The space pod propelled through the void and Sophia marveled at the immensity of it. The blue sphere of the Earth tilted below her as she slowly drifted away.

The gravity of the situation dawned on her yet again. She was leaving behind everything and everyone she knew, never to return. There would be so much that she would miss. Her family. Her brother. The smell of her father’s BBQ wafting through the warmth of her mother’s house.

But she couldn’t think about that now, not when she was on the doorstep of adventure. She was going to be a mother now too - that was an adventure in itself. She hoped that she and her new mate would get along. There were so many questions she still had and she assumed they would be answered when she was finally aboard the bride ship.

The Breaking Dawn awaited her arrival in its orbit around Earth.

She saw its black hull as her space pod drew closer. A hatch opened in the side of the ship and her pod came in to dock. She heard it latch to the ship, and a moment later the exit door swished open. A Draconian stood on the other side of the door, wearing a white medic’s smock.

She flicked off her safety harness and stood as the medic greeted her in the doorway.

“I am medic Hanno,” he said, putting his hand to his heart. “I will be here to assist you in the insemination.”

Sophia hopped out of the space pod. Her petite stature only came up to the medic’s mid-abdominal area. She looked up at medic Hanno, wondering if he would be the one responsible for inseminating her.

She hoped not.

She didn’t want to think of anyone but her mate when the time came for impregnation. She might have been quite unsure of this whole thing, but she knew that the women who’d been matched with dragon mates seemed to end up blissfully happy.

Even though she had only seen his profile picture on the Mating Lottery site, she did already feel a kind of connection with Elait.

“I’m ready when you are,” she said, not wanting to wait around for pleasantries.

“Right this way.”

He led her through the small landing bay and down a brightly lit hallway. There were a few other Draconians aboard the ship, and even a few human women.

“What are these other human girls doing here?” she asked curiously as they stood in front of a closed door.

“They are on their way to meet their mates in Draconia. We will drop them off on the way.”

“Do I get to see Draconia?” she asked, excitement rising in her chest.

“No,” he said flatly. “It is best if you stay aboard the ship to ensure safe insemination.”

“Oh,” she muttered, really disappointed.

She hoped that she didn’t have to live with this kind of overprotective attitude for the rest of her life.

The medic flicked his finger over a holographic screen beside the door and it swished open.

Inside she found a luxurious suite that was furnished in the latest styles: a merging of the Draconian streamlined aesthetic and human extravagance.

“Nice place,” she said, walking into the room, her hands in her jumpsuit pockets.

“You will find further instruction in the bathroom. A lotion has been provided for you that was synthesized from your mate’s genetic material. You will rub it on your skin to aid in preparing your body to take his seed and to sustain a pregnancy. Be sure to follow all the instructions.”

“Okay. Thanks,” she said, feeling a little lost.

This was all a little weird. She briefly questioned her good judgment.

“I’ll leave you to it then. If you need help, please contact me through the shipboard AI system. Your holocom was automatically connected on arrival.”

He walked off through the front door and left her alone in the room. She heaved a heavy sigh. Yesterday she had been pissed that the Space Academy had refused her application again. Today she was standing on board a spaceship, getting ready to be artificially inseminated with a stranger’s sperm. Things sure could change fast nowadays.

After sending her parents a text message that she was leaving, she ignored their reply. As much as she loved her family, she couldn’t talk to them right now. It would only make her regret her decision to leave.

Sophia walked through the suite and into the bedroom. The big bed was no less luxurious than the rest of the suite. The bathroom door swished open and she stepped inside.

Most of it seemed like a normal human bathroom, except for the massive, deep bathtub that stood up from the floor, dominating the room.

It was a Draconian bathtub. She’d seen them before because they’d become pretty popular on Earth over the last thirty years.

As she stood in front of the mirror, the ship’s AI was activated on the holographic screen in front of her.

“Sophia Castillo,” the AI started, “welcome aboard the bride ship Breaking Dawn. The insemination process will now begin. First, you must bathe yourself in the tub. Appropriate soaps have been provided.”

“Okay,” she said, unzipping her jumpsuit.

She slid out of her shoes and dropped the jumpsuit down onto the floor.

