Death Row 4 - The Mastering Read online

  THE MASTERING

  Written by

  Jaid Black

  “The rich rob the poor and the poor rob one another.” —Sojourner Truth

  Prologue

  My Bella Nellie, I will return to you in a fortnight. Two more short weeks and my arms will be wrapped around you! I can scarcely wait. I miss you, my beloved. Do not let my absence these past six months cause you to think differently. I needed the solo adventure. I needed time to heal. When I received that virtual letter from you informing me of your father’s death…

  My wounds, I have realized, are cut quite deep. I had hoped staying gone from Federated Earth for a time would lessen the emotions I am experiencing as a result of Abdul’s death. Your father was a monster. He was a demon amongst men…

  But ah, glorious Kalast, how I loved him.

  I shouldn’t love him…I know as much. And Cyrus’s truth, were Abdul Kan to miraculously rise from the grave tomorrow I would never return to him. I would fight him to my death before I’d allow him to return me to his harem bed. And yet…

  Always, as long as I have breath to breathe, a part of me will love him.

  I will see you in a fortnight, daughter. Keep the virtual candle burning in the window for mama.

  Nicoletta Kan

  August 7, 2250

  Chapter 1

  October 1, 2225 A.D.

  “My name is Nicoletta Isabella Carlotta Apollinaris,” she whispered in a thick Italian accent, her dark chocolate gaze lowered. “I herald from the Greco-Roman biosphere. My talents are—”

  “Raise yer voice, wench!” the chattel auctioneer bellowed.

  Her heart began pounding in her chest, tiny beads of perspiration dotting her brow. As it was, she was a nervous wreck up on the stage. Sitting there naked, her hands chained high above her head against a wall, her legs chained wide open to bolts on the floor so the curious potential masters could see everything she had to offer them, the added embarrassment of being publicly yelled at felt nearly overwhelming.

  She took a deep breath and slowly exhaled. You can do this, she staunchly told herself. You have no choice.

  Nor did she wish for her seeming lack of finesse to cause the well-to-do males to overlook her. Nicoletta did not wish to end up the wife of a male low in the Hierarchy who could scarcely afford food let alone a wife. Such was the very reality her parents currently lived in, a reality they were hoping their daughter’s exceptional good looks would keep her from repeating.

  Not that every wench chained up on the stage wasn’t exceptionally good-looking. All of them, every last one, were stunning beauties with large breasts, gorgeous faces, and curvy bodies. Hierarchy scientists had ensured long ago that no female child would ever again be born less than physically perfect. Any imperfection detected in the womb—from plain looks to pudginess to being overly thin—all of it was engineered out before the child was ever born. Disgusting, piggish, and a total abomination of all that was holy perhaps, but the unfortunate truth nevertheless.

  You can do this! Now calm down and speak clearly.

  There was little choice. Her looks were no better or worse than any of the other wenches on the marriage auction block this day. Nor could she claim any superior talents from the rest of them. The only rarity about Nicoletta was that she was still a virgin—an eighteen-year-old virgin who would lose her virginity this very eve to whichever male bought her as a wife.

  Her heart raced impossibly faster. Sweet Kalast but she hoped her future husband would not be overly hard on the eyes! Male fetuses were not engineered like female fetuses were—a quick glance in the sea of wretched masculine faces confirmed that awful fact. So if fate decreed her bound for life to an ugly Master, she could at least hope for a husband who was semi-high within the Hierarchy.

  “My name—” Nicoletta cleared her throat and began again, her voice audible if not loud this time. “My name is Nicoletta Isabella Carlotta Apollinaris.” Her large breasts rose and fell with every breath she took, her nervousness waxing instead of waning. “And I herald from the Greco-Roman biosphere.”

  “State yer talents, wench,” the chattel auctioneer mumbled.

  She swallowed against the knot of cold fear in her throat. She decided she wouldn’t be surprised if she fainted dead away before her turn was over. “My talents are in the areas of body massage and cock sucking.”

