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return to your duties.”
    After a pregnant pause, Jasmine’s uncertain “Okay, then” floated through the door.
    “Oh my God,” Monica hiccupped. “I’m so sorry, Commander. I don’t know what just happened here, I swear I don’t.” A sob wrenched from her throat.
    For just a moment, she thought everything was all right. Kellen’s face softened into what might have been compassion and he took a step toward her. Then her stomach 37
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    growled and she suddenly became aware of the thick, savory sweetness of pheromones bathing her respiratory tract.
    Commander Kellen was aroused.
    By her.
    “Stop!” she cried, putting up her shaking hands to hold him at bay. “Don’t you touch me!”
    *
    Empran , dispatch Ketrok to my office immediately , Kellen ordered. At first he’d been bemused by her show of temper. Then arousal had set in. If the shouting hadn’t done it, the pushing definitely would have—nothing fired his blood more quickly than a physical confrontation. The temptation to lay her over his desk and show her the error of her ways had wound deliciously through his belly, but he’d ignored it, allowing the fire to mount slowly even as he allowed her to propel him backward across his office.
    He’d never been more thankful for his steely control over the demands of his flesh than at this moment.
    Dispatch confirmed came the reply.
    Hopefully the Garathani doctor would know what to do with Monica. Obviously some major upheaval was taking place in her body and Kellen was at a loss about how to handle her rising hysteria. Color blazed under her pale skin and beads of sweat trembled on her brow and upper lip. Peserin’s eye, what must she be going through?
    Taking that last step back, pressing his buttocks and shoulders against the wall, he raised his hands in a gesture of surrender. “It’s all right, Doctor. I’ll stay right here.”
    “See that you do,” she said tremulously as she hugged herself. Then she blinked repeatedly before she doubled over at the waist and gasped.
    “Monica, what’s wrong?”
    “Stay back!” she screamed. “I mean it, stay back!”
    “I will,” Kellen promised urgently. “Just tell me what’s hurting you.”
    “My stomach,” she gasped. “My head, my eyes…” Then she crumbled to her knees and laid her forehead on the floor with a ragged cry. “What’s happening to me?”
    Empran , I need Ketrok NOW !
    *Ketrok ETA nine seconds . *
    The last time Kellen had felt so powerless, he’d watched his mate and young daughter succumb to the final destructive wave of the Narthani bio-war virus. They’d died in such unbearable pain that it had splintered his mind and ripped out his soul.
    This helplessness was just as maddening. He wanted to slam his fist into something, drive it hard enough to crush his very bones. Instead, he locked down the impotent rage and maintained his position behind the door, unwilling to frighten Monica further by sweeping her up into his embrace as every instinct screamed that he 38
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    should. She was rocking now, scraping her face roughly against the carpet while she cried out in agony.
    Then he saw the blood streaming down the legs of her scrubs, pooling around her knees, and felt his entrails turn cold.
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    Robin L. Rotham

Chapter Five
    Waking had never been such a chore.
    Monica knew it was time. The lights were bright on the other side of her closed eyelids and she felt relaxed and rested as she hadn’t in weeks. Still, it was so nice to just lie here and drift. She’d had amazing dreams, tons of them, and no pain at all that she could remember. Someone must have slipped her some damn fine meds.
    “Monica, can you hear me?”
    Soft fingers brushed her hair back from her forehead and she sighed with contentment.
    “Hi, Shelley,” she murmured without opening her eyes.
    “Hey, Gothchild, how you feelin’?”
    “Marvelous.” Her chest felt kind of heavy and she didn’t have enough energy to lick a