The Interloper Bk. 01

We arrived at the village in no time, a bonfire coming to roaring life as we neared the center. I could see creatures of all kinds around the flames, dancing, singing, as instruments I couldn't identify played a tune that was both lively and sensual in the background. Weird considering someone was dead.

Then the smell hit me, burning flesh mixed with body fluids. I looked deeper into the flames to the charred figure bending into the makeshift table. Holyshit. A scream caught my attention next, and I almost lost control of my bike as my eyes tried to pop out of my head.

That was an orgy?

"Enjoy yourself!" Fever screamed at me, clapping her hands together as she rode past. Thunder raced into the fray as Fever laughed and climbed down to embrace a naked elf who launched herself at the fire demon. A second later, Thunder wrapped a hand around the elf's waist, spun her around, bent her over, and—

I blinked away trying not to freak the ever-loving hell out. Ha! Trying. There was no way not to. I was at a flat out, real life, boobs and dicks flying everywhere orgy, and that alone warranted more than a little freakout. Somehow, what I'd imagined hadn't exactly prepared me for the real thing. I figured people would be slowly moving around, smiling, sneaking off to corners. I also thought it'd be inside for some reason, like a hall designated for this specific activity and not out in the open in front of God and everyone.

I slowed my bike and sat on the seat, staring everywhere but at the display—easier said than done—until someone grabbed my hand and tugged. I started, before looking at the person. It was a young, centaurian girl. She seemed to be the only one fully dressed, wearing a yellow and blue tunic that came down to her calves. "Hello," she smiled. "Are you looking for a partner?"

My eyes nearly popped out of my head. "No!" I held up my hands, shaking my head vehemently. "I'm not into . . . this. I'm just here for Rain."

"The Chief?"

"Yup. I just want to see the Chief," I stressed the word, holding her gaze. "Just point me in his direction." That way I can get the hell out of here.

"Of course," she nodded, clapping her hands in front of her. But instead of taking me to Rain, she led me to a small shrine in front of the pyre. I bit my tongue as she lowered herself. I'd totally forgotten the whole reason for the stupid event. A funeral, the Gathering was still a funeral. The pyre was the only thing that reminded me of that. It was similar to funeral pyres I'd seen in my Women's Studies books on specific Asian and Islander funerals. Modeled similar to a gate, two or three feet high, built with some kind of stone so it didn't burn in the flames. Carved into the dirt right beneath the arch was a symbol of converging circles, almost like a dozen infinity symbols of varying size filled in with red stuff. I was really hoping it wasn't blood.

The girl touched her forehead to the ground. I did the same, feeling the dirt brush my curls. She mumbled a few words I didn't catch but at least one was "life".

She picked up a knife beside the shrine that I hadn't even noticed. I glanced to where she'd gotten the knife and saw two bowls: one with what looked like fruit and the other with what looked like runny green jello.

The knife was light and smooth in my hand, almost porous.

"It is his rib," the girl explained, looking at the flames. "One that protected his heart. I cleaned it for you. You just need to cut your palm." She made a cutting motion with her hand, holding it over the symbols. "Like this."

Did she say rib? His rib? Instinct wanted me to squeal and throw the bone away, but years of etiquette and studying other cultures and what they considered the norm stopped me. This was their practice and as much as it weirded and grossed me out I needed to respect that.

It was over quickly, and I winced, squeezing my cut hand over the circles and letting the blood drip. I prayed it was over and I could finally see Rain and end my Gathering obligations for the night. Come. Cut myself at a shrine. Leave. Piece of cake.

The girl took the knife and set it beside the bowls before picking up one bowl and then the other. They were both intricately carved from the same stuff as the shrine. She raised them both to the fire mumbling something about change and life and the Great Mother. When she turned back to me she nodded to the runny Jello first.

"What is it?" I asked as Don't drink the kool-aid ran around my head.

"Lament."

And that helped not at all. "I mean what's in it? It's not like the old chief's blood or tears or something?" I was willing to go far for Duke and the envoys but not that far.

She shook her head no, a smile tugging at he lips before she suppressed it. "No. Lament is distilled from the fruit of sorrow trees."

Basically wine. Wine I was fine with. Wine I could do any day of the week. I grabbed the bowl and grimaced at the minty color.

