Chapter 1

She kept her eyes closed and waited for the throbbing in her head to fade to a more tolerable level.

Fuck!

They'd been ambushed. She'd watched her team go down as she herself fell into the prepared pit. She'd been captured. This wasn't good. It would've been much better if she'd been killed in the fall.

She listened to two people having a conversation off to her right. They must've thought she was still asleep.

"Send her to Wren."

"Oh, come on, she doesn't look that stubborn. Hell, she's already got a broken leg, fractured ribs, and her right arm's a mess. They'll be patching her up for weeks to prepare her for that woman!"

"Those are our orders. Anybody ranked captain and above goes to Wren and her unit. And those markings make her a colonel. Besides, I recognize her. That's Luce of Claw Clan."

"Holy shit. Maybe we should just kill her now."

"Are you insane? If our superiors found out we had her and didn't even try to get anything from her, we'd be sent to Wren. Prepare her for transfer to medical. I'll mark the orders for transport."

A rush of air and the voice was suddenly in her ear.

"Did ya get all that?"

She almost flinched at its sudden proximity, but her training kept her from reacting physically. She opened her eyes, but it was pitch black.

"You look a little nervous. Something wrong?"

She heard the humor in the voice, but refused to let any reaction show on her face. Her first thought, that she'd been blinded in the fall, was replaced by the staccato words of her psychology instructor.

"Torture is simply a form of mental manipulation. It's the fear and sense of hopelessness that twist one's mind. Nothing is ever what it seems when dealing with the techniques of mind control."

She squeezed her eyes shut tightly and saw the sparks of color. Impulses from her eyes could still get to her brain, so the knock on her head hadn't done that kind of damage, and blindness hadn't been mentioned in her list of injuries.

It was more likely she was in a military intake facility equipped with the capability of flooding the room with the longer wavelengths of the electromagnetic spectrum while the personnel wore infrared glasses. It was a technique her own side used on its prisoners.

She felt the air move around her head and realized the asshole was no longer next to her. She closed her eyes again when she felt a needle enter her arm. As her consciousness slipped away, her whole body relaxed into it, the part of her mind that held out hope of escape recognizing a chance for rest and healing and going right to work.

When she woke again, it was still dark, but her eyes immediately picked out the shape of a room, which was scarcely lit by a multitude of tiny lights blinking from various machines scattered throughout the small chamber. She tried to lift her arms to push herself up to a sitting position, but they were both held fast by metal restraints, the right one of which encased her entire arm, while the left simply secured her wrist. The sudden motion caused sharp pains to shoot down her right arm and Luce instantly stilled her movements, though not even her breathing changed to reflect the pain she was feeling.

She realized the restraint was also acting as a kind of cast to keep her injured limb immobile and carefully tested her legs. They too were bound by steel. Her right leg was encased the same as her right arm and it protested just as greatly at being disturbed. Her attempts to move her lower body had also made her aware of her broken ribs, and she suddenly regretted waking up at all.

Fucking Delphinians. We've offered their people every gods-be-damned scientific and medical breakthrough we've ever made and they still insist on living in the fucking Dark Ages. If this was an Argolian hospital, I'd've been healed in a few hours.

She heard a whirring sound and saw a glint of metal and glass out of the corner of her eye. She turned her head slightly and watched as a small bottle filled with clear liquid cycled through the machine controlling her IV. It pushed down into one of the free slots and was immediately emptied, the readout indicating the new medication had been added to her line. A few moments later, she was asleep again.

When she woke for the third time, the overhead lights were on and she was able to get a much better look at the room she was in. It was definitely a hospital room. There were machines all over the place keeping tabs on the state of her health. She waited for the IV machine to start cycling again, but it didn't.

A panel slid aside and a woman stepped through before it closed again behind her.

"How are you feeling?"

Her tone was just on the edge between compassionate and abrupt.

Luce looked at her and kept her mouth shut as she tried to place the woman's accent. It reminded her of an actress she'd once seen in an old vid from before the war. Luce thought she remembered the character was supposed to be from Black-footed Finch Clan, but she couldn't be sure the actress had been doing the accent right.

"I'm not here to interrogate you and I don't think it's a big secret that you've been injured and are in pain."

Yeah, definitely the same accent.

"I just want to know if we should increase the painkillers. This is a hospital, not a concentration camp. No one here wants you to suffer."

And it would be nice to know what my pain threshold is, wouldn't it?

Luce just continued to stare and the woman finally shrugged and went about checking the machines.

"You're doing really well. Your injuries are mending much faster than expected. I'd heard your people were working on new methods of genetic manipulation for healing. How old are you? Two? Three? I will never understand why you can't just have children the way the Goddess intended. You know, that's what this war is really about. We can't just let you defile the sacred genetic code we were created with. Children should be born from a mother, not fully grown from a growth tank like a replacement organ."

The nurse continued to check over the machines monitoring her body as Luce tried to ignore the woman's monologue.

"Your people are missing out on so much. Watching a child grow up, the joys of shaping a young mind into a mature and productive adult... And you. You never had a childhood, did you? You were just suddenly awake and expected to fight in a war with no choice in the matter. We've offered your people freedom from that kind of servitude. I don't understand why you don't take it."

