by C F Rabbiosi
With shining eyes, I beg him not to reveal my secret genetics. Not yet. How can I be a comfort to my friends if they deem me one of the enemy?
“What is he saying?” Scarlet turns to me.
“They do not know?” Brekter laughs. He bows before me, much like Glenda did while we were reenacting Gone with the Wind. “Say hello, then, to Calypso: the future embodied.”
“Calypso?” Glenda’s brow furrows as she takes in my tall stature and strange coloration, and she already knows. In fact, it must seem obvious now.
“I don’t have genetic mutations.” My voice comes out strong as it reflects the pride I feel for being much more than the poor outcast they thought me. “My identity was hidden from me until a few days ago.”
Blond Alice sneers. “So everything she’s told us has been on their behalf. She’s one of them!”
“No, I was raised with you, I am not one of them.” My gut twists on the lie. Being a part of their bloodline has opened my eyes to many things and has empowered me: the thrill of cutting myself in the dark behind the men’s quarters, the pain giving me a rush, my brazenness compared to other girls… and, of course, the blue tinge of my hair, much like the cobalt shine the Koridons have. Finding this part of me has enlivened my entire being. But as Scarlet peers at me with distrust, I would do anything to just be her best friend. “Listen to me. I still love you and my mother, all of our people. And if I could go back, I’d cut my throat before accidently leading them to you.”
Blond Alice plays with the rope along her belly. “It’s never too late.”
Scarlet’s palm flies into blond Alice’s cheek, and she grasps the angry skin in shock.
“Don’t you ever say that again!” She stands over blond Alice and takes a fistful of her hair. “Calypso’s our sister, our friend, and she’s proof that we have a future!”
Brekter guides Scarlet back to her spot. “Time for sleep.”
“Yes,” Drakon pipes in. “Enough talk. Not at all what we took them for, anyway. Perhaps a muzzle is in order.” He and the others saunter away, but Brekter, with his wicked half-smile, props himself against a boulder and pulls me into his lap.
“I wish you wouldn’t do this in front of the others.” Jane and Mary-Shelly lay next to blond Alice, too exhausted to care, but Scarlet and Glenda can’t help their watchfulness of me. It’s torture to have my torment witnessed by my closest friends. Why can’t he just drag me into the forest? “I don’t love you,” I sneer and send a sharp elbow into his ribs.
His groan quickly bends into a laugh, and he hardens against my backside. “Mmm. Keep wiggling,” he breathes, prying his way up my tattered nightdress.
“I’m going to kill you, Brekter. And it’s really going to hurt. I promise you.”
He takes a defiant breath and plays with the sensitive nub of my nipple. The light touch of his fingertips, followed by a sharp pinch, sends a pleasant shock straight between my legs. “Do not rest too deeply,” he says. “I am always watching you and do not know if I can hold myself back tonight.”
“Touch me, Brekter, and I’ll tear your eyes out just as you knot me. I’ll enjoy the way you cry out in pain as you’re forced to climax for several minutes.”
“I will be sure then to tie your hands before I shove myself deep inside. I think perhaps you will be gagged as well.”
“I’m sure that’s just how you like your bedmates. Ripping their skin trying to get away from you and gagging.”
His arm bends at my neck, and he squeezes violently, crushing my throat. “You have no idea—” his voice is pinched, “…the love I had before. What I have lost—” I can’t force the slightest bit of air in, but instead of panicking, I reach up to Brekter’s face and caress softly down his cheek. His hold softens, and I twist around to jab him between the eyes. He catches my wrists and throws me off him.
I rub my sore tailbone and watch Brekter storm off. Scarlet and the others look at me in bewilderment, but I’m just as curious as they are. What in Dante’s hell was he talking about? Brekter has a mate, but whatever love he speaks of… it’s not about her.
4
“Calypso. Wake up!”
Scarlett’s laughter echoes across my dream and sounds so strange when her voice suddenly changes. “Calypso, wake!” My eyes flutter open to find Brekter clenching my arm. He undoes the restraint around my belly.
