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“Yeah, bonding with the right male can bring a lot of things to light,” Vorn rumbled. He put an arm around Jodi and pulled her close. “Gods, little girl, I’m so fucking glad you’re finally mine! Never gonna let you go again.”
“Well you’ll have to if you’re going to plot a course for us to get back home,” she pointed out, grinning up at him. “But give me a kiss first and promise not to take too long.”
“Of course not—can’t stand to be away from you,” Vorn told her. He bent her over his arm and kissed her so passionately that Liosh cleared his throat in embarrassment and Melinda’s cheeks went pink and she looked away.
“Hey guys,” she said at last, with a forced little laugh. “Get a room, all right?”
“Oh, we fully intend to,” Jodi said, as they finally came up for air. “We’re not nearly done bonding yet.” She looked at Vorn. “How fast can you get us to the Mother Ship?”
He frowned. “Well, I would call and ask them to fold space for us but that’s not safe for a female who might be pregnant.”
“Oh…” Jodi’s cheeks got pink and she put a hand to her mouth to stifle a naughty little giggle. “I guess we’d better not then, huh?”
“There are several stable worm holes we can take instead,” Liosh volunteered. “It shouldn’t take long to get back.”
“Oh, good.” Jodi smiled. “I can’t wait.”
“I can’t either,” Vorn rumbled. “Come on, baby—come sit with me while I plot the course.”
“Okay.”
And the two of them went off together, leaving Liosh and Melinda to stare at each other uncertainly.
Forty-Eight
“What’s wrong, doll? You seem down.” Kat, who was actually her mom’s friend, but who was turning out to be a great source of information about the Mother Ship, gave Jodi a worried look. “You ought to be feeling great,” she added. “I mean, you’re just bonded, right?”
“Oh, I’m extremely happy,” Jodi told her. “Like crazy-happy. It’s ridiculous.”
They had only been aboard the Mother Ship for a little while but she had spent most of that time with Vorn in bed and she was just now getting out to explore a little. Kat had dropped by to “welcome her to the neighborhood” as she put it and she was so easy to talk to, Jodi somehow found herself confiding in her.
“It’s not me I’m worried about,” she told Kat. “It’s my little sister, Melli.”
“Oh, I was going to visit her next,” Kat remarked. “Your mom asked me to welcome you both. But what’s wrong with her?”
“Well, she just doesn’t seem happy,” Jodi said. “Part of that is the fact that she and Liosh haven’t bonded yet, I think. But she’s also thinking of dropping all her classes at USF even though she’s getting straight As.”
“Really?” Kat frowned. “She doesn’t want to at least finish out the semester before she takes a break?”
“No, and I think I know why,” Jodi said grimly. “It’s all because of one person—this one girl in her Sociology class that Melli’s always seeing around campus. She…” She bit her lip—how much should she tell Kat?
After all, their mom still didn’t know that Melli had been attacked in high school, though she did know about the more recent rape-attempt where Liosh had killed Jason Sykes, the attacker.
“You look like you have a secret you need to get off your chest, doll,” Kat said, eyeing her sharply. “Whatever it is, I’m a vault.”
“Well…it’s just that our mom doesn’t know about it,” Jodi said. “And that’s the way Melli wants to keep it.”
“I can keep things to myself,” Kat assured her. “If you want to talk.”
Jodi found that she did—very much. She explained to Kat about how Melli had been attacked after her Junior Prom by the same guy who had tried to rape her again recently.
“Of course Liosh stopped him—in the most lethal way possible,” Jodi said dryly. “But it turned out that there was someone behind both attacks.”
“Someone behind them?” Kat asked, frowning. “You mean the girl that Melli doesn’t want to have to see anymore—the reason she’s dropping her classes?”
“Exactly!” Jodi was relieved that her new friend caught on so quickly. “She’s just an absolutely horrible person.”
She went on to tell Kat the details and her new friend’s eyes got wider and wider as Jodi talked. When she finished, Kat exclaimed,
“My God—that girl is a sociopath. She shouldn’t be wandering around free—someone like that deserves to be locked away!”
“I couldn’t agree more,” Jodi said angrily. “But of course, nobody is going to believe that she was the one behind Melli getting attacked. She’s this perfect, model-looking little bitch with gorgeous hair and big brown Bambi eyes and she wraps men around her little finger the minute she opens her mouth.”
“But this is horrible!” Kat looked really upset. “Who knows how many other people she’s hurt the way she hurt Melli?”
