Read Alien's Orphan Bride: A Sci-Fi Alien Romance (Mail Order Human Book 4) for Free Online

giving the door another futile push.
    The maid’s face reddened and her eyes danced around the hallway. Clearly, she didn’t want to answer Hailey’s question. “Apologies, mistress, but Master Cav has ordered the doors to remain locked when he isn’t at home.”
    “But why? I’d wanted to go for a little walk before breakfast. It’s a beautiful day.”
    “Apologies, but I cannot say why.” Brena bowed her head. “Please come have your breakfast, mistress.”
    Hailey turned and glared at the door, cursing Cav for locking her inside. What the hell? It’s not like she was planning to run away. And she wouldn’t be stupid enough to get herself lost. She had planned to pay attention to every turn she took during her walk so she could easily find her way home.
    She took a deep breath and faced Brena with a polite smile. Cav had locked her in, not the maid. She had no reason to treat Brena rudely.
    “Breakfast sounds great, thank you.”
    Maybe after she had some food in her, she could think of how to handle Cav and his backward ways. He’d ordered her not to speak or look at other Marrlxian males. She could think of no other reason he’d locked the doors. She would not spend the rest of her life locked in a house, even a house as huge and richly furnished as this one, without a fight.
    Her heart sank. She barely knew Cav. Could she convince him to trust her?
     
    * * *
     
    Cav returned home at midday, the Marrlxian Council session concluded for the day. He found the governance of his city a boring affair, but having been born into the treman class, it was his responsibility to sit in the meetings and contribute ideas to the upkeep of his city. Before he touched the front door, he turned and gazed longingly at the rolling fields outside the city, where the lower classes of Marrlxians tended to the crops. He would much rather spend his days in the fields, and truth be told, he had enjoyed his days as a warrior fighting the Searxins because it had gotten him away from the tedious business of the Council.
    With a sigh, he pushed at the door and strode inside. He glanced around the opulent entryway, looking left and right for signs of Hailey. Had she tried to go outside? If so, was she angry he’d kept the doors locked until his return?
    Niashu and Brena rushed out of the sitting room area, worry marring their faces. They approached him with their heads lowered and kept giving each other sidelong glances.
    “What is it?” he asked, forcing a note of kindness in his voice. For as long as the two women had been in his employment, they’d never given him an iota of grief.
    “Master Cav,” Niashu finally spoke up, “your new mate has, ermm, left the house.”
    “She what ?”
    “Apologies, Master Cav. She must have climbed down from the window you left open in your bedroom. We have looked all over the house and she’s nowhere to be found. She was a bit distressed when she wasn’t able to open the door this morning,” Brena said. “She had hoped to go for a walk.”
    Ficka .
    Anger and disbelief clouded Cav’s thoughts. He gave a growl and ran out of the house, his gaze sweeping down the street for signs of his disobedient mate. When he only saw a few blue Marrlxians, he walked around his house and stood below the window she’d apparently climbed out of. The stones protruded in various places, adequate for stepping upon but not entirely safe. By the gods, she could have slipped and fallen to her death. When he got his hands on her…
    He shook his head and tried to calm his growing rage, but it was no use. The memory of coming home to find his house empty, Lishana gone, bubbled hot like a lava pit in his soul. By the time he’d managed to track her and her mate down in the mountains, she was already carrying his child. Even if he’d wanted to take Lishana home by force, he could no longer do so by law. Not when she’d been carrying another male’s child.
    Curling his hand into a fist, he punched the hard