“No! It’s too much. Zane… it’s, oh, my God. I can’t—” My head thrashed against his lap. Sweat broke out on my skin and I felt heated and flushed all over.
Zane’s right hand slid down to my inner thigh and he pulled my leg out of the stirrup, spreading me wider, opening me to the doctor’s attentions. I whimpered and lifted my free hand to his hair, tugging and pulling on him, holding onto him, my only anchor in this hurricane of sensation.
Zane lifted his lips from my nipple and kissed his way across my chest to the other side. “Do it, doctor.”
“Yes, commander.”
Those two words were my only warning as the doctor pumped the dildo into my pussy harder and faster with one hand, and shifted the object in my ass with the other. The sound of my desire, wet and slick, filled the small room. The machine attached to my clit sped up and Zane sucked hard on my neglected nipple.
My body came apart. I exploded, my nerves so overloaded that my entire body shook and I literally saw stars as my eyesight blurred into a temporary inky blackness. The spasms in my pussy went on and on, clenching around the doctor’s fucking, squeezing the device he’d placed in my ass. I was so full that I came around them, stretched and helpless and out of control. Small spasms of hot pleasure made me clench around the devices over and over until I was wrung out and limp, until I had no will to raise my head from Zane’s lap, let alone protest the pleasure I’d just experienced.
I floated back to reality slowly. Zane’s gentle kisses felt like worship on my chest and shoulders as the doctor gently removed his equipment from my body. I hissed as the one in my ass stretched me wide, then slipped free. All at once I felt empty as I clenched down on… nothing.
The doctor left the room quietly, leaving me with my new mate and the hot sting of humiliation that made my face and throat burn. What the hell was wrong with me?
Tears streamed from the corners of my eyes, but I had no control or emotional attachment to them. It was as if my body was crying of its own accord from being so completely overwhelmed.
“Good, Hannah. Good.” Zane wrapped me up in the sheet and pulled me into his lap just as the doctor came back in. The tender skin from the spanking heated and stung against the rough feel of Zane’s thigh. I tensed and turned my head away until the doctor stood before me and placed a small box on the examination table next to us. My attention was diverted from it by something else he brought into the room with him. In his hand was a long black strand of some kind. It looked like a thick black satin ribbon.
“You have passed our medical requirements, Lady Hannah. The sensors read that your nervous system is functioning at optimal levels and you are healthy and fertile for breeding.”
I wanted to say something sassy, like, Gee, thanks so much, but I held my tongue. My bottom was sore, inside and out, and I wanted to get as far away from the doctor as I could.
Both men remained silent and I finally lifted my head from Zane’s chest to look at what the doctor held in front of me. “What is it?”
“You’ve earned the right to be a Prillon bride. Congratulations, Hannah. And welcome, my lady. Once you claim your place among us, w
e are all yours. All Prillon warriors will honor you, fight for you, and die to protect you.”
I was so confused. I’d earned the right to be a Prillon bride because of a forced orgasm?
I stared at the object, which looked very much like a collar. I reached up and took it from the doctor’s hand. “What do I do with it?”
“You place the band around your neck, and always display it. It is black now, Lady Hannah. But once you choose a mate, and accept his claim in the claiming ceremony, your band will take on the color of your mate’s and expand to operate as a full Prillon body regulation system.”
I did not want to know what that meant. Not right now. I couldn’t take any more.
I looked up at Zane, just now noticing the deep red band around his neck. The collar was partially hidden by his armor. I looked away, unable to deal with any more new information. “Can we leave now? Please?”
He ran his hand down my arm. “I can’t remove you from the sanctuary of the medical station until you place the band around your neck. Without it, you would be unprotected and any male could try to claim you.”
“But, if it’s black, that means I haven’t chosen yet, so what’s the difference?”
The doctor chuckled. “The difference, my lady, is that a black band means you are in an active claiming period with a mate and his second.”
“I still don’t understand what difference it makes if I haven’t chosen.”
“It means, Hannah, that I have chosen you.” Zane’s gaze locked with my own and the raw possession I saw in his eyes set hundreds of butterflies loose in my stomach. No man had ever looked at me like that, like I was the only thing in the universe that mattered. “If any male dares touch you or disrespects you in any way, I will challenge him to a death duel.” Zane’s soft growl made me feel cherished this time, and special, because I knew all that fire and primitive protective instincts were for me. His thumb traced my lower lip as he whispered to me, making a solemn vow. “Only my second and I will lay a single finger on your beautiful body, my Hannah. Anyone else? I will kill him.”
Second? That had been mentioned several times but before I could ask after the term, the door to the room slid open. I stiffened as two more warriors entered. One was young, and quite handsome. The other looked to be an elder of their race, his face was lined and harsh, his skin color dull, not the golden tan look of Zane’s. The cold expression on the elder’s face as he looked at me made me want to climb around my mate and hide behind his very large, very formidable body. I tucked the sheet about me even tighter.
The old male spoke, and I tensed at his words. “Are we too late for the medical exam, commander? As Prince Nial’s personal advisor and honored father to the future Prime, I was very much looking forward to sharing in the joys of the bride processing protocols.” He squinted at me, and the look in his eyes was anything but friendly. It was clear he’d wanted to watch, all right. And not because he cared one bit about my health.
The tension in my mate’s chest translated to my worn-out body and I began to tremble in his arms.
“The examination is complete, Harbart. My bride is healthy and whole. I will now take her to my personal quarters without further delay. I’m sure you can understand.”
“Of course, of course. Such a disappointment, really. We shall have to inform the Prime that we missed it, right, Prince Nial?” Harbart took a small step forward, but stopped when Zane actually growled at him. Harbart held up his hands as if in surrender, but the gleam I saw in his eyes made the air catch in my throat as he continued. “Oh, commander. She is not wearing your band around her pretty little neck. Has she then, in fact, refused you already?”