Luce's features remained impassive, but inside, her anger was raging. The woman was deluded. She didn't offer freedom. She offered stagnation and slavery. The only reason the human species was even still on the planet was because a group of scientists, the founding mothers and fathers of her nation, had tinkered with human DNA and RNA to make the next generation immune to the harsh effects of a depleted ozone layer that let in the ultraviolet rays of the sun.

With such a successful foundation to build upon, her people had gone on to change a few more genes in order to make the human lung more tolerant of the deteriorating atmosphere due to pollutants from factories, cars, and other chemical-producing inventions of the modern age.

In the span of a few decades, children were being born with more efficient lungs, better eyesight, more resilient skin, and greater muscle tone. The woman standing in front of her was no more from original 'sacred' stock than Luce was.

It was true that she'd gained consciousness in a sudden blast of clarity when she'd woken at the end of her growth cycle four years ago, but she hadn't been forced to join the war effort. Her parents had designed her with that specific goal in mind and nothing save death would've been able to keep her from fulfilling that destiny.

She supposed she could see how some people might interpret that as having the decision taken from her, but why was it any different from the random desires of those without intentional genetic programming? She knew what she wanted to do with her life and the joy she gained from using her body and mind to keep her people's way of life safe was just as real as anybody else's.

She did have plenty of other interests should the war end. Her martial arts training had been based on spiritual principles and she knew more healing techniques than most doctors. Her mind was specially designed for strategy and abstract processing, abilities that let her take snippets of information and leap to accurate conclusions. Her skills were transferable, no matter what this woman wanted to think about her 'slavery.'

The nurse finally finished with her examination and tapped in her findings on a handheld touch screen. She gave Luce one last look of disapproval and then exited through the same panel she'd entered from.

Luce stared around the room, studying it. She listened intently to try to ascertain what was beyond the walls of her room, but there was only silence. After about fifteen minutes of just lying there, she finally came to the conclusion that she was just plain bored. She decided if they weren't going to knock her out on purpose, she'd put herself under to use the time to focus her mind on speeding up her body's recovery.

The days passed pretty much the same as that first one. A nurse visited her once each day. It was always a different one, most likely to keep her from building up a rapport with one of them and persuading them to let her go. He or she would proceed to check over the instruments, while proselytizing to her about her misplaced loyalties, until finally leaving her alone again. She was given food four times a day through a tube that was implanted directly into her stomach, and a similar setup made it unnecessary for her to use a lavatory. Twice a day, her restraints rotated to turn her onto her side, presumably to keep her from developing bedsores. She was never once released from her bindings. The plastic-covered bed even doubled as a bathtub and came complete with hot air jets that dried her thoroughly.

By her time sense, twenty-three days had passed when she was drugged again and woke up in a new location. She was in a padded rectangular room, about twenty feet by thirty feet, and wearing nothing save the two-inch-wide silver bands that went around her wrists and ankles. Diffuse white light came from the high ceiling and warm air circulated over her. She was lying in the middle of the white room, and after her initial assessment of her surroundings, she realized she wasn't being restrained.

Luce stood, testing the strength of her weakened muscles, and did a thorough search of the room. There were creases in the padding in the shapes of squares about two feet on a side, but she was unable to tell a difference between the cracks to figure out which set of squares outlined a door.

She kept looking anyway, intent on finding even the smallest flaw she might use to her advantage, but she was still startled when pressing on one of the pads caused several adjacent squares to slide into the floor, revealing bathroom facilities.

At first glance, the toilet, sink, and shower area appeared to be all smooth surfaces, and after closer inspection, her assessment held. The fixtures were wrought from a single piece of thick metal seamlessly integrated into the wall, so she had no hope of bending anything with her bare hands or ripping something out of the wall to use as a weapon.

After some experimentation, she figured out the facilities were motion and pressure activated. Holding her hands in the sink or standing on the mesh area under the showerhead started the water flowing, while touching the red 'up' or blue 'down' arrows on the wall let her change the water's temperature. Another icon showing what appeared to be bubbles let her add soap to the water and when she was done, she touched an air jet icon to activate fans that sent out warm air to dry her.

The toilet worked similarly, only running water after she'd sat down. Another touch pad next to the toilet presented two icons showing a water spray and another air jet, which she realized were there to let her clean herself, since toilet paper was noticeably missing. When she stood up, the toilet flushed.

A few moments after she stepped out of the bathroom niche, the padded squares slid back into place. She touched the particular pad again, but only after about three full seconds of contact did the squares slide out of the way, so she knew it wasn't rigged to activate if she just casually brushed against the area. When she didn't enter the niche after about ten seconds, the squares slid back into place.

Luce completed her meticulous survey of the room, but didn't find any other hidden areas. She gave up on the idea of an easy escape, deciding instead to get to work on rebuilding her muscles. They'd atrophied from the effects of their enforced vacation.

She went through her exercises carefully, stopping before she went beyond what was comfortable. Normally, she would've pushed herself to her limits, but she knew she had to take it easy and work back up to her more intense routines slowly or else risk further injury.

