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)
“I’m not going to drink any more of it,” Penny vowed. I’ll find a way to hide it or flush it or pour it down the sink.”
“It wouldn’t matter by now if you stopped drinking it and never had any again,” Claudette told her. “After three days, the Mother’s Milk makes permanent changes in a woman’s body. They just keep giving it to you as long as you live in the dorms to be sure you get good and ripe for breeding.”
“So…these changes in my body are permanent?” Penny asked, looking down in horror at her new, much-larger breasts.
“They are.” She could almost hear Claudette shrugging. “Don’t worry—you’ll get used to it.”
“How can I get used to the idea that my breasts are going to start leaking some weird, honey-like substance and some man I’ve never met before will be sucking it out of me?” Penny demanded.
“Shhh! Keep your voice down!” Claudette hissed. “I don’t think the restrooms are bugged, but I can’t be sure. Gods know they bug every other damn place in the Compound—including the Love Huts where all us breeders live.”
“Love Huts? Is that what they call those little white cottages we saw on the way in here?” Penny asked.
“Uh-huh. Everything at the Compound has a pretty name attached to it,” Claudette said sourly. “The tiny fucking living quarters are ‘Love Huts.’ The sticky crap that comes from your breasts is ‘love nectar.’ The way your crotch gets all swollen and so sensitive you want to scream is the ‘breeding need.’ And of course, you get raped daily during the ‘Mandatory Breeding Hour.’ It’s all just Gods-damned glorious.”
She sounded so bitter and hopeless, Penny would have cried for her if she hadn’t been frightened half out of her mind.
“Claudette,” she said urgently. “We have to get away from here! Can’t we make some excuse to get near the gate and then hide until they open it again and slip out?”
“And then what?” Claudette demanded from the other stall. “Go hide in the Deadly Jungle and die a horrible, painful death by poisoning the first time a leaf brushes your skin?”
“We could stick to the road where there aren’t any plants,” Penny said stubbornly. “We could try to get to where the NeverBreeder scouting parties dock and sneak into one of their ships and get taken back to Hell’s Gate Station.”
“You’re dreaming,” Claudette said flatly. “You need to stop it now, Penny. These kinds of fantasies are only going to get you recycled and portioned out at the meat market or served up on the meal trays.”
“I can’t give up hope!” Penny protested. “I don’t want to be married off to some man I don’t know and be…be raped by him every day for the rest of my life!” She could barely get the words out, her throat was so tight.
“It’s not so bad after you get used to it.” Claudette’s voice sounded gray and colorless—hollow, Penny thought. “I used to wish I could talk my idiot mate out of breeding me all the time, but he’s too much of a zealot for the Glorious Cause to ever skip a Mandatory Breeding Hour. Besides, that’s when he sucks out my nectar. And if he didn’t impregnate me so regularly, I’d have been recycled ages ago. So there’s that, anyway.”
“What if you could talk him out of…of breeding you, though?” Penny asked. “I mean, do you think that’s possible? Would someone who’s under the influence of the hypno-whispers be able to listen to reason?”
Claudette barked an ugly laugh.
“Talk him out of it? When have you ever been able to talk any male, hypnotized or not, out of wanting sex? Besides, there’s the Spice to contend with.”
“The spice? What spice?” Penny asked.
“The kinds that drives even the mildest, kindest male to rape,” Claudette said dryly. “And believe me, the NeverBreeder scouts aren’t out there looking for the mildest and the kindest. They’re picking males who already have high testosterone levels and the Spice just drives their sexual desire through the roof.”
“What spice are you talking about?” Penny demanded again, irritated that the other woman wasn’t answering her question. “Is it the male equivalent of the Mother’s Milk?”
“You could say that,” Claudette muttered. “Only it’s airborne—constantly circulating through the air supply of the entire Compound. So it isn’t like a supplement or a food you can stop eating or drinking. Every breeder male inside the atmosphere dome that’s over this place is breathing it in every minute of the day and night and believe me—it makes them horny as a belrusian bear. So I’m warning you now—get ready to be plowed the minute you and your ‘Forever Mate’ get back to your ‘Love Hut’ after the Unification Ceremony. He’s going to need to breed and you’ll just have to take it.”
“That’s awful!” Penny put her head in her hands. She felt cold all over—a deep chill that had settled at her core and wouldn’t thaw. “Claudette, I can’t go through with this,” she whispered. “I have to find a way to escape—have to get out of here before the Unification Ceremony!”