Page 17 of Red

With no avenue of retreat, her eyes quickly scanned over her surroundings. What little she could see in the dim light, anyway. She was able to see that there was a small fire built up in the center of what appeared to be a rough shack made of logs and woven vines. The shack they were inside didn’t look stable, much less defensive against the elements. She couldn’t imagine how they managed during the colder months of winter. Nor did she wish to find out firsthand as a shared breeder among them as their conversation alluded to. Despite being right up against the wall, she couldn’t help but to press her body up against it in a blind need to escape them. Behind her the wall loudly creaked loudly in protest to her weight, and she froze in horror as the men stilled and turned toward her.

The biggest member of the group grunted something that she couldn’t make out to his companions as he stood and faced her. Four large tusks pushed out from a heavy jaw, between which thick saliva seemed to perpetually drip onto the folds of flesh that hung from his jowls. The saliva coated the coarse hair that hung in clumps from his face down to his chest. It was grotesque and it wasn’t improved on at all by his heavy brow that was weighed down with several thick horns varying from two to six inches long. Unfortunately, the rest of him didn’t get any better.

As he stood in front of her, she noted that he was covered everywhere in a pelt of hair—everywhere except for his purplish-red phallus, which jutted out toward her and seeped a thick stream of precum as he looked at her. Arie jerked her eyes away from his member, not wanting to unintentionally signal anything that could be misconstrued as interest, unfortunately he did not seem particularly interested in what she desired. It was just her luck to be captured by one of the mutated feral men.

Arie groaned quietly to herself. Of all the silly rumors, why did it have to be this one that was true?

Rumors of the feral men were one’s that she’d often scoffed at, thinking them nothing more than tales to scare children. Be good or the feral men will get you. How many times had she heard those words spoken around the village? And now she was face to face with the reality and somehow it was far worse than she’d ever imagined. Bile rose in her throat as he moved closer, a grin hitching the corners of his lips.

“You are lucky, woman. You will have a big honor. You will be our mate. We will keep you safe,” he said, his grin slowly widening as his eyes roamed possessively over her. “Timel,” he said, gesturing to one of the other males standing a short distance away, “has seen the presence of a smooth-faced male near here. He has many weapons. Because of him we’ve kept watch. Because of him, we’ve found you.”

He paused as if to think for a moment, one coarse hand raking through his beard. “You’re both different from the ehurmu. But he comes and you come. We think this is not a coincidence. Maybe he looks for you?” His eyes narrowed on her with interest. “He won’t find you. You belong to our family now. You should thank us,” he said expectantly.

Even if she wanted to, Arie couldn’t force out the words he wanted. Her tongue felt thick and uncooperative in her mouth. Finally, she managed to force out a few intelligible words.

“What exactly are your plans for me?”

He grunted as if interpreting her question as a sign of acceptance.

“You will cook, tend to our needs, and breed. Your duties to our family are simple.” He looked over her with a critical eye. “We hope that our offspring resemble the ehurmu rather than your kind. We enjoy your softness, but we want our children to be strong ehurmu.”

“Perhaps it might be wiser to find an ehurmu woman, just so you can be certain?” she put in cautiously.

The man barked out a rough laugh, which was joined by the laughter of the other men. He shook his head at her and made an unfamiliar gesture looping two of his fingers. The other men seemed to find it funny, and their laughter broke out again uproariously, no doubt at her expense.

“We do not want foul wankumu women. They allow the beast-men to rut them. They have their uses for our village. They bring in much meat in their trade with the beast-men, but we don’t want to breed children on them,” he said with a disgusted curl of his lip. “Sometimes the beast-men like to slip their own offspring inside. No ehurmu man would want to raise a beast-child.”

The other men muttered their agreement and shifted in place. She was horrified to see that each of them was in some stage of arousal. Were they planning on taking her together? Nausea rolled through her.

Arie flinched as he bent and one dirty hand stretched out to her, the greasy fingertips sliding against her jaw as he rumbled with pleasure. He turned his head, never once releasing her, and looked over at his companions.

“Get out and go some distance away. I want complete privacy with our mate,” he ordered.

There was some grumbling, but the other men reluctantly stood and shuffled outside, the hide that hung over the entrance dropping behind them. Her anxiety spiked with the realization that they were completely alone. She wasn’t so inexperienced that she didn’t know what was coming next. She pulled her legs up close to her body, attempting to put some kind of barrier between them as her hands sought purchase along the earthen floor beneath her.