She cooled down and then knelt in the middle of the room and meditated. She worked on calming her thrumming muscles and rapidly beating heart and then focused on honing her reflexes. She'd gotten lazy with the last few weeks of predictable routine and needed to get her edge back.

Which was why when six of the squares swung forward near one corner of her cell, Luce shot across the room, almost running right into a second wall before she could stop her forward momentum.

"Please stand in the corner with the blue light."

The words floated from a hidden speaker in the ceiling. She debated disobeying the feminine voice and staying where she was. Instead, she decided to see what was going on and moved to the corner that had been illuminated with a blue spotlight and waited.

Because of the corner she was in, she couldn't see what was happening beyond the opened door, but she heard a whisper of a scrape and guessed a second door was being opened. A tray of food was pushed into view beyond the edge of the padded door with what looked like an aluminum rod. Then the rod was retracted. A slight scrape signaled the outer door being closed, and then the padded door swung shut.

The blue light was replaced by the regular soft white of the rest of the room and Luce realized she was free to leave the corner again. She went to the tray and found two cups of water and several bowls of mush. The tray was cardboard and the cups and bowls were made of plastic coated paper. No utensils had been provided.

Luce realized her captors weren't planning on taking any chances with her, unfortunately. Though her mind leapt to the possibility of rolling up the paper and shoving it down a faceless guard's throat to choke him to death, she had to admit there wasn't much she could do to make a weapon out of the materials she'd been given. More to the point, she hadn't been allowed to even see anyone on which to use a weapon.

Her stomach interrupted her thoughts with a growl, so she tentatively scooped up some of the food with her bare fingers and took a taste. She was surprised to find the bland-looking paste was extremely palatable, but she still ate slowly, focusing on her body's reactions just in case the food was drugged.

She didn't feel anything out of place, so she kept eating. She eventually finished it all and set everything back on the tray when she was done. She waited to be ordered back into the corner, but after another hour passed with no more commands, she decided to take a nap.

Luce looked around the room and considered her options. There was no telling what threats might be hiding behind the walls, so she wasn't too keen on sleeping next to one of them. The middle of the room wasn't any better, though, since she'd be left vulnerable to attack from all sides.

Finally, she moved to lay by the door. At least she'd be alerted if it opened while she was sleeping, so hopefully no one would be able to sneak up on her in her weakened state. She closed her eyes, forcing herself to relax enough for sleep.

She woke instantly when the padded squares began nudging her aside. As soon as the door reached a ninety-degree angle, the request to stand in the corner came again.

Luce moved to stand in the blue-lit corner and watched as the metal rod she'd seen before headed unerringly for the empty food tray she'd deliberately left in the corner diagonally opposite from the door on the other side of the room. A small wire grabber slid out from the end of the segmented rod and latched onto the side of the tray to begin dragging it back to the door.

Luce quickly darted forward, but the instant her leg moved outside of the pool of blue light, the rod released its quarry and retracted in a blur. She was nowhere near fast enough to reach the door before it slammed shut with the speed and efficiency only a machine could muster. Even in peak condition, she could never hope to beat it. She didn't let her frustration show as she turned to walk back to the corner, but the blue light had vanished. She waited for it to come back on, but it didn't.

Not too long after, the lights dimmed, though they didn't completely go out, so she returned to the door and lay down to sleep again.

By her internal clock, it was another eight hours before she was woken up to go stand in the corner again, the lights already at full illumination. This time, she stayed where she was supposed to and received a new tray of food in return for her obedience. She was surprised to find an extra bowl of food, but she wasn't about to question it. It had been twelve hours since she'd last eaten and she was starving.

Once her food had settled, she went through a few basic exercise drills. Approximately four hours later, she was ordered to the corner again and the tray of food was replaced yet again.

Luce figured out the routine by the third repetition of the entire cycle. Food came every four hours, except for an eight-hour gap, during which time the lights were dimmed about half an hour after the last meal and brought back up about half an hour before the first meal. She decided to go along with it, at least until she was taken outside and could reset her inner time sense to reality, even though she knew that was the purpose behind the schedule, to potentially disrupt her body's natural rhythms and make her question reality.

She spent her time drilling, meditating, and being bored out of her skull. She'd never been in such good physical condition. The food had steadily changed from mush to more substantial fare and she'd realized that whoever was in charge of her care was very aware of her medical status. She was given more protein-rich foods and less sugars and starches to aid in her muscle building. She'd never eaten so healthy in her life.

The solitude was really starting to get to her, though. The only voice she heard, besides her own when she yelled during practice, was the one that requested her to 'stand in the corner with the blue light.' She could tell from the slightly altered inflections that it wasn't a recording, but the wording never deviated.

She began practicing more and more intense acrobatics in an attempt to keep herself active and consciously engaged. She considered talking to herself, but the very act itself would give away more about her state of mind than she considered acceptable. However, she knew if she let herself go numb, she'd be that much closer to breaking for whoever ended up in charge of her interrogation. She remembered the name Wren and wondered if the woman was watching her even now, studying her and deciding when the time would be ripe to begin.

