Caged with the Alien Gladiators by Corin Cain
Jacky
Time freezes as the alien warrior stares at me…
And something passes over me I don’t understand.
Every hair on my body stands up straight. I don’t know where I am.
I feel their anger.
The Aurelian triad is war incarnate.
Duty and strength, vengeance and hatred, boiling up like magma in my mind. I don’t understand how they’re holding back. How they aren’t running up the stage and ripping the head of the Toad Lord who has them captive. If I experienced anger like that, I’d go insane with the need for retribution.
Under it all is a boiling lust. A lust they haven’t given in to yet, a lust that’s deep, down in their being that aches to claim…
Me.
I can barely stand, and Kay has to grab my shoulder, helping me up, looking at me with confusion as the three Aurelians turn their full attention on me. Three sets of hunter eyes, that were previously so cold and emotionless.
Now they are ravenous.
“Yes, let’s take this one,” states the leader, pointing to Kay.
The Toad Lord laughs. “Go with your first choice. Take the second in an hour if you still hunger. Hair-fixer, make her look better. Warriors. Go clean up.” Five Bullfrogs step up on the stage from somewhere in the back, lurking giants who could snap my arm like a twig. Four of them march to the Aurelians and grunt, herding them off the stage.
My relief disappears.
The Toad Lord is going to put me in a room with those three, and though the triad changed their mind while looking at the row of women, nothing will change their mind when they get me alone.
The three Aurelians don’t move. The tension builds and the Toad Lord waves his hand, and as one, his Bullfrog guards raise their rifles, pointing them straight at the triad.
I saw how fast the Aurelians can move. Five Bullfrogs against the three of them would be an even battle…if it weren’t for the two with their rifles ready to blast them to shreds. The Aurelians give me one last look, then leave the stage with four of the Bullfrogs.
The last of the five Bullfrogs stays behind, licking his lips before dragging the still-twitching corpse of the Toad into the darkness behind us. I wince, remembering the sounds of crunching gristle in the transport ship. At least this one deserved it. He was the sadistic one who enjoyed using his cattle prod on us.
“Take them to their chambers,” says Lord Reedok, then pauses, seemingly listening to something. I notice a transponder in his ear. He speaks in the Toad language, guttural and quick, and I feel his mood change.
He got some bad news.
I hope he won’t take it out on me.
I’m still shook from the pure rage I felt from those Aurelians. I wasn’t imagining it. I felt like I could see into their minds, just for an instant.
Isn’t that what the Bond is? Feeling the emotions of a triad?
It’s that…and so much more. I’ve heard the rumors.
If I’m Bonded to those three, I’ll be out of a prison of my body and into a prison of the mind. Some women crave it, hoping they’ll be the one of trillions of women in the universe to be Mated to an Aurelian triad. It’s safer to submit to a big, strong triad than face the dangers of the world alone.
If you’re in one of their harems, no man would dare touch you.
If you’re Bonded to them? You’ll be exulted as a Goddess, a possession and a treasure to them. But the cost is everything.
The Bond makes every deep, dark urge you have flood over you until you lose your mind in desire.
I can’t go alone, empty-handed into their cell. I felt their rage.
I don’t know how Melissa managed to survive their brutal mating, but I won’t survive the night. I reach out, motioning to Kay. She moves fluidly, and suddenly I’ve got the makeshift knife in my hand. I don’t know what good it will do but it feels good to have something. I squeeze the handle and press it against my body, hiding it against the folds of the dress.
The Toad Lord waves his hand and says something in his language that makes his Bullfrog guards laugh. I’m glad I don’t understand it, because one of them grabs at his crotch, and something moves under his loincloth. I don’t even want to think about what Bullfrogs have between their legs.
The rest of the women are walked off the stage by the last remaining Toad, and I feel very alone without Kay next to me. We’ve only known each other since we woke up in the same ship hold, but I know I can trust her.
I won’t be able to draw on her expertise for what happens next.
The Toad Lord waves his hand fast, irritated. The sound of a crowd cheering fills the stage, and I turn, seeing the huge holo-vid projection appear behind me. I move to the side so I’m not in the way. No reason to draw Lord Reedok’s ire.
