Page 2 of Forced to Mate By the Mad Scientist

They must be further out…She waded a little deeper so that the swirling waters came up just past her hips. She hoped the bottom half of her cover-all would keep the moisture out. So far it seemed to be holding and now she thought she saw some of the leeches. They were nearly invisible because their bodies were transparent but when you looked just right you could see the little ripple they made when they moved…

“Hey, Princess—you’re getting out too far!” Kross’s deep voice interrupted her concentration and she jerked her head around to glare at him.

“I’m fine! Just leave me alone—I’ve almost got them!”

She turned back to look down into the water and took one more step forward…only to find herself suddenly slipping under the murky surface.

“Shit!” she heard Kross growl just as the water closed over her head. Then there was a muffled splash and long arms were dragging her up and out of the swamp.

“Told you not to get out too far,” Kross said as he pulled her back to the shallows where the swamp only came up to their thighs—well Sylvie’s thighs and his knees, since he was so much taller than her.

“I was fine—I just slipped! You didn’t have to rescue me—I can swim,” she sputtered defensively, pushing her wet hair out of her face.

“Is that right, Princess?” Kross was smiling but it was an angry smile and his eyes were a burning reddish-orange. “Well what if itwasn’tjust a slip? What if one of those fucking water-dragons had grabbed you? Becausethat’swhat it looked like from where I was standing—you went down like something had dragged you under!”

“Well, itdidn’t,”Sylvie snapped. “I must have stepped in a hole—that’s all. I’m sorry you had to mess up your perfect hair and clothes,” she added, since he was every bit as wet as she was and he hadn’t even been wearing a protective coverall. His maroon uniform shirt was clinging to his muscular chest in a way that was somehow both mouthwatering and irritating at the same time.

Kross’s angry grin grew even wider.

“Well, at least I know it was for a good cause. You finally found your leeches. And tell me, how do your nipples feel now that you have?”

“What? Mynipples?”

Sylvia glanced down at her shirt and saw that the white fabric was now basically see-through and clinging to her tight points. Also, her Kindred protector was staring at them freely, as though he had every right to peruse her nearly-naked chest.

“You perverted pig!” she snapped and slapped his face. Of course, she had to reach up to do it, but she made a pretty good job of it—her palm connected with his cheek hard enough to make her hand sting.

The smile fell off Kross’s face and his eyes went full red for a moment. A muscle in his jaw clenched and his big hands balled into fists. For a moment Sylvie was sure he was going to hit her back, even though the Kindred never hit or abused women.

She braced herself for the blow…but it never came. Instead, Kross leaned down and swung her up over one of his broad shoulders. Carrying her like a sack of grain, he splashed out of the swamp while Sylvie beat on his muscular back with her fists and shouted for him to let her down.

“Hey, stop it! Where are you taking me? Let me go!” she was still shouting when he abruptly set her on her feet. They were right in front of their long-range shuttle, she saw—but why had he taken her back to the ship?

Kross opened the main hatch.

“Come on,” he growled, taking her by the arm and steering her into the interior of the shuttle.

“Hey, what are you doing? Stop it—I don’t care how mad you are, this mission isn’t over yet!” Sylvie exclaimed, though she was helpless not to follow him into the ship—he was dragging her along and he was much too strong to resist. “It’s not over until I find my slugs!”

“You found them, Princess,” Kross said shortly. He marched her to the tiny first-aid area in the back of the living quarters. It was no more than a bench to sit on and a cabinet full of medical supplies but it also had a brilliant overhead light—the better to see wounds or injuries. Kross flipped it on now, making Sylvie blink.

“Hey, why did you do that?” she muttered, shading her eyes with her hands. Outside in the swamp it had been a foggy, overcast day so the bright luminescence really hurt her eyes!

“Look down at yourself,” Kross demanded, looming over her. “At your nipples—reallylookat them this time. Don’t just fucking assume I’m a ‘pervert,’ as you humans say.”

Warily, Sylvie looked down. At first, she didn’t see anything except that her shirt now seemed to be practically see-through right over her nipples. Her pink points were standing out like two exclamation marks—probably because she was cold from being dunked in the water. It almost looked like she had cut two holes in her t-shirt to show them off—how embarrassing! She just…

The thought died as a new realization hit her. Her shirt looked like there were two holes in it because thereweretwo holes—they had been made by the see-through, nearly invisible leeches that were attached to her—one to each of her nipples! They must have been drawn to her sensitive points because they were prominent and had good blood flow.

Sylvie normally didn’t get upset during her scientific missions—she prided herself on being nearly unflappable. But seeing two slippery, pulsating, alien leeches attached to such a sensitive part of her anatomy brought a shriek to her lips.

“Ah! Oh my God—get them off me!Get them off!”she cried, brushing frantically at the front of her t-shirt. But her brushing was in vain—the leeches wouldn’t be moved and now she could see faint reddish trails appearing in their nearly see-through bodies, like long red ribbons.

That’s my blood,she realized, staring at them in horror.They’re drinking my blood!Oh my God, I’m going to be sick!

“Don’t get sick!” Kross commanded, almost as though he could read her mind. “If you throw up all over yourself, it’s just going to make getting them off even harder.”

Sylvie swallowed hard and took a deep breath. Somehow she managed to hang on to the contents of her stomach—which luckily, wasn’t much. She’d had a very light breakfast and they hadn’t had lunch yet, for which she was profoundly grateful.

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