by Loki Renard
She’s talking about me as if I am a prize she intended to hand out, and now that I think about it, I’m sure that’s exactly what she intended to do. The moment I was brought in, many males had designs on me. I’m human. I’m the flavor of the fucking month in this camp full of horny beasts. Scratch just got to me first.
“Believe me, taking her is a kindness,” Scratch says. “There is no male here equipped to deal with this human.”
That sounds like a compliment, though I’m not sure it is supposed to be.
“Out of the room, Pixie,” Shanti orders.
“Why?”
“Out. Now.”
I look at Scratch, and he nods. I guess if this is okay with him, it is okay with me. I don’t really want to spend another minute talking to Shanti post-coitus. I want to get cleaned up and forget she ever saw what she saw.
“Where am I supposed to go?”
“Into the main room. There is a fire and my daughters are sleeping there. Or were sleeping before the two of you started copulating like a pair of…”
“Yeah, yeah…” I interrupt her.
I have to walk past her to leave the room. That’s the most awkward part. I know by the way she’s looking at me that she’s thinking of beating me again. She better fucking not. My ass is already hot and aching from Scratch’s slaps. He probably shouldn’t have done those. They're hard to keep quiet.
I leave the room. I know that Shanti can't hurt Scratch, but I feel a little like I am abandoning him. But I soon have my own problems to worry about.
I walk through the curtain, and I find myself confronted by a half dozen female grimalkin, all adult, all judging me with their variously hued eyes.
“Hi,” I say. “I’m Pixie.”
5 Separating Trouble
Scratch
Shanti is glowering at me as Pixie leaves. She’s absolutely furious, and it’s no secret why. She wanted Pixie for her sons. She probably had the male all picked out for him, once she’d finished molding Pixie into what she thought was an appropriate mate. That was never going to happen. Humans don’t mold easy, especially ones like Pixie.
There’s a long silence. I don’t have anything to say to the matriarch. I don’t answer to her. Neither does Pixie. We may have been recipients of her hospitality, but we weren’t given a choice in the matter, and no amount of home cooking can make somebody obliged not to fuck who they want to fuck.
“I should have seen this coming,” Shanti says, finally.
“Yes,” I agree. “You probably should have.”
“This is why you told the human cub that she should go to the city. You wish to claim her for your own. You wish to take her from us.”
“First, Shanti, she’s not a cub. She’s twenty-one years old. That’s several years into human adulthood.”
“She acts like a cub.”
“That’s what humans are like sometimes. It doesn’t mean they’re not mature, or at least, as mature as they’re going to get.”
“It is not how Kitty acts.”
“Kitty is a very different woman. She’s responsible. And she has a mate who helps control her. Pixie is a wild girl…”
“We are wild too, Scratch. I am not concerned about Pixie. I am concerned about you and your hidden intentions.”
“I don’t have hidden intentions. My intentions have been very clear this entire time, to Pixie, if not to you.”
“You came here to do harm. You were sent to kill us. Now you seem to want nothing but peace. Am I to expect you can be trusted among our warriors and our women?”
I keep forgetting that I am in the body of a soldier. It already feels so much like mine I can’t relate to it having been part of an invasion force.
“I stripped the uniform off. I will not wear the markings of the city. I had no choice in what I did. I was sent through the door with my unit. We weren’t briefed.”
That sounds good to my ears. I hope it sounds good to Shanti. The city doesn’t tell its soldiers who they’re killing or why. It just points them at groups and orders slaughters.
“I don’t expect you to trust me,” I say. “But you obviously don’t want to kill me, and I’m sure you have use for me, so you may as well use me.”
“We will. But you will stay clear of all my daughters, both those I bore, and those I did not. Pixie especially.”
Shanti intends to be a cock block. She might have been a more effective one if they didn’t have a very limited amount of housing in this village, and if she didn’t keep her male prisoners and her female strays in the same room for weeks on end. If I didn’t know better, I’d say she wanted us to mate. But given her current reaction, that doesn’t make sense.
“You might regret separating Pixie and me.”
“Why would I regret it?”
“Pixie needs a mate.”
“No female needs a male,” Shanti says. “Though every male believes he is absolutely necessary. You will earn your place here among the warriors, and you will stay twelve feet away from my girls at all times. You are an unperson until you prove yourself to us.”
“Good luck with taming that human on your own.”
“I can handle one female. I have dozens of daughters.”
“Not like her, you don’t.”
“You speak as though you know her.”
“I speak as though I have seen females like her before. I spent time on Earth. I know how wild they can be, and it is far wilder than you. Shanti. Don’t forget, I have spent weeks with nothing to do but talk to her. She was damaged on Earth. She was hurt and used; she was forced to trade her body for the basics of life. But she chose me, here. Trusted me, here. She’s mine. And you can hate that all you like, but it doesn’t change the truth.”
I can tell Shanti does not like my tone. But I have to give her credit for not having me killed. It would be easier to slay me — even though they are very short on warriors, which is why they welcomed Skoll so easily. But Skoll had a pregnant mate. He had a reason to settle and give them what they wanted. I have no such reason that they know of.