It's just wine. Like a Jello shot. You love Jello shots!

Don't know why, but I sort of expected it to be cold. Trick of the color. But it was warm and had a sort of tulip-like flavor with a texture that reminded me more of chia pudding. I stared at the girl, waiting for he to say stop but she just smiled as I drank the entire bowl down. Granted it was a small bowl, but still.

Passing it back to her, I took the fruit and asked the same questions. Called "Mother's Release," the fruit was from a different tree of the same family. It was bright yellow and tasted like a mix between a cantaloupe and kiwi. Overall, I liked it a better than the Lament, but that wasn't saying much because that texture was a thing.

I thought there might be more steps, but the girl put the bowls back, rose, and pointed to a white tent a few yards away. "The Chief is in there. 'Til Mother calls us home."

"Thanks," I muttered, giving her a quick smile before I stomped off.

I picked my way across the orgy, blushing furiously and shifting my eyes every few seconds. There was a lot to see, but I felt like if I stared too long I might get sucked into the horn-nado.

Celibacy wasn't natural.

Three uncomfortable coughs, nine revolted shivers, and about a hundred ohmygods later I reached the tent. It was wide open with Rain laying on a spread of richly colored and embroidered pillows like the king he was. There were two women with him: one was sucking him off and the other eating her out. The centaur casually played with Ms. Cunniligus' breasts, looking bored as shit. I had no clue how that was even possible. The woman giving him a blow job was deep throating the hell out of him and it wasn't like the guy was small or the position wasn't awkward. If there was a prize for that sort of thing I was pretty sure Ms. Deep Throat would get first place.

Tearing my gaze away from the women, I forced a smile at Rain as I approached and bowed, "Chief Rain."

"Tilly the human," he returned, gently pushing the women away. They weren't more than fifteen feet away before there were more dicks in their faces . . . or other areas.

Never getting that image out of my mind. I turned back to Rain getting an eye full of his slimy, erect penis. "Want to put that away? You might poke somebody's eye out with it."

"Excuse me?"

I decided to skip the obvious your dick is out and get to the hi and bye of the evening. It'd been . . . . Fun wasn't the right word but interesting was close enough. "Thanks for inviting me to the Gathering. My condolences about the previous Chief. He seemed like a great leader."

"He was."

I nodded, shoving my hands into my back pockets and shifting my feet. "Well, I went to the shrine and had the Lament and other thing." I slapped the back of my hand on my forehead, and winced as my cut palm his the open air. Bending low, I murmured, "If that's all, I've been traveling for a week and I'd like to get back to the compound and rest."

Rain was quiet so long I looked up at him. I could have sworn there was surprise on his face, but when I blinked it was carefully neutral. "There is a reason you are here. Is there not?"

"Just to show my face."

"Only your face?" he purred.

I shivered and barely swallowed my gag. It wasn't bad enough I was at an orgy and that I'd cut my hand, now I had to deal with a freaking centaur hitting on me. This day just kept getting better and better.

"I'm trying really hard not to say something inflammatory that will put me in the dog house with Duke, and I just feel like if I stay here any longer I'm liable to do just that so I'm going to—"

"Tell me," he interrupted, picking up a cup and swirling its contents. "Why are you here?"

"Because you made me come."

"In time," he murmured, licking the rim of his glass again. "But I meant here, on Yenos. Humans do not come here."

"Well, it wasn't like I had a choice," I grumbled, feeling more uncomfortable with each passing second. It was hard to focus with the sex noises, Rai's overt advances, and exhaustion wearing me down. "I'm not really sure what you're doing, but if you're interrogating me don't waste the breath. The only reason I am here is because of an asshole from your planet who sold me a dreamcatcher."

His eyes bored into me, searching. "An accident?"

I sighed, reaching up to rub my temples. "Yeah. An acc—"

In an instant I felt strange, almost like a semi filled with the weirdest sensations known to man hit me at a hundred miles an hour. Looking down, I stared at my hand and tried to move it. Frame by frame shots of my fingers and palm flashed above the dark ocean that had become my pants.

Not the best sign.

