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  Estelle is a logistical expert, show her a problem and she can solve it. When she is drugged and enslaved, she looks for a way out, sending messages with every outgoing slave and hoping that one will get her plan to the Alliance in time. The escape is on, but she has been shackled to her breeding partner that very evening, linked by a chain they lead the escape until one partner goes on alone. Survivors are offered a place on an Oefric colony world. The shape shifters have a separate town from the arena survivors, and that is where their hospitality ends. Steel leads the charge to design a working village, and since she conveniently made it into the survivors and not the Alliance specialist designation when she landed, let the fun begin. Wyanic is eventually persuaded to look in on the growing village, and imagine his surprise when his true mate greets him when he thought her dead on the ship.The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. Criminal copyright infringement, including infringement without monetary gain, is investigated by the FBI and is punishable by up to 5 years in federal prison and a fine of $250,000.

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  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  Chain

  Copyright © 2011 Viola Grace

  ISBN: 978-1-55487-771-3

  Cover art by Martine Jardin

  All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, is forbidden without the written permission of the publisher.

  Published by eXtasy Books

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  Chain

  A Terran Times Novella

  By

  Viola Grace

  Chapter One

  "I don't require a female at this time." Wyanic scowled as the handlers shoved him under a shower and stripped him. If his hands hadn't been cuffed in front of him on a chain that led to his ankles, he would have given them more than snarled words.

  "Your needs are not our concern. The female is receptive and the management wants her bred. They have missed her other heats and this time, they are not going to let the opportunity pass."

  Wyanic tensed as they scrubbed his genitals until the skin was almost raw. The water was turned off and blasts of air dried him. One of the handlers tied a short leather covering around his hips and the other attached a heavy chain to his waist with extra loops hooked up to dangle from it.

  "What is this for?" He had had several females brought to him over the last three months, but they had never put a chain on him.

  "Well, she is biologically receptive but physically resistant. Management wants a child off her and you will not be unshackled until she is pregnant." The handler tugged him out of the grooming area, past the entrance to the arena and down a hall.

  Wyanic looked around him. He had never been down this hall before.

  "This is the breeding area. Only women live in this space."

  The wail of an infant sent a shiver through him.

  "Well, women and their offspring until the children are sold."

  Wyanic's muscles tensed at the image his mind presented him with.

  He had been captured four months earlier and had spent every other day fighting for his life for the entertainment of others. They were on a travelling station, a warship that had been repurposed to hold sentients for a darker purpose.

  Wyanic had been travelling to get some equipment and supplies for his colony as well as some staff specialists. One drink at the wrong bar and he had woken up in the bowels of this ship with no idea how much time had passed. From that point on, survival had been his prime concern.

  "Here she is. She has been restrained, but once you are locked together, we will release her. From what I have heard, you should be able to subdue her at close range."

  He had no idea what he would be facing, but the milk-skinned woman with a river of chestnut hair and fully dilated pupils was not it. Her form was exceptionally pleasing to his eyes--her breasts were high and very full, her waist narrow and her hips nicely rounded. The sparkling tattoo across her abdomen denoted her as a newer race to the Alliance.

  "Easy, lass." The handler hauled him forward and kept a grip on his chains while tilting the female upright on the giant X station she had been strapped to.

  This close to her, with the stink of his fights washed off, he could smell her heat. A teasing musk that drew him closer to investigate the source.

  She bared her teeth in defiance and hissed angrily as the chain links from his waist were tied around her own. They were less than three feet apart and he could feel the heat from her skin against his.

  This pale rose had been in the dark for some time. Her eyes were looking up at him, almost blind in the weak lighting of the breeding chamber.

  The sudden freedom of his wrists had him reaching for the woman before the handler had left the room. Without a word, he unfastened her from the X and helped her regain feeling in her hands.

  Her words were quiet, "Thank you."

  Suddenly, Wyanic felt nine feet tall. The thanks from this delicate creature meant more to him than all his victories in the arena and that feeling shook him to the core.

  "We don't need to do anything."

  The pale woman smiled weakly. "Yes we do. If we don't, they come in with shockers and spend five minutes torturing me. Then they will do it for ten after the next time they come in and we haven't copulated."

  She pressed her fingers to his lips when he leaned in for a kiss. "Wait, what species are you?"

  "Oefric." He mumbled it against her fingers and she smiled, lighting the high cheekbones with a touch of colour beneath the skin.

  "Good. You are on my list." She leaned up to press her lips against his and he was lost in a sea of sensation that he had never felt before.

  Part of his heart sank while the rest rejoiced at finding his mate. This was an unsure situation and getting out alive was not a sure thing. He pushed thoughts of the future away and simply enjoyed something he thought he would never feel. His true mate in his arms.

