Married to the Alien Cowboy (Cowboy Colony Mail-Order Brides, #1)

by Ursa Dax

“I vote aye! Aye for Fallon!” Fallon said again, nearly jumping out of his chair with what was clearly anxiety that he had not been heard before. “And if any of these idiots do not want their women, then I will take theirs, too!” “You’ve never even been with one woman,” Zohro snapped, “what in the great blazing span of my largest bull’s backside would you do with four?” Fallon ripped off his hat and scrubbed vigorously at his yellow hair, frowning. “They would not all be my women,” he said awkwardly. “But one could be mine. And the others could live with us if they so chose. I have space.”

Hes just a little sweet bean!!!!!!! Be nice to my Fallon!

I felt every man’s gaze upon me like a touch. A woman. A wife. I wouldn’t know what in the bloody blazes to do with such a thing. None of us would. We all came here before puberty. Cut off from society, forever separated from the females of our race before we were even old enough to want them. I barely knew how to speak to these men whom I’d known since childhood. What could I possibly have to say to a woman? Silent Silar. I liked to be alone.

Hes just shy

A woman. No. I could not have her. I would not. I would probably do something wrong and hurt her or harm her or Empire forbid, break her. We were convicts, reviled by our own people, left out here on this distant planet to rot for so long that there was no hope of ever rehabilitating us. What could I offer a female? I, a white-eyed feral fool, as the warden had so aptly pointed out?

Hes scared

“You, Silar, and Oaken,” Zohro clarified. “Warden Tenn just contacted him on his data tab. He was even more nonsensically enthusiastic about a bride than you are, Fallon. Said he’d find a way to tunnel through the mountain snow if he had to, in order to get here in time to meet her.” I inhaled sharply. “Oaken wants a bride?” “Did I not just say that?”

Although the Zabrian Empire was recruiting human women for this bride program, so we humans couldn’t be too unattractive to them. Hopefully. The last thing I wanted was for my future husband to get one look at me and flat-out change his mind and send me back. I’d have to be on my best behaviour. Make sure I won him over so that he wanted to keep me even if he thought I was less than appealing.

Girl you beautiful !

All that work and I hadn’t even gotten halfway through the blasted thing. In my mounting panic I suddenly could not even recall the information I had read. If this was a test, I was already failing. “Can’t Fallon take this one? I’ll claim a different female from the next lot in twenty-two days.” I felt like a coward and a fool the moment it was out of my mouth. No doubt the warden felt the same, because his voice sliced forcefully out of the data tab’s speakers, crackling with anger. “No, I’m not giving your bride to Fallon. These females may not be Zabrian but they still deserve respect while they are here, and by the Empire I will make sure they get it.” He heaved a sigh.

I placed my hands on the window sill and leaned forward until my nose was smooshed up against the dusty glass. I’d given up all pretense about pretending I wasn’t spying now, but hey, a girl needed to know what she was in for! My husband was packing what could easily be considered a murder weapon in most galactic jurisdictions, and I figured it was just plain irresponsible not to try to get a better look now. This was for my own future health and general genital safety, damnit!

I love how shes just drooling and eye fucking her husband to be and hes internal panicing about being good enough for her XD

I cannot believe I tried to give her to Fallon. There were few times I’d ever been truly grateful to the warden. This was one of them. He could have accepted my morning request. Right now, this very moment, Fallon could have been walking around the side of the building towards the door and the woman inside instead of me. I would never have known what I’d missed out on, what I’d lost, until I saw them together one day in the future and I was knocked just as senseless with wonder as I’d been a mere moment ago glimpsing her little face through the window. What a face. An odd, pale, wide-eyed face, with rounded cheekbones and a soft pink mouth and eyes gone white ’round the edges. Whatever emotion she’d experienced, she’d felt it keenly. I knew my own eyes had been bright white in return. I could not remember the last time my heart had pounded so hard. It was unlikely my eyes would return to their normal colour for the next two days at this rate. Maybe not even the next two cycles, the way things were going.

