Total pages in book: 91
Estimated words: 86162 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 431(@200wpm)___ 345(@250wpm)___ 287(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 86162 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 431(@200wpm)___ 345(@250wpm)___ 287(@300wpm)
“Abbey, please—I can see you’re upset,” he said, trying to make his voice soft and gentle as he knelt beside her on the gray carpeted floor. “But please remember, the Claiming Period is only a month long. In that time, we’ll get to know each other and we can decide if we’re compatible or not.”
“I can tell you already we’re not compatible!” she spat, glaring up at him. “Let me go home right now or I swear to God I’m going to do my best to make your life a living hell every minute we’re together!”
Solon was taken aback by her vehemence. Why did she hate him so much? For months he’d been Dream-Sharing with her and observing the way she acted with others—both her customers and her aunt. Well—listening anyway, since everything he saw when he dreamed of her was just colorful blurs. But all the dreams seemed to indicate that she was a sweet, shy, sensitive female. He had never heard her speak this way to anyone or had any indication that she had the capacity for such hatred inside her.
“I hope you’ll feel differently once you get to know me,” he said, trying to keep his voice level. “I’ve been dreaming of you for months, which means the Goddess intends for us to be together. If you could just enter the Claiming Period with an open mind—”
As he spoke, he reached for her hands, hoping to make some contact and understand her better. After months of Dream-Sharing he was already attuned to her and his Chimera blood should enable him to feel her emotions when they made direct skin-to-skin contact.
“What are you doing? Leave me alone!” she demanded as he enfolded her much smaller hands in his own.
“Just helping you up,” Solon assured her. “If you’ll just let me—”
And then her emotions slammed into him with the force of a hydro-jet engine and he let out a hoarse gasp.
She’s scared to death of me!
It was true—his curvy little bride was putting up a good front and pretending to be angry but in reality the overriding emotion she was feeling was overwhelming fear. She was absolutely terrified of him—Solon could feel it running through her like an electrical current.
It was a hard emotion to absorb and he nearly dropped her hands. But if she was experiencing this feeling because of him, he had to experience it too, Solon told himself. It was only right—only fair. So he forced himself to keep holding her hands but he couldn’t help speaking out.
“Why do you feel this way about me when you don’t even know me?” he demanded, forgetting that she didn’t know about his Chimera heritage and his ability to Feel. “What have I ever done to you to make you fear me like this? You don’t even know me!”
She snatched her hands away. Crossing her arms under her full breasts, she tucked her fingers into her armpits, making them inaccessible to him.
“I’m not afraid of you!” She jutted her chin, her eyes blazing. Despite the tear tracks on her flushed cheeks, Solon thought she looked beautiful and fierce—like a warrior princess.
“I can tell that you are,” he said quietly. “I just don’t know why. Why do you fear me? Is it because I look like a beast?”
“How can you ask me why I’m afraid?” she demanded, her voice laced with exasperation and irritation. “You’re a huge, scary, alien warrior who sent two other huge, scary, alien warriors to drag me out of my business to a place I don’t know! They didn’t even let me bring any of my aides or call my aunt! She’s going to be terrified when she gets back to the shop and finds me gone!”
Solon didn’t know what she meant by “aides” but it seemed like her worry for her aunt’s feelings was the most urgent item of business.
“You,” he snapped at one of the Agents who had dragged Abbey in. “Find out her aunt’s phone number and give her a call. Explain that Abbey has been taken to the HKR building and that from there we will proceed to the Monstrum Mother Ship where we will spend our Claiming Period for one solar month.”
“A whole month?” Abbey protested, her face growing worried. “A whole month alone with a guy I don’t even know?”
“The point is to get to know each other.”
Solon wished he could get to her hands again. Because she had no Chimera blood herself, he couldn’t send emotions to her as effectively as he could receive them from her, but he did have some skill in that area. If only he could have direct skin-to-skin contact with her again he might be able to send her feelings of comfort and reassurance to calm her down. He should have done that earlier, but her feelings of terror had shocked him so much, he hadn’t been thinking clearly.