Authors: Ava Walsh
She loved the feel of his hard body on top of her, as he cupped her breasts and claimed her mouth with a fervent longing.
Time froze for them as they were soon lost to the rhythm of consuming passion.
Natalie woke up to the dim, white light of the room. She blinked a few times as her eyes adjusted to the dark. Where was she? She tried getting up and, suddenly dizzy, she fell back on the pillow as a throbbing headache hit her. She was naked under the sheets. What the...? She sat up again and looked around. Her black dress lay on the floor. The room was hexagonal with a large rectangular window, and it didn’t look like she was in a hotel. She slowly sat up and tried getting out of bed again. Her head spun.
She looked around thinking. She had been out drinking at a bar and she had met a stranger. Oh, God... she remembered being in the car with him, and then it was all a blur. She had kissed him, hadn’t she? Or was it a dream? She couldn’t tell. Her head ached terribly. Water... she needed water. Coffee, too.
The door to the room slid open and Erdal stepped inside, carrying a tray. He had brought her food. He was wearing a dark gray suit and gray pants, and his long hair was tied at the nape of his neck. She looked up and gasped. Her heart thrummed against her chest like a frightened bird in a cage, and she quickly pulled the sheets to cover her chest. Her stomach knotted and color rose to her cheeks as he gazed at her with those intense eyes of his.
“Where am I?” she asked him, panic rising in her gut. “And why am I here?”
“You are aboard Star Ship Xoraii. And we are traveling to planet Estion,” he said.
“Oh, no! Y-your face! Wh-what are you? Let me go!” she stammered as her breathing became labored. She saw it now. He had taken her and this was no hotel room. She was far from earth in an alien spaceship.
He saw her trembling, and his chest constricted. What was wrong with him? She wasn’t the first woman he had abducted. There was something strange about her. She made him weak. And it unnerved him. No, that was unacceptable.
Get a grip, Erdal. She’s a weak human. And you detest humans, remember?
The dark voice inside his head snapped sarcastically.
She is the king’s bride. There’s nothing you can do about it.
“Calm down, woman!” he said firmly. Tears welled in her eyes. She hugged her knees, clutching the sheets as tears streamed down her face and sobs racked her body.
He gazed at her for a while and tried reading her mind telepathically. He couldn’t. Frowning, he strode toward the wall to her left and tapped on a panel. A shaft opened up in a wall, revealing a small silver container. He poured out water for her into a glass.
“Thank you,” she said, as she took the glass from him. He watched her as she drank. She could see he wasn’t going to kill her... at least not yet.
“I’m sorry I’m such a mess,” she said, taking a deep breath as she tried to compose herself. She wiped the tears off her face with the back of her hand. She gazed at him. He looked really handsome in that suit, she thought... and a wayward thought crossed her mind. “Um, what happened last night? I mean, did we...?” she asked, as she stared at the dress on the floor.
“I’m afraid we did, yes.”
“Oh, God...” she said, wide-eyed, and she stared at her hands as blood crept up to her cheeks and she blushed furiously.
A smile tugged at the corner of his lips as he gazed at her, amused. She was a strange woman. Why was she so conscious of her sexuality now, when only last night he had loved the passion with which she responded to his touch? And the way she had wanted him, and cried out his name in pure ecstasy. His eyes darkened at the thought.
“What do you want?” she said softly, as fresh tears welled in her eyes. She had been drunk, and he had abducted her and then had sex with her.
“I serve my King. I have orders to take you to him. You are to be his bride. You will share a harem with many others he already has,” he said, as he sat down on a chair near her bed.
“What is wrong with you? I... I was drunk!” she said loudly. “You kidnap me and then rape me, and now you are forcing me to marry this... this king you serve?!” Her voice became shrill as her breath came in gasps.
“I did not rape you, woman! No matter how much I loathe humans, I would not dishonor my race and force myself on one of your kind!” he said, in a voice so cold that it made her shudder.
“I hate you! You knew I was drunk. It’s just not fair!” she wailed, blinking rapidly.
“You
wanted
it,” he emphasized, and she saw his intense eyes glint. “You kept talking about this Matt who left you.”
“Oh, no. What did I say?” she asked, as color rose to her cheeks.
“Nothing important,” he said curtly.
“Please take me back. I want to go home,” she said, her voice choked, eyes wide.
“What you say is irrelevant. From now on you will do as I say.” He tried getting inside her head again as he gazed deep into her wide eyes. He could see that she was scared, but he needed to read her thoughts so he could gauge her.
