Total pages in book: 89
Estimated words: 83946 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 420(@200wpm)___ 336(@250wpm)___ 280(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 83946 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 420(@200wpm)___ 336(@250wpm)___ 280(@300wpm)
Once more, it seems my brother has come through on his promises. So, why I am feeling like my father has left something important out? I have a lot of questions but the single sentence from my father isn’t enough to answer all of them. Not even close.
“Is her mother okay?” I start with.
My father sighs. “Not a lot was specified, Bo.”
That doesn’t leave me feeling very great, and remembering the memory of the place her mother was kept … well, she may have trouble on a ship full of otherworldly males. Already disturbed, the trip could be the trickiest part for her, and I’m not sure if there were any female Hallans left behind with Halun’s small army. I don’t ask if the books found are the ones from Selina’s father’s home or if there will be enough for a library big enough for any humans who might call Hallalah home someday to use. Instead, I hear the stress in my father’s voice and he keeps his back turned to me while he surveys the activities beyond the window.
“That must mean he’s on his way back?” I ask, confused why my mother sits in her circle made of lounging pillows with Vabila at her side, and my father stands at the window. Vabila twists my mother’s braids into a neat, long rope as the silence swells in the room to an unbearable point. “Is he on his way back?”
I’m not off here.
Something is wrong.
“Halun is on his way home,” my father eventually says. “We’re unsure of the exact timeline of his arrival, but that could change the closer they get to home.”
“So, what aren’t you telling me?”
My father’s bare back flexes at the question, tightening in a way that tells me a conversation—and maybe an argument—was already long over before my arrival. And my father likely doesn’t care for the way it turned out.
“Bo, sit,” my mother requests softly.
She even pats the cushion on the other side of hers for me to take, but I refuse.
“I don’t want to sit. I would like to take the saddle I picked up on the way here back to Selina and take her for a ride. It took me three hundred moons to get the Kahlas to allow me to strap them around their middle. What is going on?”
“Oh, riding Kahlas are a great way to bring the birth on,” Vabila puts in, smiling up at me.
I just stare back. Between my mother, Vabila, and the rest of the Minas who provide a constant flow of visitors and entertainment for my mate, I have heard and discussed more than enough about what will and will not bring on birth. Now is not the time to revisit that conversation.
My mother and sister seem so calm compared to the thick tension radiating from my father. It’s a contrast I can’t miss, and suddenly, I’m glad they didn’t ask for Selina to be included in this last-minute meeting.
“What’s happened?” I ask frankly.
“After all his destruction on Earth, Halun has taken a human, and left part of our army back on Earth,” my father says from his position at the window, still turned away me.
“Taken as in—”
“Against her will, and apparently, publicly. Again, his lack of details left quite a bit to be desired. Who is to say how he will explain this, but it’s your brother. I’m sure he will.”
Halun may be wild, but he was still born to be king. I don’t doubt the faith my father has in Halun. Not for a moment.
Taking a human, though?
Against her will?
That seems an unusual stand for my brother. A move he might have been forced to make because I can’t see him doing it otherwise.
I glance to my mother who seems frighteningly calm about the situation alongside Vabila.
“Why would Halun take a human?” I demand. “If it is a female—could it be his mate?”
“Your mother assures me it is, but Halun didn’t focus on that in his message. In fact, he offered nothing about the female except that he took her. He was more concerned about the effect his actions would have on the females left on Earth. He could only convince a few, and besides that, there has been a resurgence of The Opposition against The New Order, so another civil war has broken out on the planet.”
“A mess,” I conclude.
“A terrible one,” Nowas agrees.
“We’re going to travel to earth to see the females there,” my mother fills in after my father finishes. “Vabila and I. We’ll do what we need to, to bring the rest of our people back home and any human female who would like to leave. After Selina’s birth, of course. It’ll be soon, and Nowas has a few things to get together for our trip, so we’ll spend this short bit of time well together.”