My neck was too heavy and too light all at once as I took in the world around me. Expanded wide, every color brightened to the extreme, vibrating across my nerve endings like tangible entities. Dinner from last week quivered on my tongue, I could almost feel the CEM tomb heavy in my arms, warm and wet as it engulfed my hands to the wrist.

Looking at Rain, I tried to pull myself together as he blurred to a disjointed shadow with pinpricks of light around the edges. "What's happening to me?" I mouthed, feeling the words more than hearing them.

I couldn't see his mouth move or any distinctive part of him. His voice rasped across my skin like the fur of a tiger, one with teeth. "You're opening."

Huh? And than Duke and Fever's words came back to me, the repetition of open something I'd just disregarded. I'd thought of opening as physical. My legs falling to the side, my clothes coming off, but Duke had said spiritual.

Did cutting yourself with the bone of a dead man and praying over some shrine make things spiritual?

Probably.

Oh shit, definitely.

I tried to shut my body, close of whatever thing inside of me was being forced wide. There was no way I was opening and letting anything in. Doing my best to focus on Rain, I tried make him understand that this was a big mistake and I needed help. "Rain, I—"

CHAPTER TEN

Ohshitohshitohshitohshit. Oh. Fucking. Shit.

Never in my life have I wanted to wake up less than today. If someone had told me I'd wake up in Rain's bed with dried semen between my legs and pussy juice on my lips, I would have asked for cyanide. Death was slightly more appealing than sitting, naked, across from a confused Rain and his horde of whores.

"What happened yesterday?"

"We connected."

"How?"

"I think you can feel how."

Nope, cyanide was better than this. "Look," I said, waving one hand while I struggled to hold a scratchy embroidered pillow over my naked body, "Yesterday was a mistake. A not totally consensual mistake," I added, narrowing my eyes.

He returned the gesture. "You were open. A willing and full participant."

"Yeah, 'cause you drugged me."

"You were given no drugs."

"Really?" I snarked, "Mind explaining what that drink and fruit were? Or did you have that girl put something on the knife so it affected my blood?" I discounted nothing.

His eyes pierced me and I shivered, remembering that look from a couple hours earlier when I'd been between his legs with my mouth on his— "Human, you gave yourself to me as I to you. We both know it."

I growled, even as I knew Rain was right. But just because I didn't outright say that what he was doing was wrong didn't mean it wasn't. Tilly from last night had been overly sensitive and touchy-feely. That heifer had screamed and begged Rain to fuck her, and demanded some other centaur 'bring that cock over' for her to suck. Tilly from yesterday had sex with horse-men, went down on girls, and felt colors. If 'feeling colors' wasn't the universal sign of someone tripping off their ass I wasn't sure what was.

But now it was time to go. Time to stuff last night into a box and shove it deep, deep, deep down inside. "I'm gonna head out," I muttered, snatching a damp animal skin and wrapping it around my body. Shivering, I tried not to think of the fluids making it wet. From the smell, it sure wasn't water. Though it is probably Rain, my internal voice snickered. "Thanks for inviting me to the Gathering again, Chief Rain. It's been real."

I made a move to get up and he did the same, pushing naked women off his body. They protested, whining, reaching half-heartedly for his semi-erect cock before falling back into the pillows. "Not until the Connection breaks. You will remain here as is custom."

"Connection?" Gathering. Connection. Why couldn't they just blatantly say what it was instead of giving the event vague names? Vague names that got me into trouble.

He cocked his head, muscles pulling tight in his neck. I looked at the chords, mesmerized before my eyes caught on a bite mark where his neck met his shoulder. A memory came fuzzy and clear all at once; I saw myself, held up by nothing but Rain's cock and hands, begging him to fuck me harder before I bit into him and came.

"When a male centaur marks a female's womb a connection is made. It is only broken if the seed does not take root," Rain explained.

He could not be saying what I was pretty fucking sure he was saying. "I can get pregnant?" I whispered the word like a spell. Or a curse.

He inclined his head, stamping the ground with his hooves. "Of course."

Of course.

My head was going to explode. Going to pop right off like its own little space ship and self-destruct if I didn't get out of here This. Very. Minute.

"Nah," I clicked my tongue as I inched my way out of the tent. "I'm about one second away from totally losing my marbles and flippin' shit, which would be really bad, so I'm just gonna go and pretend like you didn't say I could be pushin' out a horse."

