Goddess King: A Fantasy Harem Adventure

by Noah Layton

  ‘Absolutely,’ she nodded, ‘anything in particular that you were thinking of?’

  ‘Some kind of… Jewellery, I guess?’ He said, not sounding too sure himself. ‘If you make that kind of thing for men, that is.’

  ‘We do…’ She smiled, rounding the counter and nodding to the back of the store. ‘Follow me.’

  James did as he was told, walking behind her, guided like a carrot on a stick by the overemphasised swaying of her ass in the mini-skirt she was wearing as they moved through the store.

  ‘Have you found it?’

  ‘Shh…’ He said quietly through gritted teeth.

  How the hell was he supposed to get this thing back from the girl? Clearly he hadn’t been hallucinating about his body because of the way this girl had reacted – she was more into him than any girl seemingly ever had been.

  At the back of the store they arrived at a small display of men’s accessories, some in glass cases, some sat upon shelves, all high-priced beyond belief.

  ‘What kind of thing were you looking for, sir?’

  She turned to James expectantly, one hand on a hip, the other running her fingertips through her hair.

  If he had doubts about her being into him before, they were all gone.

  He just had no idea how to act around a girl this hot.

  ‘Uhh… Something that won’t break the bank too much.’

  She laughed hysterically, way too obviously to actually think that it was funny, but in the process she slapped him lightly on the arm, her eyes going wide as she felt the hardness of his bicep beneath his shirt.

  ‘Well,’ she continued, ‘how about we get you a selection and try them on with a mirror? Unfortunately there aren’t any available out here but we have some in the changing rooms.’

  ‘Why not?’ James smiled.

  After picking out a few things he followed her into the changing room. In the small space they were unable to prevent themselves from brushing up against each other.

  Before she started opening the boxes, he pointed out her necklace.

  ‘Y’know, I actually liked the look of the one you’re wearing. What is that, emerald?’

  ‘Oh, I don’t know actually,’ she said, running a hand over her neckline and playing with the chain. ‘I picked it up at this vintage thrift store place a while back.’

  ‘Would you mind if I tried it on?’

  She gave him a sceptical smile before shaking her head.

  ‘Sure,’ she giggled, unclipping it and handing it to him.

  Taking the gem in his hand, Elena piped up again.

  I can feel you touching me… Can you release me already?

  If he was turned on already by being so close to Maria, hearing that voice say those words almost sent him completely over the edge. To Elena it was probably an innocent line, but the way she said it made it one of the hottest things James had ever heard.

  He hurriedly considered his options. He could smash the gemstone right then and there, and either nothing would happen or this girl or goddess or whatever she called herself would be released.

  Or he could break and run for it without another word.

  Either way it was theft, but James had bigger fish to fry.

  He placed it around his neck, struggling with the chain until Maria’s soft warm hands brushed against the back of his neck, finding it for him.

  Now James really felt like running.

  ‘Get rid of this girl and get the hell out of here.’

  Her voice had suddenly become a little more commanding.

  Hang on, James thought.

  ‘This looks really great…’ He said, trying to sound genuine. ‘Say, I think I saw a blue shirt on the way to the back that would go great with this. Would you mind fishing it out for me?’

  ‘Sure. What size are you?’

  ‘Medi-…. Uhh, large.’

  ‘I’ll bet you are…’ She smiled, winking at him and leaving the changing rooms as he clasped his hands over his face at how ridiculously hot this girl was.

  ‘Is she gone?’

  ‘Yes, but-’

  ‘Then get out of there!’

  ‘Look, this girl is coming onto me so hard that I’m pretty sure she’s about to rip my pants off right here in this changing room. Give me five minutes… Or considering how hot she is, two minutes at most.’

  ‘Leave, or I shall be forced to make you do so.’

  ‘Yeah, right,’ he said. ‘I’m about to live almost every guy’s dream and here I am having a conversation with a rock.’

  ‘You leave me no choice.’

