Chapter 7

The next several days were increasingly hectic. I had to calm my superior's fears about any splash-back on them from the Craxill as a result of the incident (easy) and from the Earth public on the Craxill "execution" of two humans (much harder.) Fortunately, the pendulum was currently at the 'burn them at the stake' end of its swing as far as treatment of sexual abusers of children went, so the 'victims' of Craxill justice weren't likely to get any sympathy.

Then there was the press conference. Such things were much tamer than was typical in the Western countries before the war, but it was still moderately raucous. As I'd suggested, the Craxill spokesman announced the barest of facts, emphasized the requirements of human and Craxill law regarding ongoing investigations and the privacy rights of victims, and closed the conference without taking any questions. There was some squawking, but it was mostly pro forma. Nobody wanted to be painted as interfering with an investigation, and the 'web press' still delighted in exposing both government and non-government idiocy and would be eager to pounce on any violations.

Embassy Security was doing quite well at gathering additional evidence of the Ritmurt leadership's frantic attempts to cover up their involvement and frame the Sminran clan for their crimes. They'd let Lorgzan sweat for a few hours before explaining the situation and apologizing for using him as a stalking horse. We didn't tell him that I considered it a distinct possibility that he'd be killed in a way that looked like suicide; I didn't even want to mention the idea to the Security team.

So far, the Craxill conspirators had proved incredibly clueless, and I didn't want to do anything to educate them or any future copy-cats as to the the proper way to do things. The human players of the game were much less clumsy; my little tattle-tale's information had gone stale almost as soon as she'd spilled it, when the top-level crooks killed her immediate boss within hours of her capture.

Fortunately, the Craxill seemed to be ignorant of the concept of a 'cut-out' and so we had an unbroken line of criminal activity from the actual computer break-ins up to Paltral Zirnkar himself. Since Craxill messages to and from home world had to go by starship, and we hadn't actually arrested Zirnkar yet, we didn't have any evidence regarding the involvement of people closer to the Clan Elder and his staff. I had my suspicions, but no proof one way or the other.

Linda was out of the hospital, and recovering at my home for security reasons. Thamont was showing signs of becoming a permanent resident, and he was seldom out of Linda's sight. I happened to stumble across him lying in bed with Linda at one point, wrapped around her like a living blanket. During the day, Linda seemed unaffected by her experience, but Larwint reported that she'd been having bad dreams, and that having either Larwint or Thamont sleep with her seemed to keep the nightmares away.

I came home from a meeting with the Ambassador about when to drop the hammer on Ritmurt, to find a very nervous Thamont sitting in my study, waiting to talk to me. As it turned out, 'talk' meant 'confess.'

"My lord," he said when I entered, "I must confess to an improper action."

Thamont was trembling, and I tried to calm him before I asked him to explain. I mostly succeeded, but he was still twitchy.

"Almost from the first time Larwint brought me here, Linda has been playing at seducing me. She claimed it was all in fun, but her actions were those of someone much older, and someone quite intent on achieving her goal.

"If her appearance was not so young, it might have been amusing, but her apparent youth made it most disturbing. My people have the same odd fascination with and powerful taboos against, the sexuality of children as yours do, and Linda's actions played into that. Once she had 'wound me up' in her phrase, she would order me to go to Larwint and please her. I was eager to leave, and would in fact almost always end up being intimate with Larwint, more for comfort than from lust.

"As time passed, Linda's actions became more explicit, and her commands more direct. I began to feel conflicted about her; I felt affection towards a close friend of my lover, fear of the inappropriate sexuality she represented, and an odd feeling of contentment as she ordered me around."

Thamont paused, as if awaiting censure, then continued when I indicated that he should do so.

"Last night, she asked me to sleep with her again, to guard against night fears. I thought nothing of it, since Larwint and I have both done this over the last several days, with no inappropriate events. But this morning, after you had gone, I awoke to find she had managed to expose me without waking me, and she was touching me in ways she has never done before, ways completely inappropriate to her age.

