His Virgin Bride (Interstellar Brides: The Virgins Book 1) Read online

  The warden offered me a sad little smile. Yeah, I was that pitiful. “Oh, no Alexis. I’m sorry. I didn’t realize you were worried. I should have spoken sooner. You have been matched.”

  My heart skipped a beat and my eyes widened. “I have? Really?”

  There was someone out there for me? Who was waiting for me right now?

  “Really,” she repeated, now smiling fully.

  “Who?” I knew I sounded breathy and excited, but I couldn’t help it. Today, the dream, was the first time I was hot for a guy. Ever. And I had no idea who he was, or where he was.

  With a swipe of her finger over her controls tablet, the restraints retracted. I sat up, rubbed my wrists, although the hold hadn’t been too snug.

  “All brides are matched to a planet first, then a mate. For you, and this is quite interesting, your genetic profile matched you to Everis.” Her shrewd gaze raked over me. “It seems you have met the special requirements that are very specific to that planet.”

  “Oh? What kind of requirements?”

  She tilted her head to study me. “Let me see your palm.”

  I didn’t know which one, so I rolled my hands over, palms up so she could see both.

  She frowned. “Strange.”

  Chapter Two

  Lexi

  I looked down at my hands. “What’s strange?”

  “All Everians are born with a mark on their palm.”

  She didn’t say more than that, just eyed me. “In order to be matched to Everis, you must have a mark somewhere. Do you have an unusual birthmark anywhere on your body? A large birthmark that runs in your family?”

  Holy shit. “Yes.” Instinctively, I lifted my arms and wrapped them over my breast to hide the mark there. “Why?”

  Her dark gaze followed the movement of my arms, but she smiled. “Long ago, Everian explorers colonized many worlds. Some of their ancestors made it all the way here, to Earth.”

  “And? What does that have to do with me?”

  The warden’s face was kind, but her words made my head spin. “Their descendants carry the birthmark you are trying to hide. Your ancestors make you a potential marked mate of an Everian Hunter. Your genetic profile alone would have sent you to Everis. The processing protocols confirmed your psychological compatibility.”

  “What?” What? Was she saying that I was an alien? “I’m from Denver. My family is from Vera Cruz. My abuela still lives in Mexico. I’m not an alien. I went to East High School. I was born in Denver.”

  “Of course you’re not an alien, my dear.” She whirled and waved her hand in the air to indicate the chair I still sat in and the bank of computers and screens built into the wall. “You’re just the descendant of one.” She glanced down at her tablet. “According to your genetic profile, you are seventeen percent Everian and eighty-three percent human.” She smiled proudly, like a mother bragging about her child’s accomplishments in school. “Even after thousands of years, the Everian DNA is very resilient.”

  “What? If you already knew I was some kind of alien, why did I even go through the test?”

  “Your DNA profile placed Everis at the top of your probability matrix. However, the testing you just completed uses many variables to define your wants and needs in a mate based on conscious and subconscious thought. Planets are removed from your options one by one based on these until only one planet remains. At the end of the testing, sexual compatibility is analyzed and ultimately, a recorded mating ceremony is fed to your core brain processing for verification.”

  I tried to translate her complex wording. “You mean I watched a sex tape from Everis in my mind? Dreamed it?”

  She nodded as she sat at the table across from me and crossed her legs like we were at a tea party or something. “Technically, your body experienced sensual data recorded by the neural processing unit implanted in another bride. But, if you’d like to think of it as a dream, then yes.”

  “But I didn’t dream about sex,” I countered, blushing. I could only imagine what a dream with actual sex in it would have been like. A mental porno. “How do you know I’m compatible if I didn’t dream about sex?”

  “Perhaps you did not dream of intercourse.” She lifted a brow and now I felt like she was looking into my soul. “But you did feel desire, did you not? Lust? Hunger? A yearning so fierce your entire body shook with wanting his touch?”

  I flushed hotly. All over. I couldn’t look her in the eye. God, how did she know?

  “You must be a virgin. Correct?” she asked.

  I bit my lip and nodded, ashamed to tell her what I was thinking, that I wasn’t a virgin by choice, but because I was broken. Then I remembered I was sitting in a gown and that I was naked beneath the soft cotton. I also remembered that she’d probed my deep, inner thoughts.

  “Do not be ashamed. On Everis, virginity in a mate is highly honored. Your mate will be pleased, and eager to claim you.”

  I plucked at the hem of the gown. “But doesn’t my mate need to know that I’m…frigid?”

  Warden Egara’s mouth fell open, snapped shut and opened again. “Clearly the men you’ve dated were all assholes if you were told that.”

  I snorted at her word choice. She looked so prim and proper in her uniform and she was talking about asshole guys like we were besties doing tequila shots at my favorite bar. I felt much better.

