ALIEN ABDUCTION (Captured by Aliens) (7 page)

Instantly
Fallon pinned her to the ground with the full weight of his body.

Her lungs
whooshed like a bellows as he crushed her into the loam with his weight.  She
tried to speak, but could only gasp for breath.

At last
he grunted, and rolled a little off to one side to keep from squashing her like
a bug.  But he remained on top of her enough to keep her pinned down, and his
anger was evident in every furious breath as he tried to hold back from
punishing her.  His rigid arms were like a cage around her, preventing her from
scrambling out from under him or rolling away to escape.

“What do
you think you’re doing?” he said.

“Escaping!”
she wheezed, thrashing beneath him.  Then she managed to get one knee up, and
made every effort to connect it with his balls.

He
blocked her attempt--barely--and then moved to pin down her bucking hips,
sitting on top of her groin as he continued to hold her arms on the ground with
a grip that felt like steel manacles.

“I
realize that,” he said.  “Why are you trying to escape?  Do you love the king
so much that you would risk your life to return to him?”  His face hovered
directly above hers.  The deep shining of his hair caught the moonlight, making
him look entirely wild.

Ebony
laughed, noting a slight hysterical edge to her voice she wished she could
curtail.  She sucked in a deep breath, willing her nerves to settle down.  He
hadn’t beaten her to a pulp yet and she judged he probably wouldn’t if she
could just keep her cool.  “I hate the king.”

He glared
warily at her.  “You and me both.  But if you are to be believed, why would you
try so hard to return to him?”

Ebony
blew her straggling hair out of her face, and became still.  There was no use
battling against him in a fight she could never win.  “I don’t know.  Maybe
it’s like they say: Better the hell you know than the heaven you don’t.”

“I think
I need to make myself clearer to you, Ebony.”  He spoke with quiet menace.  “Just
so there is no confusion: Do not try to escape from me again.  You will not
like the consequences if you do.”

Looking
up at him, into his blue eyes that pierced her even in the dark, she felt a
flutter of nerves in her belly.  The weight of him pressed her into the soft
forest floor, and the great strength in his arms and shoulders kept her there
with no effort at all.  Ebony choked back her nervousness, disliking the
uncomfortable emotions running through her.  “Good,” she said.  “I was
beginning to think you were all bark and no bite.”

Fallon
said nothing for a long moment, studying her face as though she’d grown a third
eye in the middle of her forehead.  “You wouldn’t like my bite, but I am happy
to oblige you if you ever test my limits again.”

She tried
to move beneath him, but he only held her more firmly.  Ebony arched her back a
little--all that she could--and heard him catch his breath as her breasts,
covered only by thin red silk fabric, pushed up against his chest.  She moved
her hips again, almost grinding against him, and then--as she expected –began
to feel him harden against her thighs.

“Will you
rape a member of the king’s own harem, Fallon?” she said, as innocently as she
could.  “How will King Kore feel about that?”

He
stopped and became very still.  “If I wanted to do such a thing, no one would
know and you could not stop me.  And I promise you,” he said, gritting his
teeth and holding her arms even tighter, “I will do whatever I must to see this
plan through to the end.  There is far more at stake here than you realize.  If
you interfere with those plans again, I promise that you will suffer the
consequences--member of the harem or no.  Do you have any further doubts as to
my intentions?”

She
swallowed convulsively.  “Oh, no.  That’s all right.  I’ll behave myself from
now on.  I promise.”

Fallon
stood up and hauled her to her feet.  She stumbled against his chest, and he
righted her.  “A promise from you is like sand in the wind.”

She
wrinkled her forehead, looking up at him as he dragged her back to camp.  “Irritating
to the eyes?” she asked.

He
glanced down at her.  “Exactly.  Irritating and of no value.  But you will come
with me now, and stay with the other women the rest of the night, and make no
further move to escape.” Fallon stared hard at her, and finally she nodded and
began walking towards the camp.  Fallon let her walk past him, and then
followed her closely every step of the way.

Ebony
felt highly insulted, in spite of the fact that he was right.  If she had the
chance to get away again, she probably would do exactly the same thing.  But
twice, now, she’d been an absolute failure.  He was either a much lighter sleeper
than she realized or she was a very noisy walker. 

Either
way, the man would have to be a moron not to keep a close watch on her now.  She’d
be lucky if he didn’t put a block of wood between her ankles and then get a
sledge hammer and cripple her.  And yes, it was probably also lucky that they
didn’t have any popular horror novels on this planet, either.

CHAPTER SEVEN

When
Fallon and Ebony returned to the shelter, Damon quickly sat up, and his
expression turned fierce as he realized what had happened.  “I’m sorry, my lord. 
It won’t happen again.  Here, I’ll tie her hands--double-tie them this time--”

“Don’t
bother with it, Damon.  She doesn’t have any respect for me, or for you, or for
any of the rest of us.  There’s no reason to tie her again.  She already knows
that if she tries to escape again, she will most fervently wish she hadn’t.”