She stood in front of the mirror in just her bra and panties, which she then quickly discarded before climbing up the bathtub stairs and dropping into the water. She sat on a ledge on the side of the tub, facing the mirror, and watched as new images came up on the screen.

“Please focus your attention on your mate. Prince Elait Purr of the Air Lands of Galaton.”

Images of Elait filled the screen. There was an image of a silver-blue dragon, darting across the sky. An image of Elait, shirtless with a laser sword in his big hands. His tinted blue skin shimmered with sweat. Sophia’s breath caught in her throat. His blue eyes glistened in the pale sunlight of the Air Lands.

Another picture showed him standing on a stone patio with a view of the expansive sky behind him. Sophia leaned over on the side of the tub to get a closer look. Holy crap, he was sexy. She licked her lips, thinking that this hunk of dragon shifter really belonged to her.

“Please wash yourself with the provided soap,” the AI said.

She picked up a bottle from the ledge of the tub and squirted the contents into her hands. It smelled musky and the fragrance filled her lungs, making her light-headed.

She dunked herself into the water and then came up again before rubbing the soap into her hair and lathering it into her body as she watched the images of Elait fill the screen.

They grew larger in the mirror, as if he was coming closer. Her heart pounded and her body sang as she rubbed her hand over her tight nipple.

“You must wash your genitals,” the AI prompted.

She squirted her hand with more soap and dipped it between her legs. The sensation of the soap touching her sensitive flesh, as she gazed at the images of Elait, made a flash of arousal jump within her. She took a sharp breath, her fingers rubbing over her swelling core.

Sophia bit her lip, watching Elait fight with other dragon shifters in hand to hand combat. His muscles flexed and bulged. It was obvious he was the strongest among them. Her fingers slid over the flesh between her legs and her body jolted with shocking pleasure. Her pussy throbbed between her legs as she drew her hand away. She had not been expecting that.

“Please remove yourself from the bath and stand under the quick dryer,” the AI said.

She did was she was told and grabbed a towel off the rack near the mirror. After drying herself off a little, she dropped the towel on the floor and stood under the air drier.

A blast of hot air dried her body in a matter of seconds. When she was done, she stepped away and stood in front of the mirror again.

“Now you must cover your body with this lotion,” the AI said as another bottle emerged from the counter.

She took at and looked at the bottle. She wondered if this one would give her another orgasm. The last one had been pretty nice. If this was what she had to look forward to for the rest of her life, it wasn’t half bad.

Sophia stood in front of the mirror. It was covered in still images and videos of Elait doing all kinds of princely things. She squirted the lotion into her hand, watching a video of him smiling as he winked into the camera.

Hot damn. Her breasts felt swollen and so did her pussy. How long did she have to wait before she got to meet him?

“So when will I get to talk to my prince?” she asked the AI as she rubbed lotion on her tingling skin.

“Communication will be limited due to his mating impulse. It is the only way to keep him from succumbing to his mating thrall.”

“Oh,” she said with disappointment in her voice.

She’d wanted to talk to him. She was already starting to feel like they’d been intimate. What had happened in the tub had definitely been real.

“You are now ready for insemination,” the AI stated.

A hospital-type bed slid out from the wall and a robotic arm popped out at the same time, holding a syringe.

“Please lie down and gaze upon the image of your mate. You must think of him as the seed enters you.”

“I’m going to be inseminated by a robot?” she asked.

“You may do it yourself if you wish,” the AI stated as the arm pivoted the syringe toward her.

She took it and lay down on the bed. The images of Elait seemed to fill the room. Her body felt electric and alive from the lotion she’d rubbed all over her skin.

With his sexy face right in front of her, she dropped open her legs and slid the syringe inside.

Sophia took a deep breath and let it out, her heart pounding with anticipation. She pushed the lever on the syringe, pumping the contents into her womb.

Elait’s handsome face exploded in her mind and her body contracted around the syringe and his seed spilled inside her.

She groaned, feeling the hot semen hit her cervix. Orgasm coursed through her as she pulled the syringe out, wishing it had been the shaft of her mate.

