Surely he can help Josiah and me, too.
The thought of going to him terrified me. What if he couldn’t see his way to aid us?
Still, it was the best chance we had of getting away from Frank. Eldron might not be willing to marry me once he knew about Josiah, but he wouldn’t simply abandon us, either.
Inhaling deeply, I turned toward the grooms’ quarters.
It was time to tell Eldron everything.
Chapter Twenty
Eldron
A quiet knock at my door startled me awake, used as I was to years of battle-readiness drills. When I opened the door, Mia stood there with a small child wrapped around her, clinging to her with his arms and legs, his head resting softly on her shoulder, eyes closed.
She looked so much like I had dreamed her that it took my breath away.
“We need your help,” she said simply. I pulled the door wide to let her pass inside without a word, even though I was brimming with questions. Who was this child? Why did they need me? What could they need my help with in the middle of the night when our Bride Games started the next morning?
I waited until the door closed behind her, not entirely certain that this wasn’t still a dream. I tilted my head toward the boy. “He’s yours?”
She nodded. “From my first husband.”
My head spun at her words. Married women—even those who had been divorced or widowed—were not placed in the Bride Lottery. “I don’t understand.”
She moved to the bed, where she placed the boy gently on the mattress, then pulled up the rumpled clothes to cover him. When he whimpered, she sat down beside him and stroked his head gently.
I waited patiently as she settled him, then dragged over the room’s single chair until it was across from her and sat.
Speaking softly so as not to wake him, Mia began speaking.
“We married when I was pretty young—almost 10 years ago. His name is Frank Holden. He’s a police officer in New Jersey.”
At my frown, she explained, “That’s a state in the United States.”
“So he’s an enforcer for Earth laws?”
Her laugh held an undercurrent of bitterness. “He’s supposed to be.”
I gestured for her to continue.
“He didn’t hit me at first.” She glanced down at the floor, as if she would find the words there she needed. “But he yelled, said horrible things to me. I thought having the baby would soften him, somehow.” Her eyes, when she met my gaze again, were full of dark pain. “I was wrong.”
Part of me wanted to hurry her along, get her to explain how she had ended up in the Bride Lottery. But I could tell the story was hard for her, so I forced myself to be still, to keep my hands clasped lightly between my knees as I leaned toward her, when all I wanted to do was gather her up and hold her in my lap, protect her from even the story of her pain.
I clamped down on all those desires, giving her space to tell it at her own pace.
“So you left him?” I finally prompted when she didn’t continue.
“Eventually. First I tried to go to the police.” That bitter laugh escaped her again. “I had to go to Frank’s precinct. It was in his jurisdiction, you see. And that meant telling his colleagues what he had done.”
Dark anger swirled in my chest. “They didn’t believe you?” I guessed.
“No. When I started telling my story the two of the officers, one of them turned to the other and said, ‘Remember that time your wife filed bullshit claims on you?’”
I clenched my teeth together, forcing myself to remain perfectly still. I wanted to get up and pace the room, demand more details. But that would only frighten Mia—and her child.
“What happened next?”
“Frank beat the hell out of me for trying to report him. And I convinced myself that I was okay, as long as Frank was good to Josiah.” She nodded at the boy now sleeping peacefully in my bed.
“I take it that didn’t last?”
“No. The day he came home and tried to kick Josiah for making too much noise—that was the day I reached my limit.”
A fierce protective instinct pushed me to my feet with an inarticulate noise of rage. Mia flinched, and I managed to stop myself from stomping to the door and heading straight to Earth to find this monster who had hurt my mate and our child.
Her child, I reminded myself. But the mating bond didn’t agree. He belonged to Mia. Therefore, he was mine to protect, too.
“How did you get away?” I asked, forcing myself to sit back down.
“I ran,” she said simply. “I filed for divorce—got all the paperwork ready and everything. But he refused to sign and demanded custody of Josiah. Without any proof that he was abusive—no police reports or anything, of course—there was nothing I could do to keep him from coming after us.”
This time, she was the one who stood and began pacing. “So we ran again. I changed our names, arranged for new tracker-translation chips.”
“Mia Jones is not your real name?”
“It is now.” She shrugged. “I’ve gotten used to it.”
“And that’s how you ended up in Bride Lottery.”
“The chip was supposed to be clean—it’s entered in all the systems, but it was supposed to look like I’d already been through the Lottery. I guess I should not have trusted that man, either.”
I stood, reaching out to take her hands in mine but stopping short of actually touching her. “There are males who are trustworthy.”
She glanced up at my eyes, and with a sad smile, placed her hands in mine. “I think I’ve figured that out. It’s why we’re here. I trust you.”
“Where has Josiah been while you have been up here?”
“With a friend—she’ll be frantic when she finds out he’s gone.