  * * * *

  When he came through the door, Estelle froze in place. She ignored the handler who latched the chain around her waist after she gave him the expected hiss. She didn't want them to expect an easy or unchallenged contact. They were monitoring all of her actions and the shot that they had given her in medical was rippling through her system with a violence that shocked her.

  The man with the midnight hair and bronze eyes was pissed at being confined, probably even more than she was. With her limbs fastened to four points, it was awkward to have her blood surge in anticipation and she kicked herself for letting her hormones take over, even if they had chemical help.

  The metal was cool against her skin, the large links rubbing together as the handler wrapped it tightly and sealed it into place. She knew about those links, they were not coming off without a fight.

  The brighter lights in the breeding pens impaired her vision. Estelle had become used to the almost total darkness of the women's quarters, being sniffed out as being in heat had come as quite a shock, but the new scanners that they had planted in the women's area had paid for themselves, pointing out women whose biological signals were primarily internal and less obvious.

  What she could see of her new companion was that he had dark hair, metallic eyes and a well-muscled physique in a colour a few shades
darker than his eyes. The rest was a bit of a blur. Only the striking colours and the heat from his body burned into her mind.

  She asked him his species and sighed in relief when it was one on her top-twenty compatibles list. She would not suffer from acid or an unknown spike in the penis with an Oefric. Strictly vanilla mating.

  Her blood surged in reaction when she leaned up for a kiss and thankfully, his aim was true.

  She paused. "I have been kept in the dark for a while. I can't really see that well, even in this light."

  "I guessed as much. Tell me if there is any discomfort, your skin seems very delicate." His hands ran down her back from shoulder to the chain, skimming over it and then down to her hips.

  As he pulled on her hips until she was mashed against him from groin to knee, his lips sought hers again for a kiss. A fine tremor ran through his hands as he touched her, the short leather skirt of a fighter the only impediment between them.

  She fell back as he pressed on her shoulders, tumbled to the surface of the wide pallet that was there for this purpose. His mouth became his weapon of choice on her as her nipples were sucked to aching points and her navel treated to a series of slow licks that made her squirm.

  He parted her thighs with his shoulders, widening the space as he dove to suck and lick her clit with abandon. Her cries echoed on the walls and a chuckle from the doorway flushed her skin a hot pink. At least the handlers were not going to use the shock sticks this time, but as her companion surged up her body to bury his cock into her, she lost her concern for their audience.

  His cock was thick, wide and just long enough to make her feel full without striking her cervix. She revelled in the tug and pull of the flared head inside her as it worked against her muscles and the tight clasp of her channel.

  His thrusts grew faster and harder as he started a low growl that rattled her nerves and sent a spike of lust to the most sensitive spots in her body. The chain between them pressed against her clit with a cold shock and she heard her own cries torn from her body in a rush that preceded her companion's cries by a dozen thrusts.

  His roar shook the walls. His flesh under her hands felt like it was shifting shape for a moment before it stabilized.

  He slumped over her and caught his breath. While she closed her eyes against the bright light, he nuzzled her neck and jaw. Sweat cooled between them and when she looked over his shoulder, the handler left with a nod.

  "They will leave you with me for a day or so," she whispered into his ear and at this range, she admired its point, almost hidden in the wealth of his black hair.

  "Good. I have a few questions I want to ask you."

  She ran her fingers through his hair and smiled. "There may not be time for that."

  He reared up and stared into her eyes, confusion marking his features. That confusion remained as the lights went out.

  "Up you get, since I am tied to you and this escape has been planned for months. We are on our way out of here." She pressed on his shoulders and winced as he slid out of her. Her body had enjoyed the warmth of his and now she felt cold and alone.

  He got to his feet and asked. "You are serious? This is an escape?"

  "Coupled with an Alliance raid. Come on, we need to get to the rendezvous point."

  She could see the tilt of his head easily in the darkness. It was her new realm.

  "How could you have planned this?"

  "It was easy. I simply had to have something to do while I was waiting for the slavers to notice I was going into heat. They were bound to notice eventually." She tugged on the chain and led him through the unlatched door, into the hall.

  Estelle had been planning this for months. The clue that it had been enacted was the lights going down while the hum of the engines remained stable. She had provided nine sold slaves with details to send to the Alliance and finally, one had made it through.

  She whistled and the doors in the breeding pens opened. Only one other woman was chained to a male and they were working as a unit.

  With her eyes wide, she led the way down the halls, her companion keeping up on soundless feet.

  It was time for this escape to get up and running.

  Chapter Two

  Shouts were coming from the darkness ahead of them. The sounds of fighting rang in the air. Estelle's companion made his way slightly ahead of her and when the handler came charging down the hall with night vision lenses and a stunner, he disarmed the man in a second.

