Alien's Bride Book Three Read Online Free PDF

could see a paunchy man with thinning grey hair and an unruly grey beard along with a black woman wearing a head scarf and a thin elderly white woman clutching a gnarled walking stick.   The man move to block Elentinus once we drew near.
    “What’s going on?” the man said, “I don’t have all the pregnancy tests done yet.   It hasn’t even been a week.”
    “Cease with your confrontational tone, Dugan.”   As he spoke he signaled the man to get out of his way.   “I am not here on business.”
    Dugan met my eyes briefly.   “Alright then, Lord Elentinus.   I apologize.”   He stepped aside.   “So why did you come?”
    “Our brides wished to see the compound.”   He brought me forward with a light touch on my back.   “Maritza, this is Dugan, Esther, and Magpie.   They are representatives for the three jurisdictions of the colony.”   He tipped his chin at Dugan.   “This is my wife, Maritza.”
    Dugan looked puzzled.   “Did you…dye your hair?”
    I shook my head in confusion, but then realized why he asked.   “Oh, no.   You’re thinking of Sasha.   I’m the new wife.”
    “What happened to Sasha?” Esther, the black woman, asked.
    My bottom lip quivered in hesitation.   I glanced at Elentinus, but he kept his eyes lowered.
    “They divorced.”
    “Okay,” Esther went on, “so where is she?   She’s not in the colony.”   She looked at the other two.   “Is she?”
    “Not in my pods,” Magpie, the thin white woman, said.
    “The only new people I have in my pods are babies,” Dugan said.
    “What business is it of yours?” Whore said.
    Esther looked at him and gulped, but then set her gaze back on me.   “Where did she go?”
    I started to panic.   What the Hell, lady?   Did she expect me to give her escape details right in front of my husband?   I looked at him for an answer.  
    Elentinus had turned smug.   He stared at me with his chin cocked and his eyes narrowed.   It was an expression that said, ‘Well, Maritza?   What are you going to tell them?’   I couldn’t believe he was challenging me like this.   I know he thought he was being funny.   I didn’t appreciate it.
    “Can’t say.”   I shrugged.   
    “Who are these humans, Elen?” Nayjoor asked.   “Why aren’t we getting on with the tour?”
    Elentinus leaned close to explain to him.
    “Are you happy with him?” Magpie asked me.
    I gave a genuine smile.   “Oh, yes.   He’s very kind to me.”   Then I drew my lips into my mouth to wet them.   “Are you happy here?”
    Magpie scrutinized me a moment.   “You’re from the future, right?”
    “The past.”
    “Yeah, right, that’s what I meant.”   She snuffled and looked away from me.   “Presuming that’s true, then you don’t know about everything that happened?   About the war and the parasites and everything?”
    Elentinus, Inga, and both servants were now fixed on her with me.   Nayjoor was looking around, bored.    
    “I know some of it.   What they’ve told me.   I don’t know your side of it though.”
    The three representatives exchanged glances.
    “I’d like to know what they’ve told you,” Dugan said.
    Magpie lifted her hand.   “Later, Dugan.”   She took a deep sigh.   “You girls need to know who you’re standing by.   I had a brother, and I had two sons.   All of them drafted.   All of them killed in Dak-Hiliah attacks.”   She paused to swallow.   “They kept asking us to surrender, and they kept punishing us when we didn’t.   Our governments said we had to keep fighting.   That the Dak-Hiliah would enslave us.   Rape all the women, castrate all the men.   That’s what they kept saying.   So we fought and we fought.   Lowered the draft age.   Dragged all the countries into it.   Every fight was fucking hopeless.   They only ones who survived were the few female soldiers, who all got kidnapped.   Our governments pulled them out of combat pretty early.