Meadows of Heaven (4/23)

[epeeblade]

Chapter 4

Maggie shielded her eyes from the morning light from a pale yellow sun. When they'd learned that Commander Morgan would be staying in the city overnight, Devine had sent another shuttle with supplies to set up a base camp in truth, including more shelter and sleeping quarters, and one of the Planetary Exploration Vehicles they used to explore beyond the range of the camp. All because of Maggie's request.

They'd driven about five clicks from the camp, moving at a good rate of speed before Maggie shouted, "Slow down!" to Whitfield, who was driving.

He pulled to a stop and looked back at her. "Corporal?" Lieutenant Chikezie asked. Sterling had sent the three of them to check out Maggie's weird energy reading, putting Chikezie in charge.

Maggie liked Chikezie, she was friendly, smart and no-nonsense. Unlike Whitfield, who'd been wheedling her since they left about her finding something that none of them had the first time around.

"Don't even tell me we've been going in the wrong direction," he said now.

Maggie shook her head. "We're close. I don't want to risk rushing right past it." She held her scanner in front of her and hopped off of the PEV, barely aware of her fellow soldiers following. The energy reading spiked suddenly and she pushed forward through some vegetation, looking up only at the last moment.

Luckily Whitfield grabbed her arm and pulled her back before she tumbled down the valley she'd been too engrossed to notice.

"Watch where you're going!" he snapped.

"I was watching the energy readings." Maggie turned to glare at him.

Before he could respond in kind, Chikezie interrupted both of them. "What the hell is that?"

Maggie turned to look, down into the valley at something large and covered with overgrowth. The shape of it, long, at least the length of the valley, seemed familiar somehow. Sunlight glinted off of a section of it, where some of the plants hadn't completely covered. Suddenly she knew what her discovery had to be. "It's a ship," she gasped.

"That doesn't look like any ship I've ever seen," Whitfield muttered.

"No, but does it look like the ships they built three hundred years ago?" Chikezie asked.

"We have to get closer, get inside," Maggie said. "See if they left any records."

"And if we can decipher them." Chikezie grabbed her comm. "I'll tell the Lieutenant Commander. This clearly needs more than just the three of us."

She moved back towards the PEV to make the call.

"Guess your energy readings were right on the money," Whitfield said slowly. It was, Maggie figured, the closest she'd get to an apology.

She gave him a twisted smile. "Thank you. You know, for not letting me fall into the valley."

He grinned back at her.

***

Jeff woke in a sinfully comfortable bed with a naked Jensen snuggled up on one side. He could never mistake Jensen's muscled, masculine form for Katie. Jeff still marveled at how the very tall Jensen could make himself seem smaller than he actually was, tucking himself under Jeff's arm like this.

"Mmm, good morning," Jeff murmured, still drowsy. If they weren't technically in enemy territory and most likely under surveillance at exactly this moment, Jeff could get used to this..

"I have breakfast on the table in the sitting room," Jensen whispered. "I also showered and prepped myself. Which do you want first? Food or me?"

Jeff couldn't help the growl that rose in his throat. As if he'd choose food over the opportunity to have Jensen naked and squirming. Hmm, unless he combined the two, Jeff made a mental note to try that later. It probably wasn't anything these people hadn't seen before.

He tumbled Jensen over, grabbing his wrists and holding his hands over his head. Jensen gave him a smirk and cocked one eyebrow. "Keep 'em there," Jeff said.

To his surprise, the headboard morphed and two strips surrounded Jensen's wrists, binding him to the bed. Jensen looked up. "Well, that's handy."

"As long as it lets you go when I'm done."

"It's probably dependent on thought commands, like the doors and the lifts," Jensen mused.

Jeff grabbed his chin and forced Jensen to look at him. "Sex now. Thinking later."

"Yes, sir," Jensen said, opening his thighs for Jeff to slide between them.

He took a moment to appreciate Jensen's nude form, his pale skin dusted with freckles, those pink nipples, and the piercing in his navel. The tiny ring looked innocuous, but Jeff knew it would serve as a locator, if something should happen to Jensen. No matter the practical use of it, Jeff couldn't resist it, how it looked on Jensen's flat belly. He kissed his way down Jensen's chest, stopping to lave his tongue around the bright ring.

