by Amanda Milo
She was fully furred.
I flicked a quick look up at her face. It was my understanding that this happened at full maturity. She was older than I had guessed. Much older. I noticed light lines at her eyes and mouth. Laugh lines. Indicating that she was a happy Gryfala.
Well. Normally.
Definitely not right now, I thought, the frustrated rage building in me as I bent to carry out this task.
I used the wetted cloth to wipe the mess from her thighs. Her flanks. Her back. Apparently, the Krortuvian’s goal was thrust all over her if he couldn’t fit inside. The green ooze was already drying to a crust in places but I was ever so careful as I rubbed at each one. I placed one of her hands on my shoulder, then slowly I lifted her leg over my other shoulder. She whimpered as I inspected her, although I tried to be gentle. I sighed in relief when I saw that the green pus was not present here. That was one hurt spared. But I was horrified to see the bruises discoloring everything from her belly, to her hip, to her legs and knees. And I smelled them at her female place. They may not have been able to rut in her, but they had touched her here.
I darted another glance up, and now she was watching me with trepidation. As pistol-shy as she was, I bet this wouldn’t set her mind at ease – but it might help her body.
I leaned in and licked at a bruise on her thigh. Her skin responded by flinching, and she gasped, her heel digging into my back to angle herself away from my tongue - but she didn’t fight me. I watched carefully, and felt relief when the bruise faded. I moved to another one. And up to another. When I reached her mating place intent on removing even their scent traces from her skin let alone any soreness from their touches, she blocked me suddenly by shoving her hand in front of my nose and dropping her leg down. I smelled blood again, and when my eyes focused, I saw the scrapes on her palm. I dragged my tongue across her skin, lavishing extra attention on her fingertips for reasons I couldn’t explain. It felt… good. Right.
“Ah! Stopthot!” she made sharp noises meant to chastise me, I think. My tail snapped impatiently. Princesses. So bossy.
But when she brought her hand up to examine it, she froze. “Itzheelt!”
Shocked eyes met mine.
I held a hand out to her, motioning for her other palm. Slowly, as if I were offering to bite instead of lick, she gave it to me.
I lapped at it more slowly, more carefully, getting a good coating of saliva to help the healing along.
Then I released her and she examined it too.
“Woww.”
Both of her hands now out of the way, I bumped my nose against the juncture of her thighs and she squeaked and grasped my horns. “No!”
I remembered her using that word with the other males. I did not want her to think of them. I did not want to her use that word on me. But more, I didn’t want to touch her there and trigger her fear. I carefully shook her hold loose and sat back on my heels and looked at her. She lowered to grab the square of cut blanket. She looked at me pointedly, looked at the cloth, then she spat.
She offered it to me. “Speetoneet.”
Ah. Yes of course that would make sense. It wasn’t like I enjoyed having the bastards’ taste in my mouth - though I had been willing, for her sake. Yet Rakhii attended to their Gryfala using their tongues. It was an honor.
One I hadn’t earned, one that didn’t belong to me, obviously. It shouldn’t, yet all the same, it stung a little.
But I wouldn’t traumatize her further by forcing my help. So I spat.
She took the cloth and widened her stance a bit before pausing. I looked up from her legs to her face to see why she stalled. Her cheeks flushed oddly with bright color. I watched her a moment longer, then looked back down to her legs. And waited.
And waited.
She sighed. A bracing sound. “Ohhhkaaaay.” Then she opened her legs wider and ran the cloth over her abused flesh. Then she folded the square in half to find a clean area, and she dipped it inside her… self. Were my horns growing warm? She made a soft sound of distress and I looked up to see her grimacing.
Of course. Of course, whatever they’d managed to do, it hurt her to touch and I growled, fervently wished I could go back and kill them all again.
Slowly.
I didn’t want to imagine the damage they would have done, what ways they would have devised to get themselves off if they couldn’t fit their hemipenes inside. I was enraged that they’d purchased such a delicate creature with plans to abuse her - and so roughly - even though I also knew that this practice was normal for auction items.
