I'd been sitting there for a long time, carefully tilted to one side and off the welts, when I felt a movement next to me. I rubbed my eyes to erase any evidence of tears and turned. To my surprise Joran sat down next to me. He kept a reasonable amount of space between us, which I was grateful for, because his presence unnerved me. He was even bigger and broader than most of the other males, with black hair that curled tightly around itself. That same hair traveled down his arms, giving him the look of an animal wearing a pelt.
"The whipping yesterday was very painful, wasn't it?"
I looked at him. "You know it was. You enjoy it, I think."
"I practiced for a year. I’m good at it.” He smiled proudly.
I rolled my eyes.
"You know there's a way to escape any more of these."
"Yes. Why?" I asked suspiciously.
"I'd like to try to help you."
"You want to lie with me to get me pregnant?" I regretted not knowing any crude words in his language.
"If you're willing."
I stared at him. The concept of having sex to get pregnant wasn't unpleasant, at all, but he was not the vision I had of the alien I hoped would be my first. "Um, I will think about it."
His eyes widened as though he'd never considered that I might not fall all over myself to "lie" with him.
Suddenly I needed space. "Joran, I want to be alone." I got up and moved away from the steps, crossing my fingers that he wouldn't come after me. He didn't.
I wandered over to flowers in a raised bed in front of a low wall. They were bright, like everything else here, as though the sun shone out from every object. Small insects buzzed around.
There was a noise behind the wall. I swear it sounded like a giggle. And then another one – and this was definitely a soft moan. I froze and listened to the conversation.
It was Aliya. And Linal if I guessed correctly, since they had seemed to find each other irresistible before we went into space sleep. And they were definitely not having a private language practice. Her soft moans were replaced by grunts and groans, and I heard him reassure her that he was almost all the way in, that she was doing fine. And then I heard a noise that could only be him pulling out and pushing back in as she let out a quiet screech…
I should have been embarrassed to overhear this. I should have left immediately to give them privacy. But I was fascinated by the sounds, and so turned on that I realized I was wet between my legs. Looking around furtively and seeing no one turned my way, I sat down on the edge of the low stones in front of the flowers, plunged my hand between my legs, and started furiously rubbing my clit. The stones ground painfully into my welts and somehow that pain only increased my pleasure. I heard her come, the sound muffled as though he had his hand over her mouth and that was all the vision I needed to rocket over the edge in record time, stifling my own yell between my gritted teeth. As I came back down, I checked to see if anyone had observed my frantic self-pleasuring, and to my relief, saw no one.
As Linal reached his own peak and let out a cry, I used the cover of the noise to stand up and walk away quickly.
That evening the males told us to put away the books we were trying to read and come with them. We followed, curious at what was in store, and stopped in shock when he led us back to the park where we had been whipped. The poles were gone. Instead, there was a large group of aliens – males, females, and children – all male, of course – spread out over the grass. Some were talking, and some were eating, and food was spread over several large tables to one side. We stood in an uncertain group until a female with a smile walked over to us.
"This is your first stop on the Tour, right?"
We nodded.
"I know this is a shock. You've gone through the punishment. You're forgiven here in this area, and now you're safe and welcomed."
We stayed silent, not comfortable with our hostess. She may have been acting nice, but the pain of our first punishment echoed in every movement we made and we weren't feeling a lot like talking.
"Go, help yourself to the food, and then sit. We want to tell you our story."
A short while later, we were seated on the grass with our plates full of more strange food. The female stood up once again to speak. She spoke slowly and clearly and I think we understood most of it this time.
"I know you know the facts of the story, but there's more that you need to know. We didn't stop having girls right away. It was gradual, as the infection spread over the planet. It took about a year before anyone here realized what was going on. All we knew was that there were an awful lot of boys being born, but because there was still the occasional girl, we didn't think much about it. Until the day we realized there had been twenty boys and no girls born over the last year in our town, and we demanded to know what was going on. The government was reluctant to admit it at first, but the facts were plain. No girls had been born for almost a year anywhere, and they had no idea why. Then they realized why, but couldn't do anything about it. We've spent twenty years trying to figure it out. We still can't, and even though your scientists are now helping us, no one knows how to reverse it. Almost every resource we have has been thrown at the problem. Those broken up roads? They haven't been paved for eighteen years. Municipal buildings haven't been repaired. Taxes are incredibly high, but most people would give everything they owned if it would help. About five years ago the government stepped in to declare that at least ten percent of revenue collected had to be spent on things not related to finding a cure, because we would descend into chaos as a society unless we took care of the people that were still alive.
"And then we found out that you – females from the planet that tried to wipe us out – were the answers to our survival. The bitterness and anger were incredible, especially from the women. Many people declared they would rather die as a species than invite you to come to our home and lay with our men. In spite of that, the re-population program was announced five years ago, and three years ago the first ship arrived with a large group."
She paused and took a deep breath and I sensed something ominous.
"This is the part that no one – not even your government – knows. Those first females were being led off the ship when they were attacked by people who lived nearby. Almost all of the group of one hundred were killed."