“Hey,
that’s fine with me if you leave my hands untied,” Ebony said, “but if I’m not
tied, then the rest of the women aren’t tied, either.  And if you won’t take
their ropes off, then you can just put mine right back on.”

Fallon
looked at Damon.  “Go.  Untie them all.”

Damon
sighed.  “I knew this one would be trouble if we brought her along,” he said,
as he drew his dagger and began cutting the ties on the wrists of the other
women.  “I’ll keep watch to make sure she can’t escape again.”

Fallon
shoved Ebony back into the midst of the huddled women.  “I should have known
better.  It was foolish to think these females would be compliant, even though
they were captives where they were being held.”

“Do you
really think the king will pay to get us back?” Ebony asked, brushing herself
off as she sat up beside Cassie.

Fallon
glanced back at her over his shoulder.  “For your sake, I hope he does, though
I could see why he might not want to have
you
back. 
You
are
nothing but trouble.”

She
glared at him, miffed at the truth of his statement and still resentful.  “It
isn’t in my nature to just go along with someone’s plans for me and not ask any
questions,” she said.  “Mama didn’t raise no followers.”

But there
was nothing else she could do right now.  She was too hungry, too cold, and too
tired.  Ebony lay down, crossed her arms over her chest, closed her eyes, and
tried to go to sleep.

***

Fallon
and Damon were sound asleep long before she was, and she was left to listen to
their snores rumbling into her body, ears, and brain.  “Men!” she whispered.  “Even
on another planet, they’re both deafening and distracting.” She sighed and
turned over, certain she would not sleep any longer that night.

Perhaps
it was the snore-generated rattling of her eardrums and brain that finally
lulled her into slumber.  She wasn’t sure, but the next thing she knew, she was
being dragged back into consciousness with a sprinkle of water on her cheek and
Damon’s broad face hovering above hers.  “Wake up.  It’s time to go.  Relieve
yourself with the others.  Then you can eat and drink.”

Groggy
from so little sleep and stiff from the dirt floor, Ebony sat up and moved like
an invalid, slowly getting to her feet and following the rest of the women into
the bushes.  They all looked as miserable as she felt.

“Another
good morning,” Ebony said to them, “and another communal bathroom break.” She
sighed.  “Squatting and peeing in the woods has never been high on my to-do
list.”

Pamela
stood up from the ground and smoothed her skirt, and gave Ebony a small smile. 
“Not on your bucket list, as we used to say on Earth?”

Ebony
managed to laugh a little as she carefully crouched down over the pine needles. 
“That’s right.  This kind of thing goes on my
fuck-it
list.  If the
bucket list is things you want to do before you die, the fuck-it list is things
you
never
want to do again as long as you live!”

They all
laughed at that, even if it was the grim laughter of being in dire
circumstances.  At last, Ebony pulled her skirt and panties back up, dreaming
about beautiful tiled bathrooms and endless rolls of toilet paper and clean
flush commodes and steamy showers with hot running water.

The men
walked toward the gathered women, and Ebony eyed their captors with a baleful
expression.  One of the men gave each woman a handful of some kind of food, and
the other allowed each one to drink from a metal cup refilled from what
appeared to be a large leather bag.  She started to sit down, but Fallon
stopped her.  “Stay on your feet.  Keep moving.  Now.  All of you.”

“I see
it’s breakfast to go this morning,” said Ebony.  Then she jumped a little as
something poked her in the back, and turned around to see Damon prodding her
with his fingers to make her move faster.  “I’m going,” she said, shooting
daggers at him with her expression.  “You can stop doing that anytime.”

She began
walking with the others, and looked down at the food she’d been handed.  “Mmm. 
Water and more mystery meat jerky,” she muttered.  “I’d give anything for a
good cup of coffee right now.  And a nice ham-and-cheese omelet with plenty of
toast and butter and apple jelly.”

Ebony
sighed and kept on going down the trail, biting off a piece of the tough jerky
and picking her way through the sticks, pine needles, and random rocks that
hurt her already sore feet, and trying to avoid the prickly sticker bushes that
snagged at her bare skin and thin skirt.  All of the women were having
increasing difficulty walking through this rugged terrain.  Ebony saw streaks
of blood and dark purple bruises on their feet, even as they tried to keep
their whimpering to themselves.

But all
of the women were moving slower and slower, and Ebony had to bite her lip to
keep from crying out when her own cut and bruised feet hit yet another rock or
yet another sticker burr.

Fallon
and Damon watched the women hobble through the forest for a time, and then
stopped them.  “We’re going to have to do something about this,” said Damon.  “The
king kept them barefoot and practically naked, thinking it would keep them from
trying to escape.”

“Worked,
too, didn’t it?” said Ebony.

The two
men ignored her.  “All right,” said Fallon.  “We’ll stop here and figure out
some way to protect those soft little feet, or it will be nigh onto a month of
traveling at the rate they’re going before we reach the base.”

