“My what?” My mind refused to process his words. It simply was not possible.
“Your Interstellar Bride, Commander. Congratulations, sir. She will arrive in the next few minutes.”
Chapter 4
Erica Roberts, Interstellar Brides Processing Center, Earth
It was like I was a sex goddess and they worshipped me.
This was like the Hallelujah chorus and a porno combined with lots and lots of wine. I was relaxed and sweaty, and there were multiple hands and mouths and cocks. A mouth was sucking on my nipple. A cock was buried deep in my pussy, filling me just shy of too much. I had a cock fucking my ass.
I realized the strange whimpering sound I heard was me.
“Easy, mate,” the deep voice said. “We’ll give you what you need.”
Oh good, because I needed to come. Really hard and right now. I’d never been this wound up, this… passion-filled. Aggressive. Desperate. Out of control.
Oh my god. No wonder sex had only been good before. I’d been missing out… on an extra man.
I couldn’t see him. Either of them. I didn’t care. It was a dream, I knew. A fabulous dream I never, ever wanted to wake up from. At least until they made me come. And they would.
“More. Harder.” Was that my voice all breathy and forceful?
When hands gripped my hips and a cock drove into me just as I’d requested, I cried out, the sound mixing with the slapping of flesh on flesh.
“When you come, mate,” the voice belonged to the mate behind me, the other one was too busy claiming my mouth, shutting me up, swallowing my cries of pleasure. “Your pussy will milk the cum from his cock. It will mark you as his and fill you up so there’s no chance you aren’t bred.” Another nip to my shoulder and I gasped. “You will wake in the morning with our baby growing in your belly.”
I—she—writhed. A baby?
Did I want that? This woman did. God did she, the dirty talk was getting me—her—closer and closer to the brink. And yet, it wasn’t me. This wasn’t me. The woman was someone else, these mates, they belonged to her. They weren’t mine, but I was feeling their desire, sharing their pleasure. Knowing how good it would be with my own mates. It was as if I’d taken over their sexy times. As if it were an interactive porno.
The hands on my hips tightened almost painfully as the pace of fucking intensified. My primary mate broke off the kiss to rumble in my ear. “Don’t worry, my balls are so full of cum for you. We’ll be at you all night if that’s what it takes. You want my baby, mate. The collars don’t lie. I’m going to fill you up with seed. You’re ours, mate. Come for us, take what you want, take it all.”
I did, the orgasm so intense I couldn’t scream, couldn’t move, my muscles tense. Taut. The cock pistoned inside me as I did milk it, trying to take it impossibly deeper, to keep it inside me as if it belonged there. I needed his seed, his claim, his baby.
I heard the growl of possessiveness as he came. I felt the heat of his cum as he filled me. It went on and on, as if his pleasure was as intense as mine.
Behind me, my second mate came as well, filling my ass full of his seed, too, marking me just as thoroughly as his counterpart.
I gasped, jerking as aftershocks ripped through me. I wanted more. More orgasms, more kisses. More. Just more.
Instead, they faded, their touch as they kept fucking me becoming less intense. The heat was gone. Then the pressure. No more cocks filling me up. No more hands. I couldn’t hear them anymore and the link to them faded until I was alone in my head again.
Alone. As usual.
But now I knew what I was missing, and the lonely emptiness in my body hit me with ten times the normal cold because I’d been so hot just seconds ago.
“No.” A meager protest, based on the dry whisper that managed to sneak its way out of my throat, but I had to protest. I wanted to go back. I wanted to be wanted like that. Needed. Lusted after. Loved.
“Ms. Roberts, your testing is complete.”
That voice. Damn it, I knew that voice, but I didn’t want to come back. I wanted to stay with my mates. “My mates.” I hated the choking pain I heard in my own voice, but I couldn’t stop the protest. No one had ever touched me like that, made me feel like I was his, no their, world.