"Lord, I was helpless before her. She commanded me in a way that spoke to my core, and I could not help but obey. She teased me to readiness, then mounted me and impaled herself on me. She rode me to her completion, then collapsed on me. Of course, I did not finish, and she took advantage of that repeatedly over the next hours, instructing me to take her in various positions.

"When I grew tired, she would let me rest, then put me back to work. The last time, she lay on her back and had me take her that way, and when she grew close, she began to play with my forbidden passage. As she finished, she slid her fingers in, and to my surprise and shame, I came with her."

He stopped again, in shame, his head lowered.

"I can not say I am pleased, but you are not to blame. It appears that Linda is advanced for her age in more ways than one, despite the delay in her physical maturity. However, she seems to share one weakness with most of her peers; she is not careful enough of the consequences of her actions. If you had found her earlier attempts to manipulate you sufficiently alarming to report, this might have been avoided, but I do not fault you for failing to do so. You are blameless, but she is not.

"On the subject of consequences, I believe there is one more event that you have not yet reported."

Thamont shuddered again, half in shame, and half something else. The twitching was back, and getting worse.

"After we both recovered, Linda went to 'clean up, ' while I remained in the bed and wallowed in my shame. When she returned, I could not look at her, but she took no mind, and said, 'Let me clean you up.'

"She washed my private part and the flesh around it, and was soon wiping over my forbidden opening. She changed cloths, and I felt her applying something to my passage, then pressing her fingers into it. Before I could object, she had rolled me onto my stomach, and was pressing something into me.

"A wave of submission washed over me, and I lay helpless as she took me, just as the pervert had intended to take her. Instead of shame, I became filled with a sense of completeness, of the filling of a life-long void I only now noticed by its absence. I moaned in pleasure, and she told me she was grateful for everything I had done for her, and glad we could find pleasure together. She voiced her own pleasure, and when she came, I came with her.

"She pulled out and cleaned us up, then cuddled with me, saying I could do the same thing to her next time, if I wanted. I was speechless as I memorized her face and her scent and her touch. I would have stayed in her arms forever, but she said she wanted to rest again, and that I should go.

"I have been waiting here ever since, waiting for the punishment I know I deserve."

I'd never seen a sadder, more depressed-looking face in my life, human or Craxill. Linda was in a world of trouble, but that was no reason to punish her victim. I said nothing to Thamont, but instead addressed the house computer.

"Message to Linda Patel. 'Come to my study at once.' Deliver it even if you have to wake her."

The computer acknowledged the order, then reported success.

A few moments later, a sleepy-eyed Linda wandered into the room, in a robe a size or two too small for her.

"Yes, my lord," she said sleepily. "You asked for me?"

"Yes, I did. Sit." In deference to Thamont's mental state, I kept my voice as civil as I could, but some of my displeasure made it through.

She started to move to an empty spot on the couch where Thamont sat, but I stopped her, and said, "His lap."

Puzzled, she obeyed.

"Smell her, Thamont. You need the scent of your new Clan Lord, to keep you calm."

They both looked at me in shock, but Thamont quickly obeyed, and after only a few 'sniffs, ' he was visibly calmer.

I considered standing to deliver my lecture, but decided the impact would be high enough even if I was seated.

"I have been playing with fire in the form of my manipulations of Craxill sexuality and psycho-sexual conditioning ever since the day that Priya and I met and became husband and wife. Until now, I've never been burned, nor do I believe I have seriously harmed anyone.

"Linda, I do not claim responsibility for this, any more than I blame Thamont for what you have done to him, but I do feel guilty for allowing you to do it. Perhaps if I'd taken your comments and his reaction that night in the hospital more seriously, we could have stopped this. Frankly, I think it would have been better had this not happened, but the facts are what they are, and it is done."

Linda was looking very frightened now, which I considered a good thing, so long as her fear didn't drive her new drone to consider me a threat. Fortunately the combination of his training, and the residual effects of Attachment shock seemed to be keeping him under control.

"Just as his lover Larwint is bound to me, so Thamont is bound to you. You dominated him, commanded him, aroused him, then took his anal virginity and made him your slave. You may be playing at Mistress and Slave with your little girlfriend, but this is no game.

