Stolen and Seduced

by Christine Pope

  “What do you recommend?” Clyrick asked.

  R’gu rolled his eyes. “What do you think it’s gonna be?” he asked. “Abduction.”

  Nova played the ukulele.

  She wasn’t very good at it. And it wasn’t a very good ukulele, just a little $50 thing she’d picked up on sale from a big box store a few years back. She loved the thing but practiced in waves, playing every night for a couple of months at a time before getting distracted with work and school and boys. But she’d always found her way back to it, usually after a breakup, and this week was no different.

  Michael had been the latest in her long string of disappointing human men. He was part of the college’s football team, which at their small liberal arts school wasn’t actually that big of an accomplishment, but he let his athleticism go straight to his head. She’d met him at one of the “tastefully moist” campus’s house parties, where she made out with him in a closet four drinks and a few spins into spin the bottle.

  It’d been fun. And he was cute. He’d asked her to go on a proper date with him the next morning over eggs and toast in the dining hall, and they went Facebook official about a week later. But, as it was, about two weeks after that, it so happened that he went back to playing spin the bottle at a different house party, and she only found out through the gossip chain.

  When she confronted him about it, he not only fessed up to it, but defended it using a lot of long words and phrases she thought he probably didn’t understand or might not even exist, like “mononormativity” and “personal sovereignty,” but she was pretty sure that ultimately it just came down to: “I do what I want.”

  So she dumped him and rebounded with her ukulele.

  She was just practicing Mary Had a Little Lamb and cursing her inability to play the thing when she heard a high-pitched humming. She clamped her fingers over the strings to silence them, but the sound continued, and grew louder. Then her lights went out.

  “Okay, what now?” she sighed, starting to move from the bed only to find herself frozen in place.

  Through the ceiling, a beam of green light appeared, dim at first and glowing brighter. The hum got louder, too, until she felt the need to cover her ears and avert her eyes. She was afraid, that was for sure, but there wasn’t much she could do to defend herself from her bed.

  Four figures appeared around her, fading in from apparently thin air as if this were a sci-fi film. Aliens. It didn’t seem possible, that was for sure, and yet here they were, and there was really no other explanation that made sense given, well, everything.

  They were unexpectedly humanoid, a range of attractive masculine forms in inhuman colors with what she could only label as “space loin cloths.” She wondered whether this meant they could shape-shift, but put the thought out of her head.

  “We come in peace,” the first one—and the largest—said. He was a bright red-orange with huge muscles, large enough that if he’d been human she’d assume he was on steroids. He looked like he could break her in half with his fingers, but he did his best to stand back and remain nonthreatening.

  “Technically, we don’t,” another said. This one was smaller, a deep green, and looked like he could probably do acrobatics. He was a lithe sort of muscular and reminded her of the guy she’d dated two or three men before Michael.

  Regardless, his words probably should have alarmed her. They didn’t. She felt very at peace, perhaps because of the light blue one who stood in the corner with his palms up, and that peacefulness made way for her to focus on her feelings of curiosity.

  And attraction. That, too, if she was being honest: these guys were some of the hottest she’d seen in a while, and she didn’t even mind their crayon box array of colors.

  “What they’re trying to say,” the blue one said, his voice slow in a way that relaxed her shoulders and made her move closer to him, “is that we will not harm you.”

  “I know,” she whispered. How she knew this, she didn’t know, but it was true. Every bit. “That isn’t my question, though,” she continued.

  The tallest one spoke now. He had long, slender fingers, and was himself long and slender in a way that was... beautiful was the only way she could describe it. He seemed like a dancer, or, given his silvery marble skin, perhaps a statue. She looked up his body and held back a gasp when she realized he had no eyes, simply bumps under the surface where she would otherwise expect his eyes to be. He tilted his head upward for a moment before turning to face her directly. She wondered whether this meant he could see in a way she didn’t understand.

  “Your question is why we’re here,” he said. “And we’re here because we need a bard for our next mission.”

  “A... bard? Like the person who travels from castle to castle to entertain the kings?”

  All but the silvery alien exchanged glances. He took another step toward her instead. “In your world, perhaps. In ours, a bard is a valiant warrior who uses the power of their performance to encourage the other adventurers and help them achieve their mission and earn glory.”

  Nova didn’t know what to say to this. “I... am not a valiant warrior,” she settled on. “I’m a sociology major. I knit and watch Netflix in my spare time.”

  “Ah, but I see your future, and you are destined to be one. You have the gumption for it and the talent to wield the strings.”

  “To wield the...? You mean to play the ukulele? I can barely remember Mary Had a Little Lamb...”

  “You need not know the tunes of the earth if you know the tunes of your heart,” the alien responded, his voice soft, and if she wasn’t imagining it, with a smile.

  “That... sounds like a Hallmark card,” she retorted.

  “We gotta get going,” the deep green one said. “Look, he’s trying to be nice about it, but the short version is ‘you’re coming with us.’”

  Nova blinked at him. “What do you mean I’m ‘coming with you’? As in you’re abducting me?”

  “That’s such a harsh word,” the red one said. “More like... we’re giving you an invitation you can’t turn down. It’ll be the adventure of a lifetime.”

