“Do. Not. Touch. Me. Again.”
Rowan’s mouth fell open and she stopped breathing altogether at the deep, dark rumble that was his voice. His black hair was thick and his face was covered with a beard she’d only ever seen in old pictures. Since the epidemic that killed so many and rendered the majority of the population sterile, the men no longer grew facial hair, or if they did, it was nothing like this. She watched as he lifted the guard who had his attention off his feet, still holding him by his neck.
The guard gurgled and kicked his legs, his face growing redder, but the man, the man she knew was one who lived in one of the settlements outside of the colonies, held him there and looked over each of the other seven guards who stood and watched in disbelief.
“I am not your prisoner,” he said. “Do not make that mistake again.” With that, he let go of the man he held and let him fall with a thud to the floor.
It was in that moment that he turned his gaze in her direction. His eyes were a color she’d never seen within the colony, a bright, clear, almost magnetic cobalt blue. Within them, she glimpsed something she did not expect to find there: intelligence. The men from outside of the colonies lived like beasts. They were violent, barbaric. It’s what she had been taught all her life.
For a long moment, his eyes bore into hers until the guards who held her suddenly became animated again.
“Move,” one said.
They tugged her forward and she went, glancing once over her shoulder to find him still watching her. She’d never seen anything like him before, his skin was darkened by the sun and hair covered his arms and part of his face. His right arm and the side of his neck were decorated in some sort of ink, the pattern the most intricate art she had ever seen.
“He’s right,” came Commander Norrin’s voice from back in the corridor. “Silas is our guest, aren’t you?” he asked the large man. No answer came from Silas. “You will treat him with respect,” Commander Norrin finished.
Guest? Rowan wondered, but she had no time to think on it when the door opened before her and she eyed the doctors waiting there, all in white coats, their hands already gloved, the room stinking of sterilizing solution, the cold steel table fitted with restraints empty and waiting for her. That was when she realized her ordeal had only just begun.
Chapter Two
“Wash her before you bring her in here,” came the voice of the lead doctor in the room. “Room 3,” said the woman whose black hair was pulled back into a severe bun made all the more harsh by the dark-rimmed glasses she wore.
The woman didn’t acknowledge her though. The doctor only scanned her from head to toe as if she weren’t a person at all before turning back to her conversation with two others in medical uniform. Her guards quickly turned her and led her back out. Barefoot, she padded between them to a room a few doors down, all the while very aware of the burn inside her bottom, beginning to feel the pressure of imminent release, knowing how painful that release would be.
She’d never been to this part of the medical ward before. She had some idea of the examination to come as she had heard the tale retold by another breeder. Having turned twenty-four, she had only just reached the proper age to be bred and her own examination had been scheduled before the incident that led to her current circumstances. She remembered the girl’s account of how thorough and embarrassing that examination had been, but she had the idea what was about to happen to her would make that seem like nothing at all.
One of the guards opened the door. Inside, a nurse in typical blue scrubs waited for her. In her hand, she held a thick hose. Rowan looked from it to her face, trying to meet her eyes, trying to find any humanity there, but the woman simply gestured to the men with a nod of her head and the two guards walked her to the far end of the room. There, she took the one step up onto the tiled area which was already wet. She put one hand over her belly as the first of the cramps came.
“Please, I need…”
“Face me,” the woman said, ignoring her altogether.
The guards let her go and stepped back. Rowan turned to face the woman.
“Legs wider, arms up. Grip the holds over your head.” She aimed the hose at her.
Rowan glanced at the guards who stood back watching, one with a smirk on his face. She spread her legs to shoulder width and raised her arms over her head to take hold of the two rings that hung from heavy chains. She knew they would bind her without hesitation and so she cooperated, knowing this was only the beginning.
Rowan screamed when, without warning, icy water rushed her as the woman turned the hose on her, the powerful flow forcing her backwards some steps. She turned her face away as every inch of her was washed.