A soft beeping noise in my room wakes me and I open my eyes, but don’t move. For a moment, I’m not sure where I am, but then I remember.
Father is gone. Dead. Soon Earth will be, too. The last few humans will die and the world will burn. It’s already burning.
When the last scavengers have all they need from the planet, when they’ve taken all the resources they can harvest, the Earth will be destroyed, blasted apart.
I wonder which planet will be responsible for that.
Slowly, I sit up in my bed and look around. The lights are on and I wonder if it’s all automatic. My room is small, but cozy. My bed is on one side and there’s a small space to stand between the side of the bed and the wall. At the head of the bed, there’s a full-length mirror and a nightstand. On the opposite wall is a painting next to built-in shelves. At the bottom of the shelves are several drawers.
Of course, there’s also my bathroom, which I realize I need to use.
Running water has never felt so good, and I spend much too long in the shower. I want to relive the pressure that’s been building between my legs, but I heed Hal’s warning and get out on my own, brush my teeth, and come back into my room.
When I emerge, Hal is there.
“Dammit,” I say. “Are you ever going to see me when I’m not naked?” I reach for the blue gown I wore yesterday and he’s patient as I dress myself.
“Come on,” he says. “Time for breakfast: then your lessons.”
I scarf down the food just as quickly as I did the day before. When I’m finished, I ask him if we’re already in space and he just laughs.
“Yes. We left right after Elf and Tank brought you on board.”
I never even felt the ship lift off. Strange. I wonder what kind of technology this is that the ship floats so smoothly.
After we’re done eating, Hal brings me to a room I haven’t seen yet. It’s very sterile-looking and there’s a long, mid-height table standing in the center of it.
“What kind of lessons are we talking about, Hal?” Suddenly, I’m feeling a little suspicious. I had pictured having lessons on etiquette or maybe even the language. Staring at this table, though, I’m wondering if the lessons are going to be a bit more hands-on than all of that.
A woman turns around from where she had been standing at the other side of the room, messing with some bottles and tools that I can’t quite see.
“Hal! Darling!” She kisses him on each cheek and I’m caught off guard, once again, by how affectionate everyone is here. The woman turns to me, and I take her in. She reminds me a bit of Jenika. She’s tall with dark hair and tan skin. Her eyes are big and wide. I feel like a tiny little doll compared to her.
“I’m Riley,” I say, and she squeals and claps her hands.
“Yes! Hal told me you were coming! Go on then, Hal. I’ll take good care of her.”
“Wait!” I turn back to him. “What’s going on?”
“This is Ruby,” he says. “Don’t worry. She’ll take good care of you.”
“I thought you said we were having lessons today.”
“This is lesson number one,” he says, quite seriously, and then he leaves. For a moment, I just stare at the door, not quite believing what’s happening. That’s it? He’s leaving? After all the buildup about “lessons,” I thought Hal was going to teach me something useful.
Apparently not.
I turn back to Ruby. She comes closer to me and, to my surprise, pulls my dress off. With a squeak of surprise, I move to cover myself, but she slaps my hands away.
“No, no. No modesty here. When you arrive on Taneyemm, there won’t be room for that.” Her voice is kind, but her eyes hold a warning.
“Ruby,” I say carefully, dropping my hands to my side. “What exactly is going to happen to me on Taneyemm?”
Seriously, if I’m going to be a sex slave, I wish someone would just tell me. So far, I know very little, but I’m starting to get used to their way of hiding information. It seems like I am told only as much as I need to know and nothing more. Maybe things will be different once I’ve been here awhile and everyone sees I don’t intend to make trouble, but I can’t be sure. I just know that if I want to stay, I need to be on my best behavior at all times.
Apparently, this means being naked a lot.
“Get on the table,” Ruby says, ignoring my question, and I obey. “First things first,” she walks around me, looking at my body. “When you arrive on the planet, you’ll be vetted by one of the doctors. He’ll make sure you’re in good health and there’s nothing wrong with you. If there’s a problem, you won’t be allowed to stay on the planet.”
I’m on my back, lying flat on the table. My hands are at my sides. If I close my eyes, I can pretend I’m just resting in my own bed, but the lights are so bright that I can’t fool my imagination for long.
“What happens if someone is sick?”
“They’re sent to a healing planet.”
“What’s that?”
“A story for another day. Now lie still.” I work hard not to move, but panic is raging inside of me. Somehow, I need to learn to keep my panic attacks at bay. There are going to be a lot of weird things happening to me in the future and I need to be ready for anything. Panicking won’t solve anything, so it’s important to stay calm.
My eyes follow my new friend as she moves around in the room. Ruby grabs a small metal wand from a wall. I wonder what the hell she’s about to do, but Ruby just smiles.