Of course, Jensen tempted Jeff all on his own, without needing the magic of that navel ring, no matter how much Jeff liked to play with it. Well, he really liked how Jensen moaned and squirmed while he did it, how his dick filled all flushed and pink. It would be all too easy to forget this was just a role, that Jeff didn't really own Jensen, couldn't always bind him to his bed for easy access.

"You can just slide right in," Jensen offered with a little wiggle of his hips.

Jeff laughed. "Slut," he said, pushing Jensen's thighs back, holding on just behind Jensen's knees. This would be a bit tricky, since Jensen couldn't reach out and grab his own legs while Jeff lined himself up. Hmm. If the headboard responded to thought. . .  "Bind his legs," he said.

Cuffs shimmered into being around the tops of Jensen's knees, attached to ropes strung from the headboard. Yes, Jeff thought, that was a very handy trick.

"Oh fuck," Jensen murmured, tilting his head back.

"Just lie back and take it," Jeff told him, reaching down to finger Jensen's opening. Slick and open, just as his little sub had promised. He didn’t touch Jensen's cock, tempting as it was to run his thumb over the little pearl of precome leaking out of the tip. He lined himself up and pushed, groaning at how easy it was to just slide into Jensen like this.

Jeff gave in to the impulse to lean down and suckle at Jensen's neck, around the collar. He liked leaving bruises around the mark of his ownership, how the bruised skin looked in contrast to Jensen's normally pale tones. Jensen gasped and shuddered beneath him, unable to move very far at all due to his bonds.

"Mine," he hissed in Jensen's ear as he shifted upward, rolling his hips into Jensen, surrounded by nothing but tight heat.

"Yours," Jensen whispered, his eyes shining as they stared up at Jeff.

Jensen might change his mind about that in a moment, Jeff thought, once he realized what Jeff was about to do. He'd picked up a few things since Jensen had introduced him to this kind of sex.

Jeff drew back, bracing his hands on Jensen's hips as he pounded into the body beneath him, every gasp and whimper Jensen let out just inciting him even further. Jensen tried to push his hips up, to give as good as he got, but the ropes hampered him to his frustration, especially since Jeff was keeping as far from Jensen's cock as possible.

"Please," Jensen gasped, "Let me come, please, sir."

Jeff closed his eyes as he pummeled Jensen's ass, moving faster and faster until he stilled, coming in tight pulses into the heat. He looked down at Jensen and curved his lips into a smile. "No," he said.

Jensen blinked up at him and pulled on the restraints. "No?"

Jeff lowered himself, careful to keep his belly out of contact with Jensen's dick. "Maybe if you're good all day today, I'll let you come when I get back."

Now if this place continued to work as it had, Jeff thought, reaching out with one hand, he'd find exactly what he needed within reach, despite his lack of forethought. When his fingers closed around the rubber plug, he grinned. He didn't know what the expression on his face looked like, but it was enough to make Jensen glare wide-eyed at him.

"Just gonna make you wear this through breakfast," he promised, pulling out carefully and plugging Jensen before any of his come could escape.

Jensen moaned and wiggled his ass. Jeff thumbed the handle of the black plug, which caused Jensen to gasp and cry out. He must be so sensitive right now.

"Please, sir, I don't know if I can." Jensen twitched in his bonds, his cock dark red and leaking against his thigh.

Jeff took pity on him and reached out and wrenched his heavy balls, getting an entirely different squawk from Jensen as his erection flagged only slightly. "C'mon," Jeff murmured, running his hands up Jensen's thighs to where the bonds sat. At his touch the rope released and he guided the legs back to the bed carefully, not letting them just drop. Another touch against Jensen's wrists had the restraints fading away.

"You've certainly picked up the technology," Jensen said, sulking, of course.

"I have an incentive." Jeff gave in and leant in for a kiss, sucking on Jensen's plump lower lip. He loved those pouty lips, how they swelled nice and red when Jeff kissed and bit at them. "And now we'll have food." He pulled himself away and slipped into the leggings he had discarded last night.

Jensen just grumbled under his breath, but he followed Jeff into the sitting room, moving slow and careful. For a moment Jeff worried it would be too much, and his gaze flickered to Jensen's fingers. Jensen just gave him another 'I'm fine' signal and Jeff had to trust him to admit when it was too much.

"Sit in the chair," he ordered, knowing that would be more difficult than if Jensen had to kneel at his side. Even so, Jeff really didn't want to feed Jensen again. That entire scene had been . . . difficult to deal with, especially in front of the others.

