Page 58 of Savage Union (Brutal Universe #2)

57

JESSINA

“ Y ou could at least listen to her!” I heard Aurora say in the other room. She and Slade had been talking for the past hour after he had brought me back to their penthouse for “safe keeping” as he put it.

“Listen to what? She thinks she’s in love with Turk when obviously he’s been fucking taking advantage of her for the past two solar months!” my big brother growled. Turk had been right—he was really angry that someone had “messed with his little sister” and he wasn’t at all prepared to be forgiving, even of his best friend. “She thinks they’re ‘Fated Mates’ for the Goddess’s sake!”

“Did you ever stop to think that she might be right?” My sister-in-law sounded frustrated. “Maybe they really are Fated Mates! You shouldn’t be so quick to dismiss her just because she’s younger than you. After all, you knew that I was your Fated Mate the first time you touched me! Why couldn’t Jessina have the same experience?”

I really appreciated Aurora taking my side, but I didn’t think it would do any good. My Sire and stepmother were already on their way over to collect me and from what I’d heard, my Binding ceremony was going to be held tomorrow in our family’s private Holy House.

My whole life was over and nobody cared.

“Say she is right—though it fucking grinds my gears to say it,” I heard Slade say. “What good does it do? I mean, what can I do about it? My Sire has decided that she’s getting Bound to the male he chose tomorrow.”

“Your stepmother chose that man!” I could hear the dislike clearly in Aurora’s voice. Ever since Lyrah had tried her best to separate her and Slade, she’d hated my stepmother with a passion. Not that I blamed her.

“It doesn’t matter who chose him, my Sire is still Chieftain of our Clan—there’s nothing I can do about it!” Slade exclaimed. “Even if I tried to talk to him, he won’t change his mind. He’s already angry enough about her running off for two months on a ship full of males!”

“There is one thing you can do for your friend—for Jessina’s sake,” Aurora said quietly. “You can go and testify at his trial tomorrow morning. You’ll have time—the Binding Ceremony isn’t until tomorrow night.”

“Fuck!” I could picture Slade running a hand over his golden horns in agitation. “I’m not going to fucking testify for that bastard! He was molesting my little sister!”

At this, I couldn’t stay silent any longer. I had locked myself in the bedroom to cry while I waited for my Sire and Lyrah, but I couldn’t hold myself back any more.

“Turk did not molest me!” I shouted, bursting out of the bedroom in a fury. “He saved me! He thought I was a boy for most of the mission and yet he took me under his wing and kept me safe from the Crewmembers who tried to hurt me!”

Both Slade and Aurora turned to me, their eyes wide with shock. Doubtless they had thought I had cried myself to sleep or that I was too miserable to respond, no matter what I heard. But I wasn’t going to be quiet while the man I loved was accused!

Slade recovered first. He strode across the lush carpet of the living area and glared directly down into my eyes.

“Are you going to stand here and say that Turk didn’t do anything sexual to you during all that time you spent in his quarters? Because that’s where I heard you were staying—in his quarters, sleeping with him every night!”

I took a step back but lifted my chin defiantly.

“I won’t lie,” I said. “We did…a few things.”

“A few things? Like what? What did he fucking do to you?” Slade demanded. He took me by the shoulders and shook me hard enough to make my teeth click together. “What? What?” he snarled.

“None of your fucking business!” I tore myself away from his grip. “I needed him—that’s the only reason he touched me!” I turned to Aurora, who had a much more sympathetic look on her face. Slade looked angry enough to kill someone—presumably Turk. “Please—try to understand! I had so many strange symptoms.”

“Symptoms?” she raised her eyebrows. “Tell me—like what?”

“First of all, I got so cold if he wasn’t holding me,” I told her. “I mean I was shivering so hard my teeth were chattering!”

Her eyes went wide and she looked at Slade.

“That’s just like what I experienced when we first got together! Isn’t that a symptom of The Needing?”

He scowled, still angry apparently.

“It could have been any number of things,” he muttered. “Maybe it was just cold in his fucking bedroom.”

“What else happened?” Aurora asked me. “Tell me, Jessina!”

“Well…” I bit my lower lip. I hated to go into details—it was so embarrassing. But I felt I had to go on—had to clear Turk’s name. “My breasts,” I said at last. “They filled up with this thick, sticky nectar.”

Luckily, Turk had sucked the nectar out of me that morning when we first woke up, as was his usual habit. But I knew I would start making more soon—and who was going to help me now that he was gone?

