The Daring Prey

Chapter Six-1

Chapter Six

The hamlet at the end of the line turned out to be the biggest of the bunch. It had all the usual facilities: Saloon, general store, slave barn, a small doctor's office, and a couple of wood frame houses that Alexa supposed the staff lived in. But there was also an actual horse barn where the stagecoach teams were changed and housed, a two-story building that advertised itself as a rooming house but was actually more like a small hotel, with a one-story restaurant attached, and a few more frame houses. Everything was built to look like an old Western set. A walk around the place turned up several small dirt roads heading south, east and north out of town, but no one Alexa asked about them could or would tell her anything about where they led. Even the young, blonde proctor who seemed to be stationed here wasn't helpful. All Alexa learned from her was that her name was Martha, this was her first season as a proctor, and she was very interested in what Alexa intended to do. Martha had heard about last year's contest, but had been elsewhere, undergoing training, while it was going on. Alexa had the distinct impression that the proctor was disappointed she had missed it all, but wasn't sure why that was so.

Late in the afternoon the stagecoach rolled into town. Four women disembarked from it. Alexa thought that they were all in their late twenties or early thirties. Two of them seemed happy and excited to be there, while two others appeared to be distinctly edgy. Then Mike got out, stretched his legs, and caught sight of Alexa. He smiled and waved as he came over to her.

"What are you doing here?" Alexa demanded. "Can't you take a hint?"

"That's part of the charm of this place," he replied with an infuriating grin. "Like I said, I don't have to take hints. Anyway, I thought you were just playing hard to get. If you were serious about not wanting me to follow you, you shouldn't have ravished me back there. I'd like to do it again, but with me on top this time."

Alexa tried to appear angry with him, but she couldn't keep it up for long.

"All right," she laughed. "You're infatuated with me. I can understand that. But really, you'll have to just get over it if you can, you poor man."

"Don't want to," Mike said with a shake of his head. "You came here to be hunted, and I mean to hunt you down. I want to find out what you're like when you're stripped down, tied up, and helpless. I got a feeling you'd be very eager to please."

"You're welcome to try," Alexa shrugged. It was flattering, in a very unique way, to have a man so focused on her. It was also terribly inconvenient and distracting.

"You hungry at all?" Mike asked. "I missed lunch."

"I suppose I could go for a bite."

Mike was ready to go into the saloon, but Alexa suggested that they try the restaurant instead. It was an interesting-looking place with small, square tables, solid, heavy wooden chairs, and red and white checked tablecloths. The wait staff didn't dress like dance hall girls. They wore jeans and red and white checked shirts instead. There were no menus, just a big blackboard with the day's offerings written in pale yellow chalk. It was a limited selection, offering steak, pork chops, roast chicken and grilled fish.

"I suggest we go Dutch this time," Mike said to her.

"What? Why?"

"Why not?" he replied with a shrug. "We're not on a date. I'm hunting you. But I promise once I catch you I'll feed you by hand myself. Deal?"

Alexa snickered. "What makes you think you're going to catch me?" she asked.

"Let's just say I'm hopeful," he grinned. "And you gave me a Hell of an incentive the other day." He leaned towards her and lowered his voice. "You really do have the tightest p***y I've ever had the pleasure to f**k," he said, his tone conspiratorial. "Why did you do that, anyway?"

It took Alexa a moment to answer. "I was all keyed up after the run," she replied. "I didn't know what I was doing."

"And now you do?"

"Yes."

"I guess you do," Mike nodded. "But why are you doing it?"

"You wouldn't understand," Alexa replied.

"Maybe I would," Mike urged. "Come on, tell me."

The waitress arrived with a pitcher of iced tea and some glasses, took their orders, and sashayed off. It gave Alexa some time to think of what to say.

"I've never really been an athlete," she began.

"Really? You look like you're in great shape to me."

"Oh, I am," she smiled. "But there's more to it than that. You're either born an athlete or you're not. Athletes are a little quicker, a little stronger, or maybe just a little luckier, or tougher, or something. Professional athletes are way up here." She raised her hand as high as she could without standing up. "Most people are down here somewhere." She held her palm an inch or so above the table. "Me, I'm somewhere in the middle," she continued as she raised her hand to eye level. "And I learned some time ago that that's as good as I'm ever going to get, no matter how much effort I might put into it. Do you know what happened last year?"

"Bits of it," Mike answered.

"I was with a bunch of women athletes one afternoon. They were all in different sports. It's not like they were all close friends or anything, but they liked to get together every so often at this resort hotel to unwind and strut around in bikinis for a day or two. I always figured that the bikini part was another kind of competition for them. Anyway, it was a hot afternoon and we'd all been partaking of the really good margaritas the hotel served when one of them suggested they have a real competition."