She ran along the padded floor for half a dozen steps, jumped and ran for two steps to the left along the wall in front of her, and then leapt across the corner and took another two steps along that wall before landing on the floor again. She kept up her momentum and did it all again on the opposite wall.

The slightly coarse cloth that covered the foam padding on the walls gave her a good amount of friction for her feet to catch on and she was enjoying the thrill of defying gravity for a few seconds. She'd started out only being able to take a step or two along the wall before sliding back to the floor. Now, she was taking four full steps by rebounding off the corners. It was fun.

The padded door opened and Luce stopped. It had been less than two hours since her lunch according to her internal clock.

"Please stand in the corner with the blue light."

She went to the corner and stood, waiting to see what this new change in her routine would bring. The second door whispered open and Luce was unprepared for her reaction to seeing another human being after nearly two months of isolation. She was near tears, but it was impossible to tell by looking at her. Her body was in a relaxed stance, her face showing nothing beyond bored interest.

"Hello. My name is Wren."

It was a woman and she was very short in comparison to Luce's six-foot frame. Her hair was blonde, falling in waves just beyond her shoulders, while Luce's straight black hair went almost to her butt. The blonde wore a white skintight bodysuit that covered everything except her hands and feet, which were completely bare.

"This would normally be the time you would say your name was Luce, but since I already know that, I understand your silence. Do you know why you're here?"

Her tone was conversational and clearly intended to be non-threatening. Luce studied her and took in all the non-verbal information she could. The woman standing in front of her was completely unafraid of her. That was interesting. There were no guards and the padded door had closed behind her, so there was nothing stopping Luce from simply crossing the room and breaking the woman's neck long before a defense could be mounted.

However, there seemed to be a kind of... intensity to the small woman. Her pulse was slightly faster than Luce would've considered normal for someone of her size and obvious athletic fitness. Her eyes were also dilated more than what Luce would've expected for the level of light in the room.

It occurred to Luce that the woman was exhibiting all the signs of sexual arousal according to what she'd been taught concerning human sexual reproduction, but that didn't make sense. This Wren woman was supposed to be some kind of torture specialist, wasn't she?

"Okay. I can see you don't intend to say anything, but I'll explain things to you anyway. You're being held as a prisoner of war by the National Security Intelligence Agency of the Republic of Delphinia. As a colonel in the Argolian Army, you no doubt have information that could be highly useful to my superiors. My job is to get that information from you. From previous encounters, my superiors learned that all of your people are genetically engineered to be able to withstand pain in such a way that torture is basically useless. That's where I come in. I don't use pain, I use pleasure."

Wren paused to let that information sink in, then continued.

"You will never leave this place. There is absolutely no escape. I am the only human being you will ever come in contact with from now until the day you die. The more you cooperate, the more comfortable your stay here will be. You will not be killed, or in any way harmed, even after your usefulness has ended. If you attempt to hurt me, you will simply be dooming yourself to starvation, along with the other prisoners stationed here. From your psych profile, I don't believe you will choose suicide. Trying to take me hostage won't work either because I'm the only one who would hear your demands and I'm prepared to die rather than let you go."

Luce tried to digest everything she'd just been told. This was something she'd never been prepared for. The woman was right about her being immune to most forms of torture. At a certain point, the pain receptors in her brain would short out and that would trigger the rest of her body to shut down and she would die soon after.

But pleasure? How could one torture with pleasure? She'd spent her whole life waging war. Pleasure never entered into it, except that pleasure she derived from a job well done. She knew a little about it as part of her biology studies, and her parents and other people were in obviously sexual relationships, but beyond that...

"I will begin this the easy way. I won't even touch you if you answer my questions truthfully. It's up to you what happens."

Luce maintained her relaxed pose even though she was shaking inside.

"What is the real troop strength of the Argolian forces? Include all the secret camps of reserve forces you know of."

Luce didn't even bat an eyelash. The question helped her get internal control of herself. She'd been trained to withstand hostile questioning right up to her dying breath. Whatever this 'pleasure torture' was, she'd handle it.

"Maybe I should start with something easier. Something we both know the answer to."

Wren took two slow steps forward and Luce reflexively stepped away from the corner to brace for combat. Wren smiled slightly.

"Hold. East."

Luce was suddenly lifted off the floor as her body was enveloped in a localized antigravity field. She was floated to the side until she was centered in front of what she guessed must be the eastern wall, then propelled backwards, landing with a thump against the padded wall behind her as her arms and legs were pulled into a wide X by the metal cuffs around her wrists and ankles. Even using all her considerable strength, she was unable to budge the magnetic restraints that held her naked body bound to the wall several inches above the floor.

Wren continued her slow steps forward, staring into Luce's eyes as she came to a halt only a foot away from the prisoner. Wren saw confusion and mild fear there, but Luce was still very much in control of herself despite her confinement.

The blonde knelt down and didn't hesitate for even a moment as she leaned forward and licked up Luce's right thigh. When she reached the crease at her hip, she stopped and looked up. Luce's eyes were wide and the fear appeared to have increased to a little more than mild.

