Tragar ignored it. He was used to doing so. He never took jobs with time limits on them, preferring to take his time and get every detail exactly right.
I just need to know her, he argued with himself. Need to find out what’s so special—what makes her dangerous before I pull the trigger.
And so he watched…and waited. Soon, he would kill her soon.
But not…just…yet.
Read on for an excerpt from Mastering the Mistress, available for preorder here .
Kaylee looked at her new body slave with more than a little trepidation. She hadn’t planned on getting such a large male—or such a wild looking one. Despite the slaver’s reassurance that he was tamed and trained, the look in those pale green, gold-ringed eyes made her think otherwise. But he didn’t say a word of protest as the lumpish security Crangs led him out to the fancy space flyer her Aunt Jamelda had left her, along with everything else in her will.
Kaylee had wanted to let him ride in the front, strapped into one of the passenger chairs but Lyra had put her foot down. Slaves belonged in the cargo hold until they were properly broken, she said, and she was determined to be certain this Havoc male was perfectly trained before she trusted him out in public.
The whole training ritual made Kaylee nearly as nervous as owning a slave in the first place. Lyra claimed he had to be broken to her will, whatever that meant. Kaylee wasn’t looking forward to the process of trying to “break” such a large male in any way.
She sighed as she thought back to her life just a month ago. She’d been living in relative obscurity on the other side of Yonnie Six, working as a shop girl in Tulga, a little town without much to recommend it. Still, Kaylee had been raised there and she’d been perfectly happy until her mother died about a year ago from an incurable wasting disease. She’d grieved a long time, missing the kind and gentle woman who raised her. Then she’d taken stock of her life and realized she wanted more—more of what, exactly, she didn’t know. But she did know she wasn’t content to live the rest of her life in Tulga.
Luckily, just at that moment fate took a hand. She got word that her great Aunt Jamelda, her mother’s only living relative, had just passed away in a freak cliff jumping accident. Jamelda had been seventy-six at the time and well past her prime but in all her pictures, she didn’t appear much older than Kaylee’s own age of twenty-three. Either she had wonderful genetics or she was addicted to enhancement surgery. Whatever the cause, it seemed she liked living life to the fullest and when Kaylee had learned that she had inherited a fortune, and a mansion in Opulex—the capital city of Yonnie Six—she had decided to follow her great aunt’s example.
Unfortunately, living up to her great aunt included keeping up appearances. Kaylee had felt completely lost the first time she came to a society function. It hadn’t helped that everyone there had ignored her entirely, even after the head body-slave had announced her as the heir of the great Jamelda.
Kaylee had wandered around feeling lost until Lyra had come up to her. Since she was the only one who was kind enough to speak to her, Kaylee had latched onto her quickly. Her new friend had kindly explained that her clothing was all wrong and her lack of a body slave was a social faux pas which couldn’t be excused under any circumstances.
Kaylee had invited Lyra back to the mansion her great aunt had left her and led her from room to room as Lyra’s eyes grew wider and wider. She had decided on the spot to make Kaylee her new “project” and together they were changing her image from that of a poor, timid girl who didn’t know which way was up to a sophisticated woman with the world at her fingertips.
The first step had been clothes. Looking down at the too-short skirt she was wearing, which barely covered her panties, Kaylee felt a twinge of unease. In boring little Tulga, the tiny skirt and low-cut top that nearly showed her nipples would have been considered obscene. But in Opulex, where the most wealthy and powerful mistresses made their homes, it was everyday wear. Indeed, Lyra had assured her that her outfit was positively frumpy. She’d already picked out some gowns for the next society fling that made Kaylee blush just to look at them.
But I won’t be going to any society function if I don’t get this slave trained correctly, Kaylee reminded herself uneasily. She thought of him sitting back in the cargo hold and felt a surge of concern. Was he all right back there? Like all Yonnites, she didn't consider males equals, but she didn’t like having one as a slave either. There were a few free males living on the fringes of Tulga and everyone had been content to leave them alone. Then again, those had been shy, quiet specimens, most of them no larger than any of the women in town and some were quite a bit smaller. None of them were anything like the huge, imposing male Lyra had talked her into buying.
“Well, get ready, we’re almost here!” Lyra chirped, pulling Kaylee away from her worried musings. She was driving and she handled the fast little ship Great Aunt Jamelda had left Kaylee like she’d been born to do it. Her own family was proud but not nearly as wealthy as some of the mistresses in Opulex. Also, Lyra was a second daughter which meant her older sister would inherit everything once their mother died. Still, she didn’t seem to let this fact bother her—she was unfailingly cheerful and if she was a little pushy sometimes, Kaylee was willing to forgive her. After all, Lyra was her only friend in the sprawling, impersonal city and she was happy to have her.
Lyra steered the ship into a small, private entrance at the bottom of the towering building Great Aunt Jamelda had left Kaylee. When she’d learned that the entire huge skyscraper was now hers, she’d been astounded. Most of the floors were rented out to other, lesser mistresses but Aunt J, as Kaylee affectionately thought of her, had kept the top three for herself.
The little ship settled into the private lift and was carried right up to the top of the huge building. There the lift opened into the parking area of the vast suite of rooms which now belonged to Kaylee. In the first two floors there were several living areas, three kitchens, multiple bedrooms, bathrooms, and bathing areas, a private spa and sauna with an attached bubble-water pool, and a massive entertainment theater with dream-gas capabilities.
But despite the wonders of the first two floors, the third floor was what had really caught Kaylee’s attention. It was entirely given over to a massive dungeon complex filled with training and punishment equipment for wayward body-slaves. She hadn’t had time to fully explore the dungeon yet but Lyra had promised they would be making use of all its equipment when they were training the huge Havoc slave.
Kaylee wondered what Aunt J would have made of her purchase. She had kept a whole stable of such slaves herself but they had not been passed on to Kaylee. In her will, she had set the lot of them free and settled them on different worlds where males weren’t looked down on as they were on Yonnie Six. Kaylee thought that was nice. Though she had never gotten to know her aunt before she died, she was developing an affection for the relative whose life had been filled with so much adventure and excitement.
“All right,” Lyra said briskly, popping the doors of the little ship open with a press of her finger. “Let’s take your new slave up to the dungeon where he belongs and get started with his training.”
“Right away?” Kaylee’s stomach gave a nervous little flip. She’d assumed the hard part was over for today. Her plans for the evening had included a relaxing soak in the bubble pool and maybe a few entertainment vids along with some of Aunt J’s excellent stock of Kiper 12 Star wine. But now Lyra seemed to be saying they had to start “breaking” the new slave at once—a process Kaylee was not looking forward to.
“The sooner he acknowledges you as his mistress, the better,” Lyra said, nodding at the back of the ship where the slave was still stowed in the cargo hold. “We have to break him to your will and make him obey.”