  James’s chest started to heat up impossibly fast, just like before. Looking down at the gem he realised that not only was it heating up, but the heat was somehow transferring into his body. Even if he ripped the gem off he wouldn’t be able to escape it.

  And this time there were no fountains nearby.

  ‘God damn it…’ James groaned to himself, hopping out of the changing room and dashing into the store.

  Maria caught sight of him as he hurried fast, calling out with a mix of authority in her position as the teller and genuine disappointment that he was taking off.

  ‘I hate myself,’ James said, dashing through the door and across the street. ‘Almost as much as I hate you.’

  ‘I understand that you’re angry, but please don’t do anything drastic. I’m almost free, after all.’

  ‘That’s entirely down to me,’ he said, running far down a quiet, darkened alley and fumbling to undo the chain. ‘And whoever or whatever you are, you’ve caused me nothing but problems since this morning.’

  ‘Release me, and I promise that I will explain everything.’

  James was still messing with the chain when she spoke, and a second later he had finally ripped the thing free from around his neck. She had ceased the searing heat that had caused him to leave the store, and in a moment of mounting frustration he threw the gem down on the floor and raised the heel of his boot, smashing it into the gem.

  He expected a smash or a shatter, but instead his effort was met with a hard crack.

  And that was how James finally met Elena, the first of the goddesses, and changed his life forever.

  Chapter Five

  Elena

  A plume of red smoke, similar to that which had burst from the locket, exploded from beneath James’s foot. Despite his newfound strength and muscular body, he was still knocked back by the force of it, stumbling against the alley wall as he looked in astonishment at the sight before him.

  The smoke quickly took on a much shapelier form. It moved to a concentrated spot a few yards away, standing a few inches shorter than James as it moulded into the shape of a person, and in an instant it became just that.

  She had the appearance of a girl in her early-twenties, sporting luscious black hair that fell over her shoulders and framed her beautiful face. Her skin was the lightest of tanned tones, only serving to compliment her slender figure and exaggerated curves, her busty chest, curvaceous behind and the space around her hips the only parts of her that were covered. A lacy set of red lingerie hugged her curves, perpetually looking as if it was ready to burst open completely at the seams.

  ‘A charm to finally met you in person,’ she said, completely unphased by her own nakedness – pretty much the total opposite of James. ‘How rude – it occurs to me now that I never thought to ask your name.’

  ‘It’s, uhh…’ James started, his mind filled by the sight of her perfect form. ‘James. James Torrance. And you’re…’

  ‘Elena. Just Elena. My kind does not give names beyond a single word.’

  ‘Your kind?’

  ‘Like I said before, it might be more appropriate to explain things somewhere else.’ She looked around the alleyway, raising an eyebrow at a nearby dumpster and a steaming grate further down. ‘Is this your home?’

  ‘No, this is just an alleyway.’

  ‘An alleyway? Ahh, I remember them quite well… They seem to have changed co
nsiderably since I was last on Earth… What’s that?’

  She pointed past James at a car parked in the street outside.

  ‘That’s just a car… You seriously don’t know what that is?’

  ‘Of course not. I’ve been trapped inside that damned gemstone for 80 years.’

  James’s mouth fell agape a little. ‘80 years?’

  ‘Look, we need to go somewhere a little safer. Do you have a home nearby?’

  ‘Yeah, we can get a cab there.’

  ‘A cab?’

  ‘It’s a type of car.’

  ‘Ahh… And what was a car again?’

  ‘It looks like I need to explain a few things, too.’

  ‘Well let’s get out of this alley and back to your home.’

  Elena went to pace past James, and he barely managed to drag his eyes away from her body in time to stop her.

  ‘Woah, woah, woah…’ He said. ‘You can’t just walk out in the streets dressed like that!’

  ‘Seriously?’ She asked me, frowning. ‘80 years ago society had a problem with it, by now I would have thought that you’d have all moved past that.’