He used his ability to read her thoughts, but all he got was a blank. This had never happened before. Somehow telepathy wasn’t working with this woman. There was something unusual about her, he could feel it.
“Please let me go. Don’t make me marry your King. Where I come from, women are not forced into marriage,” she said, blinking rapidly as she clutched the sheets close to her. He saw genuine fear in her eyes.
“Well, why don’t you try telling that to the king himself?” he said dryly. “I’m sure he’ll reconsider.”
Her eyes grew wide, and her pupils dilated as she blinked back tears. Her lips quivered as her breathing became labored, and his chest constricted again. He took a deep breath and closed his eyes momentarily, trying to control his racing heart.
“Listen to me, woman,” he said, in a calm and cold voice. “You really don’t have a choice. And you had better hold your tongue before the king, or he will kill you.”
“Kill me, then,” she said, as she gazed up at him, challenging him. He could kill her if he wanted to, but she would never become a slave bride to some alien king. At the moment death seemed like a better option to her.
He stared at her, surprised, as if he had not expected her to say such a thing.
“If I killed you, I would be risking my own life. You are to be the king’s bride, and there’s nothing I can do about it,” he said, in a sober voice, as he got up to leave. For a second there, she thought his eyes grew sad. “Get dressed. There are clothes in the wardrobe over there, and the bathroom is to your right,” he said, showing her the wardrobe.
“How can you be so selfish?” she whispered incredulously, as tears gleamed in her beautiful, brown eyes.
He stood there gazing at her, not responding to her remark.
“I guess men are alike everywhere,” she said at last, in a quietly resigned voice.
“Here, take these. They will help you to breathe better.” He handed her two blue pills, ignoring her comment.
“And this is a communicator and a key,” he said, in a formally detached tone, as he gave her a small, round disc. He showed her how it opened the hidden panels in the wall, but not the doors. “You will wear it on your arm and, whenever you need me, you press it and hold while you speak, and then release. And Natalie... Eat. You will need all your strength. I’ll be watching you,” he said, with finality in his tone, as he disappeared behind the door.
Natalie stared after him, bewildered. She quickly swallowed the pills with the help of the water, and the air in the room seemed to grow thicker.
She could not imagine in her wildest dreams that she could be far away from home aboard an alien spaceship. Alone and with an alien. And she had already made the horrible mistake of sleeping with him. Well, she didn’t deny he was an unusually handsome alien. But she was in serious trouble and she had no way to escape. What she dreaded most was the fact that she was being forced into marriage. It was unbelievable. Rage surged through her blood as tears streamed down her face. She was trapped. Would he help her if he wanted to? But why would he want to? She was just another slave for him to take to his king. He was right, in a way. He was just following orders.
***
Erdal lay back in the chair in his chambers, a glass of dark purple wine in his hand. He took a sip and savored the silky taste as it slid down his throat. It was one of the rare native wines they had on Estion.
This woman could be a problem for you, Erdal. She has a sharp tongue, and she speaks her mind. The king doesn’t like that,
the dark voice inside his head said.
She was unusual, he had seen that. Compared to the other women he had abducted, she was rebellious. She had questioned him like no other.
She thought he was selfish. Well, he was just doing his duty. He had seen the sadness in her beautiful eyes, and resignation, and he had felt a strange tug in his heart. The guilt was something he had never felt before.
It’s not your fault. She means nothing to you. And you don’t have to listen to her, she’s manipulating you. Your job is to take her to the king as planned
, the dark voice inside his head prodded.
But still he couldn’t get rid of the strange pull he felt in his heart. It all seemed wrong somehow. Everything was wrong about this mission and he had no clue what to do. A headache returned as he took another sip of his wine. He strode out toward the control room to check on the course. They had another month and seven days left till they reached Estion. He heaved a sigh and decided to limit his interaction with the human female. She talked too much.
Natalie stared out of the huge, rectangular window into the black void. Her initial fear had been replaced by rage and then, as the days went by and she saw less and less of her captor, despair had slowly taken over. She had been aboard the ship for over a month now, and she had been confined to her room for the whole time. In space, it was easy to lose track of time and the communicator on her arm was quite helpful. She would ask the computer anything she wanted and it would tell her whether it was day or night.
The first few days she would cry into her pillow and drift off to sleep after eating a lot. The food was the one thing she would binge on as it made her feel better, at least for a while. She would eat anything sweet, and later she would hear her mother’s haughty voice in her head telling her she was pathetic, or her sister telling her she was lazy and wasn’t making enough effort to control her eating habits.
