But when Makenna saw the vial of green liquid, her eyes got wide and she looked up at Bard pleadingly.
“Dr. Olivia hurts Makenna?” she asked in a trembling voice. “Hurts bad?”
“I’m afraid she’s right—it might sting a little,” Dr. Olivia said, frowning sympathetically. “But it’s the only way to get the spreader out.”
“All right.” Bard leaned down, and looked into Makenna’s big, dark eyes. “It might hurt, baby girl,” he said softly. “But I’ll be right here with you, through it all. Okay?”
“Bard…stays?” she asked, biting her lower lip.
“Bard stays,” he confirmed. Bringing her little hand to his lips, he kissed it gently.
Makenna nodded, as though comforted and Bard looked back at Dr. Olivia.
“Okay—I think you can try to take it out now,” he told her.
“I’ll be as quick as I can,” the human doctor promised.
With swift, efficient motions, she squirted the green liquid between Makenna’s legs.
Makenna stiffened and her eyes got wide, but she said nothing, only gripped Bard’s hand tighter.
“Okay, baby girl,” he murmured. “It’s okay.”
He hoped that it was, because Dr. Olivia seemed to be having some trouble getting the damn spreader thing out. She frowned, running her gloved fingers around the perimeter of the foreign object and then squirted some more solvent. Then she began to tug, gently but firmly.
Bard was so worried about what was happening between Makenna’s legs, that he almost forgot to look at the petite female’s face. But when he did, what he saw nearly broke his heart.
Makenna had her eyes squeezed tightly shut and there were tears leaking from their corners. She had a hand over her mouth, as though she was trying not to scream or cry but the pain in her lovely face was palpable.
Bard wondered if she was reliving the awful experience of having the spreader put into her in the first place. He could well imagine that whoever had done it to her hadn’t been gentle. And she would have known that the whole purpose of it was to let that fucking Trollox rape her and get her pregnant with his parasitic heir, which would end her life in the most gruesome and painful way possible. No wonder she was upset!
“Hey, baby girl,” he murmured, leaning over her again and cupping her cheek in one hand. “Hey, it’s all right. It’s all right.”
Her eyes flew open and a sob left her lips.
“Hurts…so much pain…so much…” She groped for the right word and for once, she found it. “So much shame. Makenna is so ashamed!”
“No, baby—no!” Bard gathered her close to him—her top half anyway, since Dr. Olivia was still working down below. He kissed her eyes and cheeks gently, kissing away the tears of shame and pain that stained her lovely face. “You have nothing to be ashamed of. None of this is your fault,” he told her.
She sobbed against his chest and Bard held her, feeling like his heart was breaking for her pain and sorrow. Poor little female! The horrors she’d endured before he had found her made him want to go kill that fucking Trollox and the orange-haired male who had been selling her to him. How could anyone be so cruel to such a sweet, innocent soul? Every instinct he had made him want to protect her from ever being harmed again. He just wanted to hold her forever.
Makenna clung to him, pressing her face to his shoulder, her small body shaking with her sobs and every sob seemed to tear at Bard’s soul. At last, however, he heard Dr. Olivia make a sound of triumph.
“Ah-ha! Got it!” she exclaimed, and held up a kind of metal ball with a rough outer exterior.
“Gods, that thing’s as big as my Mating Fist!” Bard blurted, staring at the spreader in surprise. “How in the Seven Hells did they get something that size into such a little female without using something like bonding fruit?”
“The spreaders are used to gradually open a female, yes they are, yes they are.” Yipper, who had been standing quietly by, spoke up. “They use bigger and bigger ones until at last their objective is achieved.” He looked at the large hollow metal ball in Dr. Olivia’s hand. “By the look of that one, I would say this female was about ready to be sold to a Trollox. Yes, she was, yes she was.”
A possessive growl rose on Bard’s throat and he had to swallow it back down so it wouldn’t scare Makenna. But the very thought of that disgusting bastard hurting her—using her—was enough to make him almost go into Rage.
She seemed to have calmed down now that the spreader was out. Though her eyes were still bright with tears, she wasn’t sobbing anymore.
“All…all done now?” she asked Bard and sniffed.
“All done, baby girl,” he assured her, stroking her cheek. Gods, how could he feel so much for a female he hadn’t even known for more than a day? But how long they had known each other didn’t seem to matter. Right now, it seemed like Makenna needed a protector and that was what he wanted to be to her.