Total pages in book: 57
Estimated words: 55108 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 276(@200wpm)___ 220(@250wpm)___ 184(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 55108 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 276(@200wpm)___ 220(@250wpm)___ 184(@300wpm)
Read Online Books/Novels: | Claimed by the Zandian (Zandian Brides #6) | |
|---|---|---|
Author/Writer of Book/Novel: | Renee Rose | Rebel West |
| Language: | English | |
| ISBN/ ASIN: | B07Z1LBGCM | |
| Book Information: | ||
I CAN’T CLAIM HER...BUT SHE WILL CALL ME MASTER. I was born blind. My genes are defective. Unsuitable for breeding. That’s the only reason I don’t claim the alluring human we rescued from a slave auction. I have no intention of mating her, especially since she’s meant for another. But when she calls me Master, I can’t help but take command. And command I will. | ||
| Books in Series: | Zandian Brides Series by Renee Rose | |
| Books by Author: | Renee Rose Books | Rebel West Books |
Chapter 1
Zina
I bend down and pull the child who is like my own into a hug. “Don’t cry. It’s okay, sweetling.” She wraps her arms around my waist and snuffles, the loose hairs from her newly-cut hair tickling my chin. “It keeps you safer.”
A pang of concern pierces my chest as I hug her. She hardly ever cries. My bad leg twinges, and I shift to alleviate the shooting pain along my nerve. All the walking lately has it irritated and swollen.
An evening mari bird cries overhead, and I look up to scan the sky. “We have to get back.” I gently let her go, then push her dark locks and my auburn ones into the shallow hole I’ve dug in the fallow field with my boot. Some dirt and rocks will hide them from notice.
“I’m sorry, Enya.” I slide the sharpened rock, the one I used as a knife, into my pocket. “You know your pretty hair attracts too much Ocretion male attention. Better to keep it like this.” I run a hand over her stubbly ends. “Always wear your hood up. And keep doing the mud thing on your skin just a little bit. Not too much.” I stretch my calf by planting my foot on the ground and leaning forward: sometimes this helps.
She sniffs. “It’s not the hair I care about. It’s... what happens next?”
I dragged her out here for a fresh cut because I saw some of the guards leering at her. She’s only nine solar cycles, but that won’t stop the monsters from using her body for pleasure if they can find a way to do it without Master finding out.
I squeeze her to me, her bony shoulders as familiar to me as my own hand, wishing I could magically transport the both of us out of this hellhole. Somewhere safe, and kind, where human females aren’t used for labor and sex and any other usage the Ocretions dream up.
“Master re-approved me as your guardian through the end of this solar cycle.” I force a positive lilt into my voice. “So that’s good.” The child has been my apprentice for house-chores for the master since she was only four solar cycles. I’m often given the younger slaves to mind and train since my work is more flexible than other slaves’.
She raises her head and her green eyes, shot through with fine red lace, gleam with moisture. She’s a beautiful girl—devastatingly beautiful, with dark hair, pale skin and big green eyes. The dimples and bowtie lips helped when she was younger—even the horrid Ocretions found her cute for a human. But now, it’s what concerns me.
“When the time is up?” Her smaller hands clutch at me, as if holding me close like this could ensure safety. “In less than three solar cycles I’ll be of age.”
“I do not know.” I swallow hard. “Not for sure.”
I do know.
Once she’s twelve solar cycles, she will be eligible, per Ocretion rules, for auction on the free market. And we both know what she’ll be bought for—breeding or pleasure. Worse than that, though, we’ll be separated. And we’ve become family, she and I.
Master might keep her, of course—as a house slave, like me, who raises other slave young and does cleaning and household chores. He could sell her to an ag farm, to harvest produce.
But I’ve overheard him talking to other Ocretions about how young virgin humans have fetched great amounts of stein, even those not trained for sex. Especially those not trained for sex. He’s bragged about having the highest number of young humans who will approach maturity in time for the next auction. Enya will probably be one of them when she reaches twelve. And she’s too smart for me to hide that from her.
“They’ll take me away to somewhere worse.” Her voice hitches. “And all I want is...” she trails off.
Her next words chill my heart. “Every time I hope for something, or love something, it gets taken away. Sometimes? I think maybe it’s not worth it anymore.”
This child is not my own, yet I love her no less than if she were my flesh and blood. I’ve raised her since she was bought from a slave breeder as a tot.
“We’ll find a way to stay together,” I promise her, even though I can’t imagine what that might be. I have to do whatever it takes. “Or I’ll make sure you go somewhere decent.”
I press her slender body into mine. I’m relatively safe from trading—with my enforced sterility via implants, and my permanently injured leg, I’m not worth much at trade.
But she has a chance, if I can figure out a way to get her to a better place. “Don’t say that.” My tone is rough. “Humans don’t give up. Enya, somewhere out there, out in the stars, your mother and your siblings are thinking of you.”