Read Mated (The Sandaki Book 1) for Free Online Page B

long moment, a small panel in the wall slid open, and out rolled some kind of mechanical device. Laira eyed it as she moved away. She didn’t know what it was supposed to do, but she wanted to be ready. It pivoted and again wheeled toward her. Again, she evaded. She almost laughed at the ridiculous picture they must make. It was sort of like a slow motion chase that went nowhere fast.
    “Get in the chair,” the device finally spoke. “You must maintain auction protocol.”
    “No.” She shook her head. “I won’t.”
    “You must maintain auction protocol. Those are the rules.”
    If it was possible for the toaster on wheels to sound huffy, then it did. No matter how silly the thing looked and sounded, Laira didn’t let down her guard. She didn’t care that what she did was fairly useless, since it wouldn’t help her to escape. She wasn’t going to make it easy for them to sell her.
    “I don’t care about auction protocol, so you can go fuck yourself.”
    It propelled itself toward her again, and this time Laira kicked out, knocking it over. The thing rocked around and muttered about protocol, but it didn’t look as if it was capable of getting up. She smiled grimly as a larger door opened, and a Silarin waddled in. It eyed her through bulbous eyes for a long moment.
    “You shouldn’t have broken protocol,” it scolded her.
    “You shouldn’t have kidnapped me.”
    “Will you not get in the chair?”
    “No, I will not.”
    It let out what Laira considered a sigh and pulled a narrow tube from a wrap it wore. It pressed a button and the tube extended and began to hum. “If you do not get in the chair, I will zap you and put you in the chair. This will incapacitate you for an unknown amount of time. Please choose.”
    Fuck. She’d seen what one of those sticks could do when a Silarin had used it on one of the girls. Laira didn’t want it used on her. She couldn’t afford to be incapacitated, and she didn’t want the pain.
    “Fine,” she said through gritted teeth. “But if you get near me with that thing, I’ll take it from you and stick it up your ass. Got it?”
    “Please be seated.”
    She sat in the chair, and straps shot out, locking her into place, legs spread wide open. Slowly the chair turned as it showcased her body to the buying public. Humiliation washed over her, and Laira promised herself she would make them pay.

Chapter Four
     
    Laira lay on a couch. In the background, the song “Break Stuff” played. Following the events in the room, she went to a large room to wait with all the other women. For what, Laira wasn’t sure. Maybe for someone to come bag them and take them away like Target merchandise. She gratefully collected a sarong after her turn in the chair had finished. She didn’t really want to be totally naked after the extreme humiliation of the auction. She wandered around a bit and finally settled onto a couch to stare up at the ceiling.
    “Are you well?” Isha asked, sitting beside her.
    “Oh yeah, I’m fucking great. I especially loved being strapped into the chair while it whirled around showing off my hoohah. All the room needed was a screaming crowd and a few poles and it would have been exactly like a cheap titty bar. That was my favorite part. Can you tell?” She sat up to give Isha room to join her.
    “Yes, the chair was quite unexpected. And, as you say, it totally sucked.”
    “So now what?”
    Garja walked up to stand in front of them. “That was quite embarrassing. I have never heard of an auction showing off the private parts of the slaves. It was utterly disgusting. This auction is certainly being run in a shoddy manner.”
    Laira laughed, but there was no humor in the sound. In fact, it sounded closer to a sob, so she ignored it. “So there’s a genteel way to run a slave auction? Christ on a cracker, Garja, people just looked at our pussies, and that’s all you can say? Fuckers. Man, I just wish Will Smith were here. He’s fucking kicked a ton