Chapter 11

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, lifting 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.

By the time the top of the stocks was removed I was barely aware of anything around me but the ache in my back, in my legs… and in my empty, needy pussy. I fell to my knees on the grass, unable to stand. I saw feet in front of me and looked up to see Samial holding a glass of water, and this time I accepted it without complaint.

Then it dawned on me – he’d been behind me the whole afternoon, controlling what happened to me. I looked up again. “You did not let me have a… what is the word?”

“Orgasm. And no, I didn’t.” He offered no explanation. “Why? The other women had many!”

“Leina, I saw what being paddled did to you. It hurt a lot, I know – but the arousal it brought was obvious.”

I looked down at the grass, my face red.

“Keeping you aroused allowed you to make it through all the pain. Having an orgasm meant the arousal would flee and the pain would be much worse.”

I stared at him. Despite my anger, I knew he was right. “I, um, should give you thanks?” “Probably.” He looked at me, waiting.

“Ok, um, thanks.” I had to look away. I was mortally embarrassed.

Chapter 12

Two down, eight to go. We were a quiet group as we finally filed into the building we’d be staying in for the next few days. Our cots were already there and most of us headed straight for them, laying down on our stomachs, too tired and hurting to do any more. I longed for some privacy to finish off the orgasm I’d been denied all afternoon, but the only private place was the bathroom and that just seemed like too much effort.

After I dozed for a while, I awoke to Joran sitting next to me. The big male was stroking my arm gently and it felt nice.

“I know about your little problem. Have you reconsidered my offer? I promise I’ll make you feel much better.”

I turned my head into the pillow and then made a decision guided by desperate arousal and a chance to escape more punishments.

I didn’t say it was a smart decision. “Yes.”

He helped me off the cot and with surprising gentleness escorted me out of the women’s building to another one around back that was obviously for the males.

“Joran, I can’t – in there – with other males – ” “It’s empty right now. I promise.”

It was, though I couldn’t relax for knowing it might fill up again at any moment. But all those thoughts were pushed out of my head as he guided me to a bed and told me to lie down.

“On my back? It hurts!”

“Leina, it has to be on your back so that my seed will stay inside you long enough to have a chance to catch.”

He wasn’t going to move on this fact, so I laid down slowly, grimacing at the pain. All this for one freakin’ orgasm? It had better be fantastic.

When I had finally adjusted myself as good as it was going to get, I opened my eyes. Joran stood to the side with his breeches open and the most enormous dick I had ever seen waving in the breeze. I actually backed up on the bed a little.

“What is that?” I squeaked.

He looked down at himself, confused. “It’s my …” Apparently there was slang for “dick” that I hadn’t learned yet. “It’s what I put inside you to get you pregnant.”

“I know what it is; I have never seen one that big.” He smiled proudly. “Many women say that.”

My mouth dropped open. I shook my head and rolled my eyes. “Please start. I need to feel better. But please be careful of my small size?”

He pushed my legs apart, bringing his whatever-he-called-it up to my channel. It nudged at the folds, rubbed over my clit, and felt really, really good. He pushed a little harder and the head slipped in, eased by the slickness still present after all those hours of torment. Or because of them? Whatever. The head was the only easy part, though. As he pushed further in, I started to feel like I would split in two.

“Please! Slower! I am not used to your size!” His eyes held a glazed look that told me my tightness had transported him to a place of bliss – a place where he was going to forget all about me and my needs. He started pumping in and out as I groaned. Every thrust pushed me a little bit up on the bed until my head bumped against the wall, and my back scraped against the covers. This was not fun at all. With resignation, I stuck my hand between my legs and found my clit and started rubbing as furiously as I could, trying to resurrect some enjoyment from this experience. He didn’t even notice. My body responded to the right kind of stimulation at last and once more I catapulted up the slope, and this time I had no intention of letting anything stop me.

Except he chose that moment to come, and with the most uncivilized roar I’ve ever heard, he stiffened, and I felt the warmth of his seed flood my womb. Then he collapsed on top of me.

Between being startled at the roar, the realization that I now had something alien inside me, and the fact that I couldn’t breathe because of his weight, my orgasm fled to parts unknown.

“Dammit!” I yelled in my own tongue, not knowing any alien swear words yet. I pushed furiously on the weight that was crushing me. “Joran, get off of me!”

He shook his head and rolled to the side. “What’s the matter?”

“You are heavy!” I struggled to get the words right. “And I did not have an..an..um, orgasm!”

He looked confused. “You didn’t come when I did?” “No! Why do you think I did?”

“My thrusting usually makes women come. They are rarely unsatisfied.”

“Joran, your females may be different, but we need some gentle rub…,” I was floundering for the word, “there!” I pointed between my legs.

“Oh. You do?”

I looked at him. “Your females are the same as us, but bigger, right?” “Yeah, they have that spot too, but I didn’t realize it was important.”

I began to laugh. It suddenly became too much, and despite the pain in my bruised and welted ass, his statement was the funniest thing I’d heard in a long time.

“Why are you laughing at me?” He didn’t look pleased.

I lapsed into my own language just to be able to say the words without struggling. “I cannot believe I just traveled halfway across the galaxy to find out that nothing ever changes. Even aliens have no idea how to please their women.” I shook my head.

He may not have understood the words, but he understood the tone and my head shake. He looked like thunder. “The women I’ve laid with have never complained. They’ve had their orgasms when I’ve had mine.”

“Joran, maybe they, um, pretend?”

He got up off the bed abruptly. “You’ll stay there for an hour to let my seed have time to make its way into your birth canal.”

“An hour? I cannot be here in the male building for an hour!”

“Nonetheless, you won’t move.” He produced one of the manacles we had worn this morning and before I realized what he was doing he snapped one end around my right wrist and the other around the bed frame.

“You bastard!” I yelled in my own words again. I struggled but it was firmly fixed. He ignored me and walked out.

Great. This was just great. I was lying here, naked, my incredibly sore butt still rubbing on the blanket, his cum seeping out of me despite my horizontal position, and I STILL hadn’t had a freakin’ orgasm!

Well, that was one problem I could fix. For the moment I was alone, and as fortune would have it, I was left-handed. I closed my eyes and conjured up an image of a man touching me, murmuring words of endearment, telling me how much he wanted to make love to me, and began

to stroke my clit.

Nothing happened. I was grinding my teeth in frustration when I suddenly flashed back to this afternoon and saw myself in the stocks, bent over with my glistening folds exposed for all to see – and this time I knew Samial had been watching me. Perhaps he was occasionally touching me without my knowledge. And every now and then he would spank me and as I yelled his fingers would tease me until the sensations were too much…

Without warning I catapulted over the cliff and had the most spectacular orgasm in memory. I know I screamed. When I opened my eyes I screamed again as the object of my fantasy stood in front of me, this time for real.

“Why are you here?” I was embarrassed beyond belief. How much did he…?

“I was looking for you and then I heard loud moaning and when I walked in I witnessed a very beautiful sight.” He smiled. “But why are you here, and shackled to the bed?”

I couldn’t look at him. “Joran want… and I say yes….” In my flustered state I could not have remembered verb tenses if my life had depended on it.

“You agreed to have sex with him?” Suddenly he was angry.

That did it. “Yes, I say yes to have sex with him! If I can get a baby I’ll go from the Tour and still have some skin! I ask you and you say no!”

His face hardened with a look I couldn’t read and he abruptly leaned over and released the manacle.

“You’ve been here long enough.” “But Joran – ”

“I’ll deal with him. Go. Just – go.” He practically dragged me to the door and shoved me out into the sunlight.

The rest of the evening passed quietly. I didn’t see either Joran or Samial at all. We spent the hours dozing, showering, and rubbing shoulders that had been cramped and twisted from the long hours of being bent over. Dinner was some kind of soup that was light and probably nutritious but no one had much of an appetite.

Oriana had been next to the alien female in the stocks. She’d heard some of the conversation between her and the male who had put her there.

“She was crying before they even put the bar over her head. I heard one of the males whisper to her that she should be brave and accept this, that she knew it could have been worse. She said she knew that and she was sorry. She tried to say something about being jealous but he shushed her and said that was no excuse. I’m pretty sure she got punished harder than any of us, but the male would come up every little while and tell her that he loved her and that she was doing fine.”

