Under By Treaty (SciFi Romance) (3 page)

Jaden
backed away. He felt a sickness all the way to his bones. The enemy had conned them into giving up their prize fighter General in a ruse of peace so they could come back full force and wipe out the human race. And he was meant to play this game out to the end, sacrificed on the altar of human stupidity.

He shook his head. “I
’ll
fight
her. I’ll fight with everything I’ve got.”

“I expect nothing less,” a soft voice
replied behind him.

Jaden spun
around. Sonil stood several steps back from where he expected to find her. He flushed as her appreciative gaze ran up and down his naked body.

“You are a fine specimen,” she
approved, circling him slowly.

To add to his humiliation, his body responded to the look of blatant desire in her eyes. She completed her circle then walked right up to him, careful to avoid his straining cock. Jaw clenched, Jaden stared straight ahead, trying to imagine an ice-cold shower, g
rateful that Johnson and Rooster behind him were unable to witness this ultimate betrayal by his own body.

Sonil raised her hand to his neck, pinched close to his shoulder and pressed down. His legs buckled under him and he dropped to his knees. With his hands cuffed behind his back, he was dependent on her grip for balance.
Her scent wafted over him and a haze clouded his vision. Jaden struggled to breathe. He knew she was strong, but the force she exerted on him came from a different place. He’d never met a K’lahn like her. Were the Qui another race entirely?

Her hand shifted around to the back of his neck. Then her fingers were in his hair. She forced his head
down. “Hold this position, Jaden.”

Jaden rebelled the moment the words left her lips. Only he didn
’t move. Then he realized that was because he couldn’t move. Her words resonated through his mind, causing a shudder through his body. It had to be drugs, or a hypnotic trance, maybe a chemical on the tips of her fingers.

He fought to lift his head then to turn it. Nothing. Panic engulfed him.
Frozen in place with a simple command. It had to be her scent. Pheromones. He could hear her talking with Rooster and Johnson. The words seemed to come from a long distance away. He couldn’t make them out.

A scream welled up inside him. He fought for air. Fresh air untainted by alien chemicals. He began to tremble.

*****

Sonil, Ambassador to the Court of the Qui, Lady of Katar, First Regent to the Empire
was prepared to be gracious in victory. “President Rooster, I appreciate this was not an easy decision for you. I am curious as to your thinking.” She glanced at Johnson. “Your predecessor was adamantly opposed to the Qui’s offer.”

“Earth
needs to accept the Qui Galactic Empire is here to stay, Ambassador. We should look for areas of agreement and put aside past differences, abhorrent as that will initially seem. I also have faith in General Jaden’s ultimate loyalty to Earth, although I did not expect him to be so cooperative this fast.”

“Trust me when I say he has no choice in the matter.” Sonil turned to assess Jaden’s condition. He knelt on the floor where she had placed him, frozen in place by the power of her pheromones.  She admired his muscular arms and the firm tone of his buttocks, desire for her prisoner charged her blood with hormones. “See how he trembles.
Inside he is fighting for his life.”

“Then how?”

“I am not human, Mr. President. I am of the Qui. A traumatic handover is in nobody’s interests. Jaden is now the property of the Qui and he will be treated as hostile until he proves worthy of her trust. The future of Earth depends on him. Remember, his willing consent is a prerequisite for culmination.”

The two presidents shared an uneasy look and Sonil’s nostrils flared with her anger. The humans did not believe their tribute would find success. She raised her hand and a K’lahn officer stepped forward with the signed contract.

Sonil handed the document to Rooster. “You will be informed when and if culmination is achieved. May I have the key to his restraints, please?”

Rooster gave her the key with a shaking hand. He looked uncertain. If he was reconsidering his decision, he had waited too long. The deal was concluded and Sonil relished the task before her.

She bent down and unlocked the cuffs binding Jaden’s hands behind him. His arms fell uselessly to his side. Sonil snapped her fingers and a few moments later bearers entered the room carrying an iron cage built to the precise measurements of the Qui’s new property.

Jaden’s trembling intensified when the cage was placed in front of him. The bearers removed the cage walls then gently lifted Jaden’s frozen
-kneeling body up and onto its base. His ankles were locked down. As the cage was reassembled around him, Jaden emitted an anguished wail. One of the K’lahn bearers cuffed his wrists to the bracelets at the top of the side bars. When he was hemmed in on all sides, the cage top was lowered into place. Bolts were thrown.

