Assigned a Mate Read online

  “It is not for you to argue with the doctor. It is my job to do so in your stead. He was impertinent, as you said, but it was my job as your mate to defend your honor. To defend your position as a woman in this society. To protect you. When you spoke out of turn, you took that from me, thus dishonoring me as well.”

  It was a tad antiquated, but I could understand the logic. I stroked my fingers over the smooth flooring. Having a conversation with my face near the floor was odd, but so was being spanked. Well, so was being on Trion for that matter. “You mean that I am to defer to you?”

  “Are you familiar with the ways and customs of Trion?”

  I shook my head.

  “Are you familiar with me?”

  I shook my head again.

  “Doctor Bron or the examination he was going to give?”

  “No,” I replied.

  “If I were to appear on Earth, wouldn’t you wish to speak for me, to help guide me as I learned my way?”

  I clenched my teeth again and hated that his reasoning was not unfounded.

  “Yes.”

  He released his hold on my wrists and helped me to stand before him, close enough to be situated between his spread knees. My bottom was hot and stung from the spanking. His size was great enough that his eyes were not in line with my breasts. That did not mean that I did not feel any less exposed and vulnerable, even more so now that he pointed out the error of my ways.

  “I need to check your implant.”

  His words stirred me from my thoughts. I was surprised that he could switch to another topic so readily. He’d meted out my punishment and it was time to move on?

  “I assume your neuroprocessor is working properly, since you seem to understand everything said to you.”

  I frowned. “What?” What was he talking about? What neuroprocessor?

  “Do not be afraid, small one.” I was average height and at least two dress sizes bigger than the medical charts on Earth said I should be. I was not small, but standing in front of my new mate, I felt almost tiny, and very, very female.

  Tark lifted his hands to my head and ran his fingers up the sides of my face to the top of each temple, just above my eyes. He must have found what he was looking for because when he applied a very small amount of pressure, I felt two foreign bumps pressing into the bone of my skull. It wasn’t painful, but definitely odd.

  “What is that?” The moment Tark removed his hands, I lifted my own shaking fingers to the same spots and felt the small bumps beneath my skin.

  “They are advanced neuroprocessing units, or NPUs. All advanced member races of the Interstellar Bride Program have them implanted at birth. The NPU increases your brain’s ability to process and learn language and mathematics, and improves memory. We are speaking now in my planet’s common tongue, which was downloaded to your NPU before you arrived.”

  Holy shit. I was a cyborg or something now?

  “I have alien technology implanted in my head? Are there little wires running to my brain cells? How did the NPU system integrate and communicate with the organic tissue?” My medically trained mind had a hundred questions and no answers.

  Tark’s eyes widened and his lip quirked. “Aren’t you the curious one?”

  Instead of answering my questions, he glanced at the table in the middle of the room. “Lie down again, Evelyn Day.” His voice was still deep, but lacked the biting edge he’d had when spanking me.

  I couldn’t avoid my mate or what he planned to do to me. I could try, but decided against it because my bottom was very sore and still suffering the consequences of my previous actions. While the doctor had pricked my ire, Tark made me feel something else entirely. I wasn’t happy that he’d spanked me—absolutely not—but he did make a clear argument and I had been in the wrong. I liked that he’d given the punishment, then moved on. I, too, felt I should move on from it as well. Learn from it, of course, for I didn’t wish to go through that again. I reached back and gently rubbed my hot skin.

  Odd. There was something about him, his power, his protectiveness—he had protected me from the doctor—and his dominance that was very appealing. Looking at how well his large body was defined in his dark clothes, I wanted to please him. Besides that, I itched to run my hands over his arms to feel his biceps, over his broad shoulders, down his chest. Surely his abdominals would be hard and well defined. And lower…

  I went over to the table and Tark followed. With his hands at my hips, he lifted me up onto the metal surface and I hissed at the cool contact with my overheated bottom.

  “Lie back,” Tark told me.

