Discovery (Hybrid Book 1) (21 page)

Tamas had always made intelligent decisions for his family. He’d looked after him and his mother after his father had been killed, and he’d helped when his mother hadn’t recovered from the shock. It had taken a vast amount of influence, and many favours to get her into the one specialist facility able to care for her on the planet. He visited her about once a month, but she still didn’t recognise him, or anyone else for that matter.

Now they had a chance to change things for the better for everyone, but at the sacrifice of one alien female. It wouldn’t even mean her life, just a compromise of her personal integrity. It had all sounded so easy before he’d met her. Now, the thought of causing her any distress whatsoever, cause him a great deal of discomfort.

He wanted to be in physical contact with her, every moment they were apart, and despite washing thoroughly he could still smell her unique perfume. It was as she’d gotten under his skin, and he’d never get her out again. The irony that he’d started off with the intention of capturing and owning her, when in fact, exactly the opposite had occurred wasn’t lost on him.

He headed back to the main building when he heard his uncle calling. He found Tamas waiting for him in the office, and he sank into the chair opposite the desk.

“You look like crap, my boy.”

Tenset shrugged. He’d caught sight of himself in the hall mirror as he’d come in. His shirt was marked with both his own sweat and that of the horse, plus there were still bloodstains down the front from his nose’s encounter with Chesara’s forehead. Both his nose and his balls still ached a little. So yes, ‘crap’ was probably a valid description.

“Clean yourself up boy, and then you get one more chance to persuade that hellcat to co-operate before I start using my own methods.” Tenset just looked at him, not sure if he’d understood correctly. He knew his uncle had some exotic ‘bedroom’ tastes, but he wasn’t serious about torturing someone who didn’t consent was he?

“You need to get her to agree to harm the Harmon’s child, and find out the nonsense about a Dakaran pregnancy.” Tamas reminded him, as if his brains had dribbled out his ears. To a certain extent, they might well have done.

“What if we just get her to make the sterility permanent?” Tenset sat back as his uncle leaned across the desk, hatred in his eyes.

“Because my dear young nephew, I haven’t worked all these years just to die of old age waiting patiently for my chance. The throne is rightfully mine, and I will sit on it before I die. Besides, how many more of our people will die in poverty before Lord Harmon dies living in luxury?”

Tenset found himself agreeing to try. It was the best way to keep Chesara, Connor and their people safe although he was starting to see things from her point of view. Condemning an innocent child didn’t seem the right way, or the noble way his ancestors had always tried to uphold, to accomplish their aims.

At the moment, he couldn’t see another option, but he would, given time. Tamas wasn’t the only devious member of the family. His mind started to whirl as he made his way up the broad staircase to take a shower and change clothes.

Half an hour later, he was back on the sofa in Tamas’ office, and his Uncle was pushing a green robed Chesara though the door.

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T
o his amazement, she grinned at him and plonked herself down on the sofa beside him. He decided he should stop being surprised about anything she did.

“Well hello ‘master’, how’s the nose and nuts? Ready for round two yet?” she said with a grin. He sniffed deeply, before rubbing his hand over his face. Why did she have to smell so good? It made it hard to think rationally when she was in the room. All he wanted to do was bury his face in her shoulder, and his...

“So I’m stinky. Get over it. Unlike you I don’t have access to a shower. Maybe if you hadn’t treated my like an animal, I might not have sweated quite so much.”

“You don’t smell bad, you smell...” Conscious that Tamas was watching him closely, he trailed off. If his uncle thought he was losing his mind, the chance of him helping Chesara was minimal.

“What am I going to do with you Chesara?” he finished.

“Apparently whatever you bloody well like, if what you’ve told me about my status is true. But listen up, zalupa, there is no bloody way I’m going to co-operate or make life easy for you in any way, shape or form. So get ready for an interesting experience, you slimy bastard.”

She blessed him with another dazzling, if slightly evil grin.

“Would you like something for lunch?” he asked, trying to get them back on the footing of last night, it had all been going so well then.

“I don’t know. Surely decisions like that are up to my all powerful Master,” and she fluttered her eyelashes at him.

