Page 21 of Forced to Mate by the Mad Scientist (Kindred Tales Spicy Shorts #3)

21

SYLVIE

Sylvie wanted to die. She had never been more embarrassed in her life . Here she was, literally stuck together with her coworker, caught in flagrante delicto and now their boss could plainly see what they had been doing.

“Oh my God!” She looked for something—anything—to cover up with but there was nothing. The bed didn’t have a sheet or blankets or even pillows on it—it was just a bare mattress.

She fumbled uselessly, trying to hide herself, tugging at the plant fiber shift she wore which promptly tore and disintegrated in her hands. Apparently getting it soaking wet earlier was too much for the fragile material—now she was completely naked and stuck to her coworker!

Oh my God, I can’t believe this—so embarrassing! I wish I was dead! she thought, trying desperately to cover herself with her hands.

“You wish you were dead? Just because I’m knotting you?” Kross demanded and she realized he must have heard her through their new link.

“Yes—this is humiliating!” she sent back. “We’re stuck together right in front of our boss! Isn’t there anything you can do to make your knot go down faster? Come on—I need to get someplace and cover up!”

“Here,” he sent stiffly and struggled briefly to get off his uniform shirt so he could drape it over her.

“Thanks, but can’t you get out of me now?” Sylvie demanded.

“I’m doing my best, Princess. It takes some time.” This time his mental voice was distinctly sarcastic, which made Sylvie bristle.

“It’s not like I’m making an unreasonable request!” she exclaimed. “Our boss is standing right there—get OUT of me!”

“Fine, Princess!” Kross growled out loud. With a convulsive yank, he pulled his shaft out of her, despite the fact that his knot was still only half-deflated.

“Ahh!” Sylvie gasped as pain lanced through her. The removal was far more painful than any of the wild sex they’d had earlier.

“Fuck! Are you all right?” Kross demanded. He sounded half worried and half angry, she thought.

“Fine. I’m fine.” She sat up and drew his shirt closer around her. She could feel his seed leaking out from between her thighs—sticky and hot and embarrassing.

Kross fastened his trousers and sat up as well. Both of them faced Commander Sylvan, who had been standing there this entire time, apparently at a loss for words.

He cleared his throat.

“Are the two of you all right?” he asked uncertainly.

“We’re fine,” Sylvie said quickly. “We were captured by Dr. Barbarous—that’s why you saw what you saw. We never…I mean, we didn’t actually want to be doing what…what we were doing. He drugged us!”

She could feel Kross’s irritation through their link—for some reason he didn’t like the way she was explaining the situation. Whatever—at this point she was trying to save their jobs!

“How did you find us?” she asked quickly, trying to keep things going and hoping Commander Sylvan wouldn’t ask any more about the awkward position he’d found them in.

“Well…” He cleared his throat again. “Er, we’ve been worried about you two on the Mother Ship since you haven’t checked in for days,” he said. “And then the Goddess spoke to me and told me you were in trouble.” His eyes swept the room. “I can see that’s true.”

“Yes, absolutely. In a lot of trouble,” Sylvie agreed.

“That bastard, Barbarous has been experimenting on us,” Kross agreed. He looked down at his arms. “Fuck—what happened to my skin? How am I all red now?”

“It had to do with the injection the droid gave you,” Sylvie told him. “Your hair has a blue tinge now, too,” she added.

“The fuck?” Kross growled, reaching up to feel his hair as though he could tell what color it was that way.

“You do look considerably different,” Commander Sylvan told him. “Did Dr. Barbarous make any other changes in you?”

“I don’t know.” Kross sounded bewildered.

“He turned you animalistic for a while,” Sylvie offered. “That’s why we were…uh, together that way. You got all growly and started…”

She trailed off because there was real horror on her Protector’s face.

“Are you saying I raped you? Goddess, Syliva!”

“Not rape exactly ,” she said quickly. “I mean, I wasn’t totally on board with the, uh, idea but then he filled the room with lust gas and it really affected me. One thing led to another and we just…”

She trailed off, unable to think of a nice polite way to say that she’d been overcome with lust and had welcomed her Protector plowing her as hard as he could. She kept that thought strictly to herself—it was so embarrassing!

Kross seemed to be about to say something else but just then two more Kindred warriors arrived and they were dragging Dr. Barbarous between them.

“Here, Sylvan. Got the bastard just as he was running away,” one of them—a huge Beast Kindred, growled.

“Thanks, Baird.” Commander Sylvan nodded at the Beast Kindred warrior. “Who else is in this compound?”

“Besides all those fucking tree-men there’s another hollow tree trunk filled with women,” Baird told him. “They look traumatized—I think we need to take them back to the Mother Ship for medical care and therapy.”

“Let’s do it then.” Sylvan nodded. “Get everybody in the shuttles and we’ll fold space and get back to the Mother Ship as soon as possible.”

“Wait, Commander.” Kross put out a hand. “Those women…they can’t fold space. They need to be transported via wormholes back to the Mother Ship.”

“I see.” Commander Sylvan’s face went tight. “It’s like that, is it? They might be pregnant?”

“Yes, they might—any of them might be filled with new life that is half-plant!” Dr. Barbarous exclaimed, struggling against the warriors who were holding him. “Any one of them may be the mother of a whole new race—a superior race of plant-based beings!”

“Shut up, you sick fuck!” Baird growled at him. “I don’t know what you did to those poor women and I don’t fucking want to know! But I do know where you’re going—to stand trial for all your fuckery.”

“You can’t take me now! I’m so close to a breakthrough!” The mad scientist struggled in vain against the strong hands holding him. “Let me go! Let me finish my work!”

“I don’t think so,” Baird growled. “You’re coming with us.” He looked at Sylvan. “How about if I take him on ahead in my ship and you bring the women along via the wormhole route in yours?”

Sylvan nodded.

“Yes, that sounds good.”

“I’ll come with you,” Kross said, getting off the bed.

“Then I guess I will too.” Sylvie started to follow him, but he put a hand out to stop her.

“No, Princess,” he said in a low voice. “You’d better ride with the other women.”

Sylvie felt her stomach drop.

“You mean because you think I might be…” She couldn’t finish the sentence—couldn’t bring herself to say the word “pregnant.”

“Would it really be that bad if you had my baby in you?” Kross sent through their mental link.

“What do you mean would it be that bad? I’m a scientist! I never signed up to get pregnant!” Sylvie sent back in a rush of irritation. “How the hell am I going to handle a baby when I go out on missions?”

“I’m sorry you feel that way.” Kross’s mental voice was stiff. “And I’m sorry for what I did—more sorry than I can say.”

“You don’t have to—” Sylvie began but he was already turning away. And when she tried to send him something else, she found that the big Kindred had erected some kind of mental barrier between them.

“Kross? Kross!” she sent but no matter how much she shouted and screamed mentally, he didn’t answer.

It was almost like they had never formed the Soul Bond in the first place and though Sylvie was still irritated with her Protector, she couldn’t help feeling bereft by the deep silence that now existed between them.