Menagerie

Excerpt:
STORY EXCERPT


“…is why the men here need sex.” An unrecognized voice echoed in Valerie’s sluggish brain.

Join the club, she thought, rousing further. She opened her eyes and realized she was sitting in a very uncomfortable chair.

“Therefore, after the gauntlet arena selection, you will be required to have sex with each one of the men in your selected group at least once every two months so that they won’t die a painful death,” the blue alien standing before her said in a stern tone.

Valerie was no longer face down in the dirt. She was no longer outdoors. Lifting her head slowly, she quickly realized she was also no longer alone. Half slumped in a hard metal chair, she straightened and stretched the kinks out of her back. After several satisfying pops, she resisted the urge to yawn.

Where am I?

Looking first to her right, she noticed fifteen or so other shell-shocked-looking women in various stages of dress. To her left was much the same view. There was one poor soul wearing only a bra and panties. But another was in a full fledged business suit complete with patterned pantyhose and stilettos. The others in the room looked like they’d been pulled from backstage at a play between acts.

Valerie looked down at her boring gray sweats. At least she wasn’t in her underwear like half the women in the room.

The blue alien looked like a body builder that had been dipped in cerulean paint. He cleared his throat and all the women in the room sent their gaze forward. No one in the room spoke.

The grimace forming on his face wasn’t attractive and bordered on hostile. He stared as if he was waiting for something from them. Valerie had no idea what it could be and resisted the urge to yawn, certain it wasn’t the response he searched for. She wished she hadn’t missed the first part of what he’d said.

“Don’t any of you have questions?” he asked. “I usually get a lot of questions.”

Valerie raised her hand. The blue alien man’s expression softened. He pointed at her and gestured that she stand.

She sighed deeply and stood. Over a sea of heads seated in the several rows of chairs in front of her, Valerie fixed her gaze on the strange blue man waiting with eyebrows lifted for her question.

“What was your name again?”

He stiffened. “You may call me, Blue. What is your question? Or was that it?”

Valerie paused at his name. His skin was blue and his name was Blue? Whatever.

“We haven’t got all day,” he remarked and glanced at his clipboard thing.

“You want me to do what with a group of strange men?”

He sent a piercing stare through her, crossed his substantial arms over his chest and the hostile expression returned. “Haven’t you been listening?”

Blue, the alien with the Smurf-blue skin, looked like he’d fallen into a vat of sapphire dye and soaked for awhile. Maybe that’s why he was so grumpy. His hair was dark brown along with his thick eyebrows and his eyes were also brown. He wore snug pants and no shirt.

“Well, sure, to part of it, but…” she trailed off and sat back down.

Was she dreaming? If so, wouldn’t she be the one in her underwear being called to task in the classroom?

“Have any of you been listening?” he railed and sent another stern gaze drilling to several of the other women.

No one else said a word. Perhaps they were all as confused as she was.

Valerie decided that this was the single most vivid dream she’d ever had, and the strangest. She felt like she’d come into the middle of a movie. Only she didn’t remember how she got here or where she’d been before being seated at the back of the class. Someone else must have put her here, because if she’d seated herself, she would have been in the front row. Definitely a dream.

She sent her gaze forward again. Blue’s expression hadn’t changed from annoyance. A couple of phrases brushed her memory. Gauntlet arena with groups of men and have sex with each of them. If she’d remembered correctly.

Yeah. Like that would really happen. She barely knew what to do with one man let alone a group of them. The rest of the women seated around her seemed even less enthusiastic.

“Don’t any of you have anything to say?”

No one responded.

The few women standing along the edges of the room, possibly due to the inadequate seating, seemed equally shocked into speechlessness by Blue’s words. Perhaps it was a group dream.

Blue sighed deeply, as if he were dealing with children who were too ignorant to comprehend his words. “Don’t you understand? There are never enough women to go around when you are brought here, so the men have to share. They suffer if they have to go without sex for that long in this environment. Do you want them to suffer?” He looked around the room, making eye contact with several of the attendees. “Well, do you?”

