Their Human Vessel

by Lizzy Bequin

  And the whole time, Corrie just stared up at him, never taking her eyes away from his handsome masculine face.

  She could still feel him inside her—the fluid warmth that he had deposited in her belly and between her legs.

  In fact, she could almost swear that she felt his seed creeping through her cervix and into her womb.

  That had to be her imagination. And yet, the strange tickle deep in her center was undeniable.

  Could an alien even get her pregnant, she wondered.

  They were different species, but their bodies seemed highly compatible, even if he was a little too big for her.

  Corrie pushed these thoughts from her mind.

  She was alive, for now at least. That was all that mattered.

  Vorne had saved her, in his own brutal way.

  CHAPTER 12

  When Vorne had finished washing the tiny human’s naked body, he carried her back to the black sand shore and set her down delicately on her lovely little bottom. He gazed at her for a moment, simply taking in the sumptuous curves of her flesh, which was glittering with crystal beads of water that soon began to dry in the warm air.

  His eyes lingered on the plump mounds of flesh on her chest.

  Mammary glands.

  Breasts.

  From the stories he had heard of humans, this specimen’s glands were not especially big, but the shape of them excited his lust and drew more bloodflow into his thickening member.

  Vorne’s eyes drifted down the female’s naked body, past the deep dimple in the middle of her soft belly to the tuft of dark fur that matched the lustrous mane sprouting from her head.

  And last, his eyes came to rest on her beautiful cunt.

  Here was a treasure beyond reckoning. A pretty, vertical mouth set between the human’s legs, thirsty to drink up his abundant and virile seed.

  The Terramaran females, back when they had still populated this planet, had looked nothing like this. Their cloaca had been little more than a simple hole, more closely resembling the human female’s anus. But this cunt that lay before him on the sandy shore of the oasis was something else entirely. An exotic blossom of flesh flecked with dew and exuding an intoxicating aroma. The central channel was surrounded by layered folds—pillowed outer lips surrounding the more delicate inner frills. And at the top of that enticing slit, inset like a perfect gemstone, was the human’s pink nerve bundle, partially hidden beneath a fleshy cowl.

  Vorne would implant a hundred thousand loads of his fluid inside that mating recess. That fleshy gateway would give birth to armies. Perhaps, Vorne thought, the first of his brood was already growing in her womb.

  With two beats of his strong Terramaran heart, his cock engorged and rose to maximum erectness. His precursor fluid dribbled from his tip.

  The female gasped at the sight. She noticed where the alien’s hungry gaze was directed, and she quickly clamped her thighs together and drew her knees up to her chin.

  A surge of annoyance rose in Vorne’s chest, and he growled deeply. The human was hiding his treasure from him.

  That cunt belonged to him now, and he would contemplate its beauty whenever he pleased.

  He growled again, and the human cowered. Her eyes filled with fear. It would be such a simple matter to spread those weak thighs and expose her glorious femininity once again. Perhaps he needed to fuck her again right now to make clear to her his absolute and unquestionable ownership of her cunt.

  But Vorne paused. The heat of his frustration and anger cut through the fog of his lust. He took a deep breath. After a few long moments, his massive erection waned.

  There would be time enough later to explore his pet’s body. And explore her he would, fingering every orifice, savoring the taste of every recess and nub, testing the limits of what her soft inner membranes could withstand.

  For now, however, they needed to move.

  They needed to get back to the grotto.

  Already they had tarried long enough in this wilderness. The humans would soon be combing the wastelands in their vehicles and ships. Vorne did not fear death, but he did fear that the humans might steal away his newfound prize.

  Nothing would separate him from his treasure. Nothing. Not even the human female herself.

  The fact that she was concealing her reproductive organs from her new master indicated that she still had not accepted the fact of Vorne’s ownership. Like any new pet, she might bolt and make a run for it. Vorne could easily chase her down, of course, but he didn’t feel like it.

  He had a better idea.

  “Don’t move,” he growled.

  His lips and throat formed the foreign language with careful deliberation. It had been many cycles since he had spoken the human tongue, and his vocal apparatus was unused to its bizarre sounds.

  The human female didn’t answer, but she did obey, sitting stock still on the sand where he had placed her.

  Good.

  Vorne returned to the water’s edge and sorted among the luminescent plants and fungi growing there until he found what he was looking for—a bulbous, purple flower with long pink tendrils emerging from its center.

  With the razor edge of his falchion, Vorne cut three lengths of tendril and returned to where the human was sitting. He stabbed his falchion tip down in the sand and kneeled over her.

  “What are those for?” the human asked in a quavering voice.

  “Quiet.”

  A flash of indignation swept across the human’s face, but again she obeyed, dropping into a sulking silence. Still, her eyes watched Vorne’s fingers with fascination as he worked on the tendrils.

  With the first, he fashioned a loop similar to a small noose.

  “Put your hands out,” he commanded.

  The human did so, but holding her palms up as if she expected Vorne to give the loop to her as a gift.

  “Not like that. Wrists together.” He showed her how he meant.

  “What? Why?”

