The caravan planned to leave early in the morning with the daylight. Such a concept was rather foreign to me, so I decided it was better than I sleep the night in that world rather than my own. Of course, I wanted to sleep in that big comfortable bed in my brand-new suite, but it hurt my heart just a bit that I would take the entire bed all to myself, rather than share it with someone else. In the end, I decided it was best to be where Cecelia could give me reports and I was sure I didn’t oversleep. The presence of Katarina, the only woman I had ever slept with, and perhaps a small adolescent hope that she would stop by my bed that night and see me off before my trip had nothing to do with that decision.

However, when I heard a light knock on my door, I nearly jumped out of my bed. I couldn’t get to the door fast enough. Yet, when I opened it up, rather than seeing the cold and aloof eyes of my beautiful Katarina, I came face to face with Raven, a former mohawk that had been combed over to try to cover her whole head, her hair still purple. Was she dying it, or was there something in the wasteland that made such hair colors permanent?

“What do you want, Raven?” I asked.

“Katarina told me you’re bringing us with you on this trip.” Raven declared. “The Fire Ravens, I mean.”

“Is there a problem?” I raised an eyebrow.

She puffed out her cheeks slightly. “You should ask before you just decide things for us. Unlike Red and her lot, we’re not your slaves. We’re free people and we do what we want.”

“You also eat my food and live in my shelter,” I growled.

Her body stiffened. “That doesn’t mean you can do whatever you feel like with us!”

“If you want to leave, then leave,” I responded.

With the addition of the security bots and the workforce, I didn’t need the Fire Ravens anymore. They did a lot of drugs and were self-interested. I already said that I didn’t trust anyone I didn’t have a slave collar on them. Well, Katarina was different, but these were former raiders. They had a lot of problems, both physical and mental, and perhaps it was better if we just parted ways.

“Just like that?” She asked, her expression somewhat unreadable.

“Just like that,” I confirmed as her eyes bore down on me.

I broke away from Raven’s stare and looked down at my feet. I mean, it wasn’t like I was saying they had to leave or anything. This was my business though, and if they wanted to be a part of it, they needed to follow my rules. If they wanted to do drugs all day and fight with my decisions, then I would depend on more reliable people. That was my honest opinion.

“No.” She declared.

I blinked, looking up. “No?”

“I’m a raider. I want proper payment.”

“Payment? For what?”

“What do you mean, for what? We’ve been guarding this place for you for weeks. It’s time we started getting paid for it.” She declared a serious expression on her face.

“Y-you did get paid. You got food and you got a bed.”

“Bed? What bed? We’ve been sleeping on the floors of this gutted-out building. You’re charging for that?”

“It’s safe!”

“Because we’re the guards!” She shot back. What safety have you given us we couldn’t get on our own?”

“I-I still got you the food,” I declared, my tone more defensive than I wanted.

“Oh, joy! We could eat and not starve while we were working.” She snapped. “How much do you think pay is in this world? The least someone could do is feed themselves.”

“Th-this is expensive food.”

“That’s not by my choice. You never made it clear it was being charged, but even if I wanted cheaper food, could you offer it?”

“That…”

“So, basically, what you’re saying is that to work for you, we have to live in your place and eat your food, and oh our payment is exactly as much as the cost of those two things? Isn’t that just indentured servitude?”

My mouth flapped open and closed, not quite sure how to respond. She wasn’t wrong. It was indentured servitude, but that was what I was going for. I wanted people I could trust. No, that wasn’t it. I wanted people I could control. I didn’t want to end up getting betrayed, and even someone I trusted could become untrustworthy in the right circumstances.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

“F-fine… perhaps I can work on paying you more…”

“We won’t trade in just food or water!” She warned.

“I can come up with some other supplies,” I responded, feeling somewhat bullied.

“Y-yeah…” She looked like that answer didn’t make her happy, but she couldn’t think of what to complain about. “W-well, I want my payment now!”

“Huh?”

Why was she being so unreasonable?

“We’re going on a long journey and we’re supposed to protect you the entire way, right? So, I want my payment upfront. Since we’re leaving in the morning, this is my only chance to get it.”

I looked around helplessly. “Well, I don’t have it. If you want some food…”

“I don’t want food!”

I shook my head helplessly. “I can get you crystals.”

“I don’t want crystals either!”

“I don’t know what you want,” I responded in disbelief. “All I have is myself.”

“Y-yourself.” She repeated, and I nodded gesturing to the otherwise empty bedroom. “F-fine… I’ll take that then.”

She pushed me into the bedroom. As I stumbled back a few steps, she turned around and closed the door, facing away from me. She stopped for a moment with her hand on the doorknob as I stood back up.

“What’s the big idea?”

“Y-you said it!” She said, facing away from me.

“I said what?”