  Licking my lips, I settled back onto the table as I watched his eyes rove over my body. Unlike the doctor, Tark looked at me with arousal, definitely, but also something like reverence. I keenly felt the heated slide of his gaze, as if his fingers were actually tracing the curves of my flesh.

  “As I said, you must be examined to ensure you are well. I have plans for you, gara.”

  I could do nothing but lick my dry lips at the raspy sound of his voice.

  “I will touch you now.”

  I gasped when his hand cupped my breast, for the touch was gentle, yet I felt rough calluses on his palm.

  He watched as my nipple tightened, then rubbed his thumb back and forth over the taut peak, shifting the gold ring.

  “Why… why the rings?” I asked, my voice soft. I shivered at the idea of a stranger—who was also my mate—touching me.

  “We adorn our women and find the rings both beautiful and arousing.” He watched my breast as he replied. “All of our mates have rings placed in their nipples. It is a sign of claiming and respect.”

  “They don’t hurt,” I said.

  He smiled then. “I hope not. My touch should bring you pleasure, gara, nothing else.”

  No, they didn’t hurt at all. Instead, the soft tug and pull of the metal felt incredible. My nipples had always been sensitive, but now, I arched my back to press into his palm more fully.

  “You were processed according to our social customs. It normally takes several weeks for the rings to heal and I had no intention of waiting that long before I touched you… here.” He flicked the ring and I gasped. “A perk of the transfer… for both of us.”

  “And the chain?”

  Tark lifted the chain and I noticed a small crest had been stamped into several tiny golden disks that were woven into the shining strand. “This symbol is my birthing mark, and the mark of my line. It signifies that you are mine. Until I claim you and mark you permanently, it is also your protection.”

  “Protection?” I didn’t understand how rings in my nipples were going to protect me from anything, but the way he continued to play, I didn’t really care.

  “No one will dare touch what belongs to the high councilor.” He sounded like a possessive caveman. “Enough questions. Place your hands above your head and allow me to examine my mate.”

  I froze, my hands locked in front of me. “Tark, I don’t—”

  “This…” He moved his hand a little lower and gently tugged on the chain, sending a hot sizzle of pleasure from both of my nipples directly to my clit, “…is also a tool I will use to make sure you learn obedience, gara. Just one of the many ways your body will learn to submit to mine—and keep you from arguing.”

  He let go of the chain and it fell onto my skin once again, the once cool metal now heated by his touch. Tark gently wrapped each of my wrists in his big, strong hands and slowly maneuvered me until my hands were above my head on the exam table, as he’d requested.

  “Or, I can flip you over onto your belly and spank you once again. It is your choice.”

  I almost rolled my eyes and realized he would definitely consider that impertinence.

  “That is not much of a choice,” I grumbled.

  He offered a small smile. “You are learning quickly, gara. Know this, I will never harm you. But I will also never allow you to hurt yourself. Bron—” he spit out the man’s name, “—is new to my se
rvice, and after how he behaved, I will summon a new medical officer immediately upon our return to the palace. I wouldn’t let him treat my frim, let alone my mate.”

  So he hadn’t been taking the doctor’s side earlier. Had I just remained quiet earlier, Tark would have dismissed the man and I would have been in this exact spot—without the sore bottom.

  Tark’s dark gaze drifted up from my thrusting breasts to my face. “I am going to touch you now, and you must tell me if you have any pain or discomfort from your transfer.”

  His hands stroked down my bare arms to my breasts, across the curves of my ribcage to my hips. Goosebumps broke out across my skin. He was learning my body like I was a fascinating specimen, something he had never seen before, and not necessarily in a sexual way. But his gentle touch calmed my fear, and without fear to hide behind, I could not stop myself from focusing on other things.

  The heat of his hands. The racing of my heart. His touch was like fire on my flesh and he was very thorough. Despite the mental argument against allowing a stranger to touch me so intimately, and despite all the stress of the last few weeks, my body knew what to do and what it wanted. It responded with a desire so swift it shocked me. His hand moved up my legs and slipped between my thighs.

