Resisting the Alien Rider (Cowboy Colony Mail-Order Brides, #3)

by Ursa Dax

There was something distinctly hilarious about a guy as brooding and irritable as Garrek riding such an adorable mount with a pink heart on its ass.

She made the act of pissing sound pretty. How was that even possible? I’d let her urinate on me if she wanted to.

If I do something you don’t like, say it loud and proud, sweet pea. You won’t hurt my feelings.”

“I like all the stuff you do.”

I gave a loud, genuine laugh. From across the beginnings of our camp, where he was bent over doing something fiddly with a rope, I saw Garrek’s head snap up sharply at the sound.

The man gave me major stressed-out-dad-who-regrets-bringing-his-kids-camping energy.

Assuming he was still alive. I clenched my fangs together. He’d broken his foot out here and nobody knew precisely where he was now. There was a chance my cousin was dead.

“She called me sweet pee.” “What?” I jerked my head down and to the side to look at my convict-ward.

“She did,” Killian insisted. “I’m not lying!” The child actually had the gall to sound indignant, as if he hadn’t lied to me hundreds of times before.

“Sweet pee,” I echoed in confused confirmation. “As in urine?”

Killian’s tail flicked about behind him. His mouth shaped itself into a defensive pout, like an upside-down shuldu shoe. “That’s right. She said it is a human term of endearment.”

I tried to ignore the fact that I was now rather pathetically envious of Killian, disappointed that Magnolia had not also referred to me as sweetened piss.

Of course I noticed your eyelashes. When the sun hits them, they cast shadows all the way down to your cheeks.

You can’t scare me when you’ve got a frown like the Old-Earth devil himself but the ears of a child’s plush toy.”

“Oaken has not even seen a female since childhood,” Garrek said, his tone flat. “You’ll impress him simply by breathing.”

“You presumably haven’t seen a female since childhood, either,” I replied tartly, “and I certainly don’t impress you just by breathing.” “How would you know?” “Because I- wait. What?”

“Why didn’t Zohro request a wife?” I asked. “Zohro’s an idiot,” Garrek replied, as if that answered my question.

“Need I remind you,” I said with a shake of my head, “that you also didn’t request a wife?” “I did not request a wife precisely because I am not an idiot,” he shot back.

“Of course,” he grunted. “What in the great dusty blazes would I do with a wife?” “What everybody does, I suppose,” I said dreamily, thinking of the way Silar and Fallon so obv...

her own from now on. I couldn’t keep touching her and having my body react this way as a result. It wasn’t right. She wasn’t mine. She’d likely hate me if she knew.

I could not remember the last time I’d felt so catastrophically alive.

She was right. I did not give out compliments often. To anyone. And yet I had dozens, hundreds of them lined up and waiting for her.

I could tell her how when I first saw her on Fallon’s ranch, I felt every single particle of my being shift, minutely, but enough to tell me nothing would ever be the same.

I did not tell her any of this. Scraped suddenly raw by a pain I had no name for,

I adjusted my trousers and put the soap back in my pocket in hateful silence. Hateful because, at that moment, I hated too many things to even count. My ears and my cock and myself. Myself, because if I’d only said yes to the bride program in the first place, then maybe she could have been mine from the beginning. Something I hadn’t dared to acknowledge until this moment.

It was pointless to hope for such a thing. Dreams meant nothing, and good things, when they came, could never last. I almost told her so. Instead, I turned and left the tent.

Because I didn’t think I could stand it anymore. I had to put more space between us. For Oaken’s sake, and for her own. She’d just told me how meaningful coming here to marry him was. And I could not stand in the way of that.

I would want her from a distance. I didn’t think there was anything to be done about that, now. It seemed inevitable I always would.

“Alright,” she whispered. “Goodnight, Garrek.” She lingered, as if waiting for me to say something else. I didn’t. And then she left me there.

But Garrek didn’t rise to meet my mood. Instead, something like dark laughter danced in his eyes. “Tall-ass rider.”

The unexpected recall of last night’s conversation just about slapped me in the face. My mood shifted instantly, and before I knew it I was wiping tears from my eyes as I desperately tried to keep my laughter inside so that I wouldn’t wake Killian up yet. At one point, I was so far bent over in my wheezing that my hat fell off.

I couldn’t seem to muster up any excitement about what I learned. All I felt was a pathetic sort of gloominess because a part of me was convinced that Garrek had taught me so ruthlessly, and so quickly, so that he didn’t have to sit with me and share a mount anymore.

While Garrek seemed to be getting quieter, snappier, and pulling away from me more and more each day, Killian was doing the opposite. He was blooming. Absolutely thriving.

I just wished I knew why the hell things were so weird between Garrek and me. One night, about a month into our journey, as I sat on Garrek’s bedroll inside Garrek’s tent, I mulled over the strained awkwardness that had grown between us.

“How could that possibly be a waste,” I demanded, “if it’s something that could help you feel better?” “Because you need them, Magnolia!” He twisted so

“You have a whole life to live with Oaken after you leave me!” His eyes seared me. “Do you think Oaken has fancy human creams and medications to replace those ones? Of course not!”

When he opened his eyes again, there were lines of pain etched around them. “I can’t, Magnolia. I can’t keep… Keep them.”

You have a whole life to live with Oaken after you leave me. A month ago, that sentence would have filled me with joy. But now…

Now, when I heard the words, it was as if each one landed like a blow. Feeling suddenly bruised, like my insides had been battered, I got unsteadily to my feet. I went back into the ten...

The tubes would be empty in a matter of weeks, if not days. In that moment, I didn’t even care. I would have emptied the entire contents on him in a single day if it would have made a difference.

But I knew he wouldn’t let me. He would never allow me to sit there and put the cream on him if it meant I’d later go without. He wouldn’t let me help him.

Now, when I looked at it, I simply saw a dress. A dress with a flowy skirt which gave me plenty of fabric to work with. I grabbed my scissors and my suture kit from the med kit. And then I got to work.

Dramatic gasps. That’s what she said her old friend had done. I opened my mouth and sucked in a big breath. Unfortunately, I also inhaled an insect. I pulled up on Torla’s reins, giving in to a coughing fit that made my ribs ache and my back burn even worse than before.

“Before we go back, I just want to make sure you understand what’s happening next. For all of us.” Killian froze. He stared down at the rocks and the fish.

“I think it likely that, very soon, we will meet Magnolia’s husband.” “He’s not her husband.” His words came out as a vicious snarl, the kind I had not heard from him in quite some time.

“I need to make sure you understand that, once we meet him, she will go with him. And we will continue on without her.” I felt like one of the gutted fish at our feet as I said it.

“We could kill him,” Killian said suddenly. His eyes blazed in the low evening light. “She can’t go with him if he’s dead. And then she’ll need us. To keep taking care of her.” What in the blazes…

“Convict us again? I’ll do it. I’m still a child. They cannot send me to the mines. We could even make it look like an accident!” He sounded nearly gleeful now, buzzing with optimism. “He’s already broken his foot, hasn’t he? Maybe he also tripped and fell down a gorge. Or off the edge of a cliff. Or-” “You have put way too much thought into this,” I muttered, rubbing at my jaw.

But instead, I felt rather worryingly touched by how far Killian was willing to go to keep Magnolia with us. I ignored what that likely said about my own mental state.

Taking a breath, I quietly but firmly said, “She can’t stay with us, Killian.”