The Breeder Read online

  “With your eyes and your lips. Blow a kiss or something,” Zoe said impatiently. The expression on her face told me she’d learned more in the past year than I had in twenty years of schooling. She was almost like the big sisters I’d read about in books. “You stare at him, maybe wink. Let him know you want him. He’ll kill to have you.”

  “Is that what you did?” I asked.

  “Yes,” she said.

  “Did it work?”

  “He won, all right, but he didn’t get me pregnant.” She frowned. “Candidate number three managed that feat, and now I’m stuck with him. He’ll be the father of my children. Turns out he’s a bastard.”

  I felt my eyes widen at the uncommon word, father, and at her dismissal of the male. I’d grown up thinking of the candidates as larger-than-life superheroes. To hear Zoe’s take, she partnered with a jerk. A jerk with whom she had to live.

  Zoe’s children with candidate number three would live with her until they likely developed and were partnered up with other Breeders’ children from other cities. The goal was to recreate the human species the old way.

  “Zoe.” A man stood in the entry to the wardrobe room. I immediately recognized him as the Selectioner, Michael Dauson. He had the important responsibility of playing announcer and host while I chose the names of the twelve candidates who’d compete to be my partner.

  We both turned to face him. He was the first man I’d seen since Ethan, the farmer apprentice who’d delivered produce to my school. I’d met him when on kitchen duty and we’d had a brief but impactful relationship, as he was the first and only boy my age I’d ever met. Two hundred years ago when the girls had stopped getting their periods and going through puberty, men had stayed the same. In order to protect the women, strict laws had been set up to separate girls and boys until adulthood at age twenty.

  I couldn’t stop staring at Michael. I wanted to touch his cheek to see if it was as scratchy as it appeared. His hands looked large enough to wrap around my waist. Ethan hadn’t been old enough to have a beard like this man did. Why was I thinking so much about Ethan today? Out of necessity, I’d managed to swallow any lingering feelings for him years ago. Why then did I feel as though I was betraying him today?

  “Zoe, it’s time to go.” Michael’s words fired into the room like a bullet. The showmanship and humor he normally showed on screen weren’t present. He was all business at the moment. He spared a quick glance at me. “Don’t move. Someone will be back for you in ten minutes.”

  I nodded mutely. As excited as I was, I was also terrified. I could trip onstage or there could be something wrong with me and I wouldn’t like the sex. And oh Lord, did I want to like the sex. The old movies made it seem like something magical and transformative. Back then everyone had the opportunity to enjoy the magic. Today, I was one of the few lucky women to learn the mysterious secrets.

  “Don’t be worried,” Zoe said. She playfully flipped a lock of my hair and hugged me as close as her belly allowed. “You’re going to have fun tonight. I promise.” She grinned and winked then followed Michael out the door.

  “Wait,” I called after her, a clear note of panic chasing each syllable. “Will I see you again?”

  She swiveled and smiled gently, pointing at a large flat screen hanging in the corner of the room. “You’ll see me there.”

  I watched them go, feeling utterly alone, then turned back to see myself in the mirror. Michael had been wrong. It wasn’t ten minutes before someone came to get me. Zoe had barely disappeared out the door when another man entered.

  “Jane?” He didn’t spare a glance for the other woman in the room. I was the center of his attention. He wore a navy suit, open at the collar. No tie. Intriguing curls of hair were visible at the open button in his shirt. I stared. The night was full of new visuals for me, the least of which was hair on a chest.

  “Jane, it’s time to go,” he said. His tone and words were respectful, but there was a look in his eye I couldn’t identify. He stared at me and I glanced down to make sure the dress was on me. Yeah, still there. So why...oh, now I realized. He was male, and I was a woman. An actual woman who was available for sex.

  Legally he couldn’t have me, I was destined for one of the twelve candidates, but it didn’t mean he didn’t want me. Understanding this, I stood straighter, meeting his gaze dead on. “I’m ready.”

