The Healer's Kiss: Book Four of the Forced To Serve Series by Donna McDonald Page B

had little to do with her decision. She was being compelled by a larger instinct too insistent to ignore that was telling her to leave the Paladin and join the Liberator. Her spirit would allow her no peace without doing so. Even her enlightened twin sister had encouraged her to make this move, though Rena professed not to be able to intuit why.
    After dreaming several times about what others considered a nonsensical career move, Seta could accurately describe the tiniest corners of the Liberator, the small rescue ship she had yet to set foot on. The last time those kinds of dreams had come so strongly, Seta had ended up in the Rylen Cadet Academy. Shortly after, she and Rena had been hopping across the universe on various assignments until coming at last to serve on several Peace Alliance ships, each larger and more prestigious than the last.
    Seta’s growing skills as a tracker had managed to move them into the well-paid commissioned job on the much sought after Guardian level vessel and into a room big enough for them to have separate beds. Rena got to pursue her spiritual studies unhindered. For the last year, it had seemed like they were finally to have some genuine peace in their lives.
    But peace, Seta was learning, was often no more than a passing moment you had convinced yourself was without conflict. The last time she had been so strongly compelled, she and Rena had fled their home planet to escape their father’s attempts to marry them to wealthy neighboring landowners as part of a profit bargain for keeping peace. If that had been allowed to happen, they would have likely never seen each other again. As daughters forty and forty-one of over a hundred for trade or barter, they had no bargaining power with their father, nor would matches have been made according to their wishes. That fact had been made very clear long before the last betrothals that had caused them to flee.
    When they had been a few years younger, their father had traded them as a pair, swapping them for goods during hard economic times on their planet of Ethos. Though Seta could not clearly recall doing so, Rena said she had killed their new owner in self-defense to keep him from violating the two of them. To cover the deed, Rena had woven a clever lie that had allowed them to return to the safety of their father’s protection, with no loss of income to the family. It was the last lie Rena had ever told, as well as the only time Seta had ever killed. Unfortunately, that hard won peace had lasted only a few years, until her father’s plans to use them again caused them to flee their planet.
    Now their time on Ethos seemed very long ago and like a dream.
    “Seta, I insist you tell me what holds your attention. You are not responding to any of my statements. I am offering you a chance to forget this madness. Your mind seems to have already left the ship.”
    Seta bowed her head respectfully to the angered male. “Forgive me, Captain Warro. I thought I sensed someone outside the conference room door listening to our conversation. I was trying to intuit if I was correct.”
    A knock on the door raised Ji’s eyebrow. “Of course you are correct. Almost nothing gets by those bloody pointed ears of yours. I said I will promote you to the next grade of Lieutenant and give Rena her own private quarters if you stay on the Paladin.”
    “Your offer is most generous,” Seta stated, bowing her head again. “But I must decline. Captain Synar has a great need for my services, so the Peace Alliance is allowing me to switch ships. I’ve already accepted his invitation. I will only return if he declines my contract after our interview.”
    “Very well,” Ji said, bowing his head one final time. “If Synar does so, or you become displeased with your new job, contact me. My terms for your return will not be as favorable, but I will allow it. Shades of Kellnor, you infuriate me with your lack of emotions. There is no other like you. Perhaps in many ways I