First Menage

Chapter 1: Werewolf Alphas"This isn't a good idea," Jessica says. "I know," Anna says, continuing to scroll through the website. "And you're going to do it anyways," her friend says, looking worried. Anna gets it. She does. She knows it's not a good idea, but she's made her decision. She has one more year before she graduates and if this is what it takes for her to graduate, then this is what she is going to do and there is no backing out of it now. Well, technically, this is the perfect time to back out since she hasn't even picked a couple to make an appointment with yet. "I'm sure there are programs you can join to help you through this, Anna," Jessica insists. "It's only a year. Maybe you could get a sugar daddy or something. You haven't even lost your virginity yet! Why would you even do something like this?!" Anna can hear panic seeping into her voice with every word and feels kind of sorry for her. "I don't want a Sugar Daddy. And it's not about the money." Not all of it anyways. "It's like taking advantage of someone..." she pauses her scrolling to look at another couple's profile. "Yeah, but..." Jessica trails off, looking around the mostly empty library before leaning across the table and lowering her voice. "How're you going to keep studying once you're carrying another human being in your belly? What if they decide they don't want it? What then?" Anna sighs. "Hucows are used as surrogates all the time, Jessica. It is illegal to use a hucow as a surrogate unless all parties have signed the contract first. I'm using a government sanctioned website and using my government issued identification card in order to browse this site. Normal people wouldn't even be able to get here." Jessica looks stunned and instantly curious. "Really?" She all but climbs over the table in her haste to squeeze her cheek next to hers to look at the faces on the screen. "Wow," she says finally. "These are some really good-looking couples." Anna smiles. "They're mostly shifters." Shifter couples are often unable to conceive and have to use Hucows, people like her, to help them carry their child to term. There are enough Hucows in the world that their services are no longer as limited as it once was. Nowadays, it's just a matter of getting on a waiting list in order to find the perfect hucow candidate to help the couple conceive. Adoption is always an option as well, but most couples rather have their own sperm and ovum used. It is an unfortunate evolutionary disadvantage that shifter couples are unable to bear their own young, their bodies having changed too much to carry the fetus to term. Hucows, however, are only changed in a way that makes it easier for them to have children and are in the unique position that lets them carry other shifter's children without a problem whereas a human surrogate might suffer side-effects from having a shifter fetus growing inside them. Shifters have higher metabolic rates and take a toll on regular humans. That's why even relationships involved humans and shifters often use hucows as their surrogates as well. Anna knows that more than a few of her hucow friends have used the site before to varying degrees of success. She worries that giving up the baby she's helped carry to term for nine months would be the hardest thing to do, but her hucow peers assure her that it is not too difficult since the couple will be there through the whole process and her body and mind will have plenty of time to get used to the fact that the baby she's carrying isn't her own. She needs the money, that's true, but she wants this too. Ever since she started lactating six months ago, she has been feeling a growing need to find a mate and settle down. It is part of her biology that she has to learn to deal with as long as she doesn't find a mate. One way to handle it is to have a pseudo-relationship, a mutually-beneficial agreement where she does all the things a proper mate would do for a partner without actually bonding with the partner. This method is proven to be ineffective in that most pseudo-relationships end up being actual relationships. Another way to counteract the effects is to carry someone else's baby for them. Hucows have been doing this for years with the added benefit of getting paid a good sum of money for their trouble. She wants this. Even if she has to lose her virginity to a random stranger to do it for her, she still wants it. The urge to settle down is getting stronger and stronger. Just a few days ago, a werewolf from a different course stopped her in the middle of the hallway in order to tell her that she's emitting mating pheromones, and then offered to help her take the edge off. She ran away from that conversation before the werewolf could even give her his name. She's not ready to settle down with a mate and she doesn't want to risk the rest of her life by finding a psedo-mate. Being a surrogate is the only other solution she can think of. It has been in the back of her mind ever since she's seen her friend, Natasha, do it. She's eighteen now, and no one can stop her from doing it. "Those two are pretty hot," Jessica says. She hasn't realized she had been scrolling mindlessly down the page for the past five minutes. She squints at the screen. "Wow," she murmurs. "That's got to be edited. No couple is that attractive." The two black men on the page aren't just hot. They're drop dead gorgeous. She's never seen people that hot who aren't celebrities before. Jessica hums her agreement. "Aiden and Hamilton Johnson. Says here they're both werewolves. Aiden is a lawyer and owns his own firm and Hamilton is the founder of... some weird apps I've only seen old people use. I guess you can check out their history to see if it's real or not. They're both nearby too. God, they're so hot." She's sighing at the end of it. Anna giggles. "What happened to, 'This is a horrible idea, Anna'." "Well, I still think this is a horrible idea," she says defensively. "But I can't pretend that I know how hucows work. I hear you start getting the urge to.... procreate after a certain age or something." She shrugs. The urge has been particularly strong these past few weeks, which is why she is browsing the site instead of studying for an upcoming exam. "It comes and goes." "They've been pack leaders for the werewolves in the city for the past... twenty years," she continues, reading the profile thoughtfully. "That's a long time. That means they've got to be... oh." "Oh, what?" she asks, trying to see what she's read that has her so crestfallen. "They're born in 2255." "So?" "You're born in 2275." "Thank you for remembering my year of birth?" Jessica