“You have been mating with the human, without…” she begins to embark on another lecture.
“We have been mating with each other. She’s a grown woman. She knows what she wants. Why are you talking to me as if I am the responsible party, and as if I’ve done something wrong?”
“You’ve taken advantage of a young woman lost in a very frightening world.”
“So? Skoll did the same thing.”
“How do you know that?”
“Huh?”
That is my very lame, very belated attempt to stall.
“How do you know Skoll? How do you know how he and Kitty met?”
“I, er…”
Shanti pushes her advantage. “You have said many things in passing and when you thought you were in private, all suggesting that you know our people. You know Skoll, and his mate Kitty. You even know the name of their son. An invader who came through the wall and was immediately wounded before being brought to my private chambers should not know any of that. Either you have been a spy for a lot longer than you are admitting, or something else is amiss. Are you going to tell me the truth of the situation?”
I have to think fast. Fortunately, I am a criminal and a liar, just like Pixie says, and my skills are more than equal to the task.
“I hear things too, Shanti. This place is full of gossip and talk, day and night. A new baby born to a human and a city mate is a hot topic. Your daughters speak of little else. We can hear them through the walls.”
“I don't think that is the way you came to know these things. You are aware of intensely personal dynamics.”
Shanti’s not stupid. She might be the smartest grimalkin, or person I've ever met. I have to remember that just because she’s living in a remote village and wearing the equivalent of dyed sack cloth robes, she’s still a worthy opponent. Her tribe has managed to not only survive and sustain itself, but thrive and grow in the harshest of situ
ations. These grimalkin are technically breaking the law simply by living out here. The city considers itself the ultimate authority over all grimalkin, and Shanti’s tribe shows absolutely no respect toward it.
“Who are you really, Scratch? What is your real name?”
Those two questions hit me right in the gut. The truth is, I barely remember. I have been so many names and experienced more than one body. I have leapfrogged between entities in the effort to escape the justice which has attempted to follow me.
“Do you want me to leave?” I answer her question with a question. I can understand Shanti not wanting me in her tribe. I am a big male question mark and I have been defiling that human female she is so attached to, in every way possible. The image of Pixie beneath me, her body undulating in writhing ecstasy, my cock deep in her ass, flashes back to me. I love fucking her. It’s wrong, just like I am, and just like she is.
“I want you to tell me the truth," Shanti replies, her gaze stern and intense. “Or…”
“Or what? I’m too big to spank,” I smirk, knowing how Shanti likes to deal with Pixie. I am sure I am just as frustrating to her, though she likely does not care for me the same way she does for Pixie. She really likes Pixie. I’m not sure what it is precisely about Pixie. I am guessing my little mate triggers Shanti’s protective impulses.
Shanti's brow rises. “Do you think you can simply be flippant and avoid answering any of my questions?”
“I can try.”
“I’m disappointed,” she says.
“I’m sure that would crush me if I were one of the giggling girls around your fire,” I reply. Matters are coming to a head. I can feel my exile coming any moment now. She’s going to have me expelled from her tribal lands. It’s what I would do to me. Actually, I would probably simply kill me. I am a danger and an unknown. I am untrustworthy. She should never have allowed me to live in the heart of her home.
When I will not speak, she calls her son, Fenrir. He is the younger of the older two. Probably the one she had in mind for Pixie.
“Fenrir, take Scratch to your hovel and watch him at all times. You are to be his shadow. He is not to have contact with any female, do you understand me?”
“Yes ma’am,” Fenrir says.
I could argue. I could put up a fight. Hell, I could straight up leave. But none of those options would get me closer to what I want.
“Come on,” Fenrir says.
I go with him because my choices are limited and because I am kicking myself for having given so much away. Shanti has all but unravelled my secret. The only reason she has not worked it out completely yet is because the truth is so outlandish as to be practically unbelievable.
“What did you do to anger her?” Fenrir asks me the question in a friendly fashion. “I haven’t seen her look that sour since Falkri set the house on fire trying to make explosives.”
“I slept with Pixie, the human.”
“Oh.” He gives me a sidelong look, accompanied by a wry grin.
“Yes.”
“That would do it,” he says. “Shanti likes to bless all matings before they occur.”
“Does she.”
“She does.”
“Well.”
We’re not the most sprightly of conversationalists, but Fenrir doesn’t seem to want to kill me, so that’s a win.
6 Rebellion
Pixie
“Where’s Scratch?”
I ask Shanti the question, knowing I am not going to like the answer. I spent last night sleeping near the hearth with her daughters, and today when I peeked through into the little room which was mine and Scratch’s whole world for the past few weeks, I saw no sign of him.
“He’s staying elsewhere. My home has always been a sanctuary for the females of our tribe, and occasionally for those males who fall ill. If he is well enough to mate with you, he is well enough to begin atoning for his sins against us, and working as a hunter.”
So he’s in some hovel somewhere, under guard by Shanti’s sons. Meanwhile, I’m living with her, kept under a different kind of guard. For the first time in weeks, I don’t have to put up with his smart mouth and his constant innuendo.
