Total pages in book: 119
Estimated words: 113058 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 565(@200wpm)___ 452(@250wpm)___ 377(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 113058 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 565(@200wpm)___ 452(@250wpm)___ 377(@300wpm)
He went on in that vein, but Need hadn’t heard much of anything after the captain had said Drung was taking time off to have an heir.
“Did he say who he was having the heir with?” he demanded, turning to the Cytovian with anxiety twisting his gut. “And who was calling from Genu Six?”
“I’m afraid he didn’t—” Glo’ll started but Need was already up and running to the viewscreen. When he checked the call log, his gut fisted tight.
“Pouncenblast’s palace,” he muttered to himself. “Goddess damn it!”
Quickly he punched in the number and waited impatiently for someone to pick up. After what seemed like forever, the Senator’s secretary came on-screen. He frowned when he saw Need.
“What do you want?” he demanded rudely. “Our business is done now that we’ve paid you for the yarrow root and your colleague has taken back the tainted female you tried to sell us.”
Need thought he was going to be sick.
“Tainted female?” he asked hoarsely. “Are you talking about Lan’ara?”
The secretary made an irritated movement with one hand.
“If that was her name, yes I suppose.”
“But what do you mean she was tainted?” Need demanded.
“Look, I’ve already been over this with your colleague,” the secretary snapped. “She had already formed her bond with another male—you presumably. Which meant that when the Senator tried to breed her, she threw up all over him.”
“She what? But I never bonded her to me!” Need protested.
“You might not have thought so but she had formed the bond—the one that all graduates of the Twyleth Tigg Academy form with the first male who touches them intimately.” The secretary rolled his bulging eyes impatiently. “How she managed to pass our virginity verification test, I’ll never know!”
“So she’s gone? Who came and got her? Was it Drung?” Need demanded.
“Need, look at this.”
It was Psoas, standing right behind him. He was holding the cracked file in one hand. But to Need’s surprise, it was functioning.
“Drung said that was broken,” he said, frowning.
“Apparently he lied. Look what it says.” Psoas pointed at the cracked screen with one long, bendy finger.
“That’s right—you need never worry about your Twyleth Tigg bride cheating on you because the touch of another male’s hand upon her skin will trigger an attack of nausea so strong, she will eject the contents of her stomach upon him the moment he attempts to violate her. Rest assured, that your Twyleth Tigg bride is only for YOU and you alone,” Need read. He had to read it twice before the full meaning registered.
“Oh Gods damn me to all the Seven Hells!” he groaned. “I did bond her to me—even if it wasn’t the way we Kindred think of bonding!”
“Hello? Are you listening to me or should I hang up?” demanded the voice of the secretary from the viewscreen.
“What?” Need focused on the fish-faced man again. “What did you say? Who came and got her?”
“Your Trollox colleague,” the secretary said impatiently. “He even paid an extra two thousand credits to reimburse the Senator for having sold him a tainted bride. Well, technically you sold her to us,” he added, glaring at Need. “But the Senator isn’t angry, since he got his money back and got the girl off his hands.”
“You sold her to Drung?” Need gripped the sides of the viewscreen, feeling like he wanted to rip the damn thing out of the wall and smash it. “You gave an innocent female to a Goddess-damned Trollox?”
“I thought he was very well-spoken for one of his kind,” the secretary sniffed. “The left head was, anyway. The other two, I wasn’t so sure about.” He shrugged.
That Goddess damned left head again! Need felt like he was going to explode. First it fools me into thinking Lan’ara was a manipulative little bitch and now it talks this idiot of a secretary into selling her to Drung!
“Where did he take her?” he asked, holding onto his temper with both hands. “Tell me now—where did he go?”
“I really don’t know,” the secretary said airily. “He said something about finding a nice private place on Genu Six to settle down, but that could be any one of the little islands we have in the archipelago. So many of them are uninhabited or only sparsely inhabited, you know. The natural beauty of Genu Six—”
But Need slapped the end button, causing the viewscreen to go black.
“Goddess,” he groaned, putting his head in his hands. “He’s got her—Drung’s got Lan’ara and I have no fucking clue where he’s taken her!”
“But the file says she’ll get sick on any male who tries to, er, have his way with her,” Psoas pointed out.
Need rounded on him.
“You think Drung is going to give a flying fuck about that?” he growled. “The male’s a pig—you’ve seen his room and the way he eats. He won’t give a damn if she throws up on him while he’s raping her!”