Kessia Donovan bit her bottom lip and closed her eyes, wishing she were somewhere else. The tight confines of the compartment she’d squeezed herself into seemed to close in around her. and she hugged her knees harder to her chest, trying to comfort herself in any small way.
The stark image of an escape pod disintegrating in open space as it was fired upon played through her mind’s eye and she shuddered. She’d caught that horrific sight through a viewport as she’d run with the other passengers to the nearest escape pods and had instantly changed her mind. As if it wasn’t bad enough that the raiders had boarded a Coalition transport ship, they had decided not to leave any survivors to attest to the crime.
It felt like hours since she’d made the panic-driven decision to hide instead of climb into an escape pod and face almost certain death.
She strained to hear the slightest noise beyond her hiding space, but there was nothing. The ship’s emergency alarm and the pounding of her heartbeat drowned out everything as she huddled in the darkness. Kessia bit her lip, unwilling to let the trembling that had overtaken her devolve into sobs. There was no time for that.
Dropping her head onto her knees, she closed her eyes and listened, waiting for some sign that the pirates had moved on.
Three days ago, she’d been so excited, hugging and assuring her parents she’d call as they’d seen her off at the spaceport. This was supposed to be her grand adventure, her years of training and mentorship finally paying off in a position with the esteemed MultiStar Corporation. She was supposed to be nervously getting ready to reach her destination tomorrow, worrying over who her new supervisor would be or which planet the platform she’d be working on would orbit.
She never could have guessed she’d be crammed in a storage cupboard, hoping she’d make it through the day alive.
Her thoughts turned to her mom, who was going to be so worried when she didn’t com her tomorrow. Her dad, who had hugged her so tightly and grinned at her with so much pride and unshed tears. The celebration her friends had thrown her days before she left, promising to keep in touch and taking tons of pictures on their handhelds. She missed them all.
If she had known this would happen, she never would have stepped foot in the spaceport. Hell, she wouldn’t have accepted the job with MultiStar.
Kessia jerked to alertness at the sound of people nearby. She must have dozed off at some point because the emergency alarm was no longer blaring through the hallways, allowing her to catch the sounds of movement and unintelligible voices in the distance. Freezing, she tried to remain as silent as possible. She didn’t have a plan. Kessia couldn’t stay tucked in here forever. Her legs were already cramping in the small space and she would have to use the washroom eventually. If luck was with her, the pirates would just scavenge the ship and leave. Then she could figure out how to get help from there.
The voices came closer, but she couldn’t make out what they were saying. She’d been sleeping in her bunk when the alarms went off and hadn’t thought to grab her Coalition-issued translator on the way out the door. The voices paused outside her compartment and she held her breath, praying to whatever deity might listen that they would go away.
The latch flipped and light flooded in, blinding her. Her hand came up to shield her eyes and she blinked, desperate to see.
A three-fingered hand reached in and caught her wrist, yanking her out of the compartment. She sprawled on the floor at their feet. Looking up, her stomach sank as she took in the pirates. With the deep brown carapaces and their narrow, hairless heads, they were easily recognizable as Rehulians. The insect-like species lived on the border of Coalition space and were well known for their villainous tendencies. It wasn’t unheard of for them to eat their victims. But it was highly unusual for them to attack a transport shuttle, even one on the edge of Coalition space.
“P-please,” Kessia stammered out in Universal. “My company will pay for my safe return.” At least, she hoped they would. She’d only just been hired by MultiStar and hadn’t even arrived for her first shift yet, so they might just write her off as a no-show and give her position to someone else.
Pain flooded her as one of the Rehulians kicked her in the stomach, her breath rushing out on a gasp as his big boot met her flesh. She doubled over on the floor, retching for a moment as she tried to draw a breath into her abused body. A three-fingered hand caught in her hair and she found herself being dragged across the floor. Crying out, she scrambled to get her feet under her as they hauled her bodily down the hallway.
The group split and two of the pirates dragged her onto a lift while the other wandered off to continue their exploration. While they descended the floors of the transport ship, she managed to get to her feet, but the jerk who had her hair refused to let go, so she ended up crouched at his side. As soon as the doors opened, he yanked her forward and she stumbled along behind him, bent awkwardly at the waist.