  “I am not a doctor, Miss Lopez.”

  “Lexi, please.”

  “Lexi, did it ever occur to you that perhaps you were frigid for other men because they weren’t your one true match? Because he wasn’t Everian?”

  I thought. And thought. Was that true? Could that be true? Had my body been waiting for an alien? Did that seventeen percent of my DNA make me not feel attracted to human men?

  Pain knifed through my chest. Ah, there it was again. Hope. Maybe I wasn’t broken. Maybe I was an alien girl who just didn’t like human guys. The thought made me cringe. What was worse? Being frigid? Or not being human? And what about my parents?

  If one of them was like me, no wonder I was an only child. It wasn’t like they were chasing me out of the bedroom when I was little. They’d always seemed so kind to one another. But passion? No. They’d been more like best friends.

  Suddenly my entire life was twisting and turning in my mind. My mother. She had a mark like mine on her back. She’d had me late in life, been almost forty when she married my papa. Had she been like me and given up on finding passion?

  Holy shit. My mother was part alien, too?

  Before I could digest that, the warden was talking again.

  “Your testing was one of the shortest ever done. That is because you were immediately matched to Everis and, due to your level of sexual experience, they do not wish for you to have any predisposed idea of what will happen sexually with your mate. There is nothing wrong with you. Your match is ninety-nine percent perfect.”

  She watched me closely and I gave her a small smile. Predisposed ideas? Like what? Was I supposed to pretend I had no idea what was going on? That I’d never seen porn? Never tried to feel something?

  Still, ninety-nine percent perfect sounded really, really good to me.

  “Okay.” I didn’t know what else to say. I was matched, there was a guy out there for me. An almost perfect match. It wasn’t as if I could argue with her further. My new mate would find out whether or not I was broken soon enough.

  “Okay?” she repeated. I nodded. “Great. For the record, state your name.”

  I cleared my throat. “Alexis Lopez.”

  “Are you legally married?”

  “No.”

  “Do you have any biological offspring?” When I eyed her funny, she continued, “I know. A virgin having kids, but I have to ask for the record. You are a special case.”

  “No. I’m not the Virgin Mary. I don’t have any children.”

  “Do you accept the match that has been given you by the Interstellar Brides Program processing protocol?”

  Did I wa
nt to leave Earth and go to Everis? To a male who wanted me as pure as the driven snow? Who would revere me for it?

  “Yes. I accept.”

  “Excellent.” The warden swiped her finger a few more times on the tablet.

  “Thank you, Lexi. By accepting the match, you are no longer a citizen of Earth and are now a matched bride of Everis. As Everis requires unusual protocols, you will not be transported directly. You will transport with two other matched women. I believe one is still being processed. When all of you are done, you can meet. Once Everis has given us the transport coordinates for the Touchstone, you will return here to this room for processing.”

  She stood, tucked her tablet under her arm.

  “If you’ll follow me, we’ll go check on the others.”

  ***

  I followed the warden down a short, brightly lit corridor. The cold tile floor made me wish for some slippers or booties or something. 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.

  “Absolut
ely.”

  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 if on a Disney World ride, the chair tilted back, slid through the wall, which seemed to be a small space, just right for my testing chair. A robotic arm with a needle came silently toward me. I winced when it pierced my skin.

  “Do not be afraid. You will be given an NPU. The Neural Processing Unit will be placed just behind your ear and will allow you to speak and understand Coalition languages. You will be processed and transported to Everis.”

  The chair lowered into a warm bath, the blue glow even brighter. All of my fears melted away like a snowball in the sun. I was going to Everis to meet my matched mate and I was finally going to—

  “Your processing will begin in three… two… one.”

  Chapter Three

  Senior Hunter Von, Planet Everis

  I was eager to return to bed. To sleep and dream. Of her. She was close, so close my body operated in a nearly constant state of arousal. In the weeks since my return from fighting the Hive in deep space, I’d wanted nothing but peace, the quiet of the wind in the trees and the water pouring over stones in the river. Quiet and solitude.

  I’d been rewarded with neither. The high mountain home my battalion had been gifted after our return from the war was more than large enough for the group of soldiers who now occupied its cold stone walls and fortifications. We were tasked with governing the region, settling disputes and meting out punishment for those who broke our laws. We were Hunters now, protectors of the weak, keepers of the peace, and justice for any criminal foolish enough to break Everian law.

  Things had been busy since our assignment to Feris 5. We were fifty strong, with a small army of servants and underlings to do our bidding. But the Touchstone, the fortress where unclaimed mates were transported and housed, was in the center of my territory, and every few weeks, when a new batch of potential mates arrived, I brought at least twenty men down from the mountain to keep the peace.