Wrapped in Fire
Removed from her bond post, she wasn’t expecting to be moved from a retired overseer to the possession of the new generation.
Recovering from an attack by a cranky client, Dorra is surprised to be pulled out of her cell and hauled off the floating station and down to the surface to visit a dying client.
She arrives at the home of a client she hasn’t seen for months—the general. He smiles and invites her to stay and play strategy games with him. He has paid her bond off on the station, and she now has a new place to live. There is just one problem. The residence isn’t his anymore. His grandson has taken on the position of overseer, and it is Hreon’s opinion that matters.
Dorra is used to bantering and flirting with the general, but she knows instinctively that Hreon is not going to flirt and let things go. Her own body pulls the trigger.
She’s receptive, he’s in rut, and very little is going to get in his way. He can’t get enough of her, and she gives him everything she has.
The characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author.
Wrapped in Fire
Copyright © 2021 by Viola Grace
ISBN: 978-1-989892-71-8
©Cover art by Angela Waters
All rights reserved. With the exception of review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, is forbidden without the express permission of the publisher.
Published by Viola Grace
Look for me online at violagrace.com.
Wrapped in Fire
Shattered Stars Book 7
By
Viola Grace
Chapter One
The floating station went eerily quiet. The thud of boots was expected, but the twenty men were completely silent.
They walked past the arms dealers, the brothels and focused their attentions on the salon and spa.
Manager Whelling saw them coming and was appalled when three of the Hellaz warriors walked into the spa. The leader said, “I am looking for the groomer named Dorra.”
Manager Whelling swallowed. “What did she do?”
“Produce her.”
“I... it is her day off.”
A small voice said, “No, it isn’t. She’s in her quarters.”
Whelling turned and snarled. There was a scuttling sound.
The warrior walked up to him and growled. “Where is she?”
* * * *
Dorra tried to keep a compress on the gouges on her face and arms that her client had left the night before. Her body was processing the venom, and she had fought off the majority of the infection.
She heard a knock on the door to the workers’ quarters, and she ignored it. She was locked in and couldn’t answer the door if she wanted to. When the door exploded inward and off its hinges, she grabbed her uniform shirt and pulled it in front of her.
The man with his hellish red and black features approached, and he asked, “Are you the groomer Dorra?”
She nodded. “Yes, that’s me.”
“Come with me.”
“I can’t. The floating station owns me.”
He snorted, grabbed the bars to her cubicle, and pulled them free with a snap. “We will attend to that. You are summoned.”
She squawked and held her shirt to her breasts. “Let me put my tunic on.”
“It doesn’t matter. You will be dressed appropriately before we land.”
“It matters to me. I don’t want to be hauled through the station naked.”
He paused, sighed, removed his cloak, and wrapped it around her. Instead of walking with her, he lifted her and tossed her over one shoulder.
She swallowed from inside her cocoon as he spoke to Whelling. “Here. This covers her purchase. She is no longer your concern.”
“W-w-wait. You can’t take her. She’s our best.”
He didn’t reply; he simply left the spa and walked silently through the halls of the station. Dorra didn’t know what was going on, but since she only had a handful of Hellaz clients, she guessed that the general needed her services.
She listened to him register her departure, and then, they were on a vessel, the door closed, and the air pressurized.
“Sagar, where are you taking her?”
“Medical. She’s been clawed up. He can’t see her like that.” Her transporter started walking. “Get us down. Time is a factor.”
He walked with her and then turned, and she could smell antiseptic.
“What is it, Captain?”
“The goal of our journey. She’s damaged, and he cannot see her like this. It will upset him.”
He eased her off his shoulder and removed his cloak. Dorra staggered on her feet and held her shirt up.
The medic looked at her and blinked. “Right. How extensive is the damage?”
He was talking to her.
She licked her lips. “Um, superficial clawing on arms and torso. Light damage to my butt and thighs, and there is an Aksall venom component that I am dealing with.”
“And your face.”
“Oh. Right. That. Yeah, he got me pretty good there.”
The medic nodded and went to get some equipment. “Strip so I can get at everything. I will start on your backside so I can have you sit on the med table.”
She glanced at the irritated man who had to go get her. “Do you need to be here for this?”
“Yes. If the general asks me any questions, I need to know what happened to you. So. What happened to you?”
She grimaced and said, “At least turn around.”
He grunted and tilted his shoulder toward her as he pivoted slightly. She slid her uniform trousers down and stood on them as the medic got a glimpse of the actual damage. He muttered, “Superficial, my ass.”
She muttered back. “Please, concern yourself with my ass, and then, you can sneer at the injuries all you like.”
