That didn't ease her mind much, especially since she<i>worked</i>at the docks. If they were persistent enough, sooner or later one of her co-workers would direct them here. Even though she was the only human working there, she was on good terms with most of them, due to her dedicated, hardworking nature. Even for those who disliked her, it was unlikely any of them would purposefully send harm her way, but it only took one slip of the tongue for the Thousand Arms to be mentioned.<br/><br/>She had never told anyone much about her past, certainly not Garraus. Astor, she felt, could have been a confidante, but she had never liked burdening others with her problems. At the landlord's implied threat, she bristled. "Keep telling yourself that, fleabag. Just stay out of my business." What few scraps of optimism were left in Tamelyn's psyche hoped that it was just an old friend from the colony, rather than someone seeking to do her harm, but she had long ago learned to prepare for the worst. She knew it would be foolish to expect any aid or protection from Garraus--the last thing she needed was one more debt for him to dangle over her head.<br/><br/>Her posture was hunched and troubled as she left the apartment, making for the downtown district. She needed to buy groceries for the week, and besides, a walk would help to clear her head.<br/><br/>------------<br/><br/>Looking back, it was difficult to pinpoint just where things had gotten so fucked up. Was it the destruction of Earth? Their family's attempts to cobble a new life together on a drifter colony? The evening when her husband never came home from his job at the scrapyard, the heart-wrenching grief when she had been told a faulty piece of machinery had malfunctioned with him inside it? Or maybe it was when she had realized she had become<i>used</i>to selling her body.<br/><br/>Her children were the only thing keeping Jasmine from simply ending it all. Though both were old enough to be on their own, the broken family had stayed together as they drifted through space, simply trying to get by. They were eachother's only source of support, even here, at rock bottom. She had never wanted them to get involved with the club, to find work where they didn't have to do such demeaning, awful things, but Koort had given her no choice in the matter.<br/><br/>He had pulled her into one of the back rooms, as he often did, for some one-on-one time. He was oddly possessive of her, despite often whoring her out to the clubgoers, and he was never gentle. He had already blown his load, but evidently wasn't done with her yet, and she stifled a moan as his ridged tail snaked between her thighs. Legs splayed, arms bound above her head, there wasn't much she could do besides squirm as he fondled her, clearly relishing the control he had here.