  Ah gods, she thought, her heart sinking, every wench in here was possessed of those talents. The sea of masculine faces looked heart-wrenchingly bored. She was doomed.

  “I’m a virgin,” Nicoletta said quickly.

  The sea of bored faces perked up and paid attention.

  Her chin notched up, her confidence restored enough to finish her rehearsed spiel. The others were just as pretty and were possessed of more talents, so she’d have to go with this one rarity she had. “I have never been vaginally or anally penetrated—only orally that I might perfect that skill for my future Master.”

  The chattel auctioneer inclined his head then turned to the next wench up for bid and repeated the process. He continued down the line until all ten chained-up females stated their names, origins, and talents. Only then, after the last of the chattel had spoken, did the inspection begin.

  The inspection, Nicoletta thought, taking another calming breath. All ten of the brides up for bid had undergone genital waxings so that only a tiny inverted triangle of neatly groomed pubic hair showed on their bodies. They had also been bathed in exotic oils the eve prior that they might smell intoxicatingly arousing to the wealthier male bidders during the inspection period. Poorer males were given no inspection period—they made do with the leftovers the Hierarchy elite didn’t deign to bid upon.

  Please let me be bid upon!

  Her thoughts drifted back to the tiny two-room quarters that had housed her family of seven for as long as Nicoletta could remember. She slept on a rough floor mat like a dog, begged for food in the airbus atriums in order to keep from starving… Please!

  Everything, her entire future, all came down to the next hour in time. Sweet Kalast but she felt close to fainting! She could only pray to Cyrus her virginity would make at least a few well-to-do bidders curious enough to inspect her. She knew her parents would be gravely disappointed in her should she be auctioned off to a male of questionable means. They wanted her to marry well.

  Not that she planned to stay married long, Nicoletta silently admitted, her heart drumming away like mad in her chest. Perhaps it was wrong to plan and plot against one’s future husband before she even had a Master to speak of, but she simply wanted more out of her existence than…this.

  This, Nicoletta sighed—cock-sucking, body massage, and breeding—this summed up the whole of a wench’s value in Federated Earth. Given the fact that males outnumbered females five hundred to one, she supposed it was little wonder that females were thought of as creatures, as possessions to be haggled over and bought. And yet she wanted more than this, wanted more than to be some man’s lowly chattel…

  She wanted to be free.

  It was a silly dream, Nicoletta realized, but nonetheless a dream she’d carried deep in her heart from as far back as she could remember. She’d heard rumors about some of the other planets out there—whispers about a woman-run planet called Kalast where wages were fair and a female was free to make her own choices. She didn’t know if the place was truly a woman’s utopia or if it had been idealized and romanticized by disgruntled Hierarchy wives, but she conceded one’s lot in life could hardly be worse there than it was here.

  Getting to Kalast would be no small feat. First off, she needed enough currency deposited in the yen chip in her brain to book the flight—such could not be done without access to a well-off
person’s virtual bank account. Secondly, she needed a successful escape plan. The law forbade Earthling females to leave the planet without being escorted by the male they belonged to. Thirdly, she—

  Bah! Do not think on this! She was getting all worked up over how to execute her plan when she still hadn’t managed to get past the first hurdle: acquiring a well-to-do husband. Calm yourself…

  She needed a Master with ample means—not only so she had access to a prosperous virtual bank account, but also so she would not feel guilty when she ran from him. After all, the vast majority of the ugly masculine faces out there wanting to buy a bride this day had saved their yen for many, many years before they had enough to meet the minimum auction standards.

  Most men of Federated Earth died having never known a wife. All of the males in the bidding crowd today, save the one percent Hierarchy elite, were the few fortunates who had been frugal enough—and lucky enough—over the years to acquire enough yen. Nicoletta did not wish to run from such a man knowing he’d saved and saved his entire life that he might further his genetic line. She wished to run from a man who could afford to replace her, a man who wouldn’t feel devastated by the loss of her…

  She needed to be purchased as chattel by a man in the one percent elite.

