Assigned a Mate(22)

Mara gave me a push on the shoulder. “Help? By killing her, too?”

I paused and watched as a small device was waved over the wound. A blue glow was emitted and, over the next few moments, the wound stopped bleeding and healed before my eyes.

While I was a doctor on Earth, it seemed that the medical advances on Trion were far superior. My scientific mind found it fascinating. “That is amazing. You are completely healed?”

The woman cleaned the blood from her hands with a damp cloth offered by one of the others, then held up the now healed finger. She smiled and nodded. There was so much to learn and I was eager to examine the healing tool.

Mara took my arm and walked me—none too gently—across the tent so that none of the others could hear her foul words. “He’s fucked all of us, you know.”

When I frowned, she smiled, then continued.

“You don’t know? Hmm. Tark fucks all the women. You are nothing special to him. He could call on any one of us to please him, anytime he wishes. His choice.”

She looked down at me, raking her eyes over my plump body with disdain.

“Then why was I sent here and matched to him?” I asked, tilting up my chin. I wouldn’t let her see that she’d upset me. The idea of Tark being with Mara, or any other woman—no, all the other women—made my belly churn.

“Because he needs an heir. Look at you. Overfed, ample hips, drooping bosom. You were made for birthing. Now I—” she tossed her hair back, “—was made for desire.”

The tent flap opened and one of the guards stuck his head in, looked around. “Mara, come at once. He wants you now.”

My mouth fell open and her eyes lit with triumph. She rolled back her shoulders and plucked at her nipples through her slip until they were tight points, the rings clearly defined. “See?” she called with a backward glance, then left, the tent flap closing with a slap behind her. I stood and stared after her, feeling hollowed out and empty, with two spheres inside my pussy and holding the attached chain in my hand like a dog holding its own leash. Even the vibrations that they emitted did nothing for me any longer.

I’d only been off-planet for perhaps an hour or two but I’d been fucked and found wanting by my own mate. Mara had stated Tark was only interested in me for breeding—why would he want curvy old me for anything else?—and he had called for her to slake his insatiable lust just minutes after he’d watched his seed slide down my thighs. I was just one of many in the harem. I wasn’t desirable, I was just the plump girl who could birth babies.

So, here I was, destined to be nothing more than a breeding machine, forever treated like a criminal? A murderer? I wasn’t much on Earth, but even there I was more than this. An innocent medical doctor with no love life? Yes. But I healed people, I didn’t kill them.

Now, here on this sandy planet, I was nothing but a baby factory. A biological machine. But me, the woman? The bride? The healer? I was worthless.

“Where do I sleep?” I asked Kiri. I could hear the dejection in my voice. She lifted her head and gave me a sympathetic smile.

“Through there.” She pointed to an opening in the tent I hadn’t noticed before. Ducking through, it was a secondary tent, the two connected.

Within were piles of soft woven blankets and furs on raised platforms, similar to beds. There was another table laden with a basket of breads and fruit and a drinking flask filled with a clear liquid that I assumed was water. One look at the food and my stomach rolled.

I found a small space where the blankets were folded and appeared unclaimed. I climbed up, pulled the warm covers over me, situated my new leash so the stimulation to my core might stop, and rolled onto my side to face the soft-sided wall.

I shifted carefully, afraid I’d catch the other chain and pull at my nipples, but once settled, I became attuned to other parts of my body. I was wet between my legs, Tark’s seed still seeped from me. I was sore inside, for while I never saw his cock, I knew it had been big. Too big for my barely used body, and now stuffed with metal balls he’d called stimspheres. Then there was my ass. I was sore there, too, for nothing had ever been placed inside, not even a tip of a finger. My bottom stung from his punishment, a glowing heat that hopefully would dissipate soon. My body was still soft and pliant from the orgasms Tark had wrung from me. The fact that I’d responded so readily only made my misery greater.

How could one man bring me both mind-blowing pleasure and heartbreaking disappointment? He’d called for Mara after he’d sent me off to the harem. A harem! God, I was just one of many for the man. He’d said I was his mate, that I belonged to him, but he did not belong to me. Was that the custom here? How could any psychological profile or assessment have identified me as the type of woman who would be happy as one of many women in a single man’s bed? There had to be some kind of mistake.