  “So yes. You’re abducting me.”

  The red one came closer to her, moving around the silver one, who stepped out of his way gracefully. He towered over her, close enough she could have reached out to touch his nipple-free chest if she felt so inclined, and far enough back it was clear he was still trying not to intimidate her but didn’t understand there was no way for him to avoid it.

  The calming power from the blue one still worked its magic—or whatever it was, she wasn’t sure—but it seemed diminished when the other was so close to her. Nonetheless, she fell into something like a trance as he approached.

  “You want to come with us,” he said, holding one hand out.

  She took it. “What are you doing to me? Why do I feel this way?”

  “I’m not doing anything to you,” he said. “I can just tell what you want. It’s written all over your face. All over your body language. There’s no point to pretending not to want it.”

  Double entendre? She couldn’t tell. Unlikely, she assumed, but since they’d at least figured out enough about human norms to know to cover up the appendages between their legs, perhaps anything was possible.

  It seemed more likely as he grasped her hand and pulled her into him, making her moan as her body hit the hard lines of his body. He was warm to the touch in a way that made her want to strip naked and absorb as much of the heat as possible. And the smell—like fire, like ashes, but also like trees and wood and other things she could not place. She inhaled deeply, exhaling with a moan and sinking into him further until something under his space loin cloth pressed against her stomach in a way that answered far too many questions and also made her extremely turned on.

  “F’ght’r, we need to get going,” she heard another one of them say, but she didn’t remember who, or what the others looked like at the moment.

  “Fuck me,” she said to the red one in fron
t of her. “Please.”

  He pulled her into him further, cupping her ass in his... hands? Or limbs. Or whatever you’d call them. “It’s time to go,” he whispered in her ear before carrying her across her room. She saw her dorm bathed in green light over the alien’s shoulder, and then she felt them both levitate and drift off until they left the planet.

  “Welcome aboard,” F’ght’r said to her. She had a headache. It was bright green up here, too, and she was questioning the reason for this as she winced against the light. F’ght’r tilted his head at her facial expression and, as if in response, the ship’s light dimmed and changed to a shade of white-yellow normal to her human eyes.

  “This is a dream,” she said aloud. “I’m not... there’s no way...”

  “No,” he said. “Not a dream. What do you need? More sleep?”

  She felt like she should be panicking. Somehow, she wasn’t. “How... why...?” she started, but the words wouldn’t come.

  “Wyzard told you. Remember, in your room on earth? We need a bard.”

  “I don’t understand,” she said.

  “Our band has been tasked with saving Planet 2251. As we aim to be pragmatic, we often struggle to remain confident when we know our odds of failure are high. We need a bard to boost our stats against the beings guarding our target.”

  Nova stared at the alien before her. She was certain he intended this to be helpful, but there wasn’t much she understood from that, really. “And you thought I was the best option for this because...?”

  “Because you’re a star.”

  She took a deep breath, looking for an argument. There was none to be found. She found his scent, though, and closed her eyes to figure out what her next move would be.

  When she opened them, she saw red. He stood before her, so close she could open her mouth and lick him if she wished to. She realized she’d stood at some point.

  “What would you like?” he asked her. “It is my understanding you require food. Or, perhaps, that addictive brown liquid that is so popular among your kind. Perhaps we can fetch some for you?”

  What did she want? She wasn’t sure. Or, rather, she was absolutely certain, but wasn’t sure how to ask. So she said nothing.

  “I’m sorry,” F’ght’r said, “I don’t really know how to do this abduction thing.”

  Charming. He was charming. Or, perhaps, she was charmed. Did the difference matter? She didn’t think so.

  “I want... you,” she said.

  He tilted his head. “I’m not sure I understand what you mean,” he said.

  She looked up at him. He wasn’t so unlike human men she’d been with, really, just... larger and red. And, well, alien, of course. She assumed his anatomy would be... compatible with hers, but she wondered if that was just wishful thinking.

  She wasn’t certain whether that meant he could get her pregnant. Or, she wondered, was there such a thing as an alien STI? If there was, could it be passed to human partners, assuming alien-human intercourse were possible? What could alien viruses do to human bodies? She wasn’t sure. She guessed she was making a lot out of nothing.

  Besides, he might not have been interested in her even if they were compatible species. She assumed he was, mostly because she was pretty sure she’d felt him go hard against her, but...

  She’d gotten lost in thought while trying to find the words to explain to him, or the courage to pursue it directly. She blinked and looked back at him; he was still looking at her thoughtfully, but hadn’t so much as moved toward her in the silence.

  She reached a hand out, touching his torso, letting herself be mesmerized by the way his red skin looked over the curves of his muscles. She took another step toward him so they touched. Heat. Physical, sure, but also a warmth that filled her from the inside out, as if up on this spaceship, she’d found home.

  She pressed her lips against his chest, caressing his skin with them. He froze under her kiss, then relaxed, his arms surrounding her and pulling her in tighter. He lifted her body up so her eyes looked into his, looping his hands around her thighs to expose her cunt to him.

