Gofan Ild Slave MarketThe occupied planet JaurlanZon Occupied SpaceTevra stood on the auction block, hands chained before her, as still as she could to avoid drawing attention to herself. She fought the urge to wipe away the bead of sweat that was running down her temple like acid in the noontime heat. She glared into the noisy, bustling crowd—mixed alien species babbling in their assorted tongues—all of whom had come to the flesh market to purchase captured humans. Most of the crowd were Praxivs, a humanoid species with eyes that reflected back a certain amount of light so the irises often looked as if they were glowing. Like humans, the Praxiv came in all shapes and sizes, but unlike the humans displayed on the auction stage alongside her, these Praxiv had only one color of skin, a gleaming eggshell white, smooth and hairless. They had plenty hair on their heads though—spiky, bushy hair styles in wild configurations. Strips of hair standing up. Hair sculpted into loops or buzz cuts or elaborate braids. They wore gems in their hair that gleamed like glowing embers or summer suns or the blue, blue depths of the Zambinian Ocean.She’d spotted a few humans here and there, and a few other species as well. The sight of the human slave owners disgusted her far more than the revealing outfit they’d forced her to wear.Her ship, the Nebulon Mrex, had been cruising in deep space through the outer spiral systems. They’d kept to Unregulated space, far from the demilitarized area where Zon empire territory started. But they’d been attacked anyway. Their systems and meager defenses had been overwhelmed and their entire crew captured. One thing she knew for certain: based on all the brazen, calculated leers she was getting, she wouldn’t leave here a free woman.Which was fine. Because after her new “master” took her home, she was going to kill him.Afraid the slave-buyers might read the murder in her eyes, Tevra forced her attention away from the crowd to the city’s skyline—domes and odd spherical buildings, tinged blue in the sapphire-colored light from the blue giant star that seemed to be this world’s sun. The buildings were huge and ugly, designed with a blunt, utilitarian architecture. Everywhere she looked stood tall, treelike camera arrays and sensor clusters. Even if she managed to escape, she wouldn’t remain free for long in a city with so many electronic eyes and ears.Not to mention the dreaded Zon Robotic Collective who had captured and ruled as overlords on this world. One of the Zon stood at the far end of the stage. Its triangular body bristled with dozens of metal limbs, tools, clamps, and steel tentacles. It balanced on three legs like a tripod, and the metal surface that covered its frame was reflective enough that she could see the long line of slaves on display. Where its head should’ve been was only a cluster of sensors, dark gray camera-lens eyes, and motion sensors.Tevra hated the ugly, ungraceful thing. She should’ve fought harder against the Zon raiders when they’d attacked her ship. Better to die fighting than…this. But she would set her failure right very soon.Hailee stood next to Tevra in the line of slaves for sale and let out an anguished moan. Tevra glanced at her. Her friend and crewmate had tears running down her cheeks. They fell to the auction stage and left dark droplet-stains on the metal.“Hailee,” Tevra whispered. “Look at me.”Hailee turned her head and met her eyes. She didn’t say anything, but Tevra knew she had her friend’s full attention.Tevra put every bit of strength and determination she could summon into her words. “Listen to me. We’re going to get through this. All of us. Stay strong.” She held out her bound hands. After a moment, Hailee lifted her own and clasped hands with her. Her grip was tight, but trembling. Tevra gave her a reassuring squeeze. “We’re alive. We’re better than they are and we always will be, no matter what. Remember, you’re never a slave in your mind. They can’t enslave your thoughts unless you let them.”“Thanks,” Hailee whispered back. “Thanks, Tev.”An armed Praxiv guard strolled over and shoved an ugly blaster rifle against Tevra’s side. “Quiet, you human filth. No touching.”Tevra glanced at the other armed Praxiv guards at each edge of the stage. Their helmets and smooth, dark armor made them look menacing and insect-like. She decided disobeying wasn’t worth the price…yet. She’d said what she’d needed to say to Hailee. She gave her friend’s hand another quick squeeze and let go.The guard wasn’t through. He glared at a nearby Praxiv technician. “You forgot to immobilize the slaves on the display, you chynching fool.”The technician cringed and bowed several times before he started adjusting the dials and sliders on his holoscreen control board. An instant later Tevra felt a null-field stop her control over the major muscle groups in her body. She could turn her head and breathe and her heart continued beating, but she could forget about running or fighting until she was away from the null-field. She loathed