Page 30 of Bought and Shared

A urora

The next morning, I find out that Cadence has left the base with her Voltan masters. I’m devastated. I had no idea she would be leaving so soon and as I read her quickly handwritten note, neither did she. I don’t even know where she’s going!

Unfortunately, Cadence doesn’t know when she’ll be able to contact me next. Like me, she has no cell phone. All communication goes through her masters, and they have been vague about where she is going. There’s nothing she can tell me.

Frustrated and sad because I’ve lost my only friend, I struggle with what to do with my day.

Deciding I will head down to breakfast and have coffee and a bagel alone, I notice there’s a group of draftees sitting together in the corner of the room.

Though I’ve never talked to these women before, I figure I need to step out of my comfort zone and introduce myself.

Walking my tray over to their table, I say, “May I sit with you?”

My heart beats fast as I await their answer and I can feel my face flush.

“Sure,” A bubbly blonde smiles as she shuffles down the bench to make room for me beside her.

Taking a seat, I introduce myself. “I’m Aurora.”

The five women go down the line and do the same. The bubbly blonde’s name is Simone.

“We meet for breakfast each morning,” Simone shares with me, as she neatly butters her toast. “Well, that’s if our masters don’t keep us in bed until lunch.”

The women giggle and I laugh alongside them. Bella, a blue-eyed brunette with sharp features, asks, “How’s your assignment going, Aurora?”

I’m not sure how to answer that. I’m not comfortable talking about anything intimate, and it seems like everything I’ve done since coming to Fort Kent falls under that category.

Taking a tentative sip of my coffee, I set it down and consider my words. “While I wouldn’t have signed up for this type of service willingly, I’m excited for the new beginning it’s providing me.”

It’s an elusive answer, but it’s the truth.

“Same,” Della, a curvaceous woman with soulful brown eyes, agrees.

“I grew up in the foster system, so I had nowhere to go after I aged out. Now the Voltan are giving me a place to stay and a downpayment for a home if I willingly sign on to an extra year of service. It’s the best deal I’ve ever been offered. ”

“Where are you from, Aurora?” Simone inquires then.

“I’m from District Six,” I tell them, glancing down nervously as I speak.

She pats my back with a kindness I don’t expect. “This must be very hard for you then.”

Everyone knows about District Six. We’re freaks to the rest of the world.

Maybe even more so than the Voltan. But the way Simone and the other women comfort me now, I don’t feel like a total outcast. I feel like I’m being embraced, like I belong.

We draftees share a camaraderie no one else could possibly understand.

“It’s definitely been a challenge,” I admit, “but my Master Oren has promised to send me back to school if I wish, which is a more generous gift than I could have ever asked for.”

The women nod in approval. Della smiles and it lights up her entire face. “That’s great! Any idea of what you want to go back for?”

Even though I’m shy about my new calling, I tell them about it. As I get deeper into my explanation, their encouragement stokes the fire of ambition building inside me.

Kate, the woman to my right whose bouncy chestnut hair looks like she could model for a shampoo commercial, says, “I wish I knew what to do with my future. I’ve pretty much been stuck at dead-end temp jobs for the last five years.”

Simone tops off her friend’s coffee with the decanter they must have snagged from behind the counter when in line earlier.

“You’ll figure it out, Kate. Maybe you can head down to the draftee services office later today and see what career paths are available to you.

The Voltan have made it infinitely easier to get your degree these days.

They’ve instituted a whole host of internships and certificate programs that are either free or offered at low cost to get people trained up fast in their career of choice. ”

I had no idea this service even existed. I’m so glad I took a chance and asked to sit with these wonderful women today. It might very well change my life! After breakfast, I’m going to head down to that office. The thought of a career, and potential future travel, practically makes me giddy.

When I stand to clear my tray, Simone asks, “Are you going to join us tomorrow for our little breakfast club?”

I don’t even have to think before I answer her. “Yes, thank you, as long as my Voltan masters don’t keep me in bed too long!” We all grin at each other in complete understanding.

My new friends are tittering as I walk away. I’m on a high as I go to find the right office. As soon as I get there, I sift through the pamphlets of potential career opportunities. Grabbing a few to take back to my suite, I leave with my mind spinning with all the possibilities.