The table had been set, a silver cover over the plates keeping the meal warm. Jensen gestured to the pitcher. "It's not coffee, but it's hot."

"Did you go down to the kitchen for all this?" Jeff asked, opening his plate to reveal a hearty breakfast of toast, some kind of pastry cake and what looked like scrambled eggs.

"It was in that box thing over there when I woke up." Jensen pointed.

The 'box thing' looked like a shelf set into the wall with a rectangular section cut out above it. Jeff gave Jensen a look and he replied, "I'll find out more about it today."

"Good," Jeff said. He didn't have to say any more. The more information they learned about 328, the better.

Which was why Jensen's meeting with the queen last night had been so important. Although it had answered some questions - blue eyes denoted subs? Really? - it had raised so many others when Jensen had debriefed him last night. Jeff had no idea how to parse family dynamic, or how the queen dealt with over two hundred subs of her own.

"When you go on your outing with the princess today," Jensen began, staring at his food. "Do I have your permission to continue touring with Sub Misha?"

Jeff wondered why Jensen wasn't eating and then with a start realized he hadn't yet received permission. "Yes," he said, "And eat up, you'll need your strength to keep up with him."

Jensen laughed. "I don't know, I think he's pretty worn out after last night."

If Jeff hadn't just come, his dick would have done more than just twitch helplessly at that thought. The duchess hadn't been wrong in her assessment; Jeff maybe had a slight hankering for the blue-eyed slut. There had been something to it, the way Misha had begged for everything done to him, how nothing had been too much, he just seemed to take more and more, and then even more.

Jeff didn't know where this desire had come from. He had never been the type to go from lover to lover. And even though Jensen wasn't really his lover, and this entire charade was just for the mission, Jeff still thought that fucking another sub would be cheating, somehow. Even though, clearly, that wasn't the case in Harmony.

Maybe Jeff saw something in Misha that called to whatever this was in him that Jensen had pulled out and woven into this dominant personality. He wanted to be the one putting the boy in his place, fucking him with his thick cock and then whatever else Jeff had to hand, plug, dildo, his fist, until he was hard enough again to plow into the sub.

"Sir?" Jensen asked.

Jeff looked up, realizing he had zoned off for a moment there. Maybe it wasn't Misha that he wanted to do those things to.

"Hmm?"

Then Jeff heard it, the knock that heralded a visitor. He'd really have to introduce these people to door chimes. Jeff walked to the wall and touched it, marveling at how it swirled open, revealing the princess on the other side.  Unlike the majestic gowns of last night, she wore a simple tunic and trousers, her long blond hair braided into two tails on either shoulder.

"I'm sorry to disturb you, Commander, I wanted to get an early start and I didn't know if you knew how to use the tele," Alona said.

Jeff figured that must be their version of a comm. "I hope you can explain it to me later," he said. He felt awkward, unshowered and barely dressed. This wasn't the impression he wanted to make. "I'm sorry, we've just woken. If you'll give me a few minutes to get ready?"

"That's fine," she said, strolling into the room. Well, Jeff thought, she did kind of own the place. "I'll just wait on your balcony.  It'll take some time to summon a tram anyway. There should be plenty of traffic today."

"We have a balcony?" Jeff asked, stunned as she moved to the opposite wall and the large glass windows. Jensen, he saw, had slid to his knees, hands on his thighs, unconscious of his nudity.

When Alona reached the window, she placed a hand on the glass and it rippled away, revealing a balcony without a rail that looked over the city. "Now you do," she said simply. "All the rooms are on the outside of the tower for this very reason."

"Handy," Jeff murmured.

She tossed back a grin. "And good morning to you too, Sub Jensen. I'll just wait outside for you. Come out when you're ready." Alona disappeared onto the balcony, the windows closing behind her.

Jeff turned to Jensen. "Up," he commanded. "Bend over the back of the chair."

Jensen groaned, but obeyed, spreading his legs at the touch of Jeff's hand on his thighs. Stars, Jeff could play with this ass all day, running his hands over the soft skin of his buttocks, squeezing the fleshy globes until Jensen begged to be fucked. He made a mental note to try it before grabbing the plug. "Ease up on it, let me have it," Jeff said, pulling the plug out, being extra sure to nudge against Jensen's sweet spot before taking it out completely.

He dropped the plug on the seat of the chair, just within Jensen's sight. "Maybe I'll leave you plugged all day, wearing nothing but a ring. You'll be begging for me to let you come."

