LITMIR.BIZ

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“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 want 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.”

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