The holo-vid shows a marshy coliseum, like a smaller version of the famed Arena of the Gods on Colossus, but instead of pure white sand, there’s muddy ground. Five Aurelians are facing off. Three of them have the mark of Obsidian on their marble chest, the black tattooed outlines of half-circles. The bottom halves are filed. These are high ranking Fanatics. One gets hit by a rock thrown by the other two and stumbles.
“Blagard,” snarls Lord Reebok with anger.
“Let’s go before he notices us still here,” whispers the blonde, and I follow her through the door where the Aurelians were marched just moments ago. We turn right, down a hallway that slopes upwards, to my relief. The higher we go, the dryer the ground. We walk down a hallway with clay-colored walls, and she takes me through a door into a nice little room that’s been set up as a studio. There’s a little bed and a well-lit mirror with a stool in front of it.
“You’re a hairdresser?” I ask her—an obvious question, but I don’t know what else to say.
She rolls her eyes, closing the door behind her. It’s a manual door with a knob, rather than one of the automatic sliding doors like in our cells. She has more freedom than us.
Bought with her body. I can’t blame her, but I don’t think I can survive what she just went through.
“Lord Reedok calls me a hair-fixer.” I realize the eye-roll was for the Toad, not for my all-too-obvious question, and I relax a little. “I had a salon. Then my planet got ripped apart by Scorp. Rescue came, or so I thought…but the only ships that landed were slavers. They picked up the survivors to bring to the Toad Kingdom for a quick profit. That was five years ago. I’ve been toiling away, cleaning floors. Lord Reedok said anyone who lays with Aurelians could switch to whatever job they wanted… I was lucky. There were dozens of us who offered, but he let me go.”
She clenches her jaw. “Well. Almost lucky. He said anyone who was Bonded to the Aurelians would be given honors beyond what we could ever dream of. But I wasn’t. Here, sit,” she says, motioning to the stool.
I sit in the chair and she hums happily, putting a plastic bib around me and grabbing her scissors, snipping and moving without asking me what I want her to do.
I guess I’d be happy too, if I was doing the job I was meant to do and not cleaning floors. The way she looks, she would have been ogled and groped by Toads and Bullfrogs.
Five years. Gods. I’ve been here five hours and I don’t know if I’ll make it twenty-four.
I guess you can adapt to anything, but I don’t judge her for running to the Aurelians for a chance to get out. You’ve got to make hard choices.
Though from the sound of it, it wasn’t a hard choice at all.
I tuck the shiv against my leg, feeling its reassuring coldness. “What were they like?”
She pauses, and a strange look passes over her. I can’t figure it out. “Ravenous,” she whispers, with a conspiratorial edge to her voice. “I barely got into their cell when they just…grabbed me and took me,” she says, rolling her eyes back theatrically as sighs in extravagant satisfaction. “It was perfection.”
Anger surges through me—anger mixed with fear.
Those bastards. I wanted to give them the benefit of the doubt, even after feeling their blinding rage. They didn’t even stop to check if she was willing. The second they could, they took her, throwing her into the bedroom and claiming her. She could have been sobbing and begging and they would have grabbed her for a harsh breeding.
I’m glad for the knife at my belt. I remember Kay’s words: “every man has the same weak spot.”
There’s three of them. I’ll die trying, but if I get one good shot in, they might think twice before they take another woman by force.
And then what? An Aurelian with a knife in his cock isn’t going to bode well for my survival.
Getting free is the only thing that matters. Whatever I have to do…I have to do it, and survive.
I shudder as that thought goes through my mind. I imagine them grabbing me, throwing me against the bed, taking my innocence in one brutal thrust.
“Did it hurt?” I can’t keep my voice from shaking.
“Only for a second. They’re made for it. I was scared too, when I saw the size of those things…but they drip pre-cum like a faucet when they’re turned on. It’s designed to let them get those huge things into you without hurting…and it’s pure, pure bliss. Hey. You’ll be fine. As long as Lord Reedok knows you slept with them, you can take a decent job. If you’ve got clerical experience, I suggest something at a desk—papers and electronics don’t do well with humidity, so they keep it dryer. Trust me. This is better than the brothels. Women don’t survive very long there.”
