The Commander's Slave by K. S. Augustin

of two beings
consumed with lust with no room for reason.
    Just as she came, he covered her mouth
with his, so she screamed her release into him as his tongue
plundered hers. Then he shuddered his orgasm, the shocks rippling
through his body before he collapsed sideways on the bed and pulled
her into a supine position above him.
    “ You will always be mine,”
he told her after his breathing returned to normal.
    Asha, too, was recovering from the
madness that had consumed her.
    “ Even when I’m bearing the
child of another Seti?” she asked bitterly and flinched as his
hands tightened convulsively on her body. But she had to continue.
“That’s why you bought me, to be a breeding animal for the Seti
race. Have you changed your mind now?”
    “ Is that why you ran?
Because you didn’t want to be with another man?”
    “ I ….” Asha couldn’t
lie.
    Tangus felt his own iron will weaken
in the face of her silent admission. “I can’t put my own needs
ahead of my men, Asha,” he told her gently, stroking her hair. She
could still smell her muskiness on his fingers. “We cannot
disappear. I swore that on the day the Seti world was
destroyed.”
    “ Then where do we go from
here?”
    He hesitated. “The doctor says he
hasn’t finished his tests yet. Maybe if we find our species are too
incompatible ....”
    “ But what if we are compatible?” Asha
levered herself off him so she could look him in the face. “What if
your species and my species are compatible? Will
you still sacrifice me to your grand plan then?”
    The set expression on his face gave
her the answer.
    * * * *
    How much longer did she
have?
    That was Asha’s first thought when she
woke up. She thought it would be morning, but the lamp was still on
and there was no light streaking through the crude wooden shutters
of the room’s window. But there were larger questions on her
mind.
    They couldn’t go on like this. Once
the compatibility issue was settled, then the rest of Asha’s life
was settled, as well. If she could successfully mate with the Seti
then she would be put to work bearing the next generation of Seti
hybrids so their race wouldn’t die out. If she couldn’t, then
perhaps there could be a future with Tangus, but only a short-lived
one. Because, of course, Tangus would also want a child, a genetic
descendant, and if she couldn’t give him one, then he would be
forced to go to someone who could. Either way, Asha faced disaster,
whether in a handful of days or a handful of years. And, truth be
told, she found it impossible to imagine life without
him.
    In their brief time together, and
despite his best efforts, she had managed to see into the core of
him, and she could weep for the waste of it all. Here was a man who
could have easily been the linchpin of a progressive society, and
he and eight thousand of his kind were instead being hunted like
prey.
    She turned her head and watched him
sleep.
    What if she became pregnant by him?
After all, it didn’t take a test to somehow certify her fertility.
What if she was compatible and pregnant? Wouldn’t that buy her some
time? Maybe it was a rationalization because she had fallen in love
with him, but Asha knew she had to try everything to stay with
him.
    While asleep, Tangus appeared years
younger, his characteristic frown disappearing into the smoothness
of his forehead. Without those dark blazing eyes open, he also
seemed more approachable, and she could imagine him with a smile on
his face, a contrast to his normal waking expression.
    How could she give any of this
up?
    Slowly, she slipped out of bed and
untied the bandage that was binding her hair, then she shed her
clothing and used the bandage to wrap it around her wrists. Of
course she could turn out of the twists easily but the illusion was
still served.
    On her knees, she approached the
narrow end of the bed and pulled down the thin blanket that had
covered them, easing onto the mattress and reaching down into his
open pants