Total pages in book: 141
Estimated words: 130947 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 655(@200wpm)___ 524(@250wpm)___ 436(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 130947 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 655(@200wpm)___ 524(@250wpm)___ 436(@300wpm)
Sophia bit her lip. “I’m sorry if I upset you by asking something too personal.”
He shook his head. “No, it’s all right, you’re not to blame. I had good reason to take my vow, that’s all.”
“Well, we kind of got off track, anyway.” She straightened up and folded her hands neatly in her lap. “You were going to tell me why your brother needed my sister so badly? Some traumatic event he’d been through?”
“Ah, yes.” Sylvan blew out a breath and drummed his fingers on the arm of the couch. What was the best way to put it? He decided to be blunt and not sugar coat the truth. “Up until four days ago my half-brother, Baird, was a prisoner of war, held captive on the Scourge Fathership that is still in deep orbit around your moon.”
“He what?” Sophia’s large eyes grew positively huge.
Sylvan nodded. “I’m afraid it’s true. He was captured during some defensive maneuvers and they held him for six of your Earth months.” An image of his half-brother with his shirt off flashed before his eyes—Baird’s muscular torso marked with dozens of cruel white scars. “He, ah, won’t talk about it much but I imagine they tortured him.”
“My God.” Sophia put a hand to her mouth. “Are you saying he just got out of some kind of prison camp where he was tortured and the first thing he did was to claim Olivia as his bride?”
Sylvan shrugged. “I also thought it might be too early but he said he needed her.”
“He needed her? What about Liv’s needs?” she demanded. “Like her need not to be with a ginormous alien who’s probably suffering from post traumatic stress disorder? I mean, what if he has some kind of black-out and thinks she’s the enemy and attacks her?”
Sylvan frowned. “That would never happen—there’s no way he could ever mistake her for anyone else. She’s his bride—her scent is burned in his brain.”
She looked at him in disbelief. “So you’re saying that because he knows what she smells like he won’t have a psychotic episode and go after her? Forgive me if I’m less than reassured.”
Sylvan sighed. Wonderful, now she was angry again—and after they had been getting along so well. He’d almost come to consider her a friend of sorts and now she was shouting at him. What was wrong with these Earth females?
“Look,” he tried to explain. “With all Kindred but especially Ragers—Beast Kindred as you call them—the sense of smell is highly developed. It’s one way we recognize our brides and warn other males away from our females.”
“I’ve heard enough.” She stood up from the couch, putting her hands on her hips and glaring down at him. “I want to see her. I want to see Liv.”
He shook his head. “I’m afraid that’s impossible. She’s in the middle of her claiming period right now—she and Baird need to be alone.”
“Alone so he can attack her?”
“He’s not going to attack her. Please understand, Sophia, no Kindred would ever hurt his bride. It’s physically impossible.”
“I don’t believe you.” She bit her lip, her beautiful pale green eyes troubled. “Please, isn’t there any way you can take me to her or at least let me talk to her?”
The obvious pain in her eyes moved him. For a moment he wanted to gather her into his arms and soothe her but he was sure she wouldn’t welcome such a gesture. “I wish I could,” he said gently. “But I’m afraid it isn’t allowed. What I can promise you is that you’ll see her when the thirty day bonding period is over. As the bonded mate of a Kindred warrior she’s allowed a few days to get her affairs in order before she moves permanently to the ship.”
Her eyes flashed. “That’s if she bonds with your brother. And I know she won’t.”
Sylvan ran a hand through his short, spiky hair in frustration. “We appear to be back where we started.”
Sophia stood. “You started it, I’ll finish it. I’m leaving but don’t think this is over, Sylvan. I don’t see how you can legally keep me from seeing my sister to make sure she’s okay and you better believe I’m going to look into it.”
“Fine.” He spread his hands “Do that. Just know that it’s not my law. It’s the ruling of the Kindred High Council.”
“I don’t care whose law it is, I’m going to fight it.” Sophia pointed a finger at him. “And if there’s one scratch on my sister, if your brother so much as looks at her wrong, I promise I will make you and him and everyone else I can find in your family sorry.”
Turning, she marched toward the door of the HKR building, leaving the large cardboard box at his feet and a stunned look on his face. Watching her hips sway in the tight blue pants she wore, Sylvan felt his fangs sharpening and his shaft getting hard once more.