Koradonda: Chapter 10, Before the Challenge, part1

Ann is finding herself draw much further into a society she despises

Ann tensed as the door opened on the King’s bedroom where she still lay.

“Ann, if we are to prevent a war, I need you to get up and give the State Department these coordinates. We want to be picked up the morning before and get there the evening before the Challenge. It is still winter that far north, so they need good gear for staying the night.”

She looked at him in shock. Did he expect her to continue her duties after raping her last night?

Just as if nothing had happened, he went on. “We will sit down first. They should set down a mile south of us. Someone will come to get them before the Challenge in time for them to get to a place with a good view but a safe distance away. Antifog field glasses would be good for watching it. Also, here is a list of things I want parachuted onto this estate.” With the list, he handed her the leather jumpsuit.

Damn him, he did expect just that. She glanced at the list. Were the minds of his kind so different that they would not put together something so obvious to a human? She did not even know for sure if the message was for her, or for the State Department. He undoubtedly did want some of these things, but when she read off the list, the first letters of the listed items were BECAREFUL. Was that for her, the State department, or both?

A shiver and disgust ran through her getting out of bed. Twice she’d been forced to turn tricks to keep her cover. She felt dirtier than either time. It had been obvious that a woman’s skill at sex did not matter to him. He just wanted something fuckable.

Slipping on the black leather jumpsuit, it dawned on her. His species relies on rape for reproduction. The male of the species could hardly be any different. It pointed out what she had known but could not quite understand. Hospitality did not mean providing willing women. Just something that can be fucked. It simply did not matter if they were willing or not. It could not matter. Sex was never consensual for their species. It is never about building a relationship. These people were truly monsters.

She understood another thing, and it sent one more shiver down her spine. The King’s claiming her for his bed alone meant that was where she would be spending all nights until the challenge. From last night forward, she was on the menu to be raped daily by someone. The King considered it a kindness to make sure it was him and not one of the others.

Should she do something and end it all now rather than being raped day after day? Her guns were still in her room. She looked at the list. No, she couldn’t kill herself or do something to get herself killed. War would break out before they could get a replacement for her up to speed. Millions would die if what she suspected was even half true.

Dressed in the black jumpsuit, she went directly to the phone in the hall, her own phone nowhere to be found. It was not until she was in the hall, she realized that it was afternoon.

Had the King left her to sleep so long so she could not get herself killed, she wondered picking up the phone. There was not even a dial tone this time. “One moment, the Secretary will be on in a moment,” came as soon as it reached her ear.

“Ann, is His Majesty ready to tell us where this event will take place?” he said without the preliminary niceties.

She looked at the numbers at the top of her page. “Mr. Secretary, here are the GPS coordinates.”

“I am afraid that that is well into Canada. It is not a request the United States can grant.”

“One Moment Mr. Secretary.”

Didn’t he understand? Without her phone, she could not look it up. She sat the phone down and ran to the library. Grabbing the atlas, she got back to the phone. It took only a moment to find the position; up on the Canadian Shield. God, she hoped he would understand this. “Mr. Secretary, His Majesty, would find the straight line ground route bothersome. The United States and Canada would find it most inconvenient when His Majesty and party passes on his way to his destination. Be assured that His Majesty and party will be going to the location.”

If the king took this group overland to the place of the challenge, the carnage of people in the way would have to be in the tens of thousands as this crowd passed through several cities. War not happening would be a near impossibility then.

“One moment, Ann.”

They hadn’t cut her off, but she could not tell what was being said in the background until she heard a loud, ‘fuck’. A moment later, his voice was back. “Ann, the United States will apply all the pressure that it can to get clear airspace to the location.”

Then she went over what she had been told about setting down and camping and such. Finally, she gave him the list.

She could almost hear the grin as he replied, “The United States will be glad to make the drop. His Majesty can send as many such request as he wishes at any time and they will get prompt attention.”

Of course, His Majesty would have heard the conversation from anywhere in the house or even just outside it, so it was no surprise to find him standing at her elbow when she hung the phone up. “You took precisely the right tone.” Looking beyond him, she could see a group of beings around Jessica, with others keeping their distance.

“The ones closest are Beast Lords, the others Beast Masters, and Beast Men. The Beast Lords are making probes at her power, making note of all her weaknesses that they can take advantage of and give her a child. Accompany me and stay close.”

With great reluctance, and not feeling she had a choice, Ann followed him out onto the patio.

His voice boomed, “In the time that the Kings have been gone, you have used insult as a status symbol itself, a great perversion of it. This one, has offered true insult to her King. It is not for her to decide if I have a toy.”

To her amazement, Ann’s leather jumpsuit responded to his words, and somehow she understood what he said. It wasn’t a translation, and she was sure she was missing part of it, but it was an understanding. He looked at her and Ann also understood the toy referred to as herself. He meant that to. That is how they see humans, as toys. Or was that just human women? Of that, she was not so sure.

“For daring to try to dictate to her King, she, and all, will come to understand the meaning of insult. Now observe how a Beast Lord that has truly mastered his powers uses them.”

Her suit only gave her a gist of stray comments some made. With those, and the reactions to everything, she interpreted the events.

He stripped away everything the one he had called Jessica had shielding her, and somehow bound her powers. He exposed her every strength and every weakness for all to see. Doing that shocked them, so she guessed none had known about this ability to bind powers. She heard comments to indicate that several learned how in watching it done, and planned to put it to use. What they talked about on that was, that now, once they overcame a female, they could bind her powers and study them. If they found her again, taking her would be easy.

They disgusted Ann. They were grateful to their King for giving them a new tool for raping females. The King led her back to the house. At the door he turned, saying to her, “It’s started.”

“What Your Majesty.” She hated how her voice was now timid.

Taking his seat and looking out on his people, he said, “She stands there listening to them talk of just how to exploit weaknesses she cannot cover and negotiate what order each will make a try at her. Standing there, she knows that one will give her a child. A this point, nothing can prevent that. What is more, she knows if one finds her later and she is unaware that he found her, they now know enough about her to gang up and bring her down. She must now live with the same knowledge that all other females have of being hunted. She can no longer be the arrogant creature that she had made herself.”

Though Ann hated the one called Jessica, her being gang raped repeatedly did not appeal to her either.