He paused and snorted. The gel was spread over the damage, and then, he applied the unit that set her nerves on edge. When her butt only had faint red lines on it, he set his tools down and lifted her by the waist, settling her on the med bed.
He carefully spread the gel on her face. “So, what happened?”
She was about to tell him when she heard a growl. “What the hell happened to you?”
Dorra looked at the captain, and his gaze was fixated on the frantic claw marks between her thighs and over her mound.
“Uh, I had a client who had been trimmed by his family. The Aksall do this for males who are unstable. Well, he got enough money together to get a restoration done, and I was assigned to him. I put his claws back into shape, and he jumped on me with what could be considered carnal intent. When I didn’t respond as an Aksall woman, he got more violent.”
“Who is he? Did he leave the station?”
She swallowed at the fury in his gaze. “Um, I don’t know. I was locked in my cell to live or die.”
“No medical care?” The medic was stunned.
“No, that isn’t what us groomers are offered. We are bought for our skills and try to earn out our bond. How much did you give to Whelling?”
The captain narrowed his eyes. “Why?”
“I can’t earn out my bond if I don’t know what the price is.”
He smiled. “You think to earn out your bond? Fine. Twelve thousand.”
The air was knocked out of her. “Twelve? That is eight years at the station salon.” She shuddered.
“How unfortunate for you.” He smiled. “The general stated that I pay twenty, but I have been able to get away with the lesser amount.”
She didn’t say a word. She was bargain basement and always had been. Since the day her world had been struck by an asteroid, through her time scraping for food and shelter, all the way to the education station and being told that her greatest asset was her kind attitude to all no matter their appearance. Her bond had been sold in a batch, and she had ended up as a groomer on the floating station above Hellaz. She actually usually liked her work, but when she had been injured on the job, she had been told that medical care was not accessible for bondservants. At no time would the salon delay their reclamation of her funds, even if she could work better without her face carved up.
“You are responding well to the regenerator. What species are you?”
“Terrans or Urthurs depending on who you ask. Either way, I am from a dying world.”
“What does your species specialize in?” the captain asked. “I feel I have heard that world name before.”
“We don’t specialize in anything but filling worlds.” She chuckled. “That, and certain ladies have been found to be very compatible with he Hmrain. So, our species has that going for it.”
The medic paused. “What?”
“Don’t worry. It is like one in fifty thousand or something, and I am not one of them.”
The captain turned to stare at her. “The Hmrain? Your species can be attractive to the Hmrain?”
“Yes. I know. I don’t look like much.” Dorra winced as her right breast was lifted to expose a long claw line.
“Can you hold that?”
She lifted her breast, and the medic went over the site with the gel and regenerator. He continued on, and her torso was crossed with pink lines that were fading quickly.
The medic paused. “I am not sure how to continue.”
Dorra sighed, lifted her leg, bent it, and set it on the med bed next to her. The gouges took longer than the scratches, and when she was about to give way, he finished the right side. “Now the other one.”
A little scooting, and she lifted her left leg to give him access to two-thirds of it. He took a deep breath and then blinked as he leaned back.
She winced, “Sorry, I didn’t think the Hellaz were susceptible to it.”
The medic smiled. “It’s all right. I am a half-breed. My mother was a Daenor.”
The captain leaned over the medic’s shoulder. “What are you two talking about?”
She was startled by his appearance. She had forgotten he was in the room, which was what the Hellaz were known for. Stealth.
She took on a teacher-tone. “There are a few species that react rather violently to Terran pheromones, but the Hellaz are not known to be one of them.”
“But, the Hmrain are.”
“So I have been told.” She was turning pink as the medic slathered the gel on her mound and down her labia.
“Did he actually rip your skin here?”
She winced and jumped as he pressed the unit over her, and it warmed and hummed as it had on the other portions of her. The captain touched her chin and turned her head as she started to breathe a little faster. “What are you looking at?”
“Merely checking on the healing on your face. The general is going to be looking at it first and foremost.”
The medic finished and pulled the unit away. “Right. You are done for the first treatment, but you are going to need a follow-up when the venom finishes rising.”
“You can’t neutralize it?” She hated the dreams it gave her.
“Not without a few hours of treatment, and we don’t have that kind of time.” The medic took a cloth and wiped down the sites where the gel had been placed. So, most of her.
The captain shook out a short piece of fabric, and her heart sank. Hellaz demanded that servants and slaves not wear upper-body clothing. It made it easy for them to tell who was a visitor and who was scum at a glance.
There were slippers that she put on before sliding on the skirt. It was black and soft gauze and felt like nothing at all. She pulled her clip out of her hair and let the waves tumble to her waist; she pulled locks forward to cover her breasts and smoothed the hair down before she fastened the clip under her hair at the base of her skull.
