Chapter 3
1998 Words
3
CJ
I studied Warden Egara. She seemed completely calm as she talked about the rest of my life.
With an alien husband. In space. Although, maybe if he was like the big beast of a man in my dream, that wouldn’t be all that bad an option. It beat spending several years in prison, getting out with my career and reputation in ruins. I’d never work on Wall Street again. I’d have to start over. With a criminal record and no friends.
I wasn’t a big fan of leaving everything and going into space, but my options sucked.
My breathing was ragged and sweat coated my skin. It felt as if I’d woken from a nightmare, startling and abrupt. But the feelings coursing through me weren’t of fear, but of pleasure. It was waning quickly.
I wasn’t scared of the dream. I was petrified of what it meant. Why I’d liked it. What he’d done.
No, what I’d allowed him to do. He hadn’t raped me. Far from it. He hadn’t even really forced me. It had seemed like it, being manhandled, but he’d done it because it was hot. It was what turned him on and he knew his mate would love it, too. And she did—I did—whatever. I’d never had an orgasm like that in my life. Ever.
And it wasn’t even real.
“Are you all right?” Warden Egara asked. She sat at the table nearest me, her tablet in front of her. She wore the uniform of the Brides Program, complete with the Interstellar Brides logo that meant she was part of the Coalition Fleet. Her calm, cool gaze helped me breathe. She didn’t seem surprised that I’d behaved so unusually during the testing. Had I yelled? Moaned? Screamed?
Had it been unusual?
“Was the testing normal?” I asked, licking my dry lips, wishing I could bury my face in my hands, but the chains running from the padded Velcro straps prevented me from hiding. And suddenly, my nose itched.
Figured.
She c****d a dark brow. “Normal?”
“You know. Normal.” I wasn’t going to ask her if she knew I’d had an orgasm. If I’d been talking. Begging for it while she sat here with that polite smile and heard every single word.
She offered me a smile, which I had to assume was potentially a breach of protocol. She dealt with volunteers to the program, but also with prisoners like me. I wasn’t a murderer or anything, just an i***t who’d gotten greedy and reached for the brass ring. I knew stuff. So did a thousand other people. But they hadn’t caught everyone on Wall Street. Just me. White collar crime, doing time for insider trading. Yeah, not my best decision ever, but I was watching the blowhards around me make millions on shady deals, and I’d wanted my piece of the pie.
Seemed I was going to get a big alien c**k instead. And after that dream, I was starting to think maybe that wouldn’t be such a bad thing.
Maybe that was why I was freaking out about the dream. I didn’t let any man have control over me. For any reason whatsoever. I’d been burned by dates. By co-workers. Bosses. Hell, even teachers. But to be sent to prison while the slime I worked with used offshore traders and secret accounts to do the same damn thing…but get away with it?
The whole thing made my blood boil, and I didn’t trust men. Period.
“Yes, it’s perfectly normal. The testing delves into your subconscious, and we assess your deepest needs and desires to match you to a mate.”
I frowned. “I’m not interested in a mate.”
She narrowed her eyes as if confused. “You are aware you were tested for the Brides Program, correct?”
I nodded. I couldn’t do much more than that, restrained as I was in this weird dentist’s chair. I stuck my lip out, blew up my face to move a strand of hair away that was tickling my cheek. “Yes, I know that, but the only requirement is that I volunteer, not that I like the guy.”
“Technically, that’s true,” she replied slowly. Hesitantly.
I sighed. “Look. You know my story. It’s all in that tablet of yours, right?”
“Yes.”
“So you know what happened to me. Why I’m in jail. Yes, I’m guilty, but there were others far guiltier who got away with it all. Insider trading is bad, but it’s not like I killed anyone. I lost everything. My license, my apartment, my friends. I won’t be hired anywhere again. Those guys I worked with? They made millions. One of them even bought a house in the Hamptons, and since it’s July, I’m sure he’s there now. And where am I?” I looked down. “In a damned testing chair. My only options to take control of my life again are to go into the Interstellar Brides Program or rot in jail.”
“You could volunteer as a fighter in the Coalition Fleet,” she reminded me.
I knew women did that, too. Went out into space and fought the Hive with the rest of the soldiers. I laughed at that. Me, with a space gun? So not happening. I’d be a hazard. “I told you, I’m not a killer. The sight of blood makes me sick. I just want my life back. Or at least my ability to decide what clothes I wear, when I eat. Hell, I would really like a bathroom door.”
“You won’t be coming back to Earth.”
“My choice,” I replied. “Don’t I have thirty days or something like that? If I don’t like him after thirty days, I’m free.” That was my real goal. I was a pain in the ass, too brash, too pushy, too much of a b***h to find a man. I was supremely confident this alien wouldn’t want me either. Thirty days. I’d get the cobwebs out of my v****a, drive my new alien mate away—as I did every other man—and I’d be home with a nice bit of cash in the bank from the Interstellar Brides Program. Enough to start over. Maybe even start my own financial consulting firm. I couldn’t trade on the floor, but there were ways around that. There was always a side door in my business. Always.