He slowly crouched down in front of her, his sour breath mingling with the putrid odor coming from his fur. How was it that the Ragoru always smelled of sunshine, grass, and musk, and yet the man in front of her with far less fur possessed a distinct scent of sweat, grime, rotten meat, and urine? Her skin crawled as he pushed himself forward, bringing his body against her knees.

His hand left her face long enough to join his other hand at her knees as he attempted to force her legs apart. She dragged an arm behind her desperately, finding a small pile of scattered leaves. Her breath hitched as her fingers curled around what felt like a large bone, just as he pried her legs apart and pushed himself against her until they were lined up pelvis to chest.

One large hand palmed a breast. “Only two,” he muttered, “but that is okay. Two is enough.” A lecherous smile twisted his lips as he bent his head to examine the buttons of her dress with the intent of freeing the breast beneath his hand.

With a panicked cry, she jerked her arm around, swinging the legbone in her hand with all her might. The crack of its contact with his skull was satisfying even if it jarred her injured arm painfully. Still, it was not half as satisfying as watching him raise his head and blink at her before slumping over her. Arie muttered irritably to herself as she wiggled out from underneath him, groaning under the unyielding weight of his body. It was only by luck, a lot of wiggling, and a whole lot more shoving against his unconscious bulk that she was finally able to get out from beneath him.

Once she was free, Arie didn’t waste any time. With the bone gripped tightly in her hand, she clambered to her feet and hurried across the small room. Pushing aside the greasy hide that served as a door, she bolted out the opening. She knew she was probably leaping from one dangerous situation into another, but she refused to linger even a single minute longer than necessary. She certainly didn’t want to still be there when he woke up, or when his friends came back looking for their turn. That was enough to inspire a good amount of urgency. She ran faster as she rounded a corner of vegetation and nearly fell into a huge outdoor firepit for her trouble.

Thankfully the fire was banked, so other than getting a bit sooty from the ash as she scrambled upright once more, no harm was done. Arie was far more concerned by the many females who halted in their activity and turned to look at her. Though they had a similar build to their male counterparts, they were smaller than the men, with tiny horny protrusions and daintier tusks, and three breasts spilling across their chests that were barely covered with ropes of necklaces strewn of bones and bits of what appeared to be seeds.

Arie raised her hands in a silent plea, hoping that they might feel some sympathy for her plight. That hope was immediately dashed when one of the smaller women pointed at her and shrieked in alarm. Arie’s head whipped around and, from some distance away, she could see a number of males step out from the trees, their bodies tense with aggression. Worse, she noticed that among them were the males who’d just recently been in the shack with her. They scowled fiercely, and one shouted something to the rest of the males that Arie couldn’t quite make out. They immediately began to make their way toward her.

Fear may not be useful for many things, but in that moment, she was grateful for it as Arie spun on the ball of her foot and sprinted through the small clearing of the village with more speed than she’d ever imagined herself possessing. The forest loomed dark and ominous all around, but she didn’t care. Anything was better than being held as a captive mate.

The news of what could only be a huntsman did not sit well with her either, but that was a chance she was willing to take. A huntsman was at least familiar, and she could probably talk her way around him if she was unfortunate enough to encounter him in the forest. If he was tracking her, it wasn’t for anything good. She wouldn’t put it past the council to have sent him after her to reclaim any property she had and distribute what they considered appropriate punishment.

But first, she needed to get away from the four other lunatics who thought they could snare and mate her. While there was no observable sign of shortage of males there, it was clearly not a good place for women if that was the way they treated those they wished to join with. She almost felt pity for the women until one tried to wrap her hairy arms around her. Arie shrieked and barely managed to evade the female but, in the process, she collided with another that was running at her at full speed. Her breath rushed out of her lungs as her body was sent flying from the strategic strike to her torso. Hitting the ground was no less jarring, and Arie lay there struggling to breathe under the weight of the woman covering her. The female hissed and began to climb her way up Arie’s body, her fingers clawing the ground until suddenly she was wrenched away, and a familiar scowling visage came into view. The man she’d clobbered had come to quicker than she’d anticipated and now was glaring down at her.

Lips pulled back from his teeth in a terrible snarl, he reached down with one hand and yanked her off the ground. Her feet dangled in the air as he held her in front of him with retribution clear in his eyes until a vicious snarl sounded just behind him. Arie looked over and saw a smug blonde feral woman strut out from the trees. She jeered at the man holding Arie.

“You, Morosh, let go of that woman. The beast-man has claim of her, and you hear him—he doesn’t share.”

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