The Auction (7 page)

When she was brought to the cave, I had this irrational fear that though she was meant for Sir, Master would find her more appealing than me. She hadn’t fought anybody or tried to run away. She was more naturally obedient, something their kind seemed to like. She just quietly cried.

Sir had gone to the city to the auction to buy her. Master stood behind me, his arms wrapped around me when they arrived in the cave, maybe as reassurance that I wasn’t being replaced as the new amusement. He bent close to my ear and whispered. “Ironic, given what I know about your kind, that the redhead isn’t the fighter.”

When she saw me, she gasped in recognition, the shock stopping her tears for a moment. “Belle?”

I tried to smile to reassure her. If she wasn’t going to steal Master’s attentions, the idea of another girl there, especially someone as sweet as Lily, was nice. I liked it. I imagined us taking care of the cave together. Being with one of my kind who would understand the things they couldn’t was comforting.

I knew Master would have her first due to their kind’s familial habit of sharing women and the tradition of giving first dibs to those who weren’t the mate. The order had always seemed a little backwards to me, but it wasn’t my culture, and Master was fond of reminding me how far superior his race was to my own.

A little while later, I paced in Sir’s room, knowing what Master was doing with Lily in the other room. Part of me was upset for her. Them taking me bothered me less than them taking her. She was so sensitive and fragile. I could see how she’d be a good match for Sir. He’d be gentle with her, and she wouldn’t challenge his dominance. But I was scared for her with Master.

I also harbored the lingering fear that he would have her and decide he wanted her more than he wanted me. Even though she would still be Sir’s mate, I was afraid of being cast aside and living on the fringes.

Sir came in the room. “Belle. He wants you in there.”

“Why?” I would have never questioned Master, but with Sir, sometimes it was still difficult. I respected him, but he didn’t compel my absolute obedience in the way Master did. And he wasn’t the type to punish for everything.

“He wants you to watch.”

There were several reasons I didn’t want to do that, but I couldn’t refuse an order from my mate, so I went.

When I entered Master’s room, Lily was cowering beside the bed, her white gown and slip on the ground beside her. She was shaking. Master stood over her, naked, with his arms crossed over his chest. I unconsciously licked my lips. I wondered if this was how I’d looked with him when he’d first taken me. Though I felt bad for Lily, the eroticism of the scene before me still reached inside me and flipped something.

“Annabelle.” he said, not turning around.

I wasn’t sure if he’d smelled me or heard me. His kind had much better senses all the way around than mine did.

“Yes, Master?”

“Speak with Lily. Explain things to her.”

I was surprised by the request. But then it made sense. He loved his brother, and though they shared females, he would never want to damage Sir’s mate beyond repair. I understood now why he’d wanted me. Someone who could handle this. Who could handle him. I could tell he wasn’t at all sure about Sir’s choice or how she would fit in here.

“Will you leave us alone a minute?”

He nodded and both he and Sir went to another part of the cave. I knelt beside Lily and took her in my arms. She was sobbing.

“Hey,” I said.

Just the sound of my voice was enough to make her stop crying. I hoped she was like me, that somewhere inside her lurked the same needs I had, and that once she got over her fears of being harmed, she’d be okay. The city had trained its women to be subservient, after all. Lily was nothing if not the shining beacon of their success in that area. She was just frightened, unsure what her fate would be or how bad things would get.

“How can you live like this?” she whispered. “Aren’t you afraid of them?”

“No. Not anymore. Besides, my mate is the scary one. Yours is more laid back.”

“M-mine is the blue one?”

“Yes,” I said, smiling over the fact that she was thinking of them in the same terms I had before I had titles to address them by.

“Then why is the other one . . .”

“It’s just how they are. They aren’t a very monogamous type. Sharing with each other is just what they do. I don’t think Master will be as rough with you as he is with me. He wouldn’t disrespect Sir that way.”

I sat and held her for a long time, stroking her hair. “I’m glad you’re here, Lily. It’s sometimes lonely without a friend.”

She was quiet for several minutes then she said. “There’s no way out?”

“I tried and failed. I almost died.”

She turned then, her eyes wide. “Did they . . .?”