Wren dropped to just above Luce's left knee and moistened her tongue in her mouth. Then she traced a similar path upward, the way she had on Luce's right thigh, but she licked more slowly, letting Luce's mind attempt to categorize the new sensations being introduced to her body.

Nearly every soldier Wren had come across had been innocent in the ways of physical sexual pleasure. Due to their genetic programming, it was never considered an important part of their studies, and apparently, what one did not know about, one did not miss.

Wren made it to the crease at Luce's hip again, only on the opposite side, and gave it a sucking kiss. She looked up and saw Luce's breathing was a little faster. It was beginning to match Wren's own.

Wren continued to look up, taking in every single little reaction that Luce had to her touch as she kissed across the prisoner's stomach, just above her pubic hair. Luce's stomach fluttered and contracted, the muscles bunching beneath the skin to push a harsh little gasp out of her mouth. Wren saw the bound woman blush at her momentary loss of control.

Luce closed her eyes. She had to get to a place of calm. Meditation could help her maintain control over her body's responses. She began a low chant in her mind that immediately vanished when she felt Wren's tongue flick over her clitoris. Her eyes snapped open and she looked down in stunned disbelief.

Wren nodded internally to herself when she saw Luce's eyes open again. It wouldn't do for the prisoner to escape mentally. She trailed kisses all over Luce's taut stomach and grinned outwardly with every undulation her attentions caused.

After covering every square inch of the firm flesh, she moved upward, bracing her hands on either side of Luce's torso as she got to her feet. Her eyes looked up once more to gauge Luce's arousal and she saw shiny blue eyes staring at her in something akin to both shock and fascination.

She held eye contact as she lowered her mouth over one of Luce's nipples and ever so gently let it rest between her lips. Luce inhaled sharply and her chest rose and pushed into Wren's mouth. Wren smiled around the nipple and then dabbed at it with her tongue, sucking very softly at the increasingly tense flesh.

Luce groaned. She felt herself flush in embarrassment for such a lack of control. She could just imagine her instructors shaking their heads in disappointment. She gained a little strength from the imagery and tried to firm her resolve to resist this strange torture. She would not give in. She could handle this.

Wren saw the hardening look in Luce's eyes and had to smile. That determination wouldn't last very long. Not if she had anything to do with it. She bit down on the nipple in her mouth and sucked it hard.

Luce gasped and her breathing went from slow and controlled to fast and harsh in a matter of moments. The images of a few seconds ago completely vanished and she was left only with the signals coming from her body that told her she wanted more.

Wren continued to suck and pulled her head away to let the nipple snap back to its owner's body. She never relinquished eye contact as she gently pushed off the wall and brought her hands to either side of Luce's ribcage. She stroked up and down with the palms of her hands. She adjusted the amount of pressure as she studied Luce's reactions, finally settling on an almost firm touch to keep the sensation sensual and teasing. Too light and she could see she was tickling. Too hard and she could see Luce's control returning.

Luce pulled on her restraints again. Her wrists didn't move even a fraction of an inch and the silver cuffs were molded to her skin in such a way that they didn't even cause any chafing, which would've at least given her something else to focus on. Her stomach muscles constantly rippled under the attentions of Wren's hands.

Wren let her palms come to rest on each side of Luce's stomach and then she pressed her body full-length against the prisoner's. Her mouth was at just the right height to take in Luce's other nipple, so she did, not trying to hide her own moan of pleasure when she tasted the firm little protuberance pressing against her tongue. She sucked, letting her lips open wide to take in the surrounding flesh, while her tongue swirled around the nipple.

Luce arched her back and then tried to still the reflex reaction her body had found lying dormant in its repertoire of appropriate responses to having one's nipple sucked. She'd given up on trying to control her breathing, but encouraging her captor was something else entirely.

Wren ground her hips gently into Luce's mound and smiled when Luce thrust her hips up to increase the contact. She looked up at Luce's moan. From the look on the prisoner's face, the moan had been a combination of pleasure from what Wren was doing and frustration at her obvious inability to win the struggle against her body's wishes.

Luce felt Wren's mouth leave her breast and then Wren's body pulled away a short distance.

"Lower. Six inches."

Luce felt her body slide along the padded wall until the bottoms of her feet were flat against the floor. With her legs spread as far apart as they were, this put her head almost level with Wren's.

Wren lifted her hands and cupped each side of Luce's face. She gently rubbed along the soft skin. Wren ducked her head and kissed the underside of Luce's chin. It was a risk because the soldier had just enough mobility to bring her chin down hard enough to hurt Wren, but from the look she saw on Luce's face, the prisoner wasn't thinking too clearly about anything at the moment.

Just as Wren had suspected, when she touched her lips to Luce's neck, Luce turned her head to the side in silent invitation. Wren sucked hard in various places, biting when the mood struck her and leaving several bruising marks on the surface of Luce's skin.

Luce closed her eyes. Her body was not her own anymore. Why hadn't she been warned about this? She had no defenses against this kind of assault. She'd never been taught to fight something that felt so damn good.

