The aliens we passed eyed my breasts so absorbedly, I realised I gave off an alluring vibe to the needy males rather than one of modesty.
Out of sorts, I opened my mouth wide to complain.
Seeing how Venomous walked naked with his head lifted high, I snapped it shut.
Intrigued, I observed him, learned from him.
He exuded a ‘don’t fuck with me’ aura even though he was bare.
Lifting my chin, I straightened my shoulders and dropped my hands.
I made ‘come closer and I’ll end you’ eye contact, and as soon as I did, most of the slaves averted their faces.
I even growled a little when a gaze lingered at the apex of my thighs.
The aliens followed a dominance hierarchy.
Venomous sat entrenched at the top, it seemed, and by extension, I was regarded as someone not to offend.
It made sense.
From their perspective if Venomous’ female became ‘upset’ he might get angry and react accordingly.
Hissing and poison spitting in honour of yours truly.
It was kind of hot.
I found more and more about my alien appealing, his magnificent body and protectiveness included.
This happy conclusion gave my courage a boost, and my stressed heartbeat steadied.
Alas, it tangoed again when he pulled me through a large fissure that opened into a cavern.
I calmed at a glance as it was empty but for two.
After witnessing the fight to win me, I knew Venomous could wipe the floor with them should they feel idiot enough to attack.
A waterfall gushed from an aperture in the ceiling and streamed along the stone floor until it eddied down a crack acting as a drain.
Venomous stood in the middle of the room as if lord of the domain.
His gaze landed on the massive furry creatures cavorting in the middle of the spray, but he made no aggressive advance.
Jaw slackening, I gaped, stacked it and near dropped the canister.
Pink sasquatches barked in lyrical bursts as they frolicked under the glistening falls.
A little hysterical, I giggled, shrill, and then anchored my nails in Venomous’ arm.
He’d have to amputate that baby to pry me loose.
Ignoring them, he lifted me into his arms then carried me under the cascade.
The ice fucking cold deluge that pelted my skin like kamikaze wasps on crack.
Shrieking, I twisted violently against his chest then tried to escape by crawling over his head, only to be tugged back under the freezing torrent.
Turned to face the glacial flow, I spluttered and gasped.
Screeched, “Stop.”
“Wash,” he ordered.
Babbling an incoherent plea about the painful cold, I sobbed, relieved when he sighed and put me down.
I bolted out of the spray.
Drenched, my wet corkscrews sent water flying as I skittered back then flung out a trembling arm. “What the fuck, babe?”
“Am full grown.”
Flashing both palms, I took a breath.
I wheezed another, stronger one then finally calmed. “Okay. Okay. Where’s the loo? All this water, Venom, I seriously need to go.”
He tilted his chin as he reasoned out what I needed then pointed to a stream running alongside the wall. “Go.”
Twisting, I stared at the thread of water. “Where...? I can’t pee in that. And how will I...?” I made a motion with my hand over my ass and eyeballed him.
Considering the ‘vacancy’ sign that made up his expression, he did not get me.
“That is where it goes. Go then return.” He tapped the space in front of him with his foot. “Here.”
Dismissing me, he rubbed himself down vigorously, evidently enjoying the copious amounts of water on his dry scales.
Bursting to go, I put the canister down then hurried over to the stream.
I squatted in the far corner.
My face burned as I released my hold on my bladder, and I was all of a sudden grateful I hadn’t eaten, as my bowels were empty sparing me that last degradation.
I walk-skipped back to Venomous then dithered at re-entering the waterfall.
I inhaled and caught a whiff of my own funk.
Unenthusiastic to the utmost extent, oh yes, to the highest bloody degree, I dipped a toe.
Shivered.
Girding my loins, I gave the water my back then shoved under.
Cringing at layers of filth I could feel, I tried to move my arms, but was cruelly thwarted by the cold.
I shoved my hands under my pits and huddled into myself.
