Chapter 22 #2
“Dory, what is going on?” I asked.
The wildlife biologist took a deep fortifying breath. “Lok, Sol, and I made it to the female enclosure. I got here just in time to see these psychos trying to burn this one at the stake. They don’t believe me about the breeding program or the translator symbiote. They think the Sankado are demons.”
“They’re not that far off,” I muttered.
Osid’s large hand closed around mine, lifted it higher until the screen was level with his face. “You, brother, what clan do you hail from?”
The bound man swallowed thickly, his wide eyes scanned the women around him in terror before he choked out an answer.
“DON’T LET THEM COMMUNICATE!” Marcy roared.
Osid curled his lip. “Of course it’s the damn wanderers who found it first.”
“Hey, hey, stop that. What are those two saying?” asked the green-haired woman.
I pried Osid’s hand off the feather and took it back. “Nothing important. Look, Dory isn’t lying to you. The Sankado aren’t the ones who kidnapped us, it was the Biwban.” To drive the point home, I turned the screen to bring Pebble and Marble into view.
“Hello, human females,” Pebble waved.
A cacophony of cross talk broke out among the women.
“It’s true!”
“They’re huge!”
“Looks like giant penguins!”
“Can they see us?”
“They’re a little scarier than I imagined…”
“Dory was right!”
Dory gave them all a smug look before addressing me again. “You don’t know how glad I am to see a familiar face.”
“Likewise,” I said. “Sounds like you’re having a fun time over there.”
“A blast,” came her sarcastic remark.
“Where are Lok and Sol?”
“Waiting outside with the other Roamcrest. Apparently they’ve been trying to woo the girls here from outside the enclosure to no avail. Lok is filling them in with what happened to us the best he can.”
“Right…” I said, unsure of how to respond to the chaos she was dealing with.
The Biwban clearly weren’t lying about the enclosure, which I assumed would have been more reassuring if the women inside weren’t about to draw and quarter a man in the middle of the day.
I was hoping to ask her mate Sol if he knew anything about the Biwbanian legal system.
If what I overheard before was true, and the research center was really being audited, then having a lawyer on hand might just be my ticket out of here.
“Are you two still in that tower?” Dory asked.
“What? Oh, yeah, we were just about to—”
“Start your next trial!” Pebble cheered. The feather was ripped from my hands, the screen vanished as soon as it appeared, and Pebble stuffed it in my pocket. “You may catch up with your fellow human later. We have a schedule to keep, and we must stick to it.”
Marble pressed a button on the console and the doors opened, and icy-cold wind ducked, swung, and knocked my ass back. “HELL NO, SHUT THAT GODDAMN DOOR!”
Osid caught me as I stumbled. “What? What’s the problem?”
“What’s the problem?” Whirling to face him, I pointed to the wonderland of white bullshit and screamed, “It’s colder than my ex-wife’s heart out there, I’m not going!”
“Your what?” he growled.
“Oh, fuck your petty jealousy and fuck this!” I tried to bolt back inside, but Pebble, that bitch, that Brutus, that Benedict Arnold, used a shield-tipped pole to shove me back.
I dug my heels in, which sadly did a whole lotta nothing on the damn metal floors.
My hands and feet locked around the shield as I held on for dear life.
“Wait! I changed my mind, I’ll fuck him! Don’t put me out in the cold!”
The shield kept pushing until I could feel the cold bite of snowflakes against my ear. “No, I don’t do snow!”
“Welcome, Subjects 12 and S 52. You are now on Floor Four,” the loudspeakers voiced droned with its familiar upbeat precision.
Pebbles shook me loose and quickly pulled the shield back inside. I scrambled up just in time for them to slam the door in my face. Beating my fists against the metal, I slumped to my knees and sobbed brokenly, “I’ll fuck him!”
“In this trial, your task is to restore the village’s Star of Hope to the tree in the center of the town square before the time is up.
Without the Star of Hope to light the way, the people of the town will lose the transaction of Christmas.
Please report to the town square to begin your quest. You have three days. ”
I dug my fingers into the crease of the door and pulled for all I was worth. My freezing fingers slipped uselessly against it again and again until I screamed with rage.
“Are you done?” Osid asked.
I shot him a look of disdain and hissed, “Obviously not.” The fact that I could see my breath only enraged me more, and I screamed at the loudspeaker, “AND WHAT THE FUCK IS THE TRANSACTION OF CHRISTMAS?”
“Come on, enough yowling.” With his powerful hands, Osid yanked me to my feet.
The warmth of his touch was a boon in this frozen hell, and I latched on to his arm.