All her life they had made her feel she was a loser in every way. She was not popular in high school. She had a stupid job that didn’t pay well. Her boyfriend had dumped her for a slimmer woman. And now she was being whisked away across the universe to an unknown alien world. Whenever she thought of what lay ahead, a chill would run down her spine. But as the days went by and she spent her time in isolation, she thought that nothing mattered anymore. Whether she lived or died, only time would tell. Matt had left her, and now she was far away from home and she would soon become a slave to a barbarian.
The door to her quarters silently slid open. Erdal stepped inside and saw her standing by the window. She wore a plain green shirt and black pants. Her hair flowed down her shoulders and back. She turned and saw him standing there.
“We land in two hours,” he said, in his cold voice.
He strode toward the wall and opened a panel, revealing the wardrobe there. He pulled out an ivory-white dress and placed it on the chaise longue near him. The dress had a low V-neck front and it flowed down from the waistline, cutting off just above the knees.
“Put this on. When we land, we will go see the King right away,” he said, as she stared at him. His cold, penetrating gaze made her shudder, and she blinked several times before looking away.
He saw the innocent soul behind those big eyes and the tremendous effort she was making to put up a brave front so he wouldn’t see how frightened she was, or how despondent. His jaw clenched as his hands tightened into a fist. He tried hard not to pull her into his arms and kiss her, and reassure her that everything would be alright. Oh, what was she doing to him?
Get a grip, Erdal. This is not the first woman you have abducted
, the dark voice mocked.
You are pathetic!
“Why me?” she whispered, as she stared down at her hands, which she was wringing together.
“What?” he asked, frowning.
“Why did you take me? You could have taken any other woman there. Prettier ones. I just want to know why me?” She heaved a sigh as she said the words.
“I don’t know. I just...” he began. For a split second his eyes softened, and then the cold walls were up again. “Never mind,” he said, as he gazed at her.
He didn’t know what to say. He couldn’t tell her she resembled his dead wife. Or that he had run out of time on her planet and she had just happened to be there.
“Get dressed. We don’t have much time,” he said, as he strode out of the room.
Natalie was perplexed. What was his problem? Why couldn’t he answer a simple question?
***
Two hours later they landed on Estion. Natalie stood in front of the mirror in the white dress, with white pumps on her small feet. She looked ethereal in the alien attire, and her eyes were exceptionally bright. Her stomach was in knots and she was having difficulty breathing. Erdal came for her and gave her the blue breathing pills. She swallowed them and followed him outside. He wore a dark, leather-like shirt, dark pants, a dark blue cloak around his shoulders and his katana strung across his back.
The balmy air hit her face as she followed him down the walkway and set foot on the terrain of Estion. The planet’s gravity was different from that of Earth’s and her body felt slightly lighter. She looked around, blinking as her eyes adjusted to the bright, golden sunlight. The planet was similar to earth; the sky was blue and the grass green. The sunlight seemed different, though, as if it were a different golden yellow.
An oblong, capsule-shaped car waited for them. Erdal helped her get in and the car took them to the King’s palace. Natalie’s head spun and she gripped her seat as the car moved forward at full throttle.
Erdal was quiet all the way as he effortlessly drove the car. The roads were not on the ground. They were almost fifty feet off the ground and the road seemed to be a long, curvy bridge.
He saw her fidgeting with her hands as she looked outside, observing the new environment. She would occasionally sigh and take a deep breath, and he wondered what she was thinking. He felt helpless not knowing what was going on in her mind. It was exasperating. He had to remind himself that she was the king’s bride. He gave her a sidelong glance and saw the way the fabric of her dress clung to her full breasts. She simply looked beautiful, he thought. Once again, his chest constricted as he felt the now familiar tug in his heart. Taking a deep breath, he quickly shifted his focus on the road.
***
She hurried after him, barely keeping up, as he held the chains of the shackles that bound her delicate wrists. He kept wondering why she hadn’t protested when he put those shackles on her trembling hands before they entered the great palace halls.
The palace was gigantic. Huge, tall, dark columns lined both sides of the walls. The floor was burnished marble with intricate gold, white and black geometrical patterns which joined together in harmony. Tall, narrow, arched windows lined both sides of the hallway, letting the sunlight light up the way. The ceiling had a skylight that ran all the way from one end to the other.
They reached two grand doors and entered a large hall. The throne room was similar to the grand hallway outside.
