Joined

Trigger warning: abusive language, swearing and violence.

Prologue

According to the previous census, the Human colony on Astaakanga was a small one of 92 people. When they first arrived, there had been over 500 of them. They came in search of farming and grazing lands, having been tired of living in space for many generations after leaving Earth.

Upon arrival, though the air was breathable and the land was suitable for agriculture, they were not prepared to face the preditors of the land. The Franga were burrowing centipede-like creatures that hunted by scent and did not stop until they had their prey or the franga was dead. By the end of the first year, they had lost two-thirds of their people and all their livestock. Their dream of living on land had been shattered, and they were considering going back to their spaceport.

The Franga was not easy to kill; due to their hard exoskeleton. The only way to do so was to aim for the soft points, their eyes or the mouth. It also had two large pincers like scorpions that would slice you in half if you attempted to get close enough to do any damage. During an attack by the Franga, the human colony first encountered the Starkinga clan.

They rode in on their camel - hippo-looking animals with thick exoskeletons that the Franga pincers could not easily pierce. The height of their animals allowed the Starkinga people to leap on the back of the Franga and plunge their long sharp spears deep into the Franga's eyes.

On this day, a treaty was formed between the humans and the Starkinga. The two communities agreed to be allies. The Starkinga helped the humans move out of the Franga territory to a region with fewer predators. They supported the humans with hunting and taught them the way of the land. In exchange, the humans farmed and gathered nuts and berries. The Starkinga people also required humans to participate in their yearly mate hunt.

This hunt allowed any male interested in any female to track her down and fend off any other males trying to claim her for their own. The females were given a head start of two hours before sunset to run through the forest. The female would then wait for a male to find her, and they would join together as mates during the joining ceremony held the day after.

The Starkinga people were significantly larger than humans, averaging around 7 feet tall with four arms, blue skin, and long cat-like tails. They were a scary-looking species, but they had never harmed any human from the colony. Even the women they had mated with looked happy and well cared for. Over the past two hundred years, the two communities had lived in harmony.

Star

I was incredibly excited about this year's hunt, I had just come of age, and Jack had asked to hunt me down and take me as his wife. He had courted me for over three months with beautiful shells and stones that he brought back for me whenever he went gathering. At first, I had not known how to react to the attention directed towards me by him, but after some time, i felt fluttered by it.

In our colony, there were only four men under 30 but above 18, so my options were limited. Jack was handsome, tall and had a charm that surrounded him that just drew everyone in. He was 28 years old, so he was eight years older than me, but Jack already had his cabin, and he was a good gatherer. This gave him a leg up over all my other suitors.

On the afternoon of the hunt, I was headed to see Jack and finalize our plans for the night. We had agreed that I would run towards the river southwest of the colony and follow it until I reached the rapids. Then i was to hide inside a hole he had dug hidden inside some Jibinga bushes and wait for him. I would collect his clothes to help conceal my scent, so no Starkinga male would follow my trail and risk them finding me first. The Starkinga people were scent hunters like the Franga.

I approached the cabin, giddy with excitement, holding the necklace that i had made out of the stones and shells he had gifted me. I was planning to wear it tomorrow during the joining ceremony, but i wanted to see his reaction today. I stopped in my tracks when I heard moaning coming from inside.

Softening my footfalls, i walked around to the back to peek in as my curiosity got the better of me. It was still taboo in our colony for unmarried couples to engage in sexual activity due to the values our ancestors built the settlement on, though some young people snuck around. I wanted to peek in to see which of Jack's friends had borrowed his cabin to have sex in.

I believed in waiting for my true love, which is why Jack and I had agreed to wait till the joining ceremony. Even though we were waiting, Jack would always try to kiss me or touch me in a way that made me feel pressured, and I had to remind him frequently that i wanted to wait.

I saw Miranda sitting on top of someone from the window, whose face was obscured from my angle. She was rocking her pelvis aggressively over his, with her head thrown back and her eyes closed with her cheeks flushed. Her sexual partner was thrusting his hips upward to meet her every downstroke with both hands on her hips, pulling her down to meet him.

"Promise you will come after me in the hunt, Jack!" Miranda breathlessly moaned as her waist gyrated faster.