Many individuals did go to auctions just to buy work slaves, slaves they’d treat fairly well. Yes, some sought mates, and some bought whores. But, for the money, you’d think they’d treat the females better in order to get more mileage out of their purchase. At the very least, wouldn't it be wiser to bid on size-appropriate - make that species appropriate - matches?
But a princess. They would have been rabid to have one. What an item for the auction. It had never been done. Never. Her winning bid would have been a literal fortune. Still, the Krortuvians must have been mad. If her clan found out, they’d torture, quarter, and desecrate them – then they’d visit the Krortuvian homeland and burn it to the ground. If my mission ended successfully, I would offer to join all the bachelor hobs in razing the entirety of the Krortuvians.
If I wasn’t successful in my quest… then may the Creator grant me to defend the honor of this female - even if I had not been able to do so for my own.
2
ANGIE
The magic saliva tingled and heated and I didn’t try to slow my tears of relief at how that felt to my raw insides where those things had shoved their spiderlegs… I couldn’t… my stomach clenched and it was a moment before I could speak. “Thank you,” I said to the alien. I hastily pushed down my skirt. Goosebumps exploded across my body and I began to shiver slightly.
His heavy brows drew together and I thought I read concern in his features.
He suddenly gripped my arm and I tried not to startle. Failed.
His lips pressed together, and then he dropped his gaze to examine my skin, running his fingers over the bumps. Slowly, I reached past him and shook out the blanket he’d folded. He dropped my arm …and just stared. Wrapping the blanket around my shoulders, I said quietly; “This is really nice.” I ran my fingers over it. “I’ve never felt anything like this. And it’s so warm.”
He was watching me oddly. Like, really oddly.
“What?”
After a moment, he shook himself, and picked up the grey metal looking bottle he’d used to dampen the blanket rag. He handed the bottle to me, so I politely accepted it. He watched me expectantly, then mimed guzzling it back. Oh. I’d wondered if it was just water, but it could just as easily have been liquid soap solution for all I knew. I hesitantly sniffed it. Smelled like …well, nothing, so I hoped that meant it was water. I put it to my lips and took a sip. Then another. Man, I was thirsty. It was a moment before I experienced a rush of guilt; I’d nearly drained it! I wiped my mouth, swished the container to find it just as low as I’d feared, and offered the last of it to him with a grateful – and sheepish - smile. He shook his head and motioned for me to finish. When I did, he reached down and felt around, then pulled out another one. He set it by my foot. I made an ‘I’m good’ gesture with my palm. “Thanks though.”
He nodded. Then he looked up, way up, on the wall. I noticed a cut-away in the stonework. A crude sort of window. I could see stars.
Not my stars. Some other solar system’s.
I breathed deep and tried to calm my suddenly shaking hands. This day had all gone on too long, had all been too much, felt way too real, to be a bad, bad dream. Somehow, this was actually happening. I’d been kidnapped by aliens, sold by aliens, almost raped by aliens, and saved by another.
I darted a look at him, as he still watched the stars. In profile, his roman nose was even more pronounced. It rose proudly from his face, and rolled from
a heavy brow, and although he had sweeping, slightly twisty horns, he overall had some elements of a tough looking ram. But that’s where the similarities stopped. There were his scales for one thing. I’d seen an Australian opal once. It appeared sort of white at a glance, but when it caught the light, it actually reflected every color of the spectrum. His scales reminded me of that. His torso and lower half seemed to be covered in plates that didn’t look like any material I’d recognize. What did I know? Maybe that was his skin.
My perusal ended abruptly when I noticed him watching me out of the corner of his eye. I flushed and looked down, fiddling with the blanket.
A clawed fingertip pressing under my chin had me jerking my eyes up. The blanket began to slide down but with a lightning-fast move, he caught it, and covered me back up. He began to speak in his clicks and rumbling growl.
Nope, I didn’t understand a word of it.
