Page 11 of The Wedding Hunt Ylara

She stiffened. She got off him and pushed back, surging through the water. Ylara shivered. “Well, thank you for your opinion. It’s been lovely until now. You can now have a tale to tell your buddies. Congratulations.”

Ylara couldn’t believe she had forgotten who she was and what she did for a living. She had also forgotten how non-patrons looked at escorts.

She left the tub and wrapped a towel around her. All the murmurs of the future turned to ash in her mind. The heat was over, and that was the end of their connection.

She didn’t say another word. She walked into the bedroom, saw the freshly made bed that didn’t look like they had spent five days wrecking the sheets, and found the robe he had ordered for her. She dropped the towel, slipped on the robe, and left his bedroom.

In the outer room, she called Zera.

Zera was in her daywear and smiled. “Ylara, you dropped off the grid. That isn’t like you.”

“No, I... made a mistake. I am on Daycross with no clothes, and I don’t know how I am going to get home. I don’t even know what day it is.”

“Is your heat over?” Zera’s voice was caring.

Ylara’s throat got thick, but she nodded.

“You don’t want to stay with him?”

She managed to croak out, “He doesn’t like escorts.”

Riithan’s voice rolled over her. “I never said that. I just asked if you did things like that often. Hired women usually tell me what I want to hear.”

Zera murmured, “Put me on projection, Ylara.”

Ylara stroked the com, and her friend and boss’s face was projected in the room.

Riithan paused. “I recognize you from the wedding. You were with Torun.”

“That is correct. Now, I would like you to obtain clothing for Ylara and send her back to the capitol. Thank you for helping her through her heat. You will be compensated accordingly. If she is not on her way home in the next two hours, a team from the capitol will be sent to bring her home.”

“She isn’t leaving. She might be carrying my child.”

Zera snorted. “We can deal with that. If she chooses to bear it, you will be notified. If not, we can deal with that as well.”

Ylara hadn’t considered that. There were no visions of a future with a child, so she wasn’t hopeful.

“The child is mine.”

Ylara looked at him. “I don’t see it. There is no vision of it. You aren’t losing anything.”

His expr

ession was stricken. He nodded. “Wear one of my shirts. It is large enough to double as respectable clothing.”

Ylara held herself back. He was letting her go, just like that. All of his sweet plans and protestations were just talk.

Through a thick throat, she said, “Please, choose a shirt, and I will be on my way. I probably have enough to get me to a ferry. Zera, I will need a mark scrubbed.” She sobbed but breathed deep.

He went to his closet and brought a black shirt out of his bedroom. She pulled her arms out of the robe, keeping it pinned to her and then pulled on the shirt before dropping the robe.

“I will arrange for the mark to be removed, sweetie. Just get to the BDC offices, and we will take care of you. If you need help getting home, just call.”

“Thanks, Zera.”

“Oh, what is his name?”

Riithan spoke with a dull voice. “Riithan of the Sethir-Nin.”

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