Chapter 3 Ember

According to my captors, I’ve been here for six months. I stare around the room at all the other prisoners, all presenting female, and resist the urge to frown. By now, according to them, I should already be in the ‘whore houses’ earning my way to ‘freedom’. They say that everyone here gets a year to comply with the humans’ rules or they become material for the human scientists.

I refuse to use my body to pleasure these disgusting creatures, no matter what they offer. No matter how good they say they feel. Every other Avantian around me has taken a human lover for lessons, and every single one of them swears that once I feel them, I won’t be able to give it up. The only thing I want to feel is their heads smashing between my palms.

The first guardians who came to Earth were killed, so all the humans had left were the peaceful, obedient scientists who came here to learn. They willingly offered their bodies in the name of knowledge and were coerced into sending transmissions home informing the rest of us that Earth was safe. Since then? Every Avantian visiting has been enslaved and used as a sex toy.

They do not know what I am, and I have had the forethought to pretend. If they knew that I could kill them with the barest flick of my wrist, they would not treat me like this. I want to fight; I want to kill them all, but I can’t. I look around at my fellow Avantians again. Seeing not only what they’ve let themselves become but also how innocent and foolish they are. I can’t leave them here like this; I can’t run away and abandon them. I have to figure this out; I have to save my people, or die trying.

Days blur together; time no longer matters. I watch videos of humans pleasing each other and pleasing themselves. I watch my people pleasing humans as well. I refuse and refuse until my choice is taken away from me. They agitated me until I defended myself, making me present as a male again, and as soon as I did, they held me down and shoved pills down my throat. I tried to fight it, but no matter how hard I tried and no matter how much I hated it, my staff stood at attention. At first, they were merciful. They let me seed my own kind, and contrary to my best intentions, I enjoyed it. 

For weeks, all I did was suck and fuck other Avantians, and part of me got lost in the act. Part of me sank into breeding as a distraction from my forceful imprisonment. It wasn’t until I had been imprisoned for over a year that I didn’t notice a human enter the room. My mind was a blur of emotions, my mouth sealed to a beautiful bearer when she pushed me onto my back, and I felt someone’s body slide over mine. This was not unusual, as many partners were breeding almost every day, but the way she felt made me freeze. 

She was so much tighter, the space between her legs so much smaller. I jerked to attention, throwing the bearer off me and sitting up as fast as I could, but then her pretty pink breasts were in my face and her hands tangling in my hair. The feeling of her body on mine was intoxicating, her delicate little moans so different from those of bearers of my kind. I wrapped my arms around her; I couldn’t help it. I needed to be deeper. Needed to taste her mouth, needed to taste every inch of her.

I now understood what my fellow people meant when they said the human body was addicting. I couldn’t stop if I wanted to, even if I hated my captors for making me do this. For tricking me into it. The woman bouncing on my shaft was the scientist who has been studying me every day for a year. She’d been grooming me, getting me used to her scent so I wouldn’t pick it up in a moment of sexual craze. 

I grab her hair, yanking her head back in anger, but try as I might, I can’t bring myself to kill her. From that point forward, my scientist was my only sexual partner. She taught me how to perform as both male and female, how to please her in both forms, as well as her husband that she brought in to share me. I was given lessons, taught in all the different ways humans can make children. I was even introduced to fake parts of humans they call ‘toys’ and taught how to use those. I had finally settled into my life of pleasing my scientist and her husband when she informed me that I had graduated and would be moving to my first station. 

That day was the last time I saw her, and even though I hate her more than any other creature I’ve ever encountered, I miss her. My days are now spent in a small room with a bed in the middle. I take lovers an hour at a time, pleasing them, pleasing myself, until I’m bored out of my mind. I long for the days of the institute; I cry out for my scientist. Why couldn’t they have taken me to their home? Why didn’t I just kill them? Why don’t I try to escape? Does any of this even matter anymore? Who have I become?

“How do you want me?” I ask the crowd of people as they gather around me. I’m used to taking requests, dancing for parties, so this is nothing new. I step on the platform in the middle of the club, stark naked, waiting for my instructions.

“Female! Show us those fucking tits!” one man in front says. He’s severely obese, with a huge scruff of a beard hanging down his chest. He takes a swig of his beer as I transform and twist myself around the pole in the center of the stage. “That’s how I like it, baby, work it!” he demands, and I comply.

Nights like this, I simply go on autopilot. I dance, moving in the ways that make their eyes pop. I climb off the stage and rub my nakedness on them, and if I’m lucky, one of them chooses to take me back to my room for a private event. I prefer the privacy of being one-on-one, but more often lately groups like this come in and decide to share me. I suck it up, obediently performing for them, because it means a higher payout. It means my account gets stacked deep with what they call money. It means I will pay for my training soon enough, and then maybe my scientist will choose to buy me. 