the sensation of losing control over her body like this, which she’d endured for the last three days since their capture.The surly guard grunted and swaggered back to his post. More guards leaned insolently against the curved walls of the flesh market in this nasty city. The Praxiv only had a few enclaves on planets and space stations in UnReg space, because even the wilder, unregulated systems had universal laws banning slavery. But she was positive this wasn’t UnReg space anymore. She had to be across the demilitarized sphere and trapped in Zon territory.A heavy Praxiv wearing an elaborate skirt-like garment that barely contained his mass shambled to the center of the platform and lifted an omni-speech amplifier to his blue-tinged lips. This Praxiv was the chief overseer, a cruel-eyed, repulsive male called Hac set Ghorum. He wore a bandage wrapped around one of his hands. Tevra smiled savagely. He hadn’t tasted very good when she’d bitten his groping hand hard enough to draw blood.The slave overseer had made her suffer for that bite. He carried a shock-lash that could inflict pain without leaving marks on the body. Biting him had been worth it, though, just for the look on his round face.Hac set Ghorum cleared his throat and began to speak. “We have the finest specimens of human stock on display for you today,” The translator chip imbedded in her temple automatically changed Praxiv speech into galactic standard, allowing her to understand his words. He waved his lash around and continued his pitch. “I don’t think I have ever seen their like. Lucky for you, honored lords and ladies. Lucky for you, these humans are delightful temptations of the flesh, and they will keep you warm throughout these cold Jaurlan nights, no matter the configuration of your sexual equipment.”Small laughter and applause greeted his joke. Tevra ignored it. The overseer was woefully wrong about any of these bidders being lucky. Her new master was going to be the unluckiest creature in this law-forsaken quadrant. The name Jaurlan confirmed her suspicions that she wasn’t in UnReg space anymore. She was trapped in a system fully controlled by the Zon—the ruthless and warlike robots that had waged a devastating war with all the civilized planets of the galaxy. She was completely and utterly groxxed.Above Tevra’s head was a holo-projection of her face that rotated with revealing displays of her other physical attributes, taken when they’d scanned her after capturing her. The other humans had identical display projections floating overhead. The bidders ambled freely around the stage, discussing the humans as if they were all dumb animals who couldn’t understand a word of what was said through their translators. They compared stats, admired the skimpy outfits on both males and females that left so little to the imagination. They bickered and praised and offered suggestions of worth. She gritted her teeth against the humiliation, focusing on the reward of regaining her freedom.A Praxiv male walked up to her and lifted the long, thin strip of cloth that ran from her belt down to the top of her thighs, covering her pussy but leaving her hips bare. He grinned at her as he’d peeked. His skin was the bright white of new snow, the spiky tufts of hair sprouting from his head were the same crisp blue as the sky on this law-forsaken planet. The null-field they’d set around her stopped her from kicking him in the face. He reached for her pussy, but the overseer finally shooed him off, jabbering how there’d be no fondling of the merchandise for free.Groxx them all. She loathed her feeling of helplessness. No power, no freewill, not even the control over her body. She hated the other species scattered among the wealthy Praxiv—a few rich humans or human hybrids, Naeso, even an insect-like Gerzzmm. These were supposedly enlightened races who had outlawed slavery millennia ago. So why were they on this Zon-ruled planet, and why were they taking part in this repulsive slave system?As she wondered this, her gaze landed on a human male who was standing toward the back of the crowd. Handsome, stern, clean-shaven with strong features, his dark hair cut short, and fierce amber eyes that seemed to glow, but glow differently from the Praxiv. They seemed to have their own inner light. His garments were strange to her, vests and trousers with the cloth cut at sharp angles, revealing muscular forearms and wide shoulders. All her anger and humiliation focused on this human man, amplified by the fact that his physical features were so attractive, making him even more repulsive to her.The man stood next to a stocky male Praxiv wearing shiny robes and whose fire-orange, over-styled hair brought to mind the absurd image of dangling power cords around an energy distributor. The Praxiv said something, and the amber-eyed man glanced at him, frowning. A scar ran along his cheek near his ear, down his neck. But rather than looking ugly, the scar gave his features a beautiful asymmetry—turning them into an artful face that would