My best friend Looked at me critically and looked at his Brothers. He found the agreement he needed to continue.

“You do not belong to yourself," he stated with finality.

“You do not belong to us, but you have been left in our care for safekeeping."

I screamed in my throat and wailed at him. He wiped my nose and the spit from around the gag before he continued.

“It is not what you want. It is not what we want, but it is what will be. You belong to Nu-reeh. She does not want you hurt. You are not permitted to harm your flesh. We believe you will fight the coupling to produce Nu-reeh's next child-"

I made an unintelligible yell that could easily be interpreted as a yes. He ignored it.

“We will not tell you when you are fertile, but we will know and you will breed."

I started to struggle in his lap and he watched me with cool eyes. "You told me once that I may not get what I wanted, but what I had was worth something. I still believe that is true.”

I remembered the clearing. At the time it had seemed true. Now I wasn't so sure. Christof continued to talk.

“This is not the life you would choose, but it is worth living. I know that you care for us. You must make that the priority in your mind as you told me to make my Brothers my priority."

“We will look for a way to escape," Kein said quietly, “you have to give us time and we will try to find a way out.”

It was frustrating to have this conversation bound and gagged. I wanted to scream and argue. I knew the truth, though. Thinking about it calmed my struggles almost immediately.

What I wanted did not matter. What I thought about this was of no consequence. Nu-reeh had said to breed me or she would take me to someone who would. We were all her slaves and we had been given a direct order. As added incentive, we had been told the repercussions if we were not successful.

"It is good we were prepared for this," Kein said tapping his mouth, indicating the protective gag.

“When she was our...slave we never needed these things. I am glad we kept them."

“Mostly prepared,“ Bane said crossing his arms and looking into the closet darkly.

The internal conversation was heated for a moment and I felt Christof stiffen beneath me.

I lay my head on Christof's shoulder and let my forehead fall on his neck. He allowed me to snuggle against him as he spoke to his Brothers. I relished the small comfort.

“Ryan and his Brothers work with Fredrick," he said stroking my arm, “they make the collars and cuffs the slaves wear."

“Ciara can't open those!" Evan said standing and Looking victorious. The sarcastic part of my brain thought about all the fun things I could say if they were allowing me to talk. The rest of me wanted to know what I wasn't allowed to open.

Evan changed in a flash into his street wear. He came out of the closet armed and dressed. The large curved sword at his waist got my attention.

I remembered the knives Christof usually carried in the small of his back. I could end my fertility with one of those. A few good pokes and I would be unusable for this purpose. Rose hadn't died, only been rendered unable to bear young. I wondered if I could do that, too.