A wave of shock ran through me; there was no way Jack was with her. The Jack I knew was deeply in love with me, as I was with him, and he would never break my trust.

"I promise! I am coming for you, Miranda. Oh! I am cumming!Cumming!" Jack groaned back as he thrust his hips upwards once more then stopped moving.

A disappointed look flashed on Miranda's face as Jack lifted her off him and got off the palette to go light a cigarette. Miranda covered herself with a sheet and used it to wipe between her legs,

"Have you told her yet?"

"Yes, I did. I told Star that I had no more interest in her over two weeks ago, but she keeps following me like a lovesick puppy."

"I can't wait to see her face tomorrow at the joining ceremony," Miranda giggled at the prospect of seeing my pain. Jack just smirked while looking at Miranda and commented nothing back.

"I hope you fucked her. That should bring her down a peg. She always walks around looking like she is better than the rest of us," Miranda added on.

Jack put out the cigarette, moved back on the palette and started tugging on his flaccid penis. Turning to Miranda and running his hand along her thigh to which she smiled, he said,

"I had my fun with her, but she not as good as you. Come give me a quick blowjob before you leave."

Miranda jumped down from the pallet to kneel between his open legs. She took hold of his penis, put it in her mouth, and started sucking on it until it got hard. The room filled with groans from Jack, wet slurping sounds and lewd moaning from Miranda. The next minute a loud cry sounded out in the room from Miranda as she clutched her cheek, looking up at Jack, who was standing over her menacingly.

"Fuck!, how many fucking times do I have to tell you I don't want to feel any teeth, you bitch! You can't even give a decent blowjob! You can leave my cabin now." Jack spit at her. Miranda scrambled around the room, grabbing her clothes and quickly got dressed.

"I will see you tonight, right?" she asked, standing by the door, her right cheek with a clear imprint from where Jack had slapped her.

"I said I would be there, didn't I?" Jack snapped with his back to her while pulling on his pants.

This was not the Jack I fell in love with. This was a different side of him I never knew existed. I always thought of him as honest and loving and that he would never hurt a fly, and I never knew that he smoked or even swore. He had managed to fool many other people and me in our colony with his charm.

I snuck around to the front porch and dropped off the necklace by his door when i was sure Miranda was gone. Then I returned to the cabin I shared with my mother to prepare for tonight's hunt. When I got home, my mother was kneeling by the fire pit, stirring a pot of bijinga root stew. She offered me a bowl which I usually would have taken, but I had lost my appetite just thinking of Miranda with Jack's penis in her mouth.

"I am just going to have a quick nap before I have to get ready, Mom. I will eat later. If Jack comes looking for me, please let him know I will see him tonight."

"It's probably the nerves, Hunny; I will wake you up in time to get ready," she shouted as I made a quick escape to my room.

Laying on my bed, I vowed to myself,

'There is no way Jack was going to get my token, and he would have to kill me first.'

I drifted off to sleep and had nightmares of Jack slapping and standing over me, staring down at me with disdain as he had done with Miranda. Later on, I woke up to my mother sitting next to me.

"You have to eat something, Star. You are going to need your strength so that Jack can give you a good chase," my mother giggled as she handed me a large bowl of soup.

She, like me, had fallen for Jack's lies, and I did not have the heart to let her know yet. If my father were still alive, I am sure he would have been better at reading Jack's intentions. Instead, I had inherited my mother's blind romantic, naive gene, and I was just grateful that I had seen it before it was too late.

"Have they started arriving yet?" I asked to stir the conversation away from Jack.

"Yes, they have. There are seven males and four females this time. One of the males is almost 8 feet tall. Rumour has it he is going to be the new chieftain."

Chief Hinga had been getting quite old, and we all hoped the new chieftain that replaced him would keep the relations with the colony going. The new Chief's attendance today was an excellent sign.

"Did Chief Hinga come as well?"

"Yes, he did. People are saying it's because the new Chief is planning on joining the hunt; rumour has it he wants a human mate."

As much as I loved my mother, everyone in town knew she was terrible gossip. It didn't even make sense that she had all this information, and the Starkingaians had arrived less than an hour ago. Part of me was convinced she made up at least fifty percent of her gossip.