The captain was amused. “Clever, but you are still not getting a shirt.”
She inclined her head. “Fine. Please, lead the way.”
He cocked his head. “Where?”
“We are about to land, so if I am to see the general, I would like to get into his company as swiftly as possible.”
He inclined his head. “Very well. Come with me.”
She nodded her thanks to the medic and followed the captain through the atmospheric ship and past what appeared to be twenty more Hellaz warriors, all wearing leather and the cloaks that kept some of the ash and embers from volcanoes from scorching flesh. She wasn’t given that option. As they landed, she walked behind the captain and could feel the heat through her slippers.
Dorra kept her eyes on the captain’s cloak and followed him through the landing area and down the street toward the buildings that housed the citizens. When there were more of the Hellaz, she felt a little more noticeable. There were some catcalls and a few men keeping step with her, but when she looked around, the captain was nearly to a large building. She sprinted toward him when the men following her began to shift in a pattern that indicated they had nearly decided on something.
She was moving at a good pace when a man stepped in front of her, and she slammed into him full force. He caught her by her arms, and he looked at the men behind her. “Do not think that this is going to go unremarked.”
She was shaking when the wall she had plowed into urged her head up. “Hey, little one. Where were you going in such a hurry?”
She looked up, and he was a Hellaz, but he was also something else. There weren’t any weird wings or anything, but there was something in the mix. “I was trying to catch up to my guide. I am here at the request of the general.”
He looked at her in surprise. “You are Dorra? Come this way. My grandfather will be pleased to see you.”
“Your grandfather?”
“Yes, my mother’s father.” He covered her with the edge of his cloak and kept her close to him. “Now, where is that twit of a cousin of mine? I am going to kick his ass for dressing you as a servant and leaving you in the street.”
“Um, I am a servant. He bought me.”
“Our grandfather paid him to bring you down here. Sagar is going to catch five kinds of hell for behaving in this manner.”
He got her inside and lowered his cloak. The servants came forward, and one nodded. “Master Hreon, the general is waiting.”
The man smiled at Dorra. “You heard him; the general is waiting. This way.”
He led her up the steps, and she followed.
Chapter Two
Dorra followed the wide back of Hreon through the house and to an open door. He knocked in the doorway and stepped inside but then stopped. “Grandfather. You look upset.”
Sagar snorted. “His little pet ran away. She’s trying to hide dressed as a bondservant.”
Hreon chuckled. “She isn’t very smart, then. In our climate, she would be dead in hours if she was unfamiliar with how to survive here.”
She stabbed Hreon in the back with her index finger.
Sagar sighed. “And after I spent all twenty thousand on her.”
The general’s voice sounded sad. “I just wanted to see her one more time.”
She couldn’t bear the sadness in his voice. “If this twit would get out of my way, you could see me. A lot of me.”
Hreon chuckled and stood aside. “I found your little friend running for her life and nearly to the house. It seemed that Sagar forgot that he was being followed by a woman who was not wearing a household icon.”
She walked forward and to the side of the elderly man sitting up in bed. She bowed. “Good day, General.”
He held out his hand and smiled. �
�I must be dying.”
“Why?”
“I can see your breasts, and I have been trying to catch a glimpse for two years.”
She sighed and took his hand. “Pervert.”
“Tease.”
“Hot head.”
He smiled. “My little princess.”
“My guardian hellspawn.” She grinned.
She looked at his hair, skin, and nails. “Damn. You can’t die looking like that.”
He laughed and brought her hand to his lips. “Precious Dorra. Will you remain here as my companion to the end? At least with you around, I will leave a good-looking corpse.”
She looked around suspiciously. “Do your people have any weird after-death rituals involving slaughtering companions and tossing them on the pyre with you?”
The general looked offended. “No, of course not.”
“Sure. Then, I am all in. Now, I am going to need a few things, including one of those household icons. Can I get a data pad or something?”
Sagar rose from his seat at a small table and walked over to her, shoving the data pad at her.
The general scowled at his younger grandson. “Are you telling me that you discounted the price for her bond?”
“Of course. She was heavily damaged, so I knocked a few thousand off.”
Dorra felt the tension in his fingers. “Damaged?”
“An Aksall client wanted to test out his repaired claws with me. The medic on Captain Sagar’s ship did the first round of repairs.”
“Ah, little one, where did he end up?”
“Um, after I finished with him, I am pretty sure that he is still at medical on the floating station.”
Sagar asked, “What? You said you didn’t know what happened to him.”
She smiled sweetly. “And you said you would take me to the general.”
Hreon stepped between them. “Children, please, stop bickering.”
The general looked concerned.