Norlanian Brides Volume One Read online

  Kate drew the covers up so she wasn’t flashing her sister-in-law. “Hana, are you guys okay?”

  Hana shook her head. “Mother just came home and started packing. She said the house would be repossessed by the government and we would be out on the street. She said we’ll be in the Bordelayz within a week because she won’t let us come to where she’s going to live.”

  Paoli growled. “She can’t do that. Where is she going?”

  “I don’t know, she’s been gone a lot the last few days. She took the deenars you gave us.” She let out a sob and Kate squeezed Paoli’s shoulder.

  “We’ll be there soon, honey,” Kate said. “Keep your brother and sisters safe until we arrive.”

  “Thank you, sister,” Hana said tearfully, pressing her fingers to her lips to cover another sob before ending the call.

  “You don’t have to go with me,” Paoli said as he stood and called for the lights to turn on.

  “Bullshit.”

  “What?” He tugged on his trousers hurriedly and Kate slipped off the bed and found her clothes in a pile on the floor.

  “I mean there’s no way that I’m going to let you go see your shrew of a mother without me. Whatever she thinks she’s doing, we’re not going to let her make your siblings homeless.”

  Paoli straightened slowly, his eyes blazing. “Thank you.”

  “You’re welcome, but you don’t have to thank me for wanting your siblings to be safe. They’re my family, too.”

  Within a few minutes, Paoli had woken Eden so he could borrow the hover-machen, and they were on their way to the outskirts of Kyvern City. Kate’s hands were shaking and she was worried about his sisters and brother. She knew something wasn’t right with his mother, but she didn’t think she was the sort of woman to make her kids homeless, knowing they’d end up as sex slaves.

  Paoli was tense beside her, and she put her hand on his arm and willed her own pulse to settle. She was angry at his mother for scaring the kids, and she was mostly afraid that if something really was going on with the house, they’d have to find a place for four more people plus Boreo.

  The hover-machen stopped in front of the home, and when the doors opened she could hear the screaming from inside. Another hover-machen was parked in front of the house and it appeared that someone was inside, but whoever he or she was, Kate didn’t know and didn’t care. She only wanted to get the kids safely away from Paoli’s mother.

  Paoli walked in front of Kate, and she knew he was shielding her. The door opened when they approached and she followed him inside, gasping at the destruction. What had been a neat and tidy home now looked like a tornado had ripped through it. Smashed dishes littered the floor, tables were overturned, and there were gaping holes in the walls where things had been thrown against them.

  Kate scanned the room and found Milo and Boreo standing in front of the girls who were cowering behind them, crying. Paoli’s mother wasn’t in the room, but Kate had a feeling she was nearby. Reli saw them first and Kate said, “Are you guys okay?”

  Milo swung his head toward them and Kate gasped at seeing that one of his eyes was black and there was blood trickling from his nose. Boreo began to growl and Paoli’s mother came into the room, pulling what looked like metal luggage behind her. Her eyes blazed angrily when she saw Kate and Paoli.

  “What are you doing here, brokah?” she sneered.

  Kate bristled, but Paoli simply stared at her. “This house won’t be repossessed. I paid for it and it’s in my name.”

  “You’re a brokah,” she pointed out again.

  “I’m a citizen of Norlan and a free, mated male. Don’t tell me what I am. Get out of here before I call the military to have you arrested for assaulting a child.”

  She froze, and for a moment, fear flashed through her eyes. “He hit me first.”

  The girls began to shout protests and Paoli said, “I think you’ll find it hard to get anyone to believe you when all four of your children say otherwise. Get out and don’t come back.”

  She stormed past them, the luggage knocking noisily against the floor as she moved out of the house. She spun on her heels and said, “You might own the house, but you don’t have the money to pay for the upkeep. It’s just a din away from being repossessed by the government for being in disrepair. Once they’re homeless, they’ll be rounded up and taken to the Bordelayz. That won’t happen to me, of course. I have someone to take care of me.” She gestured to the other hover-machen, and as if on cue, the doors opened and a large male got out. The glow from the interior of the vehicle lit up his face and Kate was certain she’d never seen an uglier male in her life. He had a huge nose, hooked like a beak, and a thick beard that covered his chin.