“All in good time, Ms. Roberts.” That matter-of-fact tone brought me fully back to reality, and I recognized the firm press of the testing chair beneath me. This place, it was like going to the dentist, a necessary evil. But this was no ordinary dentist’s chair. I was locked down, wrists, waist and ankles secured with padded buckles like I was some kind of dangerous criminal.
But then, sometimes the women in this chair were criminals. Just not me. I was a volunteer. I had nothing left on this rock called Earth. After I’d caught my ex-fiancé sleeping with my roommate, I’d dumped his ass and taken the new job at the observatory on the big island of Hawaii, thinking the stars I loved so much would distract me from what a low-life loser I’d almost married.
Instead, those small twinkling lights had called to me. I had been staring up at the stars for almost as long as I could remember, the obsession never leaving me, not even when I graduated after finishing my master’s and started my career in astronomy. Fifteen years ago, when I’d gotten my first telescope for my birthday, actually going out there hadn’t been an option. There was no space travel. No aliens. Nothing. We’d been alone in the universe.
But now? Now we humans knew the truth. Earth was one of almost three hundred planets being protected by the Interstellar Coalition Fleet. Without the Coalition, Earth would fall prey to the Hive, a scary-as-fuck race of freakish biosynthetic cyborgs that consumed new races and new planets to feed their never-ending need to expand. Grow. Conquer.
They reminded me of the Borg from Star Trek, but I kept that opinion to myself at the office. Hell, everywhere. Half of the people thought the whole thing was a hoax and conspiracy to convince humanity to send sacrificial lambs up into space for freakish alien breeding programs, or as expendable soldiers for nothing but suicide missions.
I didn’t believe the conspiracy theory websites. Not just because my mother was a NASA engineer and knew more about what was going on than most, but because there were a handful of warriors who’d come home after serving their two years. I’d made a point of tracking them down, reading their interviews, visiting as many as I could, as many as would talk to me. I wanted to know about the other worlds. What sort of animals roamed these unknown planets? What type of plants and terrain would I see? What did the aliens who populated those worlds look like? What did they eat? What were their customs? I wanted to know everything.
But all they ever talked about was war. PTSD on a massive scale. Whatever was out there, it was bad. Those who would talk to me—once I used my own university credentials to convince them I was not a fanatic or an all-around crazy person—talked of little but the battlefields, and the enemy.
As terrifying as the Hive sounded, I wanted to know everything. But I wanted to know how the other Coalition races lived, not just how they died. War was war. It sucked. But what were all those alien warriors fighting to protect?
Guess I’d find out, assuming the testing had worked. I sure as hell hoped it had. I was not small, which my ex had taken great pleasure in pointing out as often as possible. I was tall to start with, as tall as a lot of men, and yes—I was carrying a bit of extra weight. But I loved my body. The softness of my stomach, my extra-large breasts. Skinny girls didn’t get the goods, and I had them in spades. Boobs. Ass. Boom-baby. I didn’t want to go home, back to work, back to my normal life. I would never be the same again, not after this. Not after them. The two mates in the dream. They weren’t mine, but still. Wow.
Now I was addicted, needed two men, two cocks. Dirty talk and four hands and hard, hot fucking. Lots and lots of cum that would make me—
Shit.
“Ms. Roberts? Can you hear me?” She sounded impatient now, the woman I could sense looming over me. She wasn’t mea
“Erica, do you need a doctor?”
Damn. “No. I’m fine.” I opened my eyes and blinked, taking in the testing room. Sweat coated my skin, the orgasm that had been just a dream lingered, my skin warm, my nipples hard, my heart racing.
But was it all about the sex?
No, my mind would not let go of exactly what those warriors had promised to their mate. Cum. Seed. Baby.
On Earth, I couldn’t even find a man who wanted to have sex with me. Those who weren’t afraid of my height were freaked the fuck out by my…
“Erica, are you sure you’re all right?” Warden Egara asked, coming to stand before me. “You’re taking a bit longer than usual to come out of the testing phase.”
