Hunger Read online

  Table of Contents

  Copyright

  Chapter One – Ishk

  Chapter Two – Evie

  Chapter Three – Ishk

  Chapter Four – Evie

  Chapter Five – Ishk

  Chapter Six – Evie

  Chapter Seven – Ishk

  Chapter Eight – Evie

  Chapter Nine – Ishk

  Chapter Ten – Evie

  Chapter Eleven – Ishk

  Chapter Twelve – Evie

  Chapter Thirteen – Ishk

  Chapter Fourteen – Evie

  Chapter Fifteen – Ishk

  Chapter Sixteen – Evie

  Chapter Seventeen – Ishk

  Chapter Eighteen – Evie

  Chapter Nineteen – Ishk

  Chapter Twenty – Evie

  Chapter Twenty-One – Ishk

  Chapter Twenty-Two – Evie

  Chapter Twenty-Three – Ishk

  Chapter Twenty-Four – Evie

  Chapter Twenty-Five – Ishk

  Chapter Twenty-Six – Evie

  Chapter Twenty-Seven – Ishk

  Chapter Twenty-Eight – Evie

  Chapter Twenty-Nine – Ishk

  Chapter Thirty – Evie

  Chapter Thirty-One – Ishk

  Chapter Thirty-Two – Evie

  The Hierarchy

  Other Books By Harmony Raines

  Hunger

  Chosen by the Karal

  (Book Four)

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  Note from the author: My books are written, produced and edited in the UK where spellings and word usage can vary from U.S. English. The use of quotes in dialogue and other punctuation can also differ.

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  All rights reserved. This book, or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner without the express written consent of the author or publisher.

  This is a work of fiction and is intended for mature audiences only. All characters within are eighteen years of age or older. Names, places, businesses, characters and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, actual events or places is purely coincidental.

  © 2015 Harmony Raines

  Silver Moon Erotica

  Kindle Edition

  Chapter One – Ishk

  “I don’t know why I had to come here,” Ishk complained, stepping over a dirty puddle of water onto an even dirtier piece of road. “I have no intention of becoming soft on these Earth people like you, Okil.”

  “Lytril wanted you to see Earth for yourself. Anyway, your visit is nearly over; the next lottery draw is tonight. You will be expected to receive the winner as your mate and then you can go home to Karal.” Okil paused and then added, “Lytril did you a great honour making you the next Karalian to receive a woman to breed with.”

  Ishk snorted. “There is no honour; he did it to keep me occupied. I am no fool.”

  Okil’s expression, although quickly hidden, begged to differ. Ishk had to admit he had perhaps overstepped his role on the council when he had Vanessa, the Hier Ruler’s mate, whipped. But the Hier Ruler had spoken of the punishment in front of a guard. And the Hier Ruler had to be obeyed in all things. If that were not true, Ishk would have refused to come to Earth. Instead, he had obeyed orders, and now found himself surrounded by more filth and dirt than he had ever seen on Karal. Even in the animal pens.

  What worried Ishk was the way Okil followed him. On the first day here, he had become suspicious of Okil. It might have been paranoia, but Ishk had a feeling Okil had been given orders to kill him. Would they invent an accident, and then use their Earth friends to cover it up?

  He must have read Okil wrong, though; they had been on Earth for five days and nothing had happened, no instance where Ishk tripped and fell down one of the incredibly deep mine shafts that peppered the surface of the ruined planet. However, there was still time, and until the lottery was drawn, Ishk could be replaced. Okil could easily step in and take the lottery winner as his mate, and Ishk would never be seen or heard of again.

  However, as the day wore on, and Okil had given Ishk a tour of the most terrible places on their Earth, Ishk had instead sensed Okil was getting some perverse kind of pleasure from watching Ishk drown in disgust.

  The planet had upset him so much that he had trouble controlling his emotions, and the colours often took on a life of their own, skimming across his skin. For a proud alien, being out of control was unbearable; yet now he had an idea of what the other Karalians had gone through.

  Only instead of feeling sympathy towards them, it made him harden his resolve. It was time that the citizens of Karal thought about ousting the Hier Ruler. The idea that humans deserved some special treatment from Karal was false, and his species needed to wake up and see this before it was too late. Someone new should take up the reins.

  Someone like Ishk.

  “Come, we should go to the space cruiser. Soon they will announce the winner and we should head over to where she is, so that you can meet her properly.”

  “I have no wish to meet her. You go, since you love this species so much, Okil. Bring her to the cruiser. I do not want to touch her until she had been through decon’.”

  “Ishk. It is your duty. We will fly there in seconds, you meet her, and then tomorrow we go home to Karal.”

  “Not a moment too soon.” Ishk imagined the first deep breath of pure, clean air he would inhale when he landed on his beautiful planet. Instead of this overpolluted gas, which threatened to choke him—he hated to think of the permanent damage he had done to his lungs after only three days here. And they were breeding with females who had spent their whole life in this contaminated pit. The Karal must be very desperate indeed. Hungry for the next generation to be born before they were past their prime.