“You’ll be the payment! I said you’re the payment.” She cried out, her back still to me.

“Huh?” Her words only just started to click. “W-w-wait, you’re not saying… us? Now?”

She turned around, and that’s when I realized she was holding something in her hand. It was a knife!

“S-s-s-s-strip!” She ordered, her face glowing red.

“What? Eh? Huh? Wha-?” I started backing up. “Raven, we can talk about this.”

“I’ve decided on my payment!” She declared, waving her knife threateningly. “Y-y-you’re going to pay with your body!”

“I’m not a prost- ahhh…” I broke into a cough. “Raven, I’m very flattered, but…”

“Does this look like a negotiation?” She snapped. “Take off your clothes or I’ll cut them off!”

“Raven…” She lunged at me, and if I didn’t dodge to the side I would have been cut. “Okay! Okay!”

What kind of situation did I just get myself in? I should have slept in my suite. While trying to think about how I was going to get out of this situation, I slowly peeled off my clothing. Raven watched with her knife pointed at me. Her cheeks turned redder the more I stripped, but she neither looked away nor told me to stop. When I was finally down to my underwear, I tried to stop.

“Those too!” She gestured the knife up and down, licking her lips.

“We don’t have to-”

“Do it!”

I grabbed my underwear, and pulled it down, revealing everything. She stiffened as her eyes looked directly at it.

“Is that… I mean… small?”

I covered myself with my hands. “It gets bigger when I’m excited!”

“Ahh! That’s not what I meant!” She responded, looking like she was about to cry. “Get on the bed.”

“Rav-“

“The bed! Lie down on the bed!” She demanded.

I looked around helplessly. I had already tried to signal Cecelia several times to give a warning for help, but I had only received silence in response. I lied down on the bed, my eyes locked on Raven. She looked me up and down, blushing again. She reached up and pulled off her top, revealing her upper body. She didn’t have much of a feminine body, and there were even scars on it. In truth, I had seen her upper body before and didn’t know it was a girl’s body until I had felt it that night she snuck into my bed. Yet, now that I knew, I couldn’t see anything else.

While Raven didn’t have a problem taking off her top, she stopped at her bottoms. First, she looked at the front, and then the back. She pulled it a few times, but each time her pants started to lower to the point some skin started to show, she pulled them back up, shaking her head.

“You need to pull down your pants to do it.” I coughed.

“Shut up!” She shot me a glare. “I’ll figure something out!”

She ran to the bed and jumped on top of me. She began to straddle me, and with her upper half exposed it was getting harder and harder to reject.

“C-close your eyes!” She ordered.

Was I looking too much? I quickly closed my eyes in embarrassment, only to feel my hands getting pulled up. That’s when I felt rope. My eyes popped open, and I realized I was staring right at her chest which was now directly over my face.

“You’re tying me up?”

“I said close your eyes!” She cried out. “I have to tie you up so you don’t escape.”

“How’s that part of the problem?” I shouted back.

There was a click and the door opened. A flood of relief shot through me. Someone finally answered and I was going to be saved. I looked toward the door at the same time as Raven. Katarina was standing there. She was wearing that nightie she had to warn the first time we were together. It was sexy on her.

“Katarina!” I cried out.

“I-I came by to give Daniel company for his trip.” Katarina’s voice was a bit flat. “I guess I don’t need to.”

I looked up at the topless Raven, down to my naked body, and back to Katarina. “N-no! Wait… this isn’t what it looks like!”

“Daniel is buying my services.” Raven declared.

“I see…” Katarina nodded.

“No! You misunderstand.” I cried out. “She’s taking me by force! I’m unwilling!”

Katarina looked me up and down as I nodded, hoping she’d understand the situation. “Daniel, then why are you aroused?”

I froze, my eyes traveling down to where a certain part had become completely excited. Right where Raven was straddled, it was up at full attention. That was… something else. It was because she was rubbing on me, and her chest. No, it was Katarina in that nightie!

“It does get bigger.” Raven gasped, but when she noticed me looking, she turned away cutely. “P-pervert.”

“You’re one to talk!”

“Daniel, if we’re going to be together, you should be more honest with yourself. I’m surprised it’s Raven and not Kiera, but it kind of makes me feel a bit happy that it’s not just certain attributes I have that you want.” A slight smile trickled on Katarina’s face that was so rare to see, but mesmerizing. “When you get back, I’ll remind you about what I have to the point you never want to leave again.”

“O-okay…” I was so dumbfounded by her cuteness, I answered in such a way.

It wasn’t until she nodded and closed the door that felt the icy chill of a knife on my neck. I forgot the situation I was in for a moment.

“W-well, I’ll make it so you never want to go back home!” She declared. “Now… what do I do with this?”

“Ah! Wait… stop! You’re going to break it! You’re going to break it!”

She… didn’t break it.