Page 5 of The Marriage Bargain

She spun back around. Her eyes narrowed when they lighted on me, as if she’d temporarily forgotten my presence but was now unpleasantly reminded of it. She was certainly unhappy. Even the children seemed to sense it, standing in place, peering doubtfully between their aunt and myself. Heavy silence filled the air as the human female stared at me.

I do not know what might have happened, what words might have been uttered, had a shuffling sound not alerted both of us that someone was coming. We turned towards the doorway and saw my friend approaching with his arm wrapped around his wife. I knew little about Zyn’s wife, except her name and that she was older than her sister. She was taller too, the extra height balancing out the roundness of her heavy belly. I was no medic, but even to my untrained eye her pallor and the dullness of her stare didn’t look good. Her sister must have thought the same, because her attention switched from being angry with me to concern over her sister.

Zyn seated her on the couch, helped her to lie back, and then beckoned to his sister-in-law.

“Delle? Can we talk?” She nodded and started to follow him into the kitchen area of the home, but froze when Zyn turned imploringly to me. “Caide? You too?”

The look she threw at me over her shoulder was far from friendly. In fact, it was downright hostile. She was shattering boundaries of politeness towards an Overlord. Another Overlord might have taken offense. A sudden thought sprang to mind as I trailed my friend and her into the kitchen. Her name had come up on a list of desirable human females for breeding, a list that was being passed around the Asterion males at the Citadel. How would she respond if she knew that? If she disliked me so intently when I’d done nothing to her, I could only imagine her outrage at being passed off to an Overlord as a brood mare, with her given no say in the matter.

If she were chosen—and she would be chosen—she would have to learn subservience to survive. Somehow, given what little I’d seen of her, I did not think this woman was capable of subservience to anyone. That, honestly, excited me a little. My belly tightened with a strange hunger that had nothing to do with food as I stood close to her in the small eating room. Clearly, it had been too long—much too long—since I’d lain down with any female, either of my own race or hers. I had to force my focus away from her and onto my friend.

“I’m worried about Tarra,” Zyn was saying. He spoke quietly, his black eyes darting anxiously between his sister-in-law, myself, and the living room where his pregnant wife lay. “I don’t think my bringing home the medication would have done much good. I think she needs to go to the infirmary. Delle, I know you’re supposed to go to work, but…”

“It’s fine,” she broke in. “The eatery just called. The snow is so bad they’re closing for the next couple of days. I can stay with the kids.”

She didn’t look pleased about the situation, but she made the offer willingly. Judging by her attack on Zyn, I guessed she would do anything to help her sister. She had family loyalty—another thing I admired, as it was lacking in my own.

“Thank you. Thank you, Delle.” Zyn blew out a breath of air, raking his hand through his thick black hair. “I need to leave right away. I’m nervous about getting there, though. The snow is piling up like crazy. I don’t even know if I can—”

“Use my transport.” I heard myself speak up before I had even considered what I was saying. Both Zyn and Delle swung about to stare at me. “Use mine,” I repeated. “You’ve driven it on the job. It will get you there safely.”

Asterion transports were built to manage any kind of terrain, in any type of weather, unlike Earthling vehicles, the majority of whom—like Zyn’s—were decades old and held together by rusted parts from other ancient vehicles made before the Final War. They were far faster too, Overlord technology having long surpassed anything humans had ever produced…including our spaceships, which allowed us to travel safely at speeds surpassing the speed of light. Something humans had only ever dreamt of.

“Thank you. I—thank you,” Zyn stuttered. He was flabbergasted by the offer. Few Earthlings were allowed to drive an Asterion transport, but I trusted Zyn, and he had experience from out on the job. “What about you, though? Where will you—I mean…what will you do?”

“I will stay here,” I shrugged. “Until you return.”

I tried not to notice the human female’s mouth falling open. Zyn noticed. He shot her an anxious look, then turned back to me. “Um, are you…are you sure?”

“I would not have made the offer if I were not. That is, if your sister-in-law will permit it?”

I laid the decision at her feet, having judged already that she would make nearly any sacrifice for the sake of her sister.

Caught, she blinked more than once, her mouth forming words that never came out. Then she swallowed, lifted her chin, and said, “Why not? That’s very…very gracious of you, Overlord.”

Her tone implied she distinctly considered my offer anything but gracious. If Zyn thought the same, concern over his wife had overridden any care of her sister’s discomfort.

“Wonderful.” He clapped his hands together, his manner having gone from a man sick with worry to a man with a plan. “Thank you, Caide. Thank you. I’ll never forget this. We’ll be back as soon as possible. Delle?”

“I’ll be fine. The kids will be fine. Phone as soon as you know anything.”

“Right.”

He didn’t wait, but slipped past us, into the room where his wife lay on the couch, going to fetch their coats. In short order, he had his wife on her feet, they had told their children goodbye, and were headed out the door. A tiny blizzard of snowflakes was blown into the house as the door opened. Then it was sealed against their retreating figures, the blackness of the night outside, and the snow that sealed us in. We heard the faint purr of my transport starting up. Even the children were strangely quiet until its hum had faded into the distance.

When they were gone, and all that remained were the young girls, myself, and the human female, Delle. I turned to face her, and saw nothing but rage on her features.

“What was that?” she demanded.

CHAPTER 5

DELLE

“What was what?” the Overlord echoed, eyeing me as if he didn’t have a clue as to what I was talking about.

I was dumbfounded. Why, why, was an alien here in my sister’s home to begin with? Second, why would an Overlord offer my brother-in-law the use of his transport to take Tarra to the hospital? He couldn’t have done it from any altruistic motives. In my opinion, the Asterions had no altruistic motives. None of them. They claimed they’d come from space with the Interstellar Coalition to help our planet. To help heal it. To assist humanity in recovering from nearly killing itself off during the Final War, but all I saw when I looked at them was conquerors. They hadn’t had to fight a war to conquer us. They’d simply moved in. Taken over. Made us dependent on them. Made themselves exactly what they called themselves—our Overlords. And I didn’t like it. Not one bit. Nor did I trust this admittedly beautiful silver-skinned being standing here in my brother’s kitchen, his golden eyes peering at me as if he could see into my soul.

“Why did you offer your transport to my brother-in-law?” I challenged him.

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