  Kate slipped under Paoli’s arm and walked over to his mother. “You don’t deserve to have kids. You’re an awful person and you deserve every bad thing that happens to you in the future. Don’t ever come back or I’ll contact the military myself.”

  His mother’s upper lip lifted into a sneer. “Pathetic human. Only a fool would love a brokah.”

  Kate raised her hand and slapped her across the face. “Don’t. Call. Him. That.”

  She clutched her cheek in surprise. “You struck me! I’ll call the authorities.”

  The man from the vehicle growled angrily and stalked forward. Paoli grabbed Kate and tucked her behind him. The male grabbed his mother by the arm and jerked her away. “You goaded her and now it’s done.” He glanced at Kate and Paoli. “She won’t be back.”

  He dragged the snarling woman to the vehicle and pushed her roughly inside. When he had climbed inside, the vehicle sped away, quickly disappearing into the night. Paoli turned and cupped her face. “Thank you for defending my honor, my beautiful wife.”

  “You’re a lot of things, but you’re not a brokah and I don’t care how many people I have to slap to get that point across.”

  He grinned and then kissed her forehead. “My fierce wife. I should be the one doing the defending.”

  “Let’s just agree to both have each other’s backs.”

  “Agreed.” He hugged her and sighed deeply. “What should we do, Kate?”

  “Let’s talk to the kids first, then we’ll see.”

  When the front door was locked, he turned to look at the mess. It was as if their mother had gone out of her way to ruin anything of value. The kids weren’t huddled in the corner anymore, but they looked beyond Kate and Paoli to the door, as if they expected their mother to come through at any moment.

  Paoli looked around helplessly. “What happened?”

  Reli absently scratched Boreo’s head. “She came home tonight and told us that her new mate didn’t want kids that weren’t his. She started packing her things and said that the house was such a wreck that the government would repossess it and kick us out. She said we’d have just a few dins to find a place to live or we’d be in the Bordelayz.”

  Hana hugged Krea. “I told her she couldn’t just abandon us, that we’d go to the military and tell them what she was doing, and she went berserk.”

  Reli nodded. “I really thought she was going to kill us. Is she…coming back?”

  Paoli shook his head. “No. Whoever her new mate is, he said as much. I’ll change the security codes on the doors, too, just to be safe.”

  Kate said, “Why don’t you do that and the rest of us will start picking up.”

  “It’s late. I can take you home and come back here alone.”

  She put her hands on her hips. “I’m not made of glass. I won’t break from doing a little hard work, and there’s no way you’re taking me home when my family needs help.”

  He kissed her cheek and called for Milo to help while Kate joined the three sisters. “I’m twenty-six,” she said to the girls. “You’re not that much younger than me.”

  Krea, the oldest at nineteen, said, “I always wanted a big sister.”

  Kate touched the necklace. “You have one now. I always wanted sisters, but I only had one bro
ther.”

  “Now you have three sisters,” Hana said, “and a brother who’s a total pain in the ass.”

  “I heard that,” Milo shouted.

  “Good!” Hana shouted back.

  While Boreo followed them from room to room, Kate investigated the house. There were three bedrooms. The girls shared a room and Milo had his own room, and the largest room had been their mother’s. There was a big bed in the center of the room, but the sheets, blankets and pillows were gone. The closet was empty except for hangers and trash she’d left behind. The attached bathroom was so filthy Kate stepped out of the room as soon as she stepped in.

  “Ugh, I need a haz-mat suit.”

  “What’s haz-mat?” Reli asked.

  “Something that protects your skin from nasty stuff like that in there.” Kate shivered.

  “Mother wasn’t much of a cleaner,” Krea said.

  “I’m sorry for what happened. Paoli wondered why she had let the outside of the house get so bad, but it sounds like she was planning to let the house be seized.”

  Hana shivered. “It worked. None of us are fertile, so there won’t be any males willing to mate us. Until we’re done with school, get jobs, and can earn deenars for our own homes, we’re stuck.”

