Page 4 of Savage Union

The hologram of my father frowned.

“That’s an extremely disrespectful way to speak of your future lord and husband, daughter,” he said disapprovingly.

Disrespectful was exactly what I had been aiming for. It was more believable than the idea that I would suddenly fall in love with the repulsive male they had chosen or decide to be a dutiful daughter and wed him even though I didn’t like him. They had to think I believed there was something in this Binding for me—some reason I would be willing to go through with it.

“It’s disrespectful but she had a point,” Lyrah said. A greedy light was already shining in her green eyes. “And he has no other relations—just think of having that whole estate to ourselves when he dies!”

It always came back to greed with her—I was convinced that was the main reason she’d married my father. That and she liked the status it gave her to be the wife of the Chieftain of Clan Cruel.

“Last time I looked,Iwas the one getting Bound to him,” I told her. “I don’t know what you mean about getting the whole estate to ‘ourselves.’”

“Don’t be greedy, Jessina,” she snapped. “Of course you’ll share! If it wasn’t for me, you’d never have gotten the chance at all that money and power in the first place! Don’t forget,I’mthe one who arranged this Binding for you.”

“If the two of you are in agreement, then I really have to go,” my father said, frowning. He was forever busy with the work of running the Clan—too busy to care if his children were happy, apparently.

“Yes, darling—we’re all on the same page now,” Lyrah trilled, smiling. “I’ll see you later at home.”

She snapped the holo-projector shut and tucked it back in her purse, giving me a smug smile.

“All right then, shall we go back? And this time, I think you’d better be nicer to Grr. Malofice, don’t you?”

I forced a smile on my face.

“Yes—I’ll try.”

“Just think of all that money, my dear. That would put a smile on anyone’s face.” Linking her arm through mine, she gave me an avaricious smile of her own and towed me back into the dining room.

I spent the rest of the luncheon nodding at everything my husband-to-be said and smiling agreeably even though I felt like my face was going to crack. But the whole time I was planning my escape, plotting to get away and never, ever come back.

I was going to run to my Fated Mate—the one the Goddess had set aside for me—my big brother’s best friend, Turk.

2

TURK

CAPTAIN OF THE ILLYRIAN, SMUGGLING SHIP FOR CLAN SAVAGE

“What do you mean Jessina’s gone?” I stared blankly at the holo of my best friend. Slade is in a different Family from mine—he’s Clan Cruel and I’m Clan Savage—but that’s never affected our friendship. We met at a gathering of the Four Families when we were kids and we’ve been tight ever since.

“Just what I said—she’sgone.”He ran a hand over his golden horns distractedly.

You can generally tell the rank of any Brute affiliated with the Four Families by the color their horns are painted. Slade is Head Enforcer for his Clan which is the reason his horns are gold. I’m the Captain of a smuggling ship for Clan Savage so my horns are painted bronze.

The bronze indicates my rank but it also shows the trust my Chieftain has in me. I take a multi-billion credit star ship out into the farthest reaches of deep space and bring back rare and precious cargo no one else can get.

Oh, and illegal—my cargos are almost always something banned by the Imperium, which has a stick up its ass about things like certain mind-altering recreational drugs and medical instruments used in operations like illegal cloning procedures.In fact, I was headed to the Triplex Cluster in a day or so, as soon as I found a new navigator, to pick up a special shipment.

But it wasn’t my next mission I was thinking of at the moment, it was my best friend and his missing little sister, Jessina.

“Her room was a mess—my Sire said it looked like there had been a struggle,” Slade was telling me.

“Did someone kidnap her?” I asked. “Who the fuck would dare to do that? Kidnap the daughter of a Clan Chieftain?”

Slade shook his head, distractedly.

“I have no fucking idea—I don’t even know if she was actually taken or not. Aurora thinks she ran off on her own. Apparently she wasn’t happy with the male my stepmother picked for her to Bind herself to. I thought she looked upset at the ceremony but I never got around to talking to her.”

I could tell he was feeling guilty about it. He and his little sister have always been close.

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