  “Just do it.”

  The snarl in his voice sent a fresh shiver through the female, and she immediately pressed her wrists together, her tiny hands balled into fists. Vorne slipped the loop around those delicate wrists and pulled it tight, restraining her. As he expected she would, the female tested the strength of the natural fiber, and found it much too strong to break with her meager human strength.

  Vorne smirked at her small, ineffectual defiance.

  Again, Vorne marveled at how different she was from how the Terramaran females had been. The women of his own species had been hard-bodied and nearly as strong as the males. During mating they would fight viciously, refusing to give in until the male violently forced their submission.

  That was the natural way.

  But this little human female was such a soft, weak thing. So delicate. Yes, she had resisted him when he had claimed her mouth and then her cunt, but her puny struggles had only amused him. He had overpowered her with ease.

  Now Vorne fashioned another, similar loop. When he moved to place it over the human’s head, she leaned away from him.

  “Be still,” he snapped.

  Her body froze in fear at the angry sound of his voice, allowing Vorne to slip the loop over her head and pull it snug around her pretty neck.

  Vorne took no pleasure in tormenting his pet thus, but he knew that it was necessary to garner her obedience. With time she would learn. But for now, other means would be necessary.

  “Why are you doing this?” the little human dared to whisper as Vorne took the third strand of plant tendril and knotted it to her collar, forming a makeshift leash.

  The answer seemed obvious.

  “So that you cannot escape,” he said simply.

  “Escape,” the female scoffed. She looked out toward the dark wasteland, to the distant mountains veined with lava and the churning sky flickering now with silent lightning. “Where do you think I would even escape to?”

  Vorne shook his head.

  “In my experience, humans are irrational
creatures, governed by their passions more so than their reason. If you tried to run from me, I would obviously catch you with ease. However, you might injure yourself in the process, and that I will not allow.”

  “I understand,” the female whimpered. “I promise I won’t run.”

  Vorne didn’t answer. He held the makeshift leash with one hand while his other hand inspected the scraps of the human’s ravaged clothing where it lay nearby. He wanted to check for anything valuable that the human might be carrying.

  He fingered the pocket of the human’s torn pants and found a thin, metallic device. He held it up to inspect it.

  “What is this?” he grunted.

  “It’s a vocoder,” the human mumbled.

  “A vocoder? What does it do?”

  “It can change a person’s voice. I don’t need it anymore I guess.”

  Vorne turned the device in the light. He didn’t understand exactly what the device did or whether it would be of any use, but he decided to take it with him. He would take it back to the Listener. She was always interested in human technology.

  He gathered up his leather loincloth from the ground and put it on. He slipped the vocoder device into a leather pouch tied at his hip. Then he pulled his falchion out of the sand and looked down at the female.

  “Stand up.”

  The female didn’t respond. She sat silently at the end of the leash, staring into the rippling pool and sulking.

  “Stand. Up.”

  Vorne felt that hot rage returning to his chest when the human still did not obey. Instead of standing as he had commanded, she just sat there. Her face reddened and her features twisted. Dimples puckered on her chin beneath her frowning lips. Moisture welled and spilled from her eyes, and soft, hiccuping sounds issued from her mouth.

  The human was weeping.

  Vorne’s rage dissipated into mere irritation. His annoyance was directed as much at himself as toward the female. Her crying was such an infantile response, but what did he expect. She was still human after all.

  “Come, little one,” he purred.

  He stooped and hefted the naked and bound human, draping her once again over his shoulder like his prey. Her tied hands hung down his back, and he still clutched the lead tied around her neck, just in case she should manage to struggle away from him.

  But the female didn’t struggle. Her little body shuddered and convulsed with her silent crying.

  Vorne released a sigh of exasperation and then set off into the wasteland at a sprint, running in the direction of the secret grotto.

  They had wasted far too much time already.

  CHAPTER 13

  It wasn’t long before Corrie stopped crying. There wasn’t any point.

  Bent over the running alien’s shoulder, Corrie silently stared at the black sand desert disappearing behind them. Gradually the dark sky grew even darker, as more black clouds of volcanic smoke gathered overhead. It looked like nighttime now, though it probably wasn’t even noon. Corrie had no idea, since she couldn’t see the through the dark billows overhead. The only sources of light now came from the green glow of lava rivers, the scattered, bioluminescent flora, and the intermittent flash of lightning that lit the landscape brighter than daylight.

  Corrie swiped the last tear from her eye and sighed.

  Her crying hadn’t really been pointless. She had needed the emotional release. Over the past twenty-four hours, she had been attacked, kidnapped, and her life had been threatened. And then there was all the stuff that had happened at that oasis.

  Now here she was, bound and leashed like some kind of pet.

  As she gazed at the dark, alien landscape shrinking away from her, Corrie’s heart yearned to be back on Earth—back in her New York City loft that she could barely afford. She longed for that life where her main problem was holding onto her career.

  That all seemed so distant now. It had been ripped away from her in the blink of an eye, replaced by problems of a much more terrifying nature.

