He decided to show mercy and stopped spanking her, instead rubbing her crimson skin gently.
“It hurts,” she whimpered.
“I am sure it does,” he crooned. “But you deserved it, baby pet. You were so naughty, weren’t you.”
“I was hungry,” she whimpered. “I needed to eat.”
“And you would have eaten if you had just behaved yourself. I would have fed you a feast from my fingers.”
“I can feed myself.”
“Actually, you can’t. Not here. Not even on your own world. You were dependent on others to give you a pittance to live there. I will be much more generous if you are obedient. And if you are not, then I will punish you. I will make you very, very sore.”
She said nothing, just whimpered as he pulled her up into a sitting position on his lap.
He knew that she was still hungry and she was tired. He opened the drawer again and pulled out a fresh batch of fries. He would have to investigate human foods more to ensure that she got the correct nutrition.
“Here,” he said, feeding her from his fingers.
She ate, sniffling unhappily to herself, and saying nothing more.
This was not what Dominax had expected. He had not thought the human pet thing through, he had to admit. He had imagined he would simply sweep a grateful human up from her tedious life, and she would be so enthralled by being mated to an alien king she would not question him or disobey him, or be inconvenient in any way.
But that was not the human way. Humans, he realized, were trouble. They were little balls of self-contradiction.
He fed her the entire package of fries, and then continued to hold her as she sobbed, sniffled, and then finally fell asleep curled up in his arms. She must trust him. She wouldn’t be asleep if she didn’t. But she also hated him, there was no doubt about that either. He had seen the loathing in her eyes, and heard it in the disrespectful tones of her voice before he’d spanked that out of her.
It was time to get some advice from a friend.
5 Crimes and Conversations
“ARCHON! YOU UTTER BASTARD!” Dominax shouted into the communications device. Only a king could speak to another king in such a way and mean it affectionately rather than as an affront to all things proper. Lesser words had stared intergalactic wars in the past, but Dominax knew his audience.
“What can I do for you, Dominax?” Archon’s voice came out of the ether. It took a moment for him to appear on screen. The dragon king of Archaeus was quite the scaled sight to behold, an intimidating humanoid blessed with the spirit of ancient dragons and perfectly adapted to chaotic modernity. It was Archon who had first taken a human lover. If there was anybody who could help Dominax, it was him.
“I took a human from ancient planet Earth when we travelled through time to reunite your pet with her family.”
Best to get that confession out of the way quickly. Dominax wasn’t strictly supposed to have taken a human from Earth. It was technically illegal according to certain treaties and documents and laws, but being a king, Dominax considered himself above most of those things. It had not occurred to him that there might be a good reason for them to exist.
“You took a human from Earth?” Archon shook his head. “Bad idea, they’re feral there. There’s a reason it’s illegal to bother the historic humans. You’re lucky I took you to the version of 2020 without the plague.”
“There’s more than one version of the year 2020 on the planet Earth?”
“Of course. There are infinite versions of everything. You. Me. This toast I was trying to eat before you shrieked across the universe for help.” Archon did not sound entirely amused by the predicament Dominax found himself in, but he had just admitted to a much bigger crime himself.
“So you’ve been splitting and slipping between time streams.”
Archon shrugged.
“Archon, that could lead to an explosion in time itself. A timesplosion!”
“Maybe. Maybe not. Is that why you called? To discuss who has broken more laws?”
“It’s not. This human is…”
“A pain in the ass?” Archon used a very human expression. It made Dominax wonder just how many trips Archon had taken to Earth. It also made him wonder how many trips other kings had taken. For all he knew, the planet was crawling with aliens who weren’t supposed to be there at any given moment.
“Yes. She’s defiant one moment, and tearful the next. She’s strong mentally, but physically I could break her if I am not incredibly careful. She wants to have her way before she understands what having her way even means…”
“Yeah. That’s a human. She’s going to be difficult. My suggestion, if you won’t take her back, is to be as big a pain in her ass as she is in yours.”