  I gasped at the light contact, my body arched off the table as if he’d applied an electrical shock. I squeezed my knees together, pinning his hand in place. He released his hold on my wrists and traced the soft curve of my abdomen until he found the chain and gave a soft tug. I cried out and closed my eyes. The sight of him over me, so dominant, so intense, made me consider things I would never, ever think to do. Like allow a complete stranger to play with my pussy. No, not allow, want. I wanted my mate to touch me.

  What the hell was wrong with me? Had the transfer made me lose my mind? Had it made me horny? Was there some kind of sexual neuroprocessor stimulant that upped my libido? But then again, it could just be the testosterone oozing from his pores.

  “Open your legs, gara. Now. Do not be afraid.”

  “I’m not… I don’t…” I wasn’t afraid that he’d harm me. Quite the opposite. I was afraid of myself, afraid that I’d give him anything he wanted. I didn’t know him at all, but his gentle hands and firm commands threatened to break down all of my barriers, break all of my rules about men. And I’d just met him.

  I felt him move closer, and his mouth closed over my nipple; the swirl of his tongue pulling on the small ring made me moan with pleasure. “Open for me, mate. Let me see what is mine.”

  His touch. His kiss. His heat.

  My mate. Mine. He belonged to me as much as I belonged to him. At least for now.

  I let my knees fall wide and opened my eyes as he moved away from my breast and closer to my core.

  Coming up on my elbows, I looked down my body and my eyes widened once again. “I have no hair.” I’d thought it had felt different… down there, but I’d been too distracted by the nipple rings and chain and the spanking to notice my pussy had been made bare.

  “It is sensitive for you, yes?” He asked the question, then bent low to blow a soft breath of air over my pussy lips. He may not have touched a woman from Earth before, but he certainly knew what he was doing. He blew on me again and I shuddered. He was staring now, his face so close that he could surely pick up my own scent and I wondered…

  “Am I… shaped like the women on your planet?”

  “Mmm.”

  I thought he would ignore my question, but apparently, he had decided to investigate. Tark lifted something from the side of the table, and moments later a cold, hard object was slowly inserted into my core. I pushed with legs and arms in a scramble to get away.

  “Stop. What are you doing to me?”

  “Don’t move.”

  I shook my head, startled and surprised at the object. He grabbed my wrists once again and easily secured them into cuffs at the top of the table. Angling my head back, I looked up at my constraints. Tugging at them, it was no use. There was no give. It was like in the dream at the processing center, bound and a man touching me. I could feel my pussy getting wet at the memory. I struggled against them and that only made me wetter, my arousal slipping out around the dildo that filled me. I was bound with a man looming over me, the sheer size of him capable of doing me harm, but all he wanted to do was give me pleasure—strange, unknown, and scary pleasure. My bottom was sore from his earlier spanking and I could do nothing but submit.

  Tark’s large palm settled across my abdomen as a strange whirring sensation started in my core, followed by a heat that spread from my pussy to my ass, deep inside my womb, up through my outer pussy lips and higher, to my clit, striking there like a small electric shock. This was like no vibrator I’d ever seen—or felt—before.

  “Ah!” My hips bucked at the overwhelming sensation and Tark’s dark gaze seemed to be hypnotized, watching my reactions.

  The strange device in my pussy beeped three times, then zapped my clit again. There was no other word I could think of to describe it. It didn’t hurt, far from it actually. It felt incredible, and that was the problem. “Give in, mate. Submit to the exam just as you are learning to submit to me.”

  Chapter Three

  “This isn’t an exam. This is—” A strong electrical surge pulsed through the walls of my pussy to my ass, and I fought to maintain control of my body, but another zap to my clit sent me over the edge. The walls of my pussy and lower abdomen pulsed and spasmed so strongly I felt like I was coming apart. “Oh, God.”