Testing phase? Was that what they called intense orgasms around here?
“Sorry, I just didn’t want to come back yet. It was just getting good.” Liar-liar-pants on fire.
“Perfectly understandable. Your match is exceptional. Ninety-nine percent.”
Thank god. I didn’t have to go back to my old life. Which was a good thing, since I’d already sold all my stuff and my roommate had rented out my bedroom for nearly twice what I’d been paying. Highly unlikely she’d want me back.
“So, I got a good match?” Small trembles shook my arms, then moved to my legs. The utilitarian hospital-style gown I wore didn’t offer much in the heat department. And it was Florida, but that just meant the air conditioning was on full throttle and warm-blooded creatures like me needed winter coats and blankets to survive indoors, even if I’d lived in Hawaii the past few years.
“Oh, yes. You’ve been matched to Prillon Prime.” Her smile was genuine, if a bit sad. “It happens to be my personal favorite.”
“You’ve been there? Out there?” Holy shit. Had this woman actually been to outer space?
“Yes. I was mated to two Prillon warriors myself. Years ago.”
Years ago? She didn’t look all that old. Maybe thirty. Close to my age. Her dark hair was pulled back in a severe bun, but it only showed off how pretty she was. The dark gray of the IBP uniform did nothing for her, but it wasn’t as if she’d go to the bar with girlfriends while wearing it. Before the testing I had wondered if she was married, dating anyone. Now I wanted to know more about her mates, but didn’t ask. If she was here, and they weren’t, I had a feeling the answer wouldn’t be good.
“So why were there two mates?” I knew there were two, from my dream, but I was eager for an explanation. And she had just confirmed that she’d had two mates as well.
“The males of Prillon Prime are warriors, usually on the front lines of the fight. Most of the time they keep their brides with them on whichever battleship they serve. The warriors live most of their lives in space. They always claim a mate in pairs in case one of them is killed in battle. That way the surviving male can either choose another second, if their female agrees, or retire and move his family to Prillon Prime. Either way, one mate remains to care for his female and children.”
“That explains the two men in my dream.”
She looked up at me and gave me a wink, which made me blush. “Rather fabulous, wasn’t it?”
Forget blush, I was bright red now, the heat like a blowtorch under my cheeks. “Well, it was nice, but two?” My grandmother would roll over in her grave and start praying Hail Mary’s all over the place. I was going to hell. Straight. To. Hell.
Or Prillon Prime.
“You don’t sound excited about that.” The Interstellar Brides Program logo was repeated across the fabric of her uniform, not that I could forget where I was. Even though I was restrained to the chair, I tugged at the secure hold.
I arched a brow. “Two mates? I… I never thought about it before. I guess I knew it was a possibility, I mean, I’ve heard that brides who go to Viken have three men.”
“Three mates. They are not human, Ms. Roberts. But that’s right.” Her grin widened, but she looked down at her tablet to hide her reaction to my comment. “Three. Can you just imagine.”
Lord help me, I could. Which was not good. I was desperate to get back into the middle of a Prillon man-sandwich as quickly as possible. I didn’t need her asking me questions about where my head was right now, because I didn’t know. My vagina seemed to be in charge. And I didn’t want to think about the wetness soaking the gown under my ass. Or the little jolts of electricity still zinging through my pussy at random intervals. My ass, too.
“I just need to ask you a few questions before I can begin your processing.”
“Shoot.”
“I must make sure you are aware of your rights, Ms. Roberts. This will be recorded.” She stared at me, an impatient tilt to her head, eyes wide open as if to hurry me along.
“I understand.”
“Excellent. Ms. Roberts, as an Interstellar Bride, you may name a world, if you wish, and we will choose your mate from that world based on your assessment results. Or you may waive the right of naming and accept the results of the psychological assessment process. If you choose this option, you will be sent to the world, and the mate, that best matches your psychological profile. If you wish to meet your true mate, I highly recommend you choose the second option and follow the recommendations of the matching processors. We have been matching brides and their mates for hundreds of years.”
