Pregnant For My Sister’s Mate

Lyla’s POV 

“Lyla, will you mind helping me to set the table?” My elder sister, Elowen, called to me, in her light and patient voice, in the kitchen. I heaved a sigh and pulled my hair and went down. I am supposed to be preparing to go to work but I guess  I had to be polite at least a few minutes.

 Her friends lay sprawling in the chairs and couches giggling themselves about something I could not hear. There was silence the second I stepped into the living room, and then one of them, a tall girl with short dark hair, leaned forward smirking.

“So, Elowen, have you chosen a dress for  the mating ceremony?” she said.

I could feel Elowen stiffen. “Yes,” she replied promptly, and her voice was tight, as though she wished the question to be over and over. 

“Oh…let’s see.” Her friends chorused at once.

“I-“ Elowen stuttered.

“Common, it can’t be that bad.” The tall girl pestered.

“If she does  not want to show you, leave her to alone.” I replied rudely.

“No…it’s fine.”  Elowen replied and went off into her room. After a couple of minutes, she came back holding a plain dress. It was a cheap, fading material of a pale color, which I saw at a glance, and which I had observed worn out in the seams. I knew the friends had noticed, and their eyes were a little slitted and they said something to each other.

“That was all you could afford, eh?” one of them remarked in an off-hand manner. 

“Do not say that, it is not easy to run house and feed another grown-up at the same time.” Another replied.

The shade  was slight, and I noticed it. They were suggesting what I had known long enough, that Elowen had labored and her money well invested, and that I, was dancing to lustful men who threw pennies at my naked body.

Elowen looked up at once. “Be careful of what you say, I do not want to remind you what happens when you two start this, again.” She warned.

The friends became  still, with their smiles faded, and in their place was irritation. One of them shouted, “You go on defending a stripper!”

Elowen walked to the door, without another word, opened it, and her friends gazed at one another a long time, when they took the hint, and left our house.

I did not speak until the door was closed.

“Are you okay?” I enquired of my sister.

Elowen shook her head, and forced a  smile. “It’s fine. Don’t worry about it. The dress doesn’t matter. I just… I do hope that this time I get a mate. Last ceremony didn’t work out.”

I touched her cheeks and placed a hand on  her shoulder. “You’ll get a mate. I know it. Don’t allow any one to cause you to distrust that.”

She smiled again, with a little more sincerity and I departed the house a little later to start my shift At the strip club. 

When I got off duty I had a little money, though I knew that it was going to be sufficient to buy the dress I had planned to get Elowen. I put the bills in my pocket, and attempted to shake the irritation off. 

I felt like going home, but I was feeling dizzy with a mixture of liquor and exhaustion. I instead went into a small room in far corner of the club as I wanted to calm down before going back. But upon entering the room the second, i saw that it was already occupied by another man. 

He sat in the corner, tall and imposing, with a slight scowl, which made him look more dangerous than any man that I had ever encountered at the club.

“Took you long enough.” He groaned. 

“I… I am not who you think I am,” i said instantly as I immediately realized he must have paid for a private dance, a daily occurrence in this line of work.

He lifted an eyebrow, and looked at me awhile. “You are stripper?”

“Yes,” I said, twisting my stomach. “But not your stripper.”

He sat back in his chair, careless, and moved a hand listlessly. “I do not care, I have waited long enough. I can make it worth your while. Triple pay if you join me.”

I hesitated. Money was the one thing I needed the most right now, and I knew my sister’s dress would require more money. I swallowed and nodded. “Fine.“

He smiled a little with a dangerous curve of his lips, and waved me off. I stepped up, and began my playing, what I had done so many a thousand times before. The dance was mechanical, at first, and I was elsewhere in my head, and was counting the bulls, and how to get home after.

And yet he was not like other clients. His gaze didn’t wander. He did not make small talk or grope me. Rather he observed me and within a short time, I started losing professionalism.

 I moved nearer, bending over just enough for him to see my breasts close up but not touch them.

“Closer,” he said, with a low voice, and I did. Obedience was natural with him, though I did not mean to give in.

I moved closer until the room seemed smaller than it had been a few minutes ago. His hands were circling my back, my arms, a deliberate feel, and I could feel that my chest was growing hot. I was not meant to feel anything, not on behalf of a client, not in the work place, not on behalf of anyone but my body did not hear.

“Triple the present charge,” he said, his lips rubbing my ear. “ I want you.”

I attempted to reply, but my voice caught in my throat. The heat  and the liquor, and the crazy impulse of my judgment all came together in a hazy confusion. I made a nod, and allowed him to lead me still deeper into the moment.

Clothes were discarded. I knew this was wrong. I was aware of it, but my lust and passion after the bills  took the place of prudence.

His fingers were clenching mine, his body huddling nearer and my heart was racing in my ears. I attempted to maintain control, attempted to remind myself that this was just a moment but he leaned forward, seizing my lips in a kiss that was hard, demanding and insistent.

After that it all became instinct. I answered, and we went, and the room got blurred. I experienced his superiority, and I accepted it and allowed the moment to take over. The fog of my mind, my thoughts had been lowered down to the smouldering consciousness of his being within me.

After hours, I forced myself out of the bed dragging my legs to the bathroom to wash myself up.

But when I stood before the mirror... I saw something!

A mate mark on my neck!

I had been marked!