  She wondered briefly if she would ever even see Earth again, but when the dull, wet ache of tears pulsed behind her eyeballs, she turned her thoughts away from that.

  The last thing she needed was to start crying again.

  The rhythmic thump of Vorne’s bare feet slowed, and the alien warrior gradually came to a halt. With one arm, he lifted Corrie from his shoulder and set her on the ground. The sand was warm and granular beneath her bare feet.

  It felt good to be standing on solid ground again, after being carried for a long time like a sack of dirty clothes.

  “You will go on foot from here, little human.”

  “Vorne?”

  The alien stared down at her. He was a terrifying shadow with glowing eyes.

  “Yes?”

  “My name is Corrie. I would like you to call me that.”

  Here she was. Captive, naked, bound, and being led on a leash. It was beyond degrading. But the “little human” business was just too much. Without her name she had no identity, and by extension no dignity.

  Vorne gazed down at her for a long moment, his green eyes smoldering coldly. At last he nodded.

  “Yes. Corrie. Follow me.”

  She had no choice but to obey. The strange viney leash tugged at her neck, and she had to scramble to keep up with the alien warrior’s long stride.

  She still didn’t know why this stupid leash was even necessary. Where the hell did this guy think she would go anyway?

  This was an alien world, and a barren wasteland at that. There was no way in hell she would want to be out in that wilderness by herself. She had no clue what other sort of fauna might be prowling those dark hills.

  She would take her chances with the devil she knew.

  As if she had a choice.

  Vorne led the way toward a particularly large outcropping, a slanted slab of stone with a sheer vertical face on one side. There was a crack running up that face, and it looked too narrow even for Corrie to squeeze through, but to her amazement, Vorne sucked in a deep breath, flattening his torso, and sidled into the crevice, his sword hand leading the way.

  Once he was inside, his other hand tugged at the leash, beckoning Corrie to follow.

  With her hands bound, Corrie could not put her arms down at her sides, so she was forced to raise them over her head instead. As she pressed into the crevice, she bumped into Vorne’s hard, warm body.

  Now she was grateful for the strange sense of security his presence provided. Only a few feet inside, she felt an overwhelming surge of claustrophobia. The stone walls of the passage were so narrow that there was barely room to wiggle. All she could do was sidle along after Vorne. At least the stone was smooth, so it did not abrade her skin.

  It was dark. She could see nothing. She could only feel the hard stone at her front and back, and Vorne’s body, almost equally hard beside her.

  He sensed her rising panic.

  “Be calm,” Vorne rumbled from the darkness ahead of her. “You are safe. We are almost through.”

  Corrie wasn’t so sure about the “safe” part. Safe was a relative concept, and this alien seemed to have very different ideas about the word’s meaning. Perhaps some nuance was lost in translation.

  Still, Vorne had told the truth about the second part, about being near the end of the passage. After a few more sideways steps, the crevice broadened, opening onto a spacious, dome-shaped grotto. The air echoed with the trickle of water. A cool breeze stirred and licked at Corrie’s skin.

  The most miraculous part of this hidden grotto, however, was the garden of bizarre alien plants and fungi that lined the walls—mosses and lichens and mushroom-like growths—all of them glowing with ghostly, multicolored lights. She had seen similar flora at the oasis and interspersed around the desert, but here inside this enclosed chamber of natural stone, the effect was even more stunning.

  For the shortest space a moment can be, all of Corrie’s negative emotions were swept away on a wave of awe and wonder at the natural b
eauty of this place.

  But the spell was broken almost as soon as it had been cast, for her eyes fell on something that made her breath catch in her throat and her heart skip a beat.

  By the far wall, partially silhouetted against the eerily glowing backdrop, crouched two massive, humanoid shapes, and set within their heads were two blinking pairs of eyes, which were glowing green like the life-forms clinging to the walls.

  “No,” Corrie gasped.

  She tried to take a step back, but the tendril-leash grew taut between her neck and the unyielding alien fist that held the other end.

  “La’arfleeze,” Vorne said. The alien word reverberated through the chamber.

  The shadows rose and moved forward.

  One of the aliens bore a strong resemblance to Vorne, but his face was clean shaven and far more youthful in appearance. There was an openness to his expression. His hair was cut into a broad, close-cropped mohawk.

  But it was the other alien that made Corrie’s blood run cold.

  A broken horn. Bandages at his side soaked with his dark blood.

  It was him—it was the feral alien from the facility. The one that Corrie had inadvertently helped escape.

  The one that had attacked her.

  He approached her now, green eyes gleaming with predatory hunger.

  Corrie’s shriek filled the chamber, rebounding off the hard stone walls.

  CHAPTER 14

  Corrie screamed until she had expelled the last ounce of air from her lungs. The sound of her terrified cry repeated through the caverns that branched off from this central grotto. The continuation of the echoes indicated that the network of caves must be extensive indeed.

  She drew a deep inhale, preparing to scream again, but a sharp tug of the leash silenced her.

  “Quiet, Corrie,” Vorne growled. “Your piercing voice is painful to my ears.”