Claimed By The Vikens. Grace Goodwin
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together again. It wasn’t as if our parents ever hugged us, took any responsibility for us. We’d had to take care of each other since forever.
“Great.” The warden sounded pleased as she swiped her finger over her small tablet. As she did so, she continued, “I don’t always have brides so eager to go. Usually convicted felons do not volunteer so readily.”
“Yeah, well, I’m no convict, but I definitely am eager. My sister was matched.”
She glanced up at me briefly. “That’s nice.” Her tone said that factoid was completely irrelevant. As if. “I have a few standard details to go over with you before I can begin preparations for transport.”
“Go for it,” I prompted, eager to get this show on the road.
“State your name for the record.”
“Violet Nichols.”
“Are you legally married?”
Yeah, right. “No.”
“Do you have any biological or legal offspring?”
“You mean some women leave a kid behind?” I asked, not answering the simple question.
“This eliminates that possibility,” she replied, although there was probably a story there.
“No. I don’t have any kids.”
“You agree to this match of your own free will?”
I nodded. “Yes, I do. Where do I sign?”
“Verbal agreement is all that is required, Violet, since everything is recorded and saved. Thank you.”
I wasn’t too keen to know my steamy dream had been recorded, but the warden had said I wasn’t the only woman to come out of the testing all hot and bothered. I was just another face to them. Another test, another transport. And soon, I’d be on Trion. Earth and this testing center would be far, far away.
“Great.” I wiggled my bare feet up and down on the hard chair, energized. Maybe it was the hot dream orgasm that had me motivated to go. I’d get my sister back and meet my new, smoking hot alien mate.
“Wonderful. That is the last of the required questions.” She stepped back and a seam appeared in the wall, lit by faint blue light. A section of the wall slid away and the chair moved sideways into some kind of cocoon chamber. Holy shit. I was going to Trion. Like now. Right now.
I closed my eyes until something pinched me just behind my ear. I yelped at the sting, but Warden Egara’s voice calmed me. “That’s just your Neural Processing Unit, Violet, so you can understand their language. You’re doing just fine.”
I pushed out a breath, let my shoulders relax. This was really happening. I was headed to see Mindy. “Just get me that one-way ticket to Trion and I’ll be all set.”
She frowned. “Trion?”
I tried to lift my hands, rub my wrists, even though they didn’t hurt. I wanted to fidget, tuck my hair back behind my ear, shift in the hard, pseudo-dentist chair. And that ear pinch wasn’t anything like Novocain. This place, so far, was much better than the dentist. Only sexy man dreams. “Yes, Trion. That’s where I will be sent.”
The warden blinked at me, then cocked her head to the side. “Why do you believe you were matched to Trion?”
“My sister is there, so that’s where I’ll be sent, too.” I was absolutely certain of it. We were twins. Identical. Where one went, the other followed. Always.
“How nice for your sister,” the warden said neutrally, as if she’d offered this bland statement to other siblings before. “But you were not matched to Trion.”
My jaw went slack and I stared at the woman wide-eyed. “Of course, I was. I’m going to Trion.”
Slowly, she shook her head. “No, Miss Nichols. You’ve been matched to Viken. A ninety-seven percent match, which is quite remarkable considering you have to be matched to three warriors. That is the best match I have ever seen to Viken. You should be very happy there.”
Holy shit. Three? Did she just say three warriors?
No. This was all wrong. Sure, the dream had been hot. Super hot. Amazing. But it wasn’t what I needed. I needed to go to Trion. It was my turn to frown.
“Viken? Where the hell is Viken? I’ve never heard of that planet.” I yanked at the restraints, suddenly very eager to get the hell out of this chair before Warden Egara pushed some magic button and sent me to the wrong freaking planet. There was no way I was going to Viken. Mindy was on Trion. Trion.
“Viken is a small planet known for its—”
I glared at her. “I don’t care about Viken.” Yanking harder, I winced when the restraints cut into my skin. I swung my legs over the side and pulled, twisted, trying to get up. “No. I don’t want to go to Viken.”
“Why not? Your subconscious testing dictated that it was your best match.”
I put my hands up in the stop gesture even though my wrists were pinned down. “No way. I refuse.”
“You’ve already been matched,” she replied. “You accepted the match, verbally and for the record. My hands are tied.”
Yeah, so were mine. I tugged on the restraints once again.
“Per protocol, I must send you to the place with the highest probability of a successful match, and that is Viken.”
I shook my head. This was wrong. So wrong. But they needed brides, right? The Brides Program had advertisements all over the place. TV. Online. The sides of buses. They were desperate, right? So she’d send me where I wanted to go. She had to. “I’m sorry, Warden. But no. If I’m not going to Trion, I’m going home.”
“This is unheard of, Miss Nichols.” Her eyes weren’t sad anymore, but the look I saw there was worse. Pity. “You are giving up a chance at true happiness, Violet. I cannot send you to Trion. The matching protocols are very specific. Now that you’ve been matched, my hands are tied. I can’t send you to another planet knowing you’ll be unhappy.”
Turning, I narrowed my eyes at the woman. “Warden Egara, I’m not going to Viken.” I closed my mouth, gritted my teeth and spit out, “It’s Trion, with my sister, or nothing.”
“But—”
“Get me out of here, please. I’m going home.”
The warden just stared at me for a full minute, obviously thinking about what she was going to do. Didn’t women ever reject their matches? I would assume women said ‘No’ all the time. I mean, cold feet seemed reasonable at a time like this. Right?
Or was I the idiot here? Turning down a chance at true happiness? But no. There was no happiness without my sister. She was my other half. I didn’t need a man—or three—for that. I needed to know she was safe. Happy. I knew I’d never be happy until I knew she was all right. I swore taking care of her was in my DNA.
“If you don’t let me get up off this chair, I’m going to start screaming.”
She walked toward me and held my gaze. “You’re making a mistake, Violet.”
“No, I’m not. I can’t go to Viken.”
Her sigh was so deep I swore it rattled my bones, and definitely rattled my nerves. “Very well.”
The chair slid back into the main room, the weird doors sliding shut, the blue light disappearing. Then, the restraints retracted almost magically and I got up so fast I nearly ran her over, rubbing that sore spot behind my ear that now had a weird, painful lump. It wasn’t a mistake. I’d just have to find another way to get to Trion.
There had to be another way.
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