by Renee Rose
My knot grows, expanding impossibly against her internal walls. Her entire body tightens before she screams, her cunt convulsing. I am heedless to all the sensations pouring from her. My building essence is begging to spill. Her tight channel is still spasming as I surge inside her. Lodged, I grip her tighter to me still, my essence streaming from me in painful jolts.
The shock of my release up my spine and down my legs.
Exhausted, she slumps against me, her head resting on my chest. My cybernetics kick in, steadying my heartbeat and regulating my breath. Physically replete, I still cannot keep my hands from stroking over her softness. She pulses around my still-knotted cock and a small part of me hopes we have not impregnated her.
If and when the upheaval arrives, it will be hard enough to keep her alive without the added worry of her weakened by pregnancy. Yet, I hope our essence has taken root for I know she and any infant she carries will be safe for a time and treated well even in the hands of the Zapex.
We must prepare for every eventuality, even so I have hope. I have never experienced hope before. It is as foreign as it is uncomfortable. She is our mercy. Clemency when we have known none.
How can I not hope?
Disengaging her cuffs, I carry her to the table Cal has laid out flat and lay her down. Her skin is pebbled and she shivers. This is what coldness looks like. Her body does not regulate its own temperature. Humans are fragile. Soft. Weak in body and mind. I do not know how she will survive in our world. She needs protection from more than just the whims of Prince Kaihan.
A primal force takes hold of me, demanding we keep her. Claim her. She is our mate. Our female. My entire being rebels at the thought of losing her.
“I do not want to leave her,” I say quietly.
Do not get attached, Cal says through our mind link. We try not to use it. The Zapex have never discovered our secret ability, and we endeavor to ensure they never do. We know not what her future holds.
My brother’s features are hardened into a blank mask. I do the same, hearing someone approach. Moving to step away a slim hand wraps around my wrist.
Tash stone-blue eyes stare blurrily up at me. “Please don’t leave me.”
My heart beats a sick rhythm before my cybernetics take over and my pulse evens. We have likely impregnated her. The Zapex will do nothing to harm her if she is breeding. “You will be safe.” I hope.
“Who are you?”
“If you are lucky, your salvation.”
We are already striding towards the door as it swooshes open. Kaihan and two of his gearan come in. It is gratifying when the gearan give us a wide berth.
“Well done,” Kaihan says, glancing over at our female. She is wisely feigning sleep.
We dutifully fit our fists to our chests, nodding our respect before filing out of the room. I fight all my instincts to shove back into the room and rip Kaihan limb from limb for being anywhere near our female as the door swooshes closed behind us.
My instincts tell me not to leave her, I tell Cal through our mind link.
He does not even flinch in awareness, but I know he heard me. And I know he has the same misgivings.
We have left our female, covered in our scent, in the hands of our creator. Our unctuous sovereign who will soon be our enemy.
Chapter Three
ALLYSON
Every inch of my body aches with soreness inside and out. I have no idea how long I’ve been sleeping, but the second the humming from the wall stops, my eyes pop open. One of the blue men with those dead eyes comes in, and I scuttle back, terrified of what’s about to happen. Again.
I hate that I’m already cowed. That I’ve lost my fight. But where would I go if I escaped? I cringe as he yanks me up off the floor. My legs give out, my mind spinning. Every step on the cold floor is like walking over broken glass. He grips a fist in my hair, dragging me along behind him. I scramble to get my feet under me, my sore muscles screaming in protest. The drugs they gave me are out of my system, but they’ve left me with a throbbing head and an aching body.
The pain nearly distracts me from the sense of being led to my doom. Tears track down my face, and I begin to shake with nerves. When the door glides open revealing the white walls and exam table, I cover my mouth on a sob.
Another blue man stands in the room and walks towards us. I balk as the man now gripping my arm pulls me forward. “I can’t. Not again. Pleases don’t make me.” My cries are wretched and go unnoticed.
