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)
Then, mercifully, the noise of the music and the crowd drowned her stepmother out and Aleena could hear no more. She ran, dodging through the dancing couples, heedless of the spectacle she was making of herself.
Bear didn’t love her—he had never loved her. He had been planning to disavow her all this time—from the very beginning of their relationship! Even before their Joining he had already decided he would get rid of her as soon as he could!
Hot tears stung her eyes and made her vision blurry. She didn’t see her sister following her through the crowded dance floor or notice Faleesha nodding at two rough-looking guards standing near one of The Plaza’s many exits.
So she was taken completely by surprise when someone grabbed her by the arm and marched her away from the crowd.
“What…who…?” She looked around and saw a tall, grim-faced man holding her right arm. “Let me go!” she exclaimed, trying to pull away.
“I don’t think so.” He tightened his grip. “It’s time to leave the party now.”
“I’m not leaving with you! Who are you?” Aleena exclaimed. She was still overcome with grief as tears streamed down her cheeks, but fear was beginning to make its way into the mix too.
The man didn’t answer but just then another man took her other arm. Between the two of them, they started steering her towards the nearest exit.
Aleena felt a rush of fear and began to fight them in earnest.
“Help! Help me!” she shouted. But the music was too loud and everyone was looking at the dancers. Only a few heads turned and before they could say anything, Aleena had been whisked through the darkened exit door and out of The Plaza, into the night.
She had no idea what fate waited for her, but she was desperately afraid it was a dark one.
37
BEAR
“I’ve searched everywhere—I can’t find her!” Bear dragged a hand through his hair, which had long since come loose from its club at the nape of his neck. If it was possible to feel both panicked and lower than dirt, then he felt both. How could he have led Aleena on so thoughtlessly? And where had she run to? Was she safe?
“Could she have gone to be with her mother?” Sylvan asked. He had been helping to search the crowd too. Between the two of them, they’d covered the entire Plaza several times but no trace of Aleena could be found.
“I called her mother’s communications device just now and she said she hadn’t heard from her and she wasn’t there.” Bear felt like punching something—or someone. If Aleena’s sister hadn’t been a woman…
But no—he couldn’t blame the sister, though she was a cruel little bitch. He was the one at fault here. He should have told Aleena his true intentions from the start. He should have explained about his vow. He should have done so many things differently but now he had lost her…
“I think it’s clear she’s not in The Plaza anymore,” Sylvan said, breaking into his guilty train of thought. “Why don’t we take my ship and scour the city. Maybe she went back to the home the two of you share.”
“If she did, she’s not there yet—the sensors on the door would have let me know if anyone went in or out,” Bear said, nodding at his communications device.
“Well, maybe she’s on the way. Come on—let’s go look for her,” Sylvan urged.
Bear didn’t have any better ideas, so he nodded and the two males left together. But though he scanned the crowded room one last time before he left, Bear still didn’t see his bride.
Once in the long-range shuttle that Sylvan had flown to Karpsian Sigma, Bear slumped in the passenger seat. They took the route he thought Aleena might have taken if she had decided to walk home, but she wasn’t anywhere along the way and once they got to his house, she wasn’t there either. There was nothing but the ghost of her perfume, still floating in the air of her dressing room.
Smelling her sweet scent made Bear feel like his heart was being ripped from his chest! He groaned aloud in frustration and fear as he fell to his knees in the middle of the room.
“Aleena, where are you? I’m so fucking sorry! I should have told you!”
“So she didn’t know you planned to disavow her?” Sylvan asked. He was standing in the doorway, a sympathetic look on his face.
Bear shook his head.
“I kept meaning to tell her—to explain about my vow—but somehow I just couldn’t bring it up. She was so sweet—so eager to please me. And her father disavowed her mother—it made her fear that I would disavow her and I couldn’t bear to tell her that I was planning to do exactly that.” He shook his head. “Where could she be?”