by C F Rabbiosi
“Yes you do,” accuses blond Alice. “You know exactly what will happen to us if they force themselves inside our small bodies.” Long locks stream down her chest as she sits against the side unmoving.
They deserve to know what being mated will feel like, and understanding what to expect might make it easier. “I have lain with two of them for a total of three times.” Mouths drop just as my defenses had to say this. I can’t believe I’ve been with Brekter more than Kassien at this point. It’s like I really do belong to him now.
“You were forced by two different ones?” asks Scarlett, wading her fingers through the pearlescent water.
“No. Just one of them.” A few of the girls steal a look at Brekter, and the others fight to avert their attention. “At first, the prince tried to preserve me until the ceremony. But each time we were alone together he would lose his resolve a bit more. You see, the Koridons aren’t like us in passion. They, along with their females, are purely bred to be warriors. It was a survival necessity. They mate only for reproduction as their women do not secrete… um… love hormones? I guess you’d say.”
They study Vaerynn and her hard appearance. We know from our books of science how we secrete pheromones and how chemicals possess our minds and bodies in glorious ways. Sybil asks darkly, “They don’t feel love then?”
“No, they do! They most certainly do. For some reason, human women possess them and have reactivated those feelings of lust and love that have long been repressed. And it’s so much all at once that it drives them mad. That’s why we have seen women torn apart by them. They’re just so much bigger, so much stronger.”
“But that could happen to us,” says Glenda. “You survived, but that’s because you’re one of them.”
“But I’ve been weak my whole life, desperately lacking in a nutrient I need from their planet. And that was my plight when Kassien mounted me.” I am stronger now that I’ve been supplied with it every day and won’t die early as previously thought.
“How did you survive then?” asks black-haired Alice.
“I was afraid, so every time the prince came close to fully bedding me, I found a way to get out of it. But once we were presented in front of the others in true ceremony, I seized upon my inner strength and the love already blossoming between us, and I trusted him to control himself and be gentle.”
Blond Alice scoffs. “We’re dead.”
“They have to love you?” Scarlett asks. “Is that the key? They have to love you or else their base needs will destroy you?” I am taken off-guard by what she has concluded from my story. Could it be true that love is stronger than lust and can be the reason behind their sporadic control? Icy chills race down my legs as I think of Brekter and his hands upon me, his tongue thrusting through my slit. I feel the tactile memory of his knot as he climaxed, pulsing and stroking me to the strongest sensations I’ve ever experienced.
“I don’t think so,” I reply. “They’re very intelligent beings and can control themselves once set to task.”
The girls begin to breathe easier, but I know what else they wish me to tell. The silence between us screams the question.
“They’re—” I grimace, trying to find the right way to talk about their sexual anatomy. “They’re very large, obviously. Now, I don’t have much experience by way of our own males, but these ones have rod-shaped… um… cocks as thick as eggplants.” It shouldn’t be a complete surprise that their sexes reflect their size. They’re giants, and what hangs between their legs is as such. “The tip is larger still, but as he works it inside you gently, your body will expand, be stimulated, and accept it.”
Jane catches herself staring at Arek’s crotch area, and her cheeks flush.
Mary-Shelly has been married for some years and spoke to me once of the marriage bed pains, saying they’d become very pleasurable after a few times. She shrugs. “A man’s penis rubs nicely inside. I can’t imagine something of that size though. That just isn’t natural.”
My first time, hurting and broken in the dirt by one of my own kind, reminds me that all I’ve ever been used for is pleasure by bigger, stronger males. “I don’t have much to compare it by, but when done right—” A thrill stabs through my belly, remembering Kassien’s rough desperation and his scent like seductive aggression. Then Brekter’s memory cuts through, turning Kassien and me to ash. “It’s amazing,” I say shakily. “When done right, it’s beyond words.”