And next time, I’d be the one with the f*****g bank account in the Cook Islands.
“You’ll be matched to a male the computer selects, and you’ll have thirty days to accept or reject the match. That is true.” Her eyes narrowed, and she tilted her head as if I were annoying her. “This is not a joke, my dear. These warriors are honorable males who have fought and suffered and watched their brothers die. An Interstellar Bride is their ultimate reward. You will be cherished. Adored. Seduced and pampered. It will not be so easy to walk away.”
I didn’t snort or roll my eyes, but it was difficult. Me? The ultimate reward. Poor bastards. “My subconscious might determine where I’m sent, but I’ll either like the guy or I won’t. This mating will be on my terms.”
Warden Egara actually laughed, and I felt my cheeks burn bright red. “You’re not very familiar with the males of the Fleet, are you?”
“No. I worked seventy hours a week, focused solely on getting the corner office. I didn’t have time to do my own laundry, let alone learn about the men on all of the Coalition planets.”
“Yes, that’s obvious,” she murmured, swiping her finger across her screen. “Males on the matching planets are very dominant. They like to be in charge.”
I thought of the dream. He’d definitely been in charge.
“Some are from very male dominated societies. Women aren’t secondary, they are powerful and adored. But their males are very serious about protecting them.”
“I don’t need to fight or charge into battle to make up for the fact that I don’t have a set of balls, Warden,” I countered. That was Wall Street me talking, the woman who’d had to learn to talk like the men, wear a suit of armor and be the b***h to be listened to. “But I do have a backbone. And a mind of my own.”
“Trust me, he—or they—will know right off about that.”
I knew she was speaking to my more aggressive nature, but I wasn’t going to change now. I’d learned not to be a doormat, and I wasn’t going back to that scared teenage girl who’d constantly worried about being judged. Been there. Done that. Over it.
My aunt had told me it normally happened to a woman around the age of forty. But since I’d been in banking, in the good-old-boys’ club, I’d gotten there early. “And you know this first hand, Warden? How can you sit there and tell me what it’s like? Have you ever been to one of these planets? Met these males?”
She cleared her throat, tipped up her chin. “Yes, I have. I was matched to a Prillon warrior. I was mated to him and my second for several years before they were both killed in the same Hive battle.”
All of my indignant anger fled. “Oh. I’m sorry.” I was. I could tell she loved her mates. “I was being bitchy, and I apologize. I admit, I’m nervous. It’s scary.”
“Yes, it is,” she confirmed. “But like you said, you’re taking control of your life. Your destiny. You’ve been matched, and I think you’ll be quite pleased. We haven’t had a mate reject their match yet.”
“No one? Not one woman has said no?”
“No. Not one.”
I sighed. “There’s always a first time.”
She cleared her throat, her brows raised. “You have thirty days to decide, but if you reject him, you won’t be coming home.”
“What?” This was not what I was expecting to hear.
“You’ll be matched to another male from the same planet. The first male is the best match, however, so keep that in mind.”
Oh, s**t. That fast, this thing had gotten way too real. I’d miscalculated. “What’s the match, what planet?” I asked, suddenly nervous.
“You’ve been matched to The Colony, specifically to an Atlan.”
I repeated the planet name, knew nothing about it. A colony? For what?
“Not only do you have a mate, but you’ll have to contend with his inner beast as well. I had two warriors. You have one. A very, very big one if he’s like all other Atlans. And his beast…I have to assume…will be very dominating and intense.”
I remembered the growling. Was the guy from my dream an Atlan?
I swallowed. “Big? As in…everywhere?”
I flushed, and the Warden smiled again. “I would assume so. I have a few questions to finish out the testing. State your name, please.”
“CJ Ellison.” When the Warden just eyed me, I clarified. “Caroline Jane Ellison.”
“Are you legally married at this time?”
“No.”
“Children? Biological or legal?”
“No.”
“Do you accept the match of the Interstellar Brides Program? Do you agree that you have been matched to an Atlan, have the thirty days to agree to the computer’s mate selection or be claimed by him? Do you understand that you will not be returning to Earth?”
“Yes,” I replied, for the first time with not much enthusiasm.
Warden Egara nodded, then stood. “Don’t worry, you’ll be fine.”
“You haven’t gone back. Is it because you know something I don’t?” I asked warily.
She came over to me, swiped her tablet until I heard a whirring in the wall behind me. I angled my head to see the wall had opened and a blue glow was coming from within.
“Yes,” she said.
I looked up at her.
“I know how true love feels. What it can be between mates. Hopefully, you will find what I lost.”
“But…”
The chair silently slid backward into the wall and lowered into a warm pool of water. Clearly, Warden Egara was done speaking on that topic.
“Now? I’m not ready!” I wasn’t. I needed more time. This wasn’t part of the plan. I was leaving. Right now?
Something sharp poked me just behind my ear. I yelped in pain and surprise but it was over in seconds. What. The. Hell?
“Don’t worry, that’s just the NPU.” She didn’t even look at me. “Your processing will begin in three…two…one.”
- Writer
