A Slave to the Servants Ch. 24-1

The General and his Brothers were morose as they sat staring into the fire. The responsibility of caring for the compound must be enormous. Secretly, I was glad Damien would not know the same stress.

My family assured the General they would find the bandits, but the General did not look convinced. Eventually he roused out of his thoughts long enough to excuse my men to go upstairs. We left his dwelling quickly and politely.

Outside the main yard was quiet. There as almost no one around. I assumed the men were either running the extra patrols or already in bed. We walked quickly back to the transport we had arrived on.

No one had touched the bags we had laid beside the transport. Several had toppled over, so we had to pick up our things. One bag had several stones the men had brought to the cabin to play betting games. No one had even touched those. We just picked everything up and took it to our rooms.

"Thieving is not honorable," Evan explained as we unpacked the bags in our rooms once we made it upstairs. "All men are trained to the code of conduct that is acceptable."

I told them about Earth and how prevalent stealing was. Christof was interested so I talked to him about how stealing was punished, namely, jail and prison. My uncles had spent time in the prison down the interstate, so I described that one in detail.

There was no time for going to the bathhouse tonight, so my men took a perfunctory shower in their quarters. I still took the opportunity to bathe Damien. His Brothers teased him lightly as he relaxed under my hands.

I continued to tell them about the way showers worked in jail and prison, since we'd been discussing that. My uncles had drunkenly told me the horrible things that happened in the showers, so I shared it all. Male on male sex utterly confused Damien's family and the idea of violent rape offended them. What I described to them sounded completely uncontrolled.

"Earth sounds like a horrible place," Kein commented motioning me onto the bed. "It is better you are here."

The men all agreed with that statement, but thankfully did not ask my opinion. While I loved them all dearly, the idea that I was nothing more than Nu-reeh's breeding bitch made me unbearably sad. They would not understand that given the opportunity I would absolutely go back to Earth.

The men went right to sleep when they laid down. I'd long since gotten over my jealousy that they could do that. When they were here in the compound and safe, they all fell asleep the moment they got comfortable.

I was comfortable, but lay staring out the window and thinking of Hannah. Stroking my belly, I wondered if a new life was growing inside of me. On Earth I knew that getting pregnant was an odds game. If the same logic applied here, I'd been bursting with male seed for five solid days. Given those chances another Hannah would be on the way shortly.

When I finally drifted to sleep it was as I sorted through strong baby names in my head. I prayed the name I gave her would be strong enough to help her survive. It was all I could do for a daughter.

I woke once that first night back. Images of Damien's threatening face above my burning body filled my mind. Screaming and scuttling off the bed I backed out of the bedroom.

The rooms were dark and my dream still had hold of me. I tripped on the furniture in a vain attempt to escape the men chasing me in my mind. The real Evan blocked my way and I screamed, while backing up into Bane. Further movement was limited by Bane's strong arms holding me to his chest. I struggled futilely against his grasp and only succeeded in waking myself up.

Kein was moving rapidly around the main room lighting lamps. He looked concerned as he stopped to face me. In fact, everyone looked concerned. Christof stepped past Evan and I flinched involuntarily, begging him not to hurt me. No one moved for a moment after that.

My brain started to work fully and I realized what I'd done. I'd had a nightmare about my family and then I'd literally run from them. Explaining to them the basis of that fear would be impossible and I didn't want to try. There was no reason to remember that terrible night anymore than I had to.

"I'm so sorry," I said in a shaking voice. "It's been a stressful several day cycles. I had a bad dream. May I have a drink of water before we go back to bed?"

Bane's hands loosened on me and one lay over my heart; it was pounding in my chest.

"What thought made you so upset?" Christof asked softly. "Your heart is beating much too fast."

I shook my head and pleaded with my eyes. "I don't want to talk about it and relive it. It was a bad dream. I will feel much better in the morning."

Christof appeared curious, but Evan laid a hand on his arm. I had asked not to talk about it. Forcing me to say whatever I had thought of would be wrong, since I had asked not to. Kein agreed with Evan.

Damien took a small pitcher of sweet water from the cupboard and let me have a drink. I murmured my thanks and moved shakily back to the bedchamber. My family joined me after the lamps had all been extinguished in the main room. I felt it took all of us a long time to fall back sleep after my little escapade.