A Slave to the Servants

Thanks to all who have taken the time to read and vote! My little story ranks up high and I can't tell you how happy that makes me! I'm still shocked people are enjoying it...but it is certainly incentive to write.

A continued thank you to Steve150177 for his pursuit of perfection. He adds clarity and I really appreciate it.

Yes, we're working on not putting in the incorrect, yet correctly spelled, word. We both understand how frustrating that can be to read.

All commentary is welcome whether you liked it or hated it.

English is in italics when it appears

Fair warning - this chapter is all plot (sorry) and no erotica. The erotica is returning in the next chapter - PROMISE.

Enjoy! DW

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"Ciara!" Evan was shaking me awake and Hannah was screaming. "How do you sleep through it? Feed her, change the towel, do something!" he begged.

I was groggy and disoriented as I picked up my wailing daughter.

"I need a fresh towel for her bottom," I told them and Kein rushed out.

Fumbling with my top I pulled out a breast and presented it to her.

"Wet and sticky,

Mama

!" she cried to me, continuing to scream as Kein rushed back in.

I cleaned her and wrapped her bottom in a fresh towel. That quieted her to hiccuping sobs. Once she started to suckle she just concentrated on that.

"We need the towels ready and close at hand," I said as Evan flopped back down. "She wouldn't be so upset if she didn't wait so long."

"Ciara," Damien stated, "we woke when she started to whimper. We tried to wake you, but when she saw us try to touch you she started to scream."

Grimacing, I apologized to them. I was a heavy sleeper. Evidently, I would need to learn to listen for Hannah's sounds.

"I don't understand why she is so upset with you all," I said watching her.

Hannah's eyes met mine and she held my gaze comfortably. She looked sweet and adoring, nothing like the little monster she kept showing to my men.

"Women don't like men, Ciara," Christof informed me. "Haven't you noticed?"

They all found that funny and settled back down.

Once Hannah was done and sleeping, I laid back down. I made up my mind to try to sleep lightly so I would hear her if she needed me.

I woke to her light fussing. I sat upright and picked her up. She didn't even open her eyes before she started to suck on the nipple.

Five men sighed around me at the sound.

"Are you all awake?" I asked quietly.

"Yes," Damien whispered, "we pretended to be asleep when the child started to cry. Evan has been kicking your leg to wake you."

I thought I'd woken up to her fussing, evidently I had not.

"You sleep much too soundly," Evan informed me, rolling to lean on his elbow. "A Warrior wouldn't live long if he slept so deeply."

"I think you all know I was never a Warrior," I laughed. "I cleaned rooms for a living and then I was a sex slave."

I heard Bane stretching and yawning as Kein answered. "You're in a Warrior family now," he informed me.

That surprised me. I had thought with the bond gone our relationship would revert to the way it was. I smiled at my family, as I stroked Hannah.

"We should stand watch," Christof offered, "like when we are searching for a lost man."

Kein took the first watch and sat in a chair at the end of the bed by my feet.

"I can't sleep with you sitting and watching me," I whispered to him while re-bundling Hannah.

He grinned cheekily. "Yes you will, and when the child starts to fuss I will wiggle your foot until you wake up."

It would have been less irritating if their system wasn't so effective. Hannah woke one more time and Bane alerted me before she got too upset. They had switched places and I hadn't even noticed.

I yawned sleepily picking up Hannah. She started to nurse and watched me with wide open eyes.

Since her attention wasn't on them, my men could move around. Evan bounded out of bed.

"Time to get up," he said stretching and grinning.

"Really? Are you sure?" I grumbled shifting Hannah. "I'm exhausted."

"You're always exhausted in the morning," he said cheerfully.

Damien and his Brothers rose as Hannah continued to feed. I looked at them ruefully. Tapping into Evan's excessive morning energy had been better than coffee. I would miss his start of the day excitement.

"That was all you, though, wasn't it?" I asked Hannah as she slurped happily away.

Hannah watched me with bright eyes, but was consumed with her current task.

I wondered privately if she still had access to my men's bond. Perhaps when we were alone I would ask her.

This morning we took a long route to get to breakfast. Damien didn't want me anywhere near the tutors. After seeing my reaction to just hearing about it, he had no desire to see me any closer to it. We took a large detour to avoid them.

