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What is the claiming?"
Aidan let his breath out slowly. "Alexandria..." There was hesitation in his voice.
She stepped away from him, her chin rising. "I guess there's a lot you haven't told me. Am I expected to have a child? A girl? What are the odds that my child will live?"
He reached out, framing her face in his large hands. "I do not want you for a breeder for my race, piccola. I want you for myself. I do not know the odds that our child will survive. Like you, I can only pray. We will have to cross that bridge when we come to it."
"So we have a girl, she survives her first year and grows up. What happens then?" Her sapphire eyes were steady on his golden ones.
"All female children are claimed on their eighteenth birthdays. The males come from all over to meet the girl. If the chemistry is right, she is claimed by the male."
"That is barbaric. Like a meat market. She has no chance at living any kind of life for herself." Alexandria was shocked.
"Carpathian women are raised to know they hold the fate of their lifemate in their hands. It is their birthright, as is bearing the children."
"No wonder the poor girl ran away. Can you imagine facing a life with that man at such an early age? How old is he? To her he must seem ancient. He's a man, for heaven's sake, not a boy. He's tough and probably cruel, and evidently he knows more about every subject under the sun than anyone alive.
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