Page 67 of Owned By Two

Theywere fated mates and that made me…

Thespare.

A Joisa Stealer — the lowest of the low in the Elkik culture.

To come between fated mates was the greatest sin there was.

Nothing good ever came to those that did so — whether they did it on purpose or not.

Blor placed a hand on my shoulder. “I know. It came as a shock to me too. You can go your whole life not seeing a real Joisa. To see it in the flesh… It’s emotional.”

The fool had mistaken my grief for shocked awe!

I wanted to shrug his hand off — the hand that had touched Lizzy and would touch her a thousand more times before long — and slug him in the face while I was at it…

But I couldn’t bring myself to do it.

It might be what I wanted to do — hell, it might even be what hedeservedfor letting her go.

In fact…

“How could you let her go if you knew she was your fated mate at the Seeding Facility?” I asked.

“I didn’t know then. I wasn’t even the one to see it in the first place. It was… someone else.”

“But the bond… Didn’t you feel it?”

I knew I certainly had when I had laid with Lizzy, had known it was more than simple mating.

I couldn’t imagine giving Lizzy up after feeling that.

Or had it all been in my head?

“Yes, I sensed it,” he said. “But… what are the odds of it being the Joisa? Of her being my fated mate? I convinced myself it couldn’tpossiblybe the Joisa. If you tell yourself something often enough, eventually, you start to believe it, no matter how much your heart knows differently.”

I could identify with that.

My heart had known differently… and it turned out to be wrong.

Horribly wrong.

Blor turned away from me and appraised the room.

It wasn’t one of the better suites like Lizzy and I occupied but it was serviceable enough.

“I suppose I ought to get washed up,” he said. “It’s been a long journey and I have a lot to explain to Lizzy. Humans don’t have the Joisa, so it’s going to take some time to explain it to her.”

I didn’t want Lizzy to know about it yet.

In fact, now that I had seen it so clearly on Blor’s body, I didn’t want her toeverknow about it.

That wasn’t going to happen but perhaps I could delay it a little while…

I placed a hand on Blor’s shoulder and performed the best comforting smile I could manage. “Learning she’s your fated mate must have come as quite a shock.”

“A massive shock—”

“So imagine how big the shock will be to a female human with no knowledge of such things.”

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