As the floor beneath her feet changed from the cool, clean silver of the transport to the rust-pitted tarnished metal of the pirate ship, she started to panic in earnest. They were taking her onboard their ship. Nothing good could come from that. At best, they would keep her captive until she could be ransomed. At worst, she could be their next meal or sold off on the illegal flesh markets. She stumbled along, trying to get a good view of her surroundings as they hauled her through the ship. One hallway, a left turn into another hallway, a lift down into the belly of the ship. When the lift doors opened, a wave of hot air hit her in the face and the clamour of machinery assaulted her ears.
Her captor dragged her farther into the bowels of the ship, every step sinking them farther into the shadows. The overhead lights here were grimy, barely illuminating the passageways and casting the machinery on either side into darkness. A right turn and they came to a stop in front of a set of crudely constructed cages. The Rehulian fought with the locking mechanism for a moment before the door swung open with an ominous creak. A vicious yank on her hair had her stumbling forward into the cell. As soon as her hair was released, she spun, only to have the door slammed in her face. The lock slid into place with a clunk of finality.
“You can’t do this!” She blurted, horrified at her predicament. “You’re in Coalition space! You won’t get away with this!”
The Rehulian eyed her with disgust but said nothing. He turned and walked away, not even bothering to glance back.
Kessia gripped the bars of her cell door and shook it with all her might, letting out a cry of frustration as the pitted metal held. Glancing around, she took in her surroundings carefully. She was in one of five cages that had been welded to the wall of the ship. The rest appeared to be empty except for a lumpy pile of rags in the very last one that she seriously hoped was not the remains of another former captive. She only had enough space to go to her knees, and even then her hair caught on the rough edges of the bars above her head. Her vision was limited to her current pool of watery light and the noise of the machinery drowned out everything else.
Resigned for the moment, she sat against the hull and tilted her head back to stare at the ceiling. She had to do something. She might be a hostage on their ship, but she didn’t have to sit here and await whatever fate they had in store for her. Kessia gave herself a few moments to collect her thoughts, then searched her pockets for anything that might come in handy. Looking into her palm, she eyed the small collection of items she’d left in her uniform pockets: lip balm, a half-empty container of mints, and a hair elastic.
Well, that’s not helpful.
Drawing in a bracing breath, she swiped her lips with balm, popped a mint in her mouth and tied her mussed dark curls back in a ponytail before getting to her knees. The first matter of business was to get out of this cage.
Kessia moved to the closest corner and started methodically testing every bar, looking for weak welds or rusted spots she could use to her advantage. She moved around the cage until she got to the other side. A sharp sliver of something resembling wood was lying on the floor of the next cage. Stretching her hand in, she pressed herself against the bars and just managed to catch it with her fingertips, dragging it closer until she could grab it. It was a shard almost the length of her finger, but it didn’t quite feel like wood. The idea that it might be a fragment of bone struck and she shuddered. “Great. With my luck, I’m going to end up as take-out.”
Shrugging off the horror of that idea, she moved to the lock and felt around, trying to figure out how the mechanism worked without being able to see it. Her hope for an old-style mechanical lock became fruitless when she felt the cool surface of an identity scanner. “Fuck.”
Disappointment wracked her, but she continued to search, looking for any flaw in the lock or welds to the bulkhead. All she needed was a small advantage, just a tiny stroke of luck.
After what seemed like hours, she sank down in the corner and pulled her knees into her chest. This was bad. She’d checked every inch of her cell and there was nothing. No way out. No option but to sit here and wait to see what they had planned for her. She leaned her head back against the bulkhead and stared at the watery light.
A distant bang jerked her from sleep sometime later. She glanced around, trying to see where the noise had come from. The thud of heavy footsteps closing in was her only warning as the biggest Rehulian she’d ever seen stepped into the pool of light, a bulbous metallic bottle clutched in his fist. He grinned lasciviously at her, the sharp pincers at his mouth flexing. He spoke, his tone discomfiting, but his words were still undecipherable hisses. Evidently, he didn’t feel the need to speak in a language she might understand. He pressed his palm to the lock and dragged the door to her cell open, reaching in for her.