They easily shove me down on the table, restraining me in the same humiliating pose as the last time. I wasn’t strong enough to fight them off before, and I’m certainly not strong enough now.
Trembling, I’m cold all the way to my soul. I’m not sure if I’ll ever be warm again. The blue men work around me, and I watch the door with nervous eyes, expecting Kaihan, or those strange military men who seem more like a hallucination conjured in my drug-fevered mind, to enter again.
To hurt me.
The men don’t inject me with anything to numb the pain, but I go somewhere in my mind away from the clamp they shove inside me. I’m dry and it burns and scrapes my internal walls as they click it open. I cringe, my stomach cramping as they do things inside me. Possibly taking samples.
My mind won’t help me escape, and I’m all too aware of what’s going on. Long minutes go by while I’m probed and pricked before the clamp is yanked out and they start releasing me.
I’m hauled from the table and set on my feet. I peer around, wondering what’s going on, but one of the blue men grabs me by the arm in a grip I’m becoming all too familiar with and yanks me out the door and back down the hall. I’m brought into an entrance and see my familiar space.
He tosses me in, and I scramble over to my mat, curling into a ball. I hear the shimmer wall re-engage, but I don’t care. Hopelessness and doubts of escaping from these aliens curl like charged black smoke into my thoughts. I try to fight them off and remind myself to be strong, but just like everything else here, they overpower me and take hold.
I can find my strength tomorrow. I’m too broken and tired to fight myself or anyone else.
Tomorrow.
***
The days have begun to blend together. The lights in my little cell are always set to dim. The same white walls surrounding me. Each time I wake, I lie in wait, naked on my mat, afraid to get up. It has become my safe place, as well as my purgatory. Guilt eats at me for not trying to escape, but every time I think to try, I become paralyzed with terror. So I lie awake for hours, warring with myself.
They haven’t brought me food or drink. They only come to give me shots. I should be weak with thirst and hunger, but I’m strangely more fit than ever.
I suppose there’s something in the shots. They wouldn’t want their broodmare to keel over. My thoughts stutter.
I’m to be bred.
I try not to think of the human men. Some kind of military. Lethal and intense, their voices like smoke over gravel. When they had spoken directly to me, it was in unaccented English. One of them said they had been with the Zapex for fifty years, but how is that possible? They didn’t appear to be more than thirty.
It’s been days since they came to me, like a dream. The sedative or whatever drugs the blue men shot me up with working its magic, making everything a haze. Why else would I have been so willing to submit to them? To orgasm again and again, holding back my pleas for more as they violated me.
Especially after Prince Kaihan—
I shut down the thoughts.
My time with the “prince” had seemed like much more of a violation than with the human men.
Who the hell were they?
If you are lucky, your salvation. I keep wondering what he meant. If you are lucky? Nothing about this situation is indicative of fortune being on my side. Will I be saved if I’m pregnant? I’m pretty sure they were sent to knock me up. Would that be worth my salvation?
If I’m not pregnant, will they be sent back to me for more? My he
art speeds at the thought, even as I’m filled with dread. I’m growing uncomfortably wet and horribly confused. How could I want them to fuck me again? Violate me.
They haven’t been back, but, thankfully, neither has the cruel prince doctor.
Am I pregnant now?
My hand drifts down to cover my lower stomach. The thought of having a child in this place is horrifying. I’m assuming I don’t get to keep any baby I conceive. The thought of having a child only for it to be taken away from me is worse than any torture they may inflict upon me.
One of the black-eyed, blue men comes in each day to give me a shot and place the black electric nodes on my nipples for a time. The first day I ripped them off and I was restrained after that, having to sit in torture with my hands bound behind my back as electric currents pulsed through my breasts. The next day I promised to be good, and I’ve allowed the discomfort every day since, knowing it’s better than the alternative.
