The bride contract

Chapter 24 - Niska

When I wake, I feel like I’m surrounded by warmth. It feels so nice. I can’t remember the last time I felt so comfortable - the kind of comfortable where you don’t want to wake up. You don’t want to move, you don’t want to think, you don’t even want to breathe wrong in case something shifts, and that perfect level of comfort is disrupted and you can’t get it back again.

So when my eyes flutter open, I stay still for a moment or two while the rest of my mind catches up. Reluctantly, I shift a little, trying to stretch, but my blanket tightens around my middle.

Which is an odd thing for a blanket to do.

It’s then that I feel it; the steady rhythm of breathing at my back, the heat of another body molded to mine, the way they’re nuzzling into the back of my neck sending goosebumps all over my body. It wasn’t blankets at all.

Kiahn’s strong arm is banded around my waist. I reach down and touch it, stroking the skin there, smiling when I hear him murmur unintelligible words into my hair at the base of my skull.

And then I remember how long we’d talked for last night. We’d talked and talked until my mouth felt dry, my brain felt fuzzy, and my body was ready for sleep. I’d told him all about my family, but mainly my best friend, Polly. About how she had been the only one who truly felt like family all along. Sure, my mom and dad did their best. But being one of nine children all vying for attention can make you feel a little lost and overlooked as a kid. It had taken Kiahn a while to get used to having me in his bed while I’d rambled and snuggled closer. I could hear the way his heart just would not settle.

But he seems to have come around to the idea just fine if the way he’s clinging onto me like a giant, gray, horned barnacle is to go by.

I wiggle a little more, which only makes him whine into my hair and squeeze me in his big arms.

“Kiahn?” I whisper, his name morphing into a giggle. “I don’t know what the time is, but we should probably get up. Don’t we arrive at your planet today?”

Kiahn pulls in a large lungful of air through his nose before his head pops up to look down on me. Finally, I can turn a little to face him to find his gaze bouncing all over my features. “You slept in my bed with me.”

“Well, yeah. I thought we were having a sleepover? Should I have left?”

Suddenly, his arms are steel around me again. “No. I-” Kiahn shakes his head, his hair all rumpled beside his left horn. “I just did not expect it. I… liked it very much.”

Laughing again, I shift my butt, feeling the sizable bulge pressed up against me. “I can tell,” I tease, gri

Kiahn groans and a hand comes to clamp firmly over my squirming hip. “You need to stop that, woman,” he growls.

And, because I’m feeling more myself than I have for a while, I retort with a, “or what?” accompanied by a raised brow.

Kiahn’s tongue comes out to wet his bottom lip as he assesses me, his pretty green eyes taking in every detail on my face until they slowly drift lower to my throat, and that’s where they stay. He swallows before opening his mouth to speak, but instead of words, I watch as his sharp fangs elongate.

“Shit!” Kiahn curses, covering his mouth. Immediately, he leaves the cozy little bubble of his bed and leaps out, taking a few steps back like he’s suddenly realized I’m made of fire or something. “Uh, yeah. We should-… we should dress and break our fasts.” He hurries away into his huge closet space, and I can hear him rummaging while he continues to talk. “We… uh… we will be arriving on Xaavia in a matter of hours… and, uh, you should be fed, groomed and properly dressed before you meet my people as my breeding bride.”

Oh, shit. I hadn’t even thought about that.

* * *

My stomach is doing flips as the Xaviaan Royal Cruiser comes gliding into the palace dock.

“You ok?” Lois quietly asks as she sits beside me in one of the ship’s lounge areas while we wait to land.

No, I’m not ok.

I feel like I’m about to meet the parents of a man I’m in a serious relationship with - or… maybe that’s not quite right, considering the circumstances. Perhaps it’s more like meeting the parents of a man you accidentally married in Vegas but decided to give it a shot?

I once dated a guy who was great, right up until he took me home to meet his mother. It was clear from the moment I stepped over her threshold that she wasn’t going to like any girl who played a big part in her precious boy’s life and she was determined to put me down at every given opportunity. His dad just sat there, ignoring his wife’s snide remarks, and her son - my boyfriend - followed suit. The whole thing was fucked up, because I swear she just wanted him all to herself and saw me as a threat.

What if this is like that?

What happens if his people don’t like me?

What if they think it’s too weird that I’m a human and he’s a Xavia

It shouldn’t matter. I know it shouldn’t. And Kiahn is their Prince, so can’t he like… do whatever the fuck he wants?