  They returned to the cruiser, Ishk trying to ignore the starving people they saw along the roads, huddled together for shelter. If Okil had expected Ishk to extend his sympathy to them, he was wrong. They brought nothing but disgust to Ishk; he could see how allowing these humans onto their home planet would destroy it.

  Yes. It was time for Karal to choose a new ruler. It was also time they came here, took the women they needed and shut them away in the breeding house, just as the mothers had been. Ishk held no pity for the human race. To him they were animals and should be treated as such.

  If Ishk wasn’t so aware of how much the Karal needed the human race, he would simply walk away from the planet Earth. There had to be a better species to mate with. But he knew only too well that the current generation, his generation, had searched far out into the universe for any suitable breeding females. A fruitless task, for the long range pilots, until they had found Earth and it’s sorry inhabitants.

  It had become increasingly clear that they had run out of time. He, and the rest of his generation, were nearing the end of their Prime. The years when they were capable of procreation were diminishing rapidly. He would never admit it to anyone, he tried not to admit it to himself, but these humans were the Karal’s only real hope.

  Chapter Two – Evie

  Evie wandered through the backstreets knowing she would need to find somewhere safe to sleep soon. The night had already closed in, and as she looked at the lights in the houses all around her, she envied them the small sanctuary of having somewhere to call home.

  Home was something alien to her, and had been for the last five years, since her parents were killed. Too young and too poor to take over the small house on her own, she had been evicted. At first, other families in the village had taken her in, but she was a strain on their already limited budgets. They didn’t have to tell her: she had heard the whispered conversations, witnessed the worry in their e
yes. She could have waited for them to ask her to leave, but she saved them the heartache of throwing a teenager out on the streets. Instead, Evie had left, saying she was going to live with an old aunt. They had all known it was a lie, but they had all accepted it out of necessity.

  The city beckoned. It was supposed to be a new start, not the downward spiral from which she could see no way out.

  Down and down her life had slipped, ever more hassled by pimps who wanted to sell her body to the highest bidder. A curvy, voluptuous body was becoming a rare commodity. Now she hid from them, after being caught out one night when she first arrived here. Too trusting, and with nowhere to sleep, a man who she thought was a friend had offered her his sofa.

  He had given her a drink. She thought it was simcoff, but it had something else in it. Her inhibitions had gone, replaced by a state that left her open to suggestion. What they made her do that night still made her feel sick. Only the fact they would get more for selling her virginity had stopped them raping her. When her senses returned to normal, she had the hard cock of a man she had never seen before down her throat.

  Gagging, he had grabbed her hair and made her stay in place while he came in her mouth. As she lay retching on the floor, one of them had kicked her and then tried to force her to drink more of the drugged simcoff. Taking the cup, she had flung it in his face and then run. Evie hadn’t stopped until she reached the outskirts of the city. If she had the coin she would have gone back to her hometown right then. But she knew she would never have the option to do that now. With little hope of a regular job, she would never be able to save the money for the return fare, and walking the roads alone left her an easy target to men who would hurt her.

  Evie crossed the street. Behind her, she could hear the sound of the Stream. Twenty-four/seven, the big screens flashed up their images, it was one of the hardest things to get used to. At night, one of her main requirements, when finding somewhere to sleep, was to make sure she was out of earshot of them. She liked to sleep where it was quiet, with no one else around, hidden. Then she could close her eyes and dream she was back in her small hometown, safe and comfortable.

  Brushing away a sentimental tear, she tried to ignore the nagging hunger which was her constant companion. She hadn’t had a full stomach since she arrived in the city. If she didn’t find a steady supply of coin soon, she would not have to worry about anyone wanting to sell her curvy body. Like the rest of the city’s population she would be thin and of no real value. When she first arrived, her puppy fat had sustained her, but now that had gone and Evie had grown into a young woman. An increasingly desperate young woman. How long would it be until she stopped avoiding the men who would sell her body and instead went to them, willing to do anything for a full stomach?

  Going into a warehouse she had used before, she checked to make sure it was empty. Then she made her way upstairs. There had been offices here once, when this was a thriving business. Now it was empty of anything useful or of value; it stank of urine and rot. Heading to the back of the room, she went to a large built-in closet that once would have held stationary. It was half concealed, especially in the dark, the ceiling above it hanging down to hide the door.

  Taking out the thin blanket, which was the only thing she had to stave off the cold night, she placed it on the floor of the closet and then lay down. To conceal herself she pulled the door to and closed her eyes, trying to sleep. Today was another day that she could claim to have survived, a thing she no longer celebrated. Tomorrow it would begin again, the desperate search for work and food. While she tried to forget about her hunger, she fought to block out the painful truth of her life. A life where all she had to look forward to was another hard day where she would once again question why she bothered to live.

  Sleep came quickly. She was exhausted, lack of food making her energy leak away. Her dreams were her only real escape, and there were times when she thought that if she never woke up she wouldn’t care. Perhaps she would join her parents in some kind of heaven when she passed from this world. Yet as each miserable day went by, she didn’t even care if heaven existed. Even the great nothingness of death would be better than this life.