  My body bucked on the table, beyond my control. I struggled against the bonds on my wrists. Shivering and spent, I turned my face away from my new mate. I tried to catch my breath as I fought back tears. The device inside me quieted to a small, nearly imperceptible hum. But after the overwhelming shock of the forced orgasm, that small vibration was easy to ignore.

  Tark’s pressure on my abdomen and thighs lifted and he reached down between my legs to remove the alien object from my pussy. I wanted to run and hide, but I was bound. How could I have responded like that to a stupid little medical tool? What had he done to me?

  He looked at a display screen attached to the blunt silver tool and nodded his head. “Excellent, Evelyn Day. The medical probe indicates you are fertile, free of disease, and both your reproductive and nervous systems are functioning at optimal levels.”

  “Let me go.” I tried to close my legs, but he held them open at the knees.

  Looking up at me with his dark eyes, he said, “You are mine now and I won’t let you go. Not when your body is so very eager to know me.”

  “Eager?” I questioned. “You forced that pleasure upon me. Look at me! I’m bound to the table and my bottom, my bottom is sore.” A tear slid down my cheek.

  Wiping it away from his finger, he responded, “The tests had to be done. There is nothing wrong with enjoying a small taste of pleasure while submitting to them. Submitting to me.”

  A strong, blunt finger traced my folds and I was embarrassed to feel how easily it glided through my wetness. “See? It makes you wet. Being bound and open for me is what you like.”

  “How would you know?” I countered.

  “Because you are my mate. Do not question or fight what is a perfect match.” He found my clit and my hips tilted toward him, his to command and eager for his curious touch. Clearly, my body and mind were not in synch.

  “You are, indeed, much like our females. You should enjoy my finger here… and here.”

  I shook my head. “I-I shouldn’t,” I countered.

  He used three fingers now, his thumb on my clit as he slid two more deep inside.

  “You are allowed to come from my touch, even if we do not know each other. Our bodies, our minds, our very souls are connected. Give up, gara.”

  My arms began to shake and I relaxed on the table. He finger fucked me and found that sensitive spot inside. While the probe had brought about intense pleasure, his fingers elicited something else entirely. They were much more adept a
nd a part of him. Still aroused from my examination, I moaned and rolled my hips beneath his hand, eager for more, unable to deny my body’s desperate need to come all over his hand.

  “Yes, you are very similar. Ah, my mate, I can tell by your reaction that I have found the secret place inside you that will drive your pleasure. See? I’ve kept your hands in the restraints because I know you like it. It heightens your pleasure.”

  He’d found it all right, and every other secret place that made me hot. If he kept at it much longer, he’d make me come again. I was panting now, and wet, and mortified that I’d reacted so strongly to him. A complete stranger. This couldn’t be happening to me. There had to be some rational explanation. “Do they drug the women when they transfer them?”

  “No.” His gaze changed instantly, from generous and indulgent to cold and insulted. “We do not drug our women for pleasure. As you can feel, it is not necessary. Is that what the cowards on Earth do to their mates?”

  “Some of them.” I had insulted him, and I hadn’t meant to. But seriously, what in the name of all that was holy was happening to me? “I’m sorry, I just…”

  “No man of worth needs drugs to seduce his mate.” He slowly and deliberately removed his hand from my pussy and I felt abandoned. Needy. Weak. Reaching up, he released one wrist, then the other from the bonds. As tears gathered once again in my eyes, I knew that, without a doubt, I was losing my freaking mind. Maybe the last few days had finally caught up to me. The murder I’d witnessed. The plan to send me off-planet to stay hidden and safe. The new identity and processing. The terror of being sent to a new world, to a man I’d never met.

  “I’m sorry, Tark. I didn’t mean to offend.”

  “You are tired and on a new world.” I watched now as he put his glistening fingers in his mouth and grinned.

  Oh, my God, he was tasting me. It was a very erotic sight and I clenched my thighs together to ease the ache.

  “Sweet. Like the rova fruit.”