“Oh, no. It was wild animals. Master saved me.” Later I would tell her the whole story, along with my fantasy version of Master coming to my rescue, the part I’d been unconscious for and could never really know. But right now I had to get her through this.

She looked shocked, as if she couldn’t believe there was a merciful bone in Master’s body.

“Will you do something for me, Lily?”

“What?”

“Don’t fight them. Just submit. I don’t want to watch you be punished, and whatever we think about it, this is how their kind operates. I think you can be happy with Sir. You suit each other. He’s kind. He’ll take care of you. I’m sorry that you’re scared, but I’m glad you’re here with me.” I squeezed her hand, and she squeezed back.

Sir walked in and Lily put her head against my shoulder, making him disappear from her visual field, still not prepared to deal with any of this. He held a glass of something in his hand.

“Get her to drink this. It’ll relax her.”

I raised an eyebrow. He was trying to make it easier. He couldn’t stand to see her suffer even a little bit. I admired and loved him for that, but he never would have been firm enough for me. For Lily, he was perfect. Once she acclimated, she’d never disobey. I couldn’t imagine her ever getting punished for anything. Not like me.

He left and Lily sat up again, eyeing the glass warily. “What is it?”

I sniffed at the beverage. “I’m not sure. Probably something that grows in the area. Something mind-altering if I had to guess.”

She scooted away. “They’re drugging me?”

“Your mate is trying to relax you. He doesn’t want to traumatize you.”

“Are they going to hurt me?”

“I highly doubt it.”

“Are you going to stay with me while he . . .” she trailed off.

“Yes.”

For some reason that settled her. We were very different. It wouldn’t have settled me. I would have wanted the privacy, for whatever happened to happen without an audience. Lily took another long look at me, then gulped the drink down. “I don’t trust them, but I trust you,” she said.

Suddenly, jealousy was the furthest thing from my mind. I just wanted Lily to be okay. A few minutes later, she was flitting and dancing around the room like a drunk, giggling.

Sir and Master returned.

“Will she remember this, after?” I asked.

“Yes,” Sir said. “And I’ll need you to help her deal with it if she’s upset. I hope she won’t be. The drug just lowers inhibitions, increases arousal. We call it the primal nectar. It reduces one to their most natural state, free from fear.”

I hoped she’d be okay, too. When she came down from the primal state back into the over-thinking state, I hoped she’d let everything go and let herself fall backwards. Maybe that’s not the best way to go in life. There isn’t always someone to catch you. But there would be someone to catch Lily, if she could just make her brain cooperate the first few times. I knew Master would know how to play her body to make her respond to him. And with what was now swirling around in her system, it made the job that much easier.

Master caught Lily mid-twirl and led her to the bed. She was still giggling when he slipped his hand between her thighs, remarking on how wet and lovely she was. The compliment elicited a low moan from her, this sweet girl suddenly reduced to a wanton slut as she writhed in his arms, her sex franticly grinding against his hand. It was fascinating to watch.

Then he worked a phallus inside her that he’d coated with a thick, clear gel. He went through several sizes of sex toys, stretching her slowly so she’d be able to take him. Each time he went a size bigger, she begged for more, for it to be him.

Finally, it was his cock inside her. My eyes were riveted to him, watching as his body pistoned in and out of her. With whatever they’d given her to drink, she’d completely surrendered, giving herself up to him, her body open and loose and accepting. It was the most erotic thing I’d ever seen. I suddenly wanted to be able to capture the image forever so I could pull it out and look at it later when no one was around to see me. I wondered if I looked like that, spread beneath him, so lost, an exquisite expression of pleasure and pain painted across my features.

Sir’s hands moved to my breasts, rubbing and tweaking as he watched his brother take his mate. I looked back at him and saw a strange sort of hunger in his eyes. I turned back to watch Master with Lily, and I could almost understand what Sir must have felt. Sharing your mate with someone else was to them like sharing food might be to humans. Something you did with those you loved because you loved them and wanted them to have good things, wanted them to enjoy the same things you enjoyed, to share the experience.