"If that happened, that would be good for relations. Still, it is scary to mate the alien with their four arms and the tail." she went on as she started braiding my hair into two French braids. I savoured the last bite of bijinga root, and I started changing into a sturdy shirt and pants and my best pair of walking shoes.

"Jack came by earlier." my mother said with a teasing smile. I turned away from her, not wanting her to see the pained look on my face.

"He wanted to come in to see you, but I let him know you will see him tonight, but he gave me this to give to you," she handed me a brown bag.

Inside there was a shirt and pants that belonged to Jack, and on top was the necklace i had left at his cabin with a note next to it. I opened the note, and it read:

STAR

I made this necklace for you to show you how much you mean to me. I hope you love it and will wear it tomorrow at our joining ceremony. I cannot wait to hunt you down tonight.

I love you

JACK

I threw the bag and note down on my bed, disgusted by his lies. He must have found the necklace by his door and thought he would just pretend that he had made it. My mom, fortunately, did not comment or ask what the note said. Instead, she told her story lost in her little romantic utopia.

"I wish we still had the tradition of the mates not seeing each other for at least a day before the night of the hunt; It makes the heart grow fonder. That is part of why I wouldn't let him come in to see you. He was being very insistent. He is very fond of you, that boy! I want him to miss you a bit, you know, haha." I could not help the tears that pooled up in my eyes and turned away to wipe them quickly.

"I am ready, "I told her when I had composed myself.

"You look so beautiful, hun. I can't believe tomorrow you will be moving out and leaving this old woman to fend for herself!" I just rolled my eyes at her, and we both headed toward the center of town.

The Starkinga were already at the front, standing out with their tall heights and blue skin making them stand out in the crowd. My eyes gravitated to the tallest one, who was quite handsome in comparison to all the other Starkingaians I had met. Like the rest of them, he was tall, had four arms and a tail with dark blue skin. But as a young girl, I couldn't help appreciating his eight pack of abs, his four big solid arms, and muscled thighs.

He was a work of art, and as my eyes racked over him, I felt a heat stirring in the pit of my stomach. His tail was swishing from left to right in an erratic fashion, something I had never seen before in their species. When i looked at his face, I was shocked to see his cat-like eyes staring right at me with scary intensity.

I immediately looked down to avoid direct eye contact with him but still tried to peek at him through my lashes. The right side of his mouth lifted into something like a smirk as though he was laughing at my shyness. I couldn't help the blush that flowed through my face to my neck. When I was about to brave more eye contact with him, a body suddenly blocked my view. Looking up, I nearly groaned out loud seeing Jack in front of me.

"Why don't you have my clothes on?" he demanded, "I came by and gave them to your mother; she wouldn't let me see you."

Ignoring him, I started moving towards where the women participating in the hunt were standing so that he would leave me alone and stand with the men but instead, he followed me, so i was forced to slow my steps and reply,

"Yes, I know, my mother told me."

"So why don't you have them on?" he grabbed my arm to stop my attempted escape.

Before, when I had been madly in love with him, I had appreciated any contact with him. It made me feel like he was so much in love with me, he could not keep his hands off. But after this afternoon, it just felt bruising and disgusting. I tried to shake his hand off me, but he tightened his grip to the point that I flinched from the pain.

"Why don't you ask Miranda?" I threw back at him, still trying to dislodge his grip.

He released my arm, and he turned his gaze towards where Miranda had been staring daggers at us this whole time.

"What did she say to you?, You know she is a liar, and you cannot trust her. You know I love you, right?" His voice sounded so sincere, i almost believed him. Then i remember what i had seen that afternoon.

"She said nothing; I came over and saw you two together," I replied, staring up at him to see his reaction.

His eyes widened, then he immediately composed himself, i almost missed it.

"She came over to seduce me into breaking up with you and asked me to go after her in the hunt, but I said no, so she took off her clothes, and I couldn't help myself, baby. You know I am so horny from you always telling me no; I just thought I would give her some goodbye sex, you know, tomorrow your pussy is all I want. You know I love you right, you will always be my number one girl."

He raised his hand to try and stroke my cheek. I couldn't believe what i was hearing, and how I had fallen for his act this whole time was beyond my comprehension.

