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)
At last, he carried her into a private room at the far end of the Med Center to wait until she woke again. Sylvan went with him, a look of sympathy on his face.
“She’ll be fine,” he said, as Bear laid Aleena carefully on the med-bed and pulled a crisp linen sheet up to her chin. “Her mind just isn’t ready to come back to her body yet. But it will soon.”
“I pray to the Goddess you’re right,” Bear said. Leaning over his wife, he stroked a strand of her long, coppery hair away from her bruised face. Seeing the marks on her high cheekbone and her swollen, cut lip made his heart twist in his chest.
“I am right,” Sylvan assured him. “Here—I’ll leave her things with you.” And he placed the pile he’d been carrying, including the breast shield, the jewelry, and the small recording device he’d taken from Faleesha, at the end of the bed.
“Thanks.” Bear nodded at him. “For everything—I couldn’t have gotten home so quickly without you. And thank you for having my back, even when Sir Greggor threatened to renege on the deal we made with the Karpsians.”
Sylvan frowned.
“Of course I backed you up—a male’s mate must always come first. And it leaves a sour taste in my mouth to deal with a people that treat their women so badly and disrespectfully. If they cancel the deal, we’ll find what we need elsewhere.”
“Thank you.” Bear was immensely grateful. It wasn’t every superior officer who understood what was truly important and put his priorities in order like Sylvan did.
“Although, if the younger daughter really did record what was happening, we might have enough evidence to show the Karpsian Council what actually happened,” Sylvan added. He nodded at the holo-recorder. “Why don’t you see if you can find anything worth showing them while we’re waiting for Aleena to wake up?”
Bear looked apprehensively at the small, handheld device. He didn’t know what he might find on there, but he was almost sure it would be bad—really bad. Still, if it could save the trade deal and keep peace between the Kindred and the Karpsians, he knew he should view its contents.
“I’ll look at it,” he told Sylvan. “And I’ll bring you anything I find.”
“Good. Thank you.” Sylvan put a hand on his shoulder and squeezed briefly. “Everything is all right now—you have your mate safe aboard the Mother Ship where no one else can harm her.”
Bear wanted to say that she’d already been harmed—that he hadn’t been in time to save her from the trauma she’d suffered. But he only nodded and thanked his Commanding Officer again.
When Sylvan stepped outside, he drew a chair up to Aleena’s bedside and picked up the small holo-recorder. He didn’t want to look at it but he made himself press the “view contents” button anyway.
The first few minutes were just the two males he’d fought dragging Aleena inside the dark room and tying her to the wooden X-shaped cross. Then the slapping and shouting began.
Over and over, Aleena’s stepmother and sister demanded that she renounce her husband and say she didn’t love him anymore. A lump formed in Bear’s throat as he watched his brave, curvy little wife refuse again and again. He winced and balled his hands into fists as he watched one of the goons Grindelia had hired hit Aleena full in the face, bursting her lip as she cried out and tried to turn away.
Then came the part that tore at his heart so deeply he could barely stand it. After beating and slapping her, after tearing off her clothes and jewelry and threatening her with rape, the two women offered Aleena one last chance to renounce him. Bear’s heart twisted as he watched the hologram of his wife, tied to the cross, beaten and bruised, and heard her response.
“I refuse to renounce my husband,” she said in a low, clear voice. “If he wants to disavow me, so be it. But I will not renounce him. I love him!”
At that point, guilt and shame overcame him and Bear couldn’t stand to watch anymore. Putting down the holo recorder, he buried his face in his hands and wept.
He wept for all the pain and torture his sweet wife had gone through…for her incredible courage in refusing to renounce him, even though she thought he didn’t love her…he wept for the pain he’d caused her and the danger he’d exposed her to and the fact that he didn’t deserve her beauty and loyalty and trust anymore.
He wept because he didn’t know if he could face her again and he wondered if he even had the courage to try.
And he swore to himself that if, by the grace of the Goddess, Aleena agreed to forgive him, he would never, ever betray her again and he would spend the rest of his life keeping her safe and making her feel loved, valued and cherished.