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)
He looked down at her and smiled—it was like the sun breaking through thunderclouds, Aleena thought, feeling slightly dazed. Faleesha hadn’t been lying—the Kindred Ambassador really was very handsome.
“Well, I’m glad you insisted on Joining with me instead of letting her do it,” he rumbled. “I definitely got the right sister.”
Aleena bit her lip. How could she explain now that her stepmother had been lying—that she hadn’t actually demanded to be the one joined to the Kindred Ambassador? If she told him the truth—that she’d made a bargain to Join with him in exchange for the money to pay her mother’s medical bills, he might be mad!
So though she hated lying to him, she smiled and nodded.
“Thank you, my Lord Husband,” she murmured. “I’m so glad you’re pleased with me.”
“I am—very pleased.” He nodded firmly, but then looked troubled for some reason. “Come on—let’s get home.”
Aleena wondered why he looked worried and upset but the next minute his furrowed brow smoothed out and he gave her another smile. She must have imagined the expression, she thought—or misinterpreted it.
At any rate, her new husband said he was pleased with her and that was all that mattered.
6
BEAR
As the luxury hovercoach he’d rented for the ceremony drove them soundlessly through the city, Bear wondered when would be a good time to tell his new bride he was going to disavow her and end the Joining after his business on Karpsian Sigma was concluded. It seemed cruel to tell her right now, after the ceremony was barely over—but it also seemed cruel to wait and let her think that he was going to keep her with him always.
He wished that he would have checked more closely into the customs and culture of Karpsian Sigma before agreeing to this Joining. But he’d been too busy pouring over the details of the trade agreement, which he had considered to be the most important part of his trip here. The short-lived Joining was supposed to take a backseat to the business he had to conduct.
But the more he got to know Aleena, the more she felt important to him. He felt especially protective of her after seeing the way her own family treated her. Her father seemed nice enough—well, except for giving him permission to beat her which was unthinkable. But her stepmother and the half-sister were awful. The less he saw of them, the better, Bear thought.
Well, he wouldn’t be on Karpsian Sigma for long, he reminded himself. So he didn’t really have to worry about his in-laws. And he would just have to be certain that Aleena was well taken care of when he left.
That shouldn’t be a problem since Commander Sylvan had given him an almost unlimited line of credit. He could buy the house he had rented and put it in her name and make sure she had some kind of allowance to live on. He would make certain she was independently wealthy and didn’t have to rely on her awful family after he went away, Bear promised himself.
In the meantime, he decided to keep the news that he was planning to end their Joining to himself. It seemed cruel to bring it up now, right after the ceremony had just taken place. He would find a better time to talk about it later.
He just hoped Aleena wouldn’t be too upset when he told her he planned to disavow her.
7
BEAR
“Well this is it—I hope you like it,” Bear said, as they stepped into the palatial mansion he had rented to live in. It was probably bigger than what they needed, but he had wanted to make a statement about how the Kindred could afford to deal with the Karpsian Sigma government even in the highest capacity.
Aleena looked around, her pale purple eyes growing wider and wider. As they had been driving in the hovercoach, she had mentioned that they were getting into the richer and more exclusive part of the city but she seemed surprised that she was actually going to live here.
“This area is even nicer than the neighborhood where my father’s house is located,” she’d remarked. “Much nicer.”
“Is it?” Bear asked. “What about the place you live now? Or where you lived before we got Joined, anyway,” he added. He was curious about her and wanted to know her situation.
“Oh, I lived with my mother,” she explained. “She’s in a very modest dwelling that my father bought her after he disavowed her.”
“So men do that…they buy their wife a house after they disavow them?” Bear asked, feeling slightly relieved since that was what he was planning to do for Aleena.
She shook her head.
“Not always. Everyone always said that my father was too kind to my mother. After disavowing her, a husband has no further obligation to his wife. But he even sent her a monthly allowance for a time.”