Teeth clattering, I stood there daydreaming about the luxury of hot showers in clean, private bathrooms then peered down at my grubby legs and dirtied stomach.
I bore the brunt of it until my skin shrivelled, tingled, and my nipples peaked so hard, I wondered if they’d snap off.
“S-soap-p-p?” I stuttered.
Venomous’ head was tipped back and water sluiced down his face. The no blinking thing was so weird. “Only water.”
I scrubbed my fingers through my hair.
Though the temperature was arctic, it felt amazing to get clean after days of smelling myself.
Mortified Venomous met me when I looked so nasty, I scrubbed harder.
How could he bear to touch me let alone have sex when I stunk to high heaven?
Something soft and spongy brushed against my behind. “What–”
A furred hand pushed hard on my upper back, bending me so fast the air whooshed from my lungs.
Something humungous pressed against my panty-covered sex.
Squealing, I flailed my arms and lurched forward. “What the fuck is happening?”
Venomous grabbed me before I head butted the floor.
He spun to set me upright behind him then pivoted back around. “No, Griergermon. Mine.”
The alien that grabbed me, Griergermon, wrung his wrinkled paws.
Dense pink fur bristled then stood on end as he whined and rubbed his distended groin.
Griergermon made a series of motions with his stumpy digits then spun to the other alien, its pelt cerise tipped with grey.
That creature made a flurry of agitated hand motions back then bent over on all fours.
Griergermon mounted him and they started rutting and grunting right there.
Peeking from around Venomous’ broad back, gobsmacked, I watched this happen with wide eyes.
Not only had my alien lover/mate/whatever reacted different than expected to another touching me, it staggered me these creatures were going at it, anally, in a public bathing space.
My skin crawled.
I so don’t want to be barefoot in here.
Venomous’ tongue flickered.
Wrapping an arm tight around my waist, he hauled me into his side. “No fear.”
Griergermon shuddered, his fur flashing bright blue as he came inside the smaller one that then shot its fluorescent load over the floor.
Barking at each other, they separated then went back to frolicking.
“Yoni are sexual,” Venomous said. “Mate always. When angry, happy and sad. In greeting and farewell. In good news and bad news. When eating. When they wake to say good rising. Understand?”
“Fine. I get it’s a custom of theirs. That doesn’t mean it’s one of mine.” I shook remembering the alien’s club of a shaft pressed against me. “I’ve seen smaller dicks on horses.”
“Is their way. Means they like mine mate.”
“Well then.” I swept out my arm in a semi circle. “All is forgiven.”
“Good.”
Sighing, I pinched my nose. “No, I was being sarcastic.... Oh, just forget it.” I waved my hand knowing I fought a losing battle. “An apology too much to hope for?”
“Yoni intelligent, but no speaking. Communicate using galactic signs. Barking happy sounds.” Venomous studied me then tightened his hold. “No hurt. Yoni no insult. Gentle.” He brus
hed his knuckles against my damp chin. “Griergermon learn no touch. He tell Vardermon.” Venomous hesitated. “Yoni friend. No harm.”
Shaken, I leaned into him and snuck my arms around his waist. “Okay, babe. I trust you.”
Eyes narrowing, his chin lowered. “Am no hatchling.”
He pushed me away.
“It’s an endearment.” It was silly to be hurt, but damn it, I was. “It’s meant to be affectionate.”
“No like.”
I snatched up the canister. “Am I caring? No.”
Not sure what to make of the exchange, he dismissed me to finish washing.
I waited, arms crossed, drilling holes into the side of his head.
Venomous strode past me towards the exit.
When I didn’t follow, he backtracked, clasped my hand then yanked me after him.
“Wait.” I planted my feet and tugged, shivering, dripping wet. “It’s chilly. I need to get dry.”
He stopped and turned to stare.
Total blank.
I said, “I’ll catch a cold if I stay like this.”
His stony expression didn’t change. “No catch cold.”
“I’ll get sick,” I amended rolling my eyes at how I’d assumed the saying would carry from my language to his.