Hannah looked at everything as we walked. I just watched her expressive little face take it all in. All was well until we passed a large opening that exited the mountain. Morning sunlight shone in and the sky was a brilliant cloudless purple.

"I want!" she screamed reaching out of her blanket toward the open sky.

"What do you want?" I asked looking out the opening.

"Out,

Mama

, go out," she cried still reaching.

I smiled down at my daughter. This whole world would be hers to explore one day. Evidently, that's the way she was programmed.

"You can't go out there, yet," I told her gently. "Now we are going to eat."

Hannah pouted and squirmed in my arms.

"I ate," Hannah whined, "go out and see the sky. I want see the Scars. I want out,

Mama."

"You will go out soon enough," I soothed. "The whole world will be yours, My Girl."

I looked into her bright grey eyes and knew that while she had my mother's nose and my skin, she was her father's daughter. This girl was Paterian through and through. I wasn't sure if I should be elated or worried about that.

The men in the dining room were fascinated and frightened by my daughter all at once. The entire hall went silent the first time Hannah spoke. In a high clear voice she had told me she wanted to try the green stalks.

"No, Hannah, you don't have teeth, yet," I explained. "You need teeth to chew them."

She whimpered and whined and I sighed as she threw a mini tantrum.

"Bad behavior won't change anything," I explained to her.

Christof was holding me to eat on his lap. The other Brothers seemed leery of eating with me and my daughter. They warned Christof frequently when they felt his arm got too close to Hannah.

"I could kneel...," I whispered to him.

"Not necessary," he whispered back brushing his lips against my cheek. "I like having you close."

Hannah hissed when Christof

kissed

me and I looked crossly down at her.

"Man,

Mama

," she whined loudly.

"One day you will have your own men," I leaned down and whispered to her. "These are my men."

Her brow ruffled and she huffed. Luckily the edge of the blanket got her attention. She pulled at the tight knitting and watched it pop back into place. Playing with the blanket distracted her.

"I like that," Kein said.

My men agreed, but I was confused. There was some internal conversation that had them all happy and satisfied. I looked quizzically at Christof and he grinned at me.

"We are yours, we like that," he said softly into my ear.

"Better not tell Nu-reeh," I whispered to him and he chuckled.

My men were assigned to the sorting room again. They walked me back to our apartments first.

"Be careful walking around," Damien said pacing. "You know where the tutors are, stay away from that place. There are places in the caves where the vertical shafts meet the tunnels, they aren't marked at all. We aren't sure you know where all those are..."

"She shouldn't be allowed to go without us," Evan groused. "Ciara has no sense for danger."

I put Hannah down on a chair and touched Evan's chest. "I wasn't supposed to walk until a little later and I will be very careful. I promise not to go anywhere you all thought was dangerous."

Evan hugged me tight and

kissed

my face. "We will see you at the midday meal," he said. "Perhaps she will let us take you..."

I

kissed

them all good bye and then turned to Hannah. She was a little cranky. I rocked her gently and she dropped off to sleep in my arms. For some reason I wasn't tired anymore, so I laid her in the bed alone.

The apartment was messy, so I cleaned and swept. I was about to start on the bathroom when I was interrupted. An earth shattering wail brought me back to the bedroom.

Hannah was wet and hungry. As I fed her, I realized she was a little stinky. I wondered if they had anything here like

baby wipes

. For all the fantastic things they did have that still seemed doubtful.

"Come on," I told her once she had drained me. "Let's give you a bath."

In the bathroom I pulled off all of our coverings and let water flow into the tub. We wouldn't need much, so I only let it cover the bottom of the pit in a few

inches

of water. I sat Hannah on her bottom in the water and had a startling surprise.

She looked up at me and smiled. My day old daughter was holding her head up, which I knew was not normal for a human baby. When I tentatively released my grip on her, she continued to sit up on her own. Hannah was perfectly stable.

"Water,

Mama

," she told me splashing it around.

Well, maybe not perfectly stable, she surprised herself when water hit her face and she tipped back. I caught her and proceeded to wash her tiny body.

Hannah fascinated me. I noted her tiny fingers had dark nails. In the future those would be talons I imagined. Her wings were just two fleshy masses now, but I saw the hint of tips at each sharp curve. She would be fierce, just like she was supposed to be. I praised her in the water.