  She took a deep breath and blew it out. She might as well wish to be named the Queen of all Kalast.

  “Nice. Very plump and pretty.”

  Nicoletta blinked, her thoughts having been far away. She gazed up at the wealthy male standing before her, then lowered her thick, inky black eyelashes as he continued to tug at her nipples. Her breeding had not exactly been elite, yet she knew the way of things enough not to speak. Wenches are to be seen and not heard—she’d grown up hearing her sire utter that mantra over and over again lest his daughter forget when her day on the auction block came.

  The elite male took his time fondling her large breasts. The stage the wenches had been lined up on and chained to rose about waist level on the average male that the Masters would not have to bend overly much to inspect their potential brides. Nicoletta suspected it was also symbolic: females bowed deferentially to males but never the reverse.

  Her nipples hardened, elongating for the wealthy male, which seemed to please him. He made an appreciative sound in the back of his throat before lowering his mouth to her chest. He took his time tasting each one, sucking on them like a child’s lollipop.

  The sensation felt wondrous, Nicoletta conceded, her breath shuddering. So long as she kept her eyes closed and tried to forget about the fact that the wealthy potential Master was frail enough, and wrinkled enough, to be her grandfather.

  She could only pray to Cyrus he decided to bid on her. She would have no second thoughts at all about running from a male as old as this one. Besides, chances are she would not be his only chattel. It might be illegal in Federated Earth for a Master to own more than one wife, yet it was also widely known that most men of status within the Hierarchy purchased as many wives as they desired.

  The elderly bidder’s lips unlatched from around her nipple with a popping sound. Her teeth sank into her lower lip when he moved on to the next wench on the stage, hoping with everything she had in her that he would still choose to bid on her following the inspection period.

  The next thirty minutes felt interminable to Nicoletta as not one, not two, but three potential Masters rubbed and kissed all over her body. They touched her where they wanted to, kneaded her big breasts like dough, massaged her stiff nipples, and played with her clit until she nearly climaxed…then walked away and inspected the next wench.

  Her breathing grew labored as the hour of inspection for the elite males drew nearer and nearer to its finale. She had no way of knowing what any of them thought of her, or if a single one of the males would bid on her during the auction. All she did know was that any of them would do just fine for her purposes—a group of weaker, uglier, more spoiled men she had never seen.

  “You have lovely dark hair,” a masculine voice murmured, snagging Nicoletta’s undivided attention.

  Her face shot up. Her dark eyes widened just a bit before she thought better of it and attempted to conceal her reaction of surprise. But she was surprised—sweet Kalast was she ever! She knew this male—or knew of him was more to the point. She doubted a single person within the whole of Federated Earth wouldn’t recognize the face of Abdul Kan, one of the wealthiest and most powerful men of the Hierarchy.

  Not to mention one of the most handsome, she thought, her heartbeat accelerating. She tried to lower her eyelashes but couldn’t seem to bring herself to look away from his intense, piercing green gaze. He wasn’t handsome in a pretty way, but in a powerfully masculine way—in a way that separates a lion from a peacock.

  “Thank you,” she breathed out before she could stop herself. She quickly glanced away, her eyes widening as she realized she’d actually spoken to Master Kan. Idiot! He shall never bid on a wench who can’t remember to hold her tongue.

  But the more Nicoletta considered that, the better that reality sounded. She drew in a deep breath and slowly exhaled. Oh no, it would not do at all to be wed to such a man as that one. He was just a bit too wealthy, a bit too powerful, a bit too handsome…

  And, she admitted on a heavy swallow as she took in the sight of him, a bit too dangerous. She’d heard the rumors about him—everyone had. Abdul Kan might have been born into wealth, but he had earned his own battle scars.