"I do not understand you," he said, eyes hard. "But you will stay until the witches' come. This is the purpose of the Gathering."

I barked out a laugh as I gingerly stepped over a wet spot and tried all at once to look at the ground and keep my eyes trained on Rain."To fuck a girl pregnant."

"To bring life back into the tribe after death has come."

Oh. In a twisted way that made sense. Sort of like Hercules and the Hydra. Cut off one head and two more grow back. Quite the finger to death.

"And I hope that works out for your tribe, Chief Rain, but trust me I'm not pregnant." And if I was than I'd make sure I wasn't. Abortion had never factored into my life. Sure I was pro-choice, but I never thought that I'd have to make that choice. Especially not involving a magical half-man, half-horse.

I took a wider step and my legs shook violently, hips straining against any effort. I groaned as semen slid out of me and onto the ground. Oh God. Bile raced up my throat, but I swallowed it, screwing my eyes shut and trying to picture myself past this moment—past this stupid planet. Back in my master's seminars, writing my thesis, being forced to watch Teen Titans with Brandon.

Brandon. I hadn't thought about the kid in weeks, not since I spoke to his parents. In fact, I hadn't talked to my professors or friends or anyone from Earth in over a week. Not my mother or father or siblings. And I realized how scary that was. This wasn't my home. Fever wasn't really my friend, and Caster wasn't my partner. This was temporary because of a douchey guy selling charms outside of Comic Con. Somehow I'd forgotten that; felt like I could put my stake in this world and call it home because I had to be here for a year, and if I was going to immerse myself then I was going to do it right. Maybe that would have been fine in another country where we at least had the commonality of species, but not here.

Get. Past. This. Moment.

Rain's hand banded on my upper arm a second later, pulling me against him. I hadn't even heard him move. There was nothing in his expression but cool calmness. Too cool.

"You planned this," I accused in a hiss. It wasn't a question and I wasn't naive enough to think he'd give me an answer. "You get me here, fuck me, and claim under some stupid centaur custom that I have to stay here and wait for some witches I'm pretty sure won't even show up. Why?"

Yesterday couldn't have been a coincidence because I didn't believe in those. Rain had been desperate to have me here, had sent Fly to get me. From the start, Caster had been weary and Duke dropped hints about not fucking up. Question was, why didn't they all just come out and say, 'This could be dangerous. Rain wants to keep you for himself. Just make sure you don't have sex with him, drink anything, or eat anything.' There was no way they didn't know this could happen. Lamb among wolves that I was, shit hitting the fan was inevitable. So why? Was I some kind of peacekeeping tool between Duke and the centaurs? Something to solidify their tenuous truce?

Rain's eyes narrowed to slits, his hooves hitting the ground and sending vibrations through my toes. "You have stumbled into a situation you cannot handle, child. Yesterday was an example. I invited you to learn why you were here. No other reason. But you opened yourself to me; gave free your body. The witches will come and they will evaluate, and if my child grows in you then you will stay through the birth. If you choose to leave after, you may. But I keep my child."

If it'd been any other day I would have savagely attacked the whole 'why you are here' thing, but not today. I was done with the macho bullshit and being kept in the dark and being treated like some incompetent pest who didn't know her left foot from her left eyeball. "You want to threaten me?" I got all up in his face. "Remember turnabout's fair play."

"I'm not threatening you, human," he growled, standing straighter and peering down at me. "I am explaining the custom. You are in my world."

"This isn't your world," I said, doing a mental check of my body to make sure nothing was too sore or unusable. "Now, you got three seconds to let me go or you're going to be in another world entirely. And I promise you, I'm the queen there. One."

Asshole pulled me closer, completely ignoring the promise in my eyes and the tightening in my fatigued muscles. He ducked his head to meet my gaze at level. "Duke is a fool that lets you play with knives; I am not. You may see this as prison, but it is protection."

"Two."

"Human—"

"Three." I twisted in his arms as I head butted him. He stumbled back, shaken, and I took advance of his confusion to squat, swiping my legs in an arch and catching his ankles until he fell sideways to the floor. The girls who'd been either asleep or lazily watching my interaction with Rain suddenly popped up, some shouting and others rushing at me with murder in their eyes.