Her eyes opened again when she felt Wren gently sucking on her earlobe. She could feel Wren's tongue caressing her skin, the sharp little teeth nipping at her flesh, and she groaned out her next breath. She just wouldn't speak, that was all. As long as she didn't actually form words, then she could never give away any secrets.

Wren sniffed the air. She was hungry and it was time. She gave a last lick to the plump earlobe she'd been feasting on and then licked and sucked at the woman's neck as she descended Luce's body. She licked over the sweating skin between Luce's breasts, then licked and sucked each breast just for good measure. Her hands caressed the sides of Luce's body as she kissed, nipped, and licked the prisoner's stomach.

Finally, Wren was on her knees, each of her hands resting on a hip.

"Raise. Six inches."

Luce was returned to her previous position and Wren inhaled the scent of Luce's arousal, now that the prisoner's sex was right in front of her face. The air was thick with the woman's pheromones and Wren shuddered slightly. She grazed her hands over Luce's hips and the tops of her thighs before threading her fingers through the soft curly hairs covering Luce's sex.

Luce felt Wren's fingers spreading her labia apart and when Wren's tongue touched her sensitive flesh, she cried out. Her breathing escalated to gasping and she struggled hard against her bonds, even as her pelvis thrust forward to increase the contact.

Wren moaned. Luce's scent, the feel of her slick skin, the taste of her, was very potent. The only thing that kept Wren in check was her extensive training in denying her own desires. To get her fill, she would have to drag this out anyway and Wren knew how to look at the long view.

Luce held her pelvis still, thrust away from the wall as she felt Wren's tongue pressed flat against her inner folds. Luce looked down and was caught in Wren's steady stare. She felt as though a complete circuit had been created by locking gazes with the blonde. She couldn't look away as pleasure shot through her body and her breaths increased to panting.

Wren very deliberately held Luce's eyes as she tilted her head up to drag her flattened tongue over Luce's moist flesh. She ended with the tip of her tongue, giving a last little flick over Luce's clit before starting over again.

Luce's hips jerked and she grunted out a small whimper. Her head fell back against the wall as she felt Wren lick her again and then again. She lost count after about the first dozen. Wren's tongue was steady and slow and firm. The rough texture stimulated her smooth flesh in the most aggravating way. She wanted to feel that tongue just a little to the left or right. There was skin there that was just crying out for attention.

Wren stopped her tongue from flicking across Luce's clit again and instead took the swollen nub softly into her mouth. Her lips wrapped around it, creating a gentle pressure, and then she held still, while Luce circled her hips to move herself against Wren's mouth.

Luce had completely forgotten the purpose of this incredible pleasure. She'd even forgotten there was a reason why she was restrained against the padded wall. She moaned as she rubbed her sex against Wren's mouth, trying desperately to increase her stimulation. There was something her body was striving for and she was perfectly content to let it do whatever it wanted, so long as the exquisite sensations didn't stop.

Wren could feel Luce's pleasure building and she encouraged it with gentle pursings of her lips and caresses with her tongue. Before it edged into orgasm, Wren drew her lips down, releasing Luce's clit, but not surrendering contact with the hot flesh below it.

Luce grunted her disappointment, then gasped anew when she felt Wren's tongue lick at the wetness that had gathered at the entrance to her vagina and which was slicking her inner thighs. Her body had another automatic response to this, which was to tilt her pelvis up as far as she physically could and to widen her thighs as much as possible with her ankles locked in place.

Wren groaned as she tasted Luce's sexual essence from its source. It was so much more potent than the woman's airborne pheromones. She dipped her tongue in again and again and decided she wouldn't be able to get her fill anytime soon. That could be a problem. One her superiors had overlooked.

Wren let the thoughts drift away and concentrated on sucking every last drop of Luce's essence from her body. She speared her tongue inside and let new wetness cover it before pulling it out again. She heard Luce groan and Wren's hands moved up to grip around Luce's hips. She kneaded the firm muscles and drove her tongue in once again. She intended to milk Luce to the brink of insanity.

Luce thrashed her head back and forth and her whole body writhed under Wren's attentions. It was quite amazing how much movement she was able to manage while being bound to the wall so tightly. Her thighs began to clench and she felt a hot tingling begin in her stomach that caused her breathing to almost hyperventilate. Then Wren pulled away and got unsteadily to her feet and Luce looked at her in shock as she whimpered without meaning to.

Wren wiped her face, licking her fingers clean after each swipe until the glistening substance had been completely removed from her cheeks, mouth, and chin. She never took her eyes away from Luce's. She used the time to catch her breath while watching Luce's remain almost the same.

"Tell me your full name and rank in the Argolian Army."

Luce's eyes grew wide and she whimpered again. She couldn't give in, not even once. That was what her instructors had taught her. Questioning built upon known answers was a basic technique of hostile interrogation. It would become easier and easier to answer more invasive questions as time went on until she was giving away secrets she'd sworn she would die to protect.

Wren pulled a thumb-sized device out of a tiny pouch attached to her jumpsuit at the small of her back. She squeezed one end of it and the other end opened slightly. She bent over and gently clamped the device to Luce's prominent clit.

