Page 15 of Bought and Shared
I feel someone tug one of my curls then and I try to scoot forward out of their reach. Attempting to ignore their teasing, I press closer to Cadence. When it happens a second time, my friend whips around and confronts the boys head-on.
“Do you need something? Clearly you wanted our attention, so now you have it!” Her beautiful blue eyes are flashing fire, and I’m in awe of how fierce she is.
Though I’m not brave like Cadence, I join her in glancing back at the men harassing us. They’re probably close to our age, but they look like children in comparison to the Voltan warriors that are in our party. In truth, they’re acting like children too. Giggling, poking each other in the ribs, and encouraging the “bravest” of their ranks to continue abusing us for no good reason other than an entitled notion that they can.
“We wanted to know something,” the tallest member of the group announces with a smirk.
I recognize him as the one who said he doesn’t like “fire crotches”. My stomach lurches then. I just know it won’t be anything I want to hear, but he seems dead set on posing his question anyway.
Before Cadence can respond, he pushes forward with his query. “If we buy your lunch, would you suck us all off like you do the Voltan?”
I want to be sick. My face must pale noticeably because the tall boy sneers directly at me. “You got a problem with human cock, fire crotch? I guess being such a dirty slut, you’ll only suck it if it comes from another planet.”
Cadence gasps at the crudeness of the boy’s words. The warriors that are accompanying Amy to her seat overhear what the despicable man says. Setting down their trays, they head our way.
“Hey, Chris, some of the soldiers are coming over here,” one of the quieter, more nervous boys alerts his friend.
“You think I care?” Chris spits back, but he suddenly isn’t wearing that ugly, self-assured smirk of his any longer. His face takes on a pinched, nervous quality that isn’t flattering. “I’m not afraid of any alien freak, no matter how big he is!”
“Alien freak,” the blond Voltan warrior repeats, his dark eyes as hard as diamonds as he approaches us. “You wouldn’t be talking about us, would you, boy?”
There’s no arguing that the Voltan cut an impressive form. They’re huge, with bulging muscles, and as tall, or taller, than most of Earth’s largest humans. Dressed in head-to-toe black, body-hugging uniforms, they’re as intimidating as the devilhimself, and the three heading our way seem to eat up all the available space in the restaurant the closer they get.
Their sudden arrival seems to shut the entire group of boys up, with the exception of Chris, who is either too stupid or too arrogant to know any better.
“This is a private conversation between humans,” the arrogant boy tells them, his eyes darting possessively over Cadence and me. “Mind your business, or I’ll let my dad know that men from FortCuntare bothering us.”
Chris’s friends, quietly standing beside him until now, burst into laughter over his outlandish nickname for the military base. While I might be sheltered, I understand the meaning of his statement well enough. The community has specific feelings about Fort Kent’s female human auctions, and they aren’t exactly positive. Hence the disgusting nickname.
The three Voltan soldiers smirk at one another then. They aren’t intimidated in the least by this young, fragile human male. Stepping forward, the blond, whose lap Amy had been riding earlier, cocks his head to the side. “Is that so?”
“Yeah, it is,” Chris lamely fires back. “My dad is Senator-”
Before he can finish schooling us on his family’s political pedigree, the blond soldier gets about an inch from his face and cuts his little speech short. “Your daddywasSenator so and so, kid. Now he’s just another subject of the Voltan. No better or worse than anyone else.”
The boy’s arrogant features turn purple with rage at the reminder of how far his family has fallen from grace. “You have no right to talk about my father-,”
The enormous man laughs directly in his face. “That’s the thing about being the victor, kid. We haveeveryright. That’s the deal we struck with your daddy and all the people like him. We save your planet, we get to rule it. Plain and simple. You don’t get to reap the benefits of our aid and then cry about the cost of doing businessafteryou accept our help. Without us, this tiny planet would be nothing more than rubble and ash. The least you can do is be grateful.”
Chris, in his haze of anger, grinds out, “I guess that makes you feel entitled to as much human pussy as you want then.”
The boy’s friends grow unnaturally still at his vulgar comment. The blond Voltan grabs him by hi supper arms, lifts him directly into the air, and hauls him within an inch of his face. “Watch your mouth around the ladies, boy. I don’t give a fuck who your daddy is. He isn’t half the man you think he is if he raised a disrespectful piece of shit son like you.”
Chris’s lower lip begins to tremble. “Let go of me!” He whines, and I notice his voice isn’t half as steady as it was a minute ago.
“Not until you apologize to these two women for the disrespectful things you said to them,” the soldier returns.
When Chris doesn’t immediately cough up an apology, the boy who said he liked redheads pipes up on his behalf, “We’re sorry, ladies. We were just joking. We didn’t mean any offense to either of you.”
The line in front of us is completely gone now and everyone is watching this showdown unfold. Not blinking, the Voltan warrior adds pressure to Chris’s arms and the boy yelps. “I’m sorry, alright? Jesus! Let go of my arms before you break them!”
In malicious compliance, the blond soldier lets Chris go and he drops like a lead weight to the floor. Scrambling away on his rear end in retreat, the younger man gets to his feet and stumbles backward a few steps.
When one of his friends shouts, “Let’s go!” they all hightail it out of the restaurant as fast as their legs can carry them.
“Who’s next in line?” the woman at the counter unsteadily calls out into the quiet of the room.
Cadence and I thank the soldiers for their help and the trio nod graciously before returning to Amy’s side. Turning our attention to the cashier, we place our orders. Once our food arrives, prepaid by the Voltan, we amble over to a free table at the back of the restaurant where some of the other girls are already seated.