  “Your mother has a new mate, though. I mean, he’s disgusting, but maybe that means there are males who don’t care about fertility.”

  Krea snorted. “The government wants all the males to care about that. Whoever her mate is now, he probably had a soul mate who died and he’s looking for someone to take care of him. Clearly he didn’t realize she was the reason the house looked like this.”

  “We can clean it,” Kate said.

  She walked out of the bedroom, her mind spinning at all the damage. The kids had taken it upon themselves to keep the house tidy, but they could only do so much when they were busy with schoolwork.

  “Why don’t you guys start putting the furniture back the way it was and get some trash bags and start picking up the broken stuff,” Kate said. The girls immediately went to work, seemingly relieved that someone was taking charge.

  She saw Paoli talking quietly to Milo by the front door and she motioned for him to join her in the kitchen. Paoli hugged her, sighing deeply.

  “It’s bad,” she said. “The kids’ rooms are okay, but the rest of it is not good.”

  “The outside is worse.”

  She lifted her head from his chest and looked at him. “Will the government seize the house like your mother threatened?”

  He nodded. “It’s possible. If it’s been in disrepair for long enough, the authorities will notice. They might have already ordered the home to be cleaned and she might have ignored it.”

  “What would it benefit her to have the house seized?”

  “Milo said that he overheard her late last night making plans to collect four payouts for turning in homeless people. I believe she allowed the house to get like this so she could benefit from their sale into the Bordelayz.”

  Revulsion filled Kate. “I can’t believe she wanted to do that to her own kids. I would give myself up before I let any kids of ours be hurt like that.”

  He smiled sadly. “I think when I used all my deenars to set us both free, she realized she’d never have the better life I’d tried so hard to give her. I think she panicked, or maybe she was just that evil all along and I never saw it.”

  “I’m sorry your siblings suffered because you’re an honorable guy.”

  He shook his head. “This is a bad situation, but not having you here by my side would make it much worse.”

  They stood in silence for a few moments, watching as his brother and sisters picked up trash and righted furniture.

  “In the morning, I’ll ask Sloan if we can borrow her hover-machen because it’s bigger, and we can haul the trash to the dump on the outskirts of town. I think the exterior is the most important thing to get picked up, so we can focus on that. But tell me something, Kate.”

  “Anything.”

  “What do you think we should do? They’re not even done with their schooling, so they can’t get jobs yet. If I send money to support them, it will take forever to be able to afford our own home.”

  Before she could answer, the kids joined them in the kitchen and Hana said, “You should move in here. I know it’s not huge, but we can make it nice again. Then you don’t have to buy your own house. After we finish school and get jobs, we’ll be able to move out on our own, but until then it wouldn’t be so bad for us to all be together.”

  “We’re family and you always said that family takes care of each other, no matter what,” Milo said. Krea and Reli echoed their agreement.

  Paoli cleared his throat. “Give me and Kate a minute.”

  The kids went back to picking up the other room and she and Paoli watched them in silence.

  “Kate?” he said softly.

  She looked at him. “I think we should be here. We can work on the outside and get it clean enough so the threat of repossession is gone, and then we can get the inside fixed. You can go to work at Eden’s workshop every day and sell your amazing clothes. I’ll be here when you get home.”

  He brushed his lips across her forehead. “I will only agree to do that until I make enough deenars to build a workshop here. It should only take a few gowns and tunics for us to have enough to do what needs to be done. If you’re sure?”

  “I’ve never been more sure of anything in my life. I know it’s messy, but it feels like home.”

  He hugged her tightly. “It does, but I think only because you’re here with me. I could make a home anywhere with you, Kate. As long as you’re happy, I’m happy. I’ll try to contact my brothers in a few hours and let them know what’s going on. Maybe they can come visit the next time they’re on leave.”

  “I’d like that.”

  She rubbed his back as she rested her cheek on his chest and listened to the steady beat of his heart. The house was small and in disrepair, but if they worked hard, it could be an amazing home. It was important to her that not only were his sisters and brother safe, but that she and Paoli had a place to call home.