  I walked next to him down a narrow corridor, aware of his height and unfamiliar masculinity. His hand brushed my elbow then gently ran down my lower back to the curve of my butt cheek. I glanced over. He snatched his hand away.

  “I’m sorry,” he said quietly. “I... I’ve never seen a real woman before. I couldn’t help it.”

  “It’s all right,” I replied. “I’ve never seen a man, except for the delivery boys who brought things to our school.” I purposely left out my special relationship with said delivery worker, but he didn’t seem to register my words, being too focused on his own mistake.

  “Please don’t tell anyone,” he said. “I could lose my job.”

  “Okay,” I agreed, but I wondered what could happen to him. Would he really be punished for something as simple as touching a woman? I knew it was my status as the Breeder that kept me off-limits. He likely knew plenty of worker women, but none who had gone through puberty.

  My stride lengthened as we kept walking down the hall until we were at the wings of a large stage. I could see Zoe and Michael standing in the center. Bright lights beamed in on them. Sound boomed from Michael’s microphone as he smiled for the home audience and touted Zoe’s fertility and beauty. I’d heard the same speech my whole life. It was always the same speech, always the same pattern, only this time it was personal, because I knew the Breeder on the stage, and I played the lead in the next part of the act.

  In the darkened shadows at the front of the stage, I could see nothing, but I knew what was there, or rather who was there. The candidates. One hundred of the smartest and strongest, best-looking men, chosen to compete for the honor of breeding with me. I squinted to get a better look, but the man beside me spoke.

  “I’m supposed to administer a drug to you,” he said. “You have a choice, though.”

  “Zoe said I should take it, but she didn’t say what it would do.”

  “It will make you want us as much as we want you,” he said.

  Oh. “All right.” I held my arm out to give him access to a vein.

  He stared at my skin for a moment then seemed to shake himself to full awareness. Carefully, he swabbed my inner elbow with a cold cloth then pulled a syringe from the pocket of his blazer.

  “Wait,” I blurted. “Does it have any other side effects?”

  “It will make you a little dizzy and confused.”

  Hmm. “No. Don’t give me the drug. I want to be aware of what’s going on.” Sexual desire wasn’t going to be a problem. Already I could feel the pulsing between my legs.

  “Are you sure?”

  I nodded. And kept staring at the action on the stage.

  Time seemed to speed up from that moment. It seemed only seconds before Zoe was escorted off the stage to raucous applause and hoots. I’d hoped she’d come my direction, but she was taken off the opposite side. And then, I heard the line I’d heard in my dreams for six years. The line that introduced the newest Breeder to the world. Me.

  Chapter Two

  “Gentlemen. Please welcome to the stage, this year’s Breeder, Jane.” Michael’s voice filled the loud hall, penetrating every eardrum. No last name. It had long been deemed unnecessary to make the Breeder anything more than a fantasy woman.

  I felt a little push from behind and stumbled onto the wooden stage. Six years of training took over and my stumble turned into a slow glide designed to highlight my legs and how they looked in the high heels they’d shoved on my feet. I remembered to swing my hips for maximum effect. It must hav
e been working because a loud chorus of male shouts greeted me from the audience.

  I aimed my smile in their direction. It was my weapon and I honed it to maximum efficacy. I’d been told to make every male candidate in the audience want to possess me and that’s what I’d do.

  I’d walk for the good of society as had been drilled into me since birth. If the males were motivated by a worthy prize, they’d continue working their hardest to win it. The spotlights shining down on me made it impossible to see the one hundred men deemed worthy to enter the competition, but I knew they were there. The testosterone rolled onto the stage in a tidal wave.

  After what seemed like a mile, I made it to center stage and the magnetic presence of Selectioner Michael. Gone was his businesslike attitude. Here, he was all showmanship and ear-to-ear smiles. His booming chatter listed things about me, but I didn’t focus on them. I turned briefly and saw huge glossy photos of past Breeders flashing on screens behind me. Their faces were as familiar as my own.