“What are you doing?” I whisper. He shushes me by cupping his hand around my mouth.
“I found something.” Hoisting me into his arms, we race through the rolling fog.
After a few minutes at his incredible speed, we stop before a dilapidated structure. I struggle out of his arms with excitement—I’ve never seen any buildings of old before! I wait for Brekter to lead the way, but he motions for me to go ahead. Creeping up a broken stone path, I wipe the coat of dirt from the window and peer inside. “What is this place?”
Brekter lights a torch. “One of the places your kind used to invite others to exchange goods, or whatever.” I wonder how Koridon economy worked when their planet was functional. Probably some system I couldn’t even begin to comprehend. Before our world fell we were reliant on currency, but now we have to raise our own animals, grow our own fruits, vegetables and grain, or we’ll starve. The Koridons had to learn how to do this too, that’s why they were forced to learn our animal language. They couldn’t have known how to grow in our soil, or in our climate.
I drag the door open through shards of glass and step into the darkness. Brekter follows, the light illuminating the dusty glass cases as it trails over them. Vines hang from the ceiling and weeds twist up through cracks in the floor, but the small shop stands untouched somehow after all these years. I grab a plastic book from the shelf and open it, but there are no pages, only a flat disc that says Jaws. There are at least forty of them with different titles like Blade and The Little Mermaid. I move toward another shelf and dust off a rectangular device with a glass front and puzzle for a moment before being drawn to dusty clothing on hangers. My touch brushes across one of the strange garments, and it disintegrates.
Brekter moves to my back and lifts my hair aside, his fingers trailing down the back of my neck. Tingles roll down my backbone, and I quickly move on to the next treasure in this strange shop.
“What is this place?” I ask, my eyes roaming over dusty paintings that grace the walls. With a swipe of my hand against the canvas, a lady’s face appears. Black smudges under her lower lashes and a cylindrical smoking object sits loosely in pouting lips the color of spring roses. She’s captivating. Why is she so sad? I take it off the wall and flip it over to find her story, but there’s nothing, just a loose brown paper backing. Where are the words to this picture?
Onto my chest drops a red sparkling heart descending from a gold chain. The beauty of such a thing absorbs through my gaze and caresses my senses. “I’ve never seen anything like this.” I touch the sparkling necklace and think about the treasures I’ve read about and am so thankful that this has turned the memory into something indescribable.
“This place is full of such treasures. Do you like it?”
“It’s so beautiful under the fire light. I can’t believe it’s real.” He brushes his cheek against my hair and his hand drifts past my waist. I rip the necklace off and throw it at his feet. “Get away from me.”
“Why?” He steps on the beautiful jewel, and the cracking from his immense weight makes me cringe. “I thought little animals liked shiny things.”
“And I thought it was beneath a superior Koridon to give such a meaningless gift.” I step back as he looms over me. “I don’t see how a sparkly thing helps you win a fight.”
“A fight of sorts,” he says, lifting me from the ground by my throat.
“Well—” I manage hoarsely, trying to break loose. “You lost.” With my lungs burning, I take control of my impulsive flailing and land my heel into his crotch. He smiles as he groans and takes me to the floor, my back hitting hard.
He crawls over me and I fly up, knocking him off balance. I edge near a case of jewelry, where several guns and knives glint from their mounts on the wall. “Perhaps if you were Kassien I would have accepted the gift.”
He scoffs and jams the torch into the ground between a huge crack. “You mean the one who tossed you to his second after promising to marry you?”
Heat burns through my veins as I remember Tanak trying to move his huge shaft through my opening during the ceremony while all the Koridons watched. Including Kassien and Brekter. “He thought it best,” I say weakly. “He was trying to deny his heart and do what was right,” I edge toward the wall of weapons, “but giving me to another wasn’t what was right by me.”
He yanks my dress down and reveals my body. I look to the side with a gulp as he drinks me in. Frozen, I can’t move to reach for the dress. “Why does it have to be him?” Brekter asks.