“Tenset, remember what I said,” Tamas gave him a cold smile, left the room. The door locked behind him.

“For heaven’s sake Chesara, stop being so childish. This isn’t a game and I can’t change what happened, even if I wanted to. The point is, we still need you to do what I asked, and we’ll all be one hell of a lot happier if you agree, without any more trouble.”

She dropped her false act, turning serious. “I don’t know about you, Lord Tenset, but being kidnapped, made a slave, drugged and tied to a bench isn’t my idea of happy.”

Hearing her say it out loud, brought it home. By any decent person’s standards, he’d been a complete what did she call it, ‘zalupa’? His ancestors would be turning in their graves.

“I didn’t know it would go this far, please believe me. And I didn’t make you property, the Federation already did that.” He pushed a frustrated hand through his hair.

“To be honest,” he ignored her snort of derision. “It all seemed a lot easier before I met you, and realized you’re a real person, one I’ve come to care about.” He held up a hand to stop her when she was obviously going to comment on his description of her as not a ‘real person’.

“What I need to know now is, what did Connor mean when he said a pregnant Dakaran would cause trouble?”

She looked at him as if he were mentally deficient.

“How would I know, Master dearest? I didn’t even know I had a ‘super pussy’ till last night and that’s only the second time I’ve heard the word ‘Dakaran’. Connor told me that’s what I am about an hour ago.” She gave him a sunny smile.

“You never know, I might turn into a ravaging monster and eat all your little human children in the night. I honestly have no idea what he’s on about, but he has been paranoid about keeping me away from men, apart from you that is. Maybe he knows that Dakaran females eat our mates.

“He doesn’t like you very much, in case you haven’t picked up on the subtle vibes.”

Tenset decided she was telling the absolute truth. If they wanted any more information, they’d have to get it from Connor. With that subject dealt with, he moved on to the next item on Tamas’ list.

“Will you agree to change the Harmon’s unborn child?”

“Nope.” She blessed him with yet another sunny smile. He felt distinctly sick. She was playing right into Tamas’ hands and there wasn’t a damn think he could do about it.

“What’s the matter Master? Breakfast not sitting too well?” She turned as the door opened and two guards entered the room.

“I’m so sorry Chesara, my uncle has taken matters out of my hands. I thought I could persuade you without resorting to other means; I even tried to persuade him to change his mind, to consider making permanent sterility an option. We’d still achieve the same goals, but it’d take longer. Apparently that isn’t acceptable, not for our people, and not for him.”

He winced as Baxter and Melton grasped her upper arms and started to pull her from the room.

Baxter leaned close to her ear and whispered loudly, “You’re ours for a while now sweetie and I hear you like it hard and rough. I can’t wait can you?”

She managed to turn until he could see her face. The genuine fear on her face seemed to flip every switch in his body.

“Tenset, please. I know you care, help me please.”

“No more, this isn’t right, let her go,” He lunged towards Baxter as they pulled Chesara out into the entrance hall. As his hand closed on the guard’s arm he felt pain bloom across his back. Falling to his knees, he looked over his shoulder to see his uncle holding a stun baton.

“My dear Nephew, I think this luscious young thing has affected you more than we could have imagined. She has somehow robbed you of your wits. I don’t think it’s a good idea for you to have anything more to do with her.”

He staggered to his feet, ignoring the throbbing in his back.

“Torturing her won’t work, if she’s physically harmed, Harmon will be suspicious.” His hopes grew, as Tamas appeared to be considering the option, then he gave Tenset a smiles cold it chilled his soul.

“Dear boy, I have no intention of physically harming her. I’ve been reviewing the recordings from last night.” Tenset’s jaw clenched, he hadn’t known his room had recording devices, but this wasn’t the time to bring that subject up.

“And it seems to me, that we could use a far more pleasant form of ‘persuasion,’ pleasant for the persuader at least.”

For a moment, Tenset had no idea what he was proposing, then it clicked.

“You can’t do that. She’s mine, signed seal and delivered. I forbid it. You forget Uncle, this house was left to me by my father, you have no say here.”

