“You're not going to believe what happened to me this morning,” she said.
“What's that honey?” her dad said.
“I signed up for the Draconian Mating Lottery and was matched with a dragon shifter.”
“I never thought I'd see the day when my little girl settled down and found a man,” her mother said. “Where is he from?”
“That's the thing,” Sophia started. “He isn't here on Earth. And he also isn't from Draconia. He's from the planet Galaton. I found out that they're an old colony of Draconia. But now they’re independent and, run equally by four princes.”
“I've never heard of Galaton,” her father said.
“Where is it?” her mother asked.
“It's at the other side of the Draconian galaxy,” Sophia admitted. “It's a year-long journey past the wormhole between Earth and Draconia.”
“But you can come back to visit?” her mother asked.
“I don't think I can,” Sophia admitted.
Her father's face fell and he shook his head. “They aren’t going to force you to go, are they?”
“No,” Sophia said. “They told me I don't have to go because they can't ensure my safety.”
“That's very generous of them,” her mother said sarcastically.
“I thought you were going to reapply for the Space Academy,” her father added.
“My application was denied…again,” Sophia said. “This is my one chance to go into space.”
“I'm sure you can find another way to live your dream,” her father said. “I don't want my baby doing something so dangerous. We might never see you again.”
“Piloting a spaceship is all I've ever wanted to do,” Sophia said. “I'm going to be on a spaceship for an entire year. I know I'll be able to get them to let me pilot it during that whole time.”
“Your father's right, Sophia,” her mother said. “It's not safe.”
“I told them I’d think about it,” she said.
The more her parents objected to her going, the more she wanted to go. Sophia didn't like being told what to do by anyone, even her mom and dad.
She took another bite of hamburger, wondering if her need to rebel against her parents was going to get her into trouble. She’d probably end up with a controlling dragon shifter who just wanted her to give him babies.
By the time she was done with her lunch and her mother's pineapple upside down cake, she was about ready to leave. She loved her family more than anything, but they just didn't get it. Sophia needed more out of life than driving a transport vessel and attending family barbecues.
She needed adventure. She needed experiences and exciting sensations. Even if Elait Purr, Air Prince of Galaton, ended up being a dick, at least she’d get to have the adventure of a lifetime.
As she left her parents’ house, she finally knew what to do. She had to tell the Draconian secretary she was ready to get knocked up.
Sophia took the bus back to the Draconian Consulate and strode inside. It was almost the end of their business hours, but the Draconian secretary still sat behind his desk.
The AI greeted her with the same lame greeting it had before, and the secretary stood as soon as he saw her. He walked across the room and put his hand on his heart, bowing slightly in greeting.
“Sophia Castillo,” Secretary Qui said. “Have you come to a decision?”
“I have. I'm going to go to Galaton.”
“You won't regret it. The Galatonians may be different from the Draconians of Draconia, but they are an honorable race of dragon shifters.”
Sophia didn't find that very reassuring, but she had already made her decision, and she was sticking with it.
“So when can I get started with this whole impregnation thing?”
“The bride ship Breaking Dawn is awaiting your decision. You can board immediately. The medic will give you further instructions.”
“Let's do this thing,” Sophia said.
The secretary led her through the domed consulate building and through a sliding door at the back of the room. Inside, they came to an engineering center.
Banks of computers lined the right wall and a holographic communications dashboard filled up the left one. The secretary began to flick his fingers across the holographic screen. The empty wall on the far side of the room slid open to reveal the passenger bay of a space pod.
“So I'm going right now?” she asked.
“It is advisable that you leave as soon as you have made your decision.”
Sophia thought about it for a minute and realized she really didn't have anything that she wanted to take with her. She’d spent most of her life working and wasn't really someone who kept a lot of keepsakes. She had a whole crapload of photographs of her family on her holocom. Her holocom device also had all her favorite entertainment and all her contacts on Earth.
“I'm ready to go.”
Sophia took a deep breath, deciding she wouldn’t tell her parents until after she’d left Earth. They’d only try to talk her out of it.
She stepped into the passenger bay and sat down in one of the seats, bringing the straps down over her head. She already knew how to use it, but the secretary checked to make sure that it was on properly anyway. When he was satisfied that she was strapped in, he went over to the dashboard of the space pod and entered some information. When he was done, he walked to the door and turned to her one last time.
“Congratulations and good luck, Sophia Castillo,” he said before stepping back.
The door slid shut, leaving her inside by herself. She felt flushed with nerves for the first time since she'd been matched with her Draconian prince.
The engines rumbled to life beneath her and her body vibrated as the space pod began to levitate into the air. It quickly gained momentum as it left the ground, charging over the city and into the blue California sky.
She could see outside the front window of her pod, which was quickly approaching the edge of the atmosphere. The pod began to shake violently as they broke through the stratosphere. Sophia saw the flames of the upper barrier flowing around her pod as it accelerated into space.
