Chapter 3 #2
As if he sensed my disquiet, he stood up and walked over to me.
I started when his hand grazed against my shoulder, and I froze when it continued up the expanse of my throat.
The warmth of his fingers against my skin was gentle and hypnotizing in a way.
My pussy clenched anxiously, and I did my best to blatantly ignore it.
I continued to look out the window as we flew. As more time passed, it became clear that we were leaving the wild lands where humans struggled to survive. We were entering alien territory, where they were flourishing. The difference between the two was jarring.
The first indication I noticed was electricity. Lights burned bright in the setting sun, powering on one by one. There were long runways and a massive plain of airships meant to travel the world. I wondered if any of them were designed with the sole intention of traveling into space.
I’d heard gossip that some places were capable of that.
I’d even heard that they’d taken over the International Space Station a long time ago, but I couldn’t be certain of any of it.
All my life, I’d lived in the woods, hiding from the enemy, and surviving off the remains of what humans left behind more than a hundred years ago.
Soon enough, the marks of civilization took over the green landscape of nature. Buildings drove up far into the air, their peaks not very far beneath Talyn’s airship. Panes of glass reflected the light of the setting sun. Some of them appeared to be inhabited. Others were dark.
The alien city seemed to go on for miles. It was staggering to behold.
How many of them were there?
In that moment, I realized something that shook me to the core.
Humans didn’t stand a chance. We were never going to win against numbers like this.
We were fighting with century-old guns and rusted knives, while the aliens had access to all of this.
I was living in the inevitable decline of the human species and there was nothing I could do about it.
How much longer before we ceased to exist at all?
I released a shaky breath and Talyn said nothing.
I stared down at the alien city for several more minutes before we started to gradually dip down toward a series of buildings at the center of the city.
It was nerve-racking to have him standing next to me while the ship landed all by itself, but I could do nothing bound as I was.
The ship landed smoothly, almost as if it was perching itself on a cloud, before the doors slid open and the engines powered down.
I sighed with relief when it eventually stilled.
“Where are we?” I asked a little bit anxiously.
“I’ve taken you to my penthouse. Tonight, you’ll be punished and tomorrow I will show off my newest acquisition to my brethren,” he replied.
“Your penthouse,” I echoed. My head tried to ignore his threat, but my pussy couldn’t.
“Yes. This is my city. I rule over everyone down below as their commander, as their general and from this day forward, as your conqueror,” he answered, and I shivered hard.
He reached over me and slid his hand over the cuff.
It opened slowly, releasing me from its clutches.
I tore my hand away as he removed the other.
I rubbed my wrists. They didn’t hurt or anything, I was just taken aback by their sudden freedom.
He did the same to my ankle cuffs before he offered me a hand. I took it, knowing that I didn’t have much of a choice otherwise.
Oddly enough, he was gentle as he led me out of the ship. When I stumbled on the step, his arm caught me around the waist, and I gasped the sudden security of his strength. I hadn’t expected that.
“Thank you. I’ve always been something of a klutz,” I fumbled, and he carefully lifted me back on my feet.
He didn’t answer. In those moments, I was reminded that he wasn’t exactly human. The texture of his skin was different than mine, firmer, scaly in places and quite a bit warmer.
He was the enemy. Don’t be an idiot, Raiza.
When I’d finally recovered enough, I lifted my head and studied my surroundings, absently hoping for some avenue of escape and finding none.
We were on a massive balcony of some kind.
To my left was his airship, situated in a specially made dock that cradled the ship.
The wind whistled across my cheek, and I shivered, not necessarily from cold but at the strangeness of suddenly being submerged in the lap of luxury after living in the woods for so long.
To my right was a pool. It must have been heated because there was steam rising from the water.
One of the sides was made of glass so that if you went underwater, you could still look out at the horizon.
It was unsettling and decadent at the same time.
It felt so foreign compared to the rivers I swam in growing up.
There was a soft carpet and a seating area that looked more comfortable than anything I’d ever had the opportunity to sit on in my life.
String lighting hung over it, casting the entire area in light and shadow in a way that called to me.
