Unexpected Awakening

When Fox first emerged from the criminal underworld on Earth, clawing his way to the top of the heap, the wealthy families who had relocated to the Lunar Station and the first-class living installations there did not pay much attention. Those who had dealings with Earth were used to the changing regimes of the crime families that now reigned supreme behind the politicians left on Earth. For the Lunar Station Families, their planet of origin was no longer much of concern. It was considered a teaching tool, an entire planet-sized museum of the past, but its focus was on the future and the stars.

Then Fox became a household name, and Earth a testing ground, for a certain generation among the Lunar Station families. They wanted the taste of danger, the thrill of escape... for Fox would occasionally select one or two of the young men and women who would visit Earth for schooling or leisure, and they would disappear. Sometimes for days, sometimes for months. Those who spent the shortest amount of time with Fox returned with wild stories of orgies and incredible sex, of pain and pleasure, and the adrenaline rush that could only come with the fear of death.

Perhaps not surprisingly, their peers immediately began to make trips to Earth in droves, secure in the knowledge that they would not be taken... but wanting to tempt fate. Their entire lives had been safe, stale... and so far none of those taken by Fox had ever failed to return.

Of course, there were those who disappeared for months. When they were returned to their families they never spoke of their ordeal; the only way it was known that they had spent time with Fox was when they were recognized by those who had been returned after only a matter of days and were bragging about the experience.

His following and power was such that the press was only able to obtain a few photos and little information. Most of what was known of Fox came through those few who had been taken or the intermediaries of Earth who dealt with the Lunar Station in business transactions.

But the tourist trade on Earth swelled, as the wealthy denizens of the Lunar Station continued to court danger, never knowing who might be taken next.

~~~

Ella woke slowly, feeling groggy. The inside of her mouth tasted awful. The inside of her head felt even worse. She moaned, shifting a little bit and wondered why she was laying on something so hard and uncomfortable.

"Ella," a familiar voice whispered urgently. "Ella, are you awake? Are you okay?"

"Ander?" Her voice came out as a hoarse croak. She forced her eyes open, blinking and squinting as the light blinded her for a moment. "Ander, what's going on?"

There was a muffled whimpering sob behind her and Ella tried to turn to see who was there, only to be pulled short by the cording around her wrist, secured to a pole. Horrified, she stared at the cording, before blinking and looking in the direction that Ander's voice had come from.

He was sitting up, leaning against another pole that his wrists were tied to.

What kind of sick joke was this?

Memories swirled. Ella and her boyfriend Mitch had come on vacation to Earth with his best friend, Ander and Ander's girlfriend Freya. They'd only had a few days left before going home when she and Ander had gone out to a museum that neither Mitch nor Freya were interested in. Unfortunately, neither she nor Ander had anticipated how interested Mitch and Freya were in each other. They'd come back early from the museum, feeling bad about deserting their partners, to find that Mitch and Freya hadn't missed them at all.

Ella had been horrified, Ander had been angry, they'd both packed up their stuff immediately, ignoring the pleas from Mitch and Freda, and gotten in a taxi. She'd been so glad that Ander had been there; Ella knew she was a bit of a pushover and if it hadn't been for Ander's righteous anger, she wasn't sure that she would have been able to resist Mitch's manipulations and explanations. Not to mention that her family had been incredibly approving of their relationship; Mitch's father was very influential when it came to assigning space in the housing installations. It had been Ander who had helped her to realize that she had every right to break up with Mitch, that it wasn't her fault he'd cheated on her, and that she needed to get away. Now.

But what the hell had happened after they'd gotten in the taxi? She remembered crying on Ander's shoulder and then... nothing.

"I'm sorry, Ella, I'm so, so sorry," Ander said miserably.

"What's going on?" she asked again, her voice becoming a bit shrill.

"Shush," he said, doing his best to be soothing, although it was obvious from the tension in his body that he was suppressing his own amount of panic. "Stay quiet." There was enough of a forceful demand in his voice that she pushed down the scream that wanted to bubble up out of her throat.

Another whimper behind her had her scooting toward the pole so that she could sit up the way Ander was and look around. A fragile looking young woman was also tied to a nearby pole. She had practically wrapped herself around it in fact. With her big crystal blue eyes, white-blonde hair, and slight figure, she looked like a captured pixie. She looked incredibly young, but she was so slight that she could have been quite a bit older than her looks indicated.

"What's going on?" Ella asked again, unable to completely keep the panic out of her whisper.

"I'm so sorry," Ander repeated, looking even more miserable. "We should have never come to Earth... never gotten into that taxi..."

Slowly the hazy memories coalesced. She remembered Ander asking the driver why he was descending into the city when they should have been ascending to head to the space port... the sickly sweet smell that had filled her nose and mouth and Ander shouting...

"Oh my god..."

"Ella, it's okay, be calm."

"Calm? Be calm? How can you say that?" Her voice rose to a shriek, which was cut off when metal scraped against concrete. Immediately all three of them turned towards the sound and Ella's breath strangled in her throat.

The biggest and most dangerous looking man she'd ever seen in her life filled the doorway. The room they were in suddenly felt much smaller than it had a moment ago. His cold gaze swept over all three of them, lingering on the little blonde, who whimpered again as his lips hooked up in a cruel smile. The man had the same white-blonde hair as the young woman, although his was barely half an inch long, cut very close to his head, and his eyes were a clear gray. A vacant, sinister gray. Ella didn't blame the other woman for whimpering, she felt like doing so herself and he'd only looked at her for a moment. There was something about him, the way he held himself maybe, that screamed violence and danger. This was the kind of man that would never be approved for immigration to the Lunar Station, based on that alone.

Dressed in dark pants with lots of pockets that bulged, a gray t-shirt and a vest that also looked to have filled pockets, the first word that went through Ella's mind was "Mercenary."

"Good. You're all finally awake."

The cruel smile widened in anticipation and Ella finally understood why her roommates had wanted her to be quiet.

