Page 25 of Meteor Storm

I clenched my teeth, trying not to cry out with pleasure. My eyes shot open and I looked up at the tree canopy, ashamed at the way my body was reacting, in front of so many repulsive onlookers. The sound of Thilar’s breathing only tempted me closer to a pinnacle. I took a deep breath and as it shivered from my lungs, I could feel my walls pulsing and tightening around him.

“Thilar,” I gasped.

His hand shot up and reached around, collaring my neck. My body surrendered. I grabbed hold of his wrist and suddenly, I was shattering to pieces. I swallowed a moan as I came apart around him, trembling through wave after wave of dizzying pleasure. Thilar kept pumping himself inside me, torturing me through my release before his body went rigid. His jaw clenched and I felt his hand give my neck a possessive squeeze.

He thrust deep. Liquid heat filled my insides as he came, and a soft, strained groan trickled into my ear, loud enough for only me to hear.

I arched, my breasts crushed against the column. As the two of us slowly came down from our shared peak, I felt my body wanting to melt back against him, seeking comfort where I should have been seeking revenge.

But whatever twisted pleasure we’d just gotten from the ordeal, it was soon to be overshadowed by the fact that we were still prisoners. We were still just entertainment, trapped in what I assumed would become an endless, involuntary cycle.

10: Penny

Back in my cell, I was still shaking. Even after a few hours of rest. My body still ached from the thorough pounding Thilar had given me and I wanted to hate it so much. I should have. We’d been forced to do what we did and yet I managed to find pleasure in it. Or… something akin to pleasure.

I sat on my cot, knees up to my chest and my fingers tangled in my hair. I shouldn’t have liked it. I chanted that to myself over and over again, wondering if I had some hidden fetish. Maybe I liked to be watched? No, that part made me wince. Maybe I liked the chase. The violence. The threat of danger or the way he grabbed my neck. Ok, sure, plenty of women fantasized about taking it rough.

But that wasn’t it, either.

Did I like aliens? No, because all the others made me uneasy.

Looking up at the glass wall of my cell, I could see the hall outside and a couple of cells down, the blue tint of Thilar’s chamber bled into the passage. He was so close.

It was him. He chased me. He fought for me—killed for me. He fucked me into a daze. Thilar himself made me come and I wasn’t sure if that was better or worse than having some undiscovered fetish.

The insides of my thighs were sticky from our joining. I got up and rinsed my hands in the strange sink at the back corner of my enclosure, trying to clean myself as thoroughly as I could without a proper shower. God, I would have loved a real shower. Warm water. Soap. The feeling of being clean. I missed it.

And, like the twisted overlords of that godforsaken station heard my thoughts, guards started walking down the passage, shouting things I couldn’t understand with their shock sticks buzzing by their sides. We were like cattle. The cell doors started opening and the prisoners that had survived the last round of games started to filter out into the hall. I quickly straightened my tattered dress over my thighs as they came to my door. The glass barrier slid open and they waved me out.

The valerian woman was walking by just as I stepped into the hall. She wasn’t particularly friendly, but she was the only one who knew a lick of my language. I stepped up behind her, forming a single-file line like the others.

“What’s happening?” I whispered.

Her nose wrinkled like the sound of my voice annoyed her. Maybe she was disappointed I survived the game. For such a pretty species, she had a nasty countenance.

“Bath time,” she said.

I could practically hear her rolling her eyes.

The women and men weren’t split up. Apparently, that was just a feature of the games. I grew nervous when one of the gek males stepped up behind me, dwarfing me. It was the white one with the scarred eye, only he was so covered in blood that I could hardly see the pale hues of his skin anymore.

Behind him was a spike-headed alien and finally, behind him, was Thilar, tall, broad and still smeared with violence and filth. As we walked, I stole a glance over my shoulder. When he caught me looking, I was relieved he didn’t look away. His gaze met mine, and there was something in it he couldn’t say aloud. An apology, perhaps, but more than that, it was reassurance.

I wanted to wrap my arms around myself, to hold myself together, but that would have made me look weak. Pathetic. The last thing I wanted was to appear vulnerable in a place like this, and I was already afraid I’d made a terrible first impression.

So, I kept my hands at my sides and held my head high, my jaw clenched tight. My ankle was killing me, but I forced myself to walk normally despite the pain.

We walked for some time, emerging from the underground holding area onto a long, metal walkway. Below, I could see a large room of electrical towers, panels, and contraptions I didn’t recognize. The tech looked completely unfamiliar. Not that I could get to it to find out what it all did. The walkway was boxed in with something like chain-link and like everything in that hellhole, it was probably electrified.

When we finally came to a large doorway, I could feel the air getting humid and hot. We all entered a chamber full of three pools. Guards bordered the room with their sticks, and no one even gave them a second glance. The different aliens began to undress, careless that there were others around to see their naked bodies, and dispersed to the different baths. One pool was steaming hot. Another looked cold with slats of ice floating on the surface. The middle pool was foggy and murky like a forest pond.

Instinct told me to go to the steaming pool, but the valerian took a sharp turn, bumping my shoulder. At first, I thought she was trying to start something, but when I looked up, she was shaking her head.

“You will want the running water,” she said, pointing at a wall where streams of water were pouring out of various spouts. “The steaming pool will burn your tender skin.”

I was inclined to believe her when the red-hued valerian male made his way to it like he and fire went together. Then I headed toward the wall. The valerian walked ahead of me, stripping off pieces of clothing as she did until she was naked. She had a perfect figure. Her skin, at the moment, was pale violet, which darkened at the tips of her crown. I didn’t know what it meant, but I knew it meant something.

I pulled my dress off and immediately wanted to put it back on. I wasn’t particularly shy about my body, but the games were perverted and vicious. Being without that little layer of fabric made me feel ten times more vulnerable, but by the looks of things, that bathhouse was some kind of neutral zone. No one gave anyone a second glance.