I suck in a deep, frustrated breath in reply, still unable to meet his silver stare.
His fingers graze between my breasts and trail down to the nakedness between my legs. “You soaked me when I filled you last. I moved inside you, your body gripping me as I barely fit, and still you pulled me deeper.” His breath quickens, a god-like being trembling. “Please stop fighting me,” he whispers.
“I never wanted you to mate me. I begged you not to. But you did, and worse yet, you tricked me afterward into—” He inserts a finger into my warmth, and I buckle with stimulation. “And worse yet, you have imprisoned me and my village mates to do horrible things to.”
He flips me around and holds me across the chest, continuing his fingering with my arms held down. “Is this so horrible?” he asks in my ear.
“Yes. You would degrade me at every turn as an animal, then fuck me like you’ll die.”
“Ooh, I like that word.” He pulls shining fingers out then circles the bundle of nerves above, stroking me with soft nudges. He forces me to respond, even though it’s a purely physical reaction and nothing to do with love.
“I’m fond of it as well.” I say. “Die is a lovely word.”
His lips find my neck and plant light kisses along the pulsing skin.
“I am mated to Kassien by your laws.”
“If you carry my child, our laws give you to me.” His mouth sinks into my shoulder, and I growl under the pressure.
“I can be given to no one.”
“Don’t make me force you, Calypso.” He shoves me onto my hands and knees and his palm lands into my backside with a horrible smack. I cry out from frustration, but feel no pain from his hit. “You should be far easier to take this time. Eventually, I imagine you will open for me to slide in with ease.” His fingers entangle the locks at the top of my head. “But I hope not.”
I shove forward, ripping my hair to oblivion. “Damn you, Brekter! Get off me or I’ll scream the forest down and bring the commander!”
His hand finds my mouth, and my neck strains backward. “Submit to me as your master, little pet, or have the breaking of your bones the last thing you ever hear. And my cock the last thing that ever makes you scream.”
I jerk my head to the side, and his hand falls away from my lips. “You don’t scare me,” I hiss. If he were going to kill me, he would have done it back at the village instead of compromising with me as I held a knife to my belly. It goes against every defiant bone in my body, but I swallow my anger and twist around, clasping my hands in front of my chest. “Brekter, I’m another’s wife. Please, please don’t make me lie intimately with you again.”
“You are mine,” he growls into my face. “This body is mine. Now I wonder, what do I have to do to make the true parts of you mine?”
“I told you once. I asked you to be selfless, but you used it against me in the worst way imaginable. I will never be yours.”
He roars and shoves my face into the ground. “Why do you think you have a choice?” He grasps my hips and yanks me against him. “I have tried not to want you. I believed that once we had all your female villagers in our possession, I wouldn’t need you anymore.” His crown sinks in, and bursting pressure makes me gasp. As he forces inside, inch by excruciating inch, I hate myself for growing wet for him. His pleasure-filled murmur further teases my senses. “They smell nice enough. Their bodies are soft and tantalizing enough.” I squeeze my lids shut as he uses me to make his blood dance with every thrust. “But they do not still my heart. Nothing does, until my eyes fall upon you.”
“That’s how I feel about Kassien,” I bite out through gritted teeth. His prior touch ignited my sexual responses but still his size is too much. The deeper he delves, the more I worry I won’t be able to handle it. As my pulse spikes—the pain and fear overwhelming me—my hands spark with a strange sensation. Pressure builds in them, begging me to grab onto Brekter as though I could hurt him with just my touch. I steady myself on one hand and reach behind me, ready to give in to the urge…
“He hasn’t tried to save you, Calypso.” His fingers caress down my spine, and I plant my palms back into the floor.
“If he’s alive, he will.” My body responds to him against my will, moistening, blood rushing. I’d rather be in pain.
“But by then, I will have ruined you for him.”