"On. Three seconds. Five-minute intervals. Cycle indefinitely."

Luce felt a vibration at her clit and writhed into it. Then it abruptly stopped after only a few seconds.

"When you answer the question, I'll return and give you the relief you seek. All you need to do is tell me your full name and rank and I will give you satisfaction. I promise."

Wren waited a few moments to see if Luce would change her mind immediately, though she doubted it. Luce continued to stare at her in disbelief and Wren turned towards the padded panels that marked the door.

"Open."

The door swung open and Wren walked towards it. She stopped just before the edge of the door. She looked into Luce's tortured expression.

"Remember. All you have to do is answer the question. I'll hear you and return to give you relief."

Wren turned away and the padded panels closed behind her.

Luce was in a state of shock. Her body could only focus on one thing, release, while her mind attempted to rein itself in and take back control. She concentrated on her breathing, urging her lungs to take slow measured breaths.

Then the vibrations jolted through her clit and she was back at square one, gasping for breath and moaning for more, though she did manage to refrain from forming words. Whether that was because she still had a little control left or she was simply incapable of linguistic vocalizations was debatable.

Every time Luce managed to get her heart rate down or her breathing to slow, the device clamped to her clitoris would exercise its relentless timing and she'd be writhing again. After a dozen cycles of this, Luce got the idea to try to go with it. Maybe if she overstimulated herself, she would find the relief Wren had mentioned. She remembered it being described as physically similar to a seizure, so maybe she would just pass out and awake later without this insatiable need for more.

She counted down the seconds and arched her hips into the sensation when it came. But three seconds was nowhere near enough time to force her over the edge into oblivion. Another dozen cycles and she had to admit that the timing was absolutely perfect to keep her right on the edge. She couldn't calm down and she couldn't climb any higher.

All Wren wanted from her was information Wren already had. She'd be more careful next time about letting her body react to what the woman did to her. She just needed... release. She couldn't give it to herself. Wren was the only one who could help her. Just a few words and Wren would come back and finish this. It would be so easy.

Luce shook her head. The woman could've been lying. What if she just kept asking more questions, leaving Luce to suffer, bound to the wall, with no hope of relief?

The thought bolstered her reserves for a moment. If she had no hope of relief, maybe her body would stop striving for it. But even through her lust-clouded vision, Luce was sure she hadn't seen any signs of deception on Wren's part. She wasn't infallible, but she did know what to look for, and Wren had appeared to be telling the absolute truth. If Luce gave her what she wanted, Wren would give her satisfaction. Luce was sure of it.

Luce felt several drops of sweat trickle down her skin from the strain of muscles that had been aroused for far too long without completion. She tried to remember what her teachers had told her. She tried to listen to their words.

The device went off again and her hips bucked.

"Please."

It was the first word she'd allowed herself and she knew she was losing ground fast. Begging was the first sign of admitting that one was no longer in control. Once that was done, she knew it was just a matter of time before she gave in.

Judging by the number of cycles she'd endured, she'd been bound to the wall for over two hours. Food should've arrived half an hour ago. How long would Wren allow her to go without food or water? Maybe if she lasted long enough, she would simply expire before she could be forced into revealing any information.

The vibrations stormed through her clit again and she whimpered. Enough was enough. It was just her name and rank, not vital secrets.

"Luce of Claw Clan, Colonel in the Special Forces of the Argolian Army," Luce grated out and then went back to panting.

Before the device could go off again, the door opened and Wren walked in. She no longer wore her bodysuit and her skin was flushed. Her eyes were a blazing green as she walked purposefully up to Luce's body and pressed herself against it.

Wren pulled the clitoral stimulator off the prisoner's body and tossed it behind her before both her hands went to the sides of Luce's face, holding the bound woman's head still as she attacked her mouth.

Luce gave back as much as she could in an attempt to increase her own pleasure. She ravaged the mouth that was trying to control her. She'd never been kissed, nor kissed anyone else, but her tongue seemed to know exactly what it was doing as it dueled with Wren's.

They shared their whimpers and groans without any second thoughts.

Wren's hands ran over every bit of exposed flesh they could find. Wren ground herself between Luce's spread thighs and felt the woman's answering thrusts. She pulled her lips away and let her tongue slide out of Luce's sucking embrace as she fell to her knees.

Wren's hands kneaded Luce's breasts and the woman pushed into them, moaning her pleasure. Then Wren slid her hands down the writhing and tense muscles of Luce's stomach until she was at the prisoner's center. In only seconds, she was lapping at the sopping entrance to Luce's vagina.

Luce couldn't control her body's movements. She couldn't even stop the moaning that sounded out of her with every exhaled breath. She just didn't care anymore. She thrust harder at Wren's face, grinding her sex into the blonde's mouth, and felt an extra wave of pleasure pass through her when she heard the woman moan contentedly in response.

Wren was beyond what she considered safe. She couldn't have stopped even if she'd wanted to. Somewhere in the back of her mind, she realized she'd become addicted to Luce's pheromones with only two samplings. Her superiors were not going to be pleased if they found out about it either.