"Please," Jensen said, his voice hoarse, thick dick pressed against the back of the chair.

"When I get back," Jeff promised, giving in and running a hand over one sweet cheek. "While I’m gone be sure to take care of that," he meant the plug, "And it would do you good to clean up in here. Change the sheets, make sure the equipment is nice and shiny. One more thing, don't even think about coming before I get back. No fooling around with Misha, understand?"

"Yes, sir," Jensen said, muffled against the back of the chair.

"Good boy, now stay like this till I'm done with my shower. Might find this old man has another fuck in him yet."

He grinned at Jensen's whimpering moan.

***

Misha showed up about an hour after Jeff had left and Jensen breathed a sigh of relief at his arrival. He hadn't known what to do with the dirty breakfast dishes, or where the spare linens for the bed were kept. Luckily, Jensen had plenty of experience cleaning and storing sex toys, so polishing the plug had been the least of his problems.

He wondered if he had done too good of a job preparing Jeff for this role. Jensen was glad Jeff had stepped up to the plate and taken command, but for some reason, it unsettled him. It seemed too real, sometimes, as if Jeff really were his master. Of course, Jensen had never really had a master, not like the people on 328 defined it. The closest he had come was General Ferris who had been his mentor back at the Academy and had trained him personally.

But here, in Harmony, the whole concept of dom and sub was played out in a way Jensen had never seen. Sure, he'd known people who played at 24/7, but one party was always free to walk away from the scene. No actual planetary law bound that kind of relationship, nothing made a person a sub and subjected him to another's will.

Jensen wondered what it must be like, to know from childhood that you were destined to be owned and taken care of. Was it comforting or frightening? He tried to imagine it, when he was a teen and responsible for his brother after their parents' death, to not have that crushing weight on him, to give the burden to his master. Jensen just couldn't see it.

"Come in," Jensen told Misha, after his knock on the wall. Jensen had pulled on a pair of leggings after Jeff left, since he hadn't been given any other special instructions except to clean. His lips curled at that thought, how very military of Jeff. Perhaps he'd be subject to an inspection when Jeff got back. "Do you know where the extra linens are?"

Misha shook his head. "You know the Queen has subs who will take care of that? It's their whole purpose."

"My master gave me the task before he left," Jensen told him.

"Mmm, they should be in the drawers next to the bed."

Jensen guessed Misha never had to change a set of sheets. He probably spent most of his time on the bed instead of changing it. Well, if his mistress had more than one sub herself, Misha could afford to specialize.

Between the two of them, Jensen completed all of his tasks. He placed the dishes back on that strange inset shelf, the Dumb Waiter Misha called it, and marveled as they disappeared.

"So, what's on the agenda for today?" Jensen asked, turning to Misha. "Tours of parts of the palace I haven't seen?"

"Are you sure you don't wish to visit the public baths again?" Misha grinned, showing a set of fine white teeth.

Jensen shook his head. "Not without my master." The thought of what Jeff had done to him in the baths only yesterday caused him to blush and shift his stance. Damn the man for leaving Jensen unsatisfied that morning.

"Ah." Misha gave him a shrewd look. "Do you think your master will let us play together? I think he's the type who'd like to watch."

Jensen snorted. "He specifically ordered me not to fool around with you while he wasn't here."

"Smart of him," Misha said. "Would you like to see some of the gardens? It's a lovely day, we could have a picnic and you could ask me about what perplexes you."

Too many things perplexed him, Jensen thought darkly. "Sure," he agreed and followed Misha out. He wondered if Misha ever wore anything but that leather kilt. Well, if he were Misha's master, he wouldn't want to cover that body up either. And as a red-collar, Jensen wondered if there was some clause where Misha had to be available for easy-access.

He had to hide his smile at that thought as they entered the lift. Jensen wondered if he'd finally met his match, someone who'd had far more partners than Jensen himself. His friends at the Academy had acknowledged Jensen as the sluttiest of the group, after all.

What was it about this place that reminded him of what it felt like to be young, and at the Academy, just learning about his submissiveness and not yet having to use it as a weapon?

The gardens spread across the rooftops of part of the palace, sprawling like hills around the building, facing the ocean that rivaled the sky in its blue hue. Jensen found himself captured by that horizon at first, not even seeing the beauty of the gardens themselves. The plants were carefully cultivated and ordered as if by the best landscaper, small trees cut into strict shapes, circled by flowers and stone walkways.

