Free Paige's Warriors (Bondmates Book 3) by Ann Mayburn Page A

around him jump. “Slavers, here, on Earth!”
    The collective snarls of outrage that filled the room would have scared most grown men into fainting, let alone a woman, and Trenzent prayed his future bride was far enough away to have missed their fury.
    “Cormac,” he snapped at the blond and brown-haired man who’d rushed inside. “Follow Paige Grant. Do not let her out of your sight. I want her guarded at all times until I can return.”
    “Sir,” one of the men called out. “Did they manage to kidnap any humans?”
    “We do not know yet.” His skin crawled with the need for violence. “But I am personally going to find out how they got through the wormhole and who let them in.”
    ***
    Thirty-two hours later Trenzent lifted a weeping woman from her holding cage, the skin of her legs fused together by a sadistic medic to make sure no one took her virginity and damaged the merchandise. Once she’d arrived at a slaving planet she would have been literally cut open and rapidly healed, leaving no visible scare but no doubt mentally harming the woman for the rest of her life. The thought of Paige being taken by these bastards had his already stressed out system teetering on the brink of full rebellion. As it was he barely held onto his anger long enough to pass the woman off to a waiting Healer, who immediately began to treat her.
    There, in the middle of the part of the country called Iceland on Earth, they’d found a sophisticated slaver’s shed equipped to handle the large scale smuggling of human cargo off Earth. They’d recently arrived and were still setting up the stasis holding cells they stored their living cargo in, but Trenzent knew documents had been found that indicated at least two shipments of humans had made it off Earth, through the wormhole, and back to the Bel’Tan galaxy where they disappeared. The thought of other men’s bondmates being on those ships made his blood run cold.
    “Commander,” Lady Elsin’s familiar voice came through his com link. “What is your status?”
    “Lady Elsin.” He tried to hide his surprise as the Lead Congress of the Northern Continent spoke to him from the Reaping ship. “I was unaware you were in the Milky Way Galaxy.”
    “Lorn has found his Matriarch.”
    He sucked in a quick breath. “Casey from the United States?”
    “Yes, you know of her?”
    He considered not telling Lady Elsin that Casey and Paige knew each other, but realized quickly it wouldn’t work with her. In addition to being Lead High Congress for the Northern Continent, the largest and most powerful Continent on Kadothia, her husbands secretly helped run the Kadothian spy network and made sure their wife was informed about everything—including Tren’s retirement. Once he was bonded, he would no longer be able to fulfill the role of Supreme Commander, and he would pass the title on to a worthy successor, voted on by the High Congress. Instead of going to the battle fronts, his priority would be keeping his Matriarch safe on Kadothia from any threats that may come her way and help her rule their territory.
    The military was all he’d ever known since he was a teenager. He felt some apprehension at stepping down, but the candidates to replace him were all good men.
    Or at least most of them were.
    “I very briefly met Casey back on Earth when she came to visit Lorn at our command center,” Tren said as he watched another Earth woman brought out of a cage by a pair of grim faced healers. “She is friends with my potential bondmate.”
    Lady Elsin surprised him when she said, “I expect an invitation to your bonding ceremony. You would do well to accept my public show of support on your bride’s behalf. Trenzent, I know you avoid politics like the plague, but even you must be aware of the anti-Earth sentiment that’s building in the Bel’Tan galaxy.”
    He’d heard whispers, but hadn’t paid it much attention. “I have, but I was unaware of how serious it is.”
    “Nothing