When her pod finally broke through to the other side of the atmosphere, she could see the black void of space, dotted with the pinpoints of bright stars. She thought about how each one had a solar system of its own, with exotic alien landscapes and life. Her heart swelled, just thinking about all of the new things she would see in her life as the bride of the Air Prince of Galaton.
Chapter 4
The space pod propelled through the void and Sophia marveled at the immensity of it. The blue sphere of the Earth tilted below her as she slowly drifted away.
The gravity of the situation dawned on her yet again. She was leaving behind everything and everyone she knew, never to return. There would be so much that she would miss. Her family. Her brother. The smell of her father’s BBQ wafting through the warmth of her mother’s house.
But she couldn’t think about that now, not when she was on the doorstep of adventure. She was going to be a mother now too - that was an adventure in itself. She hoped that she and her new mate would get along. There were so many questions she still had and she assumed they would be answered when she was finally aboard the bride ship.
The Breaking Dawn awaited her arrival in its orbit around Earth.
She saw its black hull as her space pod drew closer. A hatch opened in the side of the ship and her pod came in to dock. She heard it latch to the ship, and a moment later the exit door swished open. A Draconian stood on the other side of the door, wearing a white medic’s smock.
She flicked off her safety harness and stood as the medic greeted her in the doorway.
“I am medic Hanno,” he said, putting his hand to his heart. “I will be here to assist you in the insemination.”
Sophia hopped out of the space pod. Her petite stature only came up to the medic’s mid-abdominal area. She looked up at medic Hanno, wondering if he would be the one responsible f
or inseminating her.
She hoped not.
She didn’t want to think of anyone but her mate when the time came for impregnation. She might have been quite unsure of this whole thing, but she knew that the women who’d been matched with dragon mates seemed to end up blissfully happy.
Even though she had only seen his profile picture on the Mating Lottery site, she did already feel a kind of connection with Elait.
“I’m ready when you are,” she said, not wanting to wait around for pleasantries.
“Right this way.”
He led her through the small landing bay and down a brightly lit hallway. There were a few other Draconians aboard the ship, and even a few human women.
“What are these other human girls doing here?” she asked curiously as they stood in front of a closed door.
“They are on their way to meet their mates in Draconia. We will drop them off on the way.”
“Do I get to see Draconia?” she asked, excitement rising in her chest.
“No,” he said flatly. “It is best if you stay aboard the ship to ensure safe insemination.”
“Oh,” she muttered, really disappointed.
She hoped that she didn’t have to live with this kind of overprotective attitude for the rest of her life.
The medic flicked his finger over a holographic screen beside the door and it swished open.
Inside she found a luxurious suite that was furnished in the latest styles: a merging of the Draconian streamlined aesthetic and human extravagance.
“Nice place,” she said, walking into the room, her hands in her jumpsuit pockets.
“You will find further instruction in the bathroom. A lotion has been provided for you that was synthesized from your mate’s genetic material. You will rub it on your skin to aid in preparing your body to take his seed and to sustain a pregnancy. Be sure to follow all the instructions.”
“Okay. Thanks,” she said, feeling a little lost.
This was all a little weird. She briefly questioned her good judgment.
“I’ll leave you to it then. If you need help, please contact me through the shipboard AI system. Your holocom was automatically connected on arrival.”
He walked off through the front door and left her alone in the room. She heaved a heavy sigh. Yesterday she had been pissed that the Space Academy had refused her application again. Today she was standing on board a spaceship, getting ready to be artificially inseminated with a stranger’s sperm. Things sure could change fast nowadays.
After sending her parents a text message that she was leaving, she ignored their reply. As much as she loved her family, she couldn’t talk to them right now. It would only make her regret her decision to leave.
Sophia walked through the suite and into the bedroom. The big bed was no less luxurious than the rest of the suite. The bathroom door swished open and she stepped inside.
Most of it seemed like a normal human bathroom, except for the massive, deep bathtub that stood up from the floor, dominating the room.
It was a Draconian bathtub. She’d seen them before because they’d become pretty popular on Earth over the last thirty years.
As she stood in front of the mirror, the ship’s AI was activated on the holographic screen in front of her.
“Sophia Castillo,” the AI started, “welcome aboard the bride ship Breaking Dawn. The insemination process will now begin. First, you must bathe yourself in the tub. Appropriate soaps have been provided.”
“Okay,” she said, unzipping her jumpsuit.
She slid out of her shoes and dropped the jumpsuit down onto the floor.
She stood in front of the mirror in just her bra and panties, which she then quickly discarded before climbing up the bathtub stairs and dropping into the water. She sat on a ledge on the side of the tub, facing the mirror, and watched as new images came up on the screen.
“Please focus your attention on your mate. Prince Elait Purr of the Air Lands of Galaton.”
Images of Elait filled the screen. There was an image of a silver-blue dragon, darting across the sky. An image of Elait, shirtless with a laser sword in his big hands. His tinted blue skin shimmered with sweat. Sophia’s breath caught in her throat. His blue eyes glistened in the pale sunlight of the Air Lands.
