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No matter what she said, she would have to come up to the Monstrum Mother Ship for their Claiming Period. There was no way around it.
7
ABBEY
“Abbey, why were you so nasty to him?” Aunt Rose demanded as soon as the huge Kindred had left with a tinkle of the shop bell as the door closed behind him. “Why did you shout at him that way?”
“Because he was trying to take me away from you! Away from Earth!” Abbey exclaimed, turning to her. “He wants to drag me up to that Monstrum Mother Ship and get me all alone and…and…” But she couldn’t make herself finish—it was too awful to contemplate. There would be no Major to save her this time—no one to stop the huge warrior if he wanted to hurt her. If he wanted to?—
No—don’t think of it! Don’t!
“Oh, honey…” Aunt Rose’s voice softened and she squeezed Abbey’s shoulders gently. “I know what happened with that awful Henry scared you, but I promise not all men are like that! Your Uncle Marty, my husband, was just wonderful. He never raised his hand to me once in all the years we were married.” She sighed sadly. “I wish he hadn’t died so young—I think you really would have loved him.”
“I don’t care how wonderful Uncle Marty was, I’m not going with that Monstrum!” Abbey shook off her aunt’s arm. “I don’t want anything to do with him!”
“But I’ve heard the Monstrum are always good to their women,” Aunt Rose protested. “And you need someone, honey. What happens when I’m gone? Who’s going to drive you places and take care of you?”
“I don’t need anyone to take care of me—I can take care of myself!” Abbey snapped, and then immediately felt guilty.
It was true that Aunt Rose did a lot of things for her she couldn’t do for herself. From driving her to appointments, to filling out forms, to just walking down the street with her, arm-in-arm, when Abbey had to go someplace she’d never been before, she was always there. It was wrong for Abbey to say she didn’t need her
“Look, I’m not interested in finding anyone to take your place,” she told her aunt, trying to soften her words. “And I’m definitely not interested in finding a husband—especially not a Kindred one.”
“But…but he seemed so nice. And he’s so handsome,” Aunt Rose said. “He reminds me of Vincent from that old Beauty and the Beast show—only with horns.”
“You told me that Henry was handsome and nice too!” Abbey reminded her and then felt even worse than before. It sounded like she was blaming the attack on her aunt. It wasn’t Aunt Rose’s fault she was a crappy judge of men. Abbey was too—Henry had also had her completely fooled. Otherwise she would never have agreed to be alone with him that night. She never would have?—
“Abbey—” Aunt Rose began, interrupting her thoughts.
“Please, can we just not talk about this?” Abbey asked.
But the huge Monstrum was still on her mind. She couldn’t see him clearly of course, but he had loomed over her, seeming to fill the entire shop with his presence. His voice had been coming from high over her head, too. The girl on the phone had been right—he was enormous. And she’d described him as muscular and strong. He would probably be able to break Abbey in half with one hand if he wanted to—not that she was ever going to give him a chance, she told herself.
She moved subtly away from her aunt and her feet crunched on broken glass from the vase that had shattered what now felt like days ago.
“Let’s just get this mess cleaned up. We’re going to have more customers in here at any minute and we don’t want anyone slipping and suing us,” she said.
This got Aunt Rose going. She swept up the glass shards, which Abbey couldn’t see of course, and wiped up the water on the floor. Just as she was finishing, another customer came in, asking if they could deliver flowers to the hospital.
Abbey threw herself into the task of helping the customer get exactly what he wanted and pushed the enormous golden Monstrum warrior to the back of her mind. She had applied for an exemption and she wasn’t going with him—and that was that!
She hoped, anyway…
8
SOLON
“Solon, what brings you in today? Did you finally find your bride?” Brone, who was a Beast Kindred, smiled as Solon entered the other male’s office. They had met during a battle against the darklings several years before and had become fast friends at once. “You were telling me just the other day you thought you knew where to find her,” he added, rising from behind his desk to offer Solon a warrior’s clasp.
Brone worked in the Bridal Draft Office which served the North American Continent, and Solon had been confiding in him ever since he’d started Dream-Sharing with Abbey. He had realized early on that she was from a country called The United States, which was located in the continent Brone dealt with.
“I found her, all right,” Solon said grimly, clasping his friend’s forearm briefly before letting go.
“Uh-oh…” Brone frowned, his dark brows drawing low over his golden eyes. “I take it there’s a problem?”
“She doesn’t want to come with me!” Solon couldn’t keep the anguish from his voice. The rejection of his fated mate had hurt him more than he liked to admit—even to himself.
“Why not?” Brone asked reasonably. “You’re a good-looking male. Lots of human females love the Monstrum.”