never be easily forgotten. Yet here this man was, at a flesh market, looking to buy what the overseer had sneeringly referred to as a “bedwarmer.” Why, she wanted to scream at him. Why are you here? Why are you part of this? But even if she confronted him, she’d only get a taste of the shock-lash for her trouble. Suddenly she felt very tired and heartsick, though she tried not to let it show.Hac set Ghorum launched back into his sales routine again. “Prepare yourselves, honored lords and ladies! The human auction will commence momentarily! Make the most of your final chance to examine this wonderful species before the bidding begins. They are so warm, so pliable, so eager to please. Soft where you love, hard where you need it! Consider the hours of ecstasy they will provide you, whether you love pain or pleasure or both! Their lips are a full ten degrees warmer than a normal Praxiv’s. Now imagine the incredible heat of those lips wrapped around your cock or pressed against your pussy!” He thrust his hips in a lewd, ridiculous display. “It’s like copulating with fire. You cannot go wrong with a human for a bedslave!”Tevra kept her expression blank, but inside she had finally managed to regain her calm. Fire was right. Because whichever of these monsters made the mistake of buying her was going to get burned.* * *Gavron Dynaris hated everything he saw before him—everything except the slaves lined up on the stage. Them, he pitied. They were not to blame for this sorry scene. He struggled to keep his inner wolf restrained when all it wanted to do was force him to shift and attack the slavers. Modified DNA-binding domains and thought-triggered cellular manipulation were the fancy words for the amazing talent he had—he could turn into a wolf at will. He was lycanari, what old earth stories had referred to as a werewolf, a shapeshifter, a creature of myth and legend.The wolf hated being caged. The wolf loved freedom with a ferocity that was almost scary. Unfortunately, Gavron’s entire life was nothing more than one planet-wide cage. Seeing the humans lined up to be sold only drove the point home.“There’s nothing that compares to the warmth and softness of human skin,” the sagging Praxiv overseer shouted to the crowd. “Their heat will sear you. Their pheromones will have you drunk and aroused beyond all control. These humans are a far grade above the worker class in beauty and body and sensual delights. Stop groxxing your field workers and take home one of these stunning specimens!”A low growl rumbled through the air. It took Gavron a second to realize he was the one growling. He coughed and cleared his throat.Beside him, Uro set Ridoln gave him a strange look. Uro was a successful Praxiv noble, ostentatiously dressed in copper and silicon strips with a mass of braided orange hair tumbling from his head. He wasn’t the wealthiest Praxiv here, not by far, but he was very connected with elements of the Zon Administrative Structure. Uro owned a smaller collection of mycota farms closer to the mountains. Although his prestige didn’t match Gavron’s, he had the friendship of the region’s high magistrate and one of the coveted Seal of Remiahs issued from the Praxiv Krevex—the title of the planet’s puppet ruler. Gavron loathed him, but appearances had to be maintained, and so he was forced to tolerate him at times like this.“Does that grumbling sound pass for lust among humans?” Uro sounded both curious and scornful. “Strange that I haven’t heard it before.”“I request pardon,” Gavron said, keeping his tone carefully formal. He questioned whether his boorish Praxiv “comrade” was intelligent enough to wonder if Gavron was truly human after all. “I had mucus in my throat.”Uro’s expression soured. “Humans and their mucus. I put my slaves out whenever they are infected with viral. Even my bed slaves go. They fail to give a good cocksucking when they can’t properly breathe.”Hatred. It gnawed Gavron from the inside. Statements like that along with places like this auction circle only forged that hatred into something dark and permanent in his mind. He knew the hatred would eventually kill him—if the Zon didn’t discover his lycanari heritage first—but he simply couldn’t set it aside any longer. Both he and his wolf detested the overseers. Hated the auction. The energy lashes. Hated the defeated look to the ill-fated humans displayed for the crowd like cattle or sex droids. He loathed the wealthy and powerful Praxiv gathered here. They were so eager to own these once-free humans who’d been captured in Zon raids across the demilitarized spacezones. It made him sick to witness this twisted, evil farce. It nearly killed him to be a part of it.But he had no choice. It was play along or die. He knew they despised him, but not nearly as much as he despised them. The amusingly sad thing was, they were all slaves to the Zon. Everything with a brain instead of a quantum computer was considered property of the Zon, a biological resource to be exploited.