Ellora’s Cave Publishing
www.ellorascave.com
Ral’s Woman
ISBN 9781419924064
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
Ral’s Woman Copyright © 2009 Laurann Dohner
Edited by Shannon Combs
Cover art by Syneca
Electronic book Publication September 2009
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This book is a work of fiction and any resemblance to persons, living or dead, or places, events or locales is purely coincidental. The characters are productions of the author’s imagination and used fictitiously.
Ral’s Woman
Laurann Dohner
Dedication
To the love of my life, David. He’s always supportive in every way imaginable, always reminds me that true love really does exist, and is always eager to conduct “research” with me.
Chapter One
Ariel kept her eyes down. She’d learned to not look up. Her left cheek still hurt from the bruises she was sure marred her face. She knew help would never come. She was still in deep shock and it was hard to function as the hours passed. Her life was over, changed forever, and death would probably greet her really damn soon. This couldn’t be happening. How many times had that thought crossed her mind in the days since she’d been taken?
Her gaze drifted around the cave floor. Someone had painstakingly swept up the dirt and debris until it was almost clean. There were lights along the ceiling so the room was well lit.
She heard shoes striking the stones, and fear gripped her. What now? The thought barely surfaced before she heard one of the men who’d grabbed her enter the room.
“Useless,” he said softly.
She lifted her gaze. The man wasn’t human. The shock of someone not being human hadn’t started to dim yet. Days ago if she had been told other races existed she would have laughed and asked them what movie they had watched too much. It wasn’t funny anymore. Her gaze swept the man’s bluish pale skin and then dropped. His eyes were yellow. They were serpent-like and his voice was wispy in a creepy way that sent bad chills down her spine.
“Did you hear me, Earthling? You’re useless.”
She nodded. She didn’t speak. She knew if she looked at him too long or if she spoke, it would warrant another blow to her face. They were Anzons. That’s what she’d been told when they had grabbed her from the woods by her home. The days she’d been captive felt like forever to her.
Another set of footsteps. She glanced up. The females of their species had the same eerie yellow eyes and bluish skin tone. They had breasts and seemed to grow hair only in a strip from the top of their heads to the lower part of their neck but their body structure wasn’t that different. They were all lean and long.
“It has been confirmed,” the woman hissed. “She’s not capable of breeding with our men. Humans aren’t the answer we seek.”
“We could give the males some relief with her. She’s not hideous to look at and her form is similar enough to ours.”
The woman hissed loudly. “The physical exam I gave her when she was unconscious says otherwise. She’d die.”
“She’s useless anyway.”
The woman frowned. “Where is your compassion, Yoz? It would be excruciating for her. The hard shell at the tip of your staff would tear her apart inside. She would bleed out and the pain would be—” The woman shivered. “I wouldn’t wish it upon even an enemy. We’re not at war with her world.”
“She’ll die anyway and I am curious.”
“Yoz,” the woman hissed. “I will not allow it. I have another purpose for her.”
“We need a worker?”
“No. I thought we could award her to one of the miners. They probably aren’t breeding compatible but sexually it wouldn’t be harmful to hand her over to one of them.”
Yoz hissed. “Vhal, that’s disgusting. That’s cruelty. They are so hideous.”
“But they wouldn’t kill her. And they have hair like she has.”
The man snorted. Ariel sensed his eyes on her. “She has little body hair. They have more hair. They are also much bigger. Their skin texture looks the same though.”
“I’ve already discussed this with Mon. He agreed. It is done. Take her to the mines now. Mon awaits her.”
Fear struck Ariel deeply. She jerked her head up and locked her eyes on the woman. “What is going on? Please tell me something. Please.”
The man hissed angrily at Ariel. The woman—Vhal—gripped his arm and shook her head. Compassion filled her face as she released the man. Vhal walked forward, blinked at Ariel a few times, and ran a lizard-like tongue across her thin blue lips. She stared down at Ariel.
“You were taken from your planet as we passed because our males outnumber our females eighteen to one. We’re facing eventual extinction if we don’t find a race of females to breed with our men. Our female bodies only support one or two egg cycles in our lifetimes. We lay our eggs and hatch our young. We only have three to six children per egg cycle. We tested you and you are not breeding compatible with our species.”
Ariel was stunned. “May I please go home?”
“I’m sorry but no. We are on a large…” She frowned. “You would call it an asteroid. We send ships out to habitable planets. We are very careful with our fuel. Our mission is important and we must complete it before we are allowed to return to our home planet. If we do not find breeding compatible females we will eventually die of old age still searching for them. It is imperative that we save our race. There are other stations like this one out there searching for females. If we do find breeders we will need all of our fuel to take them to our planet.”
Hot tears filled Ariel’s pale blue eyes. “So I’ll never see my home again?”