Misha led him to a small fountain and sat at the edge, trailing a hand through the trickling water. Jensen joined him, regarding the sculpture at the center of the stone circle, of a woman with a sub at her feet. Perhaps this represented the queen and her sub?

"I was wondering," Jensen ventured, still phrasing the question as he spoke. "About the queen's children?"

Misha's gaze shot up, his blue eyes hard as he stared at Jensen. "How did you know there were any other children but the princess?"

Right, Jensen wasn't supposed to have heard that conversation between the princess and her brother. Instead, he lied. "When I had my audience with the queen, there was a child, a baby, really. She wanted the queen to kiss her good night."

"Oh, no, that's not the queen's child." Misha shook his head. "The babe is probably the child of two of her subs."

"Such a thing is allowed?"

"If the dom gives permission, of course. You can't have a child without the blessing of Harmony, anyway. And the child of two subs is always a sub, and much honored."

No children without the blessings of Harmony, whatever that meant. Jensen supposed that accounted for the lack of any apparent birth control mentioned when Misha's mistress had taken him. "Are the subs allowed to marry?" He followed the thought to his next conclusion, wondering about tiny family groups in the queen's holdings.

"I don't know what that means." Misha tilted his head. "Marry?"

Jensen gestured with his hands. "When two people want to form a romantic relationship that is acknowledged by the law. Um. It doesn't necessarily have to be a dominant and a submissive."

Misha shook his head violently. "Such a thing doesn't exist here. Can you imagine? Two doms together? Who'd be in charge?"

"You don't ever want to be with someone who's your equal?"

Misha gave him a look. "I fuck other subs all the time."

"Not like that. I mean, a partner."

"I have my mistress," Misha answered, but he looked confused at Jensen's line of questioning.

Jensen wasn't even sure why he kept pursuing this, it wasn't as if he was dead set on marrying someone and needed Misha to understand. He thought of Jared and the ring he'd shown Jensen before asking his college sweetheart to marry him. Jensen had never seen that kind of happy ending for himself, but he had never seen this kind of relationship as a viable one either.

Before he could speak or ask another question, the sound of footsteps on the stone path had them both looking up as Duke Adrian emerged from behind a row of bushes, his sub trailing behind him with a leash attached to his nipple rings.

Misha stood and bowed, keeping his head lowered and his hands behind his back. Jensen mirrored the posture. Neither of them spoke, and Jensen figured that to be protocol, not to speak to a dom until spoken to.

Adrian looked at them through narrowed eyes and if his glance strayed a bit too long on Jensen, well, Jensen was used to that. Although the duke's gaze didn't reach Jensen's eyes, the object of fascination for most of the other doms on 328, no, he never looked higher than Jensen's half-bare chest. These tunics didn't cover much.

"Where are your doms, boys?" Adrian snapped out.

Jensen let Misha take this one. "My mistress is attending to the queen's business in preparations for the Choosing. I have been instructed to teach Sub Jensen more about our city."

"I see." Adrian turned to his sub. "Perhaps my sub could give his perspective. I don't see why you shouldn't have a representative from my district."

"I'm sure that was not my lady queen's intent in giving me this assignment," Misha said, a bit braver than Jensen would have been in the face of the scowl Adrian directed at him.

"Whatever the intent," Adrian snapped. "Peter will attend you for the afternoon. I'm sure Sub Jensen," he tilted his head at Jensen, his lips curving in a scary looking smile, "would be interested in learning as much as he can from as many different sources as possible."

Jensen said only: "Yes, sir," not knowing quite how to address the intimidating man.

"Return to our quarters before dinner," Adrian snapped at his sub before removing the leash and turning back the way he had come.

Misha waited a heartbeat, then went and peeked behind the row of bushes, presumably making sure the duke had gone. He then whirled on Peter. "What game is he playing, Levi?"

Peter, who had been standing still and silent, his gaze firmly on the ground, lifted his head at that. "My name is Peter."

Jensen watched the byplay between the two men, how Peter's blue eyes flared in a way he hadn't seen before.

"Right," Misha snapped. "So, Peter, tell me what has he been doing?"

"You know as much as I do," Peter answered, looking away and directly at Jensen. "He's curious, like everyone else, about our guests from the stars."

Misha reached out and grabbed Peter by the arm. The other sub hissed and pulled away. "You don't have to lie to me, L…Peter. We're friends, aren't we?"

