likes of which
he’d never seen. As he spotted an angry, purple bruise over her right cheek,
the very cheek she’d hidden with her hair, the beast in him rose. His nostrils
flared as he pivoted, glaring at the traders who stood near their ship.

“Who dared
to touch her?”

The
traders exchanged worried looks as Lorne moved in quickly, pushing Garon back.
The Ralenium men knew if they dared to attack the traders the shipments of
eligible women would stop.
Already
the shipments were few and far between.
Already
the Houses of Pleasure were understaffed and too many men went without sex or a
mate.
Already
a great number of
Ralenium males had been
driven mad with the sickness from
The
Heat,
said to come from being unable to mate. It was inborn in them—the
driving need to bond with a woman and to reproduce. They could no more deny it
than to deny the part of them that could shift into a wolf.

He glared
at the
Voxenites
traders, infamous for their underhanded ways, and wondered who had harmed the
woman. The men wore containers over their faces, holding a red liquid of sorts.
Garon knew it was a breathing apparatus and that without them, most of the
traders would die. Lorne pushed at him more. “I want them dead as well but this
isn’t the answer. If you continue to show your hand, they will put too steep a
price upon her head.”

He was
right.

Garon
stepped back.

Lorne took
point. “You marred the merchandise. Do you think we’ll pay full price for this
group?”

The
traders talked amongst themselves. One stepped forward. “Half,” he said, his
voice muffled with the breathing apparatus in place. “You will pay half or we
will leave.”

“For the
lot?” Lorne said. “Half? Have you abused them all as well?”

Jaston
puffed out his chest. “We will pay half for the lot. Now leave.”

Never
before had they purchased
all
the women brought forth. The men of Ralen
always confirmed the women wanted to stay. This was different. The abuse was
clear. They could not permit these traders to keep any of the females.

The
females huddled together and Garon was surprised to see the one who sparked his
interest take a leadership position among them. She and two others began
calming the women.

“Shh,” she
said to one who had begun to cry. “It could be worse. We could be back on board
with the walking and talking fishmen.”

“You heard
what the guards told us before we landed,” another said, sniffling. “They said
these men are cruel and will rape and kill us if we misbehave.”