Like sheep afraid to stand up for themselves, they all began to shake their heads. Valerie didn’t respond. She didn’t particularly care about the suffering of strange horny men. It was a stupid dream, and therefore no participation was required.

“Now, we haven’t much time, as we are running behind schedule. I don’t have time to repeat myself. Therefore, we’ll take you through orientation quickly and then bring you right to the beginner’s gauntlet arena. It’s a little quieter than the advanced one. Hopefully you can learn what you need to know along the way.”

A woman to Valerie’s right, who’d obviously been in the middle of putting make-up on and dressed completely in beige, raised her hand. “How many men are in a group?”

Blue nodded and the frown disappeared as if he’d finally heard a worthy question. “It varies. Never more than seven and no less than four. The average is five.”

Valerie looked down at her gray jogging suit, wishing she’d managed to conjure up a nicer outfit for this dream. If she were about to meet men, a sweat suit wasn’t exactly the most flattering clothing she could have worn.

Blue was talking again, but Valerie missed it due to her perusal of the unusual fashion statements being made around her. What did her clothing say about her? Was she an exercise geek? She sincerely hoped not.

The nebulous feeling in her brain wouldn’t allow her to remember specifics of her life. She guessed it wasn’t really important in the dream world.

“…come along now to the next station and all the important facts will be explained in greater detail. You can make your decision then. Stay together. Don’t wander off.”

Blue headed towards the only door in the room and the other women followed, one after the other, until the room emptied.

Valerie ended up at the end of the line with one of the business-suited ladies directly ahead of her. She followed along down a narrow white hallway, looking all around for a clue as to where she might be. The walls seemed to be constructed of white panels with lights hidden inside. Didn’t you usually dream about places that were familiar? Apparently not, because this place was totally alien.

Up ahead on the right, a panel had dislodged as if the wall had been hastily constructed. Through the gap, Valerie could see another hallway and she slowed to peek through. She lost sight of the business suit she was following to wrestle the panel open further.

After a little effort she was through the narrow space and into a much wider hallway. The color of the lights in this hall were varying hues of aqua. She liked this hallway much better. The color was more soothing.

Valerie chose to walk to the left because the hall was longer in that direction, and seemed to go farther. After walking for several minutes, she heard voices. She rounded a corner and plowed into someone.

A tall, male someone.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t see you,” said a totally luscious, deep male voice over her head. There was another man standing next to him, but Valerie couldn’t tear herself away to get a look. The man she’d run into felt too good.

“I don’t mind.” Valerie grabbed his arms and laid her forehead on his chest. He smelled delicious. Taking a deep breath, she tilted her head up to check out his face. Wide shoulders led to a square jaw and he had a cleft in his chin, too. Focusing in on his vivid, saltwater-blue eyes last of all, she noted that he was completely gorgeous.

Valerie had read somewhere that dreams were thought to be the brain’s way of cataloging information gathered during each day of the dreamer’s life. She must have seen this hunk at the park or something and filed him away for later dreaming. He’d been worth the wait. Now in this dream, she could do anything that she wanted to with him.

Plus, she had the benefit of a better personality. In dreams she was always funnier, smarter and definitely prettier.

A bemused smile greeted her as she stared. He gripped her shoulders, squeezing gently. “Are you on your way to the gauntlet arena?”

Valerie scrunched her eyebrows. Hadn’t that blue alien guy said something about an arena and a gauntlet?

“Is that where you’re going?” she asked.

He nodded. “That’s where I’m headed.”

“Me too. Maybe we could walk together.” She was prepared to say anything to keep this guy interested.

He exchanged amused glances with the man standing next to him and asked, “Are you spoken for yet?”

“I don’t think so. How would I know for sure?”

“Have you selected any man from the gauntlet arena?”

