1. Lily

PRESENT DAY

The alarms blared.

The alarms never blared at Ikmal prison. And if they were screaming now, it was because something big was happening.

Very big.

I moved toward the front window of the Prize Pool and looked out at the prison and fighting pit below. The other girls joined me at my shoulders and we watched in horror as the inmates went wild.

The riots had ruined what was an otherwise normal day — that is, if you considered shepherding two dozen females from across the galaxy into sexy negligees for the successful alien fighting champions to choose from normal — which to me, as the madam of the Prize Pool, it was.

It was always my worst fear that something like this would happen.

A full-blown prison riot.

With their blood raging in their ears and their libidos pumping full blast, even the tough guards at Ikmal couldn't hope to control all the prisoners. And where would they head?

Right here. To the Prize Pool.

Many wouldn't have tasted a female in months — maybe even years if their luck hadn't worked out in the fighting pits — and now they would see their opportunity to seize what they so desperately wanted. Already, as the cheering prisoners began to work up a sweat fighting each other, I noticed half a dozen turning toward us.

And my blood ran cold.

With no weapons, no way to defend ourselves, what chance did we have against an army of marauding alien warriors?

"Get back," I said to the Prizes. "The less they see of us, the less they'll want us."

It was a vain hope but the only real option we had.

I shepherded the females into the back rooms and snapped the locks on the doors into place. They had never seemed so flimsy before. Definitely not enough to keep the monsters at bay for long.

They would tear through these doors like tissue paper.

"What are we going to do?" a girl called Ghisak screamed, clutching her hands over her bare arms. "They're going to get in here and they're going to—"

"They're not going to do anything," I snapped at her.

If she panicked, it could spread like a contagion, infecting all the other females. We needed to remain calm… at least as long as we could manage.

"Everybody get changed into your sleepwear," I said.

Giving them something to do would help them remain calm and instill a feeling of control over the situation. (At least, that was my hope.)

Ghisak hesitated but finally, she moved to her locker and began to change, along with the other girls.

I did likewise as I quickly considered our options. If even one of those beasts got in here, the Prizes would panic. Like a fox in a hen house.

In all honesty, it wasn't all that different from when a Champion Claimed us. The only difference was they would take us to their cages and then use us.

Now, somehow, it felt different, and we all felt it.

The change might not have seemed much in the eyes of the prisoners or the Supervisor but it meant everything to us. When a champion Claimed us, it was because we felt we had some control over the situation and we allowed them to Claim us. It might have been a mirage but it was what kept many of the Prizes going.

As the madam, I was no longer available to the alien prisoners but I ushered in the Champions and presented them to my wares — that was what I referred to the females as — my "wares." Thinking of them as something other than the beautiful, breathing females they were was the only way I could stay sane.

How else could you handle a situation like this?

Bang!

Something smashed against the front door of the outer room. It was a thicker, more heavily-constructed door than the flimsy ones we were currently hiding behind.

Bang!

The females screamed and clutched their arms about their bodies, murmuring prayers from all four corners of the galaxy.

Bang!

Now some of the females were openly crying, tears running down their cheeks and spoiling their makeup. Others ran their hands through their hair and snake-like tendrils and shook their heads in bewilderment. I could hear them from here:

"This can't be happening. This can't be happening. This can't be happening."

Bang!

The door was strong but it wouldn't hold forever.

My thoughts leaped to Ohara, for him to come and save me, but it was only a vain hope, a flash at the front of a panicked mind. I shook my head of him — now was not the time for heartache — and focused on the problem at hand.

There was always a solution if you could just open your mind up enough to focus on it.

I moved to a small wooden chair, picked it up, and smashed it on the floor. It took two solid blows before it broke into pieces. I handed the makeshift cudgels out to the females and kept one for myself. The Prizes got the hint and began making their own weapons.

Some disappeared into our shared bedroom and came back with sharp blades and sinister-looking implements shaped like long needles. The objects were against house rules but I would overlook them… for now. It was too easy for a catfight to turn into something more serious when weapons were involved.

The weapons we'd made likely weren't going to hold the monsters back for long, if at all. But already I could see the strength stealing over the females, sensing they wouldn't go down without a fight, that they had at least a little control over the situation.

Bang!

The door was holding up. It'd been built for this very purpose, and I supposed it would last a while yet…

At least, I hoped it would.

With an army of marauding cocks trying to get in here, it wouldn't take long for the beasts to pummel us into oblivion, handing us from one creature to another…

And that was if we were lucky.

Some Prizes might get torn apart between two rival prisoners, each one refusing to submit to the other. The monsters could be harsh at the best of times… so what would they be like when they were completely unleashed?

My body shivered and I tried not to think about it.

Instead, my mind projected back to another time, far from the present… and yet set in the same place.

It was here, at Ikmal prison, that I had found love, where I had given my soul to another. And I wasn't surprised to find I wasn't the only one fading into the past at that moment. It must have been a deep defense mechanism, for the upcoming hell we were all expecting.

Strange, I thought, that I would find myself thinking about him, Ohara, here and now of all places. But when hell was about to be unleashed upon you, I suppose it made sense that your mind would want to transport you somewhere you'd felt safer.

In the arms of another.

It'd happened on what began as the worst day of my life…