Married to the Alien Mountain Man (Cowboy Colony Mail-Order Brides, #5)

by Ursa Dax

The bubble that protected me from the fact that something had violently, and probably irreparably, shifted inside me. I didn’t want to take my ship out of here. And that was so fucking scary, because that was who I was. Wasn’t it? A pilot. An explorer. I was free. But I was starting to think that leaving now wouldn’t be the freedom it had once been.

Instead, it would just be running away. Maybe I’d been running away for years. Hopping from place to place to avoid the hole at the centre of my life. The hole that opened up when my parents died, and then got ten times bigger when my aunty did, too.

You can be both babes

Don’t let me push you away!

You need to do it yourself babes

“Do you want to tell me, Oaken?” But my fears appeared to be unfounded. His answer was an instant, emphatic, “Yes.” He closed the distance between us with two huge strides. “I want to tell you anything you want to know. I want to give you everything I have to give. All of me. Even the bad bits.”

Something throbbed mightily in my brain. For the first time in my life, I understood anger that could keep me from thinking, from breathing, from seeing straight. Oaken was a hot green blur before me.

“Too small for me,” he agreed. “But they’re for you.” Someone tell me why that felt like a fucking gut punch? “Oaken…” “I worry,” he said, stepping in close behind me. So close that I felt the heat of his chest through the shirt on my back. “I worry that… That you might get blisters one day, out on some other world without me. And I won’t be there to carry you home when you do.” Ten fucking years and I hadn’t cried once. Until now.

A sigh behind me. Then the saddest, quietest laugh I’d ever heard. “There isn’t going to be a ‘next wife,’ Jaya.” “What?!” I whirled around. “What do you mean?” A wife was what he’d always wanted. How had I fucked this up so royally? “You will find someone incredible, Oaken. They aren’t all like me!” His face was calm. Composed. But his eyes were alight with something intense and unnameable. “But that is precisely the problem.” He smiled, but it was weak, wan, like it fucking hurt to do it. “They aren’t you.” My emotions spilled into one another. A heady cocktail of grief, guilt, confusion, and… Hope.

He left me no time to reply, no time to argue. Swiftly, he wrapped his arms around me, pressing my face into his chest. His breathing was harsh against my hair. His arms were so fucking tender. He was holding me like it would be the last time.

But I’d never seen a sky this colour before. Grey-tinged green, with clouds that roiled so thick and fast it was like looking into a toxic cauldron. The temperature suddenly shifted, dropping degrees so fast that goosebumps broke out along my arms. The hairs on my neck rose.

welcome to the Midwest baby

I shouted Oaken’s name, but heard no sound. The Lavariya was there. Right fucking there. I could still make it. I could still run. But Oaken was here. And I knew what my choice would be. My home was the most important thing to me. But my home wasn’t a ship anymore. My home was a person. And that person was Oaken. I started sprinting… Not for the Lavariya. But for Nali’s enclosure.

Horror, unlike anything I’d ever known, numbed me. The force of that thing… It seemed unstoppable. Destruction inevitable. But I had Nali in my arms. Lala in my pocket. And a man out there I loved.

GIRL RUNNNNNN

Nothing but wind and terror and dust and darkness. Nothing but… White light. Getting closer every second. So fast that I knew he was running with everything he had. In mere seconds, Oaken had me.

Just like he had that very first night, he dragged me up into his arms, holding me safe against his chest. He barely even slowed his pace to grab me, continuing relentlessly against the storm. Bringing us home. I held tightly to Nali with one arm and clung to Oaken with the other.

my love

Awwwww

My ship means everything to me. That’s what she had told me. That very first day, when she’d accepted my proposal. It was not just a vessel. It contained all her things. Her spiced human tea. Her clothes. Her memories. Her life. All of it. Gone. I had failed her. I had promised her that a marriage to me meant saving her ship. She’d married me. And now she had lost everything.

awwwww

But my wife did not do any of those things. She merely returned her gaze to me. And then, she held out her hand. Stretching it, trembling, towards me. Holding hands is an excellent way to provide comfort to your partner, to show affection, or just let them know you’re there for them. I closed the distance between us in no time at all. And took my wife’s hand in mine.

The old Jaya would have felt resentment at that. Bitter jealousy that my bed was gone, while his remained in perfect condition. The new Jaya was only grateful that something that could bring Oaken comfort had survived.

I shivered and gasped when a damp cloth touched my cheek. My skin felt too raw, too sensitive. But Oaken’s touch was so delicate, so careful, so kind. The tenderest of ministrations. Thoroughly, he cleaned my face, taking care around stinging scratches I hadn’t even known were there. He gently drew the cloth along my lips, my cheeks, my ears. Down my throat to my collarbones. He cleaned each one of my fingers, then traced the lines of my palms.

this relationship means more to me than everything else

But she was bigger than the bracku. So even behind them all, I could see her. The sun spilled over her hull, glinting brightly, turning her into a fucking beacon. The Lavariya. They’d found her. They’d found her, and had somehow hooked her up to the bracku and shuldu. Slowly, they dragged her over the land towards me. Towards home.

“I love you.

Sorry but this book was totally rushed