Beast in the Cage: A Scifi Alien Romance

clock on the wall. It was ten minutes to seven. I needed to hurry.
I slipped on my dress and sauntered into the main room.
Kren rubbed at his eyes and yawned as he sat up. His hair stuck up at odd angles as he got to his feet—butt naked—and stretched. He scratched himself.
He didn’t seem to mind being naked with a stranger present.
Then again, he fought wearing only shorts, and I was only wearing a sheer dress.
What made me so high and mighty?
“Morning,” he said.
“Good morning.”
His muscles were taut even when he got up first thing in the morning.
Surely there should be a law against looking so good when you first get up?
“It’s, uh, almost seven,” I said, trying in vain to keep my eyes off his immaculate body.
He turned to look at the clock.
“I slept in! I never oversleep!”
“It must have been our scintillating conversation last night.”
He grinned at me and I looked right back.
The moment lasted a lot longer than it should have and I tore my eyes away from his.
“I, uh, had a nice time.”
“I did too.”
I snorted.
“Yeah, right. You guys claim Prize Pool girls for one reason and a long night of conversation isn’t it.”
He approached me, still butt naked, and came up so close his… thing almost touched me.
He raised a hand to my neck and ran a thumb along my jaw.
“Not me.”
That intense look on his face…
The way he touched me so delicately…
His enormous cock staring up at me…
It made my tongue swell and I couldn’t get a word out.
“Ngh.”
Kren frowned and flicked his inner arm. It was where we’d been injected with a device that allowed us to communicate.
“My device is acting up,” he said. “It didn’t translate the word ‘Ngh.’”
“Oh. Um, it means… Nothing! Nothing at all. I was just making a noise.”
A fist rapped on the door. Saved by the knock!
“Looks like my ride’s here,” I said. “I guess I’ll be seeing you around!”
I reached for the door but forgot there was no handle.
“Computer, open the door,” I said.
“Negative,” Computer said. “You do not have the necessary—”
“Computer,” Kren said. “Open the door.”
The door slid open and my smile faded.
An alien wearing blue overalls stood on the other side of the door.
“Engineer to check on the sensors,” he said.
The engineer! I completely forgot about him!
And now he was standing there, looking at us.
Me flustered and Kren standing there butt naked with his… thing out!
The engineer peered between us and a smile lit his face.
“What sensors?” Kren said.
“I got a notification that I need to check on your sensors,” the engineer said. “Something about a fire?”
“As you can see, there’s no fire here!” I said. “You must have been sent to the wrong room!”
The engineer consulted a notebook he took from his pocket.
“Nope,” he said. “Cell six.”
“There’s no fire here,” Kren repeated.
The guard’s grin turned into a smirk at our naked and semi-naked bodies.
“Maybe there was but it’s been… put out.”
I’d never been so mortified my entire life.
Of course, that was when the guards showed up.
“It’s time for the Prize to return to the Pool,” one of them said.
Why couldn’t you guys have come a few minutes ago? Oh yeah, that’s why. The universe hates me.
“Well, adios!” I said to Kren, saluting, and quickly ducking out of the cell.
I left him to deal with the engineer. It would only be a matter of time before he twigged what’d happened.
I shook my head. Why did these things always happen to me?
Within fifteen minutes, I was back at the Prize Pool.
Harper was there to greet me.
She waited for the guards to turn and march away before she grabbed me by the arm and dragged me to one side.
“So? How was it?”
“How was what?”
Harper jammed a finger in my face.
“Now, don’t you start playing that game with me! I tell you everything that happens on my dates!”
“In excruciating detail,” I added. “And I never asked you to. And they’re not dates.”
“They’re dates to me!”
I attempted to move around her but she blocked me.
“So, come on! Out with it! How did it go?”
“As if I’m going to tell you!”
“Hang on.”
Harper pinched my dress between her fingers.
“It’s not torn…”
“No.”
“He didn’t tear it off you? Didn’t ravage you with his barbaric strength?”
“Nope.”
Harper’s mouth fell open.
“What’s the matter? Is there something wrong with him?”
Okay, so that pissed me off.
It was one thing to keep trying to get the information out of me. It was another to say there was something wrong with Kren.
“There’s nothing wrong with him,” I snapped. “He’s a gentleman.”
Harper snorted.
“Girl, please. I’ve been with dozens of fighters and not one of them treats me as more than a piece of meat.”
I got the feeling that was how she liked it.
“Not this one,” I said with a smile.
I moved around her and headed for the dorm we shared in the back.
I approached my lumpy bed and removed my dress. I tossed it in the laundry basket and moved to the long set of wardrobes at the back.
The girls shared clothes. The more senior members—the ones most often picked by the fighters—got first dibs.
I was at the bottom of the ladder and always chose last.
There were two wardrobes. One for when we had to dress up for the fighters. They were small, sheer material, and sexy, or slutty, depending on how you wanted to look at it. The second wardrobe contained everyday clothes. I much preferred the latter.
I chose a pair of jeans—they weren’t really jeans but they were close enough—and a T-shirt with an alien band on the front that I’d never heard of.
“So, it’s true?” Harper said with a thoughtful frown.
She made me jump. I didn’t hear her approach from behind.
Harper folded her arms and wore a conspiratorial look.
“What’s true?” I said.
“Kren. He’s a monk.”
“Huh?”
“The other fighters talk about him. They talk a lot after they get what they want from me. They said the reason he fights as well as he does is because he never takes a girl. He took you last night and he still