I suddenly wasn’t worried about my place in the household anymore. Watching Master touching Lily, fucking her, bringing her to orgasm, made me throb. It was pushing submissive buttons I hadn’t even realized I had, and strangely I felt like I belonged to him even more because he was using someone else and making me watch while he enjoyed a warm, wet hole that wasn’t mine.

Master turned toward me and smiled. It was as if we shared a secret. I couldn’t tell you what the secret was because there were no words that went with it. It was more of a feeling that passed between us. Sir’s fingers moved between my legs, probing inside me, causing me to buck against him, whimpering and begging him to push in deeper, harder.

“You like watching your mate fuck your friend, don’t you?” Something in Sir’s voice had gone wild, primal. He’d never been like this before, and this new edge excited me.

“Yes, Sir,” I whispered.

“So do I.”

Lily came then, her sighs and moans so sweet I wanted to slip inside her skin just to know what she was feeling. And I equally wanted her to slip inside mine so she could get a taste of her mate’s touch.

I was on the edge of orgasm when Master said, “No, Annabelle. Don’t come.”

Sir released me and I lost my balance. I broke my fall with my hands, but just stayed there on the floor of the cave, hungry, panting, watching Master—Sir forgotten at my back.

Lily was draped across the bed, Master’s spendings dripping out of her and down her thigh.

“Annabelle.”

“Yes, Master.” I tore my eyes from Lily.

“Clean her up, little slut.” His voice was warm when he said it. It was his endearment for me that shouldn’t have been so endearing.

I could have played dumb. I could have gone to get a washcloth and basin of water, but I knew that wasn’t what he meant. I knew exactly how his filthy mind operated. I wasn’t sexually attracted to women, but this wasn’t about Lily. It was about Master, about licking his cum off another woman’s body for his amusement. The thought excited me so much, I wondered for a moment if they’d slipped me some of what Lily had been given. Or maybe I’d just drank her emotions as they’d flooded the room, surrounding me so that the only thing I could breathe was her arousal and excited energy.

I crawled slowly over, a little smirk on my face.

He just laughed and shook his head. “I knew I picked the right one.” It had become our little joke now, and with those words I knew he’d finally forgiven me for running away, that he knew I’d never do it again.

My tongue trailed languidly over Lily’s thigh, and I moaned at the taste of him mingled with her and the softness of her skin as she lay there trembling. When I was finished, I looked up at him, hoping he’d use me next because I was about to explode from waiting, and he seemed ready to go again.

He nodded his approval, but he wasn’t quite ready for my pleasure. “Make her come again. I want to watch her climax on your tongue.”

I was too far gone to care about my own orientation. I could see how hard Master was and how much he wanted to watch his mate pleasure another woman. Lily moaned again, her back arching, hips thrusting obscenely upward as I lapped at her pussy. Her clit was so swollen and engorged from all the stimulation she’d already had, that it was quick work to make her come again. I was pretty sure she wasn’t into women either, but her body still responded eagerly as I explored her.

Afterward, as she lay there, I threaded my fingers through hers and squeezed her hand. She squeezed back. Then Sir scooped her up and carried her off to his room to make use of her himself.

As soon as he’d left, Master was on me, his mouth on mine, his tongue tangling with mine as if fighting for a dominance he knew I’d never challenge. “I love the taste of her on your mouth,” he growled in my ear, and somehow I knew we’d be doing all that again in the future.

I whimpered, and everything in me became so fluid and responsive that I couldn’t seem to hold myself up under my own weight, so when he released my mouth, I went back to the ground, where I could steady myself more easily. And because all I could bring myself to do when I saw him was kneel.

“Make tears for me, Annabelle. I want to see them.”

I looked up at him, and the tears flowed down my face. It wasn’t hard to cry on command. I was overwhelmed with too much that I couldn’t name or describe. If I’d been asked to explain what I was feeling, I would have stared blankly, unable to even class it. But tears were all he asked for, and tears, I could do.

He picked me up and laid me out across his bed like an offering, like a virgin to be sacrificed. I thought of the white dress tucked away in the drawer and Lily’s lying on the floor next to us, of how we were like a sacrifice to these creatures. I wondered why I didn’t feel like I’d lost anything. Didn’t sacrifice mean you lost something?