3. Darcy
3
DARCY
W ell, I tried to look out at the world. But it was pretty much impossible, because by the time the shuttle door had opened, a small crowd of people had gathered, taking up my view. At the front of the group was someone I recognized and whom Magnolia was now hugging fiercely.
“Cherry,” I said in greeting, nodding at the human woman as she pulled back from Magnolia’s embrace. Cherry beamed at me, then charged forward, arms outstretched just as I stepped out of the shuttle.
Oh. I guess we’re hugging, now.
I returned Cherry’s enthusiastic squeeze with an awkward pat on the back. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d hugged another woman. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d hugged anyone . My life being surrounded by petty politics and fake, lipsticked smiles had never exactly been conducive to fostering female friendship. Even among the women in my own family, my mother and my two sisters and me, it hadn’t exactly been hug-city. Maybe especially among my own family.
But I did my best not to come off like a complete fucking bitch, patting Cherry once more as she pulled away. As she did so, I ran a critical eye over her, looking for signs of weight loss since I’d seen her last, or bruising. Any indication that she wasn’t being treated well here.
But, honestly, she looked way better than she had on Elora Station. On the station, she’d been dressed in an old, grubby factory uniform from Terratribe I, and she’d been quite pale.
But now? She was glowing, her smile natural and easy. When she slung one arm around the waist of a massive alien male and cuddled into his side, I realized with a confused smack of awe that this big, golden-skinned lug must be the reason she looked so damn happy.
The idea was completely foreign to me. My mother had always very clearly hated my father, and my sisters hadn’t fared much better in their matches. A husband? Actually making you happy?
What the fuck kind of crazy-ass planet had I landed on?
But there was no denying it. Cherry was grinning up at the shirtless, turquoise-haired behemoth like he was the best thing since interplanetary travel.
“This is Silar. My husband,” she gushed, giving the big alien male an obvious squeeze. “This is Warden Tenn,” she tipped her chin towards the man Tasha had told us about back on Elora Station. He fit the description we’d been given – hide like lavender, long white hair, and a jaw that looked like it could be used as an anvil to sharpen blades.
“And this is-”
Another man came forward, heavy boots and dark pant legs stepping crisply through the reddish dust.
“-Fallon.”
I wasn’t sure if it was my heart or the contents of my stomach suddenly lurching up into my throat. Whatever nasty combo it was, I swallowed it down and steeled myself to face my fiancé.
The first thing I noticed about Fallon the Zabrian was that he was super fucking tall. All three of the men here were tall, but Fallon was the one standing closest to me now. Feeling slightly disoriented, I tipped my head back, something I didn’t have to do often on the mostly-human world of Terratribe II. At just a hair under six feet tall, I wasn’t used to looking up at men.
The second thing I noticed about Fallon was that he was jaw-droppingly, gob-smackingly, good-God-what-have-I-gotten-myself-into gorgeous.
His skin was like the last dredges of fiery sunset, a smooth-yet-smouldering burnt orange that made my fingers twitch with the desire to touch it. Where both Silar and Warden Tenn had broad, brutal bone structure, something about Fallon’s was a little finer, almost regal. High cheekbones jutted then dipped to cradle brilliantly white eyes that shone despite the shadow cast by his wide-brimmed hat. Full lips, a hard, high nose, and long, pale blond hair that reminded me of Terratribe II corn silk rounded out the picture of one fine-ass form of a man, alien or human.
Yeah. Well. Massimo is good-looking too. And look where that fucking got me.
And the third thing I noticed about Fallon?
“Is that… Is that a bowtie?”
I asked it in disbelief, my gaze falling and snagging on the big black bow knotted neatly at the base of Fallon’s thick throat.
I could have kicked myself. My mother’s shrill voice sounded in the back of my head.
Smile, Darcy! A wife is meant to be a silent, smiling supporter. Never questioning, never critical .
Trying to recover, I plastered on a fake smile, only to be met by the flash of Fallon’s fangs as his face split into the biggest grin.
“Yes!” he replied. “Cherry told me all about ties. I figured this one would be better than the long and floppy sort. That just seems like it would get caught on something.” He hesitated. “Although I could unravel this one and make it into the long sort of tie, if that is what you prefer. It just might be a little… crumpled.”