Another picture showed him standing on a stone patio with a view of the expansive sky behind him. Sophia leaned over on the side of the tub to get a closer look. Holy crap, he was sexy. She licked her lips, thinking that this hunk of dragon shifter really belonged to her.
“Please wash yourself with the provided soap,” the AI said.
She picked up a bottle from the ledge of the tub and squirted the contents into her hands. It smelled musky and the fragrance filled her lungs, making her light-headed.
She dunked herself into the water and then came up again before rubbing the soap into her hair and lathering it into her body as she watched the images of Elait fill the screen.
They grew larger in the mirror, as if he was coming closer. Her heart pounded and her body sang as she rubbed her hand over her tight nipple.
“You must wash your genitals,” the AI prompted.
She squirted her hand with more soap and dipped it between her legs. The sensation of the soap touching her sensitive flesh, as she gazed at the images of Elait, made a flash of arousal jump within her. She took a sharp breath, her fingers rubbing over her swelling core.
Sophia bit her lip, watching Elait fight with other dragon shifters in hand to hand combat. His muscles flexed and bulged. It was obvious he was the strongest among them. Her fingers slid over the flesh between her legs and her body jolted with shocking pleasure. Her pussy throbbed between her legs as she drew her hand away. She had not been expecting that.
“Please remove yourself from the bath and stand under the quick dryer,” the AI said.
She did was she was told and grabbed a towel off the rack near the mirror. After drying herself off a little, she dropped the towel on the floor and stood under the air drier.
A blast of hot air dried her body in a matter of seconds. When she was done, she stepped away and stood in front of the mirror again.
“Now you must cover your body with this lotion,” the AI said as another bottle emerged from the counter.
She took at and looked at the bottle. She wondered if this one would give her another orgasm. The last one had been pretty nice. If this was what she had to look forward to for the rest of her life, it wasn’t half bad.
Sophia stood in front of the mirror. It was covered in still images and videos of Elait doing all kinds of princely things. She squirted the lotion into her hand, watching a video of him smiling as he winked into the camera.
Hot damn. Her breasts felt swollen and so did her pussy. How long did she have to wait before she got to meet him?
“So when will I get to talk to my prince?” she asked the AI as she rubbed lotion on her tingling skin.
“Communication will be limited due to his mating impulse. It is the only way to keep him from succumbing to his mating thrall.”
“Oh,” she said with disappointment in her voice.
She’d wanted to talk to him. She was already starting to feel like they’d been intimate. What had happened in the tub had definitely been real.
“You are now ready for insemination,” the AI stated.
A hospital-type bed slid out from the wall and a robotic arm popped out at the same time, holding a syringe.
“Please lie down and gaze upon the image of your mate. You must think of him as the seed enters you.”
“I’m going to be inseminated by a robot?” she asked.
“You may do it yourself if you wish,” the AI stated as the arm pivoted the syringe toward her.
She took it and lay down on the bed. The images of Elait seemed to fill the room. Her body felt electric and alive from the lotion she’d rubbed all over her skin.
With his sexy face right in front of her, she dropped open her legs and slid the
syringe inside.
Sophia took a deep breath and let it out, her heart pounding with anticipation. She pushed the lever on the syringe, pumping the contents into her womb.
Elait’s handsome face exploded in her mind and her body contracted around the syringe and his seed spilled inside her.
She groaned, feeling the hot semen hit her cervix. Orgasm coursed through her as she pulled the syringe out, wishing it had been the shaft of her mate.
“I can’t wait a year to see him,” she groaned, holding her arm over her eyes.
She started to weep. Hot big tears rolled out of her eyes. Sophia wasn’t a weepy kind of girl, but in that moment the thought of not seeing her mate for a year broke her heart into pieces.
She could somehow feel his seed working inside her, swimming toward her ready egg. She had no idea how they’d done it, but she knew that she would be with child by the end of the day.
That didn’t make the situation feel any easier. Her sobs were coming in gasping moans as she lay shaking on the bed.
The bathroom door swished opened and the medic walked inside.
“Are you well?” he asked, scanning her with a medical wand.
“No,” she wailed. “I need my mate.”
“I see the bond is forming. This is a good sign.”
“For you, maybe. How am I supposed to live like this for a year?” Her words were gasps through the sobs.
“You need some rest. You will feel better once we make it to the wormhole.”
He handed her a bathrobe and helped her stand. She wrapped it around her shoulders and tied it at the waist as they walked out of the bathroom and into the bedroom. Medic Hanno pulled back the covers of the bed and Sophia slid under them.
The mattress was the softest thing she’d ever lay on. It was like a foam cloud that conformed perfectly to her body. That was Draconian engineering for you.
She let out a deep sigh and promptly fell asleep. When she woke up again, she saw the view of Pluto out the vast bank of windows across the far wall of her room.
They were coming close to the wormhole and would be crossing very soon. She shot out of bed with excitement - she’d wanted to go through the wormhole ever since she’d learned about it in elementary school.
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