A Short Leash Read online

  “I get my way, pet,” Kade said, his voice rumbling through his chest. “You’ll learn that soon enough.”

  She smiled and curled up against his chest, quite comfortable. “Are you going to put me outside?”

  “Outside? No,” he said. “You’re part of my household. That means you live as I do, in a vaguely civilized manner.” He flashed a grin down at her.

  Sierra could sense that the refined nature he projected was just a veneer. His touch belied the neat home he lived in and the neat clothing he wore. He might have looked and sounded like part of civilization, but when he laid his hands on her she felt as though she was back in the wilds. Back at home.

  Strange that she should feel so comfortable so quickly with a man who was a stranger, but he had showed her more kindness in the past hour than anyone had shown her in a year. She did not trust him entirely and she was still quite determined that it would be better to escape back into the wilds than stay with him, but if she was to be captive, then being captive in the arms of a man like Master Kade was not so bad.

  He carried her into a small room in which there was a bed and another door. “That door leads to a bathroom. You can reach my room on the other side of the bathroom. This room is yours; it will give you privacy when you need it, somewhere safe and secure to sleep.”

  Sierra thought that she had already found somewhere safe and secure to sleep—his arms. She could not bring herself to say as much though.

  “So I will live as a citizen?”

  “Eat like one, sleep like one…”

  “Leave the city and never return like one?” Sierra added hopefully.

  “No,” Kade replied, his lips twisting. “Not leaving the city and never returning. You’re a person, my pet, and you will be treated as such, but you are the property of your owner.”

  “I don’t think you can own anything with a mind of its own,” Sierra replied as he lowered her onto the softest surface she’d ever touched in all her life. She rolled about atop the softness, rubbing her face against the smooth cloth that covered the entire surface.

  “This is where you sleep now,” Kade informed her. “Get some rest, pet.”

  She was tired enough that she obeyed him almost instantly.

  Chapter Two

  Sierra woke in the middle of the night. It was quiet and still in a way the wilds never were. In the wilds there were always sounds. Birds, beasts, even the trees in the winds. There was no such sound in the city, save for the ever present hum of the energy source that powered the place. There were also no such sounds inside a citizen’s home, even one that was wilds-adjacent.

  As she lay in bed, eyes wide, heart pounding, Sierra fought with a frightening sense of claustrophobia. In the city she had slept outdoors beneath the dome beneath the stars. Finding herself in a small dark box was too much to bear, so she got up and started to explore.

  Padding out of the room she had gone to sleep in, Sierra wandered about Kade’s home. Much of his furniture was covered in tanned hides. She was certain that he had probably brought down the creatures himself. He was a hunter to the core. She had sensed that about him from the outset. He was dangerous and yet gentle, refined and wild at the same time. Sierra had never imagined that such a man could exist.

  As she paced through the room, something moved. A woman. Staring at her with wide eyes. Sierra made a little shriek of surprise and jumped back, only to have the other woman jump back the same way. A second later she realized that she was looking into her reflection. Even though the room was only dimly lit, she had never seen herself so clearly before, only in streams and still pools and they did not provide nearly the clear image that the wall was giving her.

  What she saw made her let out a little sob. Her hair was a mess, there were dark circles under her eyes, and her cheeks looked sunken, her skin sallow. She could hardly recognize herself. The last time she had seen herself in the waters of her village she had been clear-skinned and rosy-cheeked, with bright eyes and sleek locks. Now she looked broken and old beyond her years. She understood why Kade had recoiled from her. He was angry at having to look at something so ugly.

  “You wake early,” Kade said, his deep baritone startling her again. She turned away from the mirror, tears in her eyes.

  “And you wake upset,” he noted. “What’s wrong?”

  “I’m hideous!”

  He frowned slightly. “Hideous? You’re far from hideous, Sierra.”

  “I saw myself in the wall,” she wept. “I am ugly.”

  “You just need a bath and a haircut and a good diet and some real exercise. In a few weeks you’ll be more beautiful than ever.”

  Sierra did not believe him. Tears ran down her face as she began to comprehend the toll that living with citizens had taken on her. It was not healthy in their compounds, away from the natural radiation that her mutation allowed her to not only withstand, but thrive upon.

  “I’m ruined,” she sobbed. “He broke me.”

  Kade’s arms encircled her and she was pulled into his lap as he sat with her on the floor. “He did not break you,” Kade murmured against her ear. “You’re beautiful and fierce even though you don’t see it right now. You’ve been through a very hard time, Sierra. You will have to give yourself time to heal.”

  Sierra buried her head in his shoulder and sobbed without restraint. Some wall had broken in her, the defense she had erected against her life as a prisoner was crumbling, leaving her a sodden mass of tears and sorrow.

  “I want to go home,” she sobbed. “I want to go back to the wilds. Let me go. Please. Let me go.”

  “Even if I wanted to, you’re far too weak,” Kade told her. “You’ve spent a year without proper care. You’d be food for the first predator that came along.”

  She didn’t want to hear his reasons. She just wanted to be back in the wilds where everything made sense and where she could run as far as she needed to until she felt safe. There was nowhere to run in his house; that left her with just his arms to hide in and his chest to press against. She did both, taking strange comfort in the man who was imprisoning her just as much as the citizen had.

