Page 24 of Calico Descending

“Not sure. I’ve been here quite a while now.”

“I’ve been assigned to B wing.” A soft caress to my arm startles my muscles, and I drop the cup into the basin with a clang. “Clumsy girl. Pick it up. Fill it again.”

“I’m Alpha Project.” Those three words have been my saving grace over the last few years, because for whatever reason, every soldier knows to stay away from the girls assigned to Alpha Project.

“And?”

Except this one, it seems.

His fingers skate lower, as he draws a line from my shoulder to my bicep and across to my breast. “Your tits were the first thing I noticed. Big and fleshy.” The moment his hand cups my breast, I hold my breath, my whole body falling into paralysis. This doesn’t happen to me. Every soldier knows Alpha subjects are off limits.

“Please,” I whisper. “Don’t do this.”

“I’ve a raid this afternoon. My first. I was hoping for some good luck.” His massaging of my flesh doesn’t cease, while he takes hold of my hand and guides it behind my back. A sizable bulge greets my fingertips when he smashes my hand against it. I flex my arm to tug it away from him, but he holds it steady, rubbing my hand over the fabric. “That’s it.” A shaky breath blasts from his mouth, falling hard against my neck. His fingers curl into my breast, massaging in the same strokes as my hand against his groin. “Give it a squeeze.”

“No.” Lip trembling, I try to hold back tears. I’ve heard about these encounters from the other girls.

Don’t fight it, they warned, as if I’d ever be subject to it. As if any soldier would be stupid enough to proposition an Alpha subject. The mere mention of my assignment typically results in instant disinterest, and I’ve never had to explain, nor endure, the humiliation of such a thing.

Until now.

Sharp pain radiates over my flesh with the digging of his nails, and I whimper, capping the scream cocked at the back of my throat. I heard of a girl who screamed for help once. One who reported her attacker to the Barrack Leader. The next night, she was stolen from her bunk and gang raped in the basement.

I don’t dare protest. Instead, I do as he insists, squeezing the bulge through the fabric, until his torment lessens, and he lets out a moan.

“Just like that, girl. A bit more.” His hips rub hard against my pants, his grip growing tight. Tighter. So tight, he bends my body over the sink, and I’m staring at our reflection in the bottom of the basin. His eyes are screwed shut, mouth gaping with his moans, nails digging into my breast, while he forces me to rub him through his pants.

Finally, he shudders a breath, and his body follows suit, shivering against my back. The dampness of his pants wets my palm, where he grinds his crotch into my hand, as though smearing the fluid gathered on the other side of the fabric. He allows me to release him, but his hand doesn’t immediately fall away. He bends around my body, leaning in to suck my nipple through the fabric of my shirt, and I hate the sensation of his mouth on me. Like a child, suckling at its mother.

He gives one pinch and straightens himself. “You belong to me, girl. Anyone else tries to touch you, you tell them you belong to Dean, understand?”

Tears blurring my eyes, I nod. Four years, I’ve managed to avoid this. Four years, I’ve belonged only to myself, and now, I’m the entertainment to a Legion soldier named Dean.

Hand trembling, I push a strand of hair behind my ear, as Medusa leads me into Valdys’s cell.

“You will make the effort this time.” Her voice seems colder, more harsh than usual, and I wonder what she earns from this. If there’s reward in store for her, if this little experiment is a success.

I can still smell the Legion officer on my skin. A nauseating scent of whatever soap he uses to wash. I tried to scrub it away in the kitchen earlier, but it’s in my clothes and my hair, clinging to me like a nightmare I can’t wish away. The scent turns my stomach as I enter the Alpha’s room, praying my mind can be distracted for just a few moments. Just a brief reprieve when I don’t have to hear those excited breaths in my ear, and feel the soldier’s hand pressed against mine, while forcing me to squeeze his cock.

I can’t imagine Roz enjoying such a thing with Kenny. I found the whole act repulsive. Standing just inside the entrance, I take a moment to gather myself and breathe. Before I fall into my usual spot against the wall, the shadows across the room stir into motion, and seconds later, Valdys comes into view, his big, imposing body looking tense and poised with irritation, his shoulders bunched forward. Perhaps he’s grown tired of these visits as much as I have.

He silently accosts me, and I gasp at the moment he’s standing over me, shrinking me. He hasn’t done this since our first meeting.

My mind slips into those moments from before, stood at the kitchen sink, feeling helpless and violated, and the thought that today might be the day Valdys does the same.

His helmet drags over my skin, the sound of his sniffing forced and abrupt. He lifts my hand, the same hand that stroked the soldier earlier, and he sniffs it, before throwing it to the side. The cold iron scrapes over my swollen breast, and I flinch at the tenderness where I was handled so roughly before. I want to crawl into myself and die right now, as Valdys somehow finds all of my invisible wounds, sniffing them out like shadows of pain, searching for explanation. Through the helmet, his eyes stare back at me, cold and dark, deep as waters, in which I fear to swim. With a grunt, he pushes off of me, kicking me back two steps, only exacerbating the horrid feelings of shame that won’t leave my head. Tears slip down my cheeks when he finally retreats to his shadows, leaving me as useless as I felt earlier today.

Minutes pass in silence, until the door clicks open, and the tension in my chest eases. I can finally go back to my room, my safe place, my bed, and unleash the tears I’ve fought to hold back since the moment that soldier touched me.

Legion officers enter the room with guns strapped across their chests.

More officers wait in the corridor, alongside Medusa, who waves me out.

“Come, girl,” she says. “Wait out here.”

Wiping tears from wet cheeks, I pad out of the room and into the corridor, just like the last time, and wait by Titus’s door.

With a shake of her head, Medusa tugs me away. “You’ll not be going into Titus’s room today.”

---