"I'm a little confused," Mike interrupted. "I thought you said you weren't an athlete."

"I'm not. They let me tag along sometimes because I helped some of them stay in condition once in a while. I think it was something of a joke with them."

"Is that a sore spot with you?"

"No," Alexa replied after a pause. "It kind of was for a while, but I liked hanging out with them so I sucked it up. Some of them were nice to me."

"Okay," Mike nodded. "So what happened?"

"Well it sounded like such a good idea, this contest where none of us had any real advantage over any of the others. And we'd be literally putting our asses on the line. If we hadn't all been a little buzzed at the time I don't think any of us would have gone for it, but once we were committed nobody wanted to back out. I think they included me because we were all buzzed too. Anyway, it turned out to be really difficult to get approved for it. There were physicals, but mostly really peculiar psychological evaluations. You pass one of those and you'd have to pass the next one, and the next one, and the next one. I kept passing, but most of the other women didn't. By the end, there were only four of us left."

"And you were one of them."

"Yes!" Alexa smiled. "I felt really great about making the grade when most of the others didn't. I was so pumped! I thought I might have a shot at winning it all, so that's what I set out to do."

"And you won," Mike said. "I know that much."

"Yeah, but it was with an asterisk," Alexa sighed.

"An asterisk?"

"Turns out that there was this woman. She went by 'Elf-Girl', which sounds kind of geeky, but the first time she came here she decided to make it as hard as she could for anyone to catch her. She did get caught, finally."

"So where does the asterisk come in?"

"You know those little reader thingies you hunters have to carry so you can register a female when you've caught her?"

"Yes. What about them?"

"Well, it seems that the hunter who caught her had his break down or burn out or crash or something, so she didn't get registered until he got her back to civilization. The registration time counts as her official time, even though everybody had to know she'd been caught earlier. But since there was no registration then, the actual time she really was caught is unofficial. Even the unofficial time was something of a record. Last year, I beat the unofficial time, but not the official one."

"Hence the asterisk," Mike chuckled. "So you came back to get rid of it? That can't be the only reason."

Alexa grinned. "It isn't. I had fun last year. I never would have believed it if somebody had told me, but experiencing it.. .well, it was different and exciting and kinky. I had people coming just to get a look at me naked in a cage."

"You're worth looking at," Mike said. "Even out of a cage. Even with clothes on. Even with that short, short hair. But what about the lucky guy who caught you? Did he have fun too?"

"Enough about me," Alexa said hurriedly. "I have a question for you."

"Ask me anything," Mike said spreading his arms in a grand gesture.

"You've been here before," Alexa began, "so you must know some things about this place. What are 'girl catchers'? Aren't all captives just 'females'?"

"Oh, that," Mike seemed disappointed. "Yes, a captive woman is a 'female'. But there's a sub-category. Girls are younger-looking females, usually below average height and on the slender side. Girl catchers go after them, catch them, give them some basic training, and then sell them in a slave market to guys who are into girls."

"Huh." Alexa thought about that for a moment. "Are there other sub-categories?" she asked.

"Probably more than I know about," Mike answered. "This place is set up to cater to a wide variety of tastes. It's even possible to have a perfectly ordinary vacation here if that's what you're into."

"Really?" Alexa tilted her head and looked at him. "I can't imagine anyone wanting to do that. Not here."

"I guess that in Gordburg being ordinary might be considered the ultimate in kinky." Mike commented.

Alexa laughed. She wondered how many times Mike had been here before, and how much he wasn't telling her.

"So you came here to be hunted," Mike went on.

"I came here to break a record," she corrected him.

"And once you break that record, what then? You pack it in and go home? Or do you keep pushing, trying for an unbreakable record of your own until somebody brings you down? How long are you here for, anyway?"

"Two weeks," Alexa replied.

"Ah." Mike smiled. "That leaves you plenty of time to break the record, pad out your own a bit, and still get caught and enjoy a lengthy naked captivity as a s*x slave. Sounds good to me." He looked at Alexa intently, no doubt imagining... well, there were a lot of things he could be imagining, but the look in his eyes told Alexa that they were all s****l. It was a familiar look, but it still made her blush.

"Down, boy," she held up a forefinger.

"No," he said.

"Oh? And why not?" Alexa asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Why should I?" he countered. "This is Gordburg. You're perfectly safe as long as you stay in town, but the moment you step outside the boundaries you're fair game. You've been here before. You came back, which means that you didn't find your experience completely unpleasant. Whoever caught you had the time to give you some training. But you've still got a wild streak in you, and you like challenging men. Wasn't whoever caught you last year dominant enough for you?"