“No.” Valerie frowned. “What’s that gauntlet arena thing again?” Better to get her answers from this hunk than a hostile blue alien.

He narrowed his eyes, then explained. “The gauntlet arena is a large room filled with men seeking a partner. When you enter and walk down the gauntlet aisle, the interested men will step forward and try to get your attention.” He looked her up and down. “I expect you’ll garner a lot of attention.”

“Why?” His interested appraisal brought a grin to her lips. In her non-dream life she seldom rated a single look of interest from the men she came into contact with on a day-to-day basis. Attractive men like the man before her never saw her at all.

He smiled in return. “Well, first of all, you’re a blonde. It’s rare in this place, for some unexplained reason. And second of all,” his eyes ran down her body with definite interest once again, “you aren’t frighteningly skinny like the majority of the women here.”

Valerie frowned and looked down at her crappy jogging suit. And while she’d always dreamed of being frighteningly skinny, she’d also always considered herself pleasingly plump. “Does that mean you think I’m fat?”

His eyes widened with panic. “No. Of course not. I meant absolutely no insult. It’s just that the slightly curvier women are, well, more kindhearted in this place.” He leaned in and whispered confidentially, “The bony, skinny ones are mean. It’s not their fault. It has something to do with the alien vortex process when they’re brought aboard.”

Alien vortex process? Valerie drilled a look into his beautiful eyes, trying to understand. “How are the skinny chicks mean to you? What do they do?”

He shrugged. “It’s their temperament, I guess. They go out of their way to aggravate all around them and especially men, but only after they’ve selected a group. By then it’s too late. The new men here always go for the skinny, mean ones and subsequently they’re stuck. Those women with a little meat on their bones are always selected first by the seasoned men here.”

Valerie nodded, but didn’t quite believe what he said. Her slightly hazy memory, which seemed to fade with each passing moment, recalled an incident very recently where a man she was with had suggested that she should go on a diet.

Even now the feeling of shame washed down her insides in a burning, hurtful rush. She shook her head to dissolve the remembered sting and lifted her eyes to his face. This was her dream, after all. She would control it and she most assuredly didn’t want to think about diets.

This man’s seductive gaze drilled through to her soul. His face reflected an expression suggesting that he liked what he saw in the deep, dark recesses of her mind.

“The men who have been here a while understand that principle, anyway, and I certainly do.” His eyes traveled appreciatively down the rounded figure hidden by the boring jogging suit. “Yep, they’re going to love you, all right.”

Valerie nodded, released him and brushed her hands down her blah gray jogging shirt, which probably didn’t enhance her round body in the least. “So after the interested men select me, then what?”

His gaze narrowed. “Then you select the one man you like best out of those who are interested and he takes you to meet his group.”

“Oh yeah, the group. They mentioned the groups when I first got here. How many men are in your group?”

“Five.”




ADULT EXCERPT


“After you.”

Valerie took a deep, silent breath and entered the room. Much like the room she’d originally met all of her men in, there was a sofa, two chairs and table in an arrangement, but beyond the entry was an open set of double glass doors leading to her perception of a fantasy bedroom.

What looked like miles of white gauzy fabric was artfully draped and swirled over a huge canopied, four-poster bed that was also covered in yards of white linen.

“Wow,” she whispered. “Nice room. Like out of a fairy tale.”

Hauser’s hands landed on her shoulders. “Does it relax you enough for what’s about to happen between us?”

Valerie turned to face a smiling Hauser as heat rose to her cheeks. “I’m not sure.”

“Well, why don’t we start with a kiss and see where that leads us.” Hauser gently slipped his hands through her hair to cup her head. He leaned in for a kiss in the next second and the utter pleasure of his skillful tongue was enough to make her forget absolutely everything else.

He cradled her face with one hand as the other slid around her back to clench her solidly against his body.

