The Novice Prey & The Daring Prey

Chapter Six-2

“Have you seen any of the other women?”

“No,” Albert shook his head. “Heard one of ‘em got taken not too long ago.”

“Yep,” Alexa couldn’t resist a grin. “I saw her at…what’s it called? Smith’s?”

“Yah. Just west of here. So it’s down to three of you, I guess.”

Alexa stabbed with her fork, getting a bit of steak, a bit of egg, and some crispy brown potato on the implement all at once. She shoved it into her mouth and began chewing.

“You’re a very good cook, Mr. Jones,” she said after she’d swallowed.

“Thank you, Miss,” he nodded with a smile. “Spent thirty years in the Navy as a cook. Took me a little while to learn how to cook for just one or two people after that.”

Alexa laughed. She found Mr. Jones very likeable. She kept on eating, savoring every bite.

“Have you heard anything about the other two women?” she asked between mouthfuls.

“No, ma’am,” he answered. “Had some hunters pass through here yesterday, though. Said they were after a tall blonde, asked me if I knew anything. Told them I didn’t.”

“And if someone comes by asking, say, about me?” Alexa prompted.

“I’d have to tell ‘em I saw you, and that you had a nice, healthy appetite,” he chuckled.

“And maybe which way I went?”

“Now, to do that I’d have to go outside and watch you leave,” Albert said. “And I got too much to do inside. Top of everything else, in a little while I got to go see about that woman you heard screamin’ last night, make sure she’s still okay.”

Alexa stopped dead in the act of sopping up some egg yolk with a chunk of potato.

“Uh…yeah,” she began uncertainly. “About that…”

“You’re wonderin’ who she is and what she’s doin’ out here.”

“Well, yes,” Alexa admitted. “I thought there wouldn’t be any women out here but us.”

“Oh, she’s not part of the hunt,” Albert said. “She’s actually one of the proctors, takin’ some time off for herself.”

“What?” Alexa remembered Lydia telling her something along those lines, but she hadn’t thought it would come to something like this.

“Think about it,” Albert said. “You got how many men out here beatin’ the bushes for some lovely young women who’re doin’ their best not to get caught. End of the day, those men might be feelin’ more than a little horny if they ain’t caught anybody.”

“Uh…okay,” Alexa nodded. “I can understand that.”

“Thought you might,” Albert chuckled. “You went just a little bit pale there for a minute.”

“Go on,” Alexa told him. “What about this proctor?”

“Well, proctors get to see a lot of stuff. It’s part of their job, so they kinda have to. Takes a special woman to be a proctor, but she’s still a woman, and she’s still got her own appetites. That’s why they get to take off the black dress from time to time. Well, the one out back figured that she might get what she was lookin’ for by comin’ out here and offerin’ herself up to those frustrated hunters.”

“Oh.” Alexa gulped. “It was her I heard screaming?”

“Yep. Then they gagged her. She wanted to put up a fight, and she did, but there was three of ‘em.”

“How…” Alexa gulped again. “How is she?”

“She was fine last I saw her,” Albert shrugged. “Little stiff and sore, maybe, but she wasn’t complainin’.”

“And she’s still here?”

“Yeah. Those hunters are figurin’ if they don’t catch anything today they can just come back here and work off a little steam.”

“What?” Alexa yelped. “They’re coming back, and you didn’t tell me?” She got up from her stool, heart pounding.

“Relax, Miss,” Albert said reassuringly. “I already told ya they’re after a tall blonde. Seemed real determined to bag her, too. And they won’t be back ‘til sometime around nightfall. More coffee?”

Alexa gingerly eased herself back onto the stool. “Yes, please,” she nodded. She just had to ask the next question, “Are there any more hunters you haven’t told me about?”

“Miss,” Albert looked at her. He had light blue eyes and his smile was disarming. “I don’t have to tell you anything you don’t ask about. You understand that?”

“Okay.”

“It’s the same at the other posts, so remember that,” he continued. “But since you asked there was a pair of hunters that came through here two days ago, and from what they said they were lookin’ for you.”