We listened with wide eyes. These aliens hated us, and yet they would punish one of their own who tried to hurt us? We weren’t sure what to think.

The next morning was almost a repeat of the bizarre morning after our first punishment.

Alien females began trooping into the building as soon as the sun rose, bearing platters of food. The tunics reappeared, freshly washed, and though we weren’t sure about putting on anything that rubbed against our bruised buttcheeks, we accepted them back eagerly. It was worth the discomfort to have some personal privacy.

This food was different, spicier than the first town’s, but very good. The rest of the day was spent reading, napping, and groaning as sore muscles were stretched.

I took one of the males aside and had him teach me a few necessary words.

Chapter 13

That night the aliens brought games. It was hard to understand the rules, but the strange pictures on some of the unfolded boards made it clear these were children’s games. We didn’t care. It was fun to laugh and I was able to beat both Joran and Samial once. Neither of them liked to lose, I could tell.

Well, tough, I thought smugly.

After a while the door to the hall opened again and a male and female came in quietly. The other aliens stopped what they were doing and looked to the pair silently. I recognized the female. She was the one who had thrown the rock. She looked around the room and when her eyes landed on me, she started forward, the male at her side.

She approached with something in her hand.

“Hello,” she said softly. “I’m really sorry about what I did yesterday. This is some medicine to help your sore muscles. I’m sure your backs still ache like mine does.” She placed a jar of some kind of cream in my hand. There was a powerful medicinal smell escaping from the lid.

“My name is Malana,” she said. “The leaders of the town insisted I come here tonight to meet you.”

“Hi,” I said, not sure what else to say. “I am, um, sorry that you got punished so hard.”

She smiled a soft smile. “It’s always hard to admit, but I was wrong. We were warned that we could only yell, that any physical attacks were forbidden, but I was so angry at all of you, and at you in particular…” Her eyes dropped to the floor.

“Me?”

“You are taller that the others. You look more like us than most of your females. I guess I just couldn’t stand the thought that you would get to have a girl and I would not…” Her voice trailed off as the male squeezed her hand. “I don’t know if I’ll ever have any children.”

“Not even a boy?” I asked, wondering what she meant.

She shook her head. “We can conceive girls, we just can’t carry them very long before we lose them. That means that every woman who conceives loses half her babies. Do you know what that’s like? Finding out you’re pregnant, desperately wanting a girl, but knowing if you get your wish she’ll die long before she’s born?” Her eyes brimmed with tears. “Our birthrate has plummeted because most of us can’t take the heartbreak of losing babies anymore, so we – I –

just stopped trying.” She broke off, her eyes dropping to the ground and her voice cracking. Neither of us said anything for a minute.

Her mate spoke up. “Anyhow, we hope this stuff helps. There should be enough for all of you. It stinks, but the smell will actually help you relax, too. Try it before you sleep tonight. Her mother taught her how to make it and it works.”

They turned and walked away without any further words, opening the door into the night and disappearing.

I couldn’t handle the emotions any more. I didn’t want to care. I’d come here to get a better life for me, not to help them repair the damage my people had done. I mean, that’s what I would be doing, but it was only a means to an end. I felt no obligation to care about what happened to them whatsoever. That’s what I told myself, anyway.

I set the jar on the table with a bang and walked back to the room with the cots. I didn’t want to play any more stupid games, and I didn’t want to use any of the stupid cream.

As we approached the third town, we saw no poles, no wooden structures – just lines of aliens facing each other, probably about fifty on each side. Our wrist cuffs were clipped to the sides of our collars, keeping our hands well above our breasts. Kinin didn’t keep us in the dark long.

“Each of you will walk from one end to the other, between the lines. Each person in the line has been given a flogger made of strips of leather, and they will hit you with it as you pass. They will only hit on the stomach or lower. When you get to the other side you’re done. If you stumble or fall, you’ll be given time to stand up again before it resumes.”

This time they were going to make us move our own bodies into the punishment instead of restraining us. I didn’t know if I could do it.

Adelen was up first. The line was quiet – waiting, watching – and frighteningly menacing.

The anger from them was up close this time. Their height advantage had never been more obvious, and we women had never looked so small. She stood at the front of the impossibly long line, tears of fear forming. The aliens had no apparent sympathy for her.

She took a deep breath and stepped in between the first pair, stopping for a moment as though not sure what to do next. That question was answered as both of the males on either side of the line swung their floggers at her – one onto her ass, the other to her stomach, with the blows landing simultaneously. She screeched and started walking rapidly, and as she passed each pair the blows fell unerringly on her skin, leaving thin red lines behind. She yelped and shrieked as she moved, doing a kind of bizarre dance as each one hit, turning around frantically, trying to

move away from the stings but only succeeding in getting closer to the next one. At one point she tripped and fell on the grass, and true to their word, all the flogging stopped as she struggled to her feet. Once she started forward it resumed. Tears were running down her face as she ran – hopped – danced – her way to the end of the line and once more fell onto the grass, this time beyond the reach of the floggers, and safe. From breasts to ankles, front and back, her entire body was covered with thin stripes.

To my surprise, one of the alien females stepped out of line to come lean over her, touching her as gently as she’d struck hard a moment before. She helped Adelen up to her feet and off to the side. The line dissolved and a new line, with new aliens, formed.

It went pretty much like that for all of us. Though the floggers would be aimed no higher than our stomachs, some stray strands would make contact with our exposed breasts, and occasionally the unlucky woman would receive one directly on her nipple. She would cry out and double over, trying to protect her breasts, and more than once Kinin stepped between the line to order a woman to stand up straight and continue.

Each woman who made it through was escorted off to the side by a female alien who wiped her tears and gave her something to drink. We’d seen the kindness after the cruelty twice now, but it was still hard to accept.

My turn came last and it was no different than the others. The strips of leather fell like hot needles on my skin as I tried to scurry through. Without the use of my hands to balance, I couldn’t get up a good speed and every time a sting hit my exposed breasts I twisted away from it and lost momentum. It was inevitable that I tripped and fell. As I lay on the cool grass with tears of frustration and pain blocking my vision, I seriously contemplated not getting back up.

Suddenly Samial was in my face. “Leina, you have to get up now. If you don’t, I’ll have to pull you over my knee and hold you while they all take turns. It will be worse.”

“This planet better be worth all this pain,” I muttered to myself half angrily, half resigned to my fate. Samial helped me to my feet and made sure I was steady before leaving me alone. The end of the line still looked a long way away.

I took a deep breath and started forward, and the blows resumed. I tried my best to keep walking straight so that they didn’t have one more second to use those damn instruments of torture on me and though I was staggering by the time I got to the end, I was still on my feet.

The line broke up as a female came over. She put her hand under my arm to steady me and guided me over to the shade where the rest of the women were sprawled. She helped me sit and gave me water, and I murmured a thanks before she drifted away.

The rest of the day went as the others before had, with quiet conversations, a little crying, a lot of groaning, some napping, and a simple dinner. Malana’s cream had proved to be very

popular, and though I had rejected it the night she gave it to us, I’d given in the next night and had to admit it really helped. Tonight I couldn’t wait to get some of it on my skin. The level was running low and I hoped we could get more somehow.

Chapter 14

The next morning we awoke to another elaborate breakfast and as soon as we had dressed in our shifts we were loaded into the same vehicle that brought us to town, though this time it was also loaded with alien families and a dozen or more boys of varying ages whose parents who obviously doted upon them. We sat uncomfortably together, not yet feeling like mingling.

After a journey of only a few minutes, we emerged next to a big hill of sand. The boys went screaming and shrieking up and over and out of sight. The parents followed slowly, hauling chairs and baskets other things. There was a stiff breeze and the air smelled funny.

We still had no idea where we were as we climbed the hill. And then the answer lay before

us.

An ocean. We were near an ocean. I’d seen one once, but didn’t go close to it. They were full of toxins and sewage and they smelled awful – worse than this smell – and –

My memory was cut short by the sight of a small boy walking towards the water. A female was watching him but made no move to stop him as he waded into the foamy shallows.

I yelled something at the others and took off. The boy was closer to me than to the other aliens and without thinking I splashed into the water and snatched him up. As small as he was, he was heavy, and I struggled to carry him back to shore without letting him touch the water again. We dropped onto the dry sand as the female and a male came running up. The boy was frightened and ran into their arms. Samial arrived right behind them.

