Ravished by the Crown Prince

by Gabby Dark

  “Oh,” I breathed. “Well then, do Zunatorian males have both a mate and a breeder since the women cannot bear children?”

  “It is uncommon. Our women are just as possessive as the males. Some will self-sacrifice before they see their mate take another woman. Others will welcome it with open arms,” he replied.

  I frowned.

  “Do you find that strange?” he asked.

  “No. In the nation, a man can take more than one wife whether the wife consents or not. That is the way things are currently,” I said. “You promised me clothes. I am still in a prostitute’s outfit.”

  He frowned. “Prostitute?”

  “A whore. A sex slave. A woman who charges men for sex with her.”

  “You are none of those things.”

  “How do you know?” I asked, and then added, “Oh, wait. Don’t answer that. You’re in my thoughts, aren’t you?”

  “Your thoughts flow freely. Only women who are confirmed to be fertile and available for mating can wear the dress made of tʼǔn. Silk is one of the finest fabrics here.”

  “Does that also mean that the males buy her at the market?” I asked.

  “Our women who have been granted citizenship by birthright or otherwise may choose their mate. Captives and slaves do not have such rights. They are brought to market for auction or lottery just like the rest of the goods found on Zuna or elsewhere. When women are seen wearing the tʼǔn, they are off limits until one of those things happens. Either she chooses a mate or she is traded or bought at the market by her owner. She may not be penetrated or mated until her final fate is decided.”

  “But…” I looked over at the bed and then back at him.

  Anik looked at me sideways, eyes narrowed. “As heir apparent to the Crown, I can take possession of my Father’s property at anytime. However, my status does not place me above the laws of Zuna. You were temporarily given to me for a different reason.”

  “To punish…” I whispered. “I’m not a legal citizen here. I am owned then? By your father?”

  He nodded. “The haul from a raid is always owned by the Crown first, in this case, the King. He is not a greedy king—not in all cases anyway. He disperses the property evenly among the citizens in what he thinks is a fair manner. However stubborn he might be, he is the people’s ruler.”

  “So, it’s in my best interest to wear the tʼǔn,” I said, quietly, evaluating what Anik explained. “No one can mate me until my final fate is decided.” My gaze trailed to his. I thought of something. A plan, but I quickly dispersed it from my mind or else Anik would intercept my thoughts and find out what my intentions were.

  “While you are with me, you may wear what you like,” he said. “Aside from the standard garments of Zunatorians, the majority of our clothing are custom-made. You will have more clothes soon. My gift to you.”

  “Oh.”

  “I do not break promises,” he added.

  “How do you pay for things in Zunator?” I asked. “Are there jobs?”

  “Mak.” He nodded. “Jobs. You pay with yǔpil. Yǔpil is what we call money.” He grabbed a pouch from a side table and emptied it on the table, showing me all the stones with distintive markings carved on them.

  I picked up a few. “Wow. These are quite heavy to carry around. Do you have banks?”

  “The King is the bank,” he stated.

  “I can’t help but notice some similarities to human customs,” I said. “Your King and the way you set up your structure reminds me of something we learned about in the history books. This business of mating is a little different though. You even have human qualities. You looked almost human. Except for your skin color and texture, your aura, and your…manhood, everything looks normal. All aliens don’t look like your kind, do they?”

  “No. I’m actually a hybrid. Everyone on Zunator is a hybrid. Outside of it, there are still some species of true bloods. Like the Barbs. There will always be full-blood Barbs. The original aliens who inhabited this area have moved further out and possibly even migrated to other planets. But we’re all hybrids of some sort.”

  “On Earth, we have mixing of the races too. So, you get people like me. The population is dwindling, so blending cultures is so common now. But there are only humans beings on Earth. No mindless beasts or extraterrestrial creatures. Just humans, who can sometimes act like savages. At least that’s what I think.” I picked up the juice and took a sip. “What are you a mix of?”

  “Alien, man, and beast. In that order.”

  “Beast. What kind of beast?” I put down my cup and sat back in the chair.

  “Barb, of course. Long ago, this planet was once inhabited by aliens and beasts. No humans existed. Long before the nuclear war on Earth and the fallout afterward, a diverse sample of humans from every corner of the Earth was collected and those humans were given a series of injections over an extended period of time. Injections to make them different with superior abilities much like the race of aliens that existed here on Zuna,” he said. “These scientists predicted the disaster and wanted to ensure that the human race would survive in some form. They theorized that Earth would cease to exist after a time, so they wanted to send humans to a new planet in the hopes that they would one day return to Earth when it was stable again.”

  “Like Noah’s Ark. The scientists were playing God,” I stated.

  “They were not playing,” he corrected. “They were right. After all, their prophecies came true several decades later and here we are.”

  “How did the aliens and other beasts feel about humans coming to live here?”

  “The aliens weren’t hostile. They didn’t see the humans as threats. It is said that the scientists and governments made prior contact—came to some agreement or treaty beforehand. The aliens may have even supplied the scientists with DNA or life matter to make the injections. It is also said that there were only three hundred humans sent to this particular planet. They brought resources with them that the aliens found useful, which may be why you see some similarities. The beasts, on the other hand…they were a different story. They saw the humans as a threat.”

