To Tame a Slave

Hi guys! As usual, I'm way later with this than I wanted to be. Ugh. My muse has just absolutely hated me. I also wanted this to be longer, but I reached a good end point.

I'm sorry, this chapter is a bit slow, and I feel bad that I still haven't written an actual sex scene, but gah. I hope you guys enjoy what I did get in this one.

I promise, the next chapter will be more fast paced with fun characters and plot stuff and more sexy times. And as always, your comments are seriously what drive me, every time I start to doubt that my story is actually any good. So thank you so much guys.

*****

The ride from the city was silent and went without a hitch. Though honestly, I probably wouldn't have noticed if anything had actually happened, being as wrapped up in my thoughts as I was. Why the fuck did I call him Sir? It had to be because of the dream. Flirting and playing with him was one thing, but Sir denotes, I don't know, a relationship or something. I mean yeah, I could feel us becoming friends. It was hard not to with that weird connection we had.

But what the fuck? He owned me. You kind of needed to be on equal footing for a relationship to be established. Especially in any sort of D/s thing. I mean, how can I give over control of myself, if I have no control to give?

In the end, it was my stomach that dragged me from my thoughts and back into the world. We'd left too early to eat breakfast, so my stomach was now attempting to chew on itself.

"Hey Drell, when are we going to stop and eat?" I asked, shifting in the saddle, realizing that my ass had started to fall asleep.

"We'll stop at noon," he snapped, "so you'll just have to deal until then." My back stiffened at his tone. The fuck had I done to get snapped at?

I twisted slightly so that I could glare up at him. "The fuck? You could have just fucking told me that, instead of chewing my fucking head off."

He met my glare with one of his own, the arm around my waist squeezing almost painfully. "For once in your life Alanna, shut the fuck up. I don't feel like dealing with your mouth right now."

I gaped at him, shocked. He'd snapped at me before, but I'd usually done something to get his temper up. And he'd never talked to me quite like that. Temper skyrocketing, I squirmed and struggled against him.

"Let go, put me down, I'll fucking walk," I yelled, grabbing his arm and trying to rip it off my waist while pulling one of my legs up, determined to fling myself from the horse.

He swore, stopping the horse and releasing me, allowing me to tumble to the ground. I winced, winded slightly by the hard fall. Before I could get my bearings and push to my feet, I was being dragged up roughly by one arm. Once up he released it, flinging it at me and nearly knocking me over again. We stood toe to toe, glaring at each other.

"You are going to shut the fuck up, get back up on that horse, and sit there calmly until we get to Alcina's-"

"Or what?" I snapped, shoving him.

"Or I'll gag you, hogtie you, and drag you with a fucking rope behind us!" He roared, grabbing me by the shirt and dragging me up until my toes were just barely touching the ground.

"You fucking dick!" I screamed, pounding his chest with my fists and kicking at his shins. Somewhere amidst the flailing, I managed to land a hit to his jaw and he dropped me. I stumbled, falling flat to my ass. "What the fuck is your fucking problem today? Why don't you get that stick out of your ass and beat yourself with it!"

"Why can't you just keep your fucking mouth shut for five minutes?" He snapped, stalking towards me again as I scrambled to my feet. Despite my desire to stand firm in front of him, I couldn't help but stumble backwards as his hard body brushed against me. A gasp escaped as my back suddenly connected with a tree.

His hands slammed to the tree on either side of me, pinning me there as his face loomed before mine. We stayed that way for a long moment, eyes locked, glaring at each other. And then his eyes dipped down, catching on my lips.

I scowled. "Don't you fucking thi- mmf!" His kiss halted me mid word, tongue delving between my lips to plunder my mouth, demanding my response. Despite my anger, I couldn't help but give it, my arms wrapping around his shoulders, tongue tangling with his. He growled, breaking the kiss for a moment to bend down and grab my thighs, hoisting me up and wrapping my legs around his hips.

My startled squeak was smothered by his lips, and my senses were overwhelmed. His body surrounded me, keeping me pinned to the tree, helpless before him. I didn't feel helpless though. Our lips met as equals, our kiss a give and take, unlike the ones I'd shared with Anthony.