He sighed. Then he slowly shifted and began to rise. I tensed, and he stopped. He spoke again, and I realized I found his deep rumble pleasant. And I guessed that his tone was meant to be soothing. I tilted my head back as he straightened all the way. The guy was massive. And he’d carried me like I’d weighed nothing so I could add strong to the list based on that. Oh. And the way he’d pounded skulls together like people tap open eggs.
I closed my eyes and shuddered. Yes, very strong.
Suddenly his hands were on my shoulders, and I jerked against his hold. His brows drew down and his chin firmed. Feeling oddly chagrined, I relaxed and leaned into his hands a little.
His lips peeled back and upward into what I was getting was supposed to be a smile.
Then he brought a knee on the bed. I was ready to drop the blanket and run, but he’d frozen, his eyes locked on mine. I took a moment to think.
What I knew: he’d rescued me, defended me, cleaned me up. There was just the one lumpy mattress here and a whole lot of hard stone floor. If he wanted to rape me too, he could have done that by now, and many times over. I was not strong enough to stop him. If I managed to somehow get past him and escape, where would I go? Would I run into members of the frenzied crowd that had been having a bidding battle over human women as if we were cattle? More like sex slaves. Well, maybe still the cattle comparison after all. Who knew? Maybe we were a delicacy. It wasn’t like they were buying women of their own species. Maybe all these alien men were getting a 2-for-1 deal with every purchase. A fuck and a meal, mmm. How lovely.
I took a deep breath, and noted that this alien was still holding still. Patient. After the events transpiring over the last few hours, this little kindness made my eyes fill up. I held them open wide so no more tears escaped. Then I met his gaze and nodded once.
He slowly brought his other knee up. He shifted around until his back was to the wall. He reached a hand out towards me – but seemed to think better of it. He let his arm drop. Then he eased down on his side, leaving an arm out in what appeared to be a universal – unisolar-planetary-galaxy?- invite for me to rest my head on his bicep.
I took another really deep breath. And then I dropped to my side, and - facing away from him - I took him up on his offer and used him for a pillow.
When his other arm came around my middle, I didn’t jump. A few minutes later, he carefully tightened his grip, and, ever-so-slowly, eased me backwards into his warmth. This gentleness did me in and I did start to cry.
He sniffed my hair.
And he jerked back, and I wouldn’t be surprised if I smelled bad.
I cried harder.
He raised up a little and peered down at me. He rumbled something probably comforting. Then he began to make that awful noise. But since it didn’t seem to mean anything bad, I just shook my head and slowly wiped the tears off my face as they came.
I fell asleep to the vibrations of his chest at my back, and the feel of his knuckles gently running over my skin.
Sunlight was peeking through the square in the wall when I woke up. The alien behind me said one word.
I yawned. “Was that the equivalent of good morning?”
A palm was suddenly tapped against the cradle of my hips and I gasped and clutched his wrist. “Hey!”
He tsked and clicked and rumbled. My body was pushed forward a little when his chest expanded deeply against my back. I nearly fell back when he expelled it in a sigh. Then his hand was gone, and he smoothly rose over me to leave the bed.
Instantly, I was lonely without him. A psychological clingy survivor-thing, clearly, getting all needy for a being I didn’t know. Really though, it wasn’t like I had anyone else to rely on right now and I was less than defenseless by myself. There were monsters here.
I sat up and faced him.
He muttered something, then went to a satchel by the wall. His tail swayed, the tassel of spines on the end just grazing the floor. He pulled out something wrapped in a brown substance. He brought it to me. Carefully, I unwrapped it.
“Whoa!” I exclaimed and he steadied it when it would have fallen off of my lap. “S-sorry,” I said at his reproachful look. “It’s just… you shouldn’t have. You really, really shouldn’t have.”
It just goes to show that rats really have managed to infest everything and, apparently, everywhere. Because here on my lap was a petrified (as in stiff and dead - not terrified) rat. The biggest rat I’d ever seen, true - but really not all that different from rats on earth. I bet that meant there were alien fleas and alien cockroaches here too. An itch began in my scalp that was surely the product of my imagination and not due to alien fleas moments after I invented alien fleas. I itched my head and felt something jump off my hand.