One time, I’d been lucky enough to sleep on a gritty old mattress.
It hadn’t been much better than a pile of moss.
He took my wrist in his hand and guided me forward. I followed him without a fuss.
Perhaps I would have if I’d only known what was coming.
He led me to the carpet and released my hand. I swallowed, waiting as he circled me as if he was a hawk hunting his prey.
“I am perplexed by you, little human. You try to kill me and then you try to save me. In that, you have earned both my ire and my mercy,” he began coldly.
My legs trembled just the slightest bit beneath me.
He stopped behind me and reached over my shoulders. Casually, he lifted the edges of my jacket and removed it from my body.
“It’s a shame that you humans dress yourself in such rags. Now that you’re mine, I will make sure that you wear nothing less than perfection as my female,” he continued.
What did he mean by that?
His female.
He circled me again and I watched him warily, knowing that I was cornered now and there was nowhere to run. I lifted my chin and focused on the one thing I was good at.
Enduring.
He stopped in front of me, taking a long moment to look up and down my body.
“Here in Zenarkin, we take care of our humans in many ways, be it dressing you in the finest silks or punishing you when you’ve been disobedient or teaching you how best to serve us in the manner that we most enjoy.
I’ve never found any female interesting enough to even remotely consider taking on the responsibility of one of my own until you,” he murmured, and I tried to swallow past the cotton ball that seemed to have taken up residence inside my mouth.
“I don’t need you to take care of me. I’ve done a fine enough job all these years,” I scoffed.
“We no longer live in your world. Now you live in mine,” he declared as if his word was law.
In a sense, maybe it was. He commanded what appeared to be a military city.
The two of us were in the tallest building at the center of the urban sprawl.
Everything seemed centralized to here, as if we were in a castle of old surrounded on all sides by his commanding forces.
I pressed my lips together, unwilling to accept that my fate was sealed quite yet.
He reached for me, running his fingertips along the edges of my worn gray t-shirt.
I’d done my best to care for it, but it was stained and torn in many places.
I’d been meaning to find some new clothes somewhere, but I hadn’t been sent out on a supply run in quite some time.
His touch grazed along my collarbone, and I released a shaky heated breath without meaning to.
With no warning, he grasped the thin cloth with both hands and yanked it apart, tearing through it as if it was simply a piece of paper.
I stood there in shock as he ripped apart the shoulders next.
When he’d thoroughly ruined my shirt, he tossed it aside.
The breeze wasn’t cold, but I shivered anyway.
I cried out and brought my hands to my chest, covering the sports bra I’d been wearing beneath it.
It wasn’t anything pretty. It was simply a black sports bra, but it was the best one I’d ever gotten the chance to lay my hands on. My breasts were bigger than most of the girls in my group, so I’d treasured that thing as my most valuable possession.
“Don’t. Please,” I begged, curling my fingers around that bra like a lifeline.
He tore through it like it was nothing. I watched forlornly as my prized bra was tossed aside along with the remnants of my t-shirt.
Topless now, I could do nothing but hide my breasts beneath my arms. He looked down at me like I was his next meal and I stepped from one foot to the other with anxious fear.
He reached down and very casually popped the button off my jeans. He jerked his fingers forward and split the zipper open next. I knew that my jeans wouldn’t last much longer after that.
I tried not to fight him as he shucked my pants down my hips roughly. Silently, he lifted one leg and pulled my boot and sock off. He did the same with the other side before he removed my jeans too, leaving my legs bare. I stood tall and shivered harder, wearing nothing more than my panties now.
I looked out at a spot to his right side. I knew that if anyone was looking up at their commander’s penthouse suite at that moment, they’d be able to see me naked. I grasped my shoulders tighter. My fingers dug into my flesh, desperate to hide from anyone if they happened to be looking.
He knocked my hands aside with ease. “Don’t you dare cover yourself, little female. I want to see every inch of this beautiful body. I want to see what’s mine.”
I sneered in his direction. I didn’t feel like being obedient, so I ignored him and looked away. I just wanted this to be over.