I ground my hips against his, feeling his hard length pressed against me through his pants, and earned a low groan. It was quickly followed by my own gasp, as his hands shifted around to my ass, using it as a handhold to grind himself against me harder. We writhed against that tree, lost in our pleasure, in the intoxicating need that always sprung up when we touched.

Finally, breathless, he pulled back. I stared up at him through glazed eyes, letting my head fall against the tree, struggling to calm my racing heart. When I could finally think again I glared at him, my hands going from clinging to shoving.

"You're an ass," I snapped, shoving until he finally let my feet drop back to the ground. His hands stayed on my hips though, keeping me pinned despite how much I squirmed.

"I'm sorry Alanna," he said, an apologetic look on his face. All of my squirming stopped at once as I stared up at him in shock. "I shouldn't have snapped at you. I'm kind of struggling with something right now, and it's pissing me off, but I shouldn't have taken it out on you."

His apology stole the wind from my sails, and all I could do was stare up at him in shock. "Yeah, well, y-you should be sorry. Asshole." My anger had dissipated almost as quickly as it appeared, though it left me still grumpy.

He grinned, leaning down to kiss my forehead, making my face flush. "It's probably almost noon, we can stop and eat lunch here." And with that he released me and ambled back towards the horse, leaving me still staring at him in shock.

--

We finished lunch and were back moving fairly quickly. My mind drifted back to Anthony and the dream and the implications of calling him Sir. Thoughts of Drell and that kiss kept slipping in and distracting me, and I wasn't sure if I was more thankful or more annoyed. He was an asshole with a loud mouth and a temper as bad as mine, who couldn't for the life of him keep his hands to himself. But his touch created the same intense desire as Anthony's.

Speaking of roaming hands, I finally noticed one of his creeping up my shirt as his fingertips brushed the underside of my breast. I gasped, twisting slightly to glare up at him, my hands wrapping around his wrist.

"What the fuck do you think you're doing?" I snapped, his answering grin pissing me off even more.

"I'm groping you, what's it look like I'm doing?" He laughed, my small hands doing nothing to stop his progress, until he was cupping my breast. The touch made me tremble, his rough hand abrading my soft skin in the best of ways.

"Yes, I got that, but why?"

He laughed again, giving me a look as if I was stupid. "What kind of question is that?"

I let out a frustrated cry, squirming in his grip, which got me absolutely nowhere. After a bit I finally settled down, grumbling. At least his hand was just sitting there, not moving. And then it was, a calloused thumb brushing across my nipple and making me gasp.

"Stop that!" I yelled, trying to shove his hand away again.

"No," was his response, seemingly very amused. "I'm trying to distract you from being mad at me."

"Well it's not fucking working!"

"I'll just have to try harder then," he murmured in my ear before nipping it, sending a shiver down my spine. As I began to protest, his thumb brushed across my nipple again, and I just barely bit down a whimper.

His gentle teasing went on for what seemed like forever, his fingers tweaking and rolling my nipple every time I started to grumble at him, until I was squirming in the saddle and my breathing was rough.

At some point, my temper began to ebb, as I was unable to hang on to it for quite so long. By the time we stopped for the night in a small clearing, I was only very mildly grumpy, having finally accepted his apology.

I quietly watched him build a fire and start dinner, a blanket wrapped around myself to fend off the evening chill. He glanced up at me occasionally, a thoughtful look in his eyes, but it wasn't until we were both settled with food that he finally spoke.

"You're awfully quiet," he said, sitting next to me.

"I could say the same for you," I grumbled with no real heat in my voice. I caught his wide grin out of the corner of my eye and forced myself to focus on the bowl in my lap. There was another long silence, this one slightly awkward.

"We'll be back on the road tomorrow, and stay at an inn tomorrow night. We would have tonight but I wanted to be slightly farther from the city before mingling with people again. I hope you don't mind," he explained.

I shivered slightly despite the blanket and fire, and shrugged. "Not really. I'm a little worried about it myself. How do you think things are going there?" My mind flashed to Anthony, and I chewed on my lip, worried.

Seeing my shiver, Drell removed the empty bowl from my hands and scooped me up, settling me in his lap. I glared at him briefly, though I was grateful for the added heat.