"That's none of your business," Alexa retorted. The fact was that Will had pushed her harder and further than she would have believed herself able to go, both here in Gordburg and later when she'd gone to see him where he lived and ran his wilderness survival training business. She felt the heat in her cheeks as she recalled all the things he had done to her, all the things he had taught her, and all of the things she had done at his command to please him. He had opened her up, figuratively and literally, and she would forever be grateful for all that he had taught her. But along with all that he had taught her there was one thing that she had learned for herself. As much as she cared for Will, and as much as he cared for her, they weren't in love, and never would be. Will still had his thing for tall, strong, confident women, and she still had a hankering for men taller than Will was. If the two of them lived closer together, she could easily see them making regular booty calls, but they lived so far apart, and in such very different circumstances, that that just wasn't going to happen either.

"Well," Mike shrugged, "You're right about that. It isn't any of my business, but I'm making you my business for as long as you're here, so you might as well get used to it."

Alexa was beginning to regret dragging this persistent and very annoying man off to bed earlier. He was certainly attractive, and fit, and pleasantly endowed, but he kept getting underfoot, and if he kept her from breaking that old record she'd... well, she wasn't sure what she'd do, but it would certainly put a damper on things between them.

"Are you worried I'll keep you from setting that new record you're so intent on?" Mike asked.

"What?" Alexa abruptly leaned back in her chair. It was as if he had read her mind, and that was really disturbing.

"Oh, come on," Mike chuckled. "You've been going on about setting a new record here, and right now that's more important to you than all the kinky fun you could be having. I'm just thinking about that kinky fun, and I want to have it with you. You're really fit, you're hot, you're clearly competitive, and I'm really interested in you. The problem is that by now lots of other men are probably just as interested. If I don't stay close there's a chance that one of those other men might catch you, and I don't want that to happen. I'm willing to wait until you set your record. I'd get a bit of a reputation for catching the uncatchable female that way. But I'm not willing to let some other guy grab you."

"Ah..." Alexa relaxed a little. "Okay. Do you mean what you just said?"

"Every word. I've got a lot more words that I mean just as much, but I'm not sure this is the best place for me to say them." He gestured at the other patrons. "We could talk about it later, if you'd like. Maybe back in my room? Or are you planning to split soon?"

Alexa couldn't help laughing. "You really aren't going to give up, are you?" she asked. "Look, I had fun with you too, but the only way you'll ever get me back in bed is if you catch me and drag me there."

"That's okay with me," Mike grinned, "but you are taking playing hard to get to a whole new level."

"Oh, stop," Alexa waved a hand. There was a break in their conversation as the waitress brought their orders and asked if she could get them anything else. They both told her 'no', and she went off to another table.

"Would you mind answering some questions?" Alexa asked as she tucked into her meal. It was tasty. Whoever the cook was, they knew their business.

"What kind of questions?" Mike asked.

"Well, for starters, what do you do back in the real world?"

"Why do you want to know?"

"Come on. I told you a little something about me. Now you tell me a little something about you."

Mike shrugged. "Okay," he said. "I'm in construction."

"So, you're what?" Alexa prodded. "A carpenter? A plumber? An electrician?"

"I'm a contractor," Mike replied.

"Let me see your hands," Alexa demanded. Mike looked at her quizzically for a moment and then complied, reaching across the table, his palms up. Alexa took each of his hands in one of hers. He had strong hands, hard and a little rough. They might have already had quick, hot sweaty s*x that one time, but she hadn't given him much chance to use those hands, and for a brief and exciting moment she imagined how they might feel spanking her bare ass.

"These don't look much like a carpenter's hands," she said. "Plumber's or electrician's either."

"I just told you, I'm a contractor," Mike said as he pulled his hands back. "I still do some of the work, but I spend most of my time drumming up new business. That takes up a lot of my time these days."

"So you own your own business?" Alexa asked.

"Yes. It's not as big as it used to be, but it's mine."

"Do you like it? Running your own business, I mean?" Alexa asked.

"There are times I miss working with my hands," Mike shrugged. "So I pitch in on jobs when I can."

He didn't volunteer any more information, and Alexa suspected that he wouldn't tell her much more even if she asked him directly. For a moment, there was an awkward, still silence between them. Mike went back to eating his supper. The awkward silence was no longer still, but it felt just as awkward, and Alexa couldn't figure out why.

"So, you've been here before?" she asked. "Can you tell me anything about this particular little town?"

"Not much," Mike answered. "I never quite got this far before. I heard it's called 'End', because it's the end of the line, at least so far as the stage is concerned. But there's supposed to be more stuff out past here that most people aren't allowed to go to. Somewhere east of here, between her and the highway, there are some working farms, and in amongst them somewhere is a place called The Farm. Capital letters. Hardcore stuff is supposed to go on there."