“I’m sorry.” The woman’s hissing voice sounded sad. “We have miners. They mine this asteroid. It gives us fuel and then more living spaces. You will be awarded to one of them for his hard work. They are Zorn. It is another race of people we own.”
Own? She hadn’t missed that term. Dread filled Ariel. “What will happen to me?”
The woman blinked. “They treat the few females they have well. They do not share their females so you will be awarded to just one of them. The language implant in your ear will allow you to communicate with the male you end up with. Our commander takes pleasure in sports so the winner will get you. He offers them rewards. You are the prize.”
She stared up at the woman. “Please…no.”
The woman nodded slowly. “It is better than what Yoz had in store for you. One sexual mating with one of my kind would kill you very painfully.” The woman turned. “Take her, Yoz.”
Ariel wanted to fight but she knew it would be useless. The man was six feet tall and damn strong, though he was thin. He gripped the chain attached to her wrist. It had to be some kind of alien touch-release shack
le because it unlocked from the wall when he gripped it. He walked away, not waiting to see if Ariel would follow or not. She got to her feet to walk quickly after him so she wasn’t dragged. The man had long legs. Their alien torsos weren’t that long but their legs were much longer than human legs.
Yoz led her through stone corridors. She gasped when she saw a large window of what appeared to be thick glass. She stared beyond the window into literal outer space. She saw stars in a black sea. Yoz yanked hard on her chain and it made her jerk forward. Pain shot up her arm.
“Beautiful,” he hissed. “But stare at it later. You will see enough of it to be sick of it quickly. I am sick of it.”
He led her to what looked like an elevator. It was more of a rounded tube. No walls were attached to the platform. Yoz gripped the back of her neck and held on. The platform suddenly dropped out from under them at an alarming rate.
Fear gripped Ariel. She saw the rough rock around them sliding past. She was pretty sure she would tear up her skin if she touched one of the rough rock walls as the floor dropped them lower into the bowels of the asteroid. The man grasping her didn’t release her neck until the platform slowed to a stop. She saw more stone corridors.
Yoz walked off the platform. “Come fast. I am being called.” The man touched his ear. “I am nearly there, Mon.”
Ariel swallowed. She didn’t see any kind of device on the man’s ear, just skin. Then again she’d touched her own ear many times since she’d woken up after she’d been taken. She’d been so stunned by her surroundings at first it had taken her hours to realize when she was spoken to, the aliens’ lips didn’t move correctly to form the words she heard in her ear. She only heard them in one ear and not the other. She’d been informed that they’d implanted something so she could understand their language. Yoz must also have some kind of implanted two-way communication device in his cone-shaped ear.
She saw a large door and Yoz stopped to put his hand on it. Anzons only had four fingers—they didn’t possess thumbs. The door groaned before it opened up and cooler air hit them both. Ariel shivered as the air blasted them. Yoz started walking.
“Hurry or the door will crush you,” he hissed.
She ran to catch up with him. She heard a loud groan and turned her head back. The door slammed down to the floor with a louder thud. She flinched. The halls were wider here and she heard something that sent fear up her spine again. It sounded like growling.
“It has already begun,” Yoz hissed. Excitement made him speak faster.
They turned a corner and the ceiling disappeared. The corridor ended in a large cavern. She saw more of Yoz’s kind standing there. They were staring below at the cavern floor. Yoz pushed forward shoving at another male alien. Ariel had little choice but to follow since he had her wrist leashed. She saw the bluish aliens staring at her as she walked past at least twenty of them. These aliens wore thick black clothing that looked like hard shells. She saw weapons strapped around their waists.
Yoz moved toward a very tall alien. The alien wore the black shell uniform with weapons attached around his waist. He turned his head and Ariel met a pair of cold yellow eyes. The alien eyed her back, his scary gaze wandering down her body. His gaze jerked to Yoz.
“Strip her down and chain her on the platform.”
Yoz hesitated. “Everything?”
“Is she wearing anything under her clothing?”
“There are small coverings over her breasts and her sex chamber.”
“Leave those on. I don’t want a riot.”
Yoz nodded and jerked Ariel out on a platform. It didn’t have rails. It was a long strip of flooring and then an open round platform like their version of an elevator. This one had two bars coming up from the floor. Yoz jerked her to the center of the platform and pointed to the center.
“Stand and hold.”
She was afraid. “Hold?”
“Do not move. If you fall you die.”
She tried to peer over the platform to below, but Yoz gripped her throat to jerk her head up as he pushed her to the center of the platform.
“Do as you are told.”
She held still and kept her head up. He released her throat, took the leash and yanked it upward so her arm was raised. He touched it to the pole and released it. The leash stayed attached to the bar. He turned and her eyes followed him. He held up his hand and another leash was thrown at him from one of the bluish aliens. Yoz caught it and he gripped her other wrist, wrapping the leash around it as he jerked her arm up, attaching the leash to the other pole. Her arms were above her, spread wide and high. She could stand fine but she knew she could only move a few inches at most.