“Leina, what are you doing?” he asked with confusion on his face.

I was now confused too. “He was in the water! I had to get him out of there. Oh, no,” I said as my legs began to sting and burn from whatever toxins I’d gotten on them. “You need to wash him off, quick!”

“Wash off what?” his mother asked. Why was everyone so confused?

“The… stuff! The poison in the water! Get it off of him! I don’t know if he was in there long enough to be harmed but my legs are already burning!” I was trying to stay calm enough to use my improving language skills to get the urgent point across.

Then Samial burst out laughing. I shot him an angry look. “What is so funny about my legs being eaten away?”

“Leina, the water is perfectly safe. I know it isn’t on your planet, but here it’s extremely clean.”

“Then why are my legs burning?”

“Because it has salt in it. You got salt water in the stripes from the flogging yesterday and that hurts – but it’s harmless. It would feel better to rinse them off, though.”

Actually, the stinging was already fading so I shook my head as he helped me stand. I looked over the vast expanse of moving water.

“All this water is clean?” I said incredulously. He nodded. “Why is it that funny color?”

His eyebrows knit together. “You mean blue?” Now I nodded. “That’s the color of a healthy ocean. I’ve seen one on your planet, and it’s kind of an ugly dull green.”

“What’s that smell?”

He sniffed the air and smiled. “Well, it’s a combination of fresh air mixed with seaweed and the occasional rotting fish.”

I shook my head in wonder. By now the parents of the little boy had wandered back to their blanket, no doubt telling the tale of the crazy alien woman down by the water’s edge.

That afternoon ended up being one of the nicest in memory. Though we had to be careful of our pale skin in the intense sunlight, and gladly accepted the eye-shields they gave us that made everything not so unbelievably bright, we got up and started exploring. Every time a wave rolled into shore we jumped back screeching until we got tired of running and cautiously let the water wash over our feet. The boys came over and asked if we wanted to play a game whose rules I never understood, but seemed to involve a ball, a lot of running, and even more cheating. We were all laughing and having fun by the time the sun had moved across the sky and it was with real disappointment that we heard the call to gather our things and head back to the vehicle.

Later that evening as we sat outside, Joran came and sat down next to me. “Would you like to have a child like those boys you saw today?”

“Mmm hmm,” I murmured without thinking much about it.

“Then come with me. Let’s go try again.” He seemed almost puppy-ish in his pleading. I thought of what I’d seen today, and the number of penitence stops still to go, and nodded. He helped me to my feet and yanked me along until we were behind the building. There was a blanket already laid out on the grass.

“Very confident, aren’t you?” I said dryly.

“Yes,” he said. His arrogance was almost bigger than his dick. “You will make sure I come too, right?”

He made an exasperated sound. “Yes, I’ll make sure you come too. Though why you need so much extra help I don’t know.”

Oh, he was romance personified.

Chapter 15

The next night the inhabitants of the town built a fire right outside on the lawn – an open fire that discharged soot and smoke into the atmosphere. After our initial reaction of fear I have to admit that it was rather hypnotic. The crackle and the heat soon had me dozing against the tree I was leaning on. Aliya had been sitting next to me, but left when I fell asleep, probably to look for Linal. I hoped she got pregnant soon – they were a sweet couple, though she was just half his size.

The females started singing songs. I leaned my head against the tree and listened at first, then closed my eyes against the tears that started up. I hadn’t sung anything since my mother died, and it reminded me of evenings when we sang as we cleaned and put away dishes after dinner. When my father was alive he had called us his song-birds.

Samial came over and sat near me but I didn’t want to feel vulnerable or explain anything so I ignored him. The songs continued, both alien, and yet familiar, and when I haltingly asked about them, found out they were songs sung to their children. Lullabies. I guess that there is something universal about putting babies to sleep.

Adelen – or maybe it was Sophina, I don’t remember – asked a question of one of the females, and she began to tell a child’s tale about the years before they healed their planet. I was tired from the day and my emotions were raw from thinking about my parents and I suddenly couldn’t stand to hear one more sentimental story. I got up and walked away from Samial without comment, hoping to find someplace quiet and alone to pull myself back together.

No such luck.

“Leina? Is everything OK?” He came up from behind and placed his hand on my shoulder. “It’s fine. I just need to be alone right now.”

“You’re not fine. Something one of your females asked is bothering you.”

I spun around to him, unreasonably irritated. “Why do you call us ‘females’ all the time?

We’re women!”

He looked taken aback. “I don’t know. I guess because to us you are very different – still kind of exotic. We don’t look at you and see the ‘women’ we have known all our lives.” He peered at me. “Don’t you call us ‘males’?”

He had me there. “I guess so. You certainly don’t seem like the men I know. You’re – I don’t know – bigger, stronger, more brutish in a way. You certainly have more hair than us.”

“Leina,” he laughed, “none of you have any hair, anywhere, except the thin hair on your head. Any hair would make us seem like animals in pelts to you. I’m sure the scientists have a theory about why our races look so much alike other than that, and I’m willing to bet that if your people had access to good food and medicine for a few generations they’d start looking more like us. I know that the babies born to your females – er, women – who have been here a few years look more like us than the ones born right after you arrive. I suspect it will be a generation or two, though, before the girls are as tall and as healthy as our women were, before this happened.”

I knew he was just stating a fact, but my frayed emotions chose to hear it as a criticism. “I’m sorry! OK? Sorry my race ever tried to take over your stupid planet! I’m sorry your people were going to die out!” I flopped down on the grass, wincing as I was reminded of the state of my welted bottom. “I’m mostly sorry I ever agreed to this stupid trip! We should have all just stayed behind to choke to death on the smog. It would have been easier for everyone!”

“Leina,” he said with a softness that surprised me, “We’ve let go of our hatred for you. Can’t you let go of your hatred for us?”

His words stunned me. “I don’t hate you!” I protested. “I just hate these punishments!

Wouldn’t you?” I challenged him.

He stared at me with his arms folded. Dammit! I wish these stupid aliens weren’t so big! It’s hard to feel righteous and small at the same time.

“I think you do hate us,” he challenged right back. “I think you hate us because you’re jealous of us.”

My mouth dropped open. For an alien, he was damned perceptive. “OK. Yes. I am jealous. I know it’s horrible what we did, but besides that, I’m fucking jealous that your people have so much beauty and peace and health in their lives. They’ll never know the fear of violence, or the pain of going hungry, or the misery of living hand-to-mouth as most of my people do. Why do you deserve to have it all and we don’t?” My anger spilled out of me now that I had given it voice.

He sat down next to me. “I don’t know,” he admitted honestly. “But I do know that our people went through the same thing your people are going through, and we didn’t have any place else to go. We hadn’t developed space travel yet. There were centuries of death and disease and planet-wide disasters before we figured out that we’d better clean up our own nest because no one else was going to do it. Your people, Leina, haven’t figured that out yet. They just want to move to another planet that they’ll mess up just as much as the old one.”

He was right. I knew he was right. But that didn’t make it any easier to see what we had wanted so desperately, and know that it was still out of reach.

He continued. “And what has any child on your planet done to deserve a life of misery?

Nothing. But we are all tiny players in a big universe. There will be peace and security on your planet someday, but no, that’s not fair to those who suffer right now. And, frankly, I don’t think it’s fair to make you pay for something you had no part in, that happened twenty years ago.”

That was as close as he’d ever come to admitting that these punishments bothered him, too.

We were both cogs in a bigger machine and had little choice over our fate right now.

A shadow fell over us. I looked up to see Joran standing over me. Samial threw him a look I couldn’t read, then scrambled to his feet and started to walk off.

“Samial, wait!” I cried, not ready to let the conversation – or him – go.

“Leina, I hope the pleasure you seek is worth the price you may have to pay.” He was gone.

***

Joran wanted to do little more than rut, and that was fine by me. Any chance I could take to get out of here. He always had a real problem with impatience, though. I can’t turn on in an instant and I wasn’t wet enough for him to slide in when he was ready. So he paced back and forth while I rubbed and tried to think of anything that might help. A sudden memory of being spanked on the ship brought forth a flood, and then I was able to relax enough to think about what Samial had been saying the universe being unfair while Joran grunted over the top of me. That almost made me laugh. I was thinking of one male while being fucked by another.