Each day they enter, I wonder if I’m going to be taken away again. Today I told him I was cold and asked for a blanket. The room noticeably warmed, as did my mat. But no blanket. At least now the cell has a balmy tropical feel.
Unfortunately, I’m still naked, without coverings, and somehow devoid of body hair. I glance down at my naked lap and resist the urge to cover myself. I’ve always had pubic hair. Even on the one special occasion I got waxed, I kept something there.
Having that bit of hair gone makes my bits completely foreign. Extra vulnerable. I’m just thankful I didn’t wake up to find myself pierced anywhere.
A prickling at the back of my neck has me jerking up. It’s only now I notice the absent hum of electricity. I’d been too lost in thought.
I’m not alone. The two from the other day are standing where the shimmer wall should be, like tigers eyeing their prey. Despite their heavy black boots, I didn’t hear them come in.
They’re staring at where I’ve been leisurely stroking my bare flesh. I snatch my hand back, and scramble to a sitting position with my back to the wall. I defensively wrap my arms around myself, trying to hide as much skin as possible.
Standing side by side like identical mercenaries, their towering forms fill the opening. They could be clones; they are so alike.
My heart beats triple time. My gaze skitters around my tiny room as if a hiding place will appear, but of course there’s none. The tiniest bit of me that was harboring fantasies of these men rescuing me is squashed into pieces. These men are not on my side. They are the kind of men who would kill without remorse. They’re beings of raw masculinity, their thick dark hair falling over their foreheads, their jaw lines square cut. Twin sets of cold crystal-blue eyes watch me. They carry a rough honed intensity and are much more terrifyingly severe than what I can recall from my drugged memories. They aren’t just tall, but wide shouldered and powerfully built. They’re behemoths.
Trying to calm my breathing, I take them in. Their clothes are made out of material I’ve never seen before, all in black. Their t-shirts look almost normal, but their tight fitting cargo pants seem almost like wet suit material and are lined with body armor- like padding along the front.“I am Cal, and this is my brother Kein,” the one on the left says in English, his voice dark and dangerous.
Twins. So not clones.
As perfectly identical as they are, I instinctively know the one on the right, Kein is the one who called me their mercy. And, lord help me, I had wanted to be just that. I hate myself for finding them the least bit intriguing. They took me when I was out of my mind and had no control. But I was riding some strange tide of lust, and the way he looked at me was so raw. So full of need.
He’s not staring at me that way today. Their matching taciturn stares make me shiver, their faces pulled down in authoritative lines. My gaze skitters away, ending my perusal of the pair.
When I woke up on that horrible exam table, Kein’s gaze filled me with something akin to warmth. I felt comforted. Strangely safe. I’ve kept that with me for days, using it to bolster my strength. Telling myself the lie they may be on my side.
Now, their blank masked expressions leave me on edge. I try to calm my nerves and appear as unaffected as they are. I doubt it’s working.
Thinking about what these powerful strangers did to me I flush. I should feel debased. Violated. In a way I guess I do, but this aching awareness is disturbing in its intensity.
I hate myself as much as I hate them. I want them to go away so I can stop feeling this way. I bite the inside of my cheek.
“We have come to take you to mate,” Cal says.
That’s direct and in no way alleviates my trepidations about them being here. “Why?” My voice trembles. I fist my hands trying to will away my reaction to their nearness. “Why are you doing this?”
“We are Monrok,” Cal says as offhandedly as if the sky is blue and I am an idiot.
“I don’t know what that is.”
“Monrok are the Elite Guard and property of the Zapex,” Kein replies.
Property? They do seem like an elite task force of some kind. Hard edged. Authority oozes from them. How could they be anyone’s property? They have that go, Army roughness about them times twenty. If the Zapex are powerful enough to keep these men under their command, what hope do I have?
“I thought you were humans.” A part of me had been comforted in a way by that fact. The part that knew my circumstances could be worse but did not dwell on how they could be worse.
“We are Monrok,” Cal repeats, seeming perturbed.
