Cruel Union (Brutal Universe #1)

38. Aurora

38

AURORA

I lay there, panting on the couch, trying to get over the intense orgasm Slade had given me. It was the strongest one yet—and the most tiring. I felt all worn out.

I thought that maybe his compounds were finally beginning to work on me because the dark purple spreader rod had slipped deep inside me with no problem. Which made me wonder how long it would be before he decided to Breed me.

The thought of being impaled on his thick shaft no longer frightened me as it had when I had first seen how big it was, but I still wasn’t eager to get pregnant. It felt like things were moving so fast .

When I had first entered this relationship, I thought it was a marriage of convenience—a simple transaction to save my people. But things had changed. Slade didn’t treat me like I thought he would. It almost seemed like he really cared for me—like he wanted me as his wife permanently. He had even asked me to stay with him. Could I actually consider that?

I didn’t know but I didn’t think I could rule it out anymore. I still had some objections to his line of work, but he wasn’t the evil, soulless monster I had imagined him to be when he first made me the proposition—an heir for the life of my people. In fact, I was beginning to wonder?—

My thoughts were cut off by the sound of raised voices coming from Slade’s office. I perked up my ears and then wrapped the white fur blanket around myself and snuck closer to the door.

This time I was careful not to make a sound. The crack in the door showed Slade at his desk and a 3- D image of his father—or his “ Sire ” as he called him—hovering above the holo projector.

“ I don’t want to live at the mansion!” Slade was saying in a low, intense tone. “ Aurora and I are happy on our own. And you know Lyrah and I don’t get along.”

“ It’s important for families to stay together,” his father argued, frowning. “ Your new wife needs the extra security and protection of the mansion—especially if she’s pregnant with your heir.”

“ I can protect my own wife,” Slade growled.

“ Yes , I heard about how you protected her yesterday in that store,” his father said. “ Was it really necessary to cut off the human’s fingers?”

“ He insulted Aurora !” Slade exclaimed. “ He offered to ‘buy’ her for an hour. He’s lucky I didn’t cut off his fucking dick and shove it down his throat!”

“ I don’t expect you to tolerate insults against your wife,” his father said. “ But you must be aware that when you punish someone like Duke Hornsby , there may be repercussions—even assassins sent to hurt those who are close to you, son.”

“ He’s a human—he wouldn’t dare,” Slade growled.

“ Human or not, he’s wealthy enough to hire someone to come after you if he wants to.” His father sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. “ Look , son— I’m not asking you to come home just because I want you here for my own selfish reasons. I need you and your heir to be safe . You have to carry on our Clan’s bloodline. If something happened to you, Clan Cruel would be in chaos!”

Slade sighed deeply and I saw his broad shoulders sag.

“ All right— Aurora and I will move to the mansion. But I’d like it known that this is on a trial basis. If Lyrah starts giving us trouble?—”

“ Your mother is delighted you’re coming,” his father interrupted. “ Why , she’s already getting the East Wing guest suite ready for you. She says she wants to make the ‘perfect love nest’ for the two of you.”

“ Yeah , I’ll bet,” Slade muttered. “ And she’s my step mother.”

“ Lyrah is trying to be kind and welcoming— I would hope you’ll treat her with respect,” his father said stiffly.

“ I’ll do my best,” Slade promised.

“ Good —then we’ll see you tomorrow morning,” his father said.

“ Make it later than that—we need time to pack,” Slade pointed out.

“ Very well. As long as you’re here for family dinner—which I expect you and your wife to attend at least four times a week—that will be fine.”

And before Slade could protest, his father signed off and his hologram disappeared abruptly.

This time I decided not to try and hide that I’d been eavesdropping—we clearly needed to talk about this. I cleared my throat and waited until he turned around.

“ So we’re going to move to your family’s mansion after all?” I asked.

“ Oh , you heard that, did you?” he asked. His face was like a thundercloud.

“ Yes , sorry. I heard raised voices and I came to see what was happening,” I admitted.

“ What’s happening is we’re moving tomorrow,” he growled.