Joran finished with his usual roar while I cringed at the noise, and then once more instructed me to stay flat with my legs together so his “essence” – I swear that was the translation of the word – wouldn’t spill out. I obliged, gazing up through the trees after he left and thinking. It’s so easy to look back at your own history and see the sweep of it – the big movements, the major events – and forget that there were millions of individuals caught up in the currents, trying to live their lives, who had no responsibility for the pain they had to go through, and no perspective to ease their suffering. Yet they had experienced happiness at times, and lived through the sadness, and somehow made it through their lives.

Maybe that gave me a little perspective. I don’t know. But I was tired of laying here, and so carefully avoiding Joran, who would have bellowed at me to lie back down for at least another hour, I made my way back into the room with the cots.

***

And so the Tour went on. Every five days a new town, and a new and devious punishment that had us in pain for days.I’m not going to go into detail about all of them – even now they are uncomfortable to remember, and for some of the other women the fear of pain grew with each stop until they were almost catatonic. We all helped and supported each other, managing to make it through each stop and cross one more off the list. The males watched us closely. I asked Samial if any woman had ever had to be removed because she was too traumatized, and he admitted it had happened in the past, but she would get the help she needed to recover.

After each punishment we were welcomed into the community as though we were long-lost sisters. We saw amazing natural wonders, we were treated to music and dancing, we were showered with small gifts, and in between all that we studied. We learned about culture and history, we studied the animals in each region, and we went on walks through gardens and practiced naming the most common flowers. The sheer diversity of everything was stunning – nothing like back home, where we had done an excellent job of driving many animals to extinction. I could see why my people had been desperate to make a grab for this green world, and why we didn’t deserve it. I felt sad that we had tried to ruin it with our greed and I suppose I was starting to understand their feelings, given what my people had been trying to do.

About half of us had someone we would “lie with”, trying to get pregnant and leave the Tour early. Some of the women had no interest in the males available and planned on going to the breeding home after it was over. There they would have embryos from an alien male and female implanted in them. Those babies would be given back to their biological parents after birth.

Those of us who were going to go through with the auction to get a mate would, with luck, conceive with their own eggs and their mate’s, um, essence as Joran described it, and those babies would be theirs to raise.

Caran had been “lying” with Septin since almost the first night, so it was with screeches of joy that they saw the little stick in her hand turn purple the morning of the fifth punishment, meaning she was pregnant and excused from the rest of the Tour. As they danced out the door together the rest of us stared at our unchanged sticks and prepared for the day ahead.

Chapter 16

The night after the fifth punishment – a caning that left purple welts all down the back of our legs – we all slept restlessly with the unusually fierce pain. Somewhere in the very darkest part of the night I woke to see a shadow pass by the bed. The shadow paused and I realized it was Adelen. I called her name softly and she spun around.

“You scared me!” she accused. “Sorry. Where are you going?”

She didn’t answer and my stomach lurched.

“Adelen, what are you doing??” I reached out to pull her back and she sat down on the edge of the bed.

“I can’t do this anymore, Leina. I just can’t. I should never have come here.” “You’re going to try to escape?” I asked as quietly as I could.

She looked at her hands and picked at a nail.

“You do remember what they told us about escaping? And about the wild animals here, too?”

She looked at me. “I don’t believe the stories about the animals. There can’t possibly be as many as they claim. As for the other – I’ll just try to get as far away as I can.”

“Adelen, this is not a good idea! This Tour won’t last forever, honey. Every time we go through this we see that we’ll survive! We’re halfway through! Think of what’s at the end!”

She shook her head. “I can’t see that far right now. Every week I get more and more afraid of the next week. I’m sorry, Leina. Please don’t say anything until they realize I’m gone?” she begged.

I sighed. “I would never do that. You are really sure you want to do this?” She nodded.

I squeezed her hand. “Good luck. Be careful. I think those animal stories are true.” I lay back down and pulled the covers over my head so that I could honestly say I hadn’t seen her go. I felt her get off the cot and then I heard nothing.

It was a long time until morning and I know I slept little, so I was tired and sore when

breakfast arrived. I saw Kinin come in and do his usual sweep of the room and knew that he was about to realize she was gone. I did the only thing I knew to do. I knocked the water container over onto the table.

As water doused all the food, there were shrieks of dismay. I pretended to be horrified at my clumsiness and began trying to rescue the food from a watery grave. Towels appeared, water was drained into the sink, and fifteen minutes later most of the food was in place and still semi- edible, though there were grumbles and dirty looks thrown my way. I was breathing a sigh of relief that Kinin seemed to have left without completing his count, and I hoped I’d bought Adelen at least a little more time.

Without warning a hand clamped my wrist and I jumped in fright. Samial stood next to me, glowering. “I think we need to talk,” he hissed. He pulled me over to a corner as my heart dropped into my stomach.

“What is it?” I asked, all full of innocence. “Where did she go?”

“Who?”

“Adelen.”

“Why do you think I know anything about her?”

“Because I was watching you when you carefully tipped over the water jug just as Kinin was looking around for her. And, by the way, he already knew something was wrong and your little stunt didn’t stop him from figuring it out. He and most of the other men are out there right now, tracking her, and they will have her back within the hour, unless…” He didn’t finish and I couldn’t stand it.

“Unless what?”

“We weren’t exaggerating when we talked about the animals. This is a dangerous area and there are many predators out there who would think a small female would make a very tasty breakfast. Some of them are not animals, either. Some of them are men who have no morals. She will be lucky if all that happens is that we catch her.”

I paled. “Samial, I swear, I tried to talk her out of it. I couldn’t. Please find her.” “We’ll find her, that I promise. And then I will deal with you.” He glowered into my

frightened eyes before he pivoted on his heel and stomped away.

They found her. And just in time. It wasn’t the locator on the collar that led them straight to her; it was her screams. When they arrived, I learned later, she was fending off a large creature with long sharp teeth and claws whose name I couldn’t pronounce, who had already raked her arms and legs with long gashes. They told us she had lost a lot of blood, and they took her straight to the hospital where she would remain for some time, but she would be okay eventually. We were all shaken, perhaps me most of all, and I was feeling very guilty that I hadn’t done more to stop her.

When Samial found me again I turned on him. “How could you allow that – thing – to get her? I thought this place was supposed to be perfect! She almost died! Why do you let those kinds of animals exist?”

He gazed at me with cool eyes. “Leina, a world where people are supreme and their safety is more important than diversity is a world that starts to look like yours.”

It had been a long time since any predators roamed my home.

“This place is perfect,” he continued, “but it’s also more dangerous, and that’s something you all need to learn. Now, there is another lesson you need to learn.”

I looked up at him and gulped. With a smooth easy move he grabbed me around the waist and lifted me up, carrying me at his side as he walked over to a bench. He laid me across one broad leg; my head and hands hung down on one side, and my legs on the other, and he moved his second leg to pin my thighs down. I was well and truly trapped, and I knew an audience was gathering.

“You knew she was going to leave, and you did nothing,” he accused as he lifted the tunic to expose my bare bottom and the purple and red lines from yesterday.

“I didn’t know she was in danger!” I protested from my upside-down position. A sharp smack landed on my skin and I screeched.

“Don’t be stupid, Leina. You were given that information days ago. Did you not take it

seriously?”

He was using my own words against me. “I tried to talk her out of it!” Another smack landed and this one hurt even more. I struggled in vain to get loose.

“Did you notify one of us that she had gone?”

“I couldn’t tell on her!” This smack landed on a thigh and felt like fire. I threw my hand up to rub the spot and found it and the other one quickly pinned to the small of my back.

“So you thought that leaving her to be attacked by wild animals would be better than one of us finding her?”

“I didn’t realize she was in that much danger! I’d never do that on purpose, I promise! Please believe me!” He began peppering my ass and thighs with short sharp spanks and I struggled and screeched and tried to get away from the smacks. But escape was impossible and eventually I went limp, no longer fighting him. I felt so bad that I hadn’t tried to stop her and she was in the hospital and maybe scarred for life. Now I was crying for sadness, not because of the pain.