  ‘Well, we kind of have, but walking around dressed in nothing but your underwear could get you some… Unwanted attention.’

  ‘Unwanted attention…? Oh, you mean from men! Do not worry about such things, I know how to deal with men.’

  ‘I’ll bet, but all the same, I think we should take a cab.’

  James pulled off his jacket, wrapping it around her.

  ‘I see this is still a custom amongst men and women, too?’

  ‘Not a custom, you just need to be a little less… Naked.’

  ***

  The cab ride was only five minutes, but to Elena it was like picking up on a lifetime of unknown wonders. She stared and gazed with an open mouth at every five-story building, every hipster cycling through the streets, and every pampered dog whose head was poking out of a handbag.

  The journey also felt immensely long for James, too, seeing as he spent most of the time worrying that she would open the cab door and hop out at any moment while it was still moving.

  Finally they arrived back at his building, and minutes later he was ushering her into the apartment and shutting the door behind them.

  Any reservations that he had had before about any of this being a figment of his imagination were now gone – he was now firmly in the moment, and firmly believing in the beautiful girl who was standing before him.

  She moved into the apartment, continuing to take in her surroundings.

  ‘This is your home? A little smaller than the places that I’ve been in the past, but it has a pleasantness to it, I suppose.’

  ‘Hey, this is a good apartment in a city like this. It could be a lot worse, believe me.’

  ‘Apologies, I didn’t want to cause a… Stir.’

  She looked over her shoulder at him, smiling and winking, showing what James would call a devilish side for the first time.

  He knew that from the start – she may have been curious about her unfamiliar surroundings, but there wasn’t a semblance of innocence behind her eyes.

  She was bad, and she knew it.

  ‘I’ll be honest,’ James started. ‘I’ve got more questions than I know what to do with.’

  ‘Don’t feel bad. I’ve got plenty for you too. Why don’t we play the devil’s game?’

  ‘… The devil’s game?’ He said sceptically, wanting to take a step back but staying determined to stand his ground.

  ‘I ask a question, you give an honest answer. You ask a question, I give an honest answer.’

  ‘I’m pretty sure that’s just called a conversation.’

  ‘In a conversation there are conventions and rules, things you don’t mention and know not to talk about. If we play this game, I can ask whatever I want… And you can ask me whatever you want.’

  ‘What happens if I lie?’

  ‘I punish you.’

  ‘And if you lie?’

  ‘You can punish me.’

  James had never heard anything sound so sexy in a twisted way. He had never been into anything weird, but hearing her talk like that he thought that he could be.

  ‘All right,’ he conceded. ‘I’ll go first. Who…’ James hesitated, rephrasing his question. ‘What are you?’

  ‘I am one of the Alerian Goddesses,’ she said matter-of-factly. ‘I’m from the netherworld dimension. Your kind would call me a demon, but a demon is just one type of goddess.’

  James took in each word, frowning and blinking a couple of times.

  ‘That just gives me more questions,’ he said.

  ‘I know, that’s why it’s called the devil’s game – it always leaves you on a lower footing.’

  He grimaced and nodded, realising that he may have really fucked up.

  But there was one thing he was relatively confident about – she couldn’t hear his thoughts anymore, and he couldn’t hear anything that was going inside her head.

  ‘My turn,’ she grinned deviously. ‘How did you come into possession of that locket?’

  ‘You could have done so much with your question,’ he smiled. ‘I bought it at a strange little store right here in the city. An elderly lady sold it to me, saying that it would change my life.’

  ‘I see…’ Elena pondered, eyeing James as she tapped the tips of her fingers against her chin.

  ‘Second question,’ he said. ‘How can you prove to me that you’re a demon or a goddess or whatever, and not just playing some elaborate practical joke on me?’

  Elena grinned again.

  ‘Do you mind if I get rid of this?’ She asked, tugging lightly at the collar of James’s jacket that she was still wearing. ‘It’s just a little… Restricting.’

