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)
“Well now that you do—now that you know I’m blind and defective—will you please pick someone else and let me go back to Earth?” There was pleading in her voice despite the belligerent look on her pretty face. But it was her words that Solon took issue with.
“Defective? What are you talking about?” he demanded. “Just because you can’t see what I see doesn’t make you ‘defective.’”
“Yes, it does,” she said dully. “Which is why every single guy on the dating apps I tried ghosted me as soon as they found out. All but Henry, anyway. And it turned out he wanted me because I was blind—because I was easy prey.”
Solon felt his stomach knot.
“Who is this ‘Henry’ and what did he do to you?” he asked in a low voice. “Did he hurt you?”
“Never mind.” She shook her head and looked down at her hand—or appeared to, at least—which Solon still held firmly in his own much larger hand.
“Please tell me,” he murmured, trying to keep his voice calm. “Please let me know if I need to go to Earth and avenge you. Did he hurt you, Abbey? Did he force you?”
As he spoke, he poured more and more emotion through their connection. Please trust me, please tell me!
“He tried,” she said at last. “But my guide dog, Major, stopped him.” She squeezed her eyes shut, as though reliving a painful memory. “Guide dogs are trained never to be aggressive—to stay calm no matter what. But Major was a German Shepherd and he was fiercely protective of me. When he saw that Henry was doing and heard me begging him to stop…” She trailed off, shaking her head. “I don’t even know why I’m telling you this.”
Solon knew—it was because of the emotions of calm and trust he was feeding her. Some might call it “cheating” but he couldn’t think of any other way to get to know her—or to find out what she’d been through, which was obviously affecting her feelings about Solon himself as well as their Claiming Period.
“Please go on,” he murmured, still holding her hand firmly. “Please tell me—you don’t have to give graphic details if you’d rather not, but I need to know.”
She let out a long, trembling sigh.
“All right…maybe I should start at the beginning.”
“Please, do.” Solon nodded. “I want to know everything you’re comfortable telling me.”
“Well…okay.”
She took another deep breath and began.
15
ABBEY
Abbey didn’t know why she was talking to the big Monstrum so calmly. After all, he had kidnapped her and dragged her up to the Monstrum Mother Ship to do who knew what to her.
But for some reason, she no longer feared him as she had. Somehow when he held her hand and spoke in that deep, calm voice, she couldn’t seem to stay afraid of him. And somehow, she seemed to want to tell him everything. Why was that? She didn’t know but she felt herself talking to him anyway.
“I wasn’t really looking to date anyone when Henry came along,” she said. “I…I was attacked in high school, when I was only seventeen and it took me a long time to get over it.”
“What? Another male attacked you?” He sounded horrified but not disbelieving, which was good, Abbey thought.
She nodded.
“Yes, but that was a long time ago. I don’t think of it anymore. Only…it made me reluctant to try dating again. But my Aunt Rose was so worried—she’s afraid that after she dies I’ll be left all alone on my own with no one to take care of me.” She made a face. “I’ve tried telling her I can take care of myself, but she won’t believe me. So eventually I caved and signed up for some of the dating apps. But like I said, every time a guy found out I was legally blind, he ghosted me.”
“Er…ghosted?” He sounded confused.
“Oh, he stopped talking to me—stopped answering my messages,” Abbey explained. “No one wants to date a blind girl—I guess they’re afraid I might be a burden.”
Solon made an incredulous noise in the back of his throat but said nothing except,
“Go on.”
“So after a few months of trying, I figured I was in the clear,” Abbey said lightly. She didn’t tell him how much all that rejection had hurt her—how worthless and lonely she’d felt. Which only made her more vulnerable when Henry came along…
“Henry was one of our delivery drivers,” she made herself say, continuing the story. “Aunt Rose hired him because he was so nice and polite—he was handsome too, at least according to her. He started flirting with me right away—he didn’t even seem to care that I was blind.” She blew out a breath. “Of course, later I found out he actually liked the fact that I was blind—it made me easy prey.”
The big Kindred’s hand tightened on hers but he only said,