Half an hour still remained until Ayesha had to be at the meeting when she returned to the room. Just as the elevator descended into the room, letting her see the inside, she stiffened.
"Master…" She whispered, noticing the blonde woman occupying her couch and looking at her inquisitively.
[She isn't an assassin. As much as her outfit may suggest otherwise. She is our helper and the one whom I brought in to help take care of the issue with Zephyros.]
The tension in Ayesha's already stiff shoulders lessened slightly, calming her down.
"You must be the High Priestess of the Sovereign, the one Apex loves to refer to as his little Queenie," Gwen said with a smile the moment the elevator's force field shimmered out of existence from around Ayesha, immediately making the golden woman stiffen.
"I—it seems so…" She said, clearing her throat. "I am the High Priestess. Nice to meet you…"
"Gwen. Gwen Stacy. If you want to give me a title, call me Ghost Spider," she said.
"Gwen Stacy," Ayesha nodded. "How are things at Zephyros? I haven't yet had the chance to get the report from my commanders due to… circumstances."
[You don't need to be shy about telling her that I was training your little throat to be able to take a cock. She already knows the things I do with the women I'm around.]
Ayesha didn't respond to Alex, mostly because it would require her to respond verbally in front of Gwen. No matter how obedient and servile she acted in front of Alex, she was, ultimately, the highest authority of an intergalactic empire and possessed a sense of deep-rooted pride. Unfortunately, that pride was almost entirely based on the perception that her people had of her, which Alex took full advantage of. Her training included regular illusory role-play scenarios of her being paraded like a slave amidst her subjects, every single one of which left her overwhelmed and lost as she came to understand just how fragile her prestige and pride were. There had only been two such role-play scenarios for the time being, but they had already gotten her much more obedient and submissive to Alex.
"I know Apex was training you in his own way," Gwen said bluntly. "I want you to know that you can talk to me if he ever takes things too far. There are times he loses himself in the novelty and enjoyment and needs to be grounded. As long as you can get a message to me, I'll help out under such circumstances."
"Seriously, Gwen, what kind of a sex-crazed monster do you take me for?" Alex abruptly appeared beside her with a slightly annoyed expression on his face.
"One who can't help but get his tentacles on any woman he finds remotely hot," she said. "Worst of all, instead of going the one-and-done route, you stick yourself to that woman semi-permanently and make her submit to you in body and soul through the use of your hypnotic pleasure techniques that turn them into borderline addicts. Need I continue?" She took an audible breath after unloading on Alex.
"Everything I do is consensual," he said immediately. "I may not verbalize it sometimes, but I can easily tell what a woman truly wants better than even her. I have never seen any woman feel regret after an experience with me."
"That's because they can't remember half of it," she said. "And subconscious consent doesn't count."
"It has to count for something if it shows on your face and body…"
Alex and Gwen's banter completely overshadowed Ayesha. Then again, she was in no state to pay attention to their words and had her eye glued to Alex's face. This was the face of the person who had become her master for over two weeks now. She had spent every second of every day feeling his presence somewhere on or inside her without ever seeing the man. Even her dreams consisted of that face most of the time—after starting her sexual training, she'd grown to have regular wet dreams, at least once every two days. Unfortunately for her, she hadn't been able to see his face beyond the first time that he'd hypnotized her for interrogation and put the permanent collar on her neck.
"Umm…" Ayesha tried to get their attention. "I-I don't really mind, Miss Gwen."
"Honestly, I can never win with you," Gwen scowled before turning to Ayesha with a polite smile. "Don't worry about us, we're just messing around. As for Zephyros, we took care of it. The Harbinger is dead, as are the foremost commanders of that thing's fleet. When I left, your people were doing a good job, slowly cleaning up the remaining fleet."
"Just like that?" Ayesha asked.
"Just like that," Alex nodded.
"Tell me something, though," Gwen said. "Is there any benefit to prolonging this conflict?"
"None that I know of," Ayesha shook her head. "Master might have certain thoughts, however. His strategy has been one to defend and prolong things."
"What's the deal?" Gwen asked. "Are you baiting him or something?"
"Something like that," Alex said. "You realized that I didn't use my Infinity Stones, right? That's because I don't want to startle the guy and make him retreat. As long as we slowly increase the battle power of the Sovereign, we will be able to eventually push him into going all out. I'm hoping that going all out would mean utilizing a few Infinity Stones in the conflict, at which point I can act and get all of his stones in one fell swoop."
"Sounds simple enough," Gwen nodded. "But the lives lost…"
"That's the best part. Tell her, Ayesha," Alex said with a smug smile.