“Okay.” When I didn’t say more, she pursed her lips but continued.
“Are you currently married?”
“No.”
“Do you have any biological or adopted children you would be leaving behind?”
“No.” To have kids, first you had to find someone willing to…
“State your name for the record, please.”
“Erica Elaine Roberts.”
“Good. Good.” Her fingers flew over the tablet as we talked, as if she were checking off boxes for an exam. Seemed even aliens had bureaucracies and lots of red tape. “I am pleased to tell you, Ms. Roberts, that the system has made a successful match, and you will be sent to Battleship Varsten to meet your mate and I assume, his second. As a bride, you might never return to Earth, as all travel will be determined and controlled by your new planet’s laws and customs. You now surrender your citizenship of Earth and become an official citizen of your new world.”
Holy shit, now I was officially an alien?
I glanced down at my body, at the excess of curves and softness that no one seemed to want and figured what the hell? I felt like an alien half the time already. “I understand.”
The wall began to glow with a beautiful blue behind me, the light casting the warden’s face in shadows the seemed to haunt her somehow. Yet she still smiled. “You will have thirty days to decide if the primary candidate is acceptable. If, after thirty days, you are not satisfied with your mate, you will be assigned another mate on that world and transferred. You will have thirty days to accept or reject each candidate until you are satisfied with a mate.”
If they were anything like the males in my dream, there would be no need to trade them in for new ones. I’d be well satisfied. I couldn’t wait. “Okay.” That, it seemed, was my word of the day.
Warden Egara nudged the side of my chair and it slid toward the wall where a large opening appeared. I moved, chair and all, as if on a track, right into the newly revealed space on the other side of the wall.
The blue room was small and glowed, the color coming from streams of bright blue lights. My chair came to a stop and a robotic arm with a large needle moved silently closer to my neck. I winced as something pierced my skin.
Right. The NPU, or neural processing unit I read about in the handbook. A kind of universal translation thing that would make it so I could talk to my mates. Tell them what I wanted.
Where to touch me.
Wouldn’t do me any good to beg if they didn’t understand what I was saying.
Maybe I should get two of them. “How long does it take this translation thing to work?” I asked, speaking loudly because now Warden Egara was in the other room and everything was getting fuzzy.
“You might get a headache, but your transport is some distance. The NPU should be fully integrated prior to your arrival.”
Sweet. Meet hot, sexy aliens. Make them fall madly in love and claim me forever. No problem.
Unless they didn’t like big, beautiful women from Earth. Or smart women. Or opinionated women. Or tall women. Or women who don’t like to be treated like a doormat.
Then I was screwed.
The injection site tingled and a sense of lethargy and contentment made my body go limp. There had been more than just an alien computer chip in that injection. Drugs? Good drugs. Something was making me very, very sleepy and happy. But whatever. I felt too good to worry about it as I was lowered into a bath of warm blue liquid. I was so warm, so numb…
“Relax, Erica. You’re going to a good place.” Her finger touched the display in her hand, and her voice drifted to me as if from far, far away. “Your processing will begin in three… two… one…”
Chapter 5
Commander Ronan Wothar, Intelligence Core, Sector 438, Battleship Varsten
“You shouldn’t be here, Karter. And no female should be either. It’s too fucking dangerous.” By the gods, it really was Makaed Karter, my childhood friend, and possibly the only person in the universe who could recognize me after all these years. Old instincts surged. He was my friend, closer than my own brother when we’d been young.
Rubbing my throat in annoyance, I looked from Karter to his companion. The Prillon warrior standing at his side had the markings of the second in command on his uniform. “You should have stopped him. That’s your job, Second. To protect him. Get him the hell off this ship. Now. I’ll send your mate directly, after she arrives.”
“You are in no position to issue orders, Ronan.” Commander Karter’s voice brooked no argument. “And I will not leave an innocent female here, mate or not.”
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