Fucking. Fabulous.
Don’t freak out, don’t freak out, don’t freak out…
I looked up at him. “What do you want me to do with this?”
His grunted something. Then he nudged the carcass for further emphasis. Yay, he really, really wanted me to do something. I gave him the impatient look right back.
His next words sounded exasperated. Then he reached out a thumb, careful to keep the talon pointed way back, and lifted my lip to examine my teeth. This seemed to settle something. He took the rat back, covered it up again, then brought his satchel over to rest at my feet. He shoved the covered rat back in, then pulled out a small speckled brick. He handed it to me. I sniffed it. It smelled like… nothing I’d ever smelled before. But yeah, I had the feeling he wanted me to eat. So I gave a corner a lick, and watched him nod in encouragement. Carefully, I tried to bite down on it, but got nowhere.
It was a brick after all. Of what, I had no idea. But if I had my choice, I’d pick it over the rat. For all I knew, the brick was rat, all ground up and packed with sawdust or something, just like hotdogs. (Just kidding. They don’t use sawdust in hotdog factories anymore. Rats though? Who knows what falls in the processing vats. I’m sure that before it all got pushed through a giant extruder, someone scooped out what they could. Probably.)
At least hotdogs tasted delicious.
He picked the brick up and bit off a chunk with frightful ease. He chewed, his beautifully defined jaw muscles working and making me aware that by human standards - and by that, I mean if he were human - he’d be rather attractive. I pursed my lips and tilted my head to study him. Not bad, not really.
Then he spit the chewed portion into his hand. And held it to my mouth.
Attractiveness: Level NEGATIVE. I pulled way back. “Ugh, regurgitated rat brick. I think I’ll---“ What? Pass? I hadn’t eaten since yesterday, and something told me I wasn’t going to find a set of golden arches and even if I did, it wasn’t like I had money to trade for food. And so far, this alien hadn’t asked me for anything. He was trying to help me here. Gross, but nice. Best offer I’d had since arriving, actually. And I was fucking starving. Starting to feel just the tiniest bit grumpy now too, probably due to the lack of food. And I was pretty fucking sure I wasn’t fucking dreaming because nightmares fucking end and this one had gone on way, way, way too long.
&nb
sp; I groaned and let my head roll forward - but to the other side so I wouldn’t smear my face into that spit-up stuff in his palm.
He began to pull his hand back, but I stalled him by placing my thumb and forefinger against his wrist. I made a face as I leaned forward and… ate his chewed up rat brick right out of his fingers.
It tasted like cranberries.
Tangy and a little bitter, I pulled my lips to the side a little, considering.
“You know? Not awful.” I looked at him.
He smiled in relief I think, and he chewed another piece for me. We repeated this until I stopped him from taking another bite for me and said, “Okay, thanks a bunch. I’m all full.” I wasn’t, but I wanted him to be able to eat too. And wouldn’t you know it? I had no urge to overeat if the food was covered with somebody else’s saliva. I was learning all sorts of new things about myself. Lucky me. He finished the rest of the brick off in two huge crunches. Because his teeth – HUGE.
Shiiiiiiit.
My eyebrows were probably sitting above my hairline right now. He pushed the water bottle into my hands and I drank some gratefully, then handed it back and he emptied it.
And that’s when I realized I had a problem. I had to pee. And I had no idea how to convey this. If I motioned to my crotch he might think I was referring to yesterday’s attack. Or offering something. Had to be careful when you didn’t know alien customs and all. I stood and shifted my weight from foot to foot, to alleviate the urge - and to think.
He eyed me, then bent - and I thought he was going to reach for my pelvis again - ohhh - but instead, he bent even lower to reach under the bed, and pulled out what looked to like a bucket. I wondered, but I made no move. So he did. With apparently no self-consciousness whatsoever, he peeled back a panel I hadn’t noticed at his groin (so it was a suit he was wearing!), and that bulge between his legs suddenly made sense. I averted quickly and had to cover my mouth to stop from gaping. I guess a guy his size was bound to be hung but holy motherships batman!