Instinct A Dark Sci-Fi Romance

“So she just gets to…”

“She doesn’t get to do anything. She is going to be punished. Seriously. As are you.”

“But…”

Zion gives me that steely blue gaze. “Tell me, Tselia. Did it feel good to hit her?”

“It felt so good,” I admit. There is little left to lie about now. I know what kind of trouble I am in. Deep.

“That’s why you’re going to be punished. I don’t want you getting a taste for fighting.”

“I’m not going to get a taste for it!”

“Owwwieee!” Someone else’s cry interrupts me. I turn around to see that Tyna is already being punished. Right out in the open. In the very center of the village, Tyna is being punished. There are two men taking care of her, one with a mane of red hair, the other with a shaved head. I expected to see her being lectured or perhaps whipped, but that is not the way of this village. They are pushing their cocks in and out of her, one in her mouth, the other in her pussy.

“Oh, my…” I take a breath as the one in her pussy pulls out and lands a hard slap on her rump. Seeing the bright red palm bloom on her bottom is deeply satisfying to me. “Oh, she deserves that.”

I watch, engrossed, as the two warriors make a meal of Tyna. They fuck her with punishing aggression, making her cry out. It might be pleasure. It might be pain. Whatever it is, it looks effective. If someone had done this to her in the first place, I might never have had to deal with her.

“We warned you, Tyna. You are not the village chief. You are a female. A huntress. You do not decide who lives and who dies. You do not decide who is a member of this village and who isn’t. You serve the village. You do not control it.”

A stern lecture is being given by a third male who seems to be overseeing the entire affair. I have not paid much attention to the other men in the village, but they are all impressive specimens.

I turn to Zion in confusion. “Why hasn’t this been done before? To her?”

“Tyna is an excellent huntress. She has never turned on anyone in the tribe before. She has never deserved punishment like this before. You’ve had quite an effect on her.”

“So I broke her? It’s my fault?”

“It’s not your fault. Not what she did. But what you did very much is.”

I can’t tear my eyes away from the scene in front of me. It is the first time I have seen Tyna looking in any way… well… feminine. She is vulnerable. She is beautiful. I wonder if that is how I look when Zion takes me. Does my entire body flush with pleasure as my toes curl? Does my head fall back as I make the most elegant arcs and shapes, shuddering beneath his lust?

“That is going to be you,” Zion says. “Once they’re done with her, I will take you to the center and I will deal with you as you deserve to be dealt with, my scrappy little star girl.”

“You’re not really angry at me, don’t do this!”

“I’m not angry,” he agrees. “But you have to fit in, my little star girl. And fighting with Tyna isn’t the way to do that.”

This is so unfair. She started all of it. I did nothing. I’ve tried to avoid her. I’ve tried to do as I’m told, but I’m not being welcomed here and I probably never will be.

“Don’t pout,” he says. “I warned you.”

“You brought me here. This is your fault.”

“My fault? How?”

I should take more care to notice the darkness in his tone, but I’m too busy trying to argue my way out of this.

“It just is!”

He shakes his head. “I was going to wait, but if this is your attitude, we can begin now.”

“What? No!”

“You caused as much trouble as she did. You will be fuck punished as well.”

“No!”

My refusal to be punished does not have any effect. Zion plucks me from the ground and carries me to the center of the ring. Tyna is a few feet away, but she is not interested in me, and soon I am no longer interested in her. It is my bottom over a large log, my skin about to turn red with a leather strap brought by one of the men. It is long and embossed and seems to have a ritual place, for all eyes go wide when they see it.

“Please…”

Zion shakes his head. There is no mercy in his eyes. “You were warned. You disobeyed.”

With that the first lash falls, a loud crack heralding a blazing pain. The leather lash bites across the very center of my cheeks, sending pure sensation shooting through my body. This isn’t fair. But it is happening anyway. I am being punished with Tyna just feet away from me—at least she is getting sex. I am getting nothing but the leather Zion wields, his big muscular arm bringing it down across my cheeks, which are swiftly bared thanks to the failure of my skirt. The damn thing falls off all the time.