Page 77 of Chosen By Swift

Swift flinched as if she had struck him. “Yes.”

Her mind reeled as she tried to make sense of their horrible situation. “And that’s why you’ve been so strange since our shower.”

“Yes because I—.”

“Because you what?” she interrupted.

Swift’s pained gaze struck something soft within her. “Because I know I have to let you go.”

She reared back in shock and confusion. “What?”

“Alys, I will not ask you to fuck another man for my honor. You’re my mate, and I care about you. I know what it would do to ask you to share yourself with another man. So, I won’t do it.” He exhaled roughly. “That means I have to let you go.”

“A Discard?”

“Yes.”

“And then what? Your next mate has to sleep with him?” The thought of Swift collaring another woman broke her heart. It was like a knife stabbing right into her chest.

He shook his head. “There won’t be a next mate. I know Shear, and he’ll never give up that trade. I won’t put another woman in this position.”

“So, you’ll be alone forever?”

“I deserve it.”

“You probably do,” she replied waspishly, “but if you throw me away, I’ll still be hurt. I can never go back to my family. I don’t have any skills for making a living in The City or a colony. What happens to me, Swift?”

He crumpled forward and scrubbed his face with both hands. “I don’t know, Alys.”

Alys shot to her feet. She needed to move. She needed to think. Most of all, she needed to get away from Swift. She trusted him and cared for him, and he had betrayed her.

Once inside their bedroom, she shut the door and paced the room. Her mind raced as she considered all of the options. She could follow through with his offer to Discard. She would be given some money and transport to a location of her choice. She would have to figure out how to live on her own and support herself. It wouldn’t be easy, but she could do it.

Alternatively, she could enter the ship’s matchmaking service that allowed men who had enough points to surrender their place on a Grabbed list for a willing woman who had failed a mate bond. She was certain Hallie would make sure she ended up with a good man. There were perks to having the general’s wife as a good friend, after all.

But I don’t want anyone else.

I want Swift.

But at what cost?

Her gaze fell on her tablet on the charging station. She strode toward it and picked it up, carrying it back to the bed where she sat down and tapped the screen. She found the book she had been reading earlier, one of the more explicit and eye-opening texts given to new wives. She had only gotten to the second chapter before her face was so red she had closed the book and dropped her tablet in shock.

Now, though, she needed to know what this whole trading and swapping and sharing business really meant. She used the index to find the correct chapter and tapped the screen to open to that page. She scanned the paragraphs, taking in the information as quickly as possible. The text explained the differences between sharing and trading and something they referred to as cuckolding. It was all very shocking to her rather sheltered mind.

And, if she was being honest, a bit arousing.

Which made no sense at all

I’m a good girl. I waited for my husband and only my husband.

Except as she played one of the educational videos embedded in the digital book, she wasn’t as disgusted as she had expected to be. The woman in the first scenario seemed to be enjoying herself thoroughly as two men made love to her in the most deviant ways Alys had ever seen. At one point, both men were inside her at the same time!

Her face burned and her breaths grew quicker as she swiped through the videos to one that was tamer. In this one, the woman leaned back against one man who caressed her breasts and belly and kissed her while the other man used his mouth between her legs. Unbidden, the image of Swift holding her like that while a stranger licked herdown therecame to mind. She breathed shakily as her core clenched and pulsed.

What if it was like this? What if she set the rules for the trade? That was her right, wasn’t it? Everything she had been given by the welcoming committee hammered the concept of consent, specifically the woman’s consent. She couldn’t be forced to have sex with anyone, not even her mate, unless she consented, and she could withdraw that consent anytime during the act.

I’m the one in control.

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