Roran nodded grimly and left the tavern without looking back. He sympathized with her grief, but he had little comfort to offer when his sense of loss was still so painfully acute. As he headed to Port City Auction House, he knew he would find little comfort there.
He checked in with his merchant’s ID and headed for the holding chambers. There were two for females and two for males. He strolled through the two that held males first. He found no Farseekans in either group, so he went to the Chambers containing the females. They were sitting on benches wearing only collars with leashes fastened to the wall. Roran counted more than a dozen different species of humanoids. No Uatu Farseekans there.
When he passed into the second chamber, he felt like he had been gut-punched. Then his cock twitched. He looked up and down the two rows of female humanoids, trying to find the source of his sudden arousal. One of them was his, or his cock wouldn’t have responded. At least it never had before when he walked through the slave houses. The other chamber had just as many attractive naked females, and none had affected him like this.
Five were human, but with variations of skin and hair color rarely seen in this part of the galaxy. Roran moved from one to the other and paused in front of each. The fourth exuded a scent that confirmed his reaction. She was pale-skinned, almost white compared to his light orange coloring.
Her hair was golden brown with pale highlights, and her gold-flecked brown eyes stared straight ahead. She was oblivious to him or her surroundings. The barbarians must have set off the Chalivian shock collar she wore. She was practically catatonic. Must have resisted. Good for her.
Roran reached down with his index finger curved under her chin and tilted her head up so he could see her face better. Her expression didn’t change, but she was beautiful. Of course, he would think that. She was solmatu, his soul mate. Unfortunately, there was only one way he could get her out of here without getting them killed or captured. He would have to buy her.
The price would be high, but he probably had enough credits. He’d been saving for star rotations to buy land on Farseek when he gave up spying. Finding solmatu was rare enough that most Uatu Farseekans would give all they owned to free them. He had heard, humans like his female came from a part of the galaxy beyond the far side of the Sargus Empire. She could have been in stasis for star-spans. Unlike the Picans, the Chalivians found it less trouble to keep the beings they sold as slaves in stasis until just before they reached auction houses.
It was probably better that she was oblivious, so she would not remember being displayed naked for bidding. Hopefully, the effects would wear off a couple of spans after they left Ideshan.
The auctioneer took a span to offer his solmatu for bid. She had caught the attention of more than one bidder. It took over half of Roran’s savings to capture the winning bid. He didn’t care if it took all of it, he wasn’t leaving Ideshan without her.
When he went to the exchange room to pick her up, one of the handlers gave him the leash after his payment went through the Ideshan CommNet and the bill of sale posted to his tablet.
“What about garments? You expect me to take her out naked?” he demanded. He didn’t want males ogling his soul mate while they traveled back to the starport.
“We only sell slaves here. They do not come with clothes. It’s up to the buyer to provide them whatever they wish them to wear once the sale is final,” the slave handler said smugly.
“What about a plastic blanket?”
“No blankets.”
Roran growled. He so wanted to punch the snarky male in the face. He huffed a disgusted sound and shrugged off his jacket.
Dropping the leash, he picked up her arms and pushed them into the sleeves. Of course, it was way too big for her. The top of her head was only even with his shoulder. The jacket hung almost to her knees, so when he fastened it up, she was suitably covered to go out in public.
Instead of leading her by the leash like most slave buyers, he put an arm around her shoulders, and the lead in his other hand so they wouldn’t trip on it as they walked.
Roran didn’t stop to consider how crazy his actions were until after he had settled the female into one of four cabins on his merchant class space cruiser. Even when she came out of her stupor, she might be shell shocked by what had happened to her. It could be a while before she felt the bond they shared and desired him as a mate.
The abduction could have severely damaged her psyche, maybe enough so that she would reject him entirely. That would hurt.
He would do his best to soothe her and care for her. There could hardly be a less convenient time for him to find his solmatu. He wasn’t giving up his mission to find whoever killed Haemeg and why, but he wasn’t giving up his female either.
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