“I can’t wait a year to see him,” she groaned, holding her arm over her eyes.

She started to weep. Hot big tears rolled out of her eyes. Sophia wasn’t a weepy kind of girl, but in that moment the thought of not seeing her mate for a year broke her heart into pieces.

She could somehow feel his seed working inside her, swimming toward her ready egg. She had no idea how they’d done it, but she knew that she would be with child by the end of the day.

That didn’t make the situation feel any easier. Her sobs were coming in gasping moans as she lay shaking on the bed.

The bathroom door swished opened and the medic walked inside.

“Are you well?” he asked, scanning her with a medical wand.

“No,” she wailed. “I need my mate.”

“I see the bond is forming. This is a good sign.”

“For you, maybe. How am I supposed to live like this for a year?” Her words were gasps through the sobs.

“You need some rest. You will feel better once we make it to the wormhole.”

He handed her a bathrobe and helped her stand. She wrapped it around her shoulders and tied it at the waist as they walked out of the bathroom and into the bedroom. Medic Hanno pulled back the covers of the bed and Sophia slid under them.

The mattress was the softest thing she’d ever lay on. It was like a foam cloud that conformed perfectly to her body. That was Draconian engineering for you.

She let out a deep sigh and promptly fell asleep. When she woke up again, she saw the view of Pluto out the vast bank of windows across the far wall of her room.

They were coming close to the wormhole and would be crossing very soon. She shot out of bed with excitement - she’d wanted to go through the wormhole ever since she’d learned about it in elementary school.

Just as she was nearing the windows to witness the event, the medic walked into the room.

“Good. You’re awake. I must check to see if the insemination has taken hold.”

He walked forward with his medical wand and ran it up and down her body. Then he read the holographic screen for the results.

“The seed had taken in your womb. Now we must prepare to travel through the wormhole.”

He pressed the holocom on the wall and a chair with a safety harness came out of a recess inside.

“Please take a seat.”

Sophia walked over to the seat, still in her bathrobe, and the medic helped attach her harness.

When he was satisfied, he left the room. Only a few moments later, the ship lurched forward. Sophia felt as if the universe was ripped inside out. The view outside her window was of concentric circles flashing upward every second. She gripped her harness, trying not to close her eyes in fear.

It was the most amazing thing she’d ever seen before in her life, and she didn’t want to miss a second of it.

Finally, the ship lurched again and the flashing circles stopped. The bride ship Breaking Dawn floated through space on the other side of the wormhole.

The huge globe that was Draconia hung in the distance and she marveled at its massive scale compared to the Earth. It was a dusky blue color, paler than Earth. Sophia pulled the harness off before the medic came back into the room.

She started toward the window, but the medic stopped her and scanned her with the wand a second time.

“The fetus is fine. We inseminate as soon as possible to begin the bonding process for the sake of the prince’s health. The wormhole crossing shouldn’t have an effect, but we like to check.”

“All good then?”

“Yes.”

“So it’s going to be another year until we’ll reach Galaton?”

“That is correct.”

“I really need to talk to Elait,” she said.

“That is not possible right now.”

“When will it be possible?”

“When the prince is willing to take the risk.”

“I just…I miss him. I don’t know how else to explain it.”

“You will be together soon. Try to focus on the child growing inside you.”

“Can I at least go to Draconia to get my mind off of it?”

“We don’t want to take any unnecessary risks with the brides we transport. Our rules dictate we do not allow the bride off the ship on any planet or station that is not her final destination. I’m sorry.”

“God. This trip sucks!”

“I’m sorry you feel that way. Hopefully, we will be able to better accommodate you for the rest of your stay.”

He bowed and backed away before, turning to the door. Sophia felt more agitated than she had since she was denied entry into the Academy. Her heart ached for a man she’d never met. And she was being thwarted from living the adventures she craved.

She was so irritated she almost overlooked how awesome her rooms were and how amazing the view was outside her window. They drew closer to Draconia and came into its orbit.

A space pod rocketed out from the hull of the ship and darted through space toward the massive planet below. She knew that it must be the brides on their way to their mates on Draconia. Their trip through space was done, but Sophia’s had just begun.