Kessia scrambled to stay out of reach, kicking at him when his big hand closed around her ankle and yanked her toward him. She cursed, gripping her small sharp shard tightly in her hand. As she was pulled out of the cell, she kicked out, hitting the bottom of his bottle and spilling putrid liquid all over his hand and onto her. He growled and let go of her ankle, his bottle hitting the floor and rolling away into the darkness. Deciding it was now or never, she sprung forward, stabbing out with her shard. It sunk into the joint of the pirate’s arm, slipping between the plates of his carapace. He gave an inhuman hiss, wrenching backward before he swung his free hand toward her face. She tried to duck the blow, but he clipped her jaw, sending her sprawling onto the floor.
The taste of blood filled her mouth and she gasped as pain radiated through her face. Tears blurred her vision. His hand closed roughly on her upper arm and jerked her unsteadily to her feet. With a growled curse of some sort, he dragged her stumbling after him.
She was towed through a dimly lit hallway until they stopped before a wide door. He pressed his palm to the lock panel beside it and the doors slid open to allow them entrance. A chorus of insectoid hisses and screeches rose like a cheer from the Rehulians gathered inside as she was pulled forward into what seemed to be a cargo bay. Shipping containers of various materials were stacked haphazardly all around, some of the labels she recognized as coming from Coalition planets. Obviously, the room was filled with stolen goods. The Rehulian crew sat scattered amongst the containers, drinking as they caroused loudly.
She was hauled into the center of the revelling aliens, glancing around nervously as they yelled jeers she couldn’t understand. Her captor spun her to face the gathered crowd and shouted something to his cohorts. They cheered again and her captor grinned down at her with something akin to menace. He plucked a large knife from a hip holster, its silver blade smeared with something dark that had dried, and brought it toward her.
Kessia cringed and tried to pull back, needing to get away from the threat, but two more Rehulians came up beside her. They gripped her arms and pulled them out to her sides, holding her as the big one came forward with the knife. She turned her face away and squeezed her eyes closed, unwilling to watch her end coming.
There was a tug at her shirt and then a rush of warm fetid air against the bare skin of her belly. Her eyes shot open and she stared down at the slice that had perfectly cut her shirt in half down the center. Dread shot through her as she jerked wide eyes up to the alien with the knife. The big ugly bastard grinned once more and reached for her again, hooking a sharp nailed finger into the middle of her modest black uniform bra and pulling it away from her skin. She shied away as he slipped the knife beneath it and cut the bra in half too.
Her mind raced as she tried to remember her school lessons on alien anatomy. To all her knowledge, Rehulians and humans were not sexually compatible. Unfortunately, that didn’t mean she was safe. Stars only knew what these assholes were planning to do to her.
She shuddered as the Rehulian slipped his fingers into the waistband of her pants and pulled that and her panties away from her skin just far enough to get the blade between them. A fine tremble took over her body and she slammed her eyes shut as he sawed for a second at the waistband of the combined clothing items. Then the blade was sliding through, stripping her last bit of cover away from her skin.
The pirates holding her stripped the remnants of fabric off her, yanking her slipper-style shoes from her bare feet in the process and tossing them all into a haphazard pile off to the side. When they were done, a hard finger prodded her side, digging painfully into the softness of her stomach. The pirate on her left said something in their language and the others around them chittered. The big bastard with the knife leaned into her space, coming face-to-face with her. His mandibles twitched as he eyed her, the blade coming up between them. She tried to shy away, but she was held in place while the flat of the blade was pressed into her bared breast and dragged until the tip caught beneath her nipple. A thin line of blood appeared and the alien leaned in, his black proboscis unfurling to suck at the small wound. He let out a soft hiss, his mandibles widening as if he enjoyed the flavour and wanted more. Abruptly, the big bastard straightened, reaching out to grab her arm in a hard grip. She was tugged after him as he strode to stand in front of a gigantic reinforced shipping container in the center of the room.
She eyed the container, gaze catching on the huge double lock and the air holes that had been crudely drilled at the top of the side walls. It was huge, easily eight feet tall and almost as wide. A sliding slot in the door had a dried brown stain dripping from it, as if something bloody had been forced through.