“Thanks for the advice,” I answer as she works her magic on my hair. She was wasted cleaning floors. She turns the unruly, tangled mess that my comb couldn’t fix into a curled style I’ve only seen on rich women in the restaurants when I bused tables.
I didn’t have mirrors back on the stations when I was working poor jobs. My “home” wasn’t even a room. I’d be packed into the communal beds. You find an empty one in the stacks and curl up, hoping whoever was there the night before didn’t have lice.
But sometimes when I washed dishes, I’d catch my reflection in a steel bowl. Human labor is cheaper than replacing and maintaining machines, so they’d hire us cheap and work us to the bone. It showed in the exhaustion and the bags under my eyes, my skin so pale from never seeing the sun. I looked like a ghost.
Now I’m seeing what could have been as she works her magic. I come alive under her brush.
“Wow. You’re good, Melissa.” I try to make small talk to distract myself from what’s coming.
“Oh! I’m so sorry, I forgot to ask your name!”
“Jacky.”
“I completely forgot rule one of my job. The conversation is the most important. I’m rusty after so many years. It’s…well. I guess there wasn’t much to talk about. Just keeping my head down, every day the same.”
“Tell me about it. It feels like you’re waiting for the next thing…but the time keeps going and if you don’t take action, you’re just stuck in an endless cycle,” I say, my voice sounding distant to my own ears. I’m trying desperately not to think about what’s going to happen to me.
All this primping and preening is for nothing. The Toad ordered it because that’s what he would look for in a woman.
But those Aurelians…
They’re primal. They’re men, and they don’t care about the shine on your lips or how perfect your hair is.
“Well, you’ve got the chance to get free tonight. If you’re Bonded to those three, Lord Reedok will reward you beyond belief. There was a lowly Toad who saved his life once in an assassination attempt. That Toad is now the third richest man on Quazar 42.”
I’m terrified, but I remember Kay’s words to try to get any information possible. What do I know so far? Lord Reedok doesn’t like someone named Finger Blagard. Five Aurelians were fighting in a Toad fighting ring, three of them Fanatic.
Maybe that means another Toad has his hands on triads?
What else?
The guards at the main entrance hall were bored. The Bullfrog personal guards are sharp. Maybe that will mean something later.
“Why do you think Lord Reedok wants a Bonded triad?”
“I have no clue, and I wouldn’t ask too many questions. Just keep your head down and look for an opportunity to make your life a little better. That’s what I did, and at least now I’m not scrubbing floors for when Lord Reedok has non-Toad visitors. You have no idea how disgusting the floors get in this fucking place.” She shudders, but her hand stays steady, holding the scissors. “If you’re not Bonded to them, what job will you pick?”
I shrug, and she tsks as my hair bobs from the movement. “Sorry,” I say.
“Stay still,” she admonishes, cutting with little scissors in quick, practiced movements. She hasn’t done it in five years but she’s still incredible. I’ve only ever sheared my hair with a shared pair of scissors in dorms, just trying to keep it from my eyes. I’d been growing it out in preparation of my first decent job as a front desk agent, but it just ended up tangled and curly.
Melissa knows how to tame it. Shape it. Make me look like one of those rich girls with the future in their hands.
“I’m not sure. I was hoping to get a front desk job on Litika, but there isn’t much in the way of that here. I can’t imagine anyone visiting this planet on purpose,” I complain, bitter, trying to talk about anything but what’s going to happen to me tonight.
My heart beats faster as I realize the inevitability of it all. I feel like I’m spinning down a drain, swimming as fast as I can while being pulled towards the triad of Aurelians.
I’m going to be brought to those bastard aliens and they’re going to throw me into bed and claim me, just like they did Melissa. The way she described it was terrifying. Grabbing her, pinning her down, taking her hard and fast. My mind fills in the blanks.
They’re like animals. Seven-foot-tall ravenous animals.
How did I feel the anger in them? The huge one with the jet-black hair killed a Toad like it was nothing. Would he snuff out my life as easily?
They are violence incarnate…
And I’m going to feel all that violence focused into me.
My hand trembles around the shiv, and I doubt I’ll be able to use it. They’ll take it from me, and they’ll punish me. Everyone’s heard the tales of Aurelian harems and what they do to unruly brats.
They put them over their laps.