"I'm sure Anthony's fine," he reassured me, making me blush at the knowledge that he'd caught my train of thought. I tucked my head under his chin, both to get closer to his warmth and to avoid his eyes. His chest shook with soft laughter. We were quiet again for a while, both of us lost in our thoughts, but it was a comfortable silence this time.

An idea popping into my head, I shifted anxiously. "Hey Drell?" He made a questioning noise, and I very tentatively continued. "Do you ever get, like, weird dreams?" My face flushed as I asked, realizing my question sounded kind of dumb.

"What kind of weird dreams do you mean? I think everyone gets weird dreams from time to time." He sounded confused, and I shifted anxiously again, unsure if I really wanted to continue with this line of thought.

Deciding against it, I shook my head. "Nevermind, it's not important."

He pulled me away slightly so that he could meet my eyes with a frown. "No, obviously it is important, otherwise you wouldn't have brought it up, let alone to me." My face flushed again.

"Well, I mean, do you ever have dreams where, like, the deities talk to you?" I shifted, staring at my hands twisting together in my lap. "Or ones that feel more like memories than dreams, except they're not your memories?"

"No," he began slowly, "I don't think so. You're right, those do sound like strange dreams. Why do you ask? Have you been having dreams like that?"

I took a long moment before responding with a short, jerky nod. His hand ran through my hair and I absently leaned into it. "They make me nervous. Like there's more going on than I can actually see, like... someone's playing games."

"Do you want to talk about them? Maybe I can help you pick them apart?"

It would be nice to talk to someone about them, especially someone who was actually from this world. But Drell? Could I talk to him? Hell, did I even want to talk to him? He was so... infuriating. I always felt so strangely comfortable with him though. Maybe that was connected to everything too. After deliberating for a, very, long moment, I finally nodded again.

"Okay, how about you start with the deity dream?" I could hear the pleased smile in his voice, but I didn't call him on it, too happy to have someone to talk to about it.

I paused for a moment, trying to figure out how best to explain it to him. "Well, when it starts I'm, like, surrounded by black. It doesn't feel like a room and I can see myself fine, but I can feel some sort of floor under my feet. And I hear this voice, telling me not to forget. Not to forget wh-who I am." I paused, realizing how crazy this sounded, but he nodded at me to continue.

"So I turn, and I see this girl and she's got like this super white hair and pitch black skin, and she kind of reminds me of a ghost almost." The image of her passed through my mind, and it gave me slight chills. "Anyways, I ask her who she is, and what I'm supposed to remember. So she says her name is Fate, and that she can't tell me who I am, I have to remember.

"And then she disappears and I'm just kind of left there in that blackness until I wake up." Finished, I closed my eyes, once again realizing how crazy it all sounded. Forcing myself to open my eyes and look up at Drell, I was startled to see how thoughtful he looked.

"It sounds like," he started, his voice unsure, "Fate is fucking with you." I rolled my eyes. I could have told him that. "But it also sounds like maybe she wants you to remember who you were in a previous life?"

I jerked backwards slightly, startled. "What?"

His face was serious, fingers massaging the back of my head as if to calm me down. "When people die, their souls move on to Death's realm. Then they have a choice. They can either choose to stay there, or they can reincarnate. And they can choose do that at any time. So they're reborn, but with no memory of their previous lives."

"So you think maybe that's what happened to me?" I asked. He nodded. "Then maybe those other dreams I have are actually memories of a previous life." The thought brought a mixture of excitement, confusion, and dread, especially as I remembered the one about Anthony's torture. Something occurred to me then. "Okay, but if people lose all of their memories, then why would I be remembering stuff? And why would Fate tell me I need to remember who I am?"

Drell shrugged. "Maybe she's planning something, and you're important to it." I scrunched my face up. I didn't want to be important to anything, I just wanted to survive and eventually get home. "My recommendation is to confront her if you have that dream again. Don't play into it. Call her out and tell her to quit fucking around. Maybe you'll startle her into an actual conversation."

That actually sounded like good advice, and I wasn't sure why I hadn't thought of it before. I smiled thankfully up at him and before I could react, he swooped down to press a soft kiss to my lips. His answering smile was just as gentle, and it made my heart beat faster to see this new side of him.

"Do you want to talk about the other dreams now?"

I thought about it for a long moment before shaking my head. "No, I'd like to think about that for a while first." He smiled and nodded before yawning.

