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)
“What?” He was leading the way down the long white corridor to the Mess Hall but he turned and stared at me sharply. “What did you say?”
“Oh, I meant that I’m of age,” I said quickly. “I’m not a boy because I’m a man.” Goddess, it still felt so strange to say that! And it hurt to keep lying to my Fated Mate. But I didn’t feel that I had any other choice.
“Oh…of course.” He nodded and turned to keep walking, dodging nimbly around the occasional pipe and other obstacles. He really was extremely graceful for a male of his size.
We kept on talking ship’s business and Cross-Dimensional Navigation all though breakfast. Turk asked me several questions and nodded thoughtfully when I answered. I noticed some of the other Crewmembers around us listening in and understood what he was doing—he was showing off my knowledge without being too obvious about it. He wanted the Crew to trust me and he was helping me gain that trust in a roundabout way.
I felt a surge of admiration for my Fated Mate when I realized this. Truly, Turk was more subtle than I’d ever given him credit for. I supposed he had to know how to shape the opinions of the males he was in charge of. And so far, what he was doing seemed to be working.
This morning the other Crewmembers were all polite to me and respectful to Turk. In fact, only three people seemed unhappy to see the two of us talking together. Jerx, Gurflug, and Frux, the Union Rep. I noticed uneasily that the three of them were sitting at the same table, though they didn’t seem to be talking much. Still, I knew that any of the three would be happy to hurt me—and probably Turk too. It made me realize that no matter how awkward things got between us, I would have to stay by my Fated Mate’s side.
Well, hopefully things wouldn’t be awkward since Turk had said we weren’t going to talk about the kiss we’d shared, ever again. We were apparently just going to pretend the whole thing never happened.
And that was what I was determined to do…until I developed the Need.
32
JESSINA
Here’s the thing about finding your Fated Mate—the thing I had only a vague idea about because I was still innocent and nobody had told me anything growing up. Once a Brute Clansmen finds his Fated Mate and the two of them spend time together in close proximity, both of them start to develop symptoms—sexual symptoms.
For males, it’s very straightforward—a Brute develops The Thirst. It’s a deep longing to taste his Fated Mate—to spread her legs and drink of her juices.
For females, the symptoms can be more varied. They develop The Need or The Needing, which can manifest in several different ways.
Some women get freezing cold when they’re too far from their Fated Mate, especially at night. Others develop The Emptiness—a deep need to be filled by their Fated Mate’s shaft. Still others begin to produce a thick, sticky nectar that fills their breasts and must be sucked out. Their nipples get tender and painful when this happens and only the mouth of their Fated Mate can ease the ache. Or they develop a stinging pain between their thighs that only his tongue can cure.
And lastly, some women develop their own version of The Thirst—a deep desire to drink their Fated Mate’s seed.
Of course, I didn’t know any of this or I never would have risked getting so close to Turk. I had a vague idea that Fated Mates might start to crave each other, but I had no inkling that sleeping in the same room with him would send my body into complete overdrive.
The first symptom showed itself later that morning when I was checking the course that Gurflug had plotted to the next worm hole. My throat began to feel dry and I started having daydreams of taking Turk’s shaft in my mouth again. I could see myself, kneeling before him and reaching into his uniform trousers to pull out that long, hard cock I’d felt grinding against me the night before…
I pushed the illicit images away and finished my work. But still the daydreams lingered. They came back even stronger when Turk took me into his Ready Room to give me the time dilation drops so I wouldn’t get sick in the worm hole.
“Open for me, Cass,” he rumbled holding out the eyedropper filled with pale pink liquid. When he said those words, my stomach fluttered and my pussy was suddenly so hot and wet I could barely stand it. I could just imagine myself on my knees before him, opening my mouth for his cock…
I pushed the thought away quickly and allowed him to squirt two drops of medicine under my tongue. But the images kept coming back to me all day long and my throat continued to feel dry, as though I needed something to lubricate it.