Page 76 of Savage Union

“Turk, please,” I begged him. I was wrapped up in a blanket to keep from shivering. “Please, I think something’s wrong! I…I need help. I need to see the medic!”

The Illyrian’s medic was a kindly old male who was hard-of-hearing but still quite capable of stitching up a Crewmember who injured himself on duty or setting a bone if someone broke something. I had no idea if he would be able to resolve my current situation, but I needed help and he was the only one I could ask aboard the ship. He mostly stayed in his cabin until someone needed him, but I couldn’t get to him if I was locked up.

Turk looked worried for a moment and grudgingly raised his eyebrows.

“All right—what’s wrong with you?” he growled. The first words he’d spoken to me in days.

“It…it’s embarrassing,” I faltered at last. “I…it’s hard to explain.”

He glared at me.

“I’m not fucking calling the ship’s medic until you tell me what you need him for. I’mtryingto keep the fact that I let a female on board quiet. The Crew are superstitious, you know—they wouldn’t like the idea of a woman on the ship during a long trip like this. It’s considered bad luck.”

“You’re as bad as the Salashions!” I snapped, losing my patience. “What’s the big deal about having a woman on board? What is it about having a vagina that makes me ‘bad luck?’”

“I don’t believe it myself, it’s just what most of the Crew thinks—they’re not very educated,” he growled. “Now are you going to tell me what’s wrong, or not?”

“No!” I snapped. “What I’m going to tell you is to fuck off! You’re keeping me a prisoner in here and it’s not fair! Ishouldbe navigating the ship—not cooped up in your quarters under house arrest for the crime of being a woman!”

His face grew dark and he set the dinner dray down on the small dresser to one side of the bed.

“Fine. Fucking be that way.”

“Fine! I fucking will!” I snapped back.

Turk gave me one more dark look and then left, locking the door behind him.

“You misogynistic asshole!” I shouted after him, fuming with irritation, but I doubted he heard me. The soundproofing in his quarters was pretty good—probably so the Captain could have some privacy.

A few hours later I had cause to regret my hasty words.

It was late—after Lights Out—and my breasts were even more swollen than they had been. I was leaking steadily now and my nipples were so sore the soft fabric of my night shirt felt like sandpaper rubbing against them.

I was also pretty sure I was running a fever. My whole body felt hot and sluggish and I was so tired I could barely move. Istumbled into the bathroom and took another shower to try and cool off but I swear the chilly water practically made steam rise from my heated flesh.

I dried myself as best I could and went back to bed. My pajama top was too dirty and sticky to put back on, so I found an undershirt of Turk’s to wear. It was big enough that I could pull the fabric away from my swollen breasts—at least if I lay on my side.

I fell back in bed, feeling suddenly dizzy. Goddess of the Four Faces, was it just me or was everything blurry and strange? My eyes were stinging and when I reached up, I felt something wet on my cheeks. My breasts and nipples hurt so much, I was crying.

But there was no one to hear me. The one who should have been by my side—my Fated Mate—had rejected me. I was sick and alone and no one cared.

I had never felt so low—I wanted to die.

45

TURK

Iwoke up from a thin, uneasy sleep with a feeling that something bad was happening to Jessina. I don’t know where the feeling came from but it was strong—it pushed at me with an urgency I couldn’t deny. It was the same feeling I’d had back when I had still thought she was Cass and Jerx had been attacking her—a feeling of danger and dread.

Fumbling with the light blanket that covered me, I stumbled out of my chair-cot and went to the door of my quarters. I couldn’t hear anything because of the privacy sound-proofing but the moment I opened the door, a low moaning caught my ear.

It was a painful, hopeless sound that tore at my heart. I felt a surge of guilt as I remembered Jessina’s earlier request to see the ship’s medic. I should have allowed her to go to him—or brought him up to see her. Instead I had shouted at her and locked her up in my quarters. What the fuck was wrong with me?

“Jessina? Little bird?”

She didn’t answer.

“Lights low,” I said and the corner glows came up, showing me Jessina.

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