"Alright kitten, then I think it's time for some sleep," he said, setting me carefully on the ground next to him and standing. "You should probably take your jacket off. I can't imagine it's very comfortable to sleep in." I stuck my tongue out at him while his back was turned, mostly to be difficult, before struggling to get out of my jacket while keeping the blanket tucked firmly around myself.

Drell dropped down in front of me while I was focused on that, startling me into squeaking. My face turned red and I glared at him, daring him to laugh. He didn't, though his amused grin was almost as bad, and instead focused on getting my boots off of me. Another flush crossed my cheeks as I looked down at him, trying to reconcile this sweet, almost gentle side of Drell with the asshole I'd known up until now.

He looked up in time to catch my wide eyed confusion, but thankfully didn't comment on it, instead running his hand gently through my hair. Without thinking, I nuzzled into it with a soft sigh, my eyes slipping shut. And then I was up in the air, my arms wrapping around him. For once it wasn't startling. After all, there was no chance I'd be walking across the ground in my socks.

It wasn't until I was being set down that I opened my eyes back up, though I avidly avoided looking at him. He dropped down beside me and I listened to the sounds of him stripping his boots off. Silently, he wrapped his arm around my waist and tugged me down until he was spooning me from behind. His arm stayed wrapped around my waist, not straying anywhere naughty for once.

"Sleep well Alanna," he murmured in my ear, squeezing my waist once and making me tremble. He settled down then and soon after his breathing slowed and deepened. I was highly jealous of his ability to fall asleep so quickly. Stupid dark elf.

I lay there awake for a long time after him, my mind racing. About Drell rather than Anthony this time though. I just couldn't reconcile the two sides I'd seen of him. How could he go from being such a dick to such a sweetheart?

At least he hadn't attempted anything untoward tonight. With as nice as he'd been, I almost would have welcomed his touch for once. And what was with that kiss earlier? I didn't even attempt to resist it! What was with him that my body lit up like a flame when he touched me?

It was similar to what happened when Anthony touched me, that intense, almost primal desire, need. But where my feelings for Anthony were confused, a mixture of frustration at my slavery and those glimpses of memories, that strange knowledge that I knew him, with Drell I simply felt a connection, pure and simple and untainted.

Maybe that's why my resistance was so much more feeble when it came to him. My feelings for him were less conflicted. Granted, I did despise him for selling me as a slave. Even that was starting to fade in my mind though. I had ended up in a safe place, like he'd promised.

Mind still racing, I finally drifted off into a restless sleep.

--

I blinked at the scene before me, realizing almost immediately this time that this was another of those memory type dreams. I was in what looked like a ballroom, surrounded by a bunch of people in fancy clothing. There were a number of different species in the room, some I recognized, some I didn't.

Looking down, I scowled at the sight of the big poofy dress I was wearing. Why always with the dresses?

"You look quite lovely tonight."

The voice came from behind me, startling me. Just barely I managed to bite back a squeak. Spinning, I caught sight of the man who'd spoken. He was a little shorter than Anthony, with pale blonde hair and blue grey eyes.

"My apologies for startling you," he said with a brilliant smile. Something about him instantly put me at ease.

"No need to apologize. My thoughts were wandering so I was paying very little attention." I flashed a wide smile back at him.

"Regardless, my apology stands." He chuckled and the sound was warm, almost making me want to laugh with him. "Tell me, what is a beautiful woman like you doing standing by yourself?"

"My husband is off somewhere, finding us something to drink. The silly man has probably been accosted by someone however, as he's been missing for quite some time. I was just thinking about looking for him." I started, my cheeks flushing slightly. "I'm sorry, I've forgotten to introduce myself. My name is-"

"I know who you are." My eyes widened slightly. "That 'silly' husband of yours has spoken of you at great lengths."

I laughed. "All good things I should hope."

"But of course. He's quite enamored with you." His tone grew amused. "Though he's told many tales of your willfulness."

I resisted the urge to roll my eyes. "I suppose he left out the parts concerning how difficult he can be."

"But of course. I do know him well enough however to have experienced it myself." We shared a laugh before he bowed slightly, saying, "My name is Verone. I must say, it has been quite a pleasure finally getting the chance to meet you."