Reagan Hawk by Space Pirates' Bounty [Strength in Numbers 2] Page B

would fulfill them for the remainder of their lives. “I require things too. My cock is heavy with the need for release.”
    “ And you will find a whore to ease the pain?” asked Ewan, his jaw hard and his mouth pinched. Contempt rolled off him in waves.
    “ If time permits, yes.”
    Ewan jerked as if he ’d been burned. “I see.”
    “ Ewan.”
    He put a hand up. “ No. If this is to be the way of it, then so be it.”
    Raider disliked arguing with Ewan. He knew it was Ewan ’s nature to lash out in anger first and think harder upon things later. Knowing and accepting it were two different things. Raider was a thinker. In fact he was inclined to overthink just about everything he did. And he wasn’t known to fly off the handle in fits of rage. He tended to keep a level head about him and find humor in most things.
    Life h ad placed him in a privileged circumstance that should have been ideal. Born to nobles. A lord of his own lands. Yet life had thrown him a loop. His parents had been murdered by someone they trusted all because that person wanted more money, more power, more lands. Raider had sworn vengeance that day, not just against his parents’ murderer, but against all who allowed power to corrupt them.

 
Chapter Two
    Two months later on Planet Emperius Romanius (Emprom)
    The arena was filled to capacity. Hot, sweaty bodies pressed in tight to one another, using every space available. The sun was at its highest, as was the heat of the day. Emprom had very few cold days—just a one-month cycle—then back to the oppressive heat. Beads of sweat trickled down the back of Lucia’s neck. She wiped them away and was thankful she wasn’t in the section with the cheaper seats. The arena owners packed the people in that section to the point it almost burst. Already the section she was in, reserved for the wealthy, was crammed beyond norms. She was pressed shoulder to shoulder with those near her.
    The people of Emprom were hungry for blood, for death, and it was clear by the numbers who showed for the games. The day ’s events at the arena were a blending of sex acts and fight games, in which men would battle to the death. Sex was the only thing that rivaled the gladiator games. Not much else drew crowds such as the ones in the arena.
    She stroked her exposed throat and swallowed hard. Lucia di sliked the shows and the games but she didn’t have much say on the matter of attending or not. Her ownership note was held by a man who had three slaves in one of the main acts. If Lucia dared to speak out against the behavior, she would face punishment or death. Born into servitude, she knew better than to voice her thoughts on any matter unless directly asked, and then she would simply tell them what they wanted to hear.
    Not the truth.
    Never the truth.
    She ’d seen slaves punished to death for the truth.
    As next-in-line to be the dominus’s head concubine, she was required to attend all public appearances he made so he could show off his bounty and wealth—show how beautiful his women were. Lucia knew she was attractive. Many had commented on the fact over the course of her life, but her beauty had been both a blessing and a curse. It had assured her a place as a concubine-in-waiting, but that was in truth a double-edged sword. Dominus—the master—was a cruel man. A sexual sadist. Her hate of him knew no bounds, yet soon enough she’d be expected to lie with him, expected to receive him into her body.
    She trembled at the thought.
    The dominus’s current head concubine, Fannu, sat to Lucia’s left, keeping herself between Dominus and Lucia. Fannu lived in fear of the day he would announce he was replacing Fannu as head concubine and taking another—Lucia. As Emprom custom went, once Lucia was head concubine, Fannu had no place within the house. She would be sold as a house slave to another house or simply killed, her body tossed away. Lucia strongly suspected Fannu feared losing her rank, title and