Page 11

Chapter Eleven

Retmor

I’m so relieved on so many levels, and I’m elated that Eden hasn’t been touched. I hated the thought of her having been raped and abused. I was worried she might have emotional trauma that would make it difficult for her to accept me into her body.

It will still be a tough road preparing her for me to enter her, but she wasn’t raped. She wasn’t touched at all. My relief is tremendous.

I hold her torso down while Dankin inserts a catheter inside her to collect her urine. He’s quick about it, and I don’t even tell Eden what’s happening. There’s no reason to upset her.

Eden seems almost as relieved as me. For her, it’s partly because she just found out nothing is physically wrong with her. But also, she’s inside her head, thinking about everything she just learned. It’s a lot. She’s not focusing on the catheter or the examination of her clitoris or her folds.

Dankin glances at me. “Her hymen is mostly intact. That’s how I knew she hasn’t been penetrated by anything. You’ll need to address it with the doctors at the clinic when you get home. It’s not a serious issue, but you’ll need to break it and then stretch her frequently before you use anything larger. Chadka and Thabo will know what to do.”

“Thank you.”

Dankin stands and picks up the probe. I’ve been dreading Eden’s reaction to this part. He shows it to her. “This is an anal probe, Little one. I’m going to put it up inside your bottom. It will take your temperature and collect all kinds of data for me. I need you to be brave while I do it.”

She stares at him. Her face turns red.

“Would you like me to pierce you again, Little one?” I ask, rubbing the underside of her breast. I slide my fingers to her nipple and twist it. “I could do it here, if you want.”

She shakes her head. “No, Papi. I’ll be good.”

I hate how she squeezes her eyes closed and braces herself for the insertion. I need her to be familiar with anal probes and learn to accept them. But I don’t like it when my Baby girl is distressed, and even though I’ve injected her several times, she’s still upset by all these invasive procedures she’s not used to.

I cup her face and kiss her on the lips before rubbing my nose against hers to distract her from the probe. “Look at Papi.”

She frowns.

“Good girl. See? It doesn’t hurt, does it?”

“No, but it’s icky.”

“It’s not icky, Little one. It’s just a part of your body. Papi will help you get used to your body so that nothing seems so foreign and forbidden to you.”

“I don’t want to get used to my body,” she pouts.

I grin. “You don’t have a choice, Baby girl. Think of it this way, your compound had a way of life you were used to. Rules and punishments, right?”

“Yes.”

“Well now you’re moving to a new world where there are a different set of rules and punishments. You’ll have to adjust to a different way of looking at things. And can I tell you something else?”

“I guess.” She’s still pouting.

“You would have had to adjust to the rules that existed outside your compound if I hadn’t snatched you off your planet. You would have had to learn to dress differently and accept a totally different set of societal norms.”

She pushes out her bottom lip. It’s adorable.

“All done,” Dankin declares.

Eden blows out a breath. “I didn’t like that.”

I chuckle and kiss her again. “You barely knew about it.”

“Well, I still didn’t like it.”

“You’ll need to get used to it because every time we go to the doctor, he will put that probe in you to collect data.”

Dankin holds up the wand next.

“Not another test,” Eden protests.

It’s hard to keep from laughing. My girl has changed so much in such a short time. Hours. There is no way that when I first met her earlier in the evening, she would have dared speak that way to me or to a doctor. She’s getting comfortable expressing herself, and I’m so grateful.

“This one is easy, Little one,” Dankin tells her. “I’m going to hold this wand over your feet and then slowly move it up your body. It won’t touch you. It won’t hurt. You won’t feel a thing. It’s going to take pictures of your insides so I can make sure there’s nothing wrong with you internally.”

She glances at me.

“He’s telling the truth, Little one. Be brave one more time. It will be over soon.”

Dankin turns the wand on and hovers it over her foot before easing it up her body.

I watch as he scans every inch of her. Inside I’m holding my breath, begging the heavens that she is healthy and can travel home to Eleadia soon.

In a few minutes, Dankin is done. He sets the wand down and stands at a monitor where I assume he downloaded the data. “You can put a fresh diaper on her while I read the scan.”

I round to between Eden’s legs, slide a diaper under her bottom, and spread a healing cream on her before fastening the diaper at her hips and releasing all the restraints.

She blows out a tremendous breath when I pick her up and cradle her against me. “Can I have the blanket back, Papi?” If she knew how to twist herself around my finger, she would be batting her eyes at me.

I wrap the soft material around my girl and meet her gaze. “I won’t always let you have a blanket, Little one. There will be times when I will not allow it. You’ll get used to having your chest exposed.”

“I don’t think so.” She shakes her head.

I kiss her nose. “You will because there are no other options.”

Dankin turns back to us. “All clear.”

I beam. “No issues at all?”

“Nope. Obviously there’s nothing wrong with her uterus or any other sexual organs. Everything else looks healthy, too. I’ll clear you for transport as soon as you’re ready to go.”

“So my elders lied to me about being barren, too,” she grumbles.

“In this case,” Dankin says, “I’d say the only liar was probably your husband. He didn’t want any of the elders to know he wasn’t having sex with you, so he told them all you couldn’t get pregnant. You were never going to conceive a baby without having sex.”

“The man I was supposed to marry as my second husband was furious because I was barren.”

“He was furious because he was also lied to,” I point out.

She humphs. “That wasn’t going to cause him to ease up on me.”

I nod. “I’m pretty sure it wouldn’t have taken long because your second husband was younger and having sex with his other wives. He would have learned you had not had sex the first time he tried to enter you. Then he would have realized you indeed probably could conceive.”

My girl turns more fully toward me and wraps her tiny arms around my neck. “I’m so glad I escaped and found you.”

I rub her back, choked up with emotion. “Me, too, Little one. Me, too.”

“So we’re going to get in another one of those pods and go to your planet?”

“Soon, Little one, but it will be a much bigger ship. A transport vessel will take us home. You won’t see it. I’ll put you to sleep before we board and wake you up in six months when we arrive.”

“I won’t be able to look out the window?” She sounds disappointed.

“No, Baby girl. I’ll show you pictures, though, some day.” My girl is incredibly curious. I’ll indulge her in every way imaginable. I’m so happy, I can’t stop grinning.