  The tenor of the light changed as the screens flashed to white. “The time has come, gentlemen,” Michael said, as if telling a secret to a lucky few. The audience’s whistles and shouts stopped abruptly. There was only the whisper of chairs creaking as their occupants sat straighter. No one wanted to miss a word of what was coming next.

  The man who’d escorted me to the stage rolled out a small round table covered in a shimmery silver cloth. On the table perched a large glass bowl. Every man who’d won the chance to enter the auditorium tonight had a card in the bowl with his name and identification number.

  “You’re on, Jane,” Michael said.

  I smiled out to the audience hoping to convey my impartiality to the home viewers. My fingers trembled as I lowered my hand into the bowl. For good show, I rustled my hand around, taking care to tease out the anticipation, but not take too long for fear the males in the audience would revolt.

  Several members of the Guard stood at strategic points in the auditorium to ensure the process would go without violence. It was one hundred men against a dozen, even if those dozen had serious weapons.

  I drew out the first name and handed the folded card to Michael. He smoothed it open and read out, “Simon Carter.” Behind us, the name flashed on the screen in the number one slot. I scanned the audience looking for the man named Simon Carter to come running up the aisle to claim his prize. No applause or cheers accompanied him. This surprised me. When I watched in previous years from my dorm room, it had always sounded as if the studio audience had gone wild. Instead, reality was silent.

  “This is a competition. They won’t cheer for their opponent,” Michael said under his breath as he interpreted my confusion. “Smile.” I now understood the cheers had been dubbed in for the home audience and forced the smile back on my face. I wondered what else was different for the home audience. What other surprises were headed my way?

  Another second passed before the first candidate bounded up the steps and onto the stage. He towered over me. His expression was pure intent as he stalked over to me and yanked me to him for a kiss. This I’d been expecting. Each candidate got to kiss the Breeder before the real competition began. I hadn’t been expecting his height and strength as he overwhelmed me with his power.

  Back at school, girls kissed all the time. Those innocent kisses had not prepared me for the feel of a man’s body pressing against mine. I felt dainty and petite against him.

  The kiss went on for long seconds, leaving me breathless and clinging to his wide shoulders. “You’re gonna be mine,” he growled against my ear before stepping back.

  I nodded mutely. Maybe he would be the winner. He seemed strong enough to me.

  “Her first kiss, everyone,” Michael announced, grabbing up the microphone and unintentionally lying to the audience. I remembered my real first kiss with a boy and my fingertip touched my forehead where Ethan’s lips had pressed all those years ago. I disguised the action by toying with a lock of hair. Usually at this point in the broadcast, my friends and I were done with our giggles. We’d watch the kissing in wondering silence. My friends guessing if they would ever get a chance with a man, me remembering my stolen minutes with Ethan.

  “Time to pick candidate number two.” Michael nudged me toward the bowl and I repeated my smile and the selection dance. The next ten candidates bounded onstage for their turn at a kiss with me. None stood out as special. Soon there were twelve males standing in a row, arms folded across their wide chests daring the others to beat them. On first glance, they all looked similar with dark hair, tall bodies and muscles to spare. They might as well have been exotic zoo creatures, they were that different from any species I’d seen before.

  These men were the strongest, smartest and handsomest of the community. There was a rigorous competition to get access to the yearly contest. The whole goal was to rebuild our population so of course the government wanted the best candidates to reproduce.

  They didn’t have much choice when it came to the females. Only those of us who got our periods and went through puberty could be a Breeder. The selection was much wider for the men. I eyed the twelve men, looking for any attribute that would make me want them to be my first.

  I reached my hand into the glass bowl and handed the card to Michael. My heart stuttered when the name Ethan was read, but I forced myself to smile and keep breathing. It was a coincidence. Ethan was a common name. About as common as Jane.

