“I don’t want to be matched to a man who ties me down!”
“You have been matched, Jessica, to a fierce warrior from that world. You should be proud to submit to him.”
“You think just because he’s a soldier that I should bow to him? What was I then? I fought. I killed.”
The warden stood and came around the table.
“I know, but sometimes it is extremely difficult for women as strong as you are to find a mate dominant enough to handle your… ummm… needs.”
Holy shit, was she blushing? The stiff-lipped warden was turning three shades of red. What the hell was she talking about?
“Remember, Jessica, he was matched to you as well. What you need, he will give you. It is his right, his duty and most important, his privilege.” She smiled then, a wistful look in her eyes. “No more hiding. You will fight him, I can see this, but I promise he will be worth the price you will pay.”
“What price?” Where the hell was she sending me? I hadn’t agreed to being dominated by any man. My pussy clenched at the remembered strength of the hand around my throat in the processing simulation, but I’d yet to meet a man strong enough to take me, to bend my will. I doubted such a man existed.
“Surrender.” As she spoke, the warden pressed a button near the foot of my chair and a bright blue opening appeared in the side of the wall. Still strapped securely, I could do nothing as a long, very large needle appeared and I tried to squirm, tried to fight, but I couldn’t move. The needle was attached to a long metallic arm in the wall.
“Do not resist, Jessica. You are not going to be harmed. The device will simply implant your permanent NPUs.”
The needle stung when it entered the side of my temple, but nothing more. Another came from the opposite wall and repeated the task on my other temple. I felt no different and so I took a deep breath. The chair lowered, much like at the dentist, but I was placed into a heated bath of some sort. Blue light surrounded me.
“When you wake, Jessica Smith, your body will have been prepared for Prillon Prime’s matching customs and your mate’s requirements. He will be waiting for you.” She sounded rote, as if she’d said these same words over and over.
Prillon Prime. “Now?”
“Yes, right now.”
Warden Egara’s clipped voice was the last thing I heard above the quiet humming of electrical equipment and lights. “Your processing will begin in three… two…”
I tensed, waiting for her to finish the countdown, but a red light flashed above me and she whipped her head to the side, looking at a screen I could not see.
“No. This can’t be correct.” Her frown turned to a look of shock, then confusion, all as I waited in that damn blue bathwater, naked—when had I become naked and what had happened to my gown?—and feeling like I was three-quarters drunk.
“What’s happening?”
“I don’t know, Jessica. This has never happened before.” She scowled down at the program tablet in her hand, her fingers flying over the screen as if she were typing a very long, very complicated message.
“What is it?”
She shook her head, her eyes round and confused. “Prillon Prime rejected your transport.”
What the hell did that mean? Rejected my transport? What did they want me to do, take a spaceship? Was their transport broken, or out of whatever they used to power it? “I don’t understand.”
“I don’t either. They terminated the protocol on their end. They will not accept your arrival, or your right to claim your mate.”
Chapter Two
Jessica
Strapped to the table, all I could do was watch Warden Egara typing furiously on her tablet. I struggled to free myself, but knew my actions were futile. Every time the tablet would ding with an incoming message, her frown deepened, her fingers moving more quickly, with short, jerky motions, as if she wanted to punch whomever she spoke to across the vast expanse of space.
I’d learned patience the hard way in my years first in the military, then as an investigative reporter. I could stalk prey for days and never grow weary of the chase. I knew when to wait and when to shoot first. Aggression was not going to win me any points in this scenario, especially restrained, even if my frustration was so great I wanted to rip the restraints from the chair like the Incredible Hulk.
“Warden, please, tell me what’s going on.”
Yes, that sounded calm. Go me.
The warden bit her lip, suddenly looking every bit the young, twenty-something woman she was. Her shoulders slumped as if she carried a great weight and responsibility on her shoulders. Perhaps she did. It was her job to see all of the women—regardless of reason—well matched and safely to their destination, wherever it was in the universe. When she finally lifted her head to look directly at me, I knew by the dark cloud in her gaze that the news was not good, at least not for me.