For Ransom

Chapter 1: A Ransom Note

Alessandro

He downed the glass of watery beer, the bitter liquid burning with the potency of cheap alcohol. He was young, clearly in the peak of his adolescence and walked the line between boy and man, his soft, blond waves balanced out by penetrating blue eyes that were weathered with use and bright with sharp intelligence. The stench of sweat and piss coated his nostrils as he resumed his task of sorting the variety of weapons they had stolen from the raid yesterday.

"Alessandro, how are you doing?" Metal clattered onto the floor as he dropped the rifle he was polishing. Soraya approached him from behind, that slight arch of her shapely brows enough to send a ripple of thrill through his body.

Ever since Alessandro had first laid eyes on her, he had become her bitch. He had willingly given up everything, a life of freedom and luxury for this life of captivity. She was a drug to him, terrible when he couldn't have her, but when she gave him the slightest amount of attention, his body would do anything for another minute of it. Alessandro did not know how he let it get to this point.

It had begun with a ransom note from a friend of his.

"You heard of her?" Alessandro studied the vague sketch of a girl on the ragged scrap of paper. The lines of her silhouette were loose and scrawled, the artist clearly struggling to recall what the wanted pirate looked like, but even from the beginning, her picture had fascinated him.

Alessandro was the most renowned pirate hunters of his time, despite only being twenty-two years of age. His story was a classic one: an orphan who rose the ranks of a pirate hunting guild until he was bringing in more cash on his own than the entire guild combined. Now, he worked solo and only took on the most valuable of jobs. His net worth: over ten million. And he was drowning in pussy every night. Girls threw himself at him and he used to love it, but over time, he had become numb to the sex. He couldn't even remember the last time a girl had piqued his interest in the slightest.

Until now.

"No, who is she?"
"People say she's a vixen incarnate. She goes by the name Soraya of Shih, descended from the greatest Chinese pirate of all time, Ching Shih. She's gained notoriety in the past year, amassing a small but powerful crew. She has defeated countless infamous pirates and it is said she is heading straight for the Land." Alessandro swallowed his surprise. No one who dared to breach the last piece of land left on Earth survived. Simply called the Land, it was ruled by a kingdom far too mighty for even for the most ruthless pirates that dominated the seas. He was definitely listening now.

His friend leaned in closer, as if he was telling a guarded secret.

"And they say no man has ever touched her." The half-lidded eyes of the sketch seemed to blink in challenge as Alessandro studied her.

A vixen indeed.

He licked his lips in anticipation. The pirate hunter had found his prey.

Little did Alessandro know that he would become the prey. Turns out, Soraya had her eyes on him months before he had even heard of her. And the funny thing was, he let himself get caught even when he knew he was being followed, let her ugly minion handcuff him roughly as she smirked at him with lips fuller than he had even fathomed. Alessandro was hooked on the idea of her, of a woman his age who was just as powerful and desired as himself. And even better, she represented a kind of purity he had never been able to find. The months leading up to his capture had been spent fantasizing and molding this perfect image of her and when he saw her up close, she had not disappointed. She was another challenge for him to conquer and only him. And for a man that had everything, that was everything.