2. Lily
FIVE YEARS EARLIER
It began as all the best love stories do… with an alien abduction and forced servitude as a Prize in one of the most feared prisons in the entire galaxy.
I never learned why I was chosen to be a Prize. I was no taller or shorter than any of the other girls, no smarter or dumber, and had no valuable skills, or secret government secrets. I was completely normal, seemingly chosen at random from billions of other women on planet Earth.
Surely if you could choose someone to kidnap and use as a Prize in a giant raffle, you'd go for a super-hot supermodel or famous actress? Instead, they'd opted for a thirty-six-year-old British woman from the East Midlands with a pale complexion and dumpy figure.
Maybe they were looking for the "salt of the Earth" type? No one ever gave me a reason and I had given up asking.
One second, I was walking on my way to work — as the manager of a small hotel on the outskirts of town — when there was a sudden flash of light. The next thing I knew, I was being woken up, my body jumping, lurching forward as if I was in the middle of taking my next step on the pavement.
But instead of avoiding the cracks, I found myself on my back. The sudden shock of the inertia made my heart race a mile a minute.
Strange beings stood over me, armed with sharp needle-like objects. My first thought was I had blacked out and now found myself in a mental hospital. Sure, things were tough at work but surely not this bad.
I screamed for I don't know how long but eventually, I calmed down. (There's only so much screaming you can do before your voice begins to wear out and the only thing you can do is listen.)
They explained what'd happened to me; that I'd been abducted, that I was going to work as a Prize in a Prize Pool for the Champions to Claim after they'd won their fights.
None of that made any sense to me, and it was only after I saw it with my own eyes that I realized the hell I'd come to.
I put on the sheer dress all the alien females were forced to wear and then made to join the long lines of "Prizes" as the Champions came in and ogled us, grabbed great handfuls of us, and generally made us feel like what we were:
Meat.
The beasts snorted and growled and I backed into a corner to get away from them. They were large, heaping masses of muscles and horns and piercings and tattoos and scales and slimy skin.
I thought I was in a nightmare.
I pinched the material between my fingers that hung draped over me, barely concealing anything, and left me feeling completely exposed.
The other females — and I used the word "females" because only a handful of them were human — stood smiling provocatively, hands on their hips. Some had tails with a rattle on the end that they shook seductively.
The beasts that came into the room were big and smothered with welts, sores, blood, sweat, and sand from the fighting pit. These were the champions and they got to choose their Prize — a female member from the lineup. They took the female they liked best and dragged her through the hallways toward their cells.
I couldn't believe what I was seeing.
Some of the Prizes even looked disappointed that they hadn't been chosen!
Later, one of the other girls told me that they'd had a dry spell and that if a Champion didn't choose her soon… well, she would be figuratively taken behind the shed and shot. (I only later discovered that it wasn't so dramatic as that. We were simply removed from the lineup and never returned.)
With the way they treated us, dumping us in this place, I suspected death was the most likely outcome. And yet, I still couldn't bring myself to pose for these monsters and could never see myself as being grateful for their attention!
I needed to be chosen at some point but I figured it would be better for me to decide when that choosing happened.
I began to study the alien species at the prison and which ones most often won. I learned what they were like in the sack by talking with the other females. They were very open about their experiences.
Were they kind? I asked. Even if the experience wasn't pleasurable, was it at least acceptable? And what made them choose the "winning" Prize in the first place?
I studied all of this so I wouldn't be chosen by those I deemed the "bad" ones.
Then one day, a new Champion was crowned. He was a jjizzik (that is the closest the English language was capable of spelling or pronouncing it and sounded to me like a fly buzzing in your ear). And he was definitely not a creature to be Claimed by.
Some of the females still sported the scars from their time with him and I was determined not to become his next victim.
I dressed in purple — the color I discovered that made jjizziks feel physically sick — and stared out the window while he looked upon us. A disinterested female was said to be considered an insult in his culture and it was something I was desperate to exploit.
He was hellishly strong but his physique was bulbous with muscle rather than toned like many of the other inmates. His face reminded me of a pig, with a hideously ugly snout and warthog-like tusks out the corners of his mouth. When he came close, I could smell the disgusting putrid sewage he liked to sup on.
His mouth was constantly moving, like a cow chewing cud, and he breathed over me with his large nostrils. "Mm. Now, what do we have here?"