They reflect in silence as they finish scrubbing the forest dirt from their hair and nails. Am I horrible for enjoying the love of a giant otherworldly male? Am I depraved after all? I burn with shame for what I said as I watch Glenda, her small pale fingers shaking with effort, and wonder if I should add a warning. What if I’ve told them they’ll enjoy sex with a Koridon only to be shocked when their bodies begin to bruise and their bones begin to crack? They could still be torn to shreds, and I tell them it’s enjoyable? Oh God.
We’re supplied with strange feeling slip-on dresses that tie in crisscrosses over the chest. Vaerynn, with her strong silence, takes us to a room high up on the fourth floor. Barred windows let in sunlight from every angle, and another graces the ceiling, showing the magnificent sun overhead. Small beds that don’t seem to belong to such a magnificent room line along the walls.
Vaerynn says, “This will be your sleeping quarters until you’re properly mated. You will be watched at all times by myself or one of the males.”
I raise a hand. “Are there not any other females here?” The thought of Brekter or any of the males that we’ve gotten to know watching us while we sleep makes my skin crawl.
She clenches her teeth. “The others were not chosen to be in this position.” She spits chosen as though it were verbal poison.
“It isn’t safe to allow any Koridon male to be in this room with us alone,” I say.
“You misunderstand your place, human,” she says. “You are the absolute property of these males, a piece of meat until you have proven your worth and produced a superior Koridon offspring.”
“What if we… can’t?” asks Mary-Shelly, lightly touching her stomach. Through careful practice, she has not become pregnant during the one time per month allowed to sleep with her husband. Resources are too scarce and space too cramped to allow everyone pregnancies, not to mention the dangerous world we’d be bringing the most fragile of beings into. But it still happens, obviously. Men and women find ways to be together against all odds. Mary-Shelly’s chin juts forward slightly, and her face gleams with yearning. I’d never given much thought to having children during the days in the village. I never expected to live long enough.
“Then you will serve in another way,” Vaerynn says darkly. “But today an exam will be performed on each of you to assess your fertility and the probability of your success.”
I look at Scarlett with curiosity. Could there be other factors involved with our compatibility?
“The examinations will be uncomfortable, but you will endure them as a Koridon would: with strength and composure.” Vaerynn signals toward the beds. “Our children will not be born of weak mothers.”
“We aren’t weak,” says blond Alice, clasping her hands behind her back.
Vaerynn’s leg sweeps her knees and she hits the ground. Stifling a groan, blond Alice forces back a grimace and stands to her feet, tall. Tipping her head, her unwavering expression reads, See?
Vaerynn cracks a smile, and it’s odd touching her stern features. “Find your beds. The havistonn will be in shortly to perform your examinations.”
The softness of the bed caresses my side, and my body sings with restful relief. But my eyes refuse to close as they drink in the magic of the sparkling blue water that disappears into the misty sky.
The others find a bed and have a seat or lie down, but Glenda places her fingers against the window and gazes past her reflection at the foamy waves. The ones left at the village, including my mother, will probably have moved on to the south. I imagine Mother taking heavy steps away from our home w
ith the peach and white pack we made together over her shoulder. She would be guiding the animals along and holding a cage of chickens upon the rocky trail.
As I lie on the soft mattress, I lift my hand in front of my face, turning it back and forth. The strange sensation that arose in them during Brekter’s rough handling is something that hasn’t surfaced for a long time. But I have felt it before. Once when I was younger, I had been cornered out in the vegetable fields by a group of older boys. One of them took me by a strand of loose hair which was always kept back. He taunted, “Weird Caly, why do you look like that?” My heart was pounding as another boy poked me in the shoulder. “You’re a weird girl!” he said and shoved me. The kids laughed as I hit the ground, but it didn’t hurt. They knew exactly why my hair was an icy blue and my eyes a glowing cerulean, and I couldn’t believe they would be so cruel to someone who was cursed with such a short life. The children chanted their ugly words and their feet landed into my sides and back. Though I wanted to cry, I didn’t, but instead I embraced the pain. Each blow sent a jolt through me and welled up in my core. Every nerve seemed to soak up the hits and form a ball of energy. My eyes focused with deadly sharpness and the kids around me moved in slow motion. I burst up, and a loud pop broke through the air like it had ripped open. The boy, Tommy, who acted as the main aggressor, grabbed my wrist but immediately let it go again with a sharp breath. The color leached from his face and blackened, tearful eyes darted around wildly.