"I'm not allowed to have friends," Peter said, his voice flat. "I have my master. That's enough."

Jensen saw how Misha struggled to gain control of himself, how he swallowed compulsively and flexed his hands into fists. "Why you went under contract with him. . ."

"Leave it, Misha." Peter jerked his head in Jensen's direction.

"I don't know if I'll get a chance to speak to you again!" Misha snapped. "I see you once a year and every year you're different."

"What did you expect?" Peter's shoulders sagged. He seemed relieved to let go of the very strict posture he had been holding. "I'm not who I was any longer."

"Who were you?" Jensen asked.

Peter looked at him, almost grateful for the interruption. "First born son of the queen. Indulged, spoiled prince."

Misha sputtered. "You were never spoiled."

"It doesn't matter. It's my master's will I have to obey now. You know, Misha. Tell me it's not different to be with Mistress Claudia."

Misha's gaze softened and he reached out again, this time laying a finger on the black collar around Peter's neck. "I didn't sign up for twenty years for my first master."

Jensen's mouth opened. "Is that what the black collar means? A twenty year contract."

Peter gave him a small smile. "Yes. Isn't that why you wear black?"

"Oh, no." Jensen fingered his own collar, wincing slightly as he came up on the love bite Jeff had left him from this morning.

"His is different," Misha said. "It has a clasp, like any normal buckle."

For the first time Jensen realized that neither of their collars had end pieces. Each was as if a solid piece of leather had grown about the sub's neck. He wondered how the hell the collars were put on or taken off, perhaps more of this strange technology?

"What do the other colors mean?" Jensen asked, hoping to distract them from the differences in his collar.

Misha grinned. "Finally, you start asking useful questions!" He moved back to the fountain and sat down, so Jensen figured this to be a long conversation.

"Sit with us," Misha invited Peter, his voice soft.

"I'd rather stand," Peter said, looking away.

Misha's eyes narrowed and in a move faster than Jensen could blink, grabbed Peter and had him splayed over his lap, throwing up the end of Peter's kilt. "Damn it, Misha! That's not your business!"

Jensen could see the black plug in Peter's ass, much like the one Jeff had placed in his own that morning. He realized why Peter hadn't wanted to sit. When Misha shifted, he gasped at the cage surrounding Peter's cock, keeping it soft and confined. His hairless balls hung heavy and full beneath the imprisoned dick. Misha touched the metal rings and Peter squirmed and pulled away, a flush rising in his pale skin.

"How long has this been on?" Misha asked. He kept his voice low, the way you might talk to a spooked animal.

"Long enough," Peter whispered.

"Too long," Misha sighed.

Jensen wondered what exactly he had stumbled onto here.

***

For the first time Jeff rode one of the trams with other citizens of Harmony, sitting on the plush seats just like any other sort of public transportation. Those with subs had them kneeling in the center, like Jensen had, and that explained the width of the compartment. Alona smiled at everyone before wishing them all good morning, infecting them all with her good cheer and excitement.

Even after her explanation last night - of going to look at subs on the market - Jeff wasn't prepared for the sight that greeted him as they stepped off the tram in the district's main square. Nude subs in purple collars lined up around the giant fountain in the center and all down the sidewalks, for as far as the eye could see. It reminded Jeff of the time he and Katie had stumbled onto a nude beach during their honeymoon on Graece.

He shook off his shock and followed Alona as she perused the subs around the fountain. "The best thing about the Choosing," she said in a low voice, "is that subs from all districts are on display."

"Is there a difference?" Jeff asked. "Other than just more of a selection?"

"Oh yes," she said. "Subs from the Luttrell district, for example, specialize in service. Oh and they have lovely tattoos." Alona pointed to a young woman with a spectacular work of art on her back, roses and vines entwined in an intricate design as brightly colored as anything in this city. "And if you want a good red band it's best to look to Duchess Claudia's district. Duke Leonard's for green-bands, oh and for extremely flexible subs."

"And Duke Adrian?" he asked, barely recalling the name of the man she had left out.

Alona stopped in her tracks and frowned. "Masochists," she said.

Before Jeff could respond to that, Alona strode forwards towards a sub standing on the edge of the fountain. He towered over the princess by a good foot, had bright blue eyes that seemed impossible with his cocoa colored skin. "Good morning," she said to him.

The sub shifted from his stance, letting his arms fall from their position on the back of his neck to regard her. "Good morning, mistress," he said, his voice a deep rumble.