I glanced toward him and was shocked to see he was looking at me.
But no, I thought. I must be mistaken. I was doing everything his species hated. He couldn't possibly be looking at me.
The jjizzik tapped at a computer system that served as the robot madam. It fuzzed and blurred. He slapped it hard and the image became clear. The robot madam spouted my information:
"Name: Lily. Species: Human. Details: New and untested. Conclusion: I would suggest someone with more experience—"
"Untested?" the jjizzak spat. "Hm. Perhaps someone ought to put her through her paces…"
The blood fell from my face and I felt sick to my stomach, but I remained confident in my system. It hadn't failed me yet and I knew it wouldn't fail me now.
Please don't fail me now!
The jjizzak scratched a hairy wart on his chin. "Mm. I suppose you're right. Best I treat myself to a tasty morsel than be disappointed."
He turned on his hoof to march away.
I breathed a sigh of relief, and the moment I did, the jjizzak spun back around in my direction. He snorted, oinking like an overstuffed pig, and got even closer to me, his stink making me retch.
"Relieved, are you?" he said. "I've never before seen such a disgusting creature."
You're one to talk!I thought, turning my head to one side to gasp a fresh breath of air. I kept schtum. The last thing I needed was to encourage the beast.
But it turned out, I already had.
"I'll take her," the jjizzak said, and he clamped a trotter around my arm and yanked me off the podium.
"Sir," the robot madam said, "I heartily recommend another Prize—"
The jjizzak slapped the terminal so hard it came loose from its case and struck the wall opposite. It fell to the floor in a million pieces.
I knew how it felt.
"You dare question my decision?" the jjizzak snorted at the broken machine.
"No, zzirrr…" the terminal buzzed, barely still operational. "Of courzzze not—"
The Champion jumped on the terminal's remains and crushed it beneath his hooves. Then he turned on the other Prizes. "Perhaps I should educate every last one of you!" He rolled his black piggy eyes over them and they shied away. "And I will. I will lay with every last one of you and leave my mark on your soft flesh. Then, when any other false Champion Claims you, he will see the mighty Druin has already Claimed you and that you belong to me!"
He threw back his head and laughed, his flab rolling in unison.
"But first," he said, pulling me closer. "I must educate this disgusting morsel. And trust me, it will not be a lesson you will soon forget!"
He marched out of the room and dragged me behind him. I peered back at the other Prizes, looking for help, a miracle, anything!
No one came to my aid. But who was I to blame them? Would I have done any different in their shoes? Not with the risk this slobbering beast might claim me instead.
I gripped his arm and fought against his relentless forward march, attempting to dig my heels into the floor, but it was no use. The floor shifted into the metal grating that made up the majority of the prison's flooring. I would only succeed in tearing my feet if I attempted my earlier tactic.
Instead, I grasped at the walls, the corners, the door frames of other cells where equally large aliens sat resting with cellmates. Their eyes snapped up at me. They must have seen the desperation in my eyes but none paid any attention.
The only attention I did receive was from horny inmates who rolled their eyes hungrily over my flesh, visible through the sheer fabric of my dress.
The jjizzak turned one corner after another. I peered back the way I had come, determined to escape back to the Prize Pool once I had gotten myself free from this… this… thing!
Druin threw open his cell door, dragged me inside, and tossed me onto his unmade, soiled bed. He shut the door behind himself and began removing his clothes.
This can't be happening! I wailed inwardly. This can't be happening!
He removed his gold-buckled belt and was about to drop it on the bedside table when he thought better of it and folded it in half. He held it in one trotter.
Then he shook his body, his rolls of fat rippling like half-set jelly, making his pants slide down his short but powerful legs. He stepped out of them, and his cock, already at full mast, hardly capable of peeking out from his lowest-hanging shelf of flab, poked out.
At least his cock won't do much damage, I thought. Then I felt shocked that I had already accepted that this was going to happen.
My eyes settled on the belt he held in his hand. "Please," I said, sliding backward on the bed. "I shouldn't be here. I was abducted. They took me and I… I never did anything wrong."
"Struggle if you want, little one," the jjizzak said, strutting toward me. "It only makes the pain all the sweeter."
He pulled his arm back, took a step forward, and swung.