“I don’t want to be here!” a woman says as she walks through the thick curtained entrance at the front of the club. I’m grinding on the big guy, letting him fondle me anywhere he wants, moaning as his hands slide between my legs. The woman speaking has long brown hair, pin-straight, and she flips it over her shoulder as she stares up at a woman of more Avantian size. “Katie, you know how I feel about this! You know I don’t agree with this lifestyle!”

The large woman just smiles, grabbing her friend’s shoulders and turning her around to look into the club. My body freezes, even if the man’s hands do not. The smaller woman scans the crowd with horrified eyes, her red lips parted in shock, and when her eyes find me, I reach my climax. 

Her gaze is glued to mine, and mine to hers, as the man’s hands work my core expertly. Say what you want about appearances, but this man knows his way around a bearer. I watch the woman watch me, her eyes taking in every inch of my body as the big man bends me over the stage and drops his pants. He’s supposed to take me to a room; he’s supposed to do this right, but the woman is watching, and I want to perform. 

I watch her shiny blue sequin dress sparkle over her soft plush body as her friend tugs her closer to me. They are watching me get railed, and for some reason that makes me so hot I can’t handle it. I arch my back, locking eyes with the woman I’ve never seen before, and moan. Not for the man as he pushes inside me, but for her. I moan, for her. 

“Katie, this is so wrong!” she says; her voice is like music to my ears.

“Then stop watching!” Katie pokes her in the side and goes to the counter to order drinks, leaving me with her friend standing there dumbfounded.

“You wanna sit on its face, honey? I can flip it over for you, just say the word!” the man says to her, and her face contorts in horror, and she turns away. I could kill him for this, murder him with my fucking legs for making her turn her gaze away. I want her to watch; I need her to watch me.

“I got you a martini!” Katie says as she returns. Her eyes fall on me, and she bites her bottom lip suggestively.

“You like this one, don’t you?” she asks the smaller woman, but she shakes her head in denial. “I could buy her for you? What do you say?” Katie turns her head to me, and she braces her hands on her knees. “What’s your name, sweetheart, so I can buy an hour for you and my friend here?”

“Katie, stop it! They don’t want to be here any more than I do!” the other woman protests, just as my big guy blows his load and falls off me. He throws money at the stage, stuffing himself back in his pants and glaring at the girls.

“Maybe I wanted more time!” he snaps, but Katie shrugs.

“This purple one’s ours, go find another color of the rainbow to taste!” She flips the big guy off, and his face goes red with anger, but he storms away. I stand up slowly, sexily, as the little woman turns to face me again. She looks me up and down, her pretty face getting redder by the minute. 

“My name is Ember, my room is number nineteen.” I step forward, tangling my long fingers in her hair and looking down into her face. I’m just as tall as her friend, if not taller, so the poor thing has to arch her neck to look at me. “What’s your name, beautiful?” She’s so small, so round, her face so innocent and shocked.

“Her name is Anya, and she would be thrilled to spend an hour with you,” Katie answers, and Anya swallows hard. 

“I don’t want to do this…” she whispers, and my heart almost breaks for her. It’s not like I get a choice; if someone buys me, I have to perform. But in this case? I actually want this human in my bed. I want to peel that dress off of her and see if she’s as soft as she looks, if my fingers will sink into her flesh like a feather pillow.

“It won’t be that bad…” I whisper, bending down so I can look her in the eyes. “I can be whatever you want, man, woman…” I breathe in deeply, taking her scent into my deepest memories and locking it away there. She smells just like her friend, probably wearing the same perfume, but under that I can smell peaches and cream. I’m salivating by the time our eyes meet again.

“I prefer humans!” she says loudly, flinching away from my hand and hiding behind her friend.

“So be it, even if it is a shame.” I turn to walk away, fighting every instinct in my body to put space between us, but I stop at Katie’s shoulder and put my hand on her. “I’ll be ready in a half hour, if she changes her mind.”

“She’ll be there!” Katie says, grinning.

“And you? Will you be joining us? Are you two…mated?” I ask.

“Oh, gosh, no!” Katie blushes this time. “I’m a regular; I’m here to see my favorite.”

“I thought I recognized you!” I smile at Katie, stroking her cheek sensually so I can see how Anya will react. I’m not disappointed; her jaw drops and her eyes narrow before she turns away. It takes everything in me to walk away from these women; every step is almost painful. I need to be with her; I need to taste her. 

Anya…I’ve never wanted anything more in my life.