After her bath I wrapped her up in a warm blanket and tried to put her in the bed.

That was boring, Hannah informed me. She didn't want to sleep. Instead of sleeping we explored things my men had in the apartment. For some reason, we ended up in the men's closet pulling out bags and boxes.

Hannah liked the shiny stones my men had collected and kept there. She rubbed them and clicked them together for a few moments. I pulled out anything she might like to look at.

"Ore!" Hannah said.

She was right. Hidden away were many small pieces of the ore. It had been buried in a corner beneath several boxes.

"Men should no have ore,

Mama

, they know," Hannah told me seriously.

I corrected her wording gently as I tried to put the ore back. They'd never shared this stash with me. It wasn't clear why they had it.

"It's theirs," I shrugged, "who knows why they have it."

"My

father

," Hannah used the

English

word, "once, wanted to run away."

"They really were miserable," I said touching the hard shiny metal, "but how do you know that?"

"When he thought of the ore he always thought of what he had. He tried hard to get more."

Suddenly, I felt a pang of fear. "I wonder if they had planned to take me with them?"

"Yes,

Mama

," Hannah said pulling the ore back out.

"Sweet men," I said smiling.

The rest of Hannah's morning we spent on the floor in the closet. She finally let me put the ore away. As we sat, she played with the stones, cards, and pieces of my ornamentation. I noted her hand eye coordination getting markedly better as did her speech.

I encouraged her to do things repeatedly until she was able. Her learning curve was incredibly rapid. Teaching her was engrossing.

"What are you doing?" Christof asked standing in the doorway of the closet.

Hannah and I were using the flat stones to build with, like Lego blocks. I had not heard them come in.

"Playing," I said as I looked up and grinned at them.

Kein was crouching down and peering into the little room.

"We used to have blocks we would build with," he said, "remember, Brothers?"

"Stones are probably too slick," Damien said and Evan agreed with him.

Later, as a group we went to the eating area. Six chairs were sitting around the table we normally sat at. Christof motioned for me to sit, which I did.

"I like to hold you," he said in a low voice, "but my Brothers are afraid I will inadvertently touch the child."

"Kneeling would be more acceptable to the other men," I advised very quietly.

"We don't really care what is acceptable to them," Christof smiled. "You are family and our family sits to eat together."

A hair raising howl alerted us that Hannah was ready for lunch. Pulling out a breast I brought her mouth to it as she screamed.

"Eat, Baby," I soothed. "You don't have to be so loud."

Hannah latched on, sucking and watching me. Again, she was calm and content. As long as my attention was on her, she seemed happy. I stroked her as she fed and watched her expressive little eyes.

Damien made it back with Evan and the food.

"The other men," he said passing out servings, "are terrified of the child. That sound, it keeps making, puts them on edge."

Kein leaned in and spoke quietly to me, "Did you see the women appear when the child called out?"

I shook my head no, so he continued to talk.

"The men said each time the child cries the women come around. There was one stalking up and down outside our apartment all last night."

Evan took his plate and replaced Kein talking, "Just now three women appeared at the entrances to see what was happening."

"They're proving a point," Damien said as we all leaned in to listen. "The women want us to see them watching the child."

"There's a bet that Archen's family will try to touch the girl," Evan said. "I heard it in the sorting room."

"Didn't they see what the women did?" I asked. "Why would they risk it? That is monumentally stupid."

Christof loaded my plate with food and placed it in front of me. "They were Warriors, like us, from another compound. None of them like it here, they're trouble makers."

"Like you all were," I said ruefully starting to eat.

Everyone at the table chuckled before Damien answered affirmatively.

They were still concerned, though. The family they referred to were powerful Warriors and their anger made them unpredictable. Archen's family was a force to be reckoned with and my men feared for my safety around them.

Hannah switched breasts and Christof fed me so I could eat, also. Once Hannah was done, she asked to taste what was on my plate.

"No teeth yet, Baby Girl, you can't eat it without teeth to chew," I said scooping a little gravy on my finger, "but you can try this."

Hannah sucked at the gravy and wrinkled her nose a little. "It's better roasted over an open flame," I told her.