Rays of light break through the dusty old windows as Brekter plays with my breasts and slams his hips into my backside. I fight to stay on my hands and knees, knocking forward with such violence my neck strains. Then his movements become feverish and his breath ragged until finally he takes his last stroke. He holds me hard as his cock throbs with a knot pressing against my aching walls, and I grunt with effort to stay within my skin. When first experiencing this with Kassien, it was blissful as the ball of pulsing pressure brought me to finishing ecstasy. Sensation builds upon thoughts of him and I chase it. I remember Kassien, his fingers digging into my skin, his breath quickened, the shaking of our slick bodies as he knotted me. I quake as waves of pleasure wash over me, twisting and cramping, pleasure to the point of pain. My teeth sink into my lower lip to keep from crying out.
Brekter lets out a blissful utterance and holds me tightly against him. Upon finishing, he slides out and immediately lifts me into his arms. His lips search mine and they beg for something, any small bit of hope, but all he holds against him is a corpse.
I force myself out of his arms and sniffle as I put my dress back into place. If Kassien doesn’t come for me, this could be my life now. Brekter’s mate. Will I be forced to accept it one day? Making children for him, taking care of them by night, working in the fields and kitchens as a slave by day?
He stares at me with wildfire, and I know exactly what shuddering thought plays through his mind. “You shook upon me,” he says. “You clenched down upon my knot, and it was the most pleasurable thing I have ever felt.”
“No, I—” It hits me that being aroused by my attacker was utterly depraved. What kind of woman would try to enjoy being sexually attacked?
“You do care for me.” He swipes back loose hair then drags a finger down his bare chest. “You hate it, but you love me.”
He doesn’t understand that what I experienced was physical and in no way means I care for him. I don’t fully understand what happened myself, and shame crushes my chest, horrified by the monstrous side obviously alive in me. Unable to breathe, I head out of the strange little shop and run as fast as my feet will carry me.
5
Kassien
My weak, dehydrated heartbeat surges with panic as the leather pants slip from my foot’s shaky hold. I kick into the air, ignoring the massive weight shift that angers the hook-embedded wound. They fly upward, and though I beg my arms to lift, my hands to reach out, they only twitch uselessly in their damaged state. The leathers land over my shoulder, and I tremble with joy. “Tenak, be strong. I will save us yet.”
I shift my weight to the left side, excruciating pain lighting up my right, and grit my teeth. Blood flows into my right hand as my left takes the punishment, but through harsh needle stabs p
rickling my flesh, my fingers move. What are you made of? screams through my head and I roar, fighting the immobility of the steel through my shoulder. If I could tie the legs around the chain, I could use it to hoist my weight up enough to pull one hook out and release one powerful arm. Tools in the med bay will heal me. I just have to get free…
But first, the blood must bring life back to this limb, so I wait.
Pain means nothing, and death does not frighten me. The only thing that matters is saving Calypso from Brekter, and the others who suffer because of my dream. Dear Efaelty, she is good. I see now as I hang between the physical world and the unseen world how wrong I have been. Being infatuated with a human was easier when I could blame her for what happened to our child.
I lift my arm and sharp pain seizes me at the elbow. My arm jerks back down. Just a few more minutes and I will have the strength I need. Minutes pass like a slow eternity, and though I have pushed my little one down into the deepest recesses of my mind, he is all I can think about now.
Efaelty was big with child, though no one had seen such blessing in years. Gerakon carefully monitored her throughout the gestation, giving her plant life from the earth and meat from the free roaming animals in hope of increasing the natural flora in the child. He gave her milk from them too, and strange concoctions from the land he had made. The child was born a few weeks early, a boy, and he was alive. I remember holding his tiny body and never feeling more afraid in all my two hundred years. I cared for the tiny being more than myself, more than life, and saw everything I had missed throughout my lifetime in his strangely powerful and loving gaze.
The heart was ripped from my chest, never to beat without pain again when he left us. Within days he became docile, that little spark of life he’d emanated faded, and though we tried everything, I was helpless. Watching him every minute of the night, I knew every weak breath threatened to be his last. All I had wanted was just to know him. I would have done anything to see his smile, hear what his voice sounded like, and to watch him run and train.