I miss him. I also miss his dick. That’s crude, but I don’t care.
Without Scratch, being here starts feeling uncomfortable again. He was the one person who made me feel normal. He knew how to interact with me in a way that didn’t make me feel like a weirdo smooth-skinned stranger. Shanti’s daughters and the other women of the tribe don’t. They’re constantly looking at me, asking to touch me, wondering if I am cold. I am cold, as it happens, and they very kindly provide me with furs to wear, which are actually bad ass. I get fur boots and a fur skirt and a cute fur vest. Again, I’m caught between fear and gratitude. These aliens are trying to look after me. The problem is I don’t know how to be looked after.
They tell me that there’s another human here, but I’ve yet to meet her. Apparently, she got knocked up more or less right away and had a baby. I don’t have to worry about that. My IUD ensures consequence free sex, at least for another three years. I’m probably going to have a hard time getting it replaced out here when it runs out.
That thought alone scares me. I could still be here then. I might never get home. Being kept away from Scratch pretty much guarantees that I’m trapped here in this little village.
I do not care for nature. I don’t like bugs. I don't like not having air conditioning. I don't like the lack of real health care. There's a whole lot not to like here, and it is all made worse by being separated from Scratch.
Fuck. Did I fall in love with him? That would be careless as hell. He's not the sort of guy you fall in love with. He’s the sort of alien you bang for a summer and then tell your grandkids about. Your human grandkids.
I need to get to him and we both need to get out of here and back to the city he kept telling me about. The more control Shanti tries to exert over me, the more I resent it. It was nice of her to save my life, but if she thinks she’s going to hold me prisoner, she can fuck off.
“What am I even doing here?”
That is not a question to ask the matriarch, I quickly discover. I meant it in a kind of existential let me go already kind of way. That is not the way she takes it.
“You can learn to weave with the girls,” Shanti tells me. “There is always need for fabrics.”
Great. Just what I always wanted. To end up living in some kind of alien sweatshop. I know there’s no point disobeying her, not until I get a chance to work out where Scratch is, or maybe he will come for me. That might be wishful thinking. Experience has taught me that fucking is not the same as falling in love. For all I know, he’s already found someone else to use.
“Asshole,” I growl under my breath just thinking about it.
“What did you say?”
“Nothing. I wasn’t talking to you.”
Shanti gives me one of those warning looks which I know means I’m about two words away from a whipping. I want to say that I wouldn’t let her do that again, but realistically, I can’t stop her. She’s stronger than a human male would be, so I am at her mercy. I am at everybody’s mercy. It fucking sucks.
Shanti’s daughters and the other females are very interested in me. They have heard much about me since my arrival, but we haven’t really had any contact. They ask me all kinds of questions about Earth, and I entertain them with my answers, but it’s interesting what they care about. The concept of a washing machine blows their minds way more intensely than mobile phones.
But I have questions for them too. Pressing questions, actually. While Scratch and I were secluded, I didn’t feel the need to get fucked up. In his absence, it’s basically all I can think about.
“Okay, so, on Earth, there’s this plant that when you dry it and smoke it, it makes you feel very good. Really good. You guys have anything like that?”
They stare at me with their human-trapped-in-feline-person eyes and I see no recognition at all. They
actually have very pretty faces. They would do really well on Earth, special events, functions, maybe as acrobats in a circus.
They have no idea about the world outside their little village. Neither do I, but I want to find out. I want to see the grimalkin city. I want to get back into an environment which feels natural for me.
“What do you do for fun?”
“We gather berries and small creatures.”
“Okay, but what do you do for fun?”
They don’t even get the question. I’m going to have to explain myself even more.
“Okay, so, the night before I came here, I went to my girlfriend’s house, and we drank alcohol and did each other’s hair, and then we went out to the club and danced with some guys.”
More blank stares. I refuse to believe that these girls only want to sit and weave and gather mice. They’re young, and they’re interested in me and my life. There has to be at least one of them who wants to party.
“You’re a lot different than Kitty,” one of them says. “She was really quiet and was just sick a lot because of the baby. She didn’t really even like to talk to us.”
“She sounds like fun,” I say, sarcastically. I don’t even want to meet her. She sounds like a boring chick who was just happy to get to live somewhere without having to pay rent. I had a life before this place, and I’ll have one after.
“She’s sweet,” one of the others says. “You will like her when you meet her.”
I don't like anyone at the moment. I need a drink. Or a smoke. God, I need something to take the edge off. Scratch’s dick did it for me while we were getting away with secret fucking. He was all the drug I needed. Now I need some real drugs.
But there are none. I’m going to have to be proactive in finding intoxication.
Within a few days I’ve hatched a plan to ferment some fruit. I keep my ration in a clay container and mix it with the closest thing to honey, because I know you need sugars to ferment effectively. Everything I learned about fermentation, I learned from jail. Which is actually a surprisingly good place to learn things. Ten days, and I’ll have something passably strong.