“So he’ll be alright with me riding him, then? Although, I should tell you that I don’t exactly have experience with this sort of thing.” I glanced at the saddle, which seemed intimidatingly high off the ground. Except it suddenly wasn’t so high. Because I was being lifted. I gasped when strong hands settled around my waist. Strong warm hands. Silar boosted me as easily as he might lift a child, setting me down onto the saddle. “Don’t need experience,” he said gruffly, immediately hoisting himself up onto Tarion’s back behind me. He reached around me from behind, grasping at brown reins, his arms enclosing me in an intimate circle “You’ve got me.”

SWOONING

I quickly dismounted, needing to not be so very near her for a moment. It was not a long moment, though, because despite her awkward wiggling and rolling, she could not get down on her own. All she managed to achieve was getting onto her belly and lying sidelong on the saddle, the backs of her legs facing me, her rump directly at my eye level. I could barely remember what Zabrian females looked like. I’d certainly been too young to look at their backsides like this with any sort of appreciation. I did not know if backsides were even meant to be looked at, to be coveted. Whether this was typical for a Zabrian male, or some terrible result of my excision from good society, I had no idea. But whatever the reason, for better or worse, I could not rip my gaze from my wife’s rump.

There she went again with her promises. Why did she feel the need to promise me anything when I was already so wholly undeserving of her?

He needs a hugggggg

I wanted to clasp her hips while she was bent over like that. I wanted to rub my cock on it. There is definitely something wrong with me. Such a desire could not be natural.

This is sad…

Zohro had said that humans were weak. But this could not be true if Cherry could smile and chatter and go through life with her eyes gone-white and her insides tempestuous with wild feeling at all times. How did she even sleep? Maybe she didn’t. Maybe she did not require a new bed at all. Human females are powerful indeed.

Yeah bitches!! We powerful!!!

“Oh! Thank you!” She tried it on, then gave me a smile that for some terrifying reason made my heart feel as if it had stopped. It clattered rather painfully back to life, loping unsteadily in my chest as I studied her in the old hat, memories surging up against a present, a female, I never could have seen coming.

Cherry’s face was very close to mine. So were her lips. Small. Soft. Pink. And just a little damp where she had licked them while tying the scarf beneath my chin. I wondered if humans only ever did the kiss ritual at weddings. I did not see how we could have another wedding so that I could repeat the experience. But maybe they also did the kiss thing at other important ceremonies, like funerals. I found myself rather foolishly hoping that someone might die soon so that I could find out. Maybe Zohro. No one would miss him. It would be worth it.

XD

“You do not know?” I asked with some confusion. “Your eyes are white as well.” “Yeah. But like I said before, they’re always like that. Same way the inner part is blue and then black. It’s just how human eyes are. The colour doesn’t change the way yours do. Well,” she amended, “the black point in the middle, the pupil, gets bigger in the dark to let in more light. But your thing doesn’t seem to be light dependant.” “It happens when a Zabrian feels…” Feels like he wants to rut his wife like an animal. “Strong emotion,” I finished, my throat seizing on the words.

“Do you want me to touch you?” I hated the thought that she might be standing there and suffering my touch just so that I could get a hands-on human education. But she dispelled that fear with a single word. “Yes.” My wife wanted me to touch her.

“Did you mean what you said before?” I asked abruptly. I want to put my tongue inside you… God, it was so vivid in my mind. Like he’d only just spoken the words aloud. He didn’t ask what I referred to. He simply flicked his tail in his weird Zabrian version of a shrug and said, “I don’t say much. But what I do, I mean.” Oh. Oh.

Fallon jerked as my tail seized upon his throat. I had not felt rage like this since… since… Since I’d killed that man on Zabria. Fallon’s white eyes bulged, his claws sinking deep into my tail. I barely felt it. His hound snapped feral jaws in defense of its master, circling Tarion, but I paid the creature little mind. If Tarion felt threatened, he could deliver a single, skull-smashing kick. No. All my attention was focused upon Fallon. Fallon, whose stampeding herd had almost killed my wife.

Fallon burbled. My tail burned and bled as he clawed me. “Silar!” my wife cried for a third time. “You let him go! This instant!” My body obeyed her immediately. Clearly, it was more devoted to her than it was to me.

“Not that one. That’s the one I made for Cherry,” Silar gritted out. “You sit on the old one.” “It doesn’t matter which chair he sits in. I just…” I stopped, noticing for the very first time that the new chair Silar had built was decidedly smaller than the other one. It wasn’t built for a Zabrian butt. It was built for mine.