"You used him, then sent him away while you slept. Unfortunately, in the first moments of Attachment a bond forms that requires several days to complete. He needs your scent, just as an addict needs his fix. Larwint had to make do with cuddling with my dirty laundry for most of her Attachment, but you shouldn't do that to Thamont.

"You don't have to fuck him again, or make him fuck you, but you do need to let him stay close while his instincts finish their work. When the bond is complete, he will stay with you as long as he lives. If you die first, it is very likely that he will join you in death.

"Physically, he is one of the most dangerous persons I know. With anyone else, he will be just as strong emotionally. But with you, he is completely vulnerable. You own him, mind, body, and soul. I'm not a devout person, but if there is a Goddess, I pray She guards and protects him until you grow up enough not to hurt him."

My control had slipped a bit, making my language and tone harsher than I'd intended, but I think that even if I'd whispered and used baby talk, the result would have been the same. Linda was crying as she realized how she'd used Thamont, and when he heard her sniff, he looked at her and licked her tears away gently.

He spoke to Linda gently, saying, "I love you, Mistress. Larwint only spoke of her Attachment to her Lord in general terms, but I could hear the love for him in her voice and see a smile on her face every time she spoke of him. Now that I am yours, I know where the smile came from."

Changing the subject, I said, "Thamont, I will have to discuss this with your former clan's leaders. We will need to develop a cover story to explain your transfer to my clan. Linda can not possibly assume the visible role of a Clan Lord, given her age. We will also need to work up a way for you and Larwint to get enough time together while your bond to Linda forms."

I looked Linda in the eye, and said, "As I said, I am not pleased with this. As your Clan Lord, it is my responsibility to mete out punishments when my clansmen and clanswomen act incorrectly, and to reward them when they act correctly. Your punishment for this is to inform your Father and Lantral of exactly what you have done, and why. You are still a minor in the eyes of the law, but I had begun to consider you fully adult in many ways. I am sorry to say that that is no longer the case."

Linda was crying freely now, and she buried her face in Thamont's chest as she sobbed. A moment later, she gathered herself together long enough to say, "I'm sorry; I didn't mean to hurt him."

I showed a little mercy then, and said, "I didn't say you hurt him; you merely enslaved him for life. If I had not brought you back to him, he would have begun to suffer soon, but you returned in time, and he will be fine.

"Go back to bed, and take him with you. Sleep, while he bonds to you. When you are rested, call your parents and ask them to come here. I suggest he not be with you while you speak to them; it will stress him to see you in pain and not be able to help.

"I would suggest you tell Larwint what happened, and ask her to share what I have told her about the bonding of drones to their Alphas. No-one else must know what you have done, though it is difficult to understand how we will keep all of this a secret. If the wrong people find out what happens when humans and Craxill get together, I fear for the future of both species."

I told Priya about what had happened, and how I'd reacted, and asked her if I'd been too harsh.

"I do not think so, Husband. She is strong-willed, and a lesser reaction might not have made enough impression on her. I will speak to her later, the 'good cop' to your 'bad' and I will let you know what I find."

"At least I'm confident she will treat him well, now that she knows the situation," I said, relieved at Priya's approval.

"Yes, she might have hurt him thorough ignorance, but properly informed, she will do the right thing," Priya agreed.

The next day, according to plan, we dropped the hammer on Clan Ritmurt, sweeping up everyone with an involvement in the planting of the pervert, and the subsequent cover-up. The human side of the sweep was less effective; we couldn't prove anything against the 'top dogs' because we didn't have the kind of proof human law required (at least in those parts of the world where actual evidence was needed, not the whim of a bureaucrat or other dictator.)

I did get an interesting visit from a certain believed-to-be-crooked lawyer, who offered a moderately large bribe if I'd make sure the Craxill didn't try to extradite his clients.

"That's an unusually detailed offer, isn't it? Aren't such things usually couched in euphemisms? Doesn't that amount to a confession of guilt?" I asked the slimy little man.