  “So…how did it come to this? How did the humans change to look like aliens?”

  “Some of it was the body adapting to the environment so rapidly. Alien DNA was obviously more superior when it came to reproducing, so intellectually we are more like aliens than anything else. Although, some human DNA remains.”

  “Is that why you are…um…with electric blue veins?” I asked.

  “The aliens here have a sixth sense. It varies. Just like hair color and eye color and personality. We call this sense intuition.”

  “White is for healing or death.”

  He seemed surprised. “How did you know?”

  “Pio’ata. The doctor assigned to me.”

  “Yes, Pio’ata has been gifted with the ability to diagnose and heal which is why she is a doctor.”

  “Tell me more about the humans from history. Did they just change automatically when they got here?” I inquired.

  “When the humans came, they evolved further without the use of the drugs until they had no need for the injections. After all, the sources of DNA and life matter were abundant and at their disposal. Time is different here on Zuna. We age slower. We live longer. However, slowed aging didn’t prevent a portion of the humans from contracting illnesses their immune system couldn’t handle. Also, accidents happened. The beasts were ravenous and furious of the humans, so some were attacked when they roamed the outskirts alone. It became apparent that the humans would have to find other ways to reproduce if they wanted their genes to stay alive indefinitely. Aliens and humans mated. Beasts raided and raped. The offspring was a mixture of alien, man, and beast. Thus we have my species. I am Zunatorian. A mix of all three. Zunator is a colony on the planet of Zuna. There are other colonies too. And other sub-species on this planet. Some friendly. And like the Barbs, some are still enemies.”

  I sighed. “Wow. There was talk of
aliens. Even whisperings of them coming to earth before and after the disaster, but no concrete proof. Even when there claimed to be proof, the nation’s forces would destroy it. Just last year, a spaceship landed in the forest next to one of our camps. We’d heard of these crashes before, and we thought we could forage it for food and supplies. By the time we reached the landing site, the spaceship had disappeared. We found evidence that the forces had been in the area.”

  “Before this last raid, Zunatorians had not been to Earth in four years ago. That was the last time we raided, and the raid was led by my uncle who recently expired from his injuries in battle. This raid was only attempted because we desperately need the women. We did not raid Earth recently.”

  “But I saw it with my own eyes. It was a spaceship coming from out of the sky in broad daylight. Maybe it was fake.”

  “Perhaps. Or maybe they came from another planet.”

  I gasped. “Another planet? There are more like this?”

  He nodded. “It is written. And we have seen it. Humans and other aliens may occupy some other planets in the galaxy, yes.”

  “My mind is completely blown.”

  “A side affect from the cleansing,” he replied. “Did Pio’ata give you medicine?”

  “No, she said I was in good health.”

  “Good. I’ll ask her to check on your blown mind next time.” He was serious. It wasn’t a joke.

  I chuckled. “What I meant by mind blown was I’m astonished by the history of all of this. It’s so much to take in at once. What is this cleansing anyway?”

  “Just to ensure you don’t bring contamination from Earth with you. Also to prepare you for breeding.”

  “This concept of mating and breeding must have came from the beasts—the Barbs,” I concluded.

  “You are very intelligent. And you’re right, but aliens breed too.”

  “But you are more beast than human.”

  “My beastly instincts are contained. I control them well.”

  I bit my lip and looked down at the table. A series of emotions consumed me and I knew that somehow, the energy was being transported to Anik. I didn’t wish to stop my feelings from happening. This was all so much, and I still feared my safety. I still worried about my future.

  “I want to ask you something…” he started.

  I looked up at his troubled expression.

  “Do you have nightmares?”

  He knew. Had I been dreaming last night?

  I nodded. “Yes.”

  “When we took you from Earth, you had a tattoo on the nape of your neck with a series of numbers listed. The King ordered they be removed for fear that the chemical in the ink was harmful in some way and may even be linked to the cause of some incurable human diseases.”

  “All citizens of the nation are marked. It’s how they identify us. Kind of like a social security number, but it’s a barcode.” I rubbed the back of my neck. I hadn’t even thought to check the tag. “I thought it was permanent. I didn’t know it could be removed without digging it out of my flesh.”

  “You also had a plastic bracelet around your right wrist. Kind of like a medical ID tag. We have seen it before. There were letters N and L with an infinity symbol between them.”

  “The Nation’s Lab. I was being sent there,” I told him.

  “You are twenty years of age in human years. You are one hundred and thirty pounds in weight. Your race is Black, Native American, Caucasian, and Unspecified Other.”

  “That is correct,” I said, silently.

  “It said you were a criminal. The box beside the English word Salvageable was checked.”

  “I was arrested when my group was caught raiding a facility for firearms. The equipment was taken, but some of us had to stay behind so that the others could take off with the loot. When you took me, I was being transported to a lab to be used for research purposes. A punishment for all my crimes.”

  He leaned forward. “Why did they want to punish you?”

  “I was a rebel. I left my settlement to join a group. We protest the current regime. We wish to take them down. One day, they will be taken down,” I said.