It was no secret why they were here. Hauser hadn’t had sex for a long time and she was here to relieve his discomfort. That was her job. Her primary purpose in this alternate reality.

Hauser’s tongue brushed tenderly against hers and a tendril of desire unwound in her body. A moan escaped. He squeezed her tighter as more moaning ensued from her throat. Her vocal response prompted his hand to blaze a trail down her spine on a mission to massage her ass. His thickening cock pulsed between them, sending a shower of sensation and moisture between her legs.

The dress she wore was silk and she hadn’t bothered to put any underwear on beneath it. Hauser broke the kiss to dip his hand beneath the hem at her knees. His light stroke skimmed up the outside of her thigh. When he discovered her lack of undergarments, he growled and thrust his hips forward.

He pulled away far enough to catch her eye and say, “My, aren’t you just full of surprises.”

“One or two.” She pulled his head down for another sultry kiss.

His cock, huge and hard, pressed firmly into her stomach as a shudder rippled down his body. He squeezed her bare butt cheek once before sliding clever fingers between her legs. Two long fingers thrust inside her wet slit before she could protest. Not that she would have, but his intimate touch was a little shocking.

Her Swiss-cheese memory gave her little in the way of a foundation from her previous sexual experience. Given that every touch from his fingers seemed alien and overwhelming, she decided that she might be fairly inexperienced. His fingers slid in and out of her slick entrance easily and the feeling, while deliciously decadent, also felt incredibly naughty.

His thumb rubbed across her sensitive clit and she jumped backwards in surprise, breaking not only the kiss, but the intimate connection.

Panting, Hauser asked, “What’s wrong?”

“I…um…nothing. I’m…just not used to…you know.” She ended her stuttering sentence with a whisper.

The rate of his breathing said he was still trying to get it under control. “No. Tell me.”

“I don’t remember much about my life on Earth, but I get the feeling that I’m not very experienced…sexually. What you’re doing to me…seems very unexpected…and naughty.”

He laughed. “That’s okay. I think naughty pretty much describes this whole scenario. But don’t worry, I’ll teach you everything you need to know.”

Valerie nodded. “Okay.” She took a deep breath and released it.

“God, you’re sexy.” He grabbed her shoulder with one hand, hugged her close and planted his lips sensually across her mouth, teasing her lips open with his tongue.

He danced her backwards slowly, through the double glass doors and into the bedroom. His tongue dipped and swirled inside her mouth, dueling with hers to a tempo only he could hear. Valerie slung her arms around his neck to hold on as they traveled. The thick ridge of his cock ground into her belly and aroused speculation regarding his size. She now knew he was huge and a ripple of arousal trickled down her body in anticipation as her core throbbed in readiness for him.

Once next to the bed, he yanked the zipper of her dress from neck to ass in one smooth, loud zip and a blast of cool air brushed her bare back. Hauser separated them enough to pull the pink dress off of her body. She was completely naked underneath.

She boldly grabbed his cock, which pulsed against her belly, and squeezed. He was indeed huge.

“Jesus, that feels incredible.” Hauser gave her a salacious grin and quickly pulled his clothing off until he, too, was completely naked. He reached past her and pulled the comforter down, exposing the sheets. As he straightened, he latched his lips onto her breast, sucking one lucky nipple into the depths of his warm mouth.

Valerie slid her hands to his face to hold him in place as the most acute pleasure rode wildly inside her. He suckled and a delightful zing shot straight to her clit and a gush flooded the core of her pussy. Hauser didn’t linger, but soon kissed a path from breast to mouth and drove his tongue languidly inside her mouth as he pulled her snugly against his pulsing erection. She nudged him with her hips and he clutched her even tighter.

“You feel so good, Valerie,” he murmured against her cheek. “I don’t think I can last too much longer.”

“You don’t have to. Take me to bed. I don’t want you to suffer anymore.”

“Trust me, I’m not suffering at all.” He latched his mouth to hers.