My own fuse shortens. “I still don’t understand what that means.”
Cal scowls. “We are the Elite—”
Kein raises a hand. “We will deal with this later.” His deep, rumbling voice makes me shiver. “Come, female.” He steps forward, holding out his hand, offering me the illusion of choice. The gesture is kind, if hollow.
Part of me wants to curl up in a tighter ball and never leave the safety of my mat. But I doubt refusal is an option. Before I can think twice, I take his hand and fight gripping it like a lifeline. He’s not here to save me, but, after days of being scared and alone, that’s exactly what his large hand wrapped around my smaller one feels like. Safety.
I let him pull me up and, for the first time, I notice his arm doesn’t quite seem…real. It’s like taking hold of a prosthetic arm that is warm to the touch, and I can see the muscles and sinew underneath. His right eye isn’t quite real either. The entire surface reflects light more like a computer screen than a flesh and blood eye, which only reflects at the pupil.
He turns, tugging me behind him and cutting off my inspection.
Holding back my protest at going out into the unknown, I glance back at my safe mat as he pulls me out of the cell I haven’t left in days.
My heart beats with anxiety.
We go through a doorway that opens to a main passageway. The same astringent smell of the exam room hits me, but it’s not as strong here. It still makes me want to run and hide. Cal takes the lead, and Kein falls behind me, twin towering posts blocking out anything else around.
Though the men dwarf me in size, they don’t make a sound as they walk. My feet slap loudly on the metal floor as I have to double step to keep up with Cal’s purposeful stride.
It’s the first time I’ve made this walk without having to fight crippling pain with each step. We pass no one on our walk, but I still feel conspicuous striding down the hall naked. The air kisses my skin all over, a stark reminder of my state, and makes me hyper aware I am here as some kind of sex slave if not just broodmare.
I’m itching to cover myself.
I glance behind me, shoring my courage.
“May I have your shirt?” I tentatively ask Kein. He had made me feel safe if only for a moment the other day, so I peg him as the nicer of the twins.
“Are you cold?”
“I’m naked.” I cross my arms over my chest.
“And your form is pleasing to look at.” His voice is a dark purr as his
avid gaze wanders over me.
Heat creeps up my neck and over my face. “Th-that’s not the p-point,” I stutter, thrown off guard.
A big black shirt drops over my head. “Now you have a shirt,” Cal grumbles from behind me. “It will not change anything.”
I freeze at the ominous reminder.
The shirt comes nearly to my knees. It’s warm from being on Cal but has no scent. Not a hint of laundry detergent, soap, or anything. And Cal is wrong. It does change things. I already feel a little better.
Stronger.
More capable of handling whatever is about to come.
I push my arms through the sleeves, turning to thank him, but he’s already has his back to us. His incredibly muscular back. Wow. He has long surgical scars running up either side and one across the middle. They are hardly detectable, but there just the same.
His right arm is the same as Kein’s’. His left arm is natural. The one noticeable scar he sports there is jagged-edged and looks hard won.
I glance behind me, giving Kein a cursory glance. Yep. Somehow the left arm seems more real. Huh.
We wind through two more passageways and ride up in a lift. If we’re on a ship, it’s massive. Why haven’t we seen any other Zapex or Monrok?
“Are there other people here?” I wonder out loud.
“Here? No,” Cal answers without turning. “They are in other places.”
I frown at his non-answer and continue following him.
A doorway to the left of us glides open, and I follow Cal in. The room is nearly as sparse as my cell. The only difference is their mats are much bigger. I’m almost annoyed they don’t have blankets. Do aliens not believe in coverings?
Then it hits me why they’ve brought me here. To mate. I skitter back and run into a wall of hard naked man-chest. Cal.
I whip around and come face to face with the wide expanse of his chest. If his back was impressive, his front is nothing short of life affirming. His pants ride low on his hips. I track all the lines of muscle and sinew there with my eyes, my mouth going dry.