Free The Shifter's Kiss, Book 1 by Lucky Simms Page A

this moment, sweetheart. You’re going to save us all.”
    “Save us all,” the girl echoed. Drops of water trailed down her perfectly round cheeks. They dropped off her chin and onto the gown, leaving it transparent in streaks across the perfect ginger nipples. Maren cursed herself for even installing the proto-sadness protocols. It had seemed like a good idea to give the girls a hint of emotional breadth, but this spelled disaster.
    Maren ran down the list in her mind - Kari, Tinnery, Chaim, Notem - none were ready. And Lucent had failed the uplink spectacularly, resulting in a total loss of resources for that one. The elders had watched in horror as Lucent descended into gibberish during the trial run. She started with a complicated seduction, easing her leggy body over the human test partner. Everyone nodded their admiration. She had a playful aspect to her, and the tester started to banter. They engaged in some fairly witty repartee - she on top, he below, and a circle of elders all around.
    But when the tester began to respond to her pheromones, her auto sensors recorded his blush response and autonomic sweat levels and assigned them to alarm status. Somehow, it triggered a simultaneous danger aversion protocol that set her onto an emotional feedback loop which started with sweet nothings and spiralled quickly into threats. The tester looked from person to person, his eyes wide with horror. The elders looked to Maren for direction, who stood stunned into inaction. Lucent started spouting increasingly psychotic diatribes at her test partner, her eyes blazing, then finally seized him under the scrotum and pulled, pulled… and…
    Maren shook her head, trying to clear the image. It was tragic, but she barely had the equipment she needed to grow a humanoid, let alone program it with any kind of real sophistication. Sometimes there would be errors. They were lucky they had anything to trade for food at all.
    Five years ago, she would have been horrified at the thought of making a person just for… parts. She would never have consented to her technologies being used for something so barbaric. But now, this was life. For the rest of her outpost to survive, she had to offer the traders something. And this was what they demanded.
    Sunshi had to be ready. She was the only one who was even close. The others were barely more than fetuses right now. But she had to keep it together if she was going to make it out of the gate.
    “Think about your little sisters,” she said helpfully.
    Sunshi’s face seemed to brighten a little bit. “My sisters,” she repeated.
    Maren nodded. “Yes! Kari, Tinnery -- “
    “Chaim, Notem,” Sunshi smiled, seeming to relax, “And Lucent?”
    Maren kept her expression unchanged. “And Lucent!” She nodded enthusiastically, trying to keep the pain of the loss hidden behind her eyes. “That’s right! You’re saving us all, sweetheart. This is what you were made for.”
    “I know,” Sunshi said, and bowed her head with a small, sad smile. “This is what I was made for.”
    Maren took Sunshi by the shoulders and angled her back toward the small window to watch the caravan approach. She could see the black vehicles ahead of the dust cloud now, three huge trucks, single file. A group of four men had gathered at the gate, ready to pull it open when they were close enough to enter.
    It would only be a few moments now. Sunshi began to tremble again as the vehicles grew closer. Maren bent down and pulled up the diaphanous skirts, reaching around to the front of Sunshi’s perfect, smooth hips. She slid her fingers over the sculpted ginger pubic mound and into the warm furrow between, finding the hidden pink button and flicking it back and forth.
    “Ahhhhhh,” Sunshi sighed, as the action triggered a warm flood of hormone release. She leaned her head back onto Maren’s shoulder and accepted the pleasant sensations, letting it fill her body with relief and desire.
    Maren smiled wanly. At least