“I’m sure you prefer humans for your harem,” Uro said, beginning to eat from a bag writhing with gojo worms. “But have you ever stuck your cock in an Iulolian from the Derrok-magliv system? Their slow-form water bodies? You never have to worry about them being wet and ready, if you understand me.”Uro chuckled at his own joke while Gavron tried to think of reasons not to turn into a wolf and tear the crude Praxiv into tiny pieces. When he was certain he had himself under control, he gave Uro a superior smile. “Getting females wet has never been a problem for me. If you show them some tenderness and pay attention to the song their bodies sing, they will always respond to a caring lover. You should try it.”Uro laughed as if Gavron had made a joke. “I’ll never understand aliens like you, Gavron. You’re all so weak and ignorant, so savage and strange. But interesting. Always interesting.” He waved a hand, indicating the wealthy Praxiv buyers that dominated the market. “Many are fascinated and jealous that a human has risen so high on Jaurlan, despite your obvious limitations.”“It is amazing, isn’t it?” Gavron replied blandly. “It speaks well of the benevolent wisdom of the Zon.”The Zon were merciless overlords, and the wealthy Praxiv mycota farm owners around him were treacherous. They waged a constant struggle for influence, land, and the validation of power handed down from the Zon. Gavron’s Praxiv peers accepted him only because he was useful to the Zon. The Zon found him valuable because his mycota farms had over ninety-five percent energy yields and ninety-seven percent efficiency. So although he was not Praxiv, the other landowners were forced to tolerate him, to pretend he was their equal, even as they moved behind his back to bring him down at every turn. Which would be easy if they ever discovered he was lycanari, a species officially classified by the Zon Robotic Collective as genetic abominations.“I see many tempting specimens today,” Uro continued, breaking into Gavron’s train of thought again. Uro made a purring noise of pleasure as he peered closely at the displays of human slaves. “Even a soft-hearted human like you has to be, shall we say, aroused at the possibilities.”“I’m only here to buy workers for my fields,” Gavron said with a regretful shrug, using every shred of his self control—honed over decades trapped on this planet—to flash Uro a lecherous grin instead of punching him. “I don’t need a bedslave.”“Then you won’t object to being patient while I splurge on some new human…how do they say it on the pleasure stations? New human pussy.” Uro folded his hands into his robes lined with corh-copper triangles as his expression turned smug. “I do love the way they squeal when I’m fucking them.” Uro froze and then did a double take. “Wava! Look at that one! She thinks she is a queen and we are all her subjects!”Frowning, Gavron glanced at the female Uro was indicating. He meant to say something jaded to keep from having to buy one of these poor slaves, but one look at the human stole the words from his mouth. She did seem regal. She stood with her shoulders thrown back, her chin lifted, her hands clenched, and her stare bored and unconcerned, as if she couldn’t bother to notice the peasants around her. Even nearly naked she was the very picture of defiance, although her rigid posture only served to accent her perfect shape and curves. The way her breasts pushed against the thin fall of derro-silke that barely covered her chest made his eyes linger longer than he would have liked. She must’ve been terrified like the others on the display stage, but she didn’t show a bit of fear. Her disregard for them all only served to make her more striking.His wolf caught her scent. Gavron’s cock stirred in response.The head overseer stopped pacing behind the row of human bedslaves and lifted his lash to point at the proud woman. “I will open the bidding on this human female. She has spirit, perhaps too much spirit for a bland crowd such as this…”Some of the buyers started to boo and curse him. The overseer held up his hands, his expression indulgent. “I see, I see. Perhaps I am mistaken and there is a true male in this crowd who can tame her.” He consulted the digital display on his wrist computer. “She is registered under the name Tevra Ivvo, but you may rename her whatever you wish. See how proud she is? You will delight in breaking her! For such a thrill, the cost is only a little higher. Do I hear one thousand energy credits for this stunning beauty?”A thin Praxiv female dressed in large fluffy-fringed robes lifted her hand to signal her bid. She was definitely a tier two noble, but Tevra gave her a look of disdain scathing enough to ignite engine oil. Gavron closed his eyes, knowing her defiance only meant she had farther to fall when her new master set about breaking her. Still, she didn’t seem like a fool. She must understand what her pride and attitude would cost her.He suddenly admired her for it.More bidders chimed in, quickly raising the price for Tevra Ivvo past two thousand energy credits, and