“Well, ichuta’a,” he said, lacing his claws comfortably behind his head. “What did you have in mind?”

“She won’t let me do it,” the human said petulantly, but she was coming towards him readily enough. “And I hate having to settle.” She put her hand on his chest, tracing over his muscles from his left collar to his right rib as she circled him. “But this is better than nothing, I suppose.”

Kane’s claws flexed themselves. Sue-Eye’s touch was a pitiful copy of Raven’s, her hipshot efforts at allure almost laughable in comparison to the real thing. He was inclined to endure in order to progress through Raven’s playground, and he was sure Sue-Eye would eventually elicit some effect—no male he knew of was capable of defying persistent stimulation, regardless of his will—but he wasn’t disposed to encourage her.

She came back around to face him, her hand enclosing him. She squeezed lightly, staring up into his face. “What do I have to do to earn a day with you like her?” she asked.

“Mean it,” he replied mildly.

She stroked him sensuously enough, but her eyes were a clear window into the angry soul of her. “Doesn’t it feel like I want you?” She pressed her breasts against his chest, her hand continuing its well-trained work while her other traced his sides. She licked at him. She even tried an awkward bite. But there was a watchfulness in her utterly removed from her actions, a frustrated and furious tension that only grew as she plied him. “I do want you,” she insisted. “And do you know why?”

“Tell me.”

“Because you’re the best of them.” Her eyes came up, startlingly bright and apparently sincere, for all the heat that still burned in her. “You’re the biggest, meanest, baddest bastard of them all. I want you, goddammit.” Her voice hoarsened; she was choking on her candor. “I want you.”

Kane smiled faintly. She was, in her own words, a bitch. She’d been born to have chains put on her. She’d had it beaten into her flesh and bones. She’d had it fucked into her for untold years. She knew only the endless stair of meaningless service to the strong. Sure, she wanted him. Of course, she did. She was nothing but a slave, and he was the first slaver she’d met.

“Get on your knees,” he told her now, and she dropped like he’d shot the legs out from under her. “Put your mouth on me, ichuta’a. Show me you want me, my eager bitch.”

And she did, sucking and licking and lathing greedily until he stiffened. Her hands pulled and rubbed at him, then reached around to grip his ass and pull him all the way into her throat. He thrust for her, although he was in no danger of cumming early, and she opened even wider and took him with even greater delight.

“That’s enough,” he said curtly, and she backed away, licking her lips and staring intently at his jutting cock. “Now, little bitch, what was it you called that? A tit rub? Give me that. Let me feel what you can do when you really want me.”

She raised herself up, pressing her breasts together around his shaft and undulated, moaning softly against his belly. He could feel her constricting and massaging, now and then bending to lap at the head of him or reaching down to massage the base of his cock. He moved with her in slow, circular motions, not building to greater passion but relaxing instead in a kind of holding pattern while the sounds of Raven’s shower went on and on.

Her little moans were getting shorter, sharper. Her hands on him began to stroke with mating urgency. She sucked at him, no longer content to tongue. Kane let her torture herself a little while longer, and then pushed her firmly back with his leg.

“Get up,” he said.

“Raven said—”

“Get up, bitch,” he snarled, and she shot to her feet, flushed and shivering. “Put your back to the wall, just like that. Put your foot up on the table. Yes, you can, and don’t tell me it hurts.” He watched her obey, her face strained as she held the position, fully presented to him. She was wet; he could see it and he could smell it. His claws flexed again, pricking at his scalp, and he smiled. “Put your hand on your pussy, ichuta’a. Fuck yourself for me.”

She did, and it was a fascinating thing to watch so openly. Her fingers penetrated, one and then two, rubbing and stroking and thrusting. Her thumb moved against her clit every so often. Her hips ground slowly as her hand moved faster and her breath grew even more ragged. Her eyes never blinked.

“When you’re mine,” Kane said calmly, “I’m going to fuck you whenever the urge takes me.”

She came, shuddering, and glared at him.

“I’m going to fuck your ass,” he continued, “because I know you hate it.”

She came again, throwing her head back so that it banged against the wall.

“I’m going to bend you over tables and throw you against walls. I’m going to fuck you when you’re sick and when you’re injured. I’m going to pull your hair when you don’t move your mouth on me fast enough. I’m probably going to pop your hip once or twice. I’m going to fuck you and you are going to beg me to fuck you.”

She bent forward, her hands frantic, and panted hoarsely at the floor as she came over and over.

“I’m going to let others fuck you, too,” he went on. “In twos. In threes. In fives.”

She strangled on a scream and fell onto her knees, clawing at the table with her free hand while her other engaged and brutalized.

“You are never going to know a day unbruised by me. You’re not even going to remember what it felt like not to hurt. Flesh will be torn. Bones will be broken. And I’ll fuck you before I bother to fix them.”

She shook her head in wild negation, and then wailed as her body took her one final time in galvanizing climax. She collapsed, pressing her brow to the carpet, her hand still trapped between her thighs. She panted, still shivering.

“Or maybe I won’t,” Kane said simply, and grinned at her when she jerked her head up to stare at him. “Maybe I’ll just whore you out and forget about you.”

Her look of pale dismay was genuine, but there was no real surprise in her. She probably didn’t even know how much a slave she really was, or how readily she would accept any master. She only knew that he was God, and gods were damned fickle. Did she hate him for it? Maybe. But he was looking at her right now, and there was nothing at all inside her but the burning need to please him.

The bathroom door opened and Raven emerged, fresh and glistening. She glanced at Sue-Eye on the floor, dismissed her, and let her eyes rest with obvious satisfaction at the proof of his readiness.

“You can take your hands down now,” she told him. “And put them back where they belong. On me.” She came into his open arms and kissed him, taking him backwards to the first stages of human mating and bringing back that spark of excitement that came from his knowing he had to wait.

His fawning ichuta’a puffed out of his thoughts like a weak flame as he met and matched his Raven’s ardor. She was the whole of his reality, burning naked against his flesh as she breathed into and took breath from him. She was back to being playful, teasing him with the dominance he’d given her. She bit at him when he gave her kisses. She got her hands in his hair and pulled him back just a little roughly so that she could nip at his throat. She ground her sex lightly at his throbbing erection, but did not envelope, did not even grip. And she grinned when he growled.

He knocked that sly look clean off her face with one newly-expert hand to her sex, finding her clit at once and stroking with his thumb as he parted her with his fingers. “Up,” he growled, and raised her, all her weight fully on his hand. He bumped her mischievously, making her ride, her breath bouncing out of her in choppy grunts. A snatch of child-rhyme came back to him from those long-past days when he’d been a boy bouncing on his father’s knee, and he sang it at her in Jotan: “Here we go to hunt the Vell, all riding on our darche’an. Slowly go the old men-” He raised and rocked her lazily, and her powerful thighs clamped down around him. “Nicely go the ladies-” He moved her faster now, drawing air from her in a startled rush of giggles as she writhed. “And rapid courses comes the soldiers, with all their banners snapping!” He bucked her fast and hard, bringing her to climax in a sudden storm.