Total pages in book: 182
Estimated words: 171288 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 856(@200wpm)___ 685(@250wpm)___ 571(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 171288 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 856(@200wpm)___ 685(@250wpm)___ 571(@300wpm)
“Oh, of course,” she murmured. “That sounds…lovely.”
“And so it will be!” Mother Toone exclaimed. “All these lovely ladies lined up to wed with the males our Glorious Leader has picked for them! And you’ll be happy, my sweet! For the Shining Star is never wrong. Every couple he puts together is as happy as can be, all their lives long.”
“I…I’m sure they are,” Penny mumbled, still smiling as hard as she could.
“Here you go, my dear.”
Mother Toone got Penny a larger scrub top and nodded in approval as Penny pulled it on.
“Now then,” she told Penny. “You just let me know when your nectar comes in—it should start any day now.”
“My…nectar?” Penny asked in confusion—this was something Claudette hadn’t told her about. “What’s that?”
“Why, it’s a kind of sweet honey or dew that drips from your nipples,” Mother Toone informed her. “Once it comes in, you’re ripe to be bred by your Forever Mate. And you’ll be needing him to help you with it—which he will, of course, during your Mandatory Breeding hour each day.”
Penny felt like her smile was beginning to crack.
“Is…is that so?” she managed to get out.
“Oh yes, sweetie, it’s so.” Mother Toone smiled at her. “So as I said, let me know when it comes in. It’s sweet and sticky and it can make a real mess if it’s not drawn out at least once a day. So we’ll hook you up at the suction station if it comes in too much before the Unification Ceremony.”
“Suction station?” Penny asked faintly. “Uh, never mind,” she added, when Mother Toone started to explain. “I think I can figure that one out on my own. But what about…” She hesitated, not sure how put the other embarrassing question she wanted to ask.
“What about the swelling in your nethers?” Mother Toone asked brightly. “Why, that’s just another sign you’re getting ready to be bred. I know it’s a bit sensitive down there.” She nodded at the baggy crotch of Penny’s scrubs. “But never you fear—the minute you’re matched to your Forever Mate, his seed will ease the ache, I promise.”
“His seed? It will?” Penny asked faintly. “I mean, of course it will. Thank you, Mother Toone. Um, excuse me—I think I need to…to use the restroom.”
“Hurry back dear,” the NeverBreeder attendant advised her. “You don’t want your lovely breakfast to get cold. We have some tasty sausage links for you today—juicy and meaty and delicious!”
Wondering what—or who—was in the breakfast sausage, Penny nodded and fled before her smile could break completely.
She ran into the communal bathroom, which adjoined the dorm room, and shut herself into one of the stalls. Ripping up her scrub top, she examined her breasts and nipples anxiously and saw they had turned from pale pink to a dark maroon.
Were her breasts really going to swell with some kind of weird nectar? And what was causing this change in her body in the first place? Was it in the food they were feeding her?
She was scrupulously avoiding all meat, now that she knew what was in it. She used the flavor sticks on everything else though—could it be something in those? Or was it the ubiquitous protein shake she had every morning? It had actually become Penny’s favorite part of the day because she could make it into anything she wanted from a delicious frozen coffee drink to a sweet treat from her childhood. But maybe she ought to stop drinking it. Maybe—
She heard the bathroom door open and someone walked in and took the stall next to hers.
“It’s a glorious day in the Compound,” a familiar voice said loudly.
“Claudette?” Penny whispered back.
“It’s me. Saw you tear out of the dorm in a hurry. You’re not cracking, are you?” The other woman sounded concerned but Penny wasn’t sure if she was more worried about her mental health or anxious that Penny might give her away as someone else who wasn’t truly hypnotized and under the control of the Compound.
“I’m okay,” she said, trying to keep her voice low and steady. “It’s just…you could have warned me about the breast growth and the…the nectar I’m supposed to start producing any day now. Mother Toone told me about it and it kind of freaked me out.”
“That’s just a side-effect of the Mother’s Milk,” Claudette said complacently.
“The Mother’s Milk?” Penny asked. Nobody had mentioned the term again after her first day at the Compound and she’d almost forgotten about it.
“That’s the white liquid you drink every day,” Claudette told her. “The one you use the flavor sticks on.”
“What? But you told me that was just a protein shake!” Penny hissed. “How could you lie like that?”
“I have to do my job, don’t I?” Claudette demanded defensively. “You know what would happen to me if I started warning everyone what the Mother’s Milk does?”