Wren shut up her internal meanderings and speared her tongue inside Luce. She had to taste the potent fluid from its source.

Luce was surprised at the high-pitched sounds coming from her throat. Her voice was normally very deep, but between her accelerated breathing and her steadily rising enjoyment of her body's sensations, her vocal chords had constricted so much as to take her from an alto to a soprano.

Wren realized she had to stop or she never would. She placed her thumb over Luce's clit and rubbed it gently several times. The flood that washed over her tongue as Luce screamed her release never got past her chin. She quickly drank it all in, knowing it might be some time before she could get another fix.

Luce thought she might pass out as pleasure exploded in every cell of her body, starting with her clit and radiating in all directions. Not one of her muscles was under her command as they convulsed in unison with the peaks and valleys of her first climax. It was almost painful, but the genuine bliss of sexual fulfillment outweighed any physical discomfort she felt.

Wren continued to lick at Luce's folds until she'd claimed the last drop. Then she sat back on her heels and looked up at the prisoner. Luce's breathing was still panting and she was looking at Wren with a combination of admiration, fear, and gratitude. Wren got to her feet and stood back a few paces.

"Release."

The magnetic restraints let go of Luce's wrists and ankles at the same time and she crumpled to the floor. She braced herself on her hands and knees, her eyes focused on the floor as she tried to ground herself.

Wren smiled slightly at the image. She bent to pick up the discarded stimulator and then backed away toward the door.

"Open," Wren called into the air.

The door opened and Wren stood at its entrance. She gave Luce one last look and then was gone again.

Luce stayed where she was for several long minutes, trying to get her breathing under control. She felt spent and exhilarated all at the same time. Her thoughts were a jumbled mess as she tried to decide what to do, but she couldn't seem to move. Her body was paralyzed as her mind relived the past few minutes over and over again.

The taste of Wren's tongue in her mouth, the feel of her lips, the throbbing in her breasts as Wren squeezed them, the incredible sensation of having her sex licked and sucked by the blonde...

No!

Luce shook her head in violent negation as she worked her lips and tongue, swallowing hard in an attempt to rid it of Wren's flavor. Her mouth was dry from all her heavy breathing, so it took several tries, but the effort seemed to encourage the rest of her body that it was okay to move.

She sat up, resting her hands on her thighs as she assumed a meditative pose. She had to calm down. She couldn't process everything she'd just experienced as long as she remained in her current mental state. She slowed her breathing and her heartbeat eventually decelerated to match the quieter rhythm.

As her body calmed, so did her mind, and Luce began organizing everything she'd learned over the past few hours into something useful.

First and foremost was the knowledge that her captors were doing their very best to make her dependent on Wren, not only for continued survival, but also for physical comfort. Considering how easily she'd given in to Wren, Luce had to admit her constant isolation had been more effective than she'd originally estimated.

Luce cringed inside. It had been more than effective. She'd never thought it would be so easy to betray her people, never even thought she was capable of such an act. Yet, she'd yielded to Wren, yielded to the pleasure, with hardly a fight. Granted, she hadn't actually handed over any real information, but all her training had been reduced to nothing as her body had been given a glimpse of...

What? What had been so fucking important that she'd been willing to hand over her name and rank, despite knowing it was the first step towards becoming a traitor?

Luce felt her breathing go shallow as she remembered Wren's lips and tongue on her sex. Her nipples tightened in the warm air of her cell and she unconsciously rocked as she squeezed her thighs together.

Luce was in trouble and she knew it. She couldn't even begin to imagine how she was going to hold out when Wren returned for another session. Though she'd been fully informed regarding the clinical processes of human sexual reproduction, that kind of understanding simply didn't translate to the real world experience of having her first orgasm.

The feeling had been... There just weren't words.

Maybe if she'd had some kind of warning, she could've prepared herself, but as far as she knew, her people had no idea the Delphinians were using such novel tactics on their prisoners.

How am I supposed to fight something that feels so fucking good?

Luce took a deep breath. She couldn't think like that. There had to be a way.

Biologically, Luce knew how humans normally 'grew up' when they matured at a normal rate. Around the ages of twelve to fourteen, the pituitary gland activated all kinds of hormonal changes and 'teenagers' as they were called became sexually aware, among other things.

Like most Argolians, Luce had never gone through that stage. She'd been unconscious while her mind had been fed all the knowledge she would've otherwise been forced to learn through years of schooling. She'd also been given information about her family, her own name, and the world in general so that when she woke, she could immediately begin her life.

Though she knew what sex was and knew people in romantic sexual relationships, there'd been no overwhelming drive to experience it firsthand just yet. Her life was so full of other more important activities. At least she'd thought they were more important until about three hours ago.

Now, it was like something had been awakened within her and Luce didn't have the first clue how to make it go back to sleep.

The only thing she knew was that she couldn't give in to this new need to experience that kind of pleasure again. She'd already failed once. She couldn't let it happen again. She'd just have to be strong. She was a soldier after all. She could ignore pain. She would ignore the pleasure as well.