Pressing as much of my body up against him as possible.
My face buried into the heat of his shoulder, and I shivered in relief.
Without thinking, I unzipped my jacket for better access, unbuttoned the tie of his cloak, and slipped beneath, hugging my arms around his torso. “Shield me.”
He let out a chuckle—deep, low, and undeniably smug. It wasn’t loud, almost secretive, like he’d just won the trick in spades. Osid wrapped his arms around me and settled his chin on top of my head. “You caved…so quickly.”
If he weren’t so goddamn warm, I’d shove snow down his pants. “Shut up.”
His hold on me loosened. “I could just let you go.”
“Don’t be petty, husband, shield me.”
“Oh, I’m husband now?”
“Husband! Shield me!”
“Blair the Mighty, done in by a little chill.”
“You teal spotted toad.”
“Shh, woman, shh.” He pulled me closer and stroked a hand over my hair.
“Don’t touch my hair.”
Laughter rumbled in his chest, and the hand fell to the back of my neck. I tried not to moan at the warmth of it. As much as I’d normally love to lament over the loss of my pride, it was just too cold for that. I could go back to hating this prick once we were safely back inside.
I buried my nose in his chest. “You smell good. What is that?”
“Buruma root and julunin.”
“I’m guessing that’s some kind of fancy alien soap?”
“It’s soap, nothing compared to what I had access to back on Sankatul, but it does the job.”
“What’s Sankatul?”
“My home planet.”
“I thought Dory said it was called Krydon 4 or something.”
“The Biwbans named it that, not us. Are we going to report to the town hall and get this task over with, or are you going to stand here and sniff me all day?”
Cold wind nipped at every piece of exposed skin, making me shiver. “Get them to turn the heat back on and we’ll talk.”
“Thanks to you, I doubt they’ll ever turn the heat on inside these trials again.”
I peeked up at him. “What do you mean?”
With a wry smile he asked, “You haven’t noticed?” When my brows drew together, he continued. “It started getting colder the moment you grabbed onto me.”
A stone settled in the pit of my stomach. “No,” I whispered.
For once, instead of being an impossible prick, Osid moved in front of me and knelt down.
I laughed. “You’re cute, but no. I’m too thick for that.”
The look he shot back at me could only be described as deeply offended. Without a word, the king shrugged off his cloak and threw it over me. The next thing I knew, I was slung over his shoulder.
He secured an arm around my legs and growled, “Don’t you ever.”
“I’m sorry,” I said, honestly impressed.
Halfway into town, my tummy started to hurt from constantly jabbing into his shoulder.
I told him I wanted to switch to riding on his back, but he said that ship had sailed.
Which led to a dreadfully romantic princess carry.
It was then, when I was wrapped snugly in the strong, firm arms of my alien nemesis, that the Tamagotchi decided to make itself known.
The song blared loud and clear in the frosty air, only interrupted by the sound of Osid’s hooves crunching in the snow. Heat flamed my face. I chanced a glance up at the king to find his eyes locked ahead. A firm expression plastered on his face. The corner of his mouth twitched.
I narrowed my eyes. “Not. A. Word.”
He barked out a laugh.
“This is so unfair. Why don’t you have a Tamagotchi?”
“I’m not the obstinate one, remember? I’ve already accepted you as my bride.”
“Accepting someone as your bride isn’t the same as loving them. Their whole spiel is that they want these pairs to last with a love bond. Which makes no sense, mind you, as I could easily be a single mother in my little beach house on my own.”
The arms around me tightened. “On your own? Not happening.”
“That’s still not up to you, Your Majesty,” I drawled.
He let out another laugh, darker this time. “You think I’d get you with child, my child, the next ruler of the Dulba Empire and let you…what? Perish from unspeakable horrors as soon as I left? Fat chance. Get used to me, Wicked Thing, I’m not going anywhere.”
“What unspeakable horrors? They said they’d put it next to the female enclosure, which is apparently on a little safe island all on its own. Me and Jr. will be fine.”
“I know you will be,” he said smoothly. “Because I’ll be there protecting you.”
“You’ve got a kingdom to run. I’ve got it covered.
If it means that much to ya, we can work out some kind of visitation.
Maybe once a month.” I could handle a man in my space for that long.
Preferably not this one, but if I still got the benefits of being queen, assuming being queen of an alien kingdom had benefits, then I could suffer through a joint custody situation.
He snorted. “You speak as if a little chill didn’t send you running into my arms after all your bluster. I’m half tempted to take you up on your offer just to see how long you last on your own.”
“Hey, I’ve been taking care of myself just fine before you showed up, what do you know?”