~~~

After roping them together and hobbling their ankles, Jackson - as he'd introduced himself - had taken her, Ander and the other young woman down the hall to a large tiled room with a drain in the middle of the floor. It had taken every ounce of Ella's willpower not to start screaming. Logically she knew that it would make no sense to wake them up and then kill them, but if that's what Jackson was going to do then this room would be the ideal place for it.

He removed the cords that had joined them together and then had grabbed Ander's bound wrists. For a moment Ander tensed and Ella worried that he was going to try and fight. Although Ander was a couple inches over six feet, Jackson was a couple inches taller than him and had a lot more muscle - which was saying something because Ander had a really fantastic body. But his muscles were that of the body conditioning every young person was put through on the Lunar Station, whereas Jackson's were obviously built from far less reputable activities.

They didn't know where they were, what other guards might be around, and Ander's feet were hobbled along with his wrists. As much as Ella wanted to get out of here, she didn't think now was their chance.

Fortunately, Ander knew that too, because he relaxed and allowed Jackson to attach his wrists to a chain that was hanging down from the ceiling.

"Smart boy," was Jackson's only comment.

Because she was watching, Ella could see the little tick in Ander's jaw that indicated his rage. She'd seen that same tick when Freya had tried to tell him that she'd only fucked Mitch because she thought he'd like it - after all, hadn't they joked about swinging on the trip?

A moment later, Jackson had strung up Ella and the young blonde woman in the same manner. Glancing over, Ella could see that the young woman was even shorter than she'd realized - her head barely came up to Jackson's chest. Next to the huge man, she looked tiny and almost child-like. Ella hated the little part of her that was relieved that the giant was obviously more fascinated with the blonde than he was with her. When he'd put Ella's wrists above her head, it had been with as little fanfare as he'd done Ander's.

While he seemed to be more gentle with the blonde, who was crying silent tears down her porcelain cheeks, he also ran his hands over her body. Which, of course, just made her cry harder. Did it make Ella a terrible person that she was relieved that Jackson didn't have any interest in touching her?

And what was wrong with her that she was wondering why he didn't have that interest, as long as he didn't?

Then Jackson pulled out a knife.

Now Ella couldn't stop the tears either and the young woman burst into loud bawls. Ander began to struggle against the cords, yelling at Jackson to leave 'the women' alone.

"QUIET," Jackson shouted. They all fell silent as Jackson glared at them. "You're all perfectly safe. Understood?" Ella nodded, Ander glared, and the young woman just cried some more. Giving her a glance, Jackson ran his free hand along her cheek. "Quiet down, little one," he said, firmly. Ella stared at him in surprise, he'd almost sounded tender in a way.

