Page 16 of Meteor Storm

And in my current state, I wasn't strong enough to refuse.

8: Thilar

She was sleeping again, tucked against my side on my bed with every layer of blankets I had draped over us both. Despite everything going on, she was keeping herself together for the most part.

I was learning a lot about her in the short time we’d been together. I was learning that humans didn’t take to the cold very well. Her blood was warm, but monrians were warmer. Despite what Pek-Tol tried to get me to do, she was pressed up against me, desperate for my added heat. Our moon was icy and we had thick skin and hot blood because of it. Penny was delicate in comparison. Earth was a paradise, according to my knowledge of it. Warm days. Cool nights. Almost every part of the planet was habitable, and humans adapted to every biome whereas many species in the universe had evolved in only one.

Penny was lightweight and spry, but I could so easily break her bones if I wanted to. Her capacity to deal with physical and emotional stress seemed basic, but she was determined and had a strong will to survive. Her language was complicated, but I was picking it up fast.

I needed her to talk more, but the higher her anxiety, the more she seemed to need rest.

And she was going to need a lot of it if we were going to be thrown into another bout of games. I doubted Pek-Tol would wait long considering the reaction he got from his patrons when the human was introduced. They were ravenous over her, just like the other males were.

When the entire hall full of cells lit up, I knew that the food would come next. Shortly after, the food was deposited from the wall onto a metal platform. The sound of the small hatch opening woke Penny. She opened her eyes, realizing again where she was, and rose up into a sitting position. I took that opportunity to get up and retrieve the two bowls of stew. I knew the color and smell very well. It was what I was always given. A mix of bland ingredients that provided all the vitamins and nutrition my body needed. The other, which had a slightly greener color to it, smelled just as bland. That had to be for Penny.

I walked the food over to her and handed her the bowl just as Pek-Tol appeared in front of the glass barrier. I stood partway in front of her, obscuring his view.

“She’s doing well, it seems,” he said. “You see? I am not so cruel. I said I would give you time together.”

“Her body is not built for my environment. It’s too cold,” I said, glaring. “It’s not built for your punishments, either.”

“She would not have been punished as much if you’d just done what was demanded of you. Now, my investors are disappointed, and they want a game soon or they’re going to start pulling their funds. They want to see the human thoroughly used to see if she’s worth their credits. We could have gotten that out of the way last night, but you had to act like an animal, Tuross.”

“You’ll get her killed before you can make anything off her.”

He raised a brow, making an expression I wanted to carve right off his face.

“Then you should work on preventing that from happening.”

I felt my chest tighten with pent up rage at those words, but swallowed whatever fury I was building, trying to keep my wits sharp and my body primed.

Pek-Tol shrugged, careless. “Her cell is ready. I hope you got your fill of her because unless you catch her in the next game, she’s going to whoever does.”

The thought made my muscles tighten. When two of Pek-Tol’s men showed up, I wanted so badly to crush their heads together, but I knew that without proper preparation, it would just end with me pumped full of darts again.

“At least wait for her to eat,” I said.

The wall slid open and Penny dropped her bowl, spilling its contents all over the floor. I took a step forward and instantly, a shock stick met my ribs, and I was driven to the side. It fueled my anger. It was only when Penny was pulled out of my cell and Pek-Tol raised that damn collar control in his hand that I stopped long enough for his goons to slap a pair of silver cuffs on my wrists.

“Since our methods are growing increasingly ineffective, I had these delivered just yesterday.”

I glared up at him, and the moment I did, he pressed another button on his remote. The cuffs around my wrists hummed, then yanked me toward the floor as if they’d become weighted.

It wasn't hard to figure out they were magnetic. Pek-Tol had brought me to my knees in yet another creative, infuriating way, and the smirk on his ugly, self-satisfied face only made it worse.

My gaze flicked to Penny. She was watching me with pity in her eyes.

Pity.

It was the last thing I wanted anyone to feel when they looked at me.

Monrians were taught to channel our rage, to master it. We knew how to separate ourselves from our emotions, how to lock them away when they threatened to interfere. But the humiliation and shame were seeping into me like a slow poison, corroding me from the inside out and stripping away the armor I'd spent a lifetime building.

As the guards led Penny away, a deep sense of failure took root inside me.

“Now,” Pek-Tol said, standing over me. “The next game is in two rotations and since you’re well rested, I have a job for you so you can make up for that fiasco last night. I have a pair of very rich clients who are dying to know what a big monrian cock feels like. Make them happy and we won’t give her to the nozun prince who’s been asking about her.”

My blood boiled at the idea of another nozun getting his big, rough hands on Penny. Nozun didn’t know how to be gentle. Even mating with each other often resulted in violence or death. To everyone else. Penny was a thing. She was something they all wanted to get their hands on first so no one else could spoil her.