Paige's Warriors (Bondmates Book 3) Read Online Free Page B

it a personal failure that he couldn’t save San’Doaun, the Tribe’s former planet, now ruled by the Hive’s cruel mercenaries. It had been a long battle, but the planet was located too far from any Kadothian strongholds, and too close to Hive territory, to save. Rell almost perished as the planet fell, but in a last ditch effort to protect what he could, he’d managed to get the dowager queen, nineteen of her grandchildren, and their personal guards along with five thousand civilians, all that remained free of a population that had numbered more than a billion, off of San’Doaun and away to safety. He’d given them refuge in his territory on the Cliffs of Goeth, setting aside a massive stretch of rainforest that was similar to their home world.
    The Kadothian Ambassadors had tried to get the Tribe to move to a more upscale territory, but Minerva, the dowager queen, had decided they would stay beneath Rell’s protection. At least until they could get their planet back. For the first few years he’d interacted a great deal with them, but over time he’d grown distant, unable to force himself to engage with Minerva on a social level. Nothing held much interest for him anymore, other than the adrenaline rush of risking his life in battle. While academically he knew that was a sign of the madness, he’d never connected the dreaded deterioration of an unbonded Kadothian male’s mind to his growing apathy.
    Then something had changed.
    A few nights ago he’d dreamed about a beautiful, tiny woman with hair as dark brown as the finest benali stone and eyes an odd shade of pale blue.
    Below the San’Loas yelled as they danced to a wild song that got even his blood pumping. The Tribe’s solidly built women danced around a roaring purple and gold fire, while trying to entice the men to join them. By the end of the night each single woman would have slept with an unmated male and if a baby came of that union, then they were considered blessed and married. Some women drank fertility tea in order to make that happen, while others sipped a contraception brew. The men weren’t supposed to know this, but it wasn’t a closely guarded secret.
    As he watched them dance around the fire pit below from his balcony among the tree tops, his mind went back to his dream as he replayed it again, drawing comfort from the memory.
    When the true dream had started he’d been at some kind of social gathering he was unfamiliar with, one where the women wore enormous gowns with long, crystal embedded trains. The music had been unlike anything he’d heard before, but hauntingly lovely. All around him couples dressed in more odd garb moved in harmony with the melody and at the end of the room he spotted a group of men in black jackets and pants playing some instruments that looked familiar, and others that were completely exotic.
    A woman walked past him, and he turned, his body going on full alert as her smell hit him. Delicious. Her dress was similar to the other women’s, long and flowing, but the back of the dress was partially exposed, held together by a series of pearls. They were a few shades paler than her skin and highlighted the smooth expanse of her curvy frame. Her back wasn’t excessively slender or muscular, but instead a smooth expanse of creamy flesh that he wanted to lick.
    Her dark hair was piled atop her head and decorated with more pearls, exposing the slim column of her graceful neck. Some curls teased the edges of her heart-shaped face, which only added to the feeling of innocence he got from her. Then, through the fringe of her thick, dark lashes, she gave him a look that was anything but chaste. His cock had hardened in a painful rush, and he’d followed her out onto what appeared to be an enormous double staircase.
    When she stopped and turned to face him, he’d closed the distance between them quickly, taking her into his arms and staring down at her.
    “You’re supposed to ask me to dance,” she said in a