  Chapter 9

  *One Lunar Cycle Later*

  Paoli put a pin in the shoulder of a tank for Kate. She was modeling it, and she thought that he was going to sell it, but he wasn’t going to give it to anyone but her. She loved the color purple, and he’d dyed the silky fabric of the tank a deep lavender. Adding a scalloped edge to the bottom, he had spent three hours meticulously embroidering the hemline with tiny pink flowers similar to ones he’d seen her doodle.

  “What do you think?” he asked, taking a step back and trying to look at the top critically. She wore a lot of tunics, enjoying the loose fit, but he loved her curves and wanted to see her in something fitted.

  She looked at herself in the mirror hanging on the wall of his newly constructed workshop in the backyard of their home.

  “It’s beautiful. Then again, I think everything you make is lovely.”

  He smiled. “It’s for you.”

  “What is?”

  “The top.”

  Her eyes widened. She touched the hem, her fingers tracing the flowers. “You made this for me? All that time you spent on a top for me when you’ve already made me so many things?”

  He rested his hands on her hips and pulled her close. He looked down at her. Her eyes were bright blue, and her cheeks were pink. He loved the way her skin was now lightly tanned from her time outside in the sun, and how much happier she was than when he first met her in the Bordelayz.

  “You’re always on my mind,” he said, the simplest but most honest answer he could give her.

  “You’re always on mine, too.”

  She touched the flowers again and said, “Will you take me somewhere so I can show this off? I think it will look pretty with the black trousers you made for me a few weeks ago.”

  “Of course. We’ll take the hover-machen out to dinner tomorrow night. We can c
elebrate our… what did you call it?”

  “Anniversary. We’ve been mated for a month.”

  He pressed a kiss to her lips. “What do Earth males do on anniversaries?”

  “Well, it’s only a month, but I still think we should celebrate. A male might buy his female flowers or candy, and take her out to dinner or to see a movie.”

  “A movie is a vid?”

  She nodded. “Then, of course, there’s all the hot sex later.”

  “Oh, stars, you two are gross,” Milo said as he walked into the workshop. Covering his ears he said, “Tell me when you’re done talking mushy to each other.”

  Kate blushed a lovely shade of pink and Paoli chuckled. “You’re supposed to knock when the door is shut,” he reminded him.

  “Sor-ry.” Milo grinned and dropped his hands. “Krea burned the fourn. I’m pretty sure she’s trying to poison me. Can you help her, Kate?”

  “You could learn to cook,” Kate pointed out.

  He made a face. “I’m already so busy with my studies.”

  Kate rolled her eyes. “If I hear from your teachers that you’re not being serious, I’m going to make you eat Krea’s cooking for a whole lunar cycle.”

  His mouth fell open. “All right, I’ll go study. But I’m not eating her cooking.”

  Paoli and Kate laughed as Milo scurried out of the workshop. “Help me out of this so I can go see if I can salvage dinner.”

  He pulled the zipper down and helped her slip from the fabric. Before she could reach for her tunic, he snagged her around the waist, turning her around so that if someone were to come in, they wouldn’t see her in her cami. “Have I told you how much I love how you are with them? I feel like I don’t know them well because I was gone for such a long time, but they’ve each told me that they’re so happy we’re here with them. They feel safe and loved.”

  In the last lunar cycle, they’d scrambled to clean up the exterior of the home. Just as they’d finished – with help from Sloan, Eden, Ashleigh, and a few of Eden’s students – government officials had come by to check on the house and were pleased with the work that had been done. Paoli felt like they’d just gotten in under the wire with their efforts. They moved all the old furniture out, cleaned and repaired what they could to make it livable, and friends of Sloan’s donated furniture. In just six dins, they had a place that felt like home to all of them. Paoli had been able to sell a few dresses and his first order of business had been getting Milo and Hana back into school. Krea and Reli were done with school but trying to learn cooking as a trade through culinary training. So far, it wasn’t working, but he applauded their efforts and Kate was learning the ins and outs of cooking Norlanian food, too.