"Where were you trained?"

"At the Schola in Luttrell," he answered, eyes flickering up to gaze at Jeff for a moment, before looking back down at Alona.

"How long have you been on the market?"

"Two months," he said. "I had been with my last mistress for three years."

Alona nodded very seriously. "And how many masters had you had before that?"

"Four," he told her.

Jeff wondered how common that was, to have had so many owners. But this sub looked nearly twenty years older than the princess, so he had have gone around the block a bit. Jeff realized the other man was around his age and bit his cheek at that realization. They weren't that different, he and this sub, being older and lacking a partner. Only Jeff couldn't stand on a street corner and advertise himself, well, not without getting arrested in most corners of the UP, anyway.

"Thank you," she told him. "May I leave you my mark?"

"I would be honored, mistress."

Alona took something slim and glowing out of her front pocket and handed it to the sub. Jeff wondered where the naked man was going to put the darn thing, but his curiosity went unsatisfied, because the sub just held it in his hand.

She turned to go, but stopped when the sub asked her name. Alona colored, her pale skin blushing bright read to the roots of her blond hair. "Alona," she said. "And yours?"

"Dourdan," he answered.

"Thank you."

As they walked away, Alona explained. "They have three days to display themselves and collect dom marks. At the end they choose the ones they will allow to court them."

"So giving a mark," Jeff rolled the term around in his mind. "Doesn't guarantee that you'll be allowed to court them?"

"And you don't have to court a sub just because they chose your mark." Alona continued to stroll along the throngs of people, although no other sub caught her attention just yet.

"I notice you didn't give your title," Jeff said softly.

She bit her lip. "It's easier to gauge their true reactions if they don't know I'm the princess. It would be quite an upward move in status for a sub. I don't want to Choose someone who only wants to join with me because of my title."

"No," Jeff agreed.

"It would be silly to Choose that way. We might be terribly incompatible. Not suited for each other at all. And then locked into a contract. . ." her voice trailed off.

She dropped the subject and Jeff didn't ask again. They continued to move through the crowd and Alona gave away two more of her marks. From everyone else Jeff observed, she seemed to be sparser with them. This would be her first sub, he remembered. It struck him the honor she was giving him, to allow him to accompany her into the city for this.

"Do you see anyone you like?" she asked.

Jeff started out of his thoughts. "I have Jensen," he stammered. "And of course, I can't take anyone with me when I leave."

"Of course, but that wouldn't stop you from signing a contract for a night."

Jeff boggled at that thought as Alona pushed them towards a cart of food, where a black-collar sub stood. She ordered two warm pastries and handed one to Jeff. He didn't see her pay for them, and vaguely remembered their tailor saying something about accounts being set up. Jeff would have to ask later. Right now he had more pressing concerns.

"Princess," he said in a low tone. "I would like to meet with your mother to discuss my people, the ones taken."

Alona chewed carefully before answering. "Didn't Sub Jensen give you her answer?"

Jeff blew out a frustrated breath. "I understand I haven't proved myself yet, but I would like to speak with them, let them know I haven't forgotten them. And, there is another matter I need to discuss with her." The captain's words to him, the orders to campaign for a UP base on 328 still haunted him. Jeff hadn't had the chance to tell Jensen about them and now he couldn't for fear of being overheard by the queen before he could present her with the idea.

"My mother doesn't trust you, Commander," Alona said. "You'll have to earn that trust."

"I understand," Jeff said, another argument ready on his tongue.

"But I'll speak with her. I think you should be able to meet with your taken subs."

Jeff winced at her use of the term. He could only imagine what Tappen and Johnson had gone through during the past seven days they had been trapped on 328 and undergoing 'training'. "Thank you, princess."

"Please, it's just Alona."

Jeff wasn't sure how that would go over in front of the queen, but he would not deny the gift. "Jeff," he told her.

She beamed up at him and continued to drag him around the square for the rest of the afternoon.



Chapter 1 | Chapter 2 | Chapter 3 | Chapter 4 | Chapter 5 | Chapter 6 | Chapter 7 | Chapter 8 | Chapter 9 | Chapter 10 | Chapter 11 | Chapter 12 | Chapter 13 | Chapter 14 | Chapter 15 | Chapter 16 | Chapter 17 | Chapter 18 | Chapter 19 | Chapter 20 | Chapter 21 | Chapter 22 | Epilogue