  A noise woke her, dragging her from her dreams. She stirred, but tried not to move. If someone else was in here, she should stay still until they had gone. She didn’t need trouble, and she certainly didn’t want to be evicted by some other homeless person who would force her out into the night. Evie had found that it was easy to become invisible if you stayed quiet and didn’t attract attention.

  “She’s not here.” The voice made Evie shudder. She knew it, but couldn’t place it. Yet even with no face to the sound, the voice made her cringe, her hand involuntarily going to her shoulder where three cigarette burns made up some kind of brand on her shoulder. A brand that had appeared after that night.

  “I tell you, the homeless guy across the road swears she came in here. And that police tracker pinpointed this area. She’s here close by, she has to be.” A trace of fear laced this second voice.

  “The tracker is old, before they updated the system. And those strays will say anything if they think they will get a coin from it,” the first voice, obviously in charge, answered.

  “Then I’ll go back out and rip the coin from his hand.”

  “He’ll be long gone by now if he has any sense.” A sound of footsteps going out of the door, but not back down the stairs, they were searching the floor. Should she stay put? Of course, they hadn’t checked the closet, probably had not even seen it was there with the falling ceiling concealing it. If they thought this office was empty it was unlikely they would come back in here. Stay still, don’t move, she told herself.

  Their footsteps became fainter, and she lay so still she almost thought she had disappeared, her heart hardly beating, her breath shallow. Only her brain raced, moving in circles, trying to figure out why they wanted her. Or were they even looking for her? They might just be looking for some other woman.

  Her muscles were beginning to cramp. Straining her ears, she tried to listen for them, but there was nothing, so she risked moving just a fraction to ease the intense pain as it spread up her leg. Shifting position carefully, she settled back down to wait. Yet there was no sound, and she thought they must have gone out another way. Perhaps there was a fire escape. She didn’t care, as long as they had gone.

  As the night wore on she found herself dozing, and once more sleep claimed her.

  ***

  “Hello there, Evie.” A voice right by her head made her jump. Was she in some nightmare, because that voice made her want to scream?

  Opening her eyes, she was blinded by a bright flashlight being shone in her face. Scrambling to sit up, propelling herself back to press herself against the furthest wall, she covered her face with her hand to try to block out the light.

  “No, don’t be shy. You and I have met before. You might not remember, of course, but I am the one who gave you these.” He pulled her sweater down to where the three small scars made up the points of a triangle. Tracing the raised skin, he smiled at her. “You have been a naughty girl, avoiding me for so long. I’ve had to go to a lot of trouble and considerable expense to find you. But you are mine. Do you understand? It will be so much easier if you comply.”

  “What do you want?” Evie knew she had outrun luck. He was going to take her somewhere and let men do whatever they wanted to her. Maybe they would kill her.

  “You have become a valuable commodity. You are going to fetch a pretty price.”

  Evie couldn’t understand why they would go to all this trouble to hunt her down. There was nothing remotely attractive about her, especially with her unwashed hair and dirty body. It had been weeks since she had showered properly.

  “No one is going to want me,” she told him, but her words were met with a laugh, hollow and false.

  “Oh, but that’s where you are wrong. You see, you thought you could enter into the lottery and be taken away from me without me bei
ng paid.”

  “You don’t own me,” she said, and then his words registered. “The lottery?”

  “First, I do own you.” As if to prove his point, he leaned down and grabbed her by the hair, dragging her out of the closet. “And second, if these aliens plan to take you to their planet, I expect something in exchange.”

  She put her hand up to where his fingers so cruelly gripped her hair. “Let go, you’re hurting me.”

  “Oh, I’m sorry, excuse me. I never meant to pull your hair.” He released her, and instead reached out and grabbed her wrist, twisting the skin cruelly as he yanked her forward.

  Crying out, the last thing she saw was his other hand coming around and punching her in the face. The world went black, and the last thing she was aware of was him saying, “Tie her up, Harri, then make the call. If those aliens want her, they can pay. I’m going to see what I can do about her chip. Don’t want them tracking her the same way as we did.”

  A sharp pain in the back of her neck, and then the darkness took her completely.

  Chapter Three – Ishk

  Ishk tried to relax and think of home. The beautiful planet he loved. He wanted to feel the warm soil beneath his feet and feel the heat of the two suns on his face. To walk in the fields and see the golden grasses ready to harvest. The conditions had been perfect when he had been made to come here to claim his mate.

  Only thoughts of home made it easier to endure the thought of having to mate with one of these women. It was his duty. To make a son to carry on his family name, a son to teach all that he knew, just as his father had taught him.

  His father. He wished he had known him for longer. At only seven years old, he had lost him in a freak farming accident. There had been a storm coming and they wanted to get the last of the grain stored. A blockage had caused him to go into the silo. Ishk hated to think of his father suffocating under the harvest he had so lovingly gathered.