We stared at her in shocked silence. No wonder the aliens prohibited communication back to our planet. We would have stopped coming if we'd heard of this massacre.
"The few that survived were traumatized, understandably. Most of us were so appalled at what had happened that despite our anger, we took them in and cared for them, and grew to have a better understanding of them. It's hard to hate people that you know. But the anger lingered across the planet, and after months and months of debates, with the next ship on the verge of arriving, we came up with the arrangement we have now. And to our great surprise, it's worked. The anger has bled out of the areas that have hosted the Tour, and the females from your planet live in those areas in safety. So we now welcome you to our town, and when you're done if you choose to come back you'll find many friends." She stopped there and sat down.
We shifted uncomfortably on the soft grass, not sure what to say or do. We were saved from figuring it out when a group of gaudily-dressed males and females rose and assembled in the center of the park. Without warning music erupted from somewhere unseen, and a voice yelled out words, and the dancers began to weave back and forth in a complicated and sinuous pattern. The females spun and swirled, and when one of them made a mistake and ran into another they all laughed as they helped the females off the ground.
They looked happy despite their tragedy and I longed to be a part of it.
As we walked back to the building for the night, I fell into step next to Samial. I searched my memory for the right words to use to ask him and it must have been obvious because he stopped and turned to me with a smile.
"Out with it, Leina. I can tell there is something you want to say."
"You want to try to have a baby with me?" His words had a tone of disbelief I didn't understand.
"Um, yes. Is it strange?" I asked with confusion.
He looked back at me, his features hardening. "No, Leina, I will not lie with you. I'm sorry." He turned and walked away abruptly, leaving me staring at his retreating back and wondering what I'd done wrong.
Chapter 4 – Stocks
Samial made himself scarce for the next few days, though he couldn't avoid me completely because I guess he was officially my "handler."
I avoided Joran.
Two days later it was time to leave. We hadn't thought much about the next stop – shielding ourselves from worry, I suppose – until the night before. None of us slept well that night, and when we woke there was no breakfast offered. I think that was to prevent us from throwing up with fear. The whip marks from the first punishment had faded, but our backsides were still sore.
When we walked outside, we were surprised to see a vehicle hovering just off the ground. It had the look of something that used to be sleek and shiny, but had gotten a bit beat up with age. Just like many things here. We climbed aboard and settled as a group in the seats. The males followed, taking the empty seats around us, followed by Kinin.
"Our towns are far apart," he explained. "When it's necessary to travel a long distance in a short time, we have much more modern transportation. When we get to the outside of the next town we'll change to the carts so that the people can see you and express their feelings, just like last time."
Yay. We stared glumly out the expansive windows as the vehicle began to move through the town. Those inhabitants who were up and about waved to us as we left, and a few of us waved back. I, for one, didn't want to leave.
We picked up speed as we left town until we were fairly flying over the ground. It was hard to focus on the scenery that was flashing by so fast, but there was that ever-present sense of green that I don't think I'd ever get used to.
We'd probably been traveling for about an hour (one of our planet's hours, or one of their planet's hours? I wondered idly) when we began to slow, and we saw evidence of habitation again. First there were a few farms, then some buildings and homes. As we slowed to a stop my anxiety rose up inside of me like a volcano. The first time, we hadn't known what to expect. This time we did.
Once more we could see an angry crowd held back from the cart.
Kinin stood up. "Please remove your tunics."
I gulped and we all exchanged looks, but we all obeyed. Once again our hands were bound behind our backs and we were escorted out of the hovering craft to the creaky wooden cart where each of us was lifted up. Joran decided to boost me up by putting his hand between my legs and lifting. I turned around and looked down at him as he let go and shot him an evil look. He replied with a smirk.
Just like last time, our cuffs were fastened behind us to a center bar, so that we stood facing the angry crowd. I was pretty sure my knees were going to buckle. This time I closed my eyes and tried to calm my breathing as we started forward. The sun beat down on our skin as we jolted on the uneven road, and the crowd's frenzied shouting seemed to grow by the decibel as we made the creepingly slow trip.
I heard one particularly loud female screeching and opened my eyes against the brightness to look in her direction. Suddenly she pulled a large rock from a bag she was carrying and hurled it with surprising force straight for us. I hardly had time to try to duck before a sizzling and popping startled me and I saw to my amazement what looked like a grid of bluish energy flash in front of me. It neatly blocked the rock's trajectory. The projectile bounced backwards onto the ground and rolled to a stop and the cart jerked on uninterrupted.
I searched out the female again. She was still yelling but was now surrounded by security of some kind who were binding her arms and dragging her away. I looked up to Joran, seated at the front, and gave him a confused look. He shrugged.
"An electric grid. Stops anything from getting through. These people hate you."
No kidding.
This time, as we pulled into the park at the center of town, there was a circle of waist-high stocks. A final one was being wrestled into place as we arrived.
