Unbondable(Kindred Birthright #1) - Evangeline Anderson Page 0,4

You can’t form a soul bond with someone who has no soul.”

“Oh…I guess not. How can you tell, though?” Kara risked another glance and the stranger gestured subtly at his eyes, as though trying to answer her question.

“The black, silver-ringed eyes,” Kaleb said at once, though he was looking pointedly away from the stranger and hadn’t seen the gesture. “As well as the extra height and mass. Unbondables are always on the larger side.”

“Shouldn’t you call them Y’lyn Kindred instead?” Kara asked. The term “Unbondable” seemed rude to her, especially since she was fairly certain the stranger was hearing their conversation.

“No,” Kaleb said shortly. “Because they haven’t been recognized by the High Council as a legitimate branch of the Kindred. And they won’t be, either,” he added. “The Council will never allow Unbondables the legitimacy they’re seeking—that would send a clear signal that it’s all right for other Kindred males and females to mate with them.”

“Are they really so bad?” Kara couldn’t help looking at the stranger again. He wiggled his bushy black eyebrows at her and made a mock-evil face, pretending to twirl his mustache. She started to giggle and put a hand over her mouth self-consciously to hide her fangs.

“They’re unbondable,” Kaleb repeated patiently. “That means they can abandon their mate at any time.”

“Humans do that when they mate with other humans,” Kara pointed out. “They call it divorce.” The concept was completely alien to Kindred, who mated for life because of their soul bond but she knew it was fairly common on Earth.

“It’s not just that,” Kaleb said darkly. “The soul is the source of morality—of decency. Without a soul, a person can be as evil as they want without a pang of conscience. Which means that all Unbondables are essentially sociopaths—they don’t give a damn about anyone but themselves and they don’t care who they have to hurt to get what they want.”

“Oh,” Kara said in a low voice. The handsome stranger at the back of the transport no longer seemed quite so intriguing. Still, she couldn’t help risking one more glance at him.

This time he was standing quietly, the grin wiped off his face. When Kara looked at him, he nodded once, soberly. She wondered if he was confirming what her brother had said about him. Was he admitting that he was an evil person? Or at least, an amoral one? But would a truly evil person admit they were evil?

She made herself face front and look away. Soon after, the transport came to their stop and she and Kaleb made their way out. Kara didn’t allow herself to look back at the Unbondable male but she could swear she felt those strange eyes, the silver-ringed pools of blackness, staring at her back until the transport pulled away.

Two

“I’m worried about her, Sylvan.”

Her mother’s voice made Kara freeze in the hallway and hang back instead of entering the family living area on her way to find a midnight snack in the food prep area as she had planned.

“She’ll be fine, talana. She just has to find her place, that’s all.”

“But she’s so different…she can’t even keep a human boyfriend because of those awful fangs!”

Peeking around the corner, Kara saw that her mother had tears in her large green eyes. Though she was forty-five now, Sophia still looked like she was in her early thirties. Kindred aged slowly and anyone soul-bonded to one aged slowly as well. Sylvan, her father, looked distinguished with just a hint of silver at his temples—it was nearly invisible in his pale blond hair. Besides that, he had a few wrinkles around the corners of his eyes which made him look wise.

“May I remind you, talana, that it was by my ‘awful fangs’ that we were bonded and have stayed together all these years?” Sylvan said dryly. He was sitting on the couch in front of the fireplace and Sophia was curled up at his side.

“Yes, but you’re male—it’s socially acceptable for you to have fangs,” Sophia pointed out. “I’m afraid that Kara having them will condemn her to a life of loneliness. She’s such a beautiful girl but none of the warriors on the ship want anything to do with her.” She put a fist to her chest. “It just hurts my heart, Sylvan.”

“From a father’s point of view, lack of suitors isn’t exactly a problem.” Sylvan sighed. “But I understand how you feel, sweetheart. It’s hard when your child is different—hard to see them rejected and hurt. At least Kara