Melissa puts color in my cheeks somehow, dusting them with a brush. “You went pale! Trust me. Those three…they aren’t bad, okay? Just let it happen, just do what they say, and everything’s going to be okay. I promise.” Then her eyes harden. “And don’t screw this up for us. Okay?”
Don’t screw this up? What is she talking about?
She’s telling me it’s not going to be that bad. It’s different for her. She chose it. She went to them on purpose, and she probably would have even if there wasn’t a promise of a job at the other end of it. She enjoyed every second of it.
It’s going to be torture for me.
Or is it?
When that beast of a man towered over me, I felt raw, primal attraction to him. The kind you can’t manufacture.
I shudder, trying to force them out of my mind, but it keeps popping back in. The thought of them grabbing me, ripping my dress off. Being sandwiched between them and not being able to move an inch as their hands grope and claim my body, owning me.
They’ll be able to taste my lust. They’ll know that deep down, I’m aching for it, smelling my arousal as my body begs for them.
And once the Mating Rage takes them over…
There’s nothing I’ll be able to do to stop it.
“What do you mean, don’t screw this up?”
She bites her lip, like she’s not sure whether to answer or not, when there’s a quick patterned knock at the door.
“Come in!” says Melissa sweetly. Was it a quick rapped code?
A kind-looking, round woman comes in, her cheeks bright red and a smile on her face as she comes in balancing a big tray with a silver platter on it, covered by a silver bowl. She’s wearing a chef’s apron. I sneeze at the smell of something hot and spicy, and Melissa tsks as she has to redo a swipe of the brush.
“Something in there for me, Jamica?”
“Oh, I spoil you.” She opens the top, and there’s one huge heaping plate of pasta big enough to feed an army and a small, individually wrapped sandwich. She’s strong to be able to carry it, but she makes it look easy, balancing it expertly in one hand while she tosses the sandwich over. My eyes water from the scent of burning hot spice.
“You’re a lifesaver.”
“We gotta look out for each other. Hey, are you the one they picked?”
“Yes,” I say, keeping my head level and resisting the urge to nod.
“Lucky bitch. I’ve been dreaming of those three ever since they arrived. Think it’s true Aurelians love curves?” She runs her hand down her body, curvaceous and full of energy and life.
They love fertility.
The all-male species can’t sire sons except with their Fated Mate. I run my hands over my thighs, wishing I was skinny and trim, or lean like Kay. I’ve always been envious of women who glide around like swans. I’m healthy, but somehow even when I work fourteen-hour days, I never manage to get skinny.
“Hey, be gentle on her. She’s nervous,” says Melissa.
I stroke the shiv. I’m nervous, but I’m not powerless.
But will I have the strength to go down fighting, or will I submit out of fear?
“I’ll be gentle, but they won’t. They ordered pasta with spiced chicken and an extra handful of Damarak death peppers. I’m practically crying just carrying it. That’s a powerful aphrodisiac, you know. I guess you tired them out, Melissa.”
“I tried. They were insatiable. You have something for my new friend Jacky?”
Jamica sighs. “Fine. From my private store. I’d be whipped if they found me baking these with palace resources, you know,” she says, reaching into her apron and pulling out something wrapped in white paper. She tosses it to me.
“Thank you,” I say, catching it in my empty hand as she smiles and leave, kicking the door shut behind her.
I unwrap the paper.
It’s a cookie.
I’d watch trays of sweets and desserts taken out when I was a dishwasher. They didn’t let us eat the leftovers, choosing instead to sell the day olds on the level below, where none of the rich customers would be caught dead.
Once, a plate came back with an untouched slice of cake…and right before it got to me, a burly line cook snagged it and chomped it down. I went home that night and ate a generic ration bar while dreaming of it.
Now I’ve got a cookie of my own. It’s warm, fresh, and makes my mouth salivate. My body didn’t require much energy during the three-week flight in statis, but weeks burning a few hundred calories a day makes me ravenous all at once.
It’s one of the hardest things I’ve ever done, but I break the cookie in half, handing it to Melissa. “Here,” I say, watching in horror as she downs it in one happy bite. I nibble on mine slowly, trying to each delicate bite, each soft chewy swallow and chocolate chip.
If I use the shiv, I might never eat again.
They might kill me right there.