AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I will,” Solon said confidently. “Just let me have some time to get to know her and to let her get to know me.”
“Well, you’ve got a little more time, anyway. A week or two—maybe more if you’re lucky.” Brone shrugged. “Use it wisely, Brother.”
Solon nodded.
“You know that I will. I’ll set her draft in motion at once.”
“Fine—you’d better hope the Draft Officers don’t check the exemption logs,” Brone warned.
“They won’t,” Solon said confidently. “I just need them to generate the paperwork and go get her.”
He knew that most humans thought the Bridal Draft worked like the military drafts they used to conscript soldiers at wartime. But that wasn’t the case at all. What usually happened was that a Kindred or a Monstrum warrior started Dream-Sharing with a human female. When he found out her identity—usually from a combination of clues he picked up in the dreams and research done on his own—he would go to the Draft Officers in the nearest HKR building and have them generate official paperwork for the female in question.
Then he could either go and get his bride himself or send the Draft Officers to pick her up at her domicile and bring her back to the HKR building for a Pre-Joining Ceremony. Following that, the warrior in question had the legal right to bring his new bride up to the Mother Ship to begin their month-long Claiming Period.
In this case, Solon decided reluctantly to send the Draft Officers and wait for them to bring his bride to the HKR building. She seemed so hostile when she saw him—maybe she would be less angry and antagonistic to the agents if he wasn’t there with them. Then, once their Pre-Joining ceremony was complete and they were up in his suite aboard the Monstrum Mother Ship, they could begin to get to know each other.
He just hoped he could get Abbey to fall in love with him in the time he had before the exemption paperwork got to her domicile. If not, things might get tricky…
9
ABBEY
Mother’s Day came and went, leaving both Abbey and Aunt Rose completely exhausted. But Abbey was relieved too—the big Monstrum who had claimed she was his “fated mate” hadn’t come back. She still hadn’t gotten any word about the exemption she had filed for, but she was hoping that no news was good news. He must have looked her up and found out she was exempt and decided to go bother someone else.
She hadn’t had any more dreams of him either. Abbey told herself that was a good sign and of course she didn’t miss waking up feeling terrified in the middle of the night.
What about the other feelings he gave you though—what about his scent? whispered a little voice in her head. Abbey pushed it away. She didn’t miss that amazing, masculine fragrance at all—and she especially didn’t miss the way it had made her feel so hot and bothered that she had to take care of herself before she could get back to sleep…right?
“Right,” she muttered to herself as she ran her hand carefully along the shelf displaying vases, making sure they were in a straight line. “I don’t want anything to do with him and I’m glad he’s gone for good!”
“What did you say, honey?” Aunt Rose asked, her voice coming from across the store.
“Oh, uh, nothing.” Abbey had a surge of irritation directed at herself. People were going to think she was crazy, muttering to herself like that! Thank goodness there were no customers in the shop at the moment.
She already had to be careful because some people had the idea that blind or visually impaired also meant mentally challenged. It irritated Abbey to no end when someone found out she was blind and then started talking really loudly or really slowly to her or praising her for doing simple, everyday tasks like tying her shoes—as though she was a toddler.
In fact, it had been scientifically proven that blind people had extra mental acuity—especially when it came to their memories. Abbey could attest to that—she had an excellent spatial memory—once she learned the layout of a room or the contents of a drawer or cupboard, she retained that knowledge effortlessly and flawlessly. She just needed to be “shown” once where things were and she would remember it forever. And as long as everything stayed in its place, she was fine.
“Well, it’s almost lunch time. How about I run down to the deli and get us a couple of subs?” Aunt Rose asked her.
“Sure, that sounds good.” Abbey nodded. “I’ll watch the store while you’re gone.”
“I doubt you’ll see anyone—maybe a few stragglers who didn’t get their Mom something yesterday,” Aunt Rose remarked. “Do we have enough stock left just in case?”
“I just checked—we still have enough American Beauties for two full bouquets and a few other varieties as well,” Abbey told her. “And there’s a fresh shipment coming from the Flower Power Nursery tomorrow, so we’ll be fine.”
“Good. Okay, I’ll be back in thirty minutes,” Aunt Rose promised.
Abbey heard a jingling and the whoosh of the shop’s front door and then she was all alone in the store.
She took a deep breath and then found the stool behind the checkout counter by touch and sank onto it. The Mother’s Day rush always took a lot out of her so she was tired but pleased. They had done really well this year, making enough to cover the rent on the shop for the next six months as well as paying for new stock from their local suppliers.
There might even be enough left over to get one of those Vision Pros—a pair of glasses one could wear that had extra mobility aides. Abbey had wanted to try a pair ever since she’d heard a blind YouTuber she followed reviewing them. They were supposed to be really?—
Her thoughts cut off abruptly as she heard the front door jingle.
“Hello?” She stood up from the stool and placed her hands on the counter. Looking in the direction of the door, she saw two large, dark shapes but couldn’t make out anything else about them. “Can I help you?” she asked uncertainly. For some reason she felt a shiver crawl down her spine. Who were these people and why weren’t they talking? “Hello?” she asked again.