Ayesha gave him a slightly confused look, not used to the way he was behaving right now. "We do not fight our wars in the traditional manner," she said. "Our soldiers remotely pilot ships and mechanized units. The only citizens on the four planets are the miners and industrialists who are responsible for securing the necessary resources to help us prolong the war. For the Sovereign, war casualties are almost non-existent."
Gwen was left blinking in surprise at the revelation. "That's…awesome. So to your people, war is literally like a video game. Can I play?"
"War is no game, Miss Gwen," Ayesha said. "While this protects our soldiers and pilots from death, what they are fighting for is our safety. If they lose the so-called game, that is one less ship in our fleet. One less defender. And once the defense lines across the four planets are breached, we will be helpless even after evacuating everyone to Sovereign Prime. That is when the war will reach our citizens. So please, do not take this situation lightly."
"Ayesha," Alex stepped forward and wrapped his arm around the woman. "My Gwennie here understands very well what's at stake here. She was trying to keep the mood light by being a little playful. The scenario that you described will never come to fruition. I can guarantee you that."
"A-apologies, Miss Gwen," Ayesha said, suppressing her instinct to throw Alex's arm away and call her guards to execute him. After all, she had only become used to being subservient to the voice in her collar. With the man behind that voice suddenly appearing and acting familiar, she was naturally startled and unable to completely come to terms with the situation.
"No, it's fine," Gwen shook her head. "You are correct. I was being childish. Apex tells me that you have an important meeting to attend regarding the attack on Zephyros. Now that you know the inside situation, you can go in there with all the information you need."
"You should join me."
"No," Gwen shook her head. "I am only here to meet you. Outwardly, the one who killed the Harbinger and the other commanders of the battle was Apex. And it should stay that way. I don't want to waste my time in a long meeting when I could instead have fun with this insolent master of yours."
Gwen's suggestive glance toward Alex told Ayesha exactly what kind of fun she meant.
"We'll use this as a way to introduce the Apex Empire to your people, Ayesha," Alex said. "You can go on ahead. I'll brief you about my plan on the way."
"Okay," Ayesha, almost relieved, stepped forward, freeing herself from Alex's arm. "Please make yourself comfortable, Miss Gwen. I shall return as soon as possible."
"Take your time," Gwen said, looking at Ayesha's departing back and waving casually. "So? Golden skin, huh? Do you have something specific for the color?"
"What are you talking about?"
"I don't know. Me, another me, Jane, Sue, Yelena, and now someone whose entire skin is golden along with her hair. I'm seeing a pattern."
"There's another pattern," Alex said. "Natasha, Wanda—if we're working on my instinctive response—a Mary Jane Watson, your Mary Jane Watson, etc. My type is women. Period. Am I biased toward Gwen Stacy? A little. But that comes from Spider-Man's influence on me. I've devoured quite a few of those guys, and half of them hated themselves for letting you die."
Gwen clicked her tongue and sat back down on the couch. "I couldn't help but notice that you haven't completely eaten that Queenie of yours yet."
"What angle are you fishing for now?"
"Nothing," she said casually, looking at her well-manicured nails. "Taking things slow with her, are we?"
"Her entire race was genetically engineered to not actually enjoy anything remotely sexual."
"Not what I asked."
"Yes, I'm taking things slow. What are you getting at?"
"Oh, nothing," she said with a mock casualness to her tone. "Just wondering why you haven't directly manipulated her biology to turn her into a slut for your cock."
"Where's the fun in that?" Alex asked. "The journey to the point of fucking her is the best part."
"Aha!" She exclaimed. "So you admit that taking things slow has its merit. Maintaining a sense of novelty in a relationship is very important."
"What are you… Is this about anal? We've been together for four years now, Gwen. You don't deny an experience for the sake of novelty for four years."
"I'm not denying it, I'm just waiting for the right moment," she said.
"I already agreed that I won't force you," Alex said with a sigh. "No need to analyze me and find more parallels."
"I just wanted to prove to you that my thoughts are also valid," she said smugly.
"Come here, you little…" Alex grabbed her arm and threw her on Ayesha's bed, eliciting a loud squeal from her as she felt her outfit disappearing before she even hit the bed.
***
If you like the story, follow it and leave a review and whatever else, it motivates me a lot. I try not to leave any mistakes in the chapters, but if you find something glaring, let me know, and I'll try to fix it.
If you want to support me, check out my Patréon. I post advanced chapters there and do weekly polls to decide the stories that I will be posting for the week. No pressure though, I'm eventually going to post my content publicly regardless.
www.patrèon.com/addyctive
(Replace the è with e)