  But as candidate number twelve climbed the steps of the stage, my heart stopped altogether. It was my Ethan. I hadn’t seen him in six years, but there was no mistaking the deep brown eyes and the squared jaw with the tiny scar he’d received when he’d tripped in a field and fell onto a pumpkin. The story had me giggling when he’d written it down in one of our hidden shared notes.

  Our gazes locked as he confidently strode on the stage and made his way to me to get his kiss. Nothing in his demeanor showed recognition of me. My lips parted to express my shock at seeing him again, but he was on me before I could get any words out. He might not visibly show that he remembered me, but the intensity of his kiss told me everything I needed to know. Being in his arms was all I remembered. Yet it was different. The Ethan of my memory wasn’t as tall and broad. He didn’t make me feel like he could crush me with a flex of his arms the way this Ethan did.

  We’d been innocent children, filled with the secret of our hidden love, making plans to run away. Me from school and him from his farm. As if there’d been anywhere for us to go. They’d been fun plans to make, but both of us had known we’d never follow through. I was a Breeder, and would have the world handed to me.

  Had Ethan planned to be a candidate? It had been such a long time since I’d seen him, touched him or kissed him, yet he haunted my dreams. Had I haunted his as well? I clung to him, willing the kiss to go on forever.

  He pulled back, leaving me with arms outstretched and lips puckered. He didn’t look affected by the kiss. No, he rolled his shoulders, put his hands at his side and took his place with the eleven other candidates. Me, however? I wanted to push the eleven other men off the stage and declare Ethan the winner.

  Michael took the attention off me and got busy reminding the audience of the rules while I stared at the men and they stared back as though they were tigers and I was a bunny. I tried not to stare at Ethan, but my gaze kept getting pulled back to him as though he were a magnet and I was metal. What was he doing up here? How had he gone from apprenticed farm helper to a candidate?

  “Twelve men for twelve months. The strongest will fight for the honor to try his chance at the Breeder tonight and for the first month. If he fails in duty, it falls to the next man, and so on until the miracle happens and a child is created.”

  Michael’s famous, familiar speech didn’t cover the unlikely event that all twelve candidates failed and the Breeder didn’t get pregnant. It had only happened once in my memory, and the poor Breeder had
taken care of the matter herself.

  Michael turned to me. “Jane, step this way.” I swallowed, my legs as shaky as if I were on ten-foot stilts, not four-inch high heels. I stood silently while Michael lifted the hem of my dress and raised it over my head. I stood for the audience, totally naked. Then I turned so the candidates could view me, their prize. I’d expected to be embarrassed at standing fully exposed in front of the world, but I didn’t. Power soared through my very skin. I had something they all wanted. My body. I chanced a glance to see Ethan’s reaction to my nudity, but he wasn’t looking at me. He was eyeing his competition.

  The intense gazes of the eleven other candidates were like lasers covering every inch of my polished, pampered skin. I let my eyes flicker over each of them, and then back to Ethan. Always back to Ethan.

  Something felt off, and I realized the powerful music that accompanied this moment on-screen was missing in real life. From the rafters of the stage, a chair, almost like a throne, lowered. I stepped over to it and allowed Michael to assist me. My wrists rested on the wide armrests and my ankles were spread wide, letting the audience see the unfamiliar. In some of the training videos I’d been given, the women had no hair anywhere on their bodies. Nowadays, it would’ve been a crime for me to pluck a single unnecessary hair from my pubic area.

  The back of the chair angled a little, giving my hips room to move. The angle would allow for the champion to take me right here on the stage in front of everyone. I hadn’t let myself think about the chair before now, so it surprised me when the anticipation and eagerness began to build. I was so ready to know what it was like to be a woman. All the months and years of being trained to be the Breeder flashed through my mind. The hours of videos I’d watched of men and women engaging in intercourse. All the images of naked men, and mostly the model of a male penis that had been gifted to me a year ago. For practice, they’d said, and finally gifted me with the privacy of my own room away from the crowded dormitory.