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

by Ursa Dax

She made the act of pissing sound pretty. How was that even possible?

“You noticed my eyelashes?” “Of course I did,” he answered, again as if I’d asked him something stupid. “When the sun hits them, they cast shadows all the way down to your cheeks.”

A human term of endearment? Based on bodily waste?

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.

“My translator must be malfunctioning because I barely got any of that. Salty cowboy…”

“I don’t know what ‘hug’ means. And I don’t talk to fabric,” he said, as if the very idea were pure lunacy. “If I wanted to do that, I’d talk to my hat.”

“I’m really sorry that I stepped on you. But I didn’t expect you to be sleeping right here.”

I wasn’t sure I ever wanted to use it. It smelled like she did. I’d already mistakenly eaten half of it thinking it was food and I found myself unwilling to waste more of it in the water now. I wanted to save it. For what, I was not sure.

I also spent more time than was my custom combing my soaked hair with my claws. When I realized what I was doing – trying to make myself look more presentable because Magnolia would be awake to see me soon – I huffed a sigh and purposely mussed my hair a little in defiance before tying it back.

“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 obviously worshipped their human wives. “Love her.”

“What are you doing?” Killian asked me, cocking his head in confusion at my uncharacteristic clumsiness. Oh, nothing. Just casually losing my mind.

That felt strangely, incredibly intimate. Getting to glimpse her feet like that. In flashes and slips, that vulnerable skin that I’d never otherwise get to see.

It made me feel nearly savage with the need to protect her. Little feet and all.

My throat was so suddenly, lethally dry that it seemed the only thing left to save my life now was to grab that thigh… And lick it.

I didn’t even try to stop myself from wanting now. I wasn’t strong enough.

“Garrek?” Magnolia said, squinting in the darkness as I abandoned my hiding place and approached them. “Where the heck did you come from?” “The Empire of Zabria,” I snapped, knowing full well what she meant and ignoring it.

I wondered what it would be like to grow up with someone like Magnolia loving you.

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 lovely she looked right now, with her skin so soft and clean and her hair all loose and wet. I could tell her how much I admired her competence, her generosity, her spirit. I could tell her how her gentleness made me think of strength when in anyone else I would scoff at it and call it weakness. I could tell her how cursedly good she smelled. That I’d seen the bottoms of her tiny feet tonight and that I liked them just as much as the rest of 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.

“Why don’t you tell me what the most sensitive place on your body is?” he hissed. “And then I can poke it to gauge the severity of your reaction.”

“Why do I have a naked child tearing up my camp?”

“Like I said,” Garrek grunted, bending to retrieve it. He snatched up the soap and left the leather on the ground. “I saved what I wanted.”

It felt like this was exactly where I was meant to be, where she was meant to be, where Killian was meant to be. Like this was what I was born for. That this was the life I was supposed to lead.

“Yes,” he rasped. “Only once.”

“Did you… Did you make that?” “Of course I did. You think I need to carry around a stool like this for myself?”

“You have a whole life to live with Oaken after you leave me!”

“I can’t, Magnolia. I can’t keep… Keep them.”

I could show you more of the wild places of this world. I could take you anywhere you wanted.

“You could… You could tell me about it. If you want.”

I opened my mouth and sucked in a big breath. Unfortunately, I also inhaled an insect.

I wheezed. I was never attempting to do a dramatic gasp again. Not even for her.

“You think that I am happy?” I snarled. “You think that I want to give her up? When I said no to the bride program, I had no idea it could be her. If she were any other woman – any other woman, Killian! – I would not feel like my heart is being ripped up and out of my throat every time I so much as look at her!”

“I did not know someone like Magnolia could even exist out there! Had I been tasked with bringing Darcy to Oaken, or Cherry, I would not be falling apart right now. I’d be able to deliver her safely and move on with my life. But now, I just look around and think, what life? What’s left after she goes? I can’t even ask to be granted my own bride now, because it won’t be her and no one else will ever be enough. You think that I don’t feel regret? Some days, it’s all I feel. Some days, it’s like I’m drowning in it.”

“Zabrians bleed,” he finally said, “but they do not cry. Forgive me if…” He swallowed and rubbed his jaw. “Forgive me if I don’t know what to do.”

I landed in a heavy crouch and sprinted for the door. I kicked it hard, boot colliding, and wood splintered as I forced it open. I heard Oaken swear as he got awkwardly down from his mount, then he muttered something like, “Blast it all, Garrek, I have a key!”

In the corner of the room, Killian crouched, chewing viciously on a lock of his own hair. Something I had not seen him do in a long time.

“If you try to take her from us,” Killian said, his eyes massive and murderous white, “I will kill you. And no one but Garrek will ever know because they’ll never find your body.” “It’s a little scary how much I actually believe that,” Oaken said, regarding Killian warily.

“I tried not to love her.” I did not know what else to say, where else to start. “It didn’t work.”

A cynical sort of amusement glinted in Oaken’s eyes. “Really? You did not hope I was dead so that you would not have to give her up?” “I never wished for your death.” Then, a pause. “That was Killian.”

“I did not encourage her,” I told him. “She did it all on her own. And she can be very stubborn.”

“So relieve yourself of this morose guilt, Garrek. I find that I have very little patience for it. I do not want her if she does not want me. You’re free. Love her and marry her and don’t you dare waste a moment of that happiness.”

“You,” I choked out, not wanting to believe his words. I wanted punishment, pain, something. “You are too reasonable. Can’t you at least hit me or something?” “Hit you?” Oaken grinned. “You are older than me. I don’t want to fight an old man. It wouldn’t be fair.” “I am only six cycles older than you!”

“It was only a thought,” I said gruffly, lowering my arms. “Wait!” Killian sounded absolutely affronted. “You can’t take my hug back now!” “You never even let me give it to you,” I pointed out archly.

I assumed that Killian would get sick of me and slither out of my arms immediately afterwards, but he didn’t. He pressed his face into my chest and stayed that way for a long, long time.

“You’re here,”

“Of course I am.” He swallowed, thick throat bobbing. “I heard your voice. I ran.”

“But… You never let on…” “My eyes did,” he said cryptically.

“I want to marry you,” he said. “I want to build a life with you. Family. With you and Killian both.”

“I’m not Oaken. I’m not the man you came here for. But I can be the man you need. And I’ll work every day to be the man who deserves you.” His jaw flexed. His eyes searched mine. “If… If you’ll have me.” “Why, Garrek,” I murmured, happiness warming every inch of me, “Are you asking me to marry you?” “Asking. Pleading. I’ll beg you if I have to,” he groaned. “Get down on my knees and… Wait. I am already on my knees.”

“I learned,” he huffed on a hoarse breath, “about mating positions. And female erogenous zones. Like the clitohorses.”