The clank of a metal chain drew her attention and Kessia watched the lead pirate reach down to gather a rough metal collar, a pitted chain trailing from it to where it was crudely attached to a bracket in the floor. He forced her to turn, pushing her to her knees, before slipping the heavy collar around her neck. The click of its lock had a finality that terrified her.
The ugly bastard stepped back, leaving her naked on her knees in front of the big container. His lips curled back from his mandibles in a gruesome sort of smile. “You won’t enjoy this, little soft skin.” He said in strongly accented Universal, making sure she could understand him this time. “But we will.” He turned and walked away, choosing a seat directly in front of her among his cohorts.
Kessia’s heart pounded in her chest as she kneeled on the floor, casting her gaze around the cargo bay desperately. All around her, the Rehulian crew drank and jeered, appearing to wait for some spectacle to begin. She had the terrible feeling she was going to be at the center of that spectacle. Now would be a damn good time for the ship to get hit by a meteor or something. She’d prefer a quick death by being spaced to suffering through whatever these pirates had planned for her.
There was a metallic clunk behind her and she shot a look over her shoulder, her heart in her throat. The two pirates who’d held her were quickly backing away from the huge container’s now unlocked doors, skirting the walls on either side of the room on their way back to the rest of the crew. In their wake, the shipping container’s gigantic doors cracked open slightly, the dark interior revealing nothing of what was inside.
The hair on the back of her neck raised as she strained to see into the container’s depths. A low rumbling growl came from inside, vibrating through her body straight down to her bones. There was definitely something alive in there. Images of the wild creatures she’d seen in documentaries from different planets flashed through her mind. Fearsome teeth and claws, tentacles or tails, fangs that dripped acidic venom. The creature inside that container could be any one of those terrifying monsters.
Another growl came from inside, followed by a loud bang, reverberating through the container as if whatever was inside had slammed into the wall.
Without her conscious decision, Kessia’s fingers closed around the chain binding her to the floor and she started pulling, panic taking over her brain. If she could just get free, she could run. Hide somewhere. Anywhere was better than sitting right here.
The sound of a chain dragging and a creak of hinges was the only warning before the doors flew wide open, slamming into the sides of the container with a heart-stopping bang. An enormous creature loomed just inside the dark interior, its giant form hunched over in the container’s confines. It emerged slowly, its head tracking from side to side, nose tilted up as if to catch a scent. The beast’s head came even with the top of the container as it stepped out and a thick pelt of long brown fur covered its entire broad back.
Kessia cowered at its feet, staring up at the towering beast. It was bipedal and vaguely humanoid, but that was where the similarities ended. Her brain kicked up images of old Earth gargoyles, with their grotesque faces and tough-looking brownish skin. Four thickly muscled arms were held ready at his sides, showing off vicious black claws that were at least the length of her thumb. As its head tipped down toward her, she sat frozen, held captive by eyes so dark they reminded her of the blackness of space. No whites, no defined pupil. Just darkness that could devour you whole. Angular features and a series of ridged protrusions defined its face and its thin lips were pulled into a fang-bearing snarl.
Its wild gaze seemed to take her in for a moment, sniffing, before looking up at the surrounding Rehulians. Its mouth fell open and let out a deafening roar.
Kessia’s blood froze in her veins for an instant before a blast of adrenalin ripped through her. She scrambled on her hands and knees, getting as far from the beast as possible until the chain around her neck pulled tight. Words fell from her lips, pleading with the Rehulians, the beast, the chain, hoping one of them would take mercy on her and let her go. She gripped the rust-pitted chain tethering her to the floor and pulled, tugging with all her might until the skin of her hands tore and the collar cut into her throat.
The jeering of the Rehulians faded into the background as the beast crouched low, prowling closer to her slowly as it watched her like prey. She hauled on her chain, kicking at where it was bracketed to the floor with her bare feet, watching as it sniffed her out. She begged, switching between Terran and Universal, hoping something would get through to this alien, but it offered no reaction. One of those clawed hands struck out and wrapped around her bare ankle. She screamed, kicking and flailing, as the beast pulled her closer to itself. She flipped on her belly, her hands reaching out to grab anything to stop herself, but she couldn’t fight his strength.