“I’m sorry,” I squeaked out. “So sorry.” The hand above me stilled. I continued to cry quietly over his leg, the tears rolling up my forehead toward the floor in my upside-down position. I felt him rub my sore butt cheeks in a soft circle that soothed the burn, and then he let go of my hands and turned me over to sit up in his lap just like that day back on the ship after he had spanked me for the first time.

His hand stroked my hair while I continued crying.

“How-how-how bad,” I hiccuped, “will her marks be?” I didn’t know the right word for it. “Marks? You mean scars? She won’t have any. Why would she have scars?”

I looked up, confused. “But you said she was hurt badly.”

“She was, but she’ll be treated in the hospital. When she leaves the injuries will be fully healed.”

I gaped at him. “Not even a scar?”

He shook his head. “Leina, it’s easy to forget how advanced we are when we spend most of our time in towns where life is simple, but our medicine is able to heal severe injuries and leave no evidence of them. We can even regenerate limbs or organs if we need to, though thankfully Adelen won’t need that. The only thing we can’t do is bring someone back from the dead, which is where she would have been even five minutes later.”

“But she doesn’t have any money to pay for that kind of treatment.”

He was silent for a minute. “Leina, everyone has the right to receive care when they are hurt. Money has nothing to do with it.”

I had a flashback to my mother as she lay in the street after she had been shot. The sound of the gunfire had made me dive for cover at first, but when I crept to the window and looked down to see her laying in front of our home, I screamed and tore down the stairs. I cradled her in my arms as the blood spilled from her stomach, begging anyone to call for help, but the neighbors knew not to bother. Even if the emergency crews had shown up, once they found out that I

couldn’t hand over the money to pay for treating her first they wouldn’t have done anything.

I was glad it was different here.

Chapter 17

Joran still pursued me with a single-mindedness that was flattering sometimes and annoying other times. It was still Samial I was seeing in my mind as Joran took his pleasure, but Samial never made a move towards me. Every time I maneuvered to get him alone he escaped before I could talk to him. He was friendly and talkative and kind, and the times he seemed to show he cared, like after he spanked me, just confused me. I felt a great sadness at the knowledge that come the end of this cursed Tour, he would go his way and I would go mine and I wouldn’t ever see him again, and I would never know the reason he rejected me.

I don’t know why I continued to say yes to Joran. Maybe I was desperate for the only thing that resembled love. As the Tour went on and we came closer to the end, the need to escape the rest of the punishments became less important than the fact that I would be bound to him for at least several years if he was able to get me pregnant. And yet, I said yes every time he approached. If I were honest maybe it was because I was hoping I could goad Samial into jealously stepping in, before it was too late.

And for better, or for worse, the little stick stayed white.

Things came to a head after the next stop on the Tour. This stop had involved some kind of root that was carved to look like a penis and shoved without ceremony into our back entrances, a place most of us had never explored. The burn that it created felt like we were being roasted from the inside, and if that weren’t enough, they paddled us hard at the same time. The paddling caused us to tense up, of course, and the resulting squeeze intensified the burn of the root. It was a miserable morning.

The odd thing that happened, though, was how we reacted after we were finally released. I found myself needing to fuck something – anything – as urgently as possible after we were escorted to the building we were sleeping in, and I wasn’t the only one. I’d never felt a need quite like this and it must have been the root that caused it. I spotted Joran and yanked him away from whatever he was doing to a spot behind some bushes where I shoved him down and fumbled to release his pants. He grinned up at me.

“I see the root has worked its magic.”

“Shut up and help me.” I was frantic. As soon as he sprang free, already erect, I lifted myself up and over, and sank down to the bottom. It hurt like hell when his dick hit my cervix, but it seemed to sooth the itch that was driving me mad. This time I was the one doing all the work and I bounced up and down on him as fast as I could, making grunting noises and rubbing my clit at the same time. When I came, it was the most powerful orgasm I’d had to date, and I

collapsed with a shriek onto his stomach. It must have been enough for him, too, because his roar almost matched mine as he came at the same time. I fell onto my side on the grass, gasping.

Joran made a chuckle next to me. “I’ll bet Samial couldn’t have made you come that hard. He wouldn’t have been able to get it up fast enough and he’d probably want to talk to you first,” he said mockingly.

My eyes widened as I sat up to look at him, and something snapped. Over the last few weeks, I’d learned a number of colorful phrases, and now I pulled a select few up from memory.

“You whore-sucking, mother-fucking, son-of-a-bitch! You aren’t, and never will be, half the male he is! I can’t believe I wasted my time with you!” I grabbed the end of his shirt, wiped his cum from my legs, and stood up. I seriously considered kicking him as he lay there but thought better of it and stomped off instead, looking for the showers.

Later, my tender skin freshly scalded from the heat of the shower that in my anger I hadn’t been careful to check, and dressed in my shift once more, I curled up under a tree and tried to let go of my anger. I truly regretted all the time I’d spent with Joran, and kicked myself at the thought that I might have to live with him if I was pregnant. I was a fool and my mother would have shaken her head at me. I was so desperate that I’d made some really bad decisions. All I could hope for now was that this last time with Joran hadn’t been the one that got me knocked up.

A noise made me look up. Samial stood over me with an expression somewhere between sadness and anger. He started to say something, but shook his head and turned to walk away.

“What’s your problem?” I asked, tired of games. He kept walking, so I jumped up. “Samial!

Stop walking away from me!”

He turned back to me. “What do you see in him?” His voice was low and controlled. “See? I see a way out of this Tour! That’s all I see! He’s a means to an end!” And then it

dawned on me. “You are jealous! Oh, fuck, you’re so jealous you’re almost green! You know I don’t really want Joran. You know I’ve always wanted you!”

He said nothing, staring silently off into a distance.

“Dammit, Samial, tell me! Tell me something that would explain why you came along on this Tour if not to find a mate? Tell me why you’ll be my friend, and comfort me when I’m sad, and teach me your language and your culture, but you won’t fuck me, and you get mad when I fuck someone else? Give me a reason that makes sense!”

“There are things I haven’t told you. Things about me, and about you, that you deserve to know.” He paused, a look of pain drawing across his face, and then reached out his hand to me.

After a moment, I placed my small one in his large one. He sat down on the grass and tugged me down next to him.

“I was married. Her name was Seranay. I loved her for many years and when she agreed to be my wife it seemed that the future couldn’t possibly be as bleak for us as it seemed to all the others. We’d been married for three years when she became pregnant with twins. Two boys, of course. I don’t know if it was realizing that she could never have a daughter, or something gone awry in her hormones, but she became very depressed very quickly. She hid it well, and no one realized how bad it was, until she killed herself and the babies when she was about halfway through. I’ve never forgiven myself for missing the signs. For not helping her. For being so stupid that I lost not only my wife, but my children.”

My eyes filled with tears and I put my other hand on top of his. “I’m so sorry.” He squeezed my hand in response.

There was still a question to be answered, though. “What does this have to do with me?”

He turned to me and I could read guilt all over his face. “One of the tests we did back in the recruitment center was to see if you released an egg when we gave you the injection. That means you could bear children for us. You released three at once.”

I tried to understand what he was saying. “That’s good, right?”

“Leina, it means you could conceive triplets. Three girls. We’ve never had someone like that come along before. I could have the daughters Seranay always wanted.”

He paused and I waited, knowing there was more.

“I couldn’t take the chance that you’d decide not to come. So I told you that you’d been selected, and I sent you in early and made arrangements for you to be forgotten so you wouldn’t hear the rest of everything until we were underway. By then I hoped and prayed you’d agree to stay.” He got the words out in a rush.

I yanked my hands away and stared at him in horror. “You manipulated me? You decided that you wanted me so badly that you would lie to me so I’d come along and be your breeding mare to replace your dead children and wife? What did you plan to do with me after I’d given you these three kids? Turn me out into the wild to fend for myself?”

“No, Leina, it isn’t like that. After you have three kids – even if they’re all at once – you can stay, or go anywhere you want and you’ll be supported –”

“If I survive the pregnancy. Three of your huge babies? Has anyone carried three before and survived?”

He wouldn’t meet my eyes. “There have been some twins, and the pregnancies were hard.

Very hard. But no one has died! And you’re bigger than most of the females of your race…” He looked up at me as though asking for understanding.

