Page 271 of Dirty Discipline, Vol. 1

His Captured Prey by Sadie Marks

Chapter One

She tried to control the harsh panting breaths as she ducked behind the purple tellis plant and crouched low. She could hear the crunching and rustle of footsteps coming closer and she stopped breathing entirely while she waited for them to pass.

She strained to see anything in the dim light, but even her slit-pupil eyes couldn’t make out much more than shadows beyond her hiding place. Her life hadn’t prepared her for this. There had been stories, rumors, about what life was like outside of the colony dome, but she’d always assumed it was just that—stories to keep people behaved. She had been wrong.

It was every bit as wild and frightening as she’d heard and now it was too late. She’d been exiled for failing to obey. She’d attacked her Advocate to avoid being forced into a breeding program she didn’t want to be part of, and now this was her new life.

After the footsteps finally moved off into the distance, she relaxed and started to breathe again in slow gulping breaths. She settled back on her rump and pulled her knees up to her chest so she could hug them and conserve warmth. It wasn’t dark so she wasn’t entirely freezing yet, but the suns were going down in the distance and when they were gone, she’d be chilled to the bone.

She was grateful for the short layer of rust-colored fur that covered most of her body. It helped to insulate against the cold, but her people no longer carried the heavy pelts they once had. It wouldn’t be enough to keep her comfortable.

Her stomach growled and she eyed the purple plant, wishing it was berry season. She searched carefully, hoping there might be a few late fruits, but there was nothing and she sighed.

The only saving grace was that she was a botanist. If there were edible wild plants, she’d find them, and she could survive on them for a while. If she could find them. The planet had several short growing seasons and she’d made the mistake of being thrown out between them. She could only hope to stumble across the few digestible plants that were able to survive the off seasons. The colony life was harsh, filled with rules and work, but there’d always been enough food.

Lurking in the back of her mind was the idea that if she returned… if she apologized and promised to go along with the future they’d planned for her, they might take her back. She knew it wouldn’t be that easy. She curled up in her hidden nook, but sleep evaded her as her mind insisted on replaying the events that led up to her expulsion and she couldn’t shut it off no matter how much she tried.

Chapter Two

It was three days before her birthday, and she was running out of time. She wasn’t sure why it was so hard. It wasn’t like there were a lot of choices, but before she turned twenty-three, she had to pick one of the few, and she hated it.

She could either present herself at the breeding center to be implanted with the first of her two pregnancies. Or she could register as an Auntie and go to the Med-clinic to be permanently sterilized. They would remove her eggs and freeze them while they were in their prime.

There was a third choice, of course, the one no one ever took. She could leave the dome, wander out into the lawless wastelands and try to survive without all the modern conveniences—like food, shelter, and safety.

Like every other teen or new adult in the colony she’d considered what it would be like to have the freedom to choose the other parent of her children, to go where and when she wanted without having the proctors stopping her, but no one ever really chose to leave. It was too scary out there beyond the dome.

The terraforming had made the planet livable. There was oxygen and water, and she supposed everything else needed to survive. The scientists had seeded the planet with various plant and animal life decades before the first human had come to live, but it was the great mysterious unknown that scared people.

Colony life wasn’t easy. She was from the first generation to be born on the planet and everything was still new and rough. People worked hard and there were aspects no one liked, but at least you knew what to expect. You knew where your next meal would come from. Those who couldn’t handle the rigid structure under the dome and went out to live in the wilds, well, who knew what they had to deal with.

So, she was left with only two viable options. Aunties didn’t have kids so there was no need for a family. The ones who chose it bunked together in groups and did the jobs no one else wanted—not very appealing. The Aunties who didn’t choose it but failed their fertility tests were treated differently. They were allowed to pursue real studies and focus on careers.

That would have been ideal for her, but unfortunately her tests were perfectly fine. The doctor had even informed her that her wide hips would be perfect for birthing, as if that was a compliment.

The few who did decide to be sterilized tended to be shunned, because the idea of not wanting to contribute to the growth of the small colony was so shocking that people never knew how to react. Every birth was essential, and the only reason they were limited to two gestations was that they had to restrict the population growth until they had the resources to expand the colony.

But the dome extension was almost complete, and she’d heard that in two years the number of pregnancies per woman would be doubled to four, and the thought made her queasy. It wasn’t that she hated the idea of having children someday. She just hated the idea of being forced to procreate on demand.

First pregnancies were always fertilized in the breeding center from sperm that had been specially selected. Later, if you matched up with a partner who tested as a suitable gene-match you could get permission to breed together. But with such a small pool to draw from, not even an official pairing meant that you’d be allowed to make a baby in the natural way.

She hated that breeding was considered her prime function and role in life just because she was a young woman. The best genetic matches were planned out by the doctors with no input from her, or from him either. But of course, the men were free to deposit their seed and then go on their way with their function filled.

Men weren’t human incubators for almost a year. And the formula vats had failed, so they had no milk substitutes. Women were expected to nurse their children, if at all possible, for the first two years, further tying them to the role of mother. Only after they’d filled their quota were they allowed to go back to their chosen careers.

Complaints about the ridiculous sexism of the situation fell on deaf ears since most of the colony leaders were older women who had already raised their children. They’d been through it themselves and had no empathy for those who didn’t want to be mothers. Besides, they would argue, artificial wombs failed half the time. No one knew why, but their species just didn’t do well outside of a natural host.

To do that over and over, what kind of life would that be, she wondered. Not one she wanted. Becoming an Auntie by choice was selfish, that’s what everyone else thought—but she didn’t agree.

What really bothered her was that she felt like she was faced with a hopeless future filled with misery, but no one else seemed to mind. All the other women her age were counting down the days to their appointments at the breeding centers. It had become a rite of passage. The last step before true adulthood.

The closer she got to her birthday the more anxious she became about going through with it, and hearing the excited chatter of her best friend didn’t help. Alixie was so excited it was all she could talk about.

“Mara, what’s the big deal? You know you’re going to have to get knocked up, so just go ahead and send in your form,” Alixie said, rolling her eyes.

“I haven’t decided yet.” Mara shrugged.

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