“Oh, I know you’ll be one of the ones they take down to the other end, Terry, I just know it!” she enthused, practically jumping up and down where she stood. “Some of them saw me and started over, but now they’re looking at you, too! They’re our kind, Terry, more so than any other men anywhere, and it’s right that we belong to them. Come on, girl, smile at them!”
Smiling was the last thing I wanted to do right then, most especially after what shed said. I’d never even so much as met a male of my kind, a male Prime, and as a young girl I’d had daydreams about what wonderful things would happen if I ever did. I wanted to know them but I couldn’t even bear the thought of looking at them, of finding them attractive, of enjoying their company, or ultimately shuddering to their touch. I would not do what all the rest of them were doing, would not sell my selfrespect and my body in response to the psychological manipulations of lowlives. What the Amalgamation was doing was wrong, and if I let myself be coaxed into going along with it, I’d be just as dirty as they were.
“And how are you today, Mera?” a male voice said suddenly, almost bringing my eyes up from the floor to the group that had stopped near us. “I’m happy to note you’re looking as tasty as ever. I don’t remember having seen your friend before, but she’s being treated like a hatchling. We were wondering why that is.”
“In a way she is a hatchling,” the girl answered, light laughter and eager attention in her voice. “She only just got here but she’s already broken out, so of course she doesn’t know how silly she’s being. Other hatchlings are frightened and confused, but all she is is stubborn.”
“Then, by all means, let’s bring her along and show her what she’s missing,” another male voice said, heavy amusement in it. “If she still tries being stubborn after that, we’ll have to do something about it.”
The comment caused chuckling in everyone in the group including Mera, and then they were moving away with me being forced along behind them. I was aware of the way others of the women had been claimed and drawn toward the far side of the room, but there were still some left who made their dejected way to the nearer, plainer tables. It was clear there weren’t as many men as there were women, which meant the women were being made to compete with each other for attention. I didn’t know what happened to them if they didn’t get that attention, but it wasn’t likely they escaped the fate of those more popular. Most probably they were left alone to suffer and agonize, which would make them swear to themselves to do better next time.
With jolly thoughts like that for company, I was taken to a table and forced down into a very comfortable chair. The table was more than halfway across the room and was nicely set, but it wasn’t the best of what the room held. The security woman on my left took my hand and pressed my fingers onto a narrow print-plate to the left of my setting, the one on the right bent to slide a padded metal cuff around my ankle which quietly clicked into place against the chair leg, and then the two of them let go of me.
“For future reference, you’re to identify your position in the room at every meal before you do anything else,” the woman on my left said softly, obviously not wanting to interrupt the conversations going on around the table. “The chef has been programmed with a different diet for every woman here, but it has to be told where you are before it can deliver it. We’ll be back for you later, and in the meanwhile you’d be wise to behave yourself.”
They both turned and walked away, leaving me alone in the midst of quite a lot of amusement. Others of the women had been brought to the table by the men, and the whole bunch of them, men and women alike, considered my being locked to the chair the funniest thing they’d seen in a very long time. I. could feel my discomfort over that, burning in my cheeks like a flame, but all I did was sit there, staring down at my hands in my lap.
“Stubborn or not, she’s certainly pretty enough,” observed a voice to my left, a drawling male voice. “And she even knows how to blush. I expect to enjoy myself quite a lot with her, even before she starts to moan and squirm. I think, after this morning, no one can deny I’m entitled to firsts.”
“You don’t have to look for challenges that aren’t there, Jer-Mar,” another male voice said from a different place around the table, a faint hint of petulance to the words. “You’ve placed higher than anyone else on our level, and we know it as well as you do. If you can hold that place for another four days, you’ll be leaving us to move up to the next level. ”
“When, not if,” the man to my left corrected smugly, shifting in his chair. “Once you take that one major step it starts getting easier rather than harder, so much easier you’d have trouble believing it. It was hell dividing that first projection in half, but now I can hold the result for more than thirty seconds before starting to tire. Once they move me up to the next level, who knows what I’ll find I can do.”
“You might even cause Kel-Ten to start worrying,” a third voice said, and this one was chuckling. “If you keep going the way you’ve begun, you won’t only be able to challenge him, you’ll have first dip ahead of him. Which might be more of a favor, or so I hear. The word going around is that he’s bored and making some trouble. ”
“Only a man with something wrong with him could get bored with first dip,” the man to my left, Jer-Mar, said with a very cultured sneer. “When I get firsts on that level, you won’t find me getting bored. And speaking of firsts, sweet thing, your food is on the table in front of you. Eat up fast like a good little thing, and then Jer-Mar will take you to his apartment for a while. No need to let it go until after dinner.”
The man reached over to me and put his finger to my ear, caressing the outer edge before poking abruptly inside. I jerked my head away with a feeling of disgust, but he just laughed, took my face in his hand, and forced me to look over at him. It was something I hadn’t wanted to do for a very specific reason, and as soon as my eyes were on him I knew I’d been right. That woman Quatry, the one who was the leader or whatever, had told me Iii been “helped”—for my first meeting with the men, and she hadn’t been joking. The desire that shivered through my body wasn’t my own idea, and certainly wasn’t being caused by the brown-haired, blue-eyed man who held my face. The arrogance in his stare was that of a grown-up spoiled brat, but I was partially wrong about his not being the cause of the way I felt. His very presence was the cause, that and whatever they’d injected into me, and the flaring anger behind my eyes did only a little against the rising heat lower down.
“Well, well, what pretty green eyes the sweet thing has,” the man drawled with a grin, obviously knowing what he had made happen to me. “I do believe she’s now ready to eat up fast, so Jer-Mar can get to his fun. She really needs him to have his fun, don’t you, sweet thing?”
“Stop talking to me as though I were a worthless pet,” I choked out as I pulled my face from his hand, ignoring the laughter coming from those around the table. “I’m a Prime just the same as you are, and you have no right talking to me as though I weren’t.”
“Oh, stubborn indeed,” the man said with brows raised high, but he was still grinning and enjoying himself. “Yes, sweet thing, you are a Prime, but certainly not the same as I. I am a male and you are a female, and that means you squirm while I make you squirm. We simply aren’t on the same level, you and I, so why waste time discussing it? Being a Prime for you means you get to serve those of us who are the best there are, and that’s as close as you can come to any sort of importance. But just look at how much they’ve given you to eat. Surely that’s an indication of some sort of importance—or maybe it isn’t. Maybe it’s just that they think you’re too skinny or undernourished. Let’s take a look and see if they’re right. ”