“He could have killed you.” “His cattle could have,” I corrected him primly. “Pretty sure Fallon didn’t specifically send them on the war path just so they could trample me. Wait…” I paused, my heart swelling up into my throat. “Are you telling me that you almost strangled another man because… because he indirectly almost harmed me?” “Yes.” Holy shit. That… should not have been so hot to me. Especially when the person in question was someone as sweet as Fallon seemed to be.

He looked bashfully down at the table, like he was guilty for the lie. Seriously. Puppy. Foot. Face.

“She’s taller for a human woman. With pink hair, green eyes, and freckles. She’s absolutely gorgeous,” I added, remembering Fallon’s earlier comment about her being half as beautiful as me. I gave him a conspiratorial wink. “Definitely prettier than me.” Fallon looked like I’d just about blown his Zabrian mind. It was kind of fun seeing how absolutely banana-pants excited he was getting. So fun I almost missed Silar’s quiet, incredulous growl of, “Unlikely.”

Silar thought it was unlikely that someone could be prettier than me? Seriously? I mean, I was alright. Could definitely qualify as a very solid “cute” when I made some effort. But he honestly thought, on a balance of probabilities, that I was prettier than… Everyone? Ever?

Oh babes he wants to blow your back and worship the ground you walk on

“And to think,” Fallon went on, oblivious as he so often was, “that Cherry said Darcy is even prettier than she is!” “She isn’t.” Fallon ignored that. “Do you know what freckles are?” “No,” I grunted. “Stop asking me questions before I push you off your saddle.” I needed him gone. Now. So I could be alone with Cherry and maybe do that hug thing again. Uninterrupted this time.

Teerz. Over a hat. In a Zabrian, I would have considered such a show of emotion a horrific sign of weakness. In her… It was a sign of something precious to me. Purity. Goodness. A heart that seemed far too big to be housed in such a little human body.

“Do you want your cock inside me?” Silar’s eyes had been screwed shut. But they opened, a tiny crack letting out bright white light. “Yes,” he croaked. His chest lurched, as if he wanted to say more but couldn’t quite find himself capable of forming the words.

Mommy? I mean…mommy?

Instantly, Silar was on the move. “Get inside the house,” he growled. “Lock the doors.” “Silar!” “Now, Cherry!” “I… I don’t want to leave you!” He flinched at my words, then, fangs bared and covered in blood, he stormed up to me. “I cannot think while you are out here! I can barely breathe! I cannot…” He bit off his words with a growl, taking several grating breaths before, more quietly this time, he added, “I cannot live if you are not alright. I have to secure the property. Cherry. Please.” His white gaze searched mine. “I need you in that house.”

“I don’t care! Whatever happened in your past, you’re still my husband. I’m still your wife. Do you hear me, Silar? It’s you and me. Together. Forever. That’s it. End. Of. Discussion!”

“You would go to the mines for her, without complaint?” I pressed. “I would die for her,” Silar snarled with sudden ferocity. “Also without complaint.”

I guided my mount back into the road, ready to begin the long ride home. From the corner of my eye, I saw Silar move. He bent his big, bloodied body so he could get a better look at what I’d brought him. The order that had just about cleaned out every last credit to his name. The order he’d placed the very day his wife had arrived. That was the last glimpse I had of him that night. The image I carried with me all the way back. The image of Silar bending, then crouching, silently gazing upon his new little sapling of a cherry tree.

HE BOUGHT HER A CHERRY TREE WITH THE LAST OF HIS MONEY

“All I care about is that, if you are running, I’m the one you run to.” He brushed his knuckles slowly across my cheek, his voice growing even quieter in the hushed bed. “Run your way down any road you wish to, Cherry. But I’ll always be the one standing there at the end of it.”

“This is more than enough,” I whispered, giving my tree another teary hug before setting it gingerly back down. “There are probably a million other things you could be spending your money on instead of saving it up to get expensive fruit shipped in!” “There are,” he admitted. “But none of those things matter.” He took my hands in his, running his thumbs gently along the backs of my knuckles. “Every credit to my name,” he said gruffly, “every piece of this property, every store of my strength, every beat of my heart… It’s all for you, Cherry. Everything’s for you.”