Anyway, I raise a reassuring hand.
“No, don’t worry. They’re fine – he didn’t hurt them,” I gulp, “and he won’t.”
Sawoot’s eyes narrow. Now, she’s suspicious.
“Wait a second, Tasha,” my first officer growls. “I know that look. You’re hiding something from me.” She spots the way my cheeks turn pink. “You are, aren’t you? What are you hiding?” Her mind races. “He wouldn’t have let them off with just a warning, that’s for damned sure.”
Now it’s my turn to cringe. suddenly, I can’t meet my best friend’s gaze.
“I… I accepted their punishment for them.” I close my eyes. “Well, I tried to, anyway. I thought I could put Aelon in a no-win situation by offering to take their lashes for them…”
“Lashes? You’d take the punishment for all of them? That would kill you, Tasha!”
I nod silently.
“I thought I was being smart. I knew he wouldn’t let that happen, but he had to honor a captain’s demand to accept punishment in place of their crew…”
“So? What happened?”
I sigh, looking up with embarrassment.
“Once I’d volunteered to accept their punishment, he commuted it.”
“Commuted it? To what?”
“He’s not going to hurt me,” I sigh, “he’s going to humiliate me, instead. The twisted bastard commuted the crew’s lashes to a spanking, instead – in front of everyone.”
Sawoot’s jaw drops, and as soon as she notices, she clamps it shut.
I’m grateful for her reaction, though – I was half-expecting her to laugh at me, just like Chris and the others had. Instead, she shakes her head resolutely.
“Don’t give me that look, Tasha – you’ve got nothing to be ashamed of. You protected your crew, that’s all that matters. If they think any less of you for taking a spanking, so they’d be spared lashes? Well, you need a new crew.”
I laugh bitterly at that. Thank the Gods that Sawoot gets it.
She reaches over and squeezes my hand.
“Be brave, Tasha. You’ll get through it with nothing more than your pride hurt.” Then, a mischievous smile quirks her lips. “Gods, Aelon must really like you.”
I raise my eyebrow.
“Like me? No, he wants to humiliate me.”
Now, Sawoot does laugh – but lightly, not mockingly, and only because she knows I’m not in mortal danger.
“Well… from what I heard about the Aurelian harem my friend joined, a spanking definitely means he’s into you. They love that shit, those misogynist bastards. The power and domination turns them on as much as sex does.”
My cheeks burn, but I sense Sawoot is correct. Every interaction with Captain Aelon has so far been a battle of wills – with him enjoying the challenges I present to him, but being ruthless in maintaining the upper hand. It’s like he and I are playing a game of chess; only half of my pieces are missing.
Sawoot leans forward.
“Something else my friend told me about – she’d taken more than a few spankings during her years in the harem.” My best friend squeezes my hand. “It’s going to hurt, Tash. I can tell you that.”
I snort bitterly.
“Good. I want it to hurt. I want to at least feel something for taking the punishment instead of Chris and those idiots…” Then I allow myself to laugh. “It’s still going to hurt less than lashes – and it’s better than facing a firing squad.”
I sink back on the bunk, until my back is pressed against the wall. The hard metal is a reassuring weight behind me, and the bunk is adequately soft beneath my backside.
Suddenly I wonder if I’ll still be thinking that after tonight. Will I even be able to sit for a week after taking my punishment? Once the Aurelians are done with me, what state will my backside be in?
I look across at my first officer, a bitter taste in my mouth.
“So, your friend who was in the harem. She said that this is how Aurelians show affection? By spanking you until you can’t sit down?” I snort. “They really are a fucked-up species.”
Sawoot shrugs. “They sure are – but can you blame them for being so messed up?”
What a weird question.
“Yes, I can!”
“Let me explain,” Sawoot holds up her hand. “They all thought they were going extinct, you know – the Aurelians, I mean. They’re all male, and they can’t sire children naturally – so their numbers were dropping with every Aurelian who got killed before making it to one of those cryo-chambers.”
Aurelians live for thousands of years – but even such an incredible lifespan is but the blink of an eye in terms of the universe itself. For every Aurelian who died naturally, and was cloned via a cryo-chamber, how many warriors died in agony in a Scorp nest? Or were left floating in frozen space after an ill-fated engagement? Slowly, but surely, their numbers had been dwindling.
“It’s only been in the last couple of hundred years that their species even had hope of continuing,” Sawoot nods, as if following along with my thoughts. “It’s only been since then that the Bond has been active again, and triads of Aurelians have found a Fated Mate and been able to have sons naturally.”
She shifts on the bunk.
“Now, there are a dozen or so Bonded triads spread across the universe – and their species is growing in numbers once again. But that just drives the rest of the Aurelians crazy – knowing their Fated Mate is out there, somewhere, but that they might never find her.”
“I’ve heard about this… Bond.”
Sawoot runs her hand through her thick, black hair, pressing her tongue against her cheek as she assembles what she knows.
“My friend who’d been in the harem,” she explains, “told me that she was heartbroken when she found out she wasn’t Bonded to her triad. She’d