I don’t know, my mind is in shreds at the moment.

And it doesn’t really help that Kiahn is in the room pacing in front of us.

He’d taken me back to mine and the girl’s room for me to get washed up and dressed while he waited around to take me to breakfast. But then he’d disappeared for the rest of the day, leaving me in the care of Vel. He returned not so long ago, and has changed into tight, light tan pants, black leather boots, a flowing white shirt that shows off multiple gold chains that match the golden decorations he now wears on his black horns. He’s got those huge, space-gun-blaster things strapped to his thighs again, too, and I wonder if it’s more of a comfort thing for him, or whether he actually thinks he’ll need them?

The cruiser jolts as we dock, and the sudden way in which the engines power-down leaves my ears ringing in an odd way. Ever since we were taken from Earth, there’s been this constant whirring background noise of spacecraft engines, generators, air recycling systems from back at Moon’s Rest. They weren’t ‘noisy’ per se, but they were constant, and I’d definitely gotten used to the always-present hum.

But now, there’s… nothing.

And it feels like my ears are protesting.

“Well, here, we are,” Zalora says with a sniff as she rises from her seat using her cane as support. “I think before we introduce your new bride and her friends to the people, our first stop should be to the collarsmiths, Kiahn, don’t you agree?”

Kiahn pauses, mid-pace, his gaze slicing toward me, but more specifically, my neck. I’m mostly covered by the high collar on the adjusted dress that Vel gave me, but he gives a grunt and a curt nod before he starts his slow walk back and forth again.

Honestly, this Kiahn seems like he’s a million miles away, and far removed from the one who opened up about his parents last night before we fell asleep in each other’s arms.

He’s stressed.

And his stress is stressing me the fuck out.

The doors to the room whoosh open and in walks Az. Az - who apparently is allergic to wearing a shirt. “There you are,” he says, gri

“Yep,” I hear her sigh beside me. “Here I am.”

Az walks behind us and leaps over the back of the seating backrest to land on the other side of Lois with a graceful bounce. “I’ve got a tour for you already pla

Lois opens her mouth to speak but only ends up letting out the odd, confused stilted noise. It sounds like all her questions are currently battling each other for dominance, and the one that wins out becomes evident when she finally spits out, “squirtberry?”

Az nods his head eagerly, somehow scooting closer to Lois so effortlessly, you’d hardly notice it if you weren’t watching him closely. “Yeah, you know, it’s a little green fruit about this big,” Az gestures with his palm out, “and when you eat it,” he says, bringing the imaginary fruit to his mouth, “it squirts its juice all over the place.”

“Reminds me of a Kyraaxi girl I met last year,” Za

Az rolls his eyes at his brother. Kiahn halts his pacing for just a moment - just long enough to tip his head up to the ceiling and quietly groan to himself. And then he’s back to stalking the room, lost in other thoughts.

“Anyway,” Za

“But,” Az glances between Lois and his brother. “They love me in there.”

Za

“It doesn’t matter what any of you have pla

My eyes meet with Kiahn’s as he finally stops pacing to look at me. I can feel my cheeks flush.

I walk with him as we exit the royal cruiser on a long, elegantly carpeted ramp onto the palace dock. He matches my shorter strides so that I’m not rushing to keep his pace, and walks with his hands clasped behind his back. His posture and body language isn’t closed off at all, which is a comfort… but he doesn’t say anything. Not a word. Behind us, I can hear Az rambling on and on about all the places he wants to show Lois while Jaya walks with Vel up ahead and Za

The dock is a huge indoor area like an aircraft hanger - that was my first impression, anyway, since there were other spacecrafts of various shapes and sizes also parked up in here. But the cavernous space feels a lot less industrial. Walkways on the floors are lined out with plush carpet, the walls have some kind of patterned molding, and above us, high over our heads is a cluster of huge glowing spheres, levitating up there by the ceiling, light giant balloons of light.

“Welcome to Xaavia!” someone cheers as we follow Lady Zalora who heads up our little landing party. In fact, it wasn’t just ‘someone’ who had cheered for us, but several someones. I had been too busy gawking at our surroundings to notice the small gathering of Xavia

Lady Zalora turns sharply to glare at Vel behind her.

“Uh… I may have told a few of my fellow Earthophile Club members about our guests,” she says, wincing and trying to hide behind her tablet.