Her general was secured.

Sonil moved forward and reached a hand through the bars to touch his cheek.

Instantly, he was snarling and tugging
, furiously testing his restraints. “Bitch! Is this the only way you can get laid? Drug your victims so they’re helpless to resist?”

He unleashed a string of insults and Sonil turned to one of the bearers for the Lis’hue prod, a crude but effective device. She shoved it through the bars straight into his ribs. Jaden yelled. Every muscle in his body went rigid as he fought to escape the prod’s excruciating bite.

“For God’s sake! That’s enough,” Rooster shouted. He stepped forward, but one sharp look from Sonil made him reconsider the wisdom of interfering.

Sonil stopped. She studied Earth’s new president who looked to be in more torment than the man she was torturing. “The Lis’hue administers a transitory punishment, a short,
painful shock. I have researched your treatment of prisoners on this world. This is mild by comparison.” 

Jaden
’s head dropped forward, his wrists taking the brunt of his body weight. Ragged breathing filled Sonil with quiet satisfaction. She doubted he would rant at her again, at least not for a while.

Sonil pointed to
the man who was now the property of the Qui. “This is what you agreed to, President Rooster,” she continued. “The contract made this quite clear.”

Rooster opened his mouth, but no words came out.

He turned to Johnson, but Earth’s president, days from being deposed, turned away. “Please go,” Johnson croaked. “
Ambassador
.”

Sonil
discerned the pathetic insult in Johnson’s inflection. Humans hid their baser instincts beneath a veneer of civility. The Qui acknowledged theirs openly and brandished cruelty for a greater good. Rooster and Johnson were a fine demonstration of why humanity was ultimately weak and doomed to fail.

Chapter Three

Jaden hung in his iron cage, naked and scared. A rocking motion placed further stress on his wrists locked into metal cuffs secured to the bars just above his head, the burning fire cutting into the heel of his palm, just not enough to break through the fog gripping him.

Disjointed images assaulted his mind.

He squinted through a blur of tears, trying to work out if the dark K’lahn flagship looming up ahead was the real thing or a memory.

What’s happening to me? Where’s Zubarev, or Tennant?

He flinched at a flash memory of Colonel Tennant standing over him as rough hands stripped Jaden of both his clothes and his dignity.

No. Don’t think about it.

A dull ache erupted under his ribs as he tried and failed to shift his weight to relieve the weight on his wrists – Sonil, teaching him a lesson he’d never forget. His prison tilted upwards and he cried out as gravity jolted his body’s precarious balance. Fresh agony dispersed the fog dulling his mind. He twisted his head in vain for one last look at Central Command as the bearers carrying his cage clanked their way up a ramp into the hulking expanse of a hangar bay.

They didn’t stop once inside. His journey continued through the ship, the stress position he was trapped in exhausting him more with every second. He could not move his feet at all and could support his body weight only by placing inordinate strain on his knees and thighs, or hang from his wrists cuffed in bracelets that dug into skin already damaged in a panicked frenzy to escape.

Ambassador Sonil was nowhere to be seen.

His surroundings became more opulent. A carpeted corridor led to a large pair of double doors. They opened automatically on a soft hiss and Jaden and his cage were carried into a large and very luxurious room. More double doors revealed a richly decorated bedroom with a huge, ornate four-poster bed. Beams crisscrossed above the bed.

Jaden gulped. He had read the unconscionable contract tied to this sham of a peace treaty. He knew what that bed meant. Panic welled up inside him, a fresh burst of adrenaline that chased away the last threads of dark confusion. His guards placed the cage so he was directly facing into a corner of the room. He could turn his head slightly to the side but his view was limited by his suspended arms. There was no rug here, just a plain white floor and walls.

The guards left without a word. He was on his own. Chained like an animal in a cage for a K’lahn’s pleasure – a K’lahn of the Qui bloodline with the ability to beat the crap out of him, or paralyze him if he spoke out of turn.

The United Regions’ newly-elected president wanted him to debase himself for Earth. Rooster didn’t get it. Culmination required Jaden to fall in love, to willingly submit his heart and mind to a lifetime’s service at the Qui’s pleasure. It was never going to happen.

Never.

