The Alien King’s Pet by Loki Renard

14The Prodigal Brat

“Dominax.”

“Not now, Darma. Konan just landed. And you know he hates to be ignored. There is no greater insult in his culture…”

“DOMINAX.”

Dominax turned around to face his younger brother, and stared.

“Is that…?”

“I found your human,” Darma said. “She’s sick.”

She was more than sick. She was passed out in Darma’s arms. Dominax hardly recognized the scrap of humanity, dressed in rags, hair matted, a foul odor emitting from he didn’t want to know where.

“What has happened to her?”

“She went feral,” Darma said. “She's been surviving by scavenging on the streets, running from the law, evading all your scouts and spies.”

“How did you… it doesn’t matter,” Dominax said, overwhelmed with relief. He came forward and took Katie from his brother’s arms. He had dreamed of holding her again, but not like this. She had lost weight. Her cheeks were sunken, and her hair looked dull. The streets had not treated her well.

He couldn’t believe that she had actually been found after all this time. He had been on the verge of losing hope, though not even close to giving up. He was ready to tear the entire universe to pieces if it meant finding her. But that was no longer necessary. She was lying insensate in his brother’s arms, a delicate human flower wilting before his very eyes.

“You’re going to need to abduct a human doctor,” Darma said. “She’s been sick for weeks.”

Dominax’s head snapped up, his black eyes narrowing. “How would you know that?”

“That’s what she told me. I found her in one of the transition pods. You know, the ones aliens use when they’re just staying for a few days? Down by the docks?”

“She’s been living down at the docks. Like a scavenging rat?”

“Well, yes.”

“Give her to me and call the royal physician.”

He extended his arms, and was thrilled to feel her weight in them as Darma relinquished his prize.

“I owe you a great debt,” he told his brother.

“Oh, I know,” Darma replied. “I’m going to find the doctor. You might want to get her in a bath. She smells. Bad.”

Dominax didn’t care that she smelled. He was just so relieved to have her in his arms again. Even in her sickened state, she was beautiful. He knew she didn’t understand, but he had truly committed himself to her as her owner the moment he put the collar around her neck. It was still there, he noticed. Nothing else was familiar. She was wearing a pink and green sort of attire, which looked like a suit cut into a skirt. She must have made it herself.

“Come, pet,” he murmured to her insensate form. “We will get you cleaned up, and you will feel so much better.”

She didn’t respond, which was concerning, but he didn’t know how to heal her. He could clean her and take care of her as best he could. And he could try to make sure she never felt the need to flee him again.

Dominax had been thinking about Darma’s rant ever since it had happened. Most of it could be put down to a tantrum being thrown by a young prince, but some of it rang true. He had never tried to make his pet happy. He had simply told her that she would be happy.

He ran a bath and carefully undressed his pet. Her body was still beautiful, but it bore the marks of the harshness of her existence as a free beast.

“The doctor is on his way,” Darma said, appearing in the bathing chamber.

“Good. Tell me everything about how you found her. Someone must have been helping her. I want to know who kept her from me all this time.”

“Uh, yeah. I don’t know. I think she did most of it on her own. She’s pretty smart.”

Dominax carefully lowered Katie into the water and watched as the filth of the city floated free from her body.

“I am going to make you feel so much better, pet,” he told her. “You’re never going to be sick again.”

He knew he was promising something it wasn’t possible to promise, but he was overwhelmed with the need to do something, change something, make something better for this vulnerable human who had put herself through so much in the attempt to escape his, well, tyranny.

She was warm. So warm, and so cozy.

She felt water lapping around her body, playing against her ears. She felt a strong arm beneath her head and shoulders, keeping her face up out of the water, and another hand gently maneuvering a cloth around her body.

Katie didn’t want to open her eyes and ruin the moment. She could feel the care being given to her like a warm glow all around her. For a long series of very deliberate moments, she avoided thinking about who was doing this to her — though on a biological level, she knew.

She could smell him. She could feel his strength. And she wasn’t afraid. Instead, she felt safe. She felt as though she was being protected from the worst of the world, from her own failings and weaknesses.

But she couldn’t open her eyes, because the moment she did, she was going to have to face the king. And she didn’t want that.

So she laid there in Dominax’s arms and let him take care of her in the most basic and intimate of ways, ways she had barely been able to take care of herself.

“Wake up, pet," Dominax murmured gently.

There was no way she was going to ‘wake up’. She was enjoying being in his embrace, but she was not enjoying anticipating everything she’d have to deal with once he knew she was conscious.

Dominax lifted her from the bath and placed her, soaking wet, on a nearby couch.

“Watch her, brother,” he said to someone she couldn’t see. “I am going to get a towel.”

“Of course.”

She knew that fucking voice. She opened her eyes immediately and glared at the Homelander who had betrayed her.

“Darma. What the fuck!? You turned me in?”

“You needed medical treatment,” Darma hissed under his breath. “And he needed you back. You were going to kill yourself out there for no reason other than to spite the king.”

“You’re his brother! His brother! You could have mentioned that.”

“You would have hated me for it.”

“Probably. I hate you now. You dragged me back here. That’s fucked.”

“No. What is fucked is dying in a ditch because you’re too proud to go back to the king you love, and the palace you can live in.”

“Who said I love Dominax?”

Darma gave her a dour look. “You refused to leave the city. And you were always almost getting caught. You stayed just to be a thorn in his side. You wouldn’t have done that if you didn’t care about him. You would have sneaked onto a ship and been gone weeks ago.”

“Care isn't the same as love.” She struggled to sit up. “And I don’t care about him either.”

“Sure. You get free of the evil king who stole you and then make absolutely no attempt at actual escape from his evil realm. That makes a lot of sense.”

“Shut up.”

“You can both shut up,” Dominax said, walking into the room with a towel over his shoulder. He was shirtless and broad shouldered, handsome, and winged. He was everything she was just getting done swearing she didn’t want, and she was so inexplicably happy to see him.

“I am glad to see you again, pet,” he said. “Even if you were so filthy it looked as though you didn’t bathe the entire time you were out of my care.”

“I washed myself with moist towelettes,” she protested.

“Oh my…” Dominax sighed. “Pet. Why did you leave?”

“You know why. You beat me, and your guard helped me run away.”

“You taunted me into giving you that beating. You practically begged for it. I think you enjoyed it. You were wet. Even wetter than you are now.”

She made a growling noise of denial, but the truth was that it was hard for her to maintain a facade of annoyance and reluctance when she was actually more comfortable than she had been in weeks.

She had wondered what would happen if he ever found her. This was not what she had imagined. She had expected pain, and a lot of it. She had assumed that she would be chased down and dragged back against her will. She never imagined that she’d just pass out and wake up back in his care, being bathed gently and now dried by the king himself.

Darma was still there, watching her. She was not happy with him.

“Well, Darma knew what was happening with me. He found me the very first day I escaped.”

A gasp came from Darma, as Dominax’s face took on an expression of pure fury.

“You KNEW where she WAS!?”

“I…”

“Get out of my sight, Darma,” he growled. “You little bastard. You will suffer for this. You will never have another lover again, that I vow. I will have you made eunuch…”

“Okay. So you’re not in the best mood, but I kept her safe.”

“This is not safe. She’s seriously ill. You kept the truth from me. You…. Get out. Now.”