The Alien's Accidental Bride (Alien Brides #1)

by C.V. Walter

"The planet was assumed to be long dead. Or at least, not inhabited by anything large enough to cause problems, so the vaccine protocols were considered voluntary.

Mintonar shook his head in disbelief. "I read the early discovery reports. There was life on the planet. It wasn't intelligent at the time and there was a planet-killer incoming but there's never a guarantee that they'll destroy everything. In fact, they hoped it wouldn't. They wanted to allow enough time for vegetation and small animals to repopulate. If there was enough life on the planet for that, there was always the chance that something that could kill us could grow."

"Only you would think like that, Mintonar," Alvola said. "Most of the people on this ship assumed the planet-killer did its job and we would be mostly starting from scratch." "If it's healthy enough for us to terraform, it's healthy enough to cause us problems," Mintonar said, then sighed. "And that's why I'm the only person with the qualifications to work with the alien."

His hand stroked down her arm and her eyelids tried to fly open. He was touching her on the outside of the blanket and after she'd gotten over the surprise, found the pressure and the motion quite pleasant. At that moment, she wanted nothing more than to curl up in his lap so he could keep stroking her. The thought made

her smile and she wondered when she'd turned into a cat.

And that was where the table came in. It was less a table and more a projector of a million microscopic force fields, all working together to read a body and hold its pieces together, forcing them to work when they need to. The table kept her stable, gave him constantly updated visual data about what she looked like inside, and the ability to make tiny, minute

changes to fix things he couldn't otherwise get to without creating more trauma. The pain cuffs kept the nerve endings less responsive, allowing him to work without triggering a stress response and without doing further damage by suppressing functions she needed to live.

"You're not going to tell me that your people are so far advanced, they have no need for war and conflict?" "Of course not. We've just gotten better at it and at convincing ourselves that the right thing to do is destroy people who will not bend to our will, then telling them that it's their fault."

"What could possibly be more important than figuring out how to get the information out of the helmet?" Alvola asked. "We're burning time and

fuel hiding from this planet. If we're not stopping, we have to figure out how to resupply and how much trouble that's going to cause."

"But they can never change who you are," he told her. "All the things you learned, the things you lived through, are still a part of you even if the marks of their passing are removed from your skin."

The Orvax were having fertility problems. There were a lot of theories as to why but the weakening of recognition seemed to be part of it.

Mintonar couldn't help but stroke his hands through her hair. "I like pampering you. There's little enough on the ship I can use to do so and these things are mine so why

shouldn't I lavish them on you?" She leaned into his petting and made an appreciative hum. "Quite right. It makes our time together feel special."

They both had expectations informed by their cultures and he needed to make sure he knew what

hers were. He thought he knew but he wanted the battle lines laid out clearly.

"Wife," she ground out. "Typically implies some kind of consent on the part of the woman, some kind of acknowledgement of the arrangement, and the legal implications of it." "An ajoia is someone who is bound by recognition, desire and a legal authority.

In this case the captain, the legal authority, acknowledged our bond of recognition and asked if you desired to be with me. When you

answered in the affirmative, he sealed the bond and made it legal." Her mouth fell open. "When he-" she swallowed and tried again. "I thought he was asking if I wanted to stay with you here rather than being assigned ...

"Do you dislike it here so much? It's different, to be sure, but is my home and company so objectionable to you that you would mourn staying with me?"

My husband said I was upset for no reason because he had no problem spending time with him and if I just tried a little harder, I might actually be a decent mother. Not as decent as his aunt and his grandmother, of course, but someone worth being around.

"I am sorry, Maw-lee," he told her. "It was not my intention to trap you here but you are mistaken in the belief that there is only one part of you I have an interest in. I crave your company

as well as your touch. I used to be able to lose myself in my work for days but now I find myself counting the minutes until I can see you and introduce you to more of the things I love. You are precious to me in ways I never thought a living creature could be."

Aidan told her he understood, that he could see what they were doing, what they had done, and he just wanted her to be happy. He was training in something to do with networks and security, though there was more to it that she could

never remember, and he had made a point of keeping in touch with her.

"Maw-lee," he said, stroking her cheek. "There is no need to apologize. You have every reason to be upset right now. I did not realize how much being Joined with me would upset you. It felt like merely a formality, an official recognition, of the fact that I would rather have you, here, with me, more than any other being I've met. And just because you can't leave yet doesn't mean I would keep

you here against your will. I hope, when the time comes, that you're willing to stay but I won't force you."

"I do not care if we don't have children," he told her. "I would keep you any way you'd let me and I will cherish you for as long as I live. If you Joined with me and then left for you planet tomorrow, I would hope to go with you, but I would stay faithful and keep the memory of my time with you until I passed if I could not."

"I know," she told him. "I'd rather stay in your office and snuggle between patients, too, but you have work to do and if I'm going to be a grown adult woman and not a pampered pet, I have to start figuring things out without you."

When he walked in to his rooms,

took his breath away. She was in the bedroom, organizing her clothes to fit with his in the wardrobe, and wearing a Joining gown, her long hair

caught back in elaborate braids. The skirt for the gown rode low on her hips, the lace showing flashes of her legs as she moved. The top, which covered enough of her breasts for modesty, had the flowers of his family house embroidered...

"Mom, you're married to a doctor who actually cares about you. If something's wrong, would you please talk to him about it?"