He found none. “You used me. You’re planning to risk my life to get the kids your dead wife wanted. You are a bastard, you know?” I got up to my feet, wincing with pain. He reached up to take my arm but I moved away too fast.

“Leina, that’s why I haven’t had sex with you, because I feel so bad about what I did. It was wrong, really wrong, but please, I want you for you, not for the children you can bear. I’d take you as my mate even if you couldn’t have any children at all. Please.”

The pain was written all over his face, but I was too angry to pay attention to it. I walked away.

Chapter 18

An hour after Samial’s revelation I was on my cot, trying to read but finding my anger making it even harder than usual. A shadow fell across the book. Without looking up, I said, “You just don’t learn, do you? I don’t want to have anything to do with you any more, Samial.”

“Then perhaps I still have a chance,” Joran’s gruff voice held a mocking tone.

I looked up – way up – and saw that from this angle he seemed even hairier than normal – now there was hair on his face, too. I shivered in revulsion.

“Go away, Joran. I’m not in the mood now, and I won’t ever be again. We’re done.”

His expression darkened. “You’d reject me and give up a chance to leave the Tour?” he asked, almost with disbelief.

“None of you males would make decent fathers anyway. I’d rather take the last two punishments and then go to the breeding home than spend any more time with you.”

“You are rejecting me.” His voice held malice that I was too angry to notice.

“Yes, Joran, I am rejecting you. You and every male here. Take your hairy, ugly face and go away.”

He was silent for a moment. “I think you may regret your decision.” He wheeled around and walked away.

I didn’t think much more about what his threat meant until the next punishment day. We lined up with resignation, wondering what kind of hell this town had planned for us. We had come to understand as we moved from town to town that our outward cries of pain mirrored the pain they felt inside themselves for their wrecked futures. We all felt regret, and by now I was more than ready to help them repopulate as penance. That didn’t mean I was looking forward to the punishment. But I understood the need for it. These people didn’t deserve what we’d done to them, and if this was a way of moving forward, then so be it. We’d survive.

As we ascended the stage there was the circle of poles we’d grown used to seeing. This time we were placed with our backs to the poles before our arms were lifted high and we were stretched tight. Our legs were pulled apart and fastened, meaning whatever was about to happen was going to happen between our legs, too. Once more, I pushed down the nausea.

The town council chairman gave the usual speech about the sins of our people and the need

for forgiveness on all sides. Then Linal reached into a bucket and picked up something that looked like thin branches with leaves. He approached Aliya, tethered next to me, and she whimpered with fear. He spoke some words to her quietly, brushed his hand against her cheek, and she nodded. By now I knew he regretted what he was about to do, but knew he had to do it anyway. He pulled his arm back and whipped the branches just underneath her breasts. The impact was not very hard, so I waited to see what was going to happen next. He swung the branches at her again, landing on her stomach. Large red splotches began to show where the first blow had been. She began to gasp and wiggle as much as she could. By the time the third blow hit below the second, on her pubic area, she was moaning. Now her breasts were covered with red splotches. Whatever was on those branches obviously left behind some kind of painful poison.

Linal worked his way down her front, covering every square inch of her pale skin to her knees. By now she was crying and struggling as red welts covered her. Finally he stepped back, changed the angle of his arm, and drove the branches straight up between her legs, driving the poison deep into her folds. A moment later her screams reached an even higher pitch.

I hated the punishments that were doled out one woman at a time. It was so much harder to listen to each woman’s pain, knowing it would be mine eventually, than it was for all of us to suffer at the same time. Now all I could hope for was to be next in line and get it over with.

Instead, Joran picked a new branch up and approached the woman on the other side of Aliya. Great. That meant that I was last.

I tried to close my ears to the screams and moans as they progressed around the circle behind me. It had probably been an hour and my arms were cramped and burning by the time Oriana was finished with her torment on the pole next to me. I was fixated on the branches being swung at her, trying to understand why they hurt so much. The leaves had saw-tooth edges and looked hairy but then I saw the thorns on the branches, and I understood.

Aliya was still crying softly and moaning in pain on my other side.

It was my turn, and as Samial approached the bucket I closed my eyes, not wanting to watch him prepare to hurt me.

“Leina,” a moment later his voice pleaded softly and I opened my eyes to see him standing in front of me with the branch. “I really am sorry. For all of this.”

“Let’s just get this over with,” I said with gritted teeth. He nodded and swung at me. I watched it land on my breasts, idly noticing that the leaves were smooth, not serrated. Just as the second swing hit, the pain began.

I screamed. This was the worst pain I’d ever felt in my life. I struggled beyond all reason to get free, not caring if I pulled my arms out of their sockets. The next two blows landed and I knew I wouldn’t survive this. The small rational part of my brain wondered why the other

women hadn’t screamed this loud. And then I noticed I couldn’t breathe. I started heaving, my screams stilled by the need for air. My throat closed up, and blackness closed in.

I woke in a room that was all white, very bright, and filled with beeping noises. Two figures stood over me that took me a moment to see. One was a female, dressed in some kind of uniform. She was adjusting a tube that snaked down from a machine and into my arm. The other was Samial.

“What did you do to me?” I croaked out accusingly, my voice hoarse from the screaming. He shook his head. “Leina, you had some kind of reaction that no one has ever seen before.

It caused your throat to close up.”

“Well, it looks like you’ll have to cross that particular torture off your list, since it’s obvious that some people are allergic to it.” It was hard to sound angry with my scratchy voice.

“It doesn’t make sense. There’s nothing in this plant that should do this! It’s not supposed to harm you any more than the skin reactions. They told me that none of your females have ever reacted to it like this.”

He really did look distressed, and I was too tired to hate right then, so I said nothing. I could not get the memory of that first branch out of my mind, though. There had been something I’d noticed.

“Samial, the leaves of the plant you held – it had smooth edges. The leaves that were used on Oriana had jagged edges. Didn’t you notice that?”

He shook his head. “I’ve never seen it in plant form before – only processed. Are you saying the one I had looked different?”

“I think so. I’m not sure.” I closed my eyes, really tired and still in a lot of pain. “Why did you choose that one?”

“I didn’t. There were none left in the first bucket so Joran grabbed a second bucket and handed the branch to me.”

“Joran…” I choked out. “Samial, last night after you and I argued, Joran approached me and I told him to go away and never come back. He said I’d regret that decision.”

His eyes suddenly glittered and his face had a hardness I’d never seen before. He reached down and squeezed my hand. “I’ll be back.” He disappeared.

I closed my eyes and slept.

I left the hospital the next day, red splotches still covering my stomach accompanied by an almost unbearable itching despite the creams they slathered over it. Samial had only struck me three times before realizing something was terribly wrong, so I didn’t have the welts everywhere like the other girls did.

They crowded around me as I arrived back. Their welts had faded some, but our hugs were still tentative. A flurry of questions flew at me, and I couldn’t answer them, because I hadn’t seen Samial since yesterday and didn’t know what had happened, and wasn’t going to mention what I’d seen about the plants.

At the dinner that night the townspeople fell all over themselves to apologize, telling me that had never happened before, and they were so sorry. I smiled and nodded, not really feeling like chatting. It wasn’t that I held any malice towards them; I was worried about Samial. No one knew where he was. And no one knew where Joran was, either.

I took a plate of food outside and sat on the stairs. No one followed; the males had stopped watching us closely by now. I looked up at the stars and wondered once more at their beauty, sad that my mother and father had never seen them in their entire lives. Perhaps if my people had seen the stars they would have had an better understanding of the vastness of the universe and perhaps a humbling of their arrogant nature. I wondered which star was the one that circled my planet.

A noise startled me out of my reverie. A figure approached in the darkness and I was about to flee back inside when it spoke.

“Leina, it’s me.” The sound of Samial’s voice was soft but clear. He climbed the stairs and sat down next to me. I looked at him with confusion; his shirt was splotched with something that looked like blood.

“Joran is dead,” he said quietly. My mouth dropped open.

“He switched the branches. What he handed me to use on you was something that looked similar but is deadly. In the chaos after you passed out he removed the branch and destroyed it, but a piece had broken off when it hit you and we found it on the stage later. He denied it had been him but we found a description of the plant and where to find it, in his handwriting, in his belongings.”

He was silent for a moment.

“The attempted murder of a woman from your planet is a capital offense.”