  She searched for words and found none, but let herself fall to press her lips against his. He tasted like campfires, and she couldn’t imagine returning to the embrace of human men after. She couldn’t imagine returning to her college dorm room at all, really, or to frat parties and classes and a normal human existence after being brought aboard for the most interesting experience of anyone she’d ever heard of.

  And, most importantly, him.

  “Fuck me,” she said, finding the words that had eluded her since she’d first said them upon meeting him. But now, without the blue alien alongside him, she didn’t feel the serenity she had, just longing to have his red member inside of her.

  Again with the assumptions. She assumed it was red, at least.

  He nodded into her hair. He understood. Good. It would have been such a waste for her to go to that much effort to find the words only for their meaning to still elude him. And when he nodded, it brushed her hair against her ear ever so slightly, sending tingles through her body and making her want him ever the more.

  She leaned her head back to expose her neck to him. It was involuntary, mostly, but he took the cue for what it was, his lips brushing against it and making her moan. She squirmed in his arms as pleasure moved through her body, barely noticing she was moving until her back hit the bed and he let go of her, releasing his warm hold on her back to hold himself over her instead.

  He smiled at her. It took her breath away. She wasn’t sure she’d seen him smile before now—not a genuine one, anyway—and she definitely had not seen him smile with confidence and excitement rather than trepidation. He was beyond handsome; they didn’t make them this way on earth.

  He pulled at her clothing, and she laughed. She figured he wouldn’t be used to having to navigate that particular hurdle. It wasn’t as if they seemed like they wore a lot of clothing themselves, and it seemed likely to her they rarely wore any at all when there weren’t human sensibilities to worry about. Though then again, she wasn’t entirely certain she was glad they’d eschewed clothing out of consideration for her.

  She had... questions. Ones about to be answered, but still.

  She assisted him, pulling her shirt over her head and unclasping her bra, then pulling her leggings and underwear down over her hips. He took her clothing the rest of the way off and it fell out of sight. He moved slowly, gently, as if aware of how easily he could harm her as large as he was. He moved with a tenderness she had rarely experienced from human men who put their goal and physical desires ahead of her well-being in even the simplest of ways. It turned her on that much more, made her feel as if she knew she could trust him entirely.

  She didn’t know how to respond to him; she wasn’t sure whether there was any norm to follow or things she should not do in such a situation with his kind. So, instead, she let him lead the way, looking up at him from the bed in anticipation as he undid his space loincloth and revealed his girth.

  She blinked. She wasn’t sure what she’d expected. His cock was bigger than any she’d seen before, though that wasn’t the most surprising thing about it by any means. No, perhaps the most surprising thing about it was that it had two heads; the first on the end of the shaft as expected, while the second was a little further up, emerging from the top like a knob on a g-spot toy.

  She held back laughter. She wasn’t sure whether alien men’s feelings were as fragile as human men’s, but she didn’t want to chance it. Besides, it wasn’t as if the appearance of his alien cock made her less interested in having sex with him. No, on the contrary? It spiked her curiosity. After all, if it looked like a sex toy...

  “You’re amused,” he said.

  Welp. She thought she’d been better at holding herself back, but apparently not.

  “I can read your thoughts,” F’ght’r said.

  She blinked. Really? Fuck. That opened up so many more questions that she almost got si
detracked from her desire for his alien cock. She didn’t know where to start.

  He started laughing at her. Fuck. This would be embarrassing. At least earth men couldn’t do this to her. FUCK. She couldn’t get the inane thoughts to stop even knowing he was eavesdropping on them. She would have to take up meditation or something if she was going to make a habit of hanging out with mind-reading aliens. Did they even have guides to meditation in space? She doubted it. She also doubted they would make a U-turn so she could hit up the local library.

  “I’m joking,” he said. “I can’t read minds. I didn’t expect you to fall for it, though.”

  “You’ve got to be kidding me,” she said.

  “I can, however, read your emotions. So now I’m curious what exactly you were thinking that you were so embarrassed about.”

  She fumbled, trying to find words. She wasn’t sure what she wanted to tell him. She tried not to be annoyed that it seemed like their movement toward him finally being inside her was coming to a halt, but it reminded her of just how little she knew about him now.

  Not like meeting a guy at a bar and not knowing what his childhood was like. Not unlike that, but, well, the uncertainty of what an entirely different species was like was another layer.

  “Calm down,” he told her, placing one massive arm on her shoulder. She exhaled with the heat of his palm, letting herself relax under him once more. “We have all the time in the world to get to know one another.”

  And he’d told her he couldn’t read her mind, but in that moment she wasn’t altogether convinced. That, too, was alright, though; perhaps he could read her mind, but what did it matter if he was everything to her she thought he might be?

  He pressed the tip of his cock against her core, and she rose to meet him, spreading her legs such that he entered her. He pushed in slowly, moving as if aware of the way his cock expanded her, as if perhaps he understood somehow that he was bigger than the vast majority of human men. For that matter, she wasn’t sure he wasn’t big for alien men, too. But regardless, he entered so slowly she almost couldn’t handle that, and it took all of her self control to let him enter at his desired pace instead of hers.