  Before he could say a word she shrugged out of the jacket, letting it fall from her hands to the floor. She placed her hands on her hips, looking more like a supermodel from a high-end lingerie catalogue than ever.

  All of a sudden, soundlessly, a huge pair of wings unfolded from behind her back. They had been compacted against her skin so tightly that James hadn’t even noticed when he had put the jacket over her.

  ‘What the fuck…?’ He said, exhaling what little breath was left in his lungs. They were huge, the wingspan almost stretching the width of the apartment. They were a deep red color, save for the black lines that framed their edges, right up until they met her skin.

  ‘I didn’t even need to speak for that one,’ she said slyly. ‘Next one; you said that two plumes of smoke came out of the locket when you opened it. What happened to you in the hours or days following that?’

  James inhaled deeply. ‘I woke up the next day with my wounds healed, twenty extra pounds of muscle and my body overheating like crazy. I feel full of energy, too. Which leads me to what I want to ask you; what the hell is happening to me?’

  ‘That’s the question that you should have asked me to begin with, because in order to answer that I need to tell you a lot of things.’

  ‘Am I gonna need to sit down for this?’

  ‘If you think you may get tired.’

  ‘No, it’s an expression…’

  ‘Oh… Oh, you were trying to infer that the story would be long, correct?’

  ‘Pretty much.’

  ‘Not necessarily.’

  ‘Still, let’s get some food.’

  ‘Food? I haven’t eaten since I was captured.’

  ‘Seriously? You haven’t eaten in 80 years?’

  ‘I’m a goddess, I have no need to eat. I only do so for the taste.’

  ‘Well, what do you like the taste of?’

  ‘Anything sweet.’

  A trip to the kitchen later and James was seated in his computer chair with a bowl of popcorn while Elena stretched herself out on the couch, surrounded by everything sugar-centric that he could find; candy, chocolate, even a packet of frozen blueberries that he had had sitting in his freezer.

  ‘Damn, this is delici
ous,’ she moaned, picking from the packet of fruit and popping them one piece at a time past her lips. ‘Sugar used to be so hard to come by. Is it in abundance now?’

  ‘You could say that…’

  ‘What a great time to be rescued…’

  James couldn’t help but smile. Elena spoke with an effortless grace, the English accent only making her hotter, but just looking at her sexy figure stretched out on the couch he knew that there was something otherworldly about her; everything about her put her above a human level. Overwhelmingly sexy, elegant as all hell, but with a devilishness behind her eyes that he didn’t trust for a second.

  ‘I am a goddess, for lack of a better word,’ she began. ‘We are immortal beings that have existed since long before your people began to walk this earth. That said, we are not from your world; the Alerian Goddesses originate in a thousand different worlds. Aeons ago, two gods named Alerian and Ascevious sought to bring together goddesses from a thousand different worlds, including myself. The goddesses are all very different in their appearances and powers; I am just one of many. We began a consortium to trade, exchange and bring peace between our worlds and dimensions.

  ‘Up until 1938 we used your world as a crossing point between our own worlds, a kind of… Trading post, or meeting point, so to speak. We also sought to stave off the most terrible of monsters in this world when they happened to somehow cross from their worlds into this one.

  ‘For thousands of years we prospered successfully, sharing resources and information and wealth on an unprecedented level, but like all great things it did not last forever. In 1938 a great conflict emerged between Alerian and Ascevious; while Alerian wished for goddesses to maintain independent control over their own worlds, Ascevious decided that changes to the system should be made. He wished for greater control over the goddesses and their worlds, as well as desiring to lay waste to your world, and a terrible conflict broke out.

  ‘Countless goddesses were killed in the process, and in the end Alerian and Ascevious sought to save and destroy as much as they could, respectively. The hundreds of goddesses that remained were cast into small dimensions of our own, contained to various inanimate objects. Some were to keep us safe, as Alerian intended to keep us hidden from Ascevious’s evil, but others were locked away for the purpose of enslavement – to be released when the time called for it.