I looked at him in astonishment.

“You hold our future in your hands. We can’t lose any of you.” His voice broke for a moment.

“Then the blood on your shirt is from…?”

He nodded. “Leina, I took a chance, a risk, and I hope you will understand, even if you never speak to me again. When a woman is harmed, the man who is her mate has the right to dispense justice.”

I took in what he was saying. He’d told them I was his mate, and taken the responsibility for killing Joran onto his shoulders. I needed to think about that.

He took my silence for rejection and stood up. “I’ll see you in the morning. I’m really glad you are well.”

“Samial – ,” I started, but he was gone.

Chapter 19

The day of the last punishment had arrived, and it might be the last, but the familiar pit of dread and fear was in my stomach. Samial had made himself scarce since the night he had told me about Joran, always busy with something or someone else.

The stage in this town was set up with strange wooden structures – horizontal poles supported at either end by triangular supports. They didn’t look very bad; therefore they must be awful.

We each had our hands clipped together behind our back, and then we stepped onto a block on one side and were assisted to swing our legs over the bar to rest our foot on the block on the other side. I still had no idea what was going to happen and that was worse, somehow. At least with a paddle or strap we knew what was coming.

We were all in position when the speech began. It took forever and no time both, and then the males were at our sides. Azmer was standing next to me; Samial was with someone else. At a nod from the council chair, the males leaned down and removed the blocks from under our feet, and the reality of our predicament was immediate.

We were suspended on the pole with our feet barely able to touch the ground – only enough to keep our balance. All our weight was on the tender area right between our legs, and it hurt like hell.

Shrieks went up almost immediately. The pain was immediate and constant. Shifting around brought only more agony. I gritted my teeth and tried to think of something else besides being split in two but it didn’t work, and like everyone else, I was crying and begging within minutes.

A fog of pain settled over my mind and the crowd faded out, as they always did. At some point I was dimly aware of Azmer holding a straw to my lips. I drank greedily, the cool liquid the only pleasant thing in my existence.

“How much longer?” I begged him.

He gave me a look of apology. By now, I knew the males hated what we were going through, but like us, had no choice. “A while,” was all he said as he stepped away.

How do you survive constant pain? By living one second at a time. I kept absolutely still; the pain was so much greater if I shifted and new skin was pinched.

The sun had shifted in the sky when the males ascended the stage at last. Rather than replace the blocks under our feet, they lifted our small bodies straight up off of the poles and carried us off the stage.

I had no idea who held me. I was barely aware of anything but being carried to another generic hall with the same cots set up as usual. This time, though, instead of being laid on the bed, the male carrying me sat down and continued to cradle me in his arms.

“It’s over, Leina, it’s over. No one will ever hurt you again, I promise.” I heard Samial’s soft voice above and lifted my head up. His eyes held a look of pain that transcended the differences between us.

I studied his angular face. “You really killed someone because of me?” I asked softly. “Yes.” He looked at me uncertainly, as though he wasn’t sure if I thought that was a good

thing, or a very bad thing.

“I’ve never had a man care about me enough to kill for me,” I said wonderingly, reaching my hand up to touch his cheek. It wasn’t the face of an alien any more – it was the face of someone who loved me, and that alone made it beautiful.

“I’ll go away and never bother you again if you want.”

I twisted out of his arms to look up at him.“Seriously?”

“Seriously. But you have to know, I would die for you. I need you. Not your eggs, not your children – you.”

“I know that now.” I curled further into his chest, finding that I fit perfectly, and never wanting to leave. “And I need you.” I felt his breath catch.

His question came tentatively. “Then…do you want me to bid for you at the auction? I’ve saved every penny just in case.”

I climbed off his lap and stood up, wincing at the pain between my legs, knowing once again that it would be days before I sat comfortably. Standing before the large man brought me eye-to- eye with him.

“I want to spend the rest of my life making babies with you. You’d better find a way to buy me.”

He gathered me in his big hairy arms and held me close.

Chapter 20

The very air seemed to be brighter now that we were done. We were giddy, the thought of being sold at auction nothing compared to what we’d been through already. The collar and cuffs – hated, but strangely familiar after all these weeks – were removed that evening and we reveled in the sense of freedom their absence imparted. We quietly admitted to each other that we felt a sense of pride at our endurance and knew that whatever came next, we were strong enough to see it through.

The next morning there was one last pregnancy test for all of us, and with shrieks of joy Aliya showed us her purple stick. Linal grabbed her and swung her around, and disappeared out the door with her. I shook my head at the worry that must have consumed them as the end grew closer. They couldn’t be certain that he could buy her at the auction.

In the surprised quiet that followed their departure, the rest of us looked at our unchanged sticks. I knew there was no possibility that Joran had succeeded in getting me with child, but it was a relief to see the evidence anyway. Now I just had to get through the auction.

That afternoon, each of us went on stage before a mostly quiet group of males. Men. I suppose I was starting to see them less as alien males. Anyway, each woman had many bidders, and we all knew that our well-being was so important that no one would end up with someone truly cruel. One by one we said goodbye to each other, promising to keep in touch, and knowing we would.

Finally it was my turn and I walked onto the stage, my knees threatening to give way at any moment. Samial was in the front, looking me in the eyes and seeming to telegraph a reassurance I just couldn’t feel. He’d told me that he had three thousand, a substantial sum, but I wasn’t going to feel better until I was in his arms.

As luck would have it, I was last. The bidding started just like the others — I was a little taller and broader, and had hair that was more reddish than the other women, but it wasn’t enough to attract too much more attention. Samial countered every bid easily, looking me in the eyes each time. Suddenly the amount rose again, but this time it was above what Samial told me he had. I looked at him in fear and his calm eyes looked straight back at me. I didn’t know what was going on. Panic welled up. Another bid countered that last one and the amount rose higher, and this time he didn’t counter it. I was dying on the inside, and on the outside tears started to fall down my frightened face.

Another bid drove the price even higher. My knees were going to give out. At last I heard the auctioneer call for final bids, and when there were none, he raised his gavel to end the auction. I frantically held onto Samial’s eyes.

“Five thousand.” Samial’s voice was clear in the silence. I gasped. That was a thousand more than the last bid. How was it possible?

In a daze I heard the auctioneer call out for any more bids, and when there were none, he declared Samial the winner and the auction over. I swayed a little, not quite believing what had happened, and in a flash he was on the stage, sweeping me up off my unsteady feet.

“How?” I stammered as I relished the feel of his strength.

“There’s another part of that old custom I didn’t mention. Not only can a mate dispense justice, but he can demand the forfeit of some or all of the accused’s property. I didn’t care about Joran’s money until you told me last night that you loved me and I knew I had to win the auction, and to do that I needed to get my hands on his money. I went to the council and demanded they turn everything he owned over to me, as your mate.”

“But… I’m not really your mate, yet. I mean, I want to be, but they agreed to overlook that?”

He looked a little sheepish. “Well, there was some debate over the matter, so I had to promise them that we would marry as soon as the auction was over.”

“You mean now?”

He set me on my feet and turned me around. A gentleman from the council stood in front of us, holding a small book and looking very officious.

“Yes, Leina, right now.”

Less than five minutes later we were mated for life. Once more he swept me off my feet and carried me, stopping only long enough to pull out a card from his pocket and run it through a device at the door. I looked at him in question.

“Gotta pay the auctioneer or the deal is off. I’m afraid my bank account just got considerably smaller, though Joran had a surprising amount of money. I sure hope you are worth it,” he teased me. I playfully punched him, my small hand making almost no impression upon his bulging muscles.

“Careful, there, my little alien. I’ll wait a few weeks till you’re healed, but I still intend to

spakk your bottom if you get out of line.”

“You’re welcome to try, dear husband. Welcome to try.”

Chapter 21

The trip to his home took a little over two hours in one of those fast hover vehicles they had. We arrived at the modest house, set in a lightly forested area, one story and made of wood. He’d been gone for two years, but a neighbor had come over the day before and opened it to air out. The place was snug and warm, and I felt a little like a child as I wandered around the large furniture and realized I’d need a stool to reach the counters in the kitchen. He fretted that I might not want to stay here since he had lived here with Seranay, but I told him I felt nothing but a sense of welcome.