The door whooshed open and his body tensed up, every sense alert for the next assault to befall him. It had to be Sonil. He could smell her. His cock hardened, his body continuing to betray him even now. He clamped his mouth shut, determined not to acknowledge her arrival. His pounding heart drummed loud in the silence. Could she hear it too? He blanched. Her hearing was superhuman. Shit. She probably knew he was so attuned to her presence that ignoring her only made him look foolish.

He heard a door open then the sound of rustling. She was choosing clothing. He listened to her gentle breathing as she changed.

Sonil was playing him at his own game.

There was a creak of the bed. She was changing her shoes, now brushing her hair. A clanking sound suggested jewelry placed on a hard surface. He heard her pick up and put down pots.

A chiming sound prompted a rustling of clothing.

“Come in, Captain Markl. I’m nearly ready.”

There was that slight whoosh sound again. Jaden strained his ears to catch the soft footfalls. A rasping voice let forth a stream of K’lahn, the words spoken too fast for Jaden to translate.

Sonil’s response was short and there was a pause.

“My apologies, Ambassador,” Markl replied.  “I admit I did not expect Earth’s leaders to hand over their general.”

“Earth’s new president had second thoughts when I punished Jaden with the Lis’hue.”

Jaden
twitched, remembering. He’d been ranting, screaming his defiance. Sonil had shoved a device between the bars straight into his ribs. He squirmed at the memory. He’d begged her to stop, on the verge of tears, President Rooster shouting somewhere behind him.

“What did this Earth president expect?” Markl asked.

“Humans practice double standards, Captain. They betray each other with one breath then protest the consequences with the next. The contract was specific. They agreed to the terms.”

“No.” Jaden shook his head.
He remembered Rooster had slammed the Qui’s proposal. Said human freedom was worth the price of war. What the hell happened to change his mind?

“Yes, Jaden.”

Jaden started; unaware he’d spoken out loud.

Sonil dropped down beside him. He could just glimpse her silvery dress and a sparkle of blue scales. Her cool fingers trailed down his spine all the way to his bare ass. His cock stiffened. He grunted a protest, hating how his body continued to betray him.

“Your own race abandoned you,” she taunted him. “What is the Earth saying?
A casualty of war?
Your presidents handed you to us, bound, naked, and helpless. A peace treaty offering. You are now the property of the Qui and it is my duty to train you in the ways of the Court where you will be presented to the Qui for culmination.”

Bound, n
aked and helpless.
The longest walk of his life.

A palpable surge of resentment
flared behind Jaden’s eyes. Ambassador Sonil hadn’t just taken his dignity. She’d stolen his senses and stripped him of rank and station – she had confiscated his identity.

Jaden shook his head, chasing the painful memory away, refusing to let the bitter ache in his chest conquer him, not sure he had the strength to resist the deepest cut of all.

They sold him for a piece of worthless paper.

Sonil rose to her feet, her scent wafting across Jaden’s nostril
s. His skin burned from her caress, his body ultra-sensitive to her touch, her caress a torturous pleasure he found hard to bear. 

Another whooshing sound told him they were leaving.

“Human stench is stronger than I expected,” Markl said, his voice fading. “How will you stand it?”

The door closed.

*****

The pent up tension intensifying the ache at the back of Jaden’s neck spiked. God, no, please not now. He didn’t think he could endure a blinding migraine like the ones that had plagued him since shortly after Sonil’s arrival
to Earth. He paced his breathing and closed his eyes. How long had it been since Sonil left with that K’lahn? An hour? Maybe two?

He was losing track of time.

Can’t stop shaking.

The migraine stayed away, but the pain gradually acquired a foothold in his mind, mixing with older memories of a cold, terrible night, when the K’lahn snatched his parents from him in a cage just like this. He later learned that his mother and father had died – their frail human bodies unable to withstand K’lahn interrogation. The United Regions Army told him his parents were heroes. He only remembered being dragged from the warmth of his mother’s arms, her tearful face pressed up against the iron bars, his father’s whisper telling him to be brave.

He’d tried to be brave, but he’d been just a little boy. Wanting his mom, wondering when his father would return to ruffle his hair. He waited a long time before someone came. They told him his parents had died bravely. The K’lahn never did learn the location of the Resistance Base.

Jaden breathed slow and deep. In. Out. He had the training, the experience, and thanks to Doc Parsons, his body was pumped full of nanos working to keep him going. He would not dishonor his parents’ memory.