  It took a long while for her tears to abate, but Kade held her through them all. He did not try to stop her tears, nor did he offer hollow words of comfort. He sat with her on the floor of his home and stroked her hair as she wetted his neck and shirt.

  The sun was coming up when she finally came to a realization that she was feeling better. She lifted her head from his shoulder and looked up into his face. They were no longer on the floor, but on the couch. She was still in his lap, but his head was propped up with a pillow. She did not remember being moved at all.

  “You fell asleep,” he said, answering the question her confused expression posed. “I figured I’d let you. You’re cute when you’re asleep,” he added.

  Sierra blushed. As much as she disliked her predicament as captive, she could not deny that Kade made it almost pleasant. He had quickly become a source of comfort and waking up in his arms made for the best morning in a very long time.

  “Time to clean up and eat,” he said, patting her bottom. “I will show you how the bath works.”

  He took her to the bathroom where the mirror on the wall quickly brought back all of Sierra’s woes. She could not forget her unfortunate appearance when it was reflected back to her perfectly. As Kade turned taps and made water flow into the bathtub, she began to cry again.

  “Come,” Kade said. “There’s no need for tears. You’ll feel much better after your bath.”

  “A bath isn’t going to help,” Sierra said. “The dirt is the only thing that makes me look human.”

  “Now you’re being silly,” Kade said. “You will feel much better once you are clean. Grooming is important for a pet.”

  Sierra drew in a deep tear-filled breath. “Leave me alone,” she said. “Let me go. I am ruined.”

  “You’re not ruined,” he said. “Just a little smudged.” He took a step toward her and sm
iled down at her.

  Sierra could not help but admire him and wonder why on earth he was being so kind to her. She was a pitiful wretch compared to him. He was handsome and vital, and when he looked at her he somehow managed to seem attracted to her in spite of her sorry state.

  “I will leave you to bathe,” he said. “If the water gets too dirty, you can refill the bath.”

  Sierra nodded and stepped into the bath. Kade was right. It was warm and nice. She sank into the water with a sigh of relief.

  “It’s usually best to take your clothes off,” Kade said as her silky clothing floated about her in the water and clouds of darker dirt began to emanate from her skin. When Sierra gave him a blank look, he rolled his shirtsleeves up to his elbows and knelt down beside the bath. “I’ll help you,” he said with a wink. “First things first, let’s refill this tub.”

  Sierra sat at the far end of the great ceramic bowl called a tub while Kade drained the water, then helped her take her now completely sodden clothing off. It clung to her, revealing every line and curve of her body. His strong fingers slid up under the hem and lifted the garment up and over her head, revealing small, neat breasts. He paused for a moment, apparently affected by the sight. Sierra looked down at herself, wondering what had gone wrong beneath her clothing. She could not see any sign of anything wrong.

  “Am I hideous to you?”

  “No,” Kade said, his voice catching in his throat. “Anything but, my pet.”

  He lowered her shorts a moment later. Sierra lifted her hips to help him as he drew the final covering down her body, leaving her completely naked. Sierra found her natural state quite liberating. In the wilds she had rarely bothered to wear clothing. Some of the villagers did, but she was fond of nudity. Every part of her skin was capable of sensing the world. Covering it up with cloth dulled a significant portion of her ability to feel.

  “I think we will use the showerhead,” he said, removing a small saucer-like wand from the wall. “It’s like a little waterfall, see?”

  When he twisted levers, warm water began to fall from the showerhead like rain. Kade moved it over Sierra’s body, sending rivulets of water coursing over her shoulders and bare breasts and down between her thighs.

  “Soap,” he said, handing her a bar of material that foamed the moment it was wet. “Rub it over your body and the dirt will wash away,” he explained.

  Sierra was familiar with soap, but once again she let him explain, for the soothing water and his deep tones were combining to make her forget about her sorry state and instead provoked a response of pure pleasure. She laid back in the tub, running the soap over her body as Kade kept the water coursing up and down the length of her naked frame. He seemed quite fascinated by her, so much so she wondered if there was something terribly odd about her body.

  “Is something wrong?”

  “No,” Kade said, his voice thick with a need she did not entirely understand. “Nothing is wrong.” He let the showerhead drift lower to the place where her thighs met and the water drummed over the sleek violet down clinging to Sierra’s womanhood. The sensation started a swirling of excitement and prompted her to part her thighs.

  “Here,” Kade said. “Let me clean you.”

  She handed him the soap, but he did not use it. He handed her the showerhead to use as she pleased and took hold of a lotion at the side of the bath and applied it to his fingers. Sierra watched as he lowered his fingers to her pussy and began applying the lotion gently.

  Sierra had never been so intimately handled before, but she surrendered to the experience as Kade’s fingers began to smooth between her thighs, gently rubbing lotion into the lips of her pussy. Sierra drew in a deep breath as his fingers drifted lower still, swirling around the entrance of her body where she was wet without any kind of water at all. A moment later his hand rose over the mound of her pussy and slid all the way up between her breasts, massaging one and then the other with lubricated strokes of his palm.