“This won’t hurt,” she says, and she starts moving it up and down my leg. The metal is cool against my skin at first, but gradually warms. I hear a soft buzzing sound, but there’s no pain. “I’m removing your hair,” she says, and I blush. I know I blush. I can feel myself turn red. I know women are supposed to be dainty and clean, but I’ve been living in a hut.
Hairy is my new normal.
Again: not anymore. Things are changing for me, starting with my physical appearance. What’s going to come next? My knowledge or my attitude? There’s no doubt in my mind I’ll be trained to be a good little Taneyemm human while I’m on the ship. This is going to mean a lot of difficult days and probably a lot of punishments because I’m stubborn and change doesn’t come easy for me.
“When you arrive, after you see the doctor, you’ll either be assigned a job or you’ll go to auction.”
“Auction?”
“Yes. Human girls are quite popular. Maybe you’ll be bought to be someone’s house servant or toy.”
I try to focus on what she said first and not last. The idea of being someone’s toy doesn’t exactly appeal to me.
“But I might get a job? I might not have to be someone’s servant?”
“Darling, you’re gorgeous. I can guarantee you’re going to be someone’s toy. Some girls do get jobs, but I can tell you right now, that won’t be you.”
I must start crying because Ruby stops what she’s doing to my legs and lifts me up so I’m sitting. Then she wraps her arms around me and holds me. She’s still standing next to the table, and she’s dressed and I’m not, so it’s a little awkward. Still, it’s the first physical affection I’ve had in a long time. I’ll take what I can get.
“It’s going to be okay,” she promises. “Girls are only auctioned to the royal house and noblemen. They won’t hurt you.”
“But what if they do?”
“They won’t.”
I might not be a dragon, but I can tell she’s lying. Still, I’ll hold onto her words for a little while. All too soon, reality will become apparent, and then I’ll have to cope with what I’ve become.
A possession.
When Ruby is done getting rid of my hair, she helps me off the table and I stand in front of the full-length mirror that hangs on one of the walls.
“What do you think?” She asks, and I just stare at myself. I don’t know what she did, but it didn’t hurt at all, and my body, from my neck down, is hairless. I run my hands over my breasts and down between my legs. Everything is so soft and smooth.
Ruby notices what I’m staring at and smiles.
“Mine is bare, too,” she pulls her pants down to her knees and I turn to look at her own bare pussy. My gaze meets hers and I realize that Ruby’s eyes look a little yellow. I wonder how much truth there was to Hal’s stories about the dragons. I lick my lips and look back at her pussy, then at mine.
“It feels soft,” I say.
“Oh yes,” she reaches out and touches me. “Very soft.” She slides a finger through my lips and I try not to quiver, but it happens so fast that I can’t stop. Ruby lifts me and lies me back down on the table. She’s not a giant, but she picks me up like I weigh nothing.
“What are you doing?” I ask, but then I’m quiet because she’s touching my pussy and it feels amazing.
No one has ever touched me there before.
No one but me.
I hold very still. She can’t stop now. She just can’t. I’ll die if she stops and what she’s doing feels so very, very good. Ruby’s fingers slip through my folds and center on my soft nub. She moves two fingers in a circular motion, round and round, until my breath catches and I start moaning.
Oh, it’s never felt like this before.
Is this why everyone loves sex? Why it’s so amazing? Why wars are fought over it? Ruby has only been touching me for a few seconds, but already, I’m going a bit crazy with lust.
“I can smell your arousal,” she says, but doesn’t stop touching me. “You like this, don’t you?”
“Yes, Ruby,” I murmur. “This feels so nice.”
She moves her fingers faster and faster until my eyes closed and the only thing I’m aware of is the pleasure building in my body. I’m about to dive into a wave of perfection when her fingers leave my body, only to be replaced with her tongue.
Her tongue is on me.
That’s all it takes.
I explode on Ruby’s table, coming all over her face. She keeps licking me as I cry out loudly, wiggling beneath her touch on the table. As my body eases back down from its high, I become aware of my surroundings once again, and I push up on my elbows to look at her.
She’s standing at the foot of the table smiling, obviously pleased with herself.
“What do you think, doll face?” She asks. “Better than the Earthlings?”
“I, I don’t know.” I say. Her smile falters for just a second, until I add, “That was my first time doing anything like that.”
Her eyes widen and she goes, “What?”
“My…my first time with another person,” I say. “I’ve never…” I wave my arm around. “That was the first.”
Ruby strides quickly over to my face and places her hands on my cheeks.
“Riley,” she whispers. “Are you a virgin?”
I gulp, realizing this is the moment of truth. I could make something up, but it seems stupid at this point. She’s already seen all I have. Isn’t it better to be honest than make a fool of myself? Hal’s words from yesterday return to me and I remember what he said about the Taneyemms and honesty: they value it above everything else.
“Yes,” I say. “I’m a virgin.”
“Holy dragons,” she murmurs. “This changes everything.”