Or give Sonil the satisfaction.

He flexed a thigh muscle before it fell asleep. It didn’t help. How much time had passed?

A slight vibration through the floor suggested the flagship was lifting into space and his battered spirit dived. Not long.

His mind drifted.

An agonizing pain jolted Jaden back to consciousness. He bit his lip. His wrists were bleeding, the inside edge of the bracelet bearing his weight razor sharp.
Got to stay awake.
He grimaced. He couldn’t avoid falling asleep.

Bitch
.

The room went dark and Jaden froze. For several minutes, he held his body rigid, just listening. After a while he relaxed and then winced as the cuffs bit deeper. He rose up slightly to relieve the pressure.

How much longer was she going to be? Damn it, he’d thought he could handle anything she threw at him. His arrogance had underestimated her from the start.

*****

Sonil sampled the scent of fear and exhaustion permeating throughout her quarters. She stopped in the doorway to her bedroom and listened to Jaden’s steady heartbeat. He was still asleep.

She moved silently to his cage, her stomach clenching pleasurably at the sight of him. The Qui’s human tribute looked so vulnerable, the impressive lines of his finely honed body together with his heady scent sparked off a firestorm inside her that turned her damp with a fierce lust. She had taken his human form and the effect on her was unprecedented.

The pheromones pouring off him made her nipples achingly hard, her skin itched with a need to touch and rub against him. She wanted to tear him out of his cage and take him to her bed. The Qui in her demanded submission from this beautiful but unruly human. The wretched primate had zero control of his own biochemistry.

Sonil battled the compulsion consuming her, thankful she’d walked away from the temptation of Jaden’s unchecked arousal earlier that evening while she was still high from the excitement of the exchange.

Instead she’d endured the company of the ship’s captain. Markl had flirted with her outrageously. Normally she would execute the captain for such presumption, but Markl was ignorant of the full extent of her Qui heritage. She had no wish to lose a competent, loyal officer and fending off his advances had distracted her from the unbearable heat Jaden awakened in her.

How to proceed? Earth’s future depended on the choices she made. She’d expected Jaden to be a challenge, she never anticipated her own carnal response to Earth’s military leader and she didn’t have to wait. Her pheromones could enthrall him to her easily.

The thought sat uncomfortably with her. This man’s heart could not be purchased with the currency of pleasure. He had fought his attraction to her from the start, honorable to his cause, in stark contrast to his superiors’ treachery. Earth’s presidents, both new and old, had sold Jaden out to buy Earth time. Their guilt at the handover betrayed them.

Jaw clenched from a disenchantment she did not fully understand, Sonil listened to the ship’s engines powering up for the next hyper drive jump as Earth’s solar system slipped from view. She’d embarked on this journey because the blue-green planet was a rare gem, to be cherished, not destroyed. She had witnessed its devastation firsthand, all those cities in ruin, and concluded the Qui should never have persisted with this war against the humans. She’d made Earth’s leaders an offer they could not refuse if they wished to save their world. Could she honestly despise either president for succumbing to the inevitable logic of her proposition?

Jaden was the unexpected factor she needed to solve.

He provoked feelings she hadn’t anticipated. She sensed his weakening will offered Earth a glimmer of hope. How she handled him now could crush that hope or nurture it.

Qui tradition demanded harshness. Expected and received instant gratification. Tradition would not serve her well with Jaden. She needed to put aside her own desires and soften her approach. Open a way to culmination he could accept that would not ultimately lead to his death.

If Jaden did not survive, the Qui would have no choice but to squash Earth’s rebellion with maximum force before other systems decided to emulate Earth’s resistance. The situation could not continue. One way or another, either through culmination or military action, honor had to be satisfied. The balance of the Empire demanded no less.

She could not let her attraction to this human jeopardize his training, but she could use his blatant desire for her to win him over.

“Lights,” she ordered.

The room’s sensors responded and she turned her eyes from the brightness. Jaden jolted awake and cried out as his wrists rebuked the sudden movement.

Satisfied she had his attention Sonil took her time preparing for bed. Her general chose to rebel quietly. She would grant his wish, but time was short. She had given Jaden twenty-six ship hours to come to his senses. Markl had wagered two ship-days. In the end, she had granted Markl one night with her captive if Jaden held out more than thirty hours, a wager she now regretted. They were ten hours in.