  The massage made Sierra fall into a deep state of relaxation, her thighs parted wide, her body open to him as he gently and tenderly stimulated every part of her, his hand sweeping over her with a possessive touch that she allowed because it made her feel so very good.

  When his wandering palm returned between her legs, he began to tease her pussy with very light touches, using the lotion and her own wetness to delicately trace the lines of her lips and swirl around the hard bud of her clit until she let out a series of whimpering moans begging for more.

  “Patience, pet,” Kade chuckled.

  The straining need between her thighs would not allow her to be patient easily. She lifted her hips, sliding around in the bath as she writhed beneath his fingers, water coursing over her breasts and thighs and yes, her pussy too as Kade reclaimed the showerhead and directed it just above her clit whilst his fingers went back to swirl at the opening of her body, occasionally pressing the tip of his middle finger inside her the littlest bit, promising her more than he seemed inclined to deliver.

  “More,” she moaned, spreading her thighs as far as they would go. “Please…”

  “Sierra,” Kade purred, looking down at her with his masterful aquamarine gaze. “You are just perfect,” he said as he let his finger finally penetrate her all the way to the base of his middle digit. Her cunt clenched hard around him, bearing down against his finger with inexorable need as he curled his palm around to press against her pubic bone.

  A second finger soon joined the first and then she was grinding her hips against his hand as he slowly let those two hard intrusions drift in and out of her pussy. He seemed to be enjoying her need, keeping her perpetually on the edge of a more satisfying touch.

  “Have you been mated before, Sierra?”

  She moaned as she nodded. “I went through the ritual of womanhood when I was eighteen,” she said, as he buried his fingers deep inside and held her in place by pressing his hand down against her pubic bone in a way that stimulated as it stilled.

  “And what did that involve?”

  “I chose three men from the village and they pleasured me,” Sierra said. “I took each of them several times over until I was sated.”

  “Three men,” Kade smiled. “So you enjoy being shared, Sierra?”

  “Shared? If I eat two pieces of meat, am I being shared by that meat?”

  Kade looked at her askance for a second, then chuckled loudly as his hand began to once more thrust against her pussy, his fingers curling up against the upper wall of her pussy as his palm slapped against her outer lips, spanking her as she was fucked.

  It was what Sierra had been waiting for since he had first laid fingers upon her. Her climax burst upon her like a supernova, hurtling sensation to every part of her body as her limbs convulsed and her mouth opened in a cry of pleasure unrestrained by any notion of propriety. She claimed every bit of pleasure greedily, her lower muscles locking tight as the last vestiges of the orgasm faded, leaving her sated and warm under the shower’s flow.

  Chapter Three

  “Why are you not a pet?”

  Sierra nailed Kade with the question during breakfast. Three days had passed since her arrival and she was beginning to feel settled very quickly. Her intimate interludes with Kade had accelerated that process. She fancied that perhaps soon they might mate as man and woman and then she would fulfill the reason she left her village in the first place. He had certainly shown no reluctance to be sexual with her, though she was yet to see him naked—and yet to claim his flesh inside her.

  “Why am I not a pet?” Kade repeated the question.

  “You are wild, like me, aren’t you?”

  “My mother was wild,” Kade replied. “My father was a citizen. That makes me a citizen.”

  “If you had been a girl? Would you have been a pet?”

  “Only wild women are kept as pets,” he said, handing her a cooked sausage.

  “Only wild women? Not citizen women? Have citizen women ever been taken as pets?”

&
nbsp; “A citizen woman becomes a wife and submits to her husband,” Kade informed her as she devoured her food.

  “Not from what I have seen,” Sierra said. “The citizen’s wife was always telling him what to do, and he would do it. If he did not, she would shriek and throw things.”

  “He spoiled his wife and neglected his pet,” Master Kade said. “He is not worthy of the title of man.”

  Sierra grinned playfully. “Will you be taking his wife as well?”

  “No,” Master Kade chuckled. “His wife is his concern. You are mine.”

  The gravel in his tone and the look in his eye sent an excited shiver coursing through Sierra. Master Kade was the most exciting man she had ever met. Of course she had known others in the village, but those were the men she had always known and though they were suitable for recreational intimacy, none had been deserving of the title mate.

  “I concern you?” She snatched a sausage from his plate, earning herself a warning look.

  “No,” he smiled. “You please me.”

  She still didn’t quite believe him. The mirror had revealed a slightly more palatable reflection, but her hair was still a mess and she couldn’t help but notice how gaunt she looked. She felt like a shadow of herself.

  “I need to do something with my hair,” she announced, rubbing her ever greasy locks. No amount of washing seemed to clean it properly; it remained tangled and messy no matter what she did.

  Once she had brushed it daily and braided it and fastened the braids with beads, one running down each side of her head just in front of her ears. Two thicker braids had run from just above her ears around the back of her head, falling softly onto her shoulders from behind. The style had kept most of her hair out of her eyes and made it less likely to tangle on bushes and brambles when she was hunting. Now it was an untamed mass of locks and matted tangles, devoid of any kind of shine.