Page 25 of The Alien's Private Redemption

"I'm fascinated that your father was loaned to your mother to create a child. And there was a contract involved but not a marriage," Ae-cha said. There was a subtle hint of a question beneath her statement but Angela didn't feel compelled to answer it until she asked it directly.

"Do you have any siblings?" Dr. Phillips asked. "Or cousins?"

"No siblings," Angela said. "Lots of cousins, though. Mama's siblings married into other lines and the town."

"Why didn't your mother marry?" Ae-cha asked.

Angela shrugged. "She didn't have to and I don't think she would have wanted anybody else but my father."

"Who arranged the contract between your parents?" Ae-cha was leaning towards her across the table and Angela could feel herself being caught in her eyes.

Panic began to rise in Angela's breast as she tried to capture the thought that her family belonged to someone. Zoric reached out through their Bond and calmed her before her breath seized in her lungs.

Ae-cha recognized her reaction and began to pursue the line of inquiry. "Did the person who arranged the contract ever hurt you?"

Immediately, memories of a warm and loving presence filled her. Shadows over the side of the mountain that filled her with joy combined with a certainty that, whatever happened, she was safe. Warm naps in the sun, hot chocolate in front of the fire, and worried voices settled by a calm presence when she was sick.

He'd never hurt you,the voice in the back of her head said.

"No," she said. "We were precious to him."

Unease at her memories filled Zoric and spilled across their bond. She reached out to discover what was causing it and found his own memories shut tight against her.

"Do you know why you were precious to him?" Ae-cha asked, and Angela could hear the tension in her voice.

"We were family," Angela explained. "He'd been watching over us for years. Mama worried sometimes that he was alone too much and invited him to everything."

"Did he tell you to join the armed forces?" Ae-cha asked. "Were you trained from birth to become a Marine?"

It was an odd question, to Angela's mind, that she would be encouraged to be a Marine.

"I fought for the ability to leave the mountain and become a Marine," she explained. "I was my mother's only daughter and the next keeper of the McBride line. Everybody wanted me to stay home but I wanted to see the world before I was confined to the holler for the rest of my life."

"Why were you allowed to leave?" Zoric asked, dread filled his voice and leaked along their Bond. Angela still didn't understand why.

"A quorum was called," Angela explained. "The elders and the keepers negotiated my freedom for a few years in the Marines. And there were arrangements. I don't know what, except that I got a ride to all the testing and to the bus for boot camp."

She tried to remember the ride to the testing station and couldn't. The feel of the upholstery under her thighs was as vividas if it had been yesterday, so was her view through the window, and stepping out of the car. But she couldn't remember what kind of car it was, who was driving, or why she'd been so sad to look back and say goodbye.

Dr. Phillips cleared her throat. "Did you ever tell anybody when and where you were deployed?"

Angela shook her head. "I wrote to Mama when I was allowed to but I never told her anything about dates, places, or times. Just that I was doing well and some of what I was learning when it wasn't classified. I didn't even tell her about being part of the diplomatic guard for the Orvax."

"Why not?" Dr. Phillips asked. "That wasn't a classified assignment."

With a shrug of her shoulders, Angela turned to look at the human psychiatrist. "It didn't occur to me that she would be interested. And I wasn't going to be in the service much longer anyway."

"According to your service records, you were more than a year out from being able to file your separation paperwork. And up for at least one more promotion," Dr. Phillips said. "How soon were you planning to leave?"

"I wasn't planning to leave," Angela explained, even as she could feel the alarm from Zoric. "I just knew I wasn't going to be there much longer. There were other plans for me and-"

Zoric's tail tightened around her ankle and she took in a shocked breath.

"You stopped breathing," he told her when she looked up at him in confusion.

"Why did you think there were other plans for you?" Ae-cha asked. "Did your mother tell you?"

"No," Angela said, her brow furrowing in confusion. "I just knew."

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