“Are they coming back?” Alexa began to slide off of the stool again.

“Don’t think so,” Albert shook his head. “They were gonna look for you off to the west. Said another hunter had told them he’d seen you off that way.”

Alexa thought about that. On the one hand, someone was looking for her specifically after all. On the other hand, they were looking for her, specifically. And she was pretty sure who had told them where she’d been.

“Were there any other hunters?” she asked carefully.

“No, ma’am,” Albert shook his head. “None at all.”

She slowly let her breath out. There was still a bit of that delicious breakfast left, and more coffee to drink, so she took care of both items. Albert offered her a third cup, but she politely turned it down.

“I really should be going,” she said. “I’m beginning to think that coming here was a lot riskier than I’d thought.”

“You’re running a risk anywhere you go, Miss,” Albert said. “But you’re safe here for the time being.”

“Yes, I was told that,” Alexa nodded.

“I’m thinkin’ you’d like to go out back and check on the female,” he said.

“‘Female’?” Alexa looked at him.

“That’s what we call ‘em when they’re naked and collared,” Albert grinned. “Don’t matter who or what they were before.”

“Even when the ‘female’ is one of your proctors?”

“She takes off the black dress, sure,” Albert replied. “When she puts it back on, she’ll be a proctor again, but right now she’s just a naked, captive female.”

Alexa suddenly felt more than a little uneasy about how Albert was looking at her.

“What makes you think I’d be interested in seeing her?” she demanded.

“You want to get a look at what it might be like for you,” Albert replied easily. “You want to see what got done to her, and think about it bein’ done to you.” He took a swig of his coffee. “Miss, I seen it before, and I expect I’ll see it again. You got guts comin’ out here in the first place, but you got some doubts too, since this is your first time. And, since you’re a woman, you’re curious.”

“A woman? Not just a female?” Alexa folded her arms and tried to stare him down.

“You get caught, and stripped, and collared, you’ll be a female,” Albert said in a disturbingly matter-of-fact way. “And if you get brought here, you can bet I’ll have a nice, long look at you. But right now, you’re runnin’ free, so you’re a woman. Now, do you want to go see the female or not?”

Alexa put her arms down and sighed. “All right,” she admitted. “Yes, I’d like to go see her.”

“She’s around back,” Albert said. “You’ll see three sheds back there. She’s in the one with the red and yellow flag flyin’ over it.”

“A flag?” Alexa frowned.

“Yeah. Special flag. Lets people know there’s a female captive available.”

“Oh.” Alexa gulped. “You mean available to anybody who comes by?”

Albert just smiled. Alexa retrieved her bundle of dirty clothes and went out the front door, feeling oddly disturbed and excited at the same time.

There were indeed three sheds out back, all built of timbers and planks weathered gray. Two of them had only three walls, with the open ends pointed towards the trading post. She saw crates and boxes stacked in one of them. The other appeared to be empty, though the floor was thickly strewn with straw. The third shed sat between and behind the first two. It looked like it had all four walls. Alexa saw a striped red and yellow flag hanging limply from a short flagpole atop the middle shed. There was a double door set in the middle of the near wall. She paused and took a deep breath before approaching them.

They weren’t locked. It looked as if they were kept shut by simple latches, which meant they couldn’t be locked anyway. Alexa slowly swung the right-hand door open. It creaked and groaned on ancient hinges. She really, really wanted to see what was inside, but at the same time she dreaded what she might find.

The dirt floor inside was also strewn with straw, but it was so dark inside that at first she couldn’t see anything more than that. She took a hesitant step forward, and saw something moving in the corner. It was a woman, naked, her long dark hair in disarray with bits of straw stuck in it. She’d apparently been lying on a blanket thrown atop the layer of straw. As Alexa watched, fascinated, the woman got up on her knees, her back towards the door. Alexa could see that the woman’s hands were shackled behind her with heavy handcuffs, and there were red stripes across her ass. The woman slowly bent over until her head was on the blanket, and spread her knees wide. Then she remained still, except for a slow clenching and unclenching of her hands.