Momma tore across the land after us and all the kids scattered, Tommy not so quickly. The sight of her disarmed me, and what was left of the heavy swirling deep in my flesh dissipated. She took me into her embrace and stroked my messy locks. “Are you all right?” she asked and rocked me gently. I was all right. In fact, I was vibrating. “They just don’t understand.” She leaned into my ear. “They don’t know it, but you are amazing. You are more special than them, me, and everyone we know.”
Different didn’t feel amazing or special, and I wanted so badly to blend in with the rest of my people. The kids who hurt me that day were punished so severely it never happened again, and with time, the pain of their attack and the strange sensations that overtook me faded away.
“He arrives.” Vaerynn’s voice cuts through my sleepy state. “Sit on your beds and quietly await your turn.” She turns slowly and says, “You are not to scream at any time. No matter what.”
Before full realization can sink in, the door swings open and a young male steps inside wearing a strange mask. A familiar sense of knowing strikes me, though his hair is cut short and his features are obscured by the mask. “Gerakon?” slips out, and he looks at me with deceitful pools of lightest silver. “You betray Kassien again?” I eagerly shimmy to the edge of the bed on my knees. “Is he alive?”
Vaerynn grunts in warning, but Gerakon raises a hand and lays a bag on the table in the center. “I only stand with what I believe, right or wrong.” He lays out a series of metal tools that make my blood flow cold. “We miss crucial opportunities by trying to preserve your race.” He palms a silver object and presses a button, activating it to open with moving claw projections. “I cannot stand back and watch my race suffer any longer. Hang yours if we must.”
“This is our home, and we have been taken against our will,” says Glenda. “I don’t give a damn about your race.”
“Ah,” he says simply. “Then we understand each other after all.”
“No.” Glenda sits up and pounds a fist into the mattress. “You are breaking more than your own laws by hurting us. You break the universe’s.”
Vaerynn stands behind Mary-Shelly and holds her down by the shoulders. She shakes her head slightly, fear seeping from her pores as she fights the urge to struggle.
Gerakon taps the inside of her legs, and as they reluctantly fall open, a short sob exits her throat. Glenda and Sybil look away, but I have to know what happens. He positions the tool at her opening and pauses. But only for a second.
“Gerakon.” I stand up, and Vaerynn stiffens. “Something we do at home before receiving treatment for something is telling the person exactly what’s going to happen.”
“Sit down, girl,” says the bristling female, her fingers digging into Mary-Shelly’s shoulders. My friend grits her teeth from the pressure.
“I will, but she won’t be as scared if you explain everything she will experience.” I sit back down as instructed and hope Gerakon has some amount of compassion within him. He played a part in beating Kassien down when I first arrived to their part of the world, a place that seems so far away now. But he was forgiven by the prince, and they had joined forces to accept me.
Vaerynn smacks the wall, and the windows rattle. “Close your mouth or see it sewn shut. If you become a problem, I will take back my kindness of having Brekter and Kratorr stand outside the door during this intimate procedure.”
Gerakon clears his throat. “This is a device that will be inserted within your vulvar cavity and expanded. Its claws will pierce your tissues and take samples of blood, flesh, and hormone levels.”
I gasp inwardly. Perhaps he had the right idea about getting it over with without much talk.
“It’s uncomfortable, painful.” His eyes flick up and lock onto Scarlet’s, who takes him in right back. “But—” he tears his gaze away from my beautiful best friend and prepares the tool once more toward Mary-Shelly’s quivering flesh. “You will survive it.” He pushes it in, and she groans deeply, her back arching. I look away and bite my lip as her scream rises.
