Page 75 of Savage Union

I sat back in my chair and turned my attention towards the viewscreen, which showed the peaceful blackness of space.

“Set a course for Dovix Centra,” I said, speaking to Gurflug. “Let’s get this mission done so we can go the fuck home.”

“Yes, Captain,” he burbled. I frowned at the smug look on his face. I didn’t like not having Cass to check his work…

Then I remembered all over again that there was no Cass. There was just my best friend’s little sister who had tricked me into hiring her. But damn it, she really was an excellent navigator. I still trusted her a Hell of a lot more than Gurflug, even if she had been lying to me all this time. Her Cross-Dimensional Navigational skills were beyond amazing.

Against my will, it made me recall her words. She had the talent and brains to navigate a ship—why should she be stuck on Rigelis Nine, relegated to a miserable life Bound to a disgusting old lecher who would never let her rise to her full potential and would instead use her body as he pleased?

Just the thought of that—the idea of some disgusting old man pawing at her sweet, curvy body—made me sick. And so angry I ground my back teeth together and balled my hands into fists.

MINE!shouted the voice in the back of my head.She’s mine and nobody else had better fucking touch her!

But I couldn’t feel that way about my best friend’s little sister. She was off limits—as off limits as if she’d been my own sister by blood. I couldn’t betray Slade by doing something so unthinkable. I’d always had an affection for Jessina—she was my little bird, as she had tried to remind me. But I’d never felt anything sexual for her…until she came onboard as Cass and started getting close to me.

Against my will, I began to remember some of the facts I’d learned about Fated Mates. For one thing, when two Fated Mates started spending time together in close proximity, they started to crave each other sexually. Males developed what was know as “The Thirst” where they longed to taste their Fated Mate and drink her honey.

This brought to mind the way I’d been longing to taste Cass—to make him come…before I found out his real identity, that was.

I shoved the idea away. Surely that couldn’t be what was wrong with me. I didn’t have The Thirst. And I was certain that Jessina didn’t have any of the female symptoms, either.

At least, I hoped not. Because if she did, we were going to be in deep fucking shit.

43

TURK

The trip to Dovix Centra took some time. In fact, longer than it should have. I was certain we would have gotten there much sooner if Jessina had been plotting the course. But I had confined her to my quarters and there she was going to stay—I was determined.

The rest of the Crew just thought that “Cass” was sick and was spending time in bed to recover. None of them had seen her since the removal of the Synth implant and that was how I wanted to keep it. Jessina was too obviously female now. She’d stopped wearing the compression tank that she had claimed helped with an old rib injury when she was still pretending to be Cass. Without it, her full breasts and tight nipples were easy to see—though I did my damndestnotto look whenever I was in the same room with her. Which wasn’t often.

I brought her meals three times a day but I still wasn’t speaking to her, though she tried to talk to me every time I went into my rooms. I had started sleeping in my Ready Room. My desk chair converted into a kind of cot and while it wasn’t very comfortable, it was at least less awkward and forbidden than sleeping in the same bed as my best friend’s little sister.

I won’t lie—I thirsted for her. I could feel the itching tickle of The Thirst every time I went near her and smelled her sweet, feminine scent—which I now seemed to be extra fucking sensitive to. I did my best to ignore it. I was determined to keep my distance from her until we got home to Rigelis Nine.

But as it turned out, things didn’t work out that way. Before we even got to Dovix Centra, Jessina got sick.

44

JESSINA

Iknew something was happening to my body—something bad. Ever since we’d gotten back to the ship, things had started changing.

For one thing, I was cold all the time now. I took hot showers and wrapped myself in all the blankets I could find, huddling in bed to try to keep warm, but nothing really helped.

The cold I could stand, and to my relief, the thirst I felt for Turk’s seed seemed to have abated. That was a good thing, since he was clearly never going to let me suck him again. But then, about two days into our trip to Dovix Centra, I began to feel something new…somethingstrange.

It started with a tenderness in my nipples. They ached and got puffy and swollen. Shortly after that, they got so sensitive I could barely stand to have anything against them—even the soft fabric of my pajamas, which was what I was mainly wearing these days. (There was no point in putting on my uniform—Turk wouldn’t allow me to leave his quarters.)

I tried to ignore the pain in my nipples—I thought maybe it was just my cycle starting. But when it didn’t start, I had to admit it must be something else going on with me.

Then my breasts began to swell. I was horrified after taking a shower one morning to realize that they were considerably bigger than normal. Also, my puffy nipples were evenmoreprominent, poking out much more than they used to.

I tried to ignore the problem, but it kept getting worse all day. By the afternoon something even stranger happened—my swollen breasts started leaking. That is, my nipples started producing a clear amber liquid. It was almost as thick as honey and it oozed down my breasts, leaving sticky trails on their undersides.

I took another shower and watched, horrified, as the amber liquid continued to swell in slow droplets and drip from my tight, aching nipples. My breasts were now almost twice the size they had been when I woke up that morning. What the Hell was wrong with me? I didn’t know but it was clear I needed help.

I tried to talk to Turk about it that night when he brought in my dinner tray.

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