the bids were still climbing. Tevra was no longer glaring at any one bidder. There were too many. She seemed shocked by the bidding frenzy taking place around her. The longer that Gavron watched her, the more intrigued by her he grew. She was beautiful, that was obvious, with a body that the lustful part of him ached to touch, but she was also icily calm and collected. She must realize her new master would delight in breaking her will, and yet she shed no tears and didn’t beg for mercy.Beside him, Uro said, “I need in on this. I haven’t had a good fight in years that didn’t involve my wife.” He raised his bid card. The overseer aimed a scope-scanner in his direction and recorded the bid—three thousand, two hundred energy credits—then he immediately began singing for three thousand four.Tevra looked in Gavron’s direction when Uro placed his bid. She met his gaze and didn’t look away. It was all he could do to keep his expression carefully blank, even though it felt as if an electric bolt shot through him from brain to groin and back up again. Her eyes widened, then he finally saw it—the hate, anger, aggression that sharpened her gaze. He suddenly felt just as angry—how could she be so coolly aloof to everyone here, and let her anger and hatred come out on him—the one man here who didn’t want to make her a slave to fuck.She finally glanced away to the next bidder and he felt drained, his heart beating too fast and his palms sweaty and his cock half hard. How dare she affect him like that? And what right did she have to look at him with so much hatred?A new frenzy of bidding erupted around him. Were so many slave owners eager to take her and break her?For a second, the thought crossed his mind that he ought to buy her himself. But that was crazy. She would only be a problem—no a liability—yet he was drawn to her. In fact, if he hadn’t known better, he’d have thought his wolf had found its mate.No. That was insane. That would be a disaster in so many ways.And yet…and yet…The thought landed fully formed in his mind. His wolf wanted her.He wanted her.Uro was in a fierce bidding war with several other landowners and nobles and offered four thousand, eight hundred energy credits with a confident grin. It was an absurd amount to pay for a bedwarmer human, but apparently Uro wouldn’t be outbid. The Praxiv folded his arms and gave Gavron a smug look.This woman could not belong to a sckree-licking bastard like Uro. She would not.Gavron raised his bid card, the one he’d only ever used to purchase farm workers, and made the first bid of his life on a bedwarmer slave. “Twenty thousand energy credits,” he called.There was absolute silence. Twenty thousand energy credits would have stocked a personal harem.He didn’t want a harem. He only wanted this one. Tevra Ivvo.She looked at him again, and even if the energy credits used in Zon space had only a loose correlation to Galactic Standard credits, she seemed to understand that he’d just offered an astronomical amount of money for her. That fact didn’t seem to impress her, though. If anything, her stare hardened. She glared at him as if she’d like nothing more than to get her hands on a blaster pistol from one of the guards and blow him full of holes.“I have a bid of twenty thousand from Gavron Dynaris, a tier three noble,” the overseer shrieked into the omni-speech amplifier. His expression fell somewhere between stunned and ecstatic. “Are there any counter bids?” He glanced around at the crowd, but it was perfunctory. Of course there were no counter bids. Everyone gathered in the auction circle was busy staring at Gavron incredulously. “No counter bids recorded. Tevra Ivvo is now the property of the esteemed Gavron Dynaris.”“You groxxing son of an Opogusk whore,” Uro snarled, glaring at Gavron with nearly the same amount of anger as the human woman had. “She was mine.”Gavron made a circle with his forefinger and thumb, an old merchant sign that meant Uro was getting a zero percentage of the profits. “If you can’t pay the price, she isn’t yours.”He walked away from Uro’s curses toward the transfer area to retrieve his new slave. Two attendants forced her toward the transfer area as well, where Gavron would be expected to pay and take possession of her. He had no problems with the payment, but he didn’t have to glance behind him to know that he’d made an enemy of Uro today. He could practically feel Uro’s gaze lasering holes in his back. He didn’t give Uro the satisfaction of a backward glance.After all his care in saying the right things to Uro today, he’d gone and put the Praxiv on bad terms with him anyway. He was a complete and utter fool.But it couldn’t be helped. He simply could not allow a woman like Tevra to end up under Uro’s control. His wolf would not allow it.Tevra smiled at him as the attendants led her toward the transfer area. It was technically a smile, but it never warmed the cold hatred in her eyes.In truth, it was one of the most terrifying smiles he’d ever seen.What in Jaurlan had he just gotten himself into?