The Goblin Bride (Beneath Sands Book 1)

Females have all the control here. You are not required to spend any time with Ruric and you can choose at any time to leave. He is bound to you until he dies after this.”
“That seems a little much,” she said quietly. “I’m not marrying anyone, Micah. I need to go home.”
“I cannot stop you from feeling that way. But Jane, you have to understand this world. These creatures are special. I would do anything within my power to help them prosper.”
She lowered her voice. “Better than our own kind, Micah?”
It was a harsh question. She knew that she was asking him to say he liked goblins more than his own species. This had to be a pet project for him. In the end, Micah was human. His loyalties lay Above.
“Yes.”
Her head snapped up, looking at him in surprise. She thought perhaps it was a lie, but the longer she stared at him the more she realized Micah meant it with every fiber of his being.
“I have led an unusual life, Jane. I was born in the City, with all its splendor and riches. Later, I was banished to the outskirts and started working in the mines. I know exactly what it is that you and your people work so hard for. And I know it is not worth it.
“These goblins have offered me a life I would never have imagined otherwise. They are kind and giving. They accept others without question and give them shelter. All they ask for in return is respect and for us to accept to their ways. They are a fascinating species. In so many ways they are superior to humans.”
Jane nodded. “Perhaps they are to you Micah. But you cannot forget the miners that are not here with us. Where are they? And this does not change the fact that I have a responsibility. My loyalty belongs Above with family.”
“These creatures are dying, Jane.”
The cave fell silent after the words.
“What?” Her words echoed slightly in the cave, ringing back against her own ears.
“They’re becoming extinct. They have perhaps three more generations before they will be completely wiped from this planet.”
“They look healthy to me,” she replied. “I can’t imagine that there’s something that is plaguing them.”
He sighed, leaning back on his hands. “They can’t produce females anymore, Jane. They have only produced a handful of offspring this generation. The next they aren’t certain whether there will be any at all. They need to do something and fast before they are no longer here. This is a species that we cannot ignore. A problem we cannot ignore.”
“I’m no scientist. I don’t understand these things, so you’ll have to excuse me when I ask what this has to do with me.” She had a sinking feeling that she knew already.
“It is our hope that a hybrid species is the last chance to save them.”
That was what she was afraid of hearing. Jane licked her lips, staring down at the water around her feet as she clutched the towel tighter to her chest.
“A hybrid species. So you’re saying that they kept me here so that I could provide them with a child. Is that what Ruric is supposed to do?”
“We need to save them, Jane. I have spent many years here and I know exactly what you worked for. The City is not all the glamour and good that those in the outskirts think. They are terrible, vain people who could care less whether you survive or not. You have to believe me when I say the goblins are worth saving.”
She started shaking her head, her fists clenched against her heart and knees shaking. “I am not some kind of brood mare. It’s good that you love these people, Micah. I’m glad someone does. But this is not my job.”
“I’m not trying to say it’s your responsibility Jane. I’m asking you to consider this for the good that it is. Your family will be fine without you. I lived in Silnarra. I know the kindness that is there. Another family will take them in, get them situated. They will be safe and happy. You need not worry about them.”
“If this is a choice between my family and the goblin species, I’m sorry to say I will choose my family every time, Micah.” Her voice was deadly quiet, low and straight from the heart. How dare he put her in this position. How dare he try to guilt her into this strange experiment!
“I didn’t say you had a choice, my dear.” He stood slowly, dusting himself off as he watched her. “It is best if we feel as though we were the ones who are making the decisions. I do not want you to feel as though you were be forced into this binding. You’re doing a good thing.”
“I believe force is exactly what you just described Micah.” She pointed towards the mouth of the cave. “Get out.”
He inclined his head, and in some way she wondered if he knew he had overstepped the line. If this was a plan to get her to want to help these people, he had failed miserably. She wanted to go home.
Jane desperately missed the sand underneath her feet. She missed her sister’s laugh and her brother tossing things at them. She missed the way that the tent would move in the wind as the storms blew past them. She even missed the biting sun beating down against her back.
Nothing here was like home. It was so cold, so wet, so dark that she could feel it closing in her on her. This was where she was going to lose her mind and she would be damned if her death would greet her in a tomb. No one would ever know where to mourn her. She should be buried beside her mother to return to the sands and the dunes. Not left down here in a cave for animals to pick apart her bones.
As soon as she couldn’t hear the sound of