Total pages in book: 77
Estimated words: 72065 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 360(@200wpm)___ 288(@250wpm)___ 240(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 72065 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 360(@200wpm)___ 288(@250wpm)___ 240(@300wpm)
“A little money? A ‘little money’ she says?” her stepmother scoffed. “How dare you come here begging when we’ve barely enough to keep body and soul together as it is?”
Aleena’s father cleared his throat.
“Your stepmother is right, child,” he said regretfully. “We’ve little enough as it is—we’re putting every spare credit towards your little sister’s Joining Ceremony.”
“Faleesha’s getting Joined?” Aleena felt stunned. Traditionally on Karpsian Sigma, a younger sister never got married before the older one did. Apparently they were going to just ignore her entire existence and pretend she wasn’t related to her father at all!
“Well, yes…” Her father cleared his throat uncomfortably. “She’s getting married to the Kindred Ambassador—it’s quite an honor, you know. And so I’m afraid I don’t have any credit to spare right now. Between the cost of the flowers and renting the hall, and the dress, not to mention Faleesha’s dowry—”
“Wait!” Grindelia held up a hand and he stopped at once.
“Yes, my dear one?”
“I’ve just had a thought.”
Grindelia started pacing, her golden slippers swishing through the thick brown burna fur carpet. Aleena’s father waited respectfully as she knit her eyebrows in thought. At last she turned to Aleena.
“All right—we’ll give you the credit,” she said decisively.
Aleena’s heart jumped, but not very high—there must be a catch.
“Why would you do that?” she asked flatly.
“Let me finish.” Grindelia waved a finger at her. “We’ll give you the money if you marry the Kindred Ambassador in Faleesha’s place.”
“Mummy! You can’t do that!” Faleesha whined. “That’s supposed to be my Joining!”
Grindelia turned to her.
“Faleesha my sweet, you know I don’t want you marrying that alien ambassador,” she began. “The Kindred are enormous males—and I’ve heard they’re very rough with their females. If we let Aleena marry him instead, we can find you a nice Karpsian husband who won’t hurt you when he changes the color of your eyes. And he won’t take you away from me to live in the sky somewhere.”
“I don’t know if it will work, my dear,” Aleena’s father objected, frowning. “You know the reason they inducted me into the Ruling Council was because I had a daughter of marriageable age to Join with the Kindred Ambassador.”
“So? Aleena is your daughter too and she’s of marriageable age, even if she is getting a bit old for Joining.” Aleena’s stepmother sniffed. “And if she marries the Ambassador, we won’t have to pay so much for the hall or the dress. Also, you won’t have to pay nearly as much dowry for the daughter of a disavowed wife! Her worth isn’t even a fourth of what my darling Faleesha’s is.”
Aleena wished she could protest this unfair evaluation but she knew in the eyes of the law it was true—as the daughter of a disavowed wife, she was basically worthless. But not so worthless that she wanted to give herself to a monster!
“The Kindred are so huge!” she protested, thinking of the wild tales she’d heard of the people from beyond the stars that wanted to establish trade with Karpsian Sigma.
“They’re absolute brutes,” Grindelia agreed, her pale eyes sparking maliciously. “But think of it this way—would you rather let one brutal man change the color of your eyes, or let a lot of strangers do the changing?”
Aleena worried her lower lip with her teeth—a habit she had when she was feeling nervous. Her spiteful stepmother had a point, she supposed. Either way she looked at it, she was going to have to sell herself—there was simply no other way to save her mother. And one man—even a really big, mean, rough one—must be better than a parade of strangers.
“If I do this,” she said at last, looking at her stepmother—since she was clearly the one holding the purse strings. “If I do this, you have to swear to pay off all of my mother’s medical debt. I want the fifty thousand credits sent to the House of Healing right away so she can keep up her treatments.”
“Yes, of course. That’s the deal,” Grindelia snapped. “Take it or leave it. Will you Join with the Kindred Ambassador or not?”
Aleena took a deep breath. Oh Goddess of Mercy, she really hoped she wasn’t making a huge mistake!
“All right,” she said at last. “I’ll Join with him.”
She just hoped she wouldn’t regret it.
2
BEAR
“I’m very sorry about the Karpsian customs forcing you into an unwanted Joining, Commander Bearick,” Commander Sylvan apologized, leaning across his desk. “I know that after losing your beloved mate years ago, you made an oath never to Bond with another bride. If you want to back out of this assignment, I’ll understand completely. The Council can appoint a different Ambassador to visit Karpsian Sigma.”
Bearick—Bear to his friends—frowned and shook his head. Some said he looked like the Earth animal his name implied. He was a Beast Kindred and had the golden eyes and thick black hair to prove it. However, he also had some R’sk DNA, which made his skin olive green instead of tan and gave him a pair of short, sharp horns that grew from either side of his forehead. So he also looked a little like the Earth animal called a “bull.”