King Zutaar sat on the grand marble and gold throne. Erdal stood before him and bowed, before leading Natalie forward.
“On your knees, woman,” Erdal ordered, in a cold, hard voice.
Natalie was on her knees. A few steps led up to the king’s throne. She looked up and gasped as the king’s cold, silver-gray eyes seared into hers. Shuddering, she started trembling. He was a huge, hulking man who eyed her, head tilted. He wore dark clothes and a strange, silver armor on his arms. His pale-gray skin and silver-white hair were unfamiliar. But what unnerved her most was the look in his eyes. They held the dark gleam of madness... She blinked rapidly and looked down at her hands as her breathing became labored. He looked her up and down. She felt him undressing her with his steely, lewd eyes and blood rose to her cheeks. Tears threatened the back of her eyes, and she dared not look up again.
“Hmm... not bad, Erdal. She’s a fine piece of work. As always, you have done a good job,” the king drawled in a deep, throaty voice. “I’m impressed.”
“Thank you, my lord,” Erdal said quietly. Her small, frail frame trembled as she knelt before the king. His chest constricted again, and he clenched his jaw. His hands turned into fists, knuckles turning white. What was wrong with him?
Don’t let her affect you like this, Erdal. You are losing it
, the dark voice snarled.
“Erdal, I will put her in your care. Tell the women to start the preparations and get her ready,” Zutaar ordered.
“Yes, my lord.” Erdal bowed and pulled Natalie up to her feet. He led her away, but she could still feel the king’s eyes on her receding back.
“Er-Erdal? Where are you taking me?” she asked, stammering, once they were outside. She was still shaking.
“To the king’s harem,” he said, as he dragged her behind him. He stopped short and took off the shackles. The metal had already begun to cut through her wrists. “The women there will help you get ready for the wedding.”
“Erdal, I’m scared. Please do something. I... I can’t marry him,” she implored, as tears streamed down her face.
He led her down a stone path and crossed a garden, until they eventually reached a pair of heavily-carved wooden doors. He turned toward her and pulled her close to him, gazing deep into her eyes.
“Learn to please the king if you want to survive, woman. I have been assigned to take care of you. Behind this door is the harem. The women in there are the king’s wives. They will help you get ready. The wedding will be in a few days,” he explained.
“Okay,” she said, in a resigned voice, trying to compose herself as she took a deep breath.
“I have to go now,” he said, as he opened the door and led her inside. “Make sure your translator is working,” he said, and his fingers brushed her left ear as he checked the small, round device was secure.
The hallway was dimly lit and a fountain bubbled in the center. The sunlight streamed in through the skylight that lit up the foaming water. A woman shrouded in a dark gown came toward them.
“Zora, this is Natalie. The king wants her ready in three to four days. Get her settled. Teach her your ways. I’ll check in on you tomorrow,” he said to her, as she took Natalie’s hands. Her bony hands were cold as ice. She had a pale, gaunt face and she looked old. There was a look in her amber eyes that said she wasn’t too happy.
Erdal gazed at Natalie for a while and, for a second, she saw the sadness in his emerald gaze. She couldn’t tell for sure, though, as he was half hidden in the shadows, and her eyes were blurry with tears. With one last look at her, he turned and strode outside as the heavy doors closed behind him.
Natalie followed Zora down the hall toward the end of a large staircase. Zora led her upstairs and they walked down another hallway and reached the end where a pair of doors stood on their left. Zora took the badge which she wore on her arm and held it against the panel on the door. It unlocked with a ping. She stepped inside and Natalie followed.
“This will be your chamber from now on,” she said, as Natalie saw the small room with white walls.
The room was sparsely decorated, with only a single bed by the wall, a small dresser with a mirror and a door to the bathroom in the corner. She walked toward the window, which looked over the palace gardens.
“You will find the clothes and accessories in the wardrobe over there,” Zora said, pointing to the wall on her right.
“How many women live here?” Natalie asked.
“I have lost count. The women here are the ones who have survived over the years,” Zora said, as she left the room.
***
Over the course of next few days, Natalie found out more about the King’s women in the harem. They were all from different worlds, abducted and brought here for the king. They were all different. Some were blue-skinned, while the others had pale, green skin. Most of them were humanoid with only a few distinctive features. The only thing that seemed common in all of them was the resignation and despair in their eyes. “We have accepted our fate,” Zora told her one day. Natalie came to know that she was the oldest bride. She was also firmly told that the king had a bad temper and the only way to please him would be to quietly submit without resistance.