Total pages in book: 112
Estimated words: 105936 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 530(@200wpm)___ 424(@250wpm)___ 353(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 105936 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 530(@200wpm)___ 424(@250wpm)___ 353(@300wpm)
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.
58
TURK
“All rise for the Honorable Judge Pen’digo—He Who Dispenses Justice!” the bailiff called.
The courtroom was crowded—the sordid details of my crime had apparently spread far and wide and it seemed like half of Rigelis Nine had come to see me tried. Everyone rose at the announcement and a figure in a long scarlet robe came around to sit at the high wooden podium at the front of the room.
I rose too—I didn’t have a choice. There were armed guards on either side of me. They were treating me like a perverted sex maniac who had kidnapped an innocent virgin and molested her for two solid months. It didn’t matter what I said, either—on Rigelis Nine, you’re guilty until proven innocent. And I didn’t have much hope that I’d be cleared—not with every bad actor I’d ever shipped with lined up to incriminate me.
To my right, in the witness booth, sat Gurflug and Frux. I was surprised that the big Galafruxian had the nerve to come anywhere near the courthouse after the shit he’d pulled. But everyone seemed to have forgotten his murder/suicide attempt in favor of the scandal about me “kidnapping and molesting” Jessina. It was clearly more interesting news than the idea of Gurflug jumping us into the middle of an asteroid field on purpose, I thought sourly.
I was angry about my own predicament but I was worried sick about Jessina. It had been almost twenty-four hours since I’d last sucked her breasts to get the nectar out and I was sure by now the symptoms of The Needing would be tormenting her. What if she got sick again? I had been giving her my seed for weeks now—what if she needed it to live? Dying for lack of a male’s seed is something that can actually happen to a woman who’s mated to a Brutal Clansman. What if she—
“The Court calls Union Rep Frux of Clan Savage to the stand,” the bailiff said, cutting into my worried train of thought.
Frux rose and straightened his uniform before strutting up to the witness stand.
“Do you swear by She of the Four Faces that you will only divulge the truth at this hearing?” the bailiff asked him.
“I do.” He nodded and sat in the stand.
“Now then, Grr. Frux—please tell us what you know about this kidnapping incident,” the judge directed him. He was wearing a large crimson wig which nearly covered his stunted horns, I noted. Well, at least he has some Brute blood in him—not that I dared to hope that would make him sympathetic to my cause.