“Because wet?” Mood softening, he chafed my arms. His scales were already bone dry. “Human need strange caring.” Hissing a sigh, he fingered my wildly curling hair. He ran a claw across my goose pimpled clavicle, mesmerized by their appearance. “Must gather food. Trade. Keep warm and dry.”
Telling myself I quivered because of the nippy air, not his touch, nor the intense look of possession honing his features, I bobbed a sullen nod.
“Come.” Apparently over our tiff, Venomous picked me up and held me to his chest.
Looping my arms around his neck, I got over it too and pressed closer to his warm chest.
He navigated the dark passageways with ease, and anticipated fissures, slopes, dropped ceilings and uneven surfacing with such surety, I wondered how many years he’d been a slave.
We passed creatures I’d never dreamed could exist outside my kookiest imaginings.
Most were bipedal, males with segmented bodies like insects, spiderlike limbs with hundreds of tiny blinking eyes.
The monopods resembled balls of slime with wriggling tentacles that reached for me.
After we passed the first one, I plugged my nose whenever I caught them drawing near.
They smelt boggy like sulphur and stagnant pond scum.
It was the aliens with gills and finlike appendages on their ribcages that more intrigued then revolted me.
Communicating in clicks and whistles they seemed partly aquatic in nature.
Those ones smelt like ocean, and it was comforting as it reminded me of the seaside.
The oily pong of cooking food cut through my musings.
My gut clenched, the grumble of my stomach unmistakable.
Venomous eyed my middle. “Easy.”
Saliva slicked the walls of my mouth. “I’m so hungry I could eat a horse.”
“What is horse?”
“A four legged animal we call a beast of burden on Earth. They’re travel companions and can be ridden wild or trained if you know what you’re doing.”
“Like goodbeast,” he said and smiled, a macabre scene of fangs.
Blinking, I looked at his mouth then up at his eyes then I smiled back, shaking my head.
He turned into another cave then set me down.
Hundreds of slaves milled about, the atmosphere edgy and volatile, unwashed body odours mixing together into a torpid reek.
Heaps of jumbled garbage and grungy streams of faecal waste added to the sweaty miasma.
Metal grills embedded in the ground released twisting clouds of icy vapour, and there were jagged spikes stabbing from the ceiling with lumpy protuberances lanced onto them, but my eyes weren’t keen enough to make out what.
Wide-eyed, I plastered my front to Venomous’ side because I spotted females.
A pair bickering over scraps had burgundy feathers, prehensile tails and curved red horns.
Another had pale green flesh, no discernable eye sockets, and a hole for a mouth ringed with vibrating feelers.
A stumpy, bald female with pointed ears and a vertical slit that glistened wetly in her abdomen lumbered about on all fours and bleated when touched.
It was the last that made me shudder.
She was humanoid, so much more so than the others, I felt a kinship.
Her translucent skin was waxen, ivory, and like Venomous, she had two sets of arms except the upper ones were so minor they were near vestigial.
She didn’t have hair, but ropes of flesh that ran connected down her back, and between her flat chest and faint nipple outlines.
Slanted eyes were luminous ingots, empty of life and unbearably sad as she stared into the distance with a flat, vacant expression that made me wonder if she’d fled so deep into her own mind, she no longer perceived the hellish environs.
A rusted link of chains wrapped around her delicate neck, and she knelt docilely beside a corpulent alien that reminded me of a blob fish.
A line of twitchy males ringed the disquieting twosome.
One of the most unattractive argued with the blob, waving what looked like a purple banana. “Nothing is wrong with it, Grol. You try to cheat me.”
Venomous pushed my cheek to turn my face away.
I tossed my head to break his hold, chafing under the domineering act, disliking how he thought it was okay to grab and manoeuvre me like an inanimate object.
He directed my attention to a pile of food dumped on the grimy cesspit of a floor.
My knee-jerk reaction was to snub eating anything from the pest-ridden mound, yet it appeared to be the sole option available.
