His Virgin Mate. Grace Goodwin
Feminine voices were muffled by a closed door, which the warden opened without knocking.
“Do you have the birthmark, too?”
I heard the question as I walked behind Warden Egara into the room, one hand on the back of my testing gown to keep my butt from being exposed. The small space was an actual conference room with a table and chairs. Two women were huddled together in gowns that matched mine and looked up at me.
“You’re here!”
They both stood and came over to me, big smiles on their faces. Their easygoing personalities and bright eyes helped soothe my frazzled nerves. Their excitement was a little startling, but it was reassuring to know they weren’t scared of what was happening to us.
“I’m Katie and she’s Dani.”
“Lexi.”
“Did they ask you about the birthmark, too?” Katie asked. She was tall and thin, perfect breasts and curvy hips. Her long brown hair went halfway down her back and was artfully done. Her makeup perfectly framed dark blue eyes that seemed too big in her face. She looked like all the girls in high school who made fun of my curves, but the smile she gave me only felt friendly, not malicious.
I exhaled, not realizing I’d been holding my breath. “It isn’t just me then? Who knew we were all aliens?”
They both laughed.
“We’re all matched to Everis.” Dani went back to her chair, tugging me by the wrist to sit beside her. She was strikingly different than Katie with her gazelle-like looks. Her hair was very blonde and pulled back into a ponytail. There was something graceful about her, as if she were a ballerina. Her body was slim—narrow hips and small breasts—that only added to my perception. She was small and fragile looking, but her gaze was fearless. Katie sat on her other side and I sat beside them, my darker skin, black hair and curves making us all unique. And we were part alien? All three of us?
“Are you guys virgins, too?” I asked. I wanted to know if my lack of libido was just me, or if what the warden suggested was true. What if my lack of interest in guys really was caused by alien DNA? When the other two nodded, something tight and ugly began to unravel in my chest. “So, nobody ever rocked your world? You never had the hots for a guy and went for it?”
“Not me.” Dani glanced away as Katie blushed.
“Um, no. Virgins, virgins everywhere.” Katie tucked her long brown hair back behind her ear. “Do you think this is a little weird? Three virgins with strange birthmarks being sent to an alien world? I feel like a virgin sacrifice. Like they’re going to line us up and march us into a volcano or something.” Her laugh was brittle, and not completely in jest.
“My match was ninety-nine percent,” I admitted, oddly proud of that. “I might be a sacrifice, but the guy is supposedly all mine.”
Dani smiled, rubbed her hands together. “God, I’m so nervous! My match was that high, too, which means…there’s a guy on the planet who will actually think I’m hot!”
I thought she was hot and I didn’t even like women. I had to wonder about the men she’d been around for her to have such a low opinion of herself, and then I realized I was just like her. We looked nothing alike but seemed to have had the same problems with men in the past. And with our own self-esteem issues.
Katie pursed her lips. “My match was only ninety-eight percent.”
Dani rolled her eyes. “Where are you guys from?”
“Denver, Colorado,” I said.
“I’m from Wooster, Ohio,” Katie added.
“Gainesville, Florida.” Dani grinned and I could easily imagine her in a bikini and sunglasses on the beach. “And we’re all going to Everis. Together. You know what this makes us? BFFs.”
I looked at the other two women, recognized kindred spirits. We were very similar, perhaps not personality-wise, but we were all matched to Everians. We were all virgins and we were going to be transported together. We would be the only friends from home, all each other had once we got to Everis. We might have been from different parts of the US, but we were all from Earth. I’d say that made us BFFs.
“Let’s make a pact,” Katie said.
Dani wiggled in her chair. “Yes! We share everything. No holding back. Even embarrassing things like sex and orgasms and toys. Whatever they do to us, we have to talk. Okay? We’re all each other has, right?”
“Besides each of us having a hot, alien hunk who wants to take our virginity?” I asked, an excited grin on my face. The thought of feeling the kind of desire I’d just experienced in that processing dream made my heart skip a beat.
“Those are guys. No offense, but they don’t count. Not for this. Us girls have to stick together,” countered Dani.
“Like the three musketeers,” Katie added.
“All right,” I said. “I agree, but I’m not drawing blood or spitting in my palm.”
Katie cringed. “Yeah, no. Gross. Yes, to the pact. We spill. And I mean details.”
“Details,” Dani repeated.
When Warden Egara lifted her head from her tablet and said it was time, we grabbed each other’s hands. “Details,” I added.
We had to part in the hallway, each of us going back to a separate testing room for our final processing.
“Will it hurt?” Katie asked Warden Egara.
The warden shook her head. “Not at all. You’ll be processed and transported. Before you know it, the three of you will be together at the Touchstone gathering on Everis. There, you will meet your mates. Good luck, ladies.”
I looked to Katie and Dani. Gave them each a small smile. This was it.
Katie, who seemed to be the most adventurous, gave a little wave of her fingers and dashed into her testing room, her bare butt the last we saw of her. Dani rolled her eyes and went next. I stood in the quiet hallway with Warden Egara.
“Would you go, if you were me?” I asked her. I figured Katie and Dani were talking up going to Everis because of nerves. Pep talk. I didn’t blame them. But Warden Egara was more impartial.
“I did. I was mated to a Coalition warrior.” She turned and walked into the testing room and I followed, curious about her answer.
“You were? On Everis?” I asked, sitting down once again in the testing chair.
She shook her head, but looked down at her tablet. Flicked her finger once, twice. The restraints returned about my wrists.
“No. Prillon.”
She’d been sent to Prillon Prime? I’d heard of the planet, of the big—no, huge—warriors. The way they claimed their mate with a second male. She’d had two mates? Yet she was here, on Earth? “You had two mates?”
“Yes.”
She didn’t offer details, but I couldn’t seem to stop myself from pushing. I knew my mother would be rolling in her grave at my lack of manners, but I couldn’t stop the words from flowing out of my mouth. “What happened? Why are you here?”
“My mates died, Lexi,” she sighed. “I was a special case, a long time ago. Would I go again? Would I be you if I were ten years younger?”
I nodded. I watched her face, looked at her eyes for any deception.
“Absolutely.”
I saw sadness but no regret and that made me feel better.
“Ready?” she asked.
“Yes.” I took a deep breath, let it out.
She pressed a button and the wall behind my head opened. I couldn’t see very well, but a soft blue glow came from it. As