He unpacked in a matter of minutes and returned to find me gazing at a hologram of him and a lovely woman who must be Seranay. They both looked young and carefree and I had a pang of grief at what had happened. He placed his arms around me, nearly enveloping me.

“Want me to put that away? It’s okay if you do.”

I shook my head. “No. That would be denying what had happened in your life and I would never do that. I’m not the jealous type – I know there’s room in your heart for both of us.”

He suddenly swept me up in his arms, making me squeal with surprise. A moment later I was dumped on his enormous bed. I was still wearing the shift I’d worn for weeks and with one move he grabbed the neck of it and ripped it apart clear down the center to the hem, laying me bare in front of his hungry eyes.

Despite the fact that I’d been naked many times in front of him since we met, I’d never felt like he saw me as a woman until now. His gaze raked over my breasts and down to my pussy and I became instantly wet.

He pulled his shirt over his head and tossed it somewhere behind him. My eyes dropped to the bulge in his pants and then back up to his face, telegraphing my request without words. He opened his pants, lowering them until his cock finally sprang free.

He might have seen me before, but I’d never seen him, and what I saw I liked. He was as big as Joran, if not a little bigger, and I gulped at the idea that all of that was going to go inside my narrow tunnel. He absently fisted the length while he continued to look at me, as though trying to decide where to start. Finally he moved onto the bed, straddling me and pinning my legs tight between his. He lowered his face to mine and I rose up to meet him, sharing a passionate kiss for the first time. One of his arms wrapped around my chest, further pinning me against him until he chose to let me go. As far as I was concerned he didn’t have to ever let me go. We leisurely explored each other’s lips, kissing, biting, nuzzling, until he finally laid me back down and I caught my breath. He bent over one of my breasts and enveloped half of it in his mouth, flicking the nipple with his tongue and causing me to cry out and arch up. My hands flew to his head to

grasp at the massive amount of curly brown hair that I knew was not uncommon among his people, and I tried in vain to pull him off and stop the intense sensations. He looked up at me with a grin.

“I don’t think so, my little alien.” With one hand he grabbed both of my wrists and pinned my arms above my head and resumed his torture, this time on the other nipple, as I bucked and pleaded and almost had an orgasm at the dual sensations of torment and restraint.

I was almost incoherent when he eased off and let my arms go free. I lay panting underneath him, staring into his eyes with a lust so strong I’m sure he could hear it. He smiled and moved off my legs, then picked them up as one and bent them straight up. He paused as he held them there, fondling my cunt and my ass. Without warning he smacked me hard, just once, on the very area that was still tender from the last punishment.

“Ow! Why did you do that?” I acted annoyed, but in truth it sent an electric shock straight to my clit.

“Because I can,” he grinned. “And I plan to do it any time I want to. Any second thoughts?” “Um, no.” I grinned back at him. He knew me very well by now.

“However,” he continued, “I have other plans right now.” He split my legs apart and moved between them, rubbing his rigid cock over my swollen clit, positioning it at my entrance. There was no need to ask if I was wet enough to take him – I could feel the juices sliding down my thighs. Again he captured my wrists and held them above my head.

“Ready?” he looked at me.

My lust had risen to unimaginable heights in the last few seconds. “Please! Now!” I begged. “I love it when you beg.” With a loud cry, he pushed into me in one swift movement, all the

way in until I felt as though he would hit my tonsils. My cry came seconds after his and I arched

off the bed. He pulled out and paused, then thrust in again, and again I cried out.

He stopped. “I promise there will be a time and a place for gentle loving, but today I’m going to lay claim to your body.” And with that he set up a pattern of thrusts and withdrawals that had me crying out in ecstatic agony as he hit my cervix each time. He reached down and found my clit and set up a rocking motion that mimicked his in-and-out movements and in less than a minute I was screaming through the biggest orgasm I’d ever had. That must have been enough for him, because my scream was followed by his bellow as he held himself rigid above me with a look of almost pain that made his face squeeze tight. Finally he took a breath and relaxed, still holding himself up, but letting his head drop down as he panted.

“Samial, are you all right?” I asked with concern.

He nodded and eased himself down next to me, letting go of my hands and pulling me into his chest. It took another minute before he could talk.

“That is the first time since – well, in a very long time – that I’ve had sex,” he confided. “Since Seranay?”

“Yes,” he admitted. “I never felt I had the right to, since that horrible night.” “You do now,” I assured him. “As often as you can, I hope.”

“Are you sure about that? I have an awful lot of time to make up for,” he teased.

I pretended to shudder. “If I can make it through ten of the worst punishments your people could devise, I think I can live though your love-making.”

“I think that sounds like a challenge.”

Chapter 22

He promised to show me the best parts of his world, and he kept that promise. Over the next few months we roamed all across the globe, seeing snow-capped mountains, deserts, vast oceans, and roaring rivers. I took all of it in with wonder. The best trip of all took us to a breathtaking crack in the crust of the planet. I looked across for the other side but it was shrouded in mist. I looked down towards the bottom but saw nothing.

“Can you imagine the first people who came here several thousand years ago, just walking along, and coming across this?”

I nodded. “That would be quite the detour they’d have to take.” “Seriously.”

That night when I crawled into the big bed at our home I had something in my hand. I was grinning.

“What has you all quivering, my little alien?”

I held out my hand to show him the purple stick. He looked at it and back up to me. His first reaction was joy. A moment later it was something else.

“What’s the matter?” I asked, confused. Getting pregnant had been the whole point of getting on the space ship in the first place.

“I’m afraid,” he admitted. “I’m afraid that… if you do have more than one baby in there, I’m afraid for you. If something happens it will be all my fault for tricking you into coming.”

I took his head in my hands and kissed him thoroughly. “I’ve had more joy since I arrived than in my entire life. Nothing is going to happen, but if it does, I’m not afraid. You’ll protect me, I know. No matter what.” He took me into his arms and we lay there silently, planning for the future.

There was one more place he wanted to show me before it became dangerous for me to travel, and so, with the blessing of the doctor, we set off. By this time I was beginning to bulge in the middle, the two little girls inside growing bigger each day. I knew there was a long pregnancy ahead, but so far I felt good.

We climbed up a hill and looked out over the ruins of an enormous city, a memorial of sorts to the wasteful and destructive ways of their ancestors.

His eyes gazed out over the miles of broken buildings. “Our planet looked like yours a long time ago. We were about to die in our own filth and no one in the galaxy would have missed us. Somehow we managed to turn it around.” He turned to look at me. “Leina, your people can, too. We’re going to help them, I promise. Our scientists have been talking to yours and they have already started some things. We’re not going to abandon them, I promise.”

“Thank you,” I said softly. That meant the world – literally – to me.

I must have shivered then, for he pulled me in close, sheltering me from the brisk wind.

Over the last months as my skin had been exposed to real sun and good food for the first time ever, the color had darkened slightly and now resembled the arm that held me tight. In truth, when I look at holograms of my people now, they look almost translucent and sick. Even the strange hair that grew on Samiel’s face that he shaved every morning had started to seem normal, though the idea of scraping something really sharp against the tender skin still made me shudder and I couldn’t watch him do it.

I twisted around to gaze up into his eyes and was once more struck by the intense blue that was the color of a summer sky here. Coming from a planet of copper-eyed people, it had taken me a long time to get used to it, but now I hoped our daughters would have the same color.

“There’s one more thing here I want to show you,” he smiled down at me. “It’s at the water’s edge.”

I peered in the direction he was pointing. I could barely make out what seemed to be a green torch with a giant gold flame, rising from a stone wall that projected into the harbor.

“It’s all that’s left of a huge monument called the Statue of Liberty. Hundreds of years ago it was a welcome of sorts to people who made the journey across the ocean to seek a better home. There was a poem on it – I had to memorize it in school –

’Give me your tired, your poor,

Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.

Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!′ ”

The flame almost seemed to dance with the light of the setting sun. I smiled as the two little

girls inside me gave a hard kick. The journey had indeed been tempest-tost, but on this beautiful green and blue planet I had found my home.

THANK YOU FOR READING❤️❤️

Dear Reader,

Thank you for reading this story! I’m so glad you joined me on this little adventure.

More stories like this are waiting for you in my Erotica Collection, and it’s always growing.

Happy reading,

Call Me Anny