Chapter 6

Despite my recent release and the agony pulsing through my side, my cock rises at the challenge in her glare. I lean down, brace my forearm on the wall behind her, and cup the side of her face. The softness of her swollen lips as I brush my thumb along the seam tests my control.

“Such a good little kitten. I was hoping you’d give me a reason to bend you over the bench, but it looks like we’ll have to save it for later,” I tease.

She scowls. I misinterpret her anger just to enjoy her deepening frustration.

“Don’t worry, pet. We will enjoy the bench, just not today.”

I dip the tip of my thumb between her lips, but she keeps her teeth clamped together. I chuckle and pull her bottom lip down until it springs back into place.

Her stomach rumbles. I quirk a brow. She shakes her head and hunches deeper into her towel. Her dainty toes peek out the bottom.

“We may use the bench today after all, just not how I originally planned. Are you that hungry for my seed, kitten? Ready for round two?”

I slide my hand from her face to her hair. She grinds her teeth and closes her eyes, denying me access to her gorgeous blue orbs. I growl and tug her hair.

She opens her eyes. Her pupils dilate as a flush darkens her face, and her nostrils flare and she curls her toes against the bench. When she blinks a few times before regaining her focus, I smirk in satisfaction.

All it took to tip my feral kitten into estrous was one belly full of seed.

I scoop her up into a cradle carry and yank the towel away from her before dropping it on the bench and exiting the washroom.

When she aims her heel at my injured side, I pretend to drop her.

The crazy bitch doesn’t even try to stop her fall. Instead, she lands a solid elbow jab to my solar plexus and twists in midair. I snatch her to my chest before settling into the room’s only chair.

She hisses and tries to roll away, but I pin her back to my front and spread her knees with mine. Unable to resist temptation, I palm her breast and dip my fingers between her legs. The wetness coating her folds pulls a groan from my chest.

She buries her nails into my oozing forearms and trembles on my lap. I tilt my hips and growl as her ass pillows around my knot.

“You have two options, kitten. Food or seed?” I whisper against her temple.

Her curvy body, stretched taught over mine, flushes as she suffers another wave of hormones. The sweet perfume of her slick thickens in the air. My gums ache and I long to sink my teeth into her flesh, but her stomach rumbles again.

“I’ll eat only after my brothers get their fill.”

Her stubbornness knows no bounds. Jealousy grips me. I circle my finger around her clit and lick her temple as I pluck her nipple.

“Think carefully, kitten. Can you survive my rutting with only my seed in your belly?”

She tightens her grip.

“No, I won’t.”

The spite in her tone shouldn’t shock me after all the stunts she’s pulled, but her answer trumps my expectations yet again. After a moment of warring within myself, I chuckle and slide three fingers lower down her cunt to tease along her slick folds.

“Your brothers will earn their food,” I growl against her temple.

She stiffens in anger.

“Enjoy me for a day or two, then. Will you fuck my corpse? My father didn’t molest my mother’s body, but—”

I flip her face down over my lap and slap her ass until her flesh reddens. She squirms and scratches at my leg and the floor, but doesn’t cry out even when my palm stings from the impact. I hit her harder.

She finally breaks.

I flip her over and cradle her to my chest. Although tears stream down her face and her chest wrenches with sobs, she refuses to curl into me, hiding her face with her hands and leaning away.

I snarl, open the icebox, and move the full tray to the table before slamming the door closed. Deciding she needs protein the most, I tear off a strip of chicken and peel her hand away from her face just enough to cram the morsel into her mouth. When she tries to spit it out, I plaster my palm over her lips and curl my other arm around the back of her head.

“Chew and swallow, or I’ll toss your brothers overboard,” I snarl.

She hiccups and glares at me before exaggerating the movement of her jaw. Fresh tears slip from her lashes, but she drops her hands into her lap without trying to wipe them away.

With her reluctant obedience and silent disapproval, she fillets my soul into slices so thin they’re transparent. She doesn’t need a knife to destroy me.

Instead of victory, she serves me misery. I yearn for things I cannot name.

When she swallows, I pry her mouth open and check she actually ate it before reaching for another bite.

“Every living thing requires food. My brothers shouldn’t have to earn theirs. No child should.”

Her voice breaks on the last word, revealing more than she intends. Long buried memories resurface.

My parents gave me their best. They carved out their own place in this brutal world and did their utmost to ensure I grew to my full potential.

My kitten’s father stole that pampered life from me.

But he did worse to her. She never had the security of protective parents. Her mother may have tried, but her father tormented them both. The pain shining from her eyes tells of long, hungry nights and constant fear.

When he murdered her mother, she had no choice but to become the buffer between her brothers and the egotistical, hateful male.

The fear, disgust, and desperation lurking in her glare twists my guts.

Not because I can’t handle her hatred, but because I know she compares me to her father. I replaced him. This is my fault.

I break another piece of chicken free and ferry it to her lips. She doesn’t open.

“For every bite you take, I will serve each of your brothers two.” Her brows scrunch in disbelief. “You will earn their food for them, kitten. If you don’t eat, neither do they.”

After a moment of studying my face, she opens her mouth and accepts the morsel.

“The same type of food, too. No gruel, unless they’re sick or that’s what I’m eating,” she says as she chews.

Pride slithers into my chest. I shove another bite into her mouth, even though she still chews the first.

“Our flock will never expand. Let’s hope the birds like fucking as much as I do,” I mumble as I tear off another chunk of meat.

The heat of her abused ass seeps into my trapped cock. Without conscious thought, I draw my fingertips over her hip and wipe her tears away with my thumb after feeding her the next bite. Her brows rise and she eyes my hand as one would a predator.

Which only heightens my need and increases my anticipation.

I lean over and fill a battered tin cup with water from the faucet. The cutest expression flits across her face as she watches me bring the cup to her lips. When she leans forward to check the liquid, I sneak my other hand around her hip and into her lap to tease the mound of flesh above her clit.

“It’s purified water. All except the bottom two levels of the ship have working plumbing.”

If my tone comes across as gloating, it’s because I am. I spilt over a decade’s worth of blood, sweat, and other unmentionable bodily fluids—both mine and others’—to create order in an otherwise chaotic world.

The stunned look on her face as she struggles to process my words strokes my ego. I shove a piece of fruit in her mouth before I fall too far into her shimmery blue orbs.

Her small sound of pleasure sends a fresh wave of desire down my shaft. I rub my tip through the escaped wetness, coating her hip with my precum, and sink into instincts.

She remains stiff in my lap for several minutes, but as I feed her from my hand, she loses her rigidness. Her reluctance makes her submission all the sweeter. I savor her slow descent into relaxation as I fill her with the nutrients she’ll need to survive the trials to come.

After four full cups of water and clearing half the tray, she hesitates before accepting another bite.

I push the tray away and rise with her in my arms, knowing she’ll push herself too far and make herself sick, just to ensure her brothers have an abundance of calories. She hisses and reaches toward the table, but I stride across the room and kick open the door to the sleeping quarters.

I smirk as she stiffens in my arms.