Page 103 of Owned By Two

I struggled harder. “Please!” I cried. “Don’t do this! I’ll give you anything! Anything!”

“We do not want anything from you and wish only to give you a gift,” the blonde said patiently.

“I don’t want it! I don’t want the gift!”

The needle extended further, drawing closer and closer.

I attempted to snap my head to one side and then the other to find some slack in my restraints but it was no use.

That needle was going to enter my eye and then… my brain?

And there was nothing I could do about it.

I wailed, cried, kicked, and struggled, and all the while, the blonde kept on making the same comment:

“Struggling will only make the pain worse.”

“Please,” I begged again, peering at the blonde out of the corner of my eye. “There must besomepart of you that’s still you, that can’t let them do this to me. Please. Turn off the machine. Stop it. I don’t want this.”

I thought I would see something — a flicker of understanding or a pause or beat of reflection — but instead, the creature (and it really was just a creature now and not a member of whatever species it was) did nothing.

It was an empty puppet.

No acknowledgment, no understanding…

Just… passive vagueness.

“You will be happier soon,” the blonde said in her same monotone. “Soon, you will be with us.”

I tried to think about what had changed in my life for the Hive to suddenly want me to become a part of it.

After all, the Hive had been as unaware of me even more than I was of it until recently.

So what had changed?

What would it gain by assimilating me into its infinite mind?

As the needle drew ever closer, I was glad to have something else to think of.

I had gone to the Seeding Facility and mated with an Elkik…

I had gone to my father’s house and seen his estate and met Uhti…

I thought of them both now, wishing I could be with them.

I felt the same giddy warmth being in both their presence and could have been happy with either.

But the joy would have been doubled if I could have been withbothof them at the same time…

I sniffed, upset at knowing I would never get to see them again, and even if I did, I would react like the blonde standing beside me, as morose as a cow.

I didn’t want to share this loving feeling with the Hive.

I wanted it to be shared only with my two lovers.

Some things shouldremainpersonal.

Sharing such emotions only watered them down.

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