Reetha's Claiming
Reetha watched the last of the Vishanee circle the choosing platform. He was the biggest she'd ever seen and that terrified her. But also, he was her last chance to become a thunder rider.
She'd trained since childhood for this, prepared her body, done everything right. And for seven years, she'd been rejected. At twenty-five years old, this was her last chance. Once a woman passed that age, she was considered too old to mate the Vishanee and would not be allowed to return.
When the thunder god suddenly stopped circling and swooped towards the platform, Reetha held her breath. Was it coming for her?
But, it didn't come for any of them. The giant beast flew right past the line of remaining young women and towards the back of the platform, fast enough that her naked nipples hardened in the breeze of his flight. Reetha swiveled, craning her neck to see what had attracted the Vishanee.
She gasped in horror.
There, at the edge of the platform, was a
man
. He was struggling against two of the females who guarded access to the mating dance. The massive Vishanee male landed in front of the three and growled.
He'll be killed.
Reetha thought sickly. Once, four years ago, she'd seen a Vishanee decapitate an offering that he thought was unfit. The girl had been eighteen, at her first mating dance. Afterwards, she'd learned that the woman had been fouled, raped before the mating dance. She'd known that it would be her death to go, and had done it anyway. The thunder gods only mated virgins, and they were well known to vent their displeasure lethally.
Reetha always wondered why the girl had done it, had she wanted to die? Similarly, she wondered now about this man. Everyone knew what had happened to the Teganese. The entire group of male thunder riders and their mounts had died within a decade. And, for decades after, no thunder beast had visited the Teganese mating platform. To be safe, male thunder riders had been outlawed throughout the entire land.
No tribe wanted to risk becoming outcast to the Vishanee. It was because of the thunder riders that the humans were able to survive in this inhospitable land. Without the aid of the giant beasts, the tribes would starve or become prey to enemy tribes
As much as she should hate the man for daring to risk that horror, part of her was awed by his courage. The man stood tall and proud as the Vishanee inspected him. Jealousy flooded Reetha as the beast turned it's back to the man, preparing to submit. But, then it simply waited, standing.
Reetha frowned, did it want to be mated or not? Her admiration of the man's fearlessness grew as she watched him climb the beasts back and mount it. And then, they were flying. Tears pricked her eyes at the glorious sight of the Vishanee mating dance.
This was the last she'd ever see of it. All her life dreaming of flying, and now she was too old to offer herself again.
Reetha sank to the ground, pain bowing her down. Tears leaked from her eyes as she watched the mating dance of the first man to become a thunder rider in hundreds of years.
A man had mated the Vishanee, but not her. She was unworthy. It was done.
She knew she wouldn't return and risk the wrath of the thunder gods as that man had done, nor as the girl had done so many years ago. Reetha would bear her dishonor and live - she wasn't suicidal, just devastated.
---
"Come on, Reetha." Bartam cajoled, "There's no reason to keep yourself pure anymore. Let's fuck."
Reetha grit her teeth and turned away from her childhood friend. He'd been chasing after her since she'd lost her status as an offering and taken a job as a server in a tavern near her family's home. She still remembered the day he'd asked her father for her as a wife. That was the day she begged to be trained as a thunder rider. She wanted to mate a god, not a man.
"You should just marry him," another serving girl, Lace, advised. "There's no reason to be alone, now."
"No, thank you." Reetha replied tersely.
The other girl shook her head sadly at her. "A girl needs protection in this life, Reetha. Bartam would be a fine protector. It's him, or the men'll think you're free for any of them. You don't want to be used like that."
Reetha knew Lace was right. She'd seen how the men pawed at her. Lace enjoyed the attention, and loved the sex. But, she wasn't ready to give up on her dream. Her age was one thing, but if she lost her virginity... She wasn't ready to throw away the last seven years of her life yet.
"Are you too good for us, Reetha?" Bartam sneered at her. "You weren't good enough for the thunder gods, you know. Maybe you're not good enough for us either. Maybe we should teach you your place."
Fear coiled in Reetha's stomach as men closed in around her. The hairs on the back of her neck prickled and she turned around. Bartam's brothers and friends surrounded her.
Reetha looked for Lace or the innkeeper, any friendly face. But all she saw was the flutter of a swinging door, she was alone.
This was planned
. Reetha realized, fear constricting her throat.
One of the men grabbed her and pulled her arms behind her back. The move made her chest thrust forward. Eagerly, another man grabbed her boobs roughly, mashing them with this strong, callused hands.
No one had ever touched her breasts before. Even while the other women training to become thunder riders had made out with each other, toeing the line of their virginity, Reetha had taken no chances. She'd only worked to stretch her life hole with the dildos that were carved like the life rods of the Vishanee. And, when she'd felt pleasure, pressing the dildos into herself, she'd stopped and waited for the feeling to pass before continuing.
She knew the other girls enjoyed themselves with the dildos, and even used their fingers on their pleasure mounds at the same time, but Reetha had held to the old ways. She had wanted to be a true virgin for the gods. Yet, still they'd rejected her, had left her to be claimed by men.
The man mashing her breasts, Bartam's friend Zax, ripped open her blouse and pushed it away from her body, exposing her breasts to the group. The feel of his rough hands as they kneaded her chest was painful. And yet, beneath the pain was the pleasure that she'd always denied herself.
Reetha cried as heat began to grow in her pelvis. This wasn't how it was supposed to be. They were fouling her. The small hope she'd harbored, the little dream that maybe she might still mate one of the Vishanee died in her as the men ripped away her skirts and pushed her onto the bar top.
The men arranged her so that her butt rested at the edge of the bar, facing the room and her head fell off of the back of the bar. Then, they tied each of her arms to the poles that ran up from the bar to the ceiling.
They brought rope.
Reetha catalogued the proof that this had been planned, trying not to think of what they would do next.
