Page 27 of Savage Union

I was determined to at least try thegreasestain,despite its appearance. If I started getting picky I would starve—it wasn’t like there was any way to get snacks out here in open space if I didn’t like what was served for supper.

I took a small bite and had to force myself to swallow. Greasy slime coated my tongue with a strong, fishy flavor that made me want to gag. Goddess of the Four Faces, it wasfoul. I hastily gulped from my squeeze bulb of sweetfloxianjuice to wash away the slimy, putrid taste but it still lingered on my tongue like the memory of a culinary assault.

Luckily, I also had a hunk of the brown bread-loaf on my plate and it hadn’t touched thegreasestain.I slathered it with a smear of greenprixinbutter and took a large bite.

The chewy, grainy bread helped some—it was tough and sour but at least it wasn’t fishy. I had finished about half of it and was in the act of washing it down with another drink of juice when Jerx started talking to me.

“So, navvie—this your first time aboard a ship?” he asked casually, smiling at me in a way that I didn’t exactly like. It was a calculating smile—it didn’t quite reach his flat black eyes.

“Um…aboard a ship like Illyrian, yes,” I said cautiously. I didn’t want him or the rest of the crew to know how green I really was. If they found out that I’d never navigated outside the simulator, they probably wouldn’t want me plotting routes for them.

“Uh-huh. And is the Captain payin’ you extra?” was his next question.

I cut my eyes at him, taking in the fact that he was wearing his uniform shirt unbuttoned again and thick, black tufts of chest hair were sticking out of it.

“Extra for what?” I asked, uncertainly. I had a feeling that he was making fun of me or baiting me somehow, but I wasn’t sure how to extricate myself from the conversation.

“You know—for playing two roles on the ship,” Jerx said casually. “Bein’ a navvie during the day and a Catamite at night.”

“For the last time, I amnota Catamite—whatever that is!” I exclaimed, irritation overcoming me.

There just happened to be a lull in the conversation at that moment and my voice came out loudly—so loudly that the whole mess-hall heard it. There was silence for a moment, and then a chorus of rough male laughter.

“Hark at him!” the Brute crew member who’d made me move in the first place shouted. “Tryin’ to pretend he’s not here to service the crew!”

“I’m not!” I shouted back. “I was only hired to navigate—the same as Gurflug!”

I had a bad feeling that I was losing control of this situation, but I didn’t know how to stop what was happening. I looked around for any friendly face but Snuffy and Yorrin had apparently both finished eating and had already left the mess hall.

“Don’t lie, you little snot,” Gurflug said coldly, glaring at me with bulging purple eyes from across the mess hall. “You know you were hired as a Catamite—I’mthe ship’s navigator.”

There was a murmur of conversation following his lie that drowned out anything I might have said—and honestly, I didn’t know what to say. I had a vague idea of what “Catamite” meant—though I hoped it was wrong. I was also enraged by Gurflug, but I didn’t think protesting that he was a liar would do any good.

“See—Itoldyou he’s a Catamite!” Jerx said to the crew member on my other side—the one who was pushing me into him.

Suddenly, to my great discomfort, he threw a heavy arm over my shoulders. His shirt gaped open and I could smell the stench of sweat coming from his armpits. Mixed with the fishy smell of thegreasstainhe’d just eaten, it was a nauseating combination.

“Hey, what are you doing?” I asked, trying unsuccessfully to shrug his arm off.

“Just gettin’ acquainted. Don’t worry, little Catamite,” Jerx said to me, his breath heavy with sour, fishy odor. “I can tell you haven’t done much of this before. I’m gonna break in your rosebud nice and easy.”

“My…my what?” I asked. I was feeling really uncomfortable now. The single bite ofgreasstainI’d had mixed with the indigestible lumps of the bread-loaf were churning in my gut. And Jerx’s odor wasn’t helping matters any, either.

“Your rosebud—yourasshole,”he clarified for me. “I promise I’ll use lube as long as you bend over like a good boy and take it.”

“Take…take what?” I whispered through numb lips, though by this time I already knew. As a Clan Cruel princess, I’d been raised in a very sheltered environment—but I wasn’t stupid.

“Take mydick, of course. Right in your tight little Catamite asshole.” Jerx grinned at me and I could see slimy bits of the greasstain in the cracks of his teeth.

The sight made me even sicker. My stomach rolled and I couldn’t even answer him, though I knew I should. I ought to be protesting that I wasn’t a Catamite—which I now understood, must be some kind of male prostitute for the crew to use. But I was sure if I opened my lips—even a little—I was going to throw up. So I kept them grimly sealed.

“Listen up!” Jerx shouted, addressing the whole mess hall. “I get first dibs on the Catamite. He’smineuntil I say otherwise.”

“Hey—you can’t keep his ass all to yourself!” another rough-looking crewmen protested.

“Can’t I? Fuckin’ watch me!” Jerx snarled. “He’smine—ain’t you, boy?”

He looked down at me again but I couldn’t answer. Because at that moment, I absolutelyknewI was going to puke. I don’t know if it was the horrible situation unfolding in the mess hall or if something in the meal had disagreed with me, but it didn’t matter the reason—I was going to lose it.

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