He looked oddly put out by the idea of his wedding tie being crumpled, and holy fucking Terra, it almost made me feel sorry for him. My defences – honed over the years in response to a batshit crazy mother and then hardened by the shitty fucking fiancé she’d picked for me – slipped. Just a little.
“A bow tie is fine,” I told him.
His face lit back up.
“Good. Good,” he said, sounding relieved.
I took that moment to give the rest of him a once-over. He seemed to be dressed in the oddest combination of human formalwear and cowboy cosplay. A white hat, so similar in style to that worn historically by humans, was perched on his head. His bow tie went well with a white button-down collared shirt and what looked to be a perfectly tailored black suit jacket. Where the hell he’d gotten a jacket like that out here was anyone’s guess. Apart from one single lonely building behind the gathered group, there was nothing to see for kilometres but grass and dust and sky and mountains biting up at the horizon. I couldn’t imagine that there was a suit shop or a tailor around.
Fallon’s pants kind of ruined the nice-suit vibe. They were durable leather-looking material, creased with age and softened by wear, stretched comfortably over thick fucking thighs and falling to brush above the ankles of his pointed boots.
Fallon took a breath, drawing my gaze from his boots back up to his face. He looked like he was about to say something else when Magnolia’s voice cut him off.
“Is Oaken here?” she asked, sounding a little shy. “Is that him over there?”
I frowned, following the line of her pointing arm towards another Zabrian male I hadn’t noticed before. He was leaning against the lone building, arms crossed, white eyes stabbing out from beneath his hat.
“No,” Warden Tenn said with a growly sort of sigh. “That idiot is Zohro. Don’t ask me why he’s skulking around back there.”
“He is skulking because he does not wish to admit that he was wrong,” Fallon said.
Wrong about what? I wondered.
I didn’t get a chance to bug Fallon for more information because Magnolia was speaking again now.
“So… Is Oaken… Is he here? Or…”
As if unsure what to do with her hands, she grabbed uneasily at her skirt, almost looking like she was about to pick up and start running if only she knew which direction.
“There was a problem,” Warden Tenn said. Behind me, the sound of something hitting the ground made me twist to see our human pilot unloading our bags from the shuttle before closing the door.
This is it. Now’s the time to turn around and get back on that shuttle.
A flash of heat went through my whole body, searing, sending sweat from every pore.
Last chance…
I didn’t take it.
“What kind of problem?” Magnolia was asking. I turned back around, watching her as Fallon’s gaze drilled into the side of my head.
“Oaken had trouble crossing the mountains to get here in time to meet you. There’s a lot of snow out that way, even this late into the spring,” Warden Tenn explained. “He broke his ankle trying to walk his shuldu through a rough patch of it.”
Ah. Shit.
Magnolia was probably the closest thing I’d ever had to a best friend. Pretty fucking sad if I stopped to think about it, considering I’d known her for less than a month. But I could see the crestfallen expression she fought to hide. I could see the subtle slump of her shoulders.
“Oh, no,” she said. “I feel so bad that he got hurt…” She looked away from the group, still clutching at her skirt. She blinked her long lashes rapidly, sniffed once, then swallowed.
“I guess I’m not getting married today, then,” she said in a quiet little voice that made my heart feel all shrivelled up inside. I was suddenly furious at this Oaken idiot for having the balls to not be here today, broken ankle or not. The man could have snapped every stupid bone in his body and he still should have dragged his sorry ass here for Magnolia as far as I was concerned. Fucking crawled here if he had to. She was worth it.
“Can I contact him somehow?” Magnolia suddenly asked. “Make sure he’s alright? And maybe get to know him a little…”
“His data tab ran out of power not long after he contacted me to update me about his injury,” Warden Tenn said, not unkindly. “Last I spoke to him, he was planning to keep moving forward even with the injury. But the snows are hard enough to cross for an able-bodied man. It’s possible he stopped and made camp to heal, or he has turned around to recuperate before attempting the journey again.”