"The best," Kein said, "is wrapped and stuffed with tami leaf from the red mountains. We only had it like that one time and it was amazing."

Hannah looked at Kein for a moment before she spoke, "I want tami leaf,

Mama,"

she told me plainly.

"Baby Girl," I said looking up at Kein, "I don't know tami leaf and I don't know how you get it."

Kein answered me, "Traveling men sold it to my Brothers and me. They said it came from a tree found in the red mountains. It is rare to see any available to buy here but we enjoy it a great deal."

Clattering talons got our attention two women entered the room. They came near our table and Hannah hissed loudly at them. The women just looked at her.

"Why do you wrap her?" one of them asked me.

"It is the custom on my home planet, Mistress," I said clinging to Hannah and trying to cover her with my arms.

Nu-reeh entered and I was, for once, thrilled to see her.

"Show them the child's skin," Nu-reeh commanded and I unbundled my daughter with shaking hands.

"Ah," one of the new women said, "it did happen too soon. The baby fur should have grown in and the wings are without definition."

Nu-reeh explained that I had been hit in the head and the stomach. She had obtained knowledge that such a violent act could cause an early birth in a human.

"No lines," one of the new women commented, "very poor camouflage."

Nu-reeh stiffened and told the other women it would not matter once the fur grew in. That seemed to settle the debate.

"We have another family," the woman told Nu-reeh changing the subject, "that we can bring from a compound. I believe they will do better than Runen and his Brothers. Those men do nothing but create trouble wherever they go."

Nu-reeh agreed and the women left as a group. The hall was mostly silent starring at Hannah and me.

"What was that?" I asked very quietly.

"They owned the tutors who were blamed for harming the child," Christof told me.

Understanding made my gut clench. Those women had skinned five men in punishment for potentially hurting this female. They must have wondered if she was worth it. I hoped they would continue to think she was.

The hall slowly went back to normal after the interruption.

Hannah napped after her meal and I finished my plate with Christof feeding me.

"We have a mating this afternoon," Bane said as we walked back to our apartments. "They won't let us walk with you in the caves."

"Can I let Hannah sleep some first?" I asked looking at her resting peacefully.

"No, walk while she rests," Damien said quietly.

"Of course, you're right," I amended, "Nu-reeh said to walk her."

"Only in safe places," Bane added.

"Yes, only in safe places," I said

kissing

each of their cheeks.

I made a

diaper

bag once we were in the apartment. At least, I made the Paterian equivalent of a

diaper

bag. It had everything I would need for a long uninterrupted walk.

In the back of the closet I found a long run of cloth, I'm not sure what my men wanted to use it for. I used it to tie my baby to my chest. She rested comfortably in the sling and my arms were free.

I strode confidently out of our apartment with my head decidedly down. No reason to ask for trouble that wasn't being offered. No one accosted me or even noticed me for that matter.

I stepped into the main hall and the men just walked past me like I was a stone dropped in the tunnel. It began to feel like I was invisible.

I had to look up occasionally and the men seemed blind to me. Literally, they looked right through me. It was like they didn't know I was present.

"They don't see me," I whispered as another group walked past oblivious to my presence.

The women had no fear the men would bother me, because the men were under their control. Except Runen and his brethren, who had attacked me. It made me wonder. Had the women skinned them because they assaulted Hannah or because they were able to override the commands?

"Hannah, I don't know what I've gotten you into," I whispered to my sleeping baby.

Nu-reeh must believe Hannah would be powerful. That's why the women worked so hard to teach and protect her. Clearly, my daughter was slated to take her place among the women once she was grown.

I walked through the caves and eventually Hannah woke up. She wanted to see what was going on. Holding her in my arms I showed her the world from the openings in the mountains.

The men never bothered us as we walked. If we were loud and boisterous the men looked around like they heard something. When we were quiet and stood still, they seemed not to see us. It soon became obvious to me that with enough incentive the men could break free of the women's commands.

I had no urge to get in a confrontation with any men. Hannah and I talked, but I did nothing to rile the few families that strolled by. The women had made it easy and I just stayed under their

radar

.

As the sun dipped in the sky I walked back to our quarters. I didn't look down, because there was no need. The men didn't see me even if I stood right in front of them. I did not exist.