Page 11 of Stolen By Her Alien Mate

Her chin bumps up. “You don’t know you’ll be a healer just because your mother was.”

“My mother is,” I bite out the words and the bitterness in my tone makes even Aislynn flinch. “My mother is a healer. Which means I most likely will be too when my Venamy blooms.”

For once, Aislynn is at a loss for words.

So I push on, refusing to give up ground. “I won’t pretend my mother’s not out there. She is. She’s still alive. She’s part of the Sovereignty. And I think about that every skirmish we fight in. Every time I wound one of those bastards, I know that my own mother might heal him or her up and send them back into battle. They have an endless supply of foot soldiers to throw at us, and they have my mother to heal anyone we wound. Think about the difference it would make for our side if we had a healer.”

Aislynn doesn’t say anything, but presses her lips together to lock in a protest she knows won’t sway me anyway.

Shaking my head, I cross the rest of the way to the shuttle. “If going to earth, if finding this girl of the Hatcreek Clan, gives us any kind of edge at all, I’m going to do it. Think about it. She and I could be the first bonded pair the rebellion has.

She takes a micro step back, recoiling as if I’ve slapped her.

I wish I could take back the words. Because my be’lahshuk and I will not be the first bonded pair. Aislynn and Caiside were.

“You know what I mean,” I say gently. “And you know what this means.”

“Yeah. I know what this means. For you.”

“Not for me,” I correct her. “For the rebellion.”

“Right.” But her tone is bitter.

I almost don’t blame her.

Caiside is gone, fallen to who knows what horrors the night of the raid on the Telmarine Palace on Perse held. Of course she’s upset that any of the rest of us might have living mates.

Without a mate—without a match—she is just another body in the rebellion.

She’ll never complete the bonding. Her skills will never fully develop. She’ll never be more to the rebellion than a fighting body and a skilled blade.

That hasn’t mattered before now. Without mates, that’s all any of us are. But if Irick’s message is correct and my mate has been found, that could change everything. The other princesses are no doubt nearby. Once I find them, we can return all of them to Perse.

“Don’t you see that this is the break we’ve been looking for?” I press.

But she shakes her head, revulsion still marring her face. “A single bonded pair won’t save the rebellion. And your absence will hurt the rebellion. Our contact on New Calendeum is rescuing more children from the camps every month. Those kids are going to be the future of the rebellion. Not one bonded pair, but who knows how many. We need you here. Rescuing our people. That’s what’s important. The children. I would think you of all people would understand that.”

Right.

This is the shit thing about being as close to someone as I am to Aislynn. She knows where to punch me to make it hurt.

“Yeah. I get it. Rescuing those kids is important. But how long is it going to take to train kids like Waleam to fight? It’s going to be years before they’re ready.”

“Some of them might⁠—”

I know where she’s going with this and cut her off. “Might form bonded pairs? How would we know?”

“We know they have the potential,” she argues. Her gaze is just as fierce as it had been earlier when she’d been fighting me in the training hall. “Every one of these kids we’ve rescued from the camps has first marks. It’s how they ended up in the camps to begin with.”

“I know that. But do any of us even know how to perform the ceremony to test them?”

She scoffs. “I’m sure Cass does.”

“Actually, he doesn’t. I’ve asked. That information was Peia’s not his. And even if we could piece it together, the process might take longer than we have. But if this Joey Kincaid really is one of the princesses, than the others might be there too. And Peia as well.”

“Oh, you’ll just go get her. In a twenty-year-old shuttle that hasn’t been properly tested? That no one knows for sure is even capable of intersystem travel.”

She’s right. Of course she is. Aislynn is almost always right.