“I’m pleased to see you’ve finally grown a backbone boy, but it’s too little, too late. You are the heir to the Shamir family and I am the head of the family. What’s yours, is mine. Signed, sealed and delivered, as you so eloquently put it.”

Tenset stepped forward, intent on showing this old man that he wasn’t an easily cowed youngster any more.

“Now you listen here,” he started.

Tamas held up his hand.

“I’m afraid you’ve been somewhat corrupted by this beguiling alien creature. You had complete control of your faculties before you met her, now, you’re about as rational as she is. I blame your father for your lack of backbone of course; he was way too soft on you.”

Tenset lunged towards his uncle only to find the stun baton thrust into his chest, causing his body to jerk in pain. As he collapsed to the floor Tamas followed him down, maintaining contact between the baton and his chest, till the world faded into darkness.

C
onnor heard Chesara’s yelling getting louder as she was brought back down to the cells. Every second she’d been away, he had been glued to the implant readouts, but although she’d experienced fear, she hadn’t been physically harmed.

His adrenaline levels spiked when he realized she wasn’t being brought back to the interrogation room. The sound of a key in the door had him heaving a sigh of relief. Perhaps they’d simply got fed up with her shouting and gagged her for the last few feet. He knew she was still conscious and damn angry.

Tamas entered the room, wearing his customary condescending smile.

“Good evening Mr. Temple. I hope you’re enjoying your accommodations?”

“What are you doing to her?” Connor wasn’t interested in playing his verbal sparring games. Tamas just raised an eyebrow.

“I must say I’m disappointed. Chesara provides an intriguing if ‘colourful’ conversation partner, but I was hoping for more shall we say ‘sophisticated’ conversation from you.”

As Tamas moved closer to him, Connor could smell his aftershave, and together with the pristine crisp white shirt, it brought home how much he stank. It didn’t improve his temper one bit.

“Go sit on a spike, shithead.” He enunciated the insult carefully, not showing an ounce of anger. Swearing at him proved to be surprisingly cathartic; maybe Chesara was on to something after all.

Tamas shook his head sadly. “It should be you teaching her better behaviour, not the other way round. I don’t know what the youth of today is coming to. As she’s now the property of the soon to be ruling family of Kalzir, she’ll need to know how to behave.”

Connor just stared at him. After a few moments, Tamas continued.

“As a man of science, and yes I do know all about you Mr Temple, I thought you’d be interested in a little experiment I’m running. I’ve noticed that the Dakaran’s ‘urges’ are variable, and I thought it might be amusing to find out what stimulates a response.”

Connor clenched his jaw, doing his best not to give Tamas the satisfaction of seeing his anger. A loss of control on his part was a point to his captor.

Interrogation was an intricate game, with points won and lost throughout the match. And although the game invariably ended up going in favour of the interrogator, Connor vowed to make Tamas work hard for every single point, and hoped that the rescue crew would find them before it was ‘game over.’

The way Tamas was looking him over was starting to make him distinctly uncomfortable. That wasn’t the expression of a man who would use the necessary means to get what he wanted. This was a man who was thoroughly looking forward to the process, which meant he wasn’t playing with a full deck of cards.

Tamas’ lips curled up slightly as he looking him over like a side of meat. The mentally unstable were difficult to predict in these situations, sometimes they were predisposed to far more violence than merely obtaining answers warranted. Sometimes they just enjoyed it. Connor would much rather deal with a professional interrogator.

Professionals were far more likely to make deals, and stopped when they got the answers they needed. Although they were just as likely to terminate the subject when the interrogation had yielded the required information. Either way, holding out for as long as possible was what he needed to do, without causing Tamas to flip out.

“We know she can ‘sort’ herself out when she’s on her own, we have a camera in the guest suite. Her shower scene was very entertaining for Tenset and the guard staff. However, when she was with an aroused male, she appeared to be in quite a bit of distress. Apparently she needs ‘servicing’ to relieve her, then again perhaps it was just Tenset’s technique.”

“Stop talking as if she’s an animal you bastard.” Crap, point to him, thought Connor. He clamped his big mouth shut, to prevent any further displays of emotion.