The seconds tick by, and Mary-Shelly’s cries become desperate. That tool isn’t meant for humans, but all I can do is hope the procedure ends soon, because they’re going to do this whether we fight them or not.
“Please,” Mary-Shelly pleads, her pale legs shaking. Strange sounds chirp from the tool as though receiving information, and Gerakon pushes a sequence of buttons on the handle.
“How necessary is this?” asks Sybil, her voice an octave too high. “Can’t we just try to have a baby for you? Why isn’t that good enough—”
Blond Alice jumps out of bed and flings herself against the window. She bounces off the bars and flies backward. Vaerynn screams for the backup that waits on the other side of the door.
“Stay perfectly still!” Gerakon cries out as he gathers readings from the device that begins beeping severely. Mary-Shelly cries quietly, her face squeezed in pain, but she doesn’t move amidst the chaos. Brekter storms inside, followed by Kraetorr, the big brute. “I do not understand why this is hurting the woman so much,” says the Koridon scientist. “Something is wrong.”
I’m already kneeling over Alice before fully absorbing what Gerakon said. I brush golden strands from the angry flush of her face and reveal a lump forming on her forehead. “Please,” I say, holding her hand, “please don’t fight them! Love them. Win them. You have the power in this moment to change the lives of everyone you love.” She shudders out a soft cry. “And you will love, too,” I say. “More than you ever thought capable.”
“But I love Tiberius already!”
“You—” Surely she meant her husband, Oliver, and not the Hollow’s-Eve time leader of our village? Her determined expression undoes my confusion. “I didn’t mean the love of a man.” I move away from her unintended reveal. “You will have a child, Alice.”
Vaerynn picks up blond Alice by her throat and flattens her onto the bed. “This one is obviously weak in the head,” she says. “You might want to record this incident in her evaluation.”
Gerakon removes the device from Mary-Shelly and inserts it into a cylindrical tube while Kraetorr and Brekter remove her clothing.
“I asked you to do this with dignity. With strength,” says Vaerynn. “I knew it was too much to ask of you weak animals.” She shoots Brekter a look that says, Why are we doing this again?
The males watch us as Mary-Shelly’s stomach is examined, her waist is measured and her breasts are prodded and pulled at. Gerakon swipes his fingers through the ai
r and orange symbols light up where he touches. “How often do you have blood discharge from your womb?” he asks.
Mary-Shelly shrugs with streaks lining her face. “Do you mean my menstrual?”
He blinks pointedly and touches her lower abdomen. “From here, how often do you bleed?”
“Usually every month. Unless, well, sometimes it ceases.” She crosses her arms over her chest and turns her head toward the window. “We sometimes find ourselves with very little food and starving. It doesn’t come during those times.”
“Do you have any maladies? Any abnormalities throughout life?”
“I feel fine. Always have.”
“Have you conceived before?” he asks.
A sob racks through her shoulders in reply.
“She doesn’t have any children,” says Glenda hesitantly. “None of us do.”
“That doesn’t mean she has never conceived before.” He pulls her up to face him. “Has your belly ever held a child?”
Her mouth opens in a silent cry and she shakes her head. “They took it from me.”
“Who?” Gerakon squints and tips his head.
“We aren’t allowed to have children. Back where I come from.”
“Are you saying that you have had a life ripped from your womb prematurely?”
She closes her eyes and swallows hard, slumping as though the life once taken from her has been stolen once again.
“Hmm,” he sits back and peers at Vaerynn. “There may be damage to her body. This may complicate future pregnancies.”
“What do you mean?” She sits up, her small, pale breasts mottled from the cold. “They said I would be unscathed afterward, but it hurt. Oh, it hurt so badly!”
“Lie down,” says Gerakon. “I am sorry to scare you. Worry not about this until the tests yield the results.” He rearranges the glowing symbols in the air before him. “Her date is three days from now.”
Vaerynn tosses Mary-Shelly’s dress at her. “Next. This one here.” The female motions toward Glenda, who flings herself back and bunches the blanket in her fingers.
