Samhain Publishing

Destined to serve the desires of an entire city, all she wants is one man. Or maybe two…

Wasteland, Book 2

Born to the Temple, Nitara knows the Great Goddess’s plan for her: to bring life into what is left of an arid and wasted Earth. Since puberty she has been trained to arouse and titillate, to ensure the continuation of the human race.

As is the custom, the man captured for her is strong of blood, though considered little more than a wild animal. Yet when she looks into his eyes, she sees no primitive creature, but the man whose face and hands haunt her sensual dreams.

For Akaash, a hunter and warrior, it’s his shame that he will be sacrificed to a goddess he doesn’t believe in, for a people who are not his own, leaving behind his Wanderer clan—and his bonded lover, Dhatri. Locked in the bowels of the Temple, he has a month to ponder his fate, all while falling helplessly under the spell of the virgin temptress who will soon take his life.

With each torturously erotic encounter, however, Akaash realizes that Nitara is as much a prisoner as he. If he can just get a message out to Dhatri, there may be a slim chance both of them can escape…

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Copyright © 2010 Eden Bradley
All rights reserved — a Samhain Publishing, Ltd. publication

Akaash opened his eyes, tried to sit up. But he couldn’t move.

All was dark around him, but he remembered now…

They had come upon him at night. He’d been alone in a small cave in the mountains, sleeping after a long, successful hunt, and three days in the Wasteland. He’d thought it was road pirates, come to steal the meat he’d killed. They were on him so quickly, and in such numbers, that they had him bound and thrown onto the back of a horse before he understood they were the guards of the temple.

But he was no longer bound to a horse. He was lying on the earth, iron cuffs on his wrists attached to long lengths of precious iron chains. All was silent around him. And although the chains had some give to them, he could not move a muscle.

He’d heard of the drugs they used to keep their prey calm and still. To seduce the men of the Wanderer clans into serving their purposes with aphrodisiacs, using them as breeding stock to keep their bloodlines strong. He’d heard the girls used as breeders were beautiful, but of course, none of the Wanderers had ever seen them and lived to report back. Only those men of the cities chosen in the lottery to breed with them each month saw them. Except for those few Wanderers who were kidnapped, used. And killed.

He knew what his fate would be if he didn’t escape. But he could not move a muscle.

He wondered what Dhatri, his bonded lover, would think if he knew. Dhatri was the Chief Warrior, the best fighter of the Mutairi clan, fierce and brave. He would be ashamed, as Akaash was himself. Even if he escaped now, he could never overcome the disgrace of being taken. He had been a Warrior. And now, he was fallen prey.

He peered through the dark, trying to see…anything. And after a few moments, his eyes adjusted enough for him to see that he was in a cage of sorts, with bars made of the old iron, so precious since the Burning Time. He was in the dungeons of the temple, then. Impossible to escape, or so it was said.

He lay still for a long time, hours, perhaps, alone with his humiliation in the dark. He was thirsty, dizzy from the drugs. And his cock was hard, standing ready. He grew angrier by the moment, thinking of what they’d done to him, of this vile helplessness.

Finally, a shaft of light dazzled his eyes as someone came near with a torch. He blinked until his vision cleared. In front of him was a man, a guard of the temple, in a short, dark robe he recognized as the garb of the eunuchs who watched over the breeder girls. The man was young. His face was shaved smooth, his eyes a pale green, his features almost girlish in their prettiness. His body was lean, but his shoulders were broad. Had the situation been different, and had the boy been able, he was beautiful enough that Akaash would gladly take him to bed, part the smooth cheeks of his tender ass, and push into him…

He shook his head, reminding himself fiercely that this pretty piece of flesh was the enemy.

“You there,” Akaash demanded, irritated at the unevenness in his voice. “Tell me where I am, and what is to happen to me.”

The guard moved aside, and from behind him stepped a girl. She was petite, her head reaching to the guard’s shoulder. Her long, waving brown hair was a soft veil around her curving form, touched with gold from the light of the torch. She wore the red garment of a Breeder, the cowl draped low in the front, revealing her full breasts, the fabric just covering her nipples. But it was her face Akaash found so arresting. Heart-shaped, innocent-looking, with high, rounded cheekbones, and the same pale green eyes as the guard. And her mouth…the pink lips full and generous, almost too lush in her otherwise-sweet face. Lips that could do wicked things to a man…

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