  He stripped off the lenses and placed the goggles on his own head.

  "I am gathering that you don't need these."

  She chuckled. "You gather correctly. They keep the women's quarters dark, so I have acclimated over the last few months."

  The growing crowd behind them clustered tightly together as they eased around each corner.

  Blasts were shaking the ship, causing groaning of tearing metal that made the escapees more nervous.

  "Steel, how far?"

  Estelle turned her head to the side, "Less than half a kilometre. Not far now."

  The sounds of battle were getting closer. It was unlikely that the Alliance staff was this deep in the ship already, but the women's quarters were nearby and it was a guess that some of those women were ready to fight.

  Each corner brought them closer to the safe space that she had identified over months of scanning the ship designs. It was surrounded by the thickest baffles that she could spot and would provide the best cover for the weak and vulnerable.

  "Where are we going?"

  "The arena. It is the best-defended piece of the ship and the large fight space will make it easy for the weak to be defended by the strong. The Alliance will meet us there."

  They joined a group from the women's quarters and those women clutched makeshift weapons.

  "Hska, can you use your pry bar on this chain?"

  The scaled woman nodded and drifted toward her through the silent crowd. Pressure on the links made her wince, but she let the woman keep trying as they walked.

  Her companion spoke in low tones, "You will not be able to break the links without a cutting blade or the sealer that they used to connect it."

  "Thanks, Hska." The lizard woman nodded and faded back into the crowd, her pry bar raised and ready.

  "How many of the women do you know by name?"

  "All of them, even the ones in the breeding pens."

  "Why?"

  "I am just funny that way. Now shush."

  They came around the corner to face the open floor of the arena. It was empty with a few exceptions. As a group, they poured into the open area and waited.

  Estelle kept close to her companion, she didn't want to be tugged and pulled.

  A few of the male fighters were poking their heads into the arena with the noise of the raging battles around them. Several grabbed weapons and went out in search of a fight.

  Her companion picked up a blade and tested the chain with it.

  He was selecting another to make an additional test when a cry rang out. "Wyanic! You dishonoured me in front of my owners."

  The creature that was approaching was enough to give Estelle nightmares. It was black, silver, slimy and eight feet tall with several sets of horns.

  It was also armed with two long blades.

  "Khass. This is not the time." He was arming himself, pushing her behind him.

  "This is the best time. I will know that I killed you and no one will be the wiser. The Alliance rescue has begun and I am a simple slave." Khass cackled, exposing teeth that rivalled a shark's.

  Wyanic stepped forward and the tug brought her in front of him. Khass lunged as Wyanic shoved her back and the searing pain crossing her ribs, belly and hip drove Estelle to her knees.

  "Steel!" Hska was at her side in an instant, holding in her belly with splayed hands.

  Estelle looked down and wished she hadn't. A slice started under her breast and ran across her belly to her right hip, blood was pooling furiously. Hska made some frantic noises. Est
elle heard a roar coming from a distance.

  Sounds of fighting broke through her pain-induced haze and she shuddered as more women gathered, some pressing hands on her and others giving her what energy they could spare. She knew of at least three contact healers in the group, but two had been sent to the breeding pens and if their breeding was successful, their talents would be subdued.

  "Come on, Steel. Stay with us. The Alliance crews are here. They will take care of you." Hska's voice was relieved and Estelle had to smile. She had already lost a fatal amount of blood. It was only up to her body to realize it.

  "It's fine, Hska. How is my breeding companion doing?"

  "His kind is holding him back. We told him there was nothing he could do here."

  "That's the truth. I do wonder if I would have had a boy or a girl." Her voice was wistful as she faded off. Darkness came to her and she left with the knowledge that she had done what she set out to do. She loved it when a plan came together, even if she had to be the casualty.

  * * * *

  Hska looked down at her friend and absorbed her last words. A baby, she thought she might be pregnant. "Where is that medic?"

  "There is nothing I can do." The man looked vaguely uneasy. "She's dead."

  "S'sran! Get over here. We need a transport." Hska grabbed the medic by the front of his uniform and stripped the location of his ship from his mind. "Tahsh, Vendu, keep your hands in place."

  The other women nodded grimly and held tight as the l'nal, S'sran, lifted them in her multiple arms and transported them to the location in Hska's mind.

  The medical bay was preparing for the influx, but the arrival of three nude women, one corpse and a l'nal froze some of the less experienced in place.

  "We need a doctor, now!" Hska and her friends moved Steel to an exam table and held her belly shut as a woman wearing Citadel Healer's robes came forward.

  The woman examined her patient and nodded, placing her hands on Steel's chest and starting the pulse. "Is there anything I should know?"