I raised my eyebrows.

“ Should I start packing?”

Slade shook his head.

“ Just take a few things— I really don’t think we’ll be there for long. Once my Sire sees how badly Lyrah and I get along, he should be willing to let us come back here.”

“ I’ll bring enough for a week, then,” I said. “ Er , is she really that bad?”

“ You have no fucking idea, Princess .” He sighed and ran a hand over his horns. “ Fuck —this is going to be one hell of a fucking week. Just hope it doesn’t last longer than that.”

“ Should I bring more clothes just in case?” I asked.

He shook his head.

“ No . I’ll buy you more if we need more. It’ll give us an excuse to get out of the house. I’ll probably be going into the office more too,” he added.

I was surprised.

“ You have an office? I mean, do mobsters have offices?”

Slade barked a laugh.

“ Yes , we have offices. And the Four Families or Clans aren’t just mobsters you know. We do offer genuine protection to the people who pay us.”

“ Right —protection from getting attacked by your own forces,” I said, getting irritated.

Slade shook his head.

“ No , Princess . Think about this—have you ever stopped and asked yourself why your tiny little planet of L’Crist that really has no defenses to speak of never gets raided by pirates?”

“ You mean like the Canaboids or the Skinners ?” I shivered. I had heard awful stories of the space faring marauders who boarded unprotected ships or smaller moons and enslaved everyone. Or , in the case of the Skinners , they actually skinned their victims alive and sold them as meat at the Flesh Market .

“ That’s exactly what I mean,” Slade rumbled. “ Why do you think it is that none of those bastards has ever bothered your tidy little kingdom?”

“ I … I don’t know,” I faltered. “ I guess I just thought they wouldn’t bother with a planet.”

“ L’Crist isn’t really a proper planet—it’s barely a planetoid,” he pointed out. “ It’s too small to even have an atmosphere—if your people hadn’t teraformed it, you never could have lived there.”

“ So you’re saying that Clan Cruel protects us from pirates?” I asked, raising my eyebrows.

Slade nodded.

“ Among other things. There are some pretty nasty space-faring species out there, Princess and plenty of them would be happy to feast on a few defenseless humans.”

“ We’re not completely defenseless!” I exclaimed, stung by his derision. “ We have an army, you know.”

Slade snorted.

“ Right . An army that any ship with a halfway decent torpedo array could blast out of existence with one shot.”

“ Well , but physically—” I began.

“ Physically , your species is remarkably weak,” Slade growled. “ No horns or fangs or wings—not even any kind of inner entities like the Darkness we of Clan Cruel have. Your little kingdom is safe from all of the scary space pirates and monsters because of our ships.”

I wanted to be offended but I had to reluctantly admit he was probably right. Humans weren’t very strong compared with the other sentient species in the galaxy—especially the Brutes . I only had to look at Slade to know that was true. None of the Brutal males was under seven feet tall and all of them had some kind of special attribute or feature they’d gotten from breeding with other space-faring species.

“ So the Four Families really have ships patrolling all around the galaxy just to keep the people who pay them safe?” I asked.

Slade offered me a grin.

“ Well , I wouldn’t say that’s all the ships are doing—there’s a fair amount of smuggling and other activities the Imperium wouldn’t approve of going on too. But yes, we Brutes take our protection duties seriously. In fact, one of my best friends, Turx , is the captain of his Clan’s fastest ship—he’s always out on patrol.”

“ I had no idea,” I said, shaking my head again. It certainly raised Slade in my estimation. I’d had the idea that he was extorting money from people, but if his Clan really was offering them real protection—including my own home world of L’Crist —then maybe he wasn’t so bad after all.

“ Now you know,” Slade murmured. Rising from his chair, he came to me and swept me into his arms. “ Come on, Princess —let’s get you in the bath and then to bed.”

“ All right.” I laid my head on his chest and breathed in his warm, spicy scent. He had given me a lot to think about but for now, I just wanted to be near him and it seemed that Slade felt the same way about me.