Yoz stepped in front of her to stare down into her frightened eyes. “I feel sorry for you.”
She gasped when he gripped her shirt to tear at it roughly—he was strong. She was helpless to stop the alien as the material was torn from her body. He reached down to shove his fingers inside the waist of her skirt. His sharp fingernails shredded the band from the inside out. He yanked her skirt from her so Ariel was left standing in only her bikini briefs and bra. Yoz eyed her with pity. Shaking his head, he walked away from her.
Ariel turned her head to track the alien. Yoz walked back across the strip of flooring to his fellow aliens. The platform she stood on suddenly dropped quickly. She gasped at the falling sensation, fighting a scream. The platform slowed to a stop with a stomach-churning lurch. She had probably dropped fifty feet to the cavern floor in just a few seconds.
She couldn’t help but stare. She saw a group of about eighty males. They were definitely males. She got her first look at what must be Zorn. They looked huge. They had hair all right. She remembered that comment from the aliens. The males had long, thick hair that ran down their backs to their waists. They had hairy chests. She could see that because none of them wore shirts. They had dark brown skin, almost looking deeply tan, and thick, huge muscles.
She saw one in the front the rest. She stared at his face. He looked almost human. The difference was his nose was flatter and wider than a human’s. He had high cheekbones and thick lips. Those lips opened and she saw sharp teeth. Terror hit her. They almost looked like what would happen if someone had combined a human with an animal. Her eyes locked on those sharp teeth before she tore them away to stare at another man who moved closer.
The light caught his eyes—bright electric blue. It was a color she’d never seen before it was so blue—they almost glowed. Terrified, Ariel started to breathe faster. She let the sounds around her penetrate her terror. The men were growling like vicious animals. She shut her eyes. She fought the wrist restraints but couldn’t get free of the leashes holding her arms above her.
“The winner takes her,” a deep voice hissed from above. “I want fighting in fours. Clear the area and pick the fighters.”
Ariel forced her eyes to remain open. She didn’t want to look but she had to. The growling had stopped. She saw the men moving back into the shadows. She couldn’t see anything beyond the well-lit area in front of her. She took deep breaths to try to calm down. These animalistic men were going to fight over her.
They looked savage. Would the winner eat her? Was she dinner? She didn’t know what would be worse, the idea that they were fighting over her to eat or to have sex with her.
Four men walked out of the shadows. She stared at them. They didn’t look at her. They looked up.
“Begin,” the male voice demanded from above.
The men split into pairs to attack each other. They used fists. They kicked out. The sounds of flesh hitting flesh were loud. She heard growling and grunts as blows landed. Two men went down. The remaining two turned on each other. One of the men did a roundhouse move that threw the other man out of the lit area. He didn’t return. The last man standing walked to the side of the fighting area. He waited, crossing his arms over his chest.
Four more men came out. It began again. Ariel flinched at the brutality of it. These men were not messing ar
ound. Blood splattered on the floor. She heard one man’s arm break. It was that loud. The man roared as he went down holding his arm. Someone came from the shadows to drag him away. The man who’d won that match waited for the other two to finish. When one remained the two attacked each other.
Ariel shut her eyes. She didn’t want to watch anymore. The sounds of fighting continued. It was a brutal sound. Finally silence filled her ears. Her eyes opened from curiosity. Large, muscular men were waiting on the sideline. Some of them were smeared with blood. A few of the men eyed the others and backed away into the darkness to bow out of fighting. Ariel counted the remaining men who stood there waiting to fight.
“Begin,” the voice ordered from above.
All sixteen ended up in the lit area. They were fighting in groups together. Roars and growls erupted as they fought. The injured were dragged away into the shadows. It went down to three males. Two of them teamed together to attack the biggest one.
Ariel studied the lone man being attacked by the other two. He was a huge son of a bitch. He was bigger than his opponents by a few inches and he looked thicker in the arms and shoulders. He fought with amazing speed as he dodged fists and feet. He punched one man in the face. Ariel heard something crack. The man he hit went staggering back, collapsing on the floor. She saw blood on the fallen man’s face. He whimpered and rolled to his side to hold his face with both hands. He didn’t get up.
Her eyes flew to the last two men fighting. The larger one swung out a foot to hit the other man in the chest. The man gasped as he grabbed at his ribs. He dropped to his knees while blood dripped out of his mouth. He looked down before he crashed facedown on the floor. The lone man stood there growling. He threw his head back roaring out into the cavern. Ariel wished she could cover her ears so the terrifying noise could be muffled. The man’s roar cut off as he turned around to glare up at the bluish aliens.