Penny’s thoughts were a jumbled mess as one of the big hands holding hers drew away. She felt the warm brush of fingers at her temple, where the silk blindfold was tightest.
The man across from her tugged at the silk, lifting it away from her eyes but Penny didn’t want to look—didn’t want to see. She kept her own eyes tightly shut, refusing to face the reality in front of her.
All around her she heard gasps from the other girls as they finally caught sight of their Forever Mates. Shurla, who was apparently standing beside her, exclaimed,
“Well, aren’t you a big boy!” in obvious delight.
Still Penny wouldn’t open her eyes. To open her eyes and see the man who now “owned” her would make this whole nightmare situation—this sham of a wedding—real. And she didn’t want it to be real. She wanted to be back on the long-range shuttle with Rive and Y’lla, asleep in her own cabin on the way to Yown Beta where she belonged. She wanted to be back with Kat on the Mother Ship. She wanted to have never left Earth in the first place. She wanted—
The big warm hand cupped her chin and lifted her face gently but firmly.
“It’s all right, sweetheart,” his deep voice rumbled. “Open your eyes and look at me.”
The gentleness of his tone surprised Penny so much that she actually did as he said. She opened her eyes, blinking at first to get used to the light after being blindfolded so long.
But the moment she saw the male looming over her, her heart rate tripled and the cold hand of fear gripped her by the throat.
It was him.
Pale gold eyes that mirrored her face exactly looked down into hers. They were the same eyes she’d seen across the crowded Lucky Lounge bar back at Hell’s Gate Station, what seemed like a hundred years ago.
The eyes of a pirate—the eyes of an outlaw.
The eyes of the Hybrid Kindred/Kru’ell One she’d been warned about.
The eyes of V’rex—the man she’d been told to avoid at all costs. Somehow he was here, in the last place Penny had ever expected to see him.
And now he owned her.
Thirty-Two
V could feel her terror the moment she saw him. A full blooded Kru’ell One would have known exactly what she was thinking, but he only felt emotions when he was touching or very near a female he wanted. And Gods, how he wanted this little one! Though he didn’t even know her name, he wanted her.
But she clearly didn’t want him. As V stared into her big brown eyes, her terror spiked so sharply that it nearly overloaded her system. He felt her start to faint and had to act quickly to hold her up before she could drop to the hard stone of the Amphitheater floor.
Gathering her close, he held her small, curvy body to his, trying not to notice the full, firm weight of her large breasts—much larger than when he’d first seen her in the Lucky Lounge—pressing against his chest.
Gods, she smelled so sweet and ripe! V couldn’t help dropping his head to sniff at her long, chestnut hair. A devastatingly feminine scent rose from her silky tresses making him want her even more.
The full body contact seemed to revive the little female somewhat because she looked up at him, her eyes still filled with terror and whispered,
“You’re him!”
“Easy, sweetheart.” He looked down at her anxiously. She was so small—so frail—and the fear and anxiety she was feeling had her nearly hyperventilating as she pulled quickly away from him.
“You…you can’t…you don’t touch me!” she gasped, which drew some disapproving glances from both the “Glorious Leader” and the NeverBreeders who were still standing at a slight distance, watching the ceremony.
V wished he could tell her that she didn’t have to be afraid because he wouldn’t hurt her, but that was a lie, wasn’t it? Later in the ceremony he was going to be forced to burn his name into her chest with the damned branding pen.
Gods—just the thought of marring her smooth, creamy flesh made him cringe inside. But he couldn’t do anything about it—he could only continue with the ceremony and hope she would let him heal her afterwards, when they were finally alone.
In the meantime, the show must go on.
“I have to touch you,” he told her. “That’s part of it.”
He reached for her hands. She wouldn’t give them to him at first, crossing her arms tightly over her full breasts and shaking her head.
V frowned. Damn, had their single encounter back in the Lucky Lounge really spooked her that much? She was looking at him like he was the Cruel Father himself coming to take her soul to the Seven Hells!
Unfortunately, her refusal had drawn the attention and disapproval of the “Glorious Leader” himself.
“V’rex, my friend,” he said to V pleasantly, but with a look of warning in his pale blue eyes. “If you cannot control your female, it’s not too late for me to give her to another male.”
V felt the Rage rise inside him as Skrug looked from his own bride—the triple-breasted whore V remembered seeing sometimes at Hell’s Gate—and let his small, piggy eyes rove over the girl’s ripe body.
“No!” The word came out as more of a growl and he grabbed for the girl’s hands and held them firmly in his own, despite her struggles.
“Hey!” she protested but V wouldn’t let her hands go.
“Settle down,” he murmured to her, putting a touch of menace in his voice as he glared at her warningly. “Unless you’d rather be given to him.” He jerked his head at Skrug who was still ogling her like a horny adolescent.
“I’d rather be with anyone than you!” she shot back, narrowing her big brown eyes to glare right back at him.
V was taken aback by the vehement dislike he