“So you’re telling me we don’t even know if he’s dead or alive right now?” I asked, narrowing my eyes at the Warden. I could practically feel my mother losing her shit across the galaxy at my bluntness. But I wasn’t about to beat around the bush, here. Magnolia was the one actually excited about meeting her man. She’d been promised a husband and he wasn’t fucking here.
“Oh, I’m certain he’s alive,” Warden Tenn said with a cool sort of confidence that in any other circumstances I might have admired. “He knows how to survive in the mountains. Not to mention the fact that he’s far too stubborn to die.”
Magnolia didn’t exactly seem comforted by the warden’s words. She was looking around, almost like she still expected Oaken to materialize somehow.
“Oh. Honey. It’ll be alright,” Cherry said soothingly, pulling away from Silar’s side to take Magnolia’s arm in her own. “You can stay with us until the snow up there melts. Then we’ll figure out what to do next.”
“Where will she sleep?” Silar asked his wife with a frown.
Cherry scowled at him, no doubt feeling a little salty about his tone. I couldn’t blame her. I was feeling the same about his unwelcoming reply.
“She can sleep in the bed with me and you can sleep in the kitchen if it comes to it!” Cherry said primly, drawing Magnolia protectively against her side. I didn’t know Cherry very well, but she was earning my respect real fucking fast.
And, it turned out, so was Silar. Because instead of complaining about getting booted out of his own bed, he accepted Cherry’s terms immediately without even a whisper of argument.
“Alright.”
“Oh, no. I couldn’t. You only have the one bed? That wouldn’t be right. You’re newlyweds!” Magnolia cried, shaking her head so fast it was kind of amazing that her braids didn’t come loose from their bun.
She’d been so excited on the shuttle, and now she looked so miserable that I wanted to cry. I hadn’t cried since I was six-fucking-teen.
I reached a tentative hand towards her.
“Magnolia-”
“She will stay with us!”
I jolted, turning to stare at the man who had spoken.
Fallon was standing there with his hands planted on his hips, his chest puffed out and his chin tilted up, looking like some kind of Old-Earth cartoon character. Put a cape on him and the look would be complete. Alien Cowboy to the rescue.
“I have more than one bedroom and more than one bed,” he added firmly. “It is no trouble, truly. I told the warden as much back when this program was proposed. That I could take as many females as required.”
As many females as… huh? Was this gorgeous, helpful, bowtie-wearing ding-dong expecting some kind of harem situation here? What the hell did that mean, take as many females as required?
And why the hell did I even care? He was offering my sad friend a safe place to stay. And it also meant that I wouldn’t be all alone in this new world. At least not yet.
“That is,” Fallon said, swinging his gaze back to me, “if it is agreeable to my,” he faltered, his gaze burning even brighter before he breathed the word, “ bride .”
“Very agreeable,” I said, nodding decisively. “Magnolia, you’re coming home with us.”
Magnolia gave me a teary, grateful look.
“That’s probably for the best if you have more room, Fallon,” Cherry admitted. “But we’ll still be neighbours!” she added brightly, giving Magnolia a squeeze. “Fallon’s ranch is the closest to ours out of everyone. I can see it if I get up on the roof.”
“Now that this matter is settled,” the warden said, his voice an authoritative baritone, “shall we move on to your wedding?”
He looked at me as he said it. Your wedding.
Mine.
I gulped, then formed my face into the pretty, plastic mask I’d worked so hard to perfect under my mother’s demanding tutelage.
“Of course,” I said. I was about to move closer to Fallon when Cherry’s free arm shot out. She grabbed my hand and yanked, then pulled on Magnolia who she was still linked with.
“Just… Just a moment,” she called over her shoulder as she dragged Magnolia and me away from the group. “I just have something I need to talk to these two about first.”
For fuck’s sake. What now? What could be so important that she insisted on telling Magnolia and me away from the Zabrian males?
And what could be so important that she insisted on telling me before I got married to Fallon?
Whatever it was, it couldn’t be good. I swallowed my dread as Cherry pulled us around to the other side of the shuttle. We huddled together in its shade.
“So,” Cherry said, looking uncomfortable if not downright guilty about something. Guilty but imploring. It was the face of someone who had a really shitty confession to make but was hoping you’d be able to smile through the stink of it anyway. “Here’s the thing about these guys…”