Read Online Stolen Desire (Outlawed Realm) by Tina Donahue - Free Book Online

said, “and arrives with more guards.”
    Zekin gestured dismissively. “We’ll take care of them as we did the others. If they don’t return to E4, who will notice? In particular, Vakar. As you’ve said, there’s no end to them. A few among dozens or hundreds won’t be missed. How could they be? They’re clones, identical in every way. There’s no means to track them by their genetic code as the scientists do with the pleasure slaves.”
    “Perhaps not,” Bruda mumbled. “However, I still say we wait a bit before our next raid to keep them off balance. Even if the guards who come to this plane don’t alert Vakar, they may decide to storm the colony without considering the consequences. They’re not like us, Zekin. Primitive instincts—their anger, hunger for food, shelter, sex or power—drives them more than intellect. They may not care if they can’t get inside. Their only intent might be to damage the pods. If that happens, where would we go? There’s no place on this realm we could survive.”
    “You keep forgetting they’d have to find us first,” Zekin argued. “They’d have to plan an attack. You believe creatures as primitive as they are could do that?”
    Qatar answered before Bruda could. “They were shrewd enough to build an outpost here without Vakar’s knowledge. They manipulated the devices so the portals would bring them to this plane rather than E1 or E4. They may not match our intelligence or our ability to reason rather than to react. However, they do appear to be evolving into something that could risk all our lives.”
     
     
    Paige regarded the metal plate Eeete had just handed her, overflowing with stuff she was supposed to eat. Unfortunately, the food looked very similar to those creatures Paige had thought were snowflakes. Coating their spindly legs was some kind of batter deep-fried to a golden brown. Must have been sixty of those suckers on the plate.
    “What exactly is this?” she asked, then added immediately, “Yes, you have my permission to speak. Please do so always, whenever I ask a question.”
    Eeete still hesitated, then spoke haltingly. “It’s tioma. What you call food in your language.”
    Uh-huh. Paige fingered the collar of the camouflage shirt she wore, identical to the one on Zekin and the other men. That was, the men who looked like him and were dressed. Apparently, there were no clothes for pleasure slaves since they remained nude.
    Paige’s legs and feet were still bare, the boots and pants Eeete had provided too large to put on. They lay on the floor near the pallet. In the brief time it had taken Paige to get dressed, Eeete had returned with the meal.
    It seemed Zekin didn’t want Paige in the dining area. Could be he thought she’d freak out at all those nude bodies.
    “Yes, I know it’s food,” she said, as nicely as possible, doing her best not to stare at Eeete’s lovely breasts, smooth mound, extraordinary beauty. “But what kind?”
    “Kind?”
    Paige was about to pick up one of the things to demonstrate what she meant, but thought better of it. “What kind of food is it exactly?”
    A flash of understanding crossed Eeete’s face. “Good food. There’s much of it,” she added, the words rushing from her as if she couldn’t say them quickly enough. “Here, no one goes hungry. You can eat anytime you want, whenever you need to. No one stops you, no one whips you.”
    Paige’s stomach fell, not only at what Eeete had just blurted, but how she looked. A kind of ecstasy transformed her features. She didn’t seem to realize how little she expected of life. No doubt because of the constant brutality she’d experienced. Paige wanted to hug the young woman, tell her everything was going to be all right.
    A promise she hadn’t a clue how to keep. Offering the only thing she could, Paige lifted her plate. “Are you hungry now? Would you like some?”
    Eeete stepped back. “All that is for you. Once you finish, I’ll bring you more.