Alexa approached the woman slowly. Her pose was incredibly submissive. It looked as if she had been trained to adopt it anytime someone entered the shed where she was held captive. It was a little unnerving, and yet, at the same time, compelling. She stopped a few feet away, fighting an urge to reach out and touch the woman. Her eyes had adjusted to the dimness inside the shed, and now she could see that the red stripes were welts.

“I am here to serve, Master,” the woman said. “Use my body as you will.”

“Uh…thanks for the offer,” Alexa replied. “But I just came here…for a look.”

The woman straightened up, but remained on her knees as she turned around. Alexa had been half-expecting her to be Lydia, but it was still something of a shock when she recognized that it was indeed her.

“My God!” Alexa exclaimed. “What did they do to you?”

Lydia looked tired and worn. There were some welts across her upper thighs, her hair was a mess, and her face looked drawn. Her breasts, which were average-sized but firm and well-shaped, were unmarked. There was a black leather collar buckled around her neck, with a heavy chain linking it to a ring set in the wall, secured with a padlock. She smiled wanly up at Alexa.

“Everything,” she almost crooned. “Everything, all night long.”

Alexa was pretty sure she knew what ‘everything’ entailed, so she didn’t ask any questions along those lines. “Are you all right?”

“Oh,” Lydia smiled softly. “I’m fine. I’m wonderful. And they’ll be back.”

“Did they hurt you?”

“Only for as long as I fought them,” Lydia answered. “And it wasn’t so bad. When they held me down, I was so ready for it…”

“I don’t understand,” Alexa shook her head. “I really don’t.”

“Why are you even here, then?”

“I’m beginning to wonder about that myself,” Alexa said. “But…I can’t back out now.”

“Nonsense. Of course you can. You know you can.”

“I know I can,” Alexa replied. “But, trust me, I can’t.”

“Now I don’t understand,” Lydia frowned.

“Never mind,” Alexa said. “I just came for a look. I don’t even know why.” She backed away for a few steps, then turned to go.

“Wait,” Lydia demanded. Alexa stopped and turned back. She saw Lydia get to her feet with some effort and stand there at the end of her chain, shoulders back, feet apart.

“Look at me,” Lydia ordered. Alexa obeyed. In fact, she couldn’t tear her eyes away. Her eyes were drawn to the trimmed patch of dark hair between Lydia’s legs, to her breasts, back to her eyes.

“Do you know what it takes to become a proctor?” Lydia asked.

“No,” Alexa replied.

“You have to start as a ringer, or a mule, someone they can put in with new females who aren’t quite used to things yet so you can keep an eye on them,” Lydia said. “You work for the company, but you get trained like you were a s*x slave. It’s rough and it’s brutal. For the women who can stand it, it’s also the most exciting job they’ll ever have. It pays pretty good, too. If you’re good, after five or six years they pick you for training as a proctor. It’s a completely different kind of work, and it’s necessary for this place to function.” She took a breath. “But I still need release from time to time. So I take off the black dress, and for a while I can be a s*x slave again, used and abused by strange men. But do you know what?”

“No,” Alexa shook her head.

“Underneath it all, it’s safe here. Nobody gets to come here without psychological and physical screening that the CIA would envy.” She sank back down onto her knees.

“I can see you’re worried, Alexa,” she said, “maybe even a little scared. That’s normal. I hope that if you get taken, it’s by a man, or some men, who can teach you all the pleasures of being a captive. It’s like nothing else you’ve ever experienced.”

“Uh…thanks,” Alexa said uncertainly.

“Go,” Lydia smiled. “Go on back out there and make them work for you.”

Alexa left the shed and slowly shut and latched the door securely. She looked around once to see if anyone was watching her. No one was, at least not that she could see. She trotted away from Jackson’s, back out into the woods. Only then did she realize that Albert hadn’t charged her for her shower or her meal.