"Did you like the necklace i made you? It took me a long time to collect all the shells and stones, but it was worth it for you, baby," He added as his hand moved down to caress my jawline.

"You are full of shit; you know that," I spat at him as I swatted his hand away.

Jack's eyes flashed with anger, and he raised his hand as though he was going to slap me as he did to Miranda earlier. I closed my eyes, cringing and waiting for the slap to connect with my cheek and for the pain to register, but it never did. Instead, I heard his pained cry and the sickening crunch of bone.

Slowly opening my eyes, I saw Jack on the ground writhing in pain while clutching his arm. Standing over him was the New Chieftain, his chest heaving as though at any moment he was going to pound Jack into the ground. Chief Hinga came up behind the new Chief, put a hand on his shoulder, and said something I could not hear. The new Chief's eyes snapped up to look at me; his shoulders hunched inward as though he was trying to look smaller so as not to scare me. His eyes softened, but his tail was moving so fast it seemed almost invisible.

Everyone in the courtyard was silent, staring at the scene we had created except Jack, who was still on the ground wailing like a child. Chief Hinga said something else to the new Chief, to which he nodded in reply and turned his back, walking to where the rest of his people stood for the ceremony. Chief Hinga went to stand next to Elder Smith, who called everyone to order. I hurried to stand next to the other females taking part in the hunt. Five of the human females and three human males participated this time. Jack was nowhere to be found.

"It is time for our honoured tradition that has united the Starkinga of Astaakanga and the Humans of Earth for over a hundred years. We are glad to be hosting these proceedings this year, and we hope many happy pairings will come out of this hunt. We welcome you, Chief Hinga, Chief Dijinga, and all your people to participate in the hunt. We are especially honoured that Chief Dijinga will be participating in this hunt. We hope that he will find his mate tonight and wouldn't hurt if it's a human, haha," Elder Smith joked, to which a few people laughed.

I looked up to see Dijinga looking at me again with the same intensity, and I couldn't help squirming a little as the heat bubble in my stomach expanded. When I broke the eye contact, I, unfortunately, caught eyes with Miranda, who looked like she wanted to pounce at me at any time. Her pale face was red with anger. I decided to look at Elder Smith instead as he finished his speech. He seemed to be the safest option with all these emotions running around.

."..As usual, we will give the females a head start of two hours so that you males can work for it, haha!" His joke fell flat, only a handful of people laughing at it.

But this was the signal the women needed to leave, so I went to Elder Meta, who handed out the tokens the males were supposed to get as proof that they had caught us. She gave me mine with a small bag with water, a ration of dried bijinga root, and a small blanket to use if I had to spend the night if no one found me before sunrise.

I took off running to the northeast, the total opposite of where I was supposed to meet Jack. I could not risk us running into each other and having him claim that he had found me. I went along the hunting trail for what felt like at least an hour before moving into the unmarked part of the forest. I was looking for some brush to hide in so no one would find me and have a good cry about Jack and all he had done to me.

My mind also kept wondering back to Chief Dijinga, how he had protected me from Jack and how intense his stares had been. I felt more heat pool in my lower stomach, and I couldnot help it as slick dripped onto my underwear from my core. I was glad he had been there to protect me, but i was confused by my sudden attraction to him. I had seen Starkinga people several times, but he just stood out to me.

After walking for about another hour, I found a cluster of jabanga bushes that were closely knit that you could see nothing inside them. I took out the blanket from the bag and wrapped it around myself to try and prevent as much damage from the thorns on my skin as possible. I crawled in just as the sun was setting, had my dinner of jabanga berries and the dry bijinga root, and washed everything down with some water. After the meal, I cried myself to sleep.

Dijinga

My tail could not stop twitching as I tracked Star's scent northeast from the human colony. Tomorrow this time, my tail was going to be buried deep inside my mate as I have wished for the past seven moons since I first saw her. She had been standing around the well with other human females, laughing and joking around as they filled out their buckets with water. Her scent had sung to me, and it had taken all I had in me to leave her in her colony and wait until the hunt. Her tan skin had begged for my touch, and her hair, dark as a moonless night, looked so soft and framed her small face with her round brown eyes.