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he was dead.”
    “When did you first know he was sabotaging the ship?”
    “Yesterday.” She began to tremble. “Commander Kellen said he killed himself trying to blow up the ship. And us—his own wife and children. He tried to kill us! And now he’s dead, so not only will I not have the pleasure of hauling his alien ass into divorce court but I won’t even get the satisfaction of seeing him tried for interstellar espionage. The fucking coward killed himself and tried to take out everyone else on the ship with him! What kind of monster does that? Tell me! What kind of fucking monster does that?”
    It wasn’t until Tiber rubbed her back that Shelley realized she was screaming at them and crying at the same time.
    “Be at ease, Shelley,” he said in a soothing tone. “All will be well.”
    “I’m sorry.” Completely embarrassed, she looked away, wiping her eyes as she tried to calm her racing heart. “How could I ever have thought I loved a man who would kill his own children?”
    “Thank you for your honesty, Shelley,” Shauss said.
    The satisfaction glittering in his eyes pissed her off all over again. “Like I had any choice,” she spat.
    He shrugged. “You’ll thank me for it later.”
    “Don’t hold your breath.”
    “Now I want to dig a little deeper,” he continued as if she hadn’t spoken.
    Her breath stilled. “What do you mean?”
    He exchanged a glance with Tiber. “Why don’t we start with how you really feel about the Garathani…”

Chapter Two
    Shelley lay on the infirmary bunk and stroked her newborn son’s bald head while he dozed against her breast. As Monica had predicted, she really did feel like an idiot now for getting so freaked out about the delivery. Despite having undergone the Garathani equivalent of a C-section earlier, she felt very little physical discomfort, aside from some swelling from the transdermal fluid infusion, and her incision was already so faint as to be undetectable.
    Her psyche, however, wasn’t as fortunate. Despite Tiber’s presence, Shauss’s interrogation had been the most frighteningly invasive experience of her life.
    She blinked back tears of humiliation. The lieutenant’s heart was as cold, hard and black as his eyes—he now knew more about her than her own husband had. He’d explored places inside her head where even she’d never wanted to go and made her face some unpleasant truths. With just a few seemingly innocuous questions, he’d exposed her for what she was—a tool for just about anyone who wanted to use her.
    Try riding that dragon, Zen girl.
    “Shelley?”
    Startled, she looked up to see Jasmine King standing just inside the infirmary door.
    “Oh wow, look at you,” Shelley breathed. “Good Lord, and I thought you were gorgeous before. I think I hate you.”
    When Monica had stopped by to gossip earlier that afternoon, she’d told her all about Jasmine’s transition, but nothing could have prepared Shelley for the seven-foot reality of a full-blooded Garathani female. It was all she could do not to gape—like Monica, Jasmine was skin and bones, but she’d grown a lot taller and was almost ethereally beautiful.
    Monica had also told her Jasmine was mated to both Shauss and Tiber, which just blew Shelley’s mind. While she might be the teeniest bit envious that Jasmine’s crush had developed into TLA and she’d gotten a burning hunk of alien medical professional in the bargain, the idea of being mated to the brutal lieutenant made Shelley’s skin shrivel with horror.
    “Are you up for visitors?” Jasmine asked, looking uncertain.
    Although she’d hardly slept since she came aboard and was more exhausted than she’d ever been in her life, Shelley dredged up a smile and patted the edge of the bunk. “Please, come sit down and talk to me.”
    Anything to get her out of this bleak, terrified headspace.
    Jasmine walked over and sat down gingerly. “They’re beautiful,” she said, looking back and forth between the