  His eyes widened. I thought I noted a hint of alarm, and then it disappeared. I knew then that Anik either didn’t like to show his emotions or he withheld them.

  “You killed Fulcid. That wasn’t the first time you killed someone,” he stated.

  “That is correct.”

  “You are a fighter.”

  “Yes, Anik. I am a fighter. Like you. I’ve been trained to kill.”

  Anik leaned back in his chair. His expression was stoic.

  “You see…I was not made to be submissive,” I said, almost in a whisper.

  I thought my calm declaration would be met with much anger. I was wrong. For the first time since I met Anik, the Crown Prince of Zunator, he smiled. It was more like smirk, but still, the change in him was promising.

  He pointed to my plate. “Finish your food. I’ll take you to the market soon. With yǔpil, you may buy what you like.”

  He slid the pouch of coins across the table at me and got up. I didn’t even turn around, but somehow I knew there was a guard waiting at the door to prohibit my escape.

  Chapter Nine

  Anik

  Ryleigh looked beautiful in a custom-made tunic skirt and a middrift vest as a top. Her sandals were tied perfectly, the straps criss-crossed all the way up to just below her knees. She seemed pleased with the garments after putting them on. In the glass mirror next to my bed, she had inspected every inch of the stitch.

  As promised, I brought her to the marketplace after the morning meeting with my warriors. As a safety precaution, Ryleigh had remained in my pod house, but it seemed she was occupied with attempting to use every gadget in my home. She had even found our books and attempted to read our words.

  Our customs on Zunator were different than on her Earth, but the last thing I wanted her to do was fear me. A lot of the human woman weren’t comfortable when they first arrived here. Some never were, but those were exceptions. A lot of it depended on the warrior they were given to and if they would ever accept their fate.

  I followed her through the open market as she stopped from vendor to vendor looking at the goods and supplies. I wasn’t the only Zunatorian studying her. Some looked in awe. Some hadn’t seen a human ever in their lifetime. Others looked on in skepticism. Not everyone would welcome the change. But we were doing what was best for our people.

  This wasn’t the only way. We could’ve waited until the ailment was cured, but who knew when that would be. There would be trials and testing, and then most Zunatorian women would have to wait a full pregnancy cycle to test the results. Even then, we had opened up a door that was hard to close the first time we went to Earth in search of fertile females of breeding age. Now that some of our men had seen what the human women had to offer, they’d be quarreling amongst themselves on who would go on the next raid in less than a week’s time.

  Something caught Ryleigh’s attention on one of the table. A golden arm cuff with light crystals imbedded inside.

  “Can I?” she asked the vendor.

  The young vendor turned to me for guidance. I picked up the cuff and handed it to Ryleigh.

  “It’s beautiful. It’s so lightweight. This is the same crystal on your armbands,” she said.

  “It is. We extract it from the caves when we can. During the rainy season, which is almost always, the caves flood with water and the terrain is dangerous to maneuver. These crystals were created by lightning, the same form of energy that created our species and that sustains us with life force.”

  “Amazing.”

  I handed the vendor a handful of coins from my pouch and then placed the arm cuff on her. “Thanks.”

  “It’s more beautiful on you.”

  She started to smile and then something caught her attention behind me. Her lips parted and her eyes filled with recognition. She fled right past me without a word, slippi
ng back and forth between the horde of bodies in the market. I didn’t let much distance get between us. She was still vulnerable here, not knowing our way of life. She was still technically unclaimed…

  Ryleigh raced all the way down the lane to where a redhead human and a young warrior called Vrex’un were waiting outside the door of our medical clinic.

  “Andara!” she screamed.

  The redhead glanced up quickly just before the door was opened. There was a moment of shock and recognition on the other girl’s face. Vrex’un saw Ryleigh coming and he threw her a look of indifference and then urged Andara inside.

  Mine. Vrex’un’s thought projection was clear.

  I sent my message to him via telepathy. They are friends.

  Vrex’un frowned and shook his head. He didn’t want anything coming between him and his new mate, not even former friends.

  Vrex’un sent another telepathic message: My mate needs medicine. She cannot see friend now.

  Now I understood…

  The girl, Andara, appeared apprehensive about going in especially after seeing Ryleigh, but Vrex’un wrapped his hand around her waist and forced her across the threshold into the clinic.

  Ryleigh took off running and I followed after her. The door closed shut almost inches of her contact with it, but that didn’t stop Ryleigh from jerking on the handles trying yank it back open.

  “Hey, let me in.” She banged on the door. “I want to see Andara.”

  I placed my hand on her forearm and pulled her gently away from the door. “Is this your friend from Earth?”

  She nodded. “She was part of my group. We’ve known each other since day one. That alien was pulling on her. Where did they take her?” she asked, looking back at the door.

  “This is a clinic. They dispense our medical supplies here.”

  “We had the chance to talk to each other. Why did they take her inside? I need to know she’s okay,” she exclaimed.

  “Don’t worry. Vrex’un is kind to all women. He is possessive, but he will treat her fairly.”

  “But why is she at this clinic?”