Just as I’m turning the corner, a hand shoots out and covers my mouth. I’m dragged into some dark-looking shed and don’t even have time to scream. Before I realize what’s going on, I’m jostled against a wall by strong hands. My eyes try to adjust to the dim light, and I begin to sweat profusely.

“Bet you think you’re special, don’t you bitch!” The draftee from yesterday, the one named Collins, shouts into my face, spittle speckling my cheeks.

My body is in a state of shock. It takes me a second to process what he’s referring to. The memory of my humiliation from his insult about “blowing” him slams into me all over again. This is the disgusting one Lieutenant Crom punished.

“Please don’t hurt me,” I spit out in terror.

I hate that I’m not braver, that unlike so many of the other women, I don’t know how to defend myself.

It’s just another bitter reminder of my cloistered upbringing and how dependent on men we females were for not just the roof over our heads and the food on our table, but for our overall safety and wellbeing.

They wanted us helpless without them, a practice that is proving frighteningly dangerous to me now.

“You should have thought of that before you went whining to your freakshow boyfriend!” Collins angrily hisses.

When I hear another voice pipe up beside him, I realize it’s not just one man here to terrorize me; there are two. The second soldier is far larger and more intimidating than the first, who is pretty intimidating all on his own.

“Not so tough without your protector, now, are you, Red,” Collins growls, so close to my face that I can feel and smell his hot, stale breath on my cheek.

“Yeah, she’s scared all right,” the second soldier chuckles, his hand reaching down between his legs to adjust the bulge there. “Why don’t you let me have a go at her, Collins? I’ll teach her a lesson she’ll never forget.”

“You can have her after I’m done with her, Mills,” Collins says with a malevolent grin. “If there’s anything left to have.”

My eyes grow wild with fear. “I didn’t say anything to anyone, I swear! Lieutenant Crom just happened to walk by at the wrong time. He must have told my masters!”

“Sure you didn’t, bitch,” Collins growls. “That’s why I’ve been placed on late-night watch for the next month straight.”

My body begins to shake. “I swear, I didn’t tell my Master what you said.”

While it wasn’t the whole truth, it was mostly true. I’d never told Knox exactly what Collins had said. I just told him that he’d made rude comments to me, and that only after he’d questioned me directly about it.

Collin’s face pinches with disgust. “Your “master”! You like calling him that, don’t you, you fucking slut. You like sucking his dirty alien cock, too?”

I flinch at his foul words, but his friend does not.

“Yeah, she does,” Mills eggs him on, a dark intensity entering his muddy brown eyes. “I bet she can’t get enough of it.”

Collins spits on the ground at my feet. Part of it hits the toe of my slipper. “Fucking disgusting!”

“Let’s give her a taste of real, human cock,” Mills suggests, his hand palming and stroking the lump in the front of his uniform. “It’s so much better than that shit the Voltan have been shoving her full of.”

“I bet you’re right, Mills. I bet once she gets a mouthful of my Johnson, she’ll be addicted. What do you think, Red? You want this,” he jams his hips against mine and I can feel his manhood striking my sex.

My stomach rolls and I’m struggling to keep down my breakfast. “No! Please! I don’t want any trouble!” I’m trying so hard not to cry.

“You should have thought about that before you opened your whore mouth,” Collins shouts in my face.

“Now you owe me an apology.” Letting me go, he steps back a step.

Not enough for me to escape, but enough so that we’re no longer touching.

“And I’ll take that apology with you on your knees.

I want to see what those asshole aliens have been getting for their money. ”

Collins unzips his pants and threads his limp member through the front opening in his boxer shorts. Using his fist, he gives the droopy appendage a few quick jerks to coax it to life. The smell of his musky sweaty crotch has me swallowing down a gag.

My mind spins as I try to figure out what to do. There’s no way I’m touching him. I’d rather take a beating. If I can’t escape these two disgusting men, I’m afraid that’s exactly what’s about to happen. That and much worse.

“Fuck, I can’t wait to see her suck you off, man. I love to watch a bitch on her knees,” Mills says, his voice rough with his mounting excitement.

Glancing down at his tented pants, I can tell he’s having no problem rising to attention unlike his friend, who seems to only be getting angrier with each uneventful stroke.

I have only a second to decide what to do because I know that, even if I manage to escape them, I can’t outrun them both. So I do the one thing I know will alert people to my distress.

I scream.

I scream louder and harder than I ever have in my life.