The beast dragged her beneath itself, four arms surrounding her to brace against the floor, and she could feel its heat on her back as its huge shadow encompassed her. Tears tracked down her cheeks as she stared out at the Rehulian crew, their sick enjoyment of this attack plain on their faces. The beast tucked its nose into her hair and inhaled, taking in her scent in a purely animalistic way. She whimpered as the creature made an odd growling noise, expecting to feel those long canines biting into her flesh any second. Two of its four hands grabbed her hips and dragged her up onto her knees, caging her body beneath its great weight. Something long and hard brushed over her buttocks and ice rushed through her veins. Oh god, no. She pulled away as far as she could manage and glanced over her shoulder, her gaze coming to rest on her worst nightmare.
The beast had an erection.
Easily the length of her forearm, the beast’s cock stood out from its body at full mast. It was a deeper shade of his russet skin tone with a flat, broad head that flared out along the edge of the glans and what appeared to be ridges down the shaft. The heat of it felt like a brand against the bared skin of her thighs as the creature pulled her in close once more. She struggled to get away, crying out in despair as those clawed hands on her hips held tight. Blind panic raced through her and she trembled as she fought, crying and scratching at the thick forearms that were braced on the floor beside her head. The beast’s nose burrowed into the hair on the back of her neck and images of him sinking his teeth into her throat while he thrust deep shot through her mind.
“I need you to scream.”
The voice was barely a whisper, raspy and deep, and it was breathed into her hair with a gentleness that was at odds with the beast’s appearance and manner. She stilled, trying to process what this change meant.
The beast wasn’t mindless.
He had spoken in Universal, strongly accented but clear. He’d given her an order. This creature was no ravenous, animalistic alien, ready to devour her whole. He was a victim here, chained just as she was.
And it seemed he had some sort of plan.
The big body that caged her in adjusted, pulling back slightly. That hard erection slipped over her buttocks and positioned at the apex of her thighs. She tried to fight back the panic that fluttered in her chest, but the potential of rape loomed large. In her vulnerable state, she found it hard to trust that he wouldn’t take advantage.
“Scream.” He whispered into her hair just before he thrust his hips forward.
Terror rose and Kessia screamed, her voice ringing out in the cargo bay’s confines with a blood-curdling chill. Tears flowed down her cheeks as she wept, waiting for the pain of his violation to come. The beast began thrusting and she found herself staring out at the Rehulians, her mind hardly registering their jeers and cruel remarks. She focused on her body, trying to figure out what was happening.
His chest pressed down on her back, forcing her to rest on her elbows, breasts grazing the floor with his every thrust forward. One of those big hands had slipped from her hip to circle around her front, moving down to push up at her pelvis, arching her hips up. Between her spread thighs, the hard brand of his erection slid along the seam of her pussy, carefully hidden by their position. Each of his rough thrusts forced a little gasp from her numb lips and gave the obscene play even more credibility.
The beast growled into her hair and she flinched, cringing away from those sharp teeth.
“Fight me.” He hissed into her ear. Her body jerked forward under a particularly violent thrust and she gasped.
Kessia braced herself with her left arm and used her right hand to dig her nails into the big forearm beside her. When that only increased his fervour, she growled and sunk her teeth into his arm. The taste of blood filled her mouth and the beast roared, ripping his arm away as she cringed. He grabbed her wrist and pulled her arm straight behind her, using it to keep her in place as he forced her chest to the floor. The alien covered her completely, caging her with his huge body, and thrust against her roughly.
This new angle spread the lips of her pussy, cradling the hard length of his cock as he slid back and forth rapidly. She whimpered in earnest as a shot of unexpected pleasure spread through her. His every stroke travelled across her clit in a series of ridged bumps. She groaned as she realized she was getting wet, unwilling as it might be.
A rumble vibrated in the chest pressed against her back, an almost inaudible purr that tingled through her. His head buried in her neck and he breathed deep, seeming to savour her scent. His thrusts quickened, rutting into her, and raising her own pleasure. She trembled as pleasure curled and twisted in her stomach, tightening by increments until she no longer saw anything outside the circle of his arms. The Rehulians meant nothing as dangerous ecstasy seized her, clenching her muscles and making her cry out. Above her, the beast tilted his head back and roared, his long cock jerking against her as a warm splash of seed covered her lowered belly.