Sobaran escorted me this time, his hands gripping my waist to keep my legs from buckling. He lifted the top of the stocks off and bent me over to fit my head and arms in the half-circles. I was shaking with fear by this point and as he replaced the top, pinning me in, he placed a hand on my back and stroked it up and down several times, and I heard him say to my astonishment, "I'm sorry."
Then he left.
I lifted my head up as far as I could to see the faces of the other women already in place, as pale as I'm sure mine was. It didn't take long to get everyone else placed, and then after the expected speech about our sins, I saw aliens from the crowd coming to mill around us, forming lines behind each woman. The first one in line was handed a paddle by the male behind standing near. I didn't see Samial despite craning my neck around the circle so I assumed he was behind me and I was absurdly grateful he hadn't abandoned me.
Then Kinin called for quiet and I heard him say to the crowd, "You may each give one very hard smack, five hard ones, or twenty moderate ones. The handlers will judge and their opinion is final."
Somehow I knew which kind of blow we'd be getting, at least at first, and I was right. I had no warning before my backside exploded with pain, and I shrieked and struggled. I had a chance to catch my breath as the paddle was handed to the next in line, and this blow was placed right over the first one, and this time I howled. It seemed that the other women were getting the same by the sound of the cracks of paddle hitting flesh and the cries that accompanied them.
The burning, searing pain continued one strike at a time, and most of them were placed over the same punished area while I cried and struggled. Then I felt a strike that was not quite as hard and braced myself for the next four, which landed in quick succession on the very same place. That spot on my ass was almost numb by now, and it must have seemed that way to Samial too because when the next series came, they concentrated their focus on my other ass cheek. Fresh pain flooded through me and I screamed again.
Every woman around me was having the same experience as the time wore on. At last it finally ceased, every person in line having had a chance at us, and every woman's face streaked with tears. I heard Kinin talking and sighed with relief that it was over, but the words that my fogged-over mind translated weren't the ones I expected to hear.
"There will be a fifteen minute pause, and then you may all come back. These females will be here for most of the afternoon and you may spank them with your hands or torment them any way you choose, though there will be limits and you will be watched."
I dropped my head and let out a sob of distress. We'd be here all afternoon? My back was already aching from being bent over. My wrists were chafed from the struggles. My throat was raw from the screaming. I looked up at the other women and we all had expressions of disbelief on our faces. Then I noticed one head not looking up and realized with a start she was not one of us. She was an alien, and so much larger than us that she barely fit in the stocks. She moved her head and I saw with astonishment that it was the female who had thrown the rock at us. I dropped my head again and pushed it out of my mind for now.
The brief reprieve was over and the crowd came back towards us, first tentatively, then boldly. I had no idea what was going on behind me and what was about to happen. I gritted my teeth and waited for pain, but instead I felt a tentative hand stroking my skin, running a fingernail lightly over the tender areas. The soft touch almost undid me as I let out a cry of unexpected pleasure. The unseen hand continued with a light stroke around to my front where my breasts swung down, heavy and free. They were cupped, kneaded, and the nipples lightly pinched. I groaned, lif
ting my head up as far as I could with the unexpected ecstasy. My head was a mixture of confusion. This was almost worse than the punishment. I suppose we were exotic to them and they wanted to explore the differences by touching us, and I could do nothing except endure the caresses that kept coming. Some hands were soft, like those of a female. Some were rough and calloused and they scraped across my welts until I begged the unseen tormentor to stop. Sometimes those rough hands made their way between the cleft of my buttocks to slide down until they arrived at my aroused and swollen labia, twisting and pulling on the outside before taking a tentative touch inside. When they came in contact with the copious juices, there was an exclamation of surprise. If they had been looking at my face they would have seen me color bright red and squeeze my eyes shut from humiliation.
Then one rough finger pushed inside, probing and feeling, and a second joined the first, giving a sensation of being about to split open. I groaned and bucked, not sure if I was trying to get away, or encourage the finger to go deeper. More than once a third finger found my clit and I would screech in surprise and rocket upwards towards an orgasm at a speed no lover had ever accomplished. And the hand would withdraw before I could come, leaving me panting and frustrated. I begged and pleaded in two languages. And I was completely ignored.
From time to time I heard conversation between Samial and another alien – comments on how fragile we seemed, how small our breasts were, how tight our pussies were and the pleasure they would give the first aliens lucky enough to sink their dicks into. All this flew out of my head as an unexpected blow to my backside once more had me shrieking. And then I would feel more juices slide down my legs. I was a mess. You see, there's something about pain and pleasure that I've never really admitted to anyone…
I wasn't the only one. I looked across to Adelen and with astonishment saw her head lifted, her eyes partially shut, and moans of arousal issuing from her lips. All around me were the grunts and groans of the other women being teased and brought to orgasm, interspersed with shrieks and wails as hands applied firm slaps to scarlet-red bottoms. All except the alien female. She was just getting spanked and her quiet sobs never let up. I began to feel a little sorry for her, to be honest.
Twist (A BDSM & Romantic Erotica Boxed Set) Page 6