"What kind of hardcore stuff?" Alexa asked.

"I heard some things, but I'm not sure," Mike replied. "Anyway, it didn't sound like anything I was interested in trying, so I didn't pry."

This was strange. Mike had been so open with her just a few moments ago, and now he was closed off. Alexa wondered what she'd said or done to trigger such a change in him. She picked up her fork, hesitated, and then put it back down again. Mike was focused on his meal, and not paying any real attention to her.

"Look at me, Mike," she said. He looked up, saw the expression on her face, and quietly put his own fork down.

"What just happened?" Alexa asked.

"What do you mean?"

"Don't try to pull that," Alexa replied, waving a hand dismissively. "You know what I mean. You were all friendly and funny until I asked you about what you did for a living, and then it was like you dropped... what do they call it? That thing in a castle gate? A portcullis! Yeah, you dropped a portcullis between us, right across the middle of this table. Why? I told you some stuff about me. I just wanted to know a little more about you, and you shut down on me. I want to know why."

Mike just looked at her at first, and then a smile slowly bloomed on his face. It was a rueful smile, but it was enough for Alexa to feel a bit relieved.

"Sorry," he said. "You're right. Look, back in the real world I'm under pressure all the time, just trying to pay the bills and keep my business going. I come here to get away from all that, just for a little while. Some years I can afford it, some years I can't. Last year I couldn't."

"Oh," Alexa said. "Okay, now I understand. I wouldn't have asked if I didn't like you, you know?"

For an instant, Mike frowned, and then his smile was back. "Okay," he nodded. "Now I understand. I think. I hope you're not saying you hope that we can still be friends."

Alexa laughed again, all of her doubts and tension suddenly gone. "I didn't come here to make friends," she said. "I came here to get away from all that real-world stuff myself and cut loose for a while."

"I thought you wanted to set a record."

"Oh, I do!" Alexa nodded emphatically. "But I want to have some good, dirty fun while I'm doing it. Back home I run my own one-woman business, and I have to keep a spotless reputation so I can stay in business. Here, I can cut loose and show my wild streak." She leaned forward, her eyes fixed on Mike's.

"In fact," she said, "I just thought of something I'd like to do once we're done here. You can come along if you want."

"The way you put it, I don't think you mean coming back to my room with me. That offer's still open, by the way."

Alexa chuckled. "No," she said, shaking her head. "It's a tempting offer, but I want to do a little more self-promoting before I head off into the wilds. Can you meet me at the slave barn in a while? I've got some shopping to do and a few things to try to arrange, and I need to do all that alone."

"You promise you're not going to try to sneak away while I'm waiting?"

"Would you believe me if I did promise?"

"Maybe a little," Mike said with a shrug. "But from the look in your eyes, you really do have something interesting planned, and whatever it is, I'd like to see it."

"My first time here, I discovered that I was a bit of an exhibitionist," Alexa said. "I really get off on the attention." She got up from the table and smiled down at Mike. "That ought to give you something to think about while you're waiting."

She didn't look back as she walked out of the restaurant, though she would have loved to see the expression on Mike's face. It would have spoiled her exit, though, and she really did have some things to do. She'd already planned to sneak out of this little town tonight. She'd been to each and every little hamlet along the stagecoach line, and made herself highly visible in each one of them. Now it was time for the hard part, going out into the woods where she could be hunted. She had no illusions about her ability to run free indefinitely. She just hoped she could avoid capture long enough to beat the 'official' record set by that woman who went by 'Elf-Girl'. She found herself wondering if that Elf-Girl would ever come back here. She'd like a chance to meet her if she did.

The shopping didn't take long. Alexa knew exactly what she needed, and unlike last year, this year she planned to travel as lightly as she could. Will had taught her a lot about wilderness survival. He'd also taught her quite a lot about her submissive side. Whatever lucky man finally ran her to ground would have no good reason to complain about how hard she'd made him work for it.

Finding the town proctor, on the other hand, took a while. The black-clad woman was all over the town, but never in the same place at the same time as Alexa. It shouldn't have been as hard to find such a distinctly-dressed woman in such a small place as it turned out to be, and Alexa began to fret about the time. She had some very distinct things that she wanted to do before nightfall, and only the proctor could make the arrangements. Besides everything else he'd taught her, Will had filled her in on how much power and authority a proctor could wield. She finally caught up with the woman near the stage office and drew her aside to make her pitch. It didn't take much for the proctor to agree to everything, but by then it was getting late and Alexa had to hustle.