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“That sounds good,” Abbey said gratefully. Earlier she had wanted a shower, but a bath sounded even better. She just wanted to soak in the tub and try to forget everything.
“May I come with you and draw your bath?” Solon rumbled, sounding hopeful.
Abbey hesitated. To be honest, she really just wanted to be alone. But she knew they needed to talk.
“All right,” she said at last. “I guess that would be okay.”
“Thank you, lelka,” he murmured. “Come—let’s go.”
“Oh, before I forget, I left a pile of mail for you on your bed,” Aunt Rose said, as Abbey was turning to go. “And your spare My Eye is on the night table in the usual place. One of those envelopes looked really official and important,” she added.
“Thanks, Aunt Rose.” Abbey nodded. She didn’t really care about catching up on her mail right now, but it was nice of her aunt to put things where she could find them.
At the moment she just wanted to take a long, hot bath and forget everything that had happened in the past few hours.
38
SOLON
Things weren’t right between them—Solon could feel it every time he touched Abbey’s skin. The sense of wrongness that had come between them was as obvious as a huge, jagged crack in an otherwise smooth road.
I shouldn’t have punished the male that attacked her so publicly, he told himself. I should have dragged him out of the building and punished him in the shadows, where no one could see.
But he hadn’t even thought of keeping things private—the Rage had overwhelmed him and all he’d been able to think of was avenging the wrong that had been done to the woman he loved. It hadn’t occurred to him that avenging her would embarrass or hurt her—mainly because among his own people, all of the shame for such an assault would fall on the attacker, not the woman he had attacked.
It was still hard for him to wrap his head around the way the humans shamed and criticized a female who had been sexually assaulted instead of blaming the male who had done it. The way the Police Captain had been so angry on Brander’s behalf and had wanted to conveniently forget about how he had attacked Abbey simply because the attack had happened in the past made it clear to Solon that the humans had their priorities completely twisted. What was wrong with them?
To that question, he had no answers.
The two of them went into Abbey’s room and Solon busied himself in the fresher. He ran a bath that was just hot enough and found a bottle of sweet smelling liquid which made a lot of foam. Just as the tub was nearly filled, he heard Abbey call his name.
“Yes, lelka?” He shut off the bathwater and went back out into her bedroom.
“What’s this?” She was wearing the My Eye device and holding out an official looking document.
Solon felt a flare of unease as he approached her.
“I don’t know—what is it?” he asked, frowning. “Is your device having trouble reading it to you?”
“No, the My Eye read it just fine,” Abbey told him. The look on her face was unreadable. Solon wished he could touch her to find out what emotions she was feeling but he didn’t quite dare.
“What does it say, then?” he asked.
“It says the exemption from the Bride Draft, which I applied for after we started Dream-Sharing, is granted. But it’s dated over a month ago. Do you know what that means?” she demanded, then answered her own question before Solon could. “It means that I was exempt when you sent the Draft Officers to come get me! It means you knew I was excused from the Draft but you took me anyway!”
Solon felt like his world was crashing down around him, but there was nothing to do now but tell the truth and pray Abbey would forgive him.
“Yes,” he said heavily. “I knew you were exempt. I went and checked at the Drafting Office right after the first time I came to your aunt’s shop and you rejected me.” He took a deep breath. “I have a friend there—I coerced him into rerouting the paperwork so that I could Claim you anyway.”
“What?” Abbey shook her head. “You mean you cheated the system to get me?”
“I would have done anything to get you, lelka!” Solon ran a hand through his mane distractedly. “I knew you were my fated mate—the one woman in all the universe that the Goddess had set aside for me.”
“That sounds nice, but I was scared to death of you!” Abbey reminded him.
“I know you were, sweetheart, but I knew if I could just spend a little time with you, I could ease your fear. And I did, didn’t I?” Solon pointed out.
“You also promised you’d never lie to me and now I find out you’ve been lying all this time!” she shot back. “Why didn’t you tell me, Solon?”