looks like she really wants to smack her over the head with something. She exhales loudly. "That means they're twenty years older than you are." "I don't see your point." "That's a big gap." She shrugs. "I'm just helping them carry their baby. I'm not going to be in a relationship with them." "You are though," she says. "You can't carry to child to term successfully unless you have an intimate relationship with one or both of the couples." Anna's eyes widen in shock. She hadn't realized that her roommate is so knowledgeable about how hucow surrogacy works. "Plus, if you agree to surrogate for them, you'll either have to use your own egg or a donor. Don't same-s*x couple usually opt for hucow eggs since the child follows the father's biology anyways and that can negate the risk of having a donor egg from another pack?" "Wow." It's Anna's turn to be stunned. "You... you know a lot about this," she says. "My brother is thinking of having a kid," she says, blushing a little. "I'm trying to learn all I can since my sister-in-law is a werefox too." Anna nods sympathetically. "I uh... I thought I could ask you until I did a little research and realized how completely weird it would be if you agreed." She snorts. "Yeah. It would be so weird." She doesn't want to be intimate with anybody related to Jessica. She's like a sister to her. "And you're right. If I choose these two, I'm going to have to be intimate with one of them. They still have to approve of me too first though," she says. "They do?" She nods. "If there's no chemistry between any of us, the risk is higher. It's low, since I'm hucow, but there nevertheless. Pregnancy would be much easier if the couple is comfortable with me from the beginning." She skims over the site, seeing most of the information that Jessica has read out loud for her earlier as well as a few details on their free hours and a separate link for their preference on surrogate choices. She clicks on it and finds the details to be standard: Prior experience as surrogate preferred but not required. Non-smoker and non-drinker. Between the ages of 18 - 45. BMI of 31 or less. Medication-free for at least a year prior. No history of mental illness. Healthy and responsible lifestyle. Other requirements to be discussed during meetingShe meets all the requirements except for the one that asks that she be financially stable. She's financially... decent at best. She can make ends meet just fine, but if she's carrying a surrogate, her dietary requirements are going to change, and she will need to follow a strict diet, which will cost extra money. Hopefully, the couple will be fine with sponsoring her for a little bit until the baby comes. She reads to the end and finds the contact information at the bottom of the page. She licks her lips and says softly, "I think I'm going to call them." "What?" she gasps. "Now?!" "Why not?" "You don't know anything about them!" "I don't know anything about any of the people on this website. The whole point is to get to know them first. If I don't like them, I can just leave." She reaches for her phone as she says this. The only other people in the library are wearing earphones and they aren't in the quiet sections, so she dials the number before her nerves escape her and brings it up to her ear. Jessica looks like she's ready to throw up. Anna knows she doesn't look any better but manages a weak grin. She is about to give up when someone finally picks up. "Hello?" The voice is deeper and rougher than she had expected. Something stirs in her stomach. It's a good sign. If the Alpha's voice is enough to trigger a reaction in her body, even though the phone, that means it's more likely that they're compatible. "Um... Hi," she says. "Who is this?" "Anna Kylie," she answers automatically and then proceeds to freeze up again. "Ms. Anna. Why are you calling?" "Oh!" she blushes, grateful that he can't see how flustered she is. Jessica leans close to try and hear the other end of the conversation and is zero help. "I found your information on the surrogate website. I um... I want to see if we could meet up before I put in a request on the site." "That's a reasonable request," he says. "Perhaps we could have dinner together sometime, Ms. Anna." She licks her lips. "Dinner sounds good. Umm... Am I speaking of Mr. Aiden or Mr. Hamilton, please?" "Aiden," he says. "Is this the first time for you, Ms. Anna?" he asks. "Yeah," she says, thinking that it's probably for the best he doesn't know how novel this whole experience is for her. "Is that alright? I know it says you two prefers experienced surrogates but it's okay if I've never done it before." Jessica lets out the laugh that she has been holding in for the past thirty seconds. Anna shifts a little further from her so Aiden wouldn't hear her. "That is fine, Ms. Anna," he says. "It means we will have to be gentler, that's all." "Have you done it before?" she asks, curiosity getting the better of her. The way he phrased it makes it sounds like she is not the first surrogate he's tried. "No," he says with a low chuckle. "We have met other surrogates but found them to be... lacking." She shifts in her seat, biting her lip. She knows it's entirely possible that she's rejected, but the thought of someone not wanting her is still painful. "Will you be available for dinner say.... this evening? We have a reservation at Du Maire. I will send a car to pick you up at six o'clock if you need transportation. Please bring a copy of your test results and a list of your information." "Just like that?" "Just like that," he repeats, calm and collected. The voice wants her to go on her knees and obey. It's scary and sexy all at once. "Okay," she says softly, suddenly breathless. She used to go out of her way to avoid Alphas, knowing how much power they hold over her just because she's hucow. Now, she's thinking she should've gotten more experience, so she doesn't melt into a useless puddle during dinner. "Will Mr. Hamilton be there" she asks before he could say anything more. "Yes," he says immediately. She nods before realizing he can't see her and says, "Alright then. I'll um... I'll take a bus there." "A bus," he echoes, the repulsion so heavy on his tongue that she can almost taste it. "A bus," she confirms. "It will be proper," she says. She doesn't want to be in his car. Not during their first meeting. Everything has start on equal footing. "Of course," he says, sounding properly chastised. "Good girl." And then, he hangs up the phone, leaving her with a pounding heart and the words echoing in her ear. Good girl. She should probably be afraid of how much she likes how it sounds.