Quickly, efficiently, he cut off the young woman's clothes. She was obviously trying to valiantly stifle her sobs, but was having trouble with it considering that her body was stretched out and now exposed. Ella had been right; she was a slight little thing, her breasts maybe a B cup with pink pointed nipples like pencil erasers. Between her legs was pale blonde hair that Jackson tutted over. His hands ran over her body again - almost possessively, Ella thought, before he turned away from her and moved towards Ella.

Cold slate eyes swept over her, taking in her tears. Unlike the blonde, she didn't get any reassurance, but he also didn't run his hands over her. Just the swift motions of the knife, a sharp smack to her bottom that made her cry out when she tried to twist away when he'd grasped her panties, and then he was done and moving on.

~~~

Geez... he wasn't going to look at Ella... he wasn't going to look at Ella...

Ander snapped his eyes closed to keep from looking at Ella. It was so ridiculously wrong of him to even consider it in this situation. Sure, he'd always thought she was too good for Mitch - whom he'd known was a bit of a dog even if they had been best friends - but he'd never tried to picture her naked. The fact that she was dating his best friend meant that she was off limits. Too bad his best friend hadn't felt that way about Ander's girlfriend.

He'd known he and Freya were having problems, and they'd talked on occasion about swinging or threesomes, but he'd always thought they were mostly joking when they did that. Having her decide to fuck his best friend behind his back was not something that he'd ever expected to have to worry about. And now he'd dragged Ella into those problems too. Dammit, why couldn't he have just gotten a different room in the hotel? Or joined Ella in hers where they could cry on each other's shoulders', rather than letting his pride get the better of him and insist on storming out and ending the vacation early?

Then they wouldn't be in this mess.

In the back of his mind he wondered if they were being taken hostage – everyone knew that young people from the Lunar Station would have supremely wealthy families, and it did happen every now and then – or something worse. He'd always discounted the idea that Fox might actually take someone like him, he usually dealt with couples traveling alone or young men or women who were in a large group but were unattached. The whole point of traveling with Mitch and Ella had been to ensure a kind of safety in numbers strategy.

Jackson sliced the clothes from Ander's body with the same brutal efficiency with which he'd eradicated Ella's. Ella with her fantastic curves and those beautiful dark pink nipples, that little strip of dark hair on her mound - Dammit stop it!

He tasted bile in the back of his throat. It didn't matter how beautiful Ella was or how fantastic she looked naked, he was just as much of a dog as Mitch was to even be thinking about that right now. Hell he was worse than Mitch was.

"Don't try to be a big man or you'll just get yourself and those girls hurt," Jackson murmured, his voice low enough that Ander knew it was for his ears only.

Then he moved away again.

All three of them were washed down with lukewarm water and soap by Jackson's indifferent hands. Well, indifferent to Ander and Ella; he lingered over Emilia. Ander had managed to exchange a few words with her when he'd first woken up so he knew that she was a scholarship exchange student in her second semester of college abroad. The little whimpering cries she made as Jackson washed her harder, Ander yelling again, but the big man just ignored it. Ella was crying too. Ander hated himself for watching the tears dripping onto her breasts, especially when he felt a stirring in his groin as he looked at the creamy mounds with their pretty pink nipples.

Afterwards they were given mouthwash to rinse the taste of their drugged sleep out. It was strange how little things like a wash and a clean mouth could make his brain. Or maybe he was just finally waking up again.

They were hobbled with a bar that attached to their ankles, wrists tied behind their backs, and marched down a hall. The buzzing sounds of muffled voices came from a door at the end of it and Ander could feel the muscles in his stomach tightening with tension. He couldn't even imagine how the girls must be feeling, considering their naked and vulnerable position and the abundance of lower, masculine voices coming from the end of the hall.

The stories of Fox rippled through his mind, the rumors and the interviews of the released victims. The ones that had been willing to be interviewed had worn their time in captivity like a badge of honor, the others had returned to as normal lives as they could without ever talking about what had happened to them. Ander prayed that they had been taken by Fox and that he would only be interested in them for a few days. Orgies and deviant sex for a couple of days didn't sound so bad. Much better than some of the possible alternatives, and it was a well-known fact that the young men and women taken by Fox were always returned in good health physically, even the ones that were kept for months.

Horrible to know that he was hoping for them to be put in a position where they would be unwilling sexual participants in some seriously kinky shit, but that was better than being dead or maimed, right? Especially when they knew they would eventually be released, intact and basically unharmed.