I asked, “Isn’t any of it cooked?”
Sniffing, I followed my nose to a stall flanked by slavers with spiked cudgels where, ominously, stood no line of slaves to partake of the offering.
The guards were intimidating, but I hungered.
It wasn’t the faint hunger of my old life, but sunken belly, hollowed out stomach that gurgles, cramps and burns with acid hunger.
Focus narrowed to a pinprick, swallowing thick spit, I stepped in that direction. “There’s food right there.”
Venomous towed me back to his side by hooking an arm around my waist, heaving a long-suffering sigh at my ineffectual efforts to break free.
He clasped my chin and turned me to face the raw supplies. “Cook own. Safe.” He pointed to the food stall. “Bad things. Make mine Lumen ill.”
Keeping me close, Venomous plucked three items from the pile.
As he reached for more, the slaver shoved him back with the handle of its whip.
“Have female.” Holding his ground, Venomous squared his shoulders. He towered over the cruel being and glared. “Need.”
The L’Odo eyed us, rubbery lips crinkling. It snorted, dark yellow crest lifting. “Two more.” It jerked its ridged snout to the skinned carcass on its other side. “One flesh cut only.”
Venomous sniffed at the meat.
Unsheathing his claws, he sliced a slab from its flank, selecting the least sickly looking area to carve.
The fat marbled portion dripped viscous black blood through his claws.
He nudged me. “Choosing.”
None of the bruised, overripe fodder looked appetising.
I picked a knotted orange root because it reminded me of a potato, and a blue string of orbs that resembled tomatoes.
“Eat those?” Venomous asked. “Good for insides?”
“We’ll soon find out, won’t we?”
Glowering at that answer, he snatched them from me then examined my hands.
Well, what does he expect?
I had no idea if I could eat the food.
I’d starve if I couldn’t, and there wouldn’t be a thing either of us could do about it
.
Sighing, I looked at my hands and figured he checked to see if I’d had a reaction to anything I’d touched.
Hissing at the leering guard, Venomous clasped my arm then guided me to a grouping of flat-topped stonework, a seating area, a short length from the leashed female and her master.
He sat me down, making sure my limbs were arranged before seating himself.
I huffed, but didn’t change position.
Scrutinizing the fare thoroughly, Venomous sniffed each piece, letting his forked tongue flicker over their dimpled, porous rinds.
Unexpectedly, I felt reassured not patronized by the meticulous inspection.
Hungry as I was, I would have stuffed anything in my mouth then died of food poisoning, or choked on its noxious peel.
He’s not being controlling, he’s taking care of me.
My heart softened towards the big lug.
“What now?” I asked wondering when I’d get to eat.
I felt weak limbed, lightheaded.
“Trade.”
“Okay, but with what....” I froze, my eyes round in my face.
The blob called Grol took the payment then yanked on the chain, jerking the female forward.
She didn’t react much other than to choke then hunker down to spread her legs.
The male who’d argued with his purple banana came up behind her then whipped his thing out his soiled loincloth.
Penis bloated into a misshapen club covered in hooks, he mounted then thrust hard, holding onto her slim hips to keep her steady.
He came at once scratching at her back and squawking.
Cheek pressed to the dirt, the female vacantly met my horror-struck gaze as I’d made an inarticulate noise shrill enough to draw the attention of half the damn cave.
The male pulled out to climax again, shooting runny semen over her back then rubbing it in.
“No scent mark,” Grol yawped. His oral cavity smacked together in a squishy mess. “Costs more.”
Grunting, the alien shoved off, carelessly knocking the female over with his bushy tail.
He ambled into the tunnel shaking drips of greenish fluid from his now flaccid member.
“Am next, Grol.” Another male with leathery wings thrust forward another piece of food.
A burly slave with no neck stopped him from going further with a sound shove of his fingerless stumps.
Grol tossed the bruised edible back at the punter. “No enough.”
Venomous: (Alien Warrior Book 1) Page 8
