My breathing was ragged. Then I groaned low as her legs wrapped around my waist and tried to guide me to her center. Reaching down, I pushed my pants down my legs, then placed my hands on either side of her head. The mona’s eyes met mine, and for a moment I froze at how stunning she was this close.

When a cry left her mouth, I moved back and braced my dick at her entrance. My arms shook as I pressed my tip to her channel. I closed my eyes and paused. I had never taken a female before, never felt what it was like to spill my seed inside.

I had no idea how to take her.

When the mona’s fingernails scraped along the skin of my back, something inside of me broke and I slammed forward, engulfing my cock in her heat, roaring out as the new sensation took its hold. My lips parted and I panted in short, sharp breaths. My eyes rolled as 152 clamped around my thickness. The muscles in my neck strained at the feel … and then she started to move. The mona, searching for my release, rolled her hips, ripping a snarl from my throat.

“Shit,” I bit out as my hips began to move in response.

The mona whimpered below me. Her hands slid up my back to grip my neck. My eyes snapped open as she pulled me close, her eyes trapping me in their stare. My heart jumped as she watched me taking her. Her cries lost their pain and turned into cries of pleasure. My cock jerked inside her channel, the mona’s soft skin flushing at the feel.

My thrusts increased in speed as tingles spread along my thighs and a pressure built at the bottom of my spine. With each roll of her hips, I took her harder and harder, her warm, sweet breath flowing over my face.

Her hands tightened around my neck. Her eyes glazed, and I felt her pussy contracting around my dick. I growled, unable to tear my eyes away from her. As her mouth dropped open and her head threw back, she screamed out in release. Seeing her so beautiful, so unrestrained, and with the tightness of her core, the pressure in my spine broke apart and I spilled inside her, a deafening roar ripping from my throat.

My hips slammed fast, then slow, as I gave her what she needed most. My hands balled into fists on either side of her head, then the mona’s eyes opened as I watched her in the following calm.

When her gaze met mine, her pupils reduced in size and her breathing softened to a steady pace. Suddenly, my hips stilled, and the air between us thickened. Because looking back at me was the mona without the drugs.

It was the slave freed.

I waited with bated breath for her fear to arrive. Instead, a tear formed at the corner of her eye and she simply whispered, “Thank you.”

My heart slammed against my chest at the tenderness of her voice. I didn’t know what to do next, but that was remedied when she lifted a shaking hand to my cheek and hushed out, “This isn’t over.” Her eyes lowered in embarrassment, and her cheeks flushed. “It takes more…” She trailed off. “It lasts awhile.”

My throat clogged at the sadness in her voice. But even more, something inside me cracked at the feel of her small hand against my cheek. It was strange, because being with her was like nothing I could have ever imagined, but her warm palm on my face was something else entirely.

For the briefest of moments, it pumped life back into my dead heart.

For a split second, it made me feel alive.

And in that short second, I was reborn.

I swallowed, still uneasy, unsure what to do next, when the mona’s legs twitched and her hands moved to grip my shoulders. I wondered what was happening. When I studied her face and watched her pupils blow, I knew the drug had taken her again.

My softening dick began to harden as her hips started to roll. I ducked my head at the too-good sensation and pushed forward, the mona’s pleasured cry making my pulse beat furiously.

I thought about the fact that I had refused to ever take a female, about how I had resisted it with everything that I was. As I sank into her hot depths, I called myself a fool.

Hours passed and the mona’s drugs kept strong. I wasn’t immune; the cocktail I was injected with every morning kept me strong. Kept my cock reacting to her needy moans, made me able to release inside her every time she needed me …

Until finally her pupils reduced in size and stayed that way. Sweat dripped off our slick bodies in the aftermath. The mona fell asleep through exhaustion, saving me from the awkwardness of what came next.

My arms shook on either side of her head as I stared down at her pale cheeks. Every time I had taken her, I could see more blood draining from her flushed skin. I could feel her limbs becoming weaker with exhaustion, yet the drug overrode her need to stop. It led her on and on, it pushed me more and more, until no energy ran in our blood. Until we had no more left to give. Until she passed out.

She was young. Lying here, her once contorted face now relaxed in sleep, I could truly study her. Checking there was no guard behind me watching my moment of interest, I slowly lifted my hand and brought my fingers to her face. I frowned at the size of my hand compared to her face. My hand was scarred and rough from too many fights. Against her perfect skin and pretty features, it didn’t look right. It didn’t belong anywhere near her face.

But I lowered my fingertips anyway, brushing them across the cooling skin of her forehead. The mona stilled for a second, as did my hand. I froze, but then a breathy sigh left her mouth and she fell back to sleep. I waited, hovering above her for a full minute, before moving my fingers around her eyes, my lips twitching at her long black lashes kissing her cheeks. I extended a finger and brought it down her small nose, then down to her full lips.

For some reason, I had to stare at those lips. As a boy, Master had made us watch the pit fights that would become our future—but rather than watch the fights, I would focus on the people in the crowd. I would study each of them, both males and females. I would wonder where they had come from. I would wonder why they were there.

My eyebrows lowered as I remembered seeing a male seated beside Master lean down and place his lips against the female beside him. My tongue ran around my lips as I wondered what it would be like to press my lips to this mona’s.

Without thinking, I felt my head lowering toward hers, my lips hovering a fraction from hers. The mona’s warm breath spread across my face. I abruptly drew my head back, pulse thundering in my neck.

A wave of molten anger ripped through my veins. I wrenched out of the mona’s channel and staggered to my feet. My legs shook from too much exertion. My hands lifted to grip my hair, and I pulled, a growl spilling from between my taut lips.

What was I doing? I silently asked myself. Why was I trying to touch her lips?

Needing to calm down, I began to pace back and forth on the stone floor. My teeth ground in frustration, my neck muscles tightened to the point of pain, my hands clenched into tight fists.

Master was trying to mess with my mind. I knew it. That sick motherfucker knew it. He knew what putting her in this cell would do to me. He knew what having her in need, arching and moaning on the ground, would do. He knew that the aggression drugs I was given would ensure my dick responded.

I serviced her.

I calmed her fire with my release.

But I wanted none of the rest. I couldn’t let myself care what she looked like when she came. I couldn’t let myself care how sad she sounded when her pupils shrank back to normal size and she thanked me for temporarily setting her free from the pain.

And I couldn’t let myself care about her lips. I couldn’t let myself care about her at all. She had to be just a mona, Master’s mona. I must not let her destroy me.

Without a second glance, I lay down on my mattress and turned my back to her sleeping body. I closed my eyes, pushing all thoughts from my mind. My rage simmered as I focused on not smelling the mona’s scent on my skin. But it didn’t last for long; exhausted, sleep took me in its hold and quickly pulled me under.

When my eyes opened, a guard was at my door. I immediately sat up, my eyes narrowing at the glare of victory in his gaze. “Up,” he commanded when he saw me watching him.

I got to my feet, ignoring the aches in my arms and legs. When the guard opened the door, I resisted the urge to turn and look at the mona on the ground.

I had failed. Master had won this round. But I was a warrior through and through. He wouldn’t win the ultimate battle. I could take her without feeling. I would make myself feel nothing.