Ebony and
the other women stopped in their tracks and sat down on the forest floor.  “I’ll
be thankful for a break no matter how long it might last,” Ebony groaned.  “And
if they come up with something to cover my feet, I’ll take that, too.”

Cassie
sat down beside her.  “I can’t remember the last time I wore shoes,” she said,
her voice quivering.  She reached down and tried to massage her own bruised and
bleeding feet.

“Well,
the last time I had shoes on was when my sister and I were forcibly disrobed
and bathed before going to see the king and his audience,” said Ebony.  “I
figure they burned all the clothes we had on our backs.”

“Oh, that
happened to me, too...I think it happened to all of us.” Cassie was on the
verge of real tears again.

“Well, at
least my sister gets to wear shoes.”

“Yes, but
she is not in the harem!”

“Nope.  Lucky
little heifer goes and marries the head of the king’s guard.  She gets a
comfortable life and a man who treats her like a treasure.”

“And
shoes.”

“Yeah.  And
shoes.” Ebony managed to get her broken fingernails on another sliver of thorn
near her heel.  “Hate to admit it, but our boy Fallon there is right about his
brother, the king.  Keeping us all shoeless and practically naked is just
another way to control us without the leash.  Don’t need a leash when the bitch
can’t run.”

“Ebony,”
Pamela ventured, “you’re so much stronger than the rest of us.  Why go back at
all?  Why not stay with these men, or just run away and try to find someplace
else?”

“Yeah, I
ask myself that question, too.  It’s because of my sister.  I hate the king,
but I do love my sister.  She’s going to have a baby, you know.”

“A baby!  That’s
so wonderful!”  All of the other women chimed in about the baby.  “Oh, I’d love
to have a baby--if I had a real husband!”

“Besides,”
Ebony continued, “y’all aren’t thinking this through.  How am I gonna go back
and
not
re-enter that horrible life?  Those gray aliens have been
collecting blondes and redheads for this place, just like these men wanted, and
me and my sister stick out like a couple of sore thumbs with all this dark skin
and brown eyes and black hair.  Now, we’re very exotic and highly desired sore
thumbs, but still...I’d never be able to hide who I am and just sneak around
the city to see Adrienne and her baby.”

“I see...I
see...oh, poor Ebony,” whispered Cassie and the other women, as they all
continued to rub their feet and pull the burrs and twigs out of the ragged hems
of their skirts.  Ebony turned away from them and glanced across the clearing
towards Fallon.

She saw
him take a brown leather vest from one of his men and then pull a knife from
his belt.  “I think we can make something with this for a few of them,” he
said.

Damon and
the other men watched as Fallon cut the vest into thin strips.  When he seemed
satisfied by what he’d done, he moved to Ebony and stooped down next to her.  Taking
hold of her feet without so much as speaking to her, he wrapped the leather
strips around first one foot and then the other until he’d covered the soles
enough to protect her tender feet from at least some of the hazards on the
ground.  He tied off the strips with some of the same leather cord that they’d
used to bind the wrists of their captives, and then sat back.

“Try this. 
Walk around and see if it works,” he said, grabbing her hand and hauling her to
her feet.

Ebony
quickly pulled her hands free of his calloused palms, rubbing her hands on her
skirt to remove the sensation of warmth he’d imprinted on her skin.  She took a
few experimental steps and then stomped on a sticker bush.  She looked up at
him, and nodded.  “It works.”

“All
right.  I’ll get some more leather.  You women all wrap up each others’ feet.  Then
let’s get going.”

Once all
the women’s feet were bound, they were herded back into line to continue on.  Ebony
was grateful to have something bearing the brunt of her walking, at last.  “It
ain’t shoes,” she muttered, “but some strapping is a damned sight better than
humping barefoot through the woods all day.”

The group
fell silent as they progressed through the deep pine forest.  Some of the men
kept their heads tilted up towards the canopy of the forest, while others
scanned the trunks of the great trees surrounding them. 

Ebony
glanced back at Fallon again.  It seemed he’d decided to walk right behind her
each time they set out to march.  Well, good.  At least he could provide her
with a little conversation to make the time pass and distract her from how cold
and dirty and naked she really was.

“Somehow,
we managed to get away without anyone chasing us,” she began.  “It makes me
wonder if you all had someone on the inside of the city to help you carry out
your plan to steal us.”

She heard
a little snort of laughter from Fallon.  “Woman, do you think I would tell you
anything about our plans?”

Ebony
shrugged.  “Well, it makes sense that you might have supporters in the palace. 
Not everyone could, or would, love the king.  It just ain’t in free-thinking
people’s nature to unconditionally love their rulers.”

When he
remained silent, Ebony kept talking.  “Of course, you say that
you
should have been king.  I’m not sure why you think that.  Are you any better than
he is?”

“It is
not your place to ask me anything.”

“Hmm...You
think you’re better because you’re brothers, and some kind of sibling rivalry
convinced you that you should have been chosen instead.”

All she
could hear from Fallon, as he continued to walk through the forest behind her,
was a kind of low, angry growling sound.