“That’s a symptom of The Needing too!” Aurora exclaimed. She turned to Slade. “They are Fated Mates—you have to believe her.”

My big brother looked at me grudgingly.

“So I’m really supposed to believe that Turk only touched you because you needed him to?”

“I begged him to,” I said steadily. “He didn’t want to—he felt really guilty because I’m your little sister. But if he hadn’t helped me, I’d probably be dead right now!” I was thinking of the night I’d run such a high fever, when my breasts were so full they were aching. “He helped me, Slade—he saved me! Please, you have to make everyone believe that. They won’t listen to me because I’m a woman!”

He clenched his jaw and I could see he was fighting with himself. He was still really angry at Turk but at least he wasn’t dismissing my words out of hand.

“Fine,” he said at last. “I believe you—only because you’ve never lied to me before. Well, until you got this harebrained idea to run off and become a Cross-Dimensional Navigator.”

“Grr. Horstauf said I’m the best navigator he’s ever trained,” I said proudly, lifting my chin. “I have no blind spots. In fact, I saved The Illyrian right before we came home. The other navigator shot us out into the middle of an asteroid field and I had to plot a course out of it!”

Aurora’s eyes went wide.

“Did you really? That’s amazing!”

“No, that’s ridiculous!” a loud voice said.

I jerked my gaze to the side and saw my stepmother and my Sire entering the front door.

“There you are, Slade, darling!” Lyrah sang out. She was wearing a pale pink and green dress that looked painted on her fake curves. “I hope you don’t mind—we let ourselves in.”

“ There you are,” my Sire repeated, but he was talking to me and his face looked like a thundercloud.

“Er…hello, Daddy,” I said faintly. He looked like he might like to strangle me.

“So what was all that nonsense about navigating a ship in an asteroid field?” Lyrah asked, opening her eyes wide at me. “Are you making up stories again, Jessina?”

“You know I wasn’t,” I said stiffly. “I was telling Slade and Aurora what happened aboard The Illyrian.”

“Yes, well perhaps the less said about that the better,” Lyrah said primly. “For the sake of your reputation, let’s just keep it to ourselves, shall we?”

The way she was treating me like a child infuriated me. I wasn’t a girl anymore. I had navigated a starship across the universe and back again and found my Fated Mate. I deserved some respect, damn it!

But my Sire and stepmother clearly didn’t share that view.

“Come on, we’re taking you home,” my Sire growled. “Your Binding Ceremony is tomorrow night—you’re lucky Grr. Malofice still wants you!”

“I don’t care if he wants me—I don’t want him!” I exclaimed. “Turk is my Fated Mate—he’s the only one I want to be Bound to.”

My Sire’s face went even darker.

“If you mention that male’s name again—” he began.

“What if she’s right?” Aurora spoke up bravely. “I mean, what if Captain Turk really is Jessina’s Fated Mate? From the way she described things to us, it sounds to me like they really are meant to be together.”

“Don’t talk about things you don’t understand, dear,” Lyrah said, giving her a malicious smile. “All this Fated Mate nonsense—it might have worked to allow you to get your hooks into Slade, but it won’t work again. Jessina is going to be Bound to her true mate—Grr. Malofice—tomorrow at eight pm. Do be sure you dress appropriately if you’re going to attend.”

Then she took me by the arm and started tugging me towards the door.

Aurora shot me a desperate look.

“At least let her stay here with us tonight!” she begged, clearly swallowing her pride when what she wanted was to tell my stepmother off. “I can help her get ready for her Binding Ceremony.”

“I don’t think so,” Lyrah said, giving her a poisonous look. “She’s already run off once—I don’t trust you to keep her from doing it again. She’s coming home with us and she’ll spend every moment between now and tomorrow night under lock and key to be sure she doesn’t go astray again.”

I wanted to protest, but I knew there was nothing I could say that would change their minds. I thought about running, but where could I go? There was only one way out of the penthouse—the lift that led directly down to the lobby below. I could try locking myself in the bedroom, I supposed, but Slade and my Sire could easily break down the door.

No, there was no way out of this miserable situation. I was stuck and I knew it.

Bowing my head, I allowed Lyrah to lead me away from my brother and sister-in-law. I saw the sympathetic look on Aurora’s face, but she had done all she could to help me, and it hadn’t worked.

Now I was on my own with nothing but a loveless Binding to a man I despised to look forward to.

I had never felt more hopeless in my whole life.