  The wealthiest and most powerful of the Hierarchy’s males tended toward the weak, soft side. Their bodyguards were the brawn, not the elite themselves. But this male…

  Ah gods, Nicoletta thought, her heart racing, there was nothing weak or soft about him. The black silk tunic and matching black silk flowing trousers he wore—emblems of his status—did not conceal the muscles that rippled beneath them. Nor did the unreadable expression on his face mask the intensity, the knowing, in his jade gaze. It was as if he could see right through a wench, and right through Nicoletta’s soul in particular. She found herself blushing, wondering if he’d guessed her thoughts.

  “You are welcome,” he murmured, his mouth unsmiling but his eyes blazing.

  She stilled, not knowing if she should say more or keep quiet. She had expected Master Kan to grow angry with her foolishness in daring to speak directly to him. She had definitely not expected for him to seem even more intrigued by her for doing so.

  His warm, callused hands found her breasts and began gently kneading them. She gasped, for some reason momentarily shocked by his touch.

  “So very beautiful,” Master Kan said thickly, his thumbs running over her distended pink nipples. She moaned just a bit, unable to suppress the reaction. “I’ve never seen a wench with such plump, juicy nipples as yours.”

  Her lashes shuttered as she gazed at him through heavy eyelids. “Thank you,” she whispered, her breath hitching.

  His right hand trailed down lower, over her flat belly, through the neatly groomed inverted triangle of black curls. Her nipples grew impossibly harder as she watched his left hand join the right and his fingers spread open her cunt lips.

  “You are a virgin?” Abdul asked, his voice tinted with the smallest bit of hoarseness.

  She swiped her tongue across dry lips. Her breasts heaved with every labored breath. “No,” she whispered, not wanting him to bid on her.

  One side of his mouth hitched up in a semi-smile. “You lie,” he murmured. His gaze was intense—as dangerous if not more so than the rest of him. “Naughty girls who lie to their Master get spanked.”

  Her brown eyes rounded. With fear or arousal she didn’t know. “You are not my Master.”

  He lowered his gaze and stared at her tight pussy for long moments. His tongue snaked out and made one long lick from the tiny hole all the way up to her clit. She whimpered, unable to suppress the reaction.

  “But I will be, ana wahid,” he said thickly, calling her by a name she didn’t recognize in a language as foreign to her as hi
s intimate kiss. “I will be,” he murmured.

  Nicoletta gasped as he took her clit into the heat of his mouth and suckled hard. She moaned a bit too loudly, having never felt a sensation like it. The mad desire to thread her fingers through his silky black hair and push his face closer against her flesh was nearly overwhelming, but she was thankfully saved from disgracing herself by the restraints that bound her.

  She closed her eyes on a groan…oh glorious Kalast she was going to come so hard for him. She didn’t want to, yet she couldn’t help herself. “Please,” Nicoletta gasped, her breath catching in the back of her throat. “Ah gods.”

  She came on a loud moan, her entire body convulsing as a violent orgasm exploded in her belly. He growled in the back of his throat as he lapped up her juices, the sound as deadly as it was aroused.

  And then as quickly as she’d climaxed, it was all over. Nicoletta watched through dulled vision as the one elite male she had no desire to be bound to stood up and took his rightful place at the head of the bidding corral. His intense green eyes never wavered, never looked away from the frightened brown gaze stealing hesitant glances back at him.

  Ten minutes later her fate was sealed. Ten minutes later the daughter of one of the world’s poorest men became the second harem wife of one of the wealthiest.

  Nicoletta’s heart slammed against her breasts. She swallowed roughly as she watched her new Master stare at her. Those calculating, assessing eyes of his roamed up and down the length of her naked, oiled body as the chattel auctioneer unchained her hands and feet and handed Master Kan her leash.

  “Get on yer knees, wench,” the auctioneer reminded her with a frown.

  Nicoletta came down on her knees before her Master and bent her head to kiss his feet. She went through all the motions expected of a bride during a marriage ceremony, her mind a fog as a ring was placed on either of her nipples and a chain threaded through them, symbolically binding her from the touch of any male but Abdul Kan.

  “You will always be Mine,” Abdul murmured, making her head dart up. “Always.”