Page 19 of Alien Triton's Prize

I didn’t know how it was possible underwater and without air, but the creature sounded downright sibilant. Yup, totally a sea serpent.My triton husband was friends with a sea monster!

Cetius made the introductions and explained my inability to speak until I got used to using water instead of air.

“I came by early to warn you. Your brother isss in the cccity core today. You might want to make sssure your little human is safely hidden away.”

As he spoke, the translator got used to his speech and started to drop the extra s’s. Handy.

There was that mention of his brother again. I thought it was still too early to ask him for details, but I filed away all the information I could for later.

“Also,” Iravan continued, “this arrived at the office.” He held out a conch-shaped device I recognized by now as one of their cell phones. “I took the liberty of entering your, Cetia’s, and Cetion’s contacts into it.”

Cetius took it and then handed it to me. “This is for you.”

I took it and squeezed his hand in thanks.

“Do you know how to use one?”

I nodded. Cetia had shown me yesterday.

“Good. Now, let’s get inside. I don’t want to deal with Algrim just yet. I will continue telling you about the plants another time.”

“Cetius, please. You’re going to bore the poor female to death with details of your travels.”

I shook my head vigorously. I wasn’t bored at all.

“Vera studied plants back on her home planet.”

“Really? I didn’t know Earth had any plants left to study.”

“Maybe that’s why Starlight Brides thought she would be a good match and sent her here. Plenty of plants of all kinds. She can continue studying them here. I don’t know much about the specimens I bring back, the gardener does most of that. Poor Kole. He keeps having to deal with species he’s never seen before.”

So that was who he meant by “we”. He had a gardener. Well of course he would, with an estate like this. Surely, he wasn’t doing all the landscaping himself. Seena hadn’t known anything about the plants either. And I was pretty sure she didn’t look after all the small animals in that room full of…terrariums? Vivariums? It was hard to think of them as aquariums since we were underwater already.

We went to a large room with seating, and as Iravan regaled me with stories of Cetius when he was a kid, Seena brought in a tray of snackables: a carefully presented selection of shellfish,roe, and greens. Basically, anything that wasn’t liable to swim away.

Apparently, Cetius wanted to take me on a honeymoon to a resort up on one of the floating islands. He had to explain to Iravan that a honeymoon had nothing to do with condensed nectar or the lunar cycle but was the equivalent of a post-union vacation newlyweds on Earth embarked on together to spend time away from everyday stresses.

The destination was apparently a vacation island on the planet that attracted both ocean and land dwellers. The tropical paradise was equally beautiful under the waves and on the sand. It wasn’t quite the same as exploring the unknown, but I could tell Cetius was excited for a trip of any kind.

It was one of the reasons he had asked his friend to come over. The first of course was to meet me, but the other was to work out some details for work so he could take me on our trip. I thought it was sweet that he cared enough to find a place where I’d feel comfortable. A tropical island vacation sounded just about perfect to me.

From the way they spoke, I got the impression that Cetius didn’t really need to be there for things to run smoothly, but because of a recent dip in sales and shares due to the recent handover of leadership to him, he’d taken a more hands-on approach. No wonder his grandsire had told him he needed to learn to delegate.

Reading between the lines, I got why Cetius wanted to be there. It seemed not everyone thought he could run the business, so he felt he had something to prove.

After a short visit, the two dropped me off in my air-filled room and went to Cetius’s home office to talk more about nitty-gritty logistics.

Alone, I reflected on everything I’d learned today. It was only my second day in Coral’s Deep and already I was starting to think that Starlight Brides did in fact know what they were doing. So far, everything I had learned about Cetius had been great.

Sure, he was filthy fucking rich, but that wasn’t what made him attractive to me. He was hardworking too, and really seemed to care about his family. I liked his sister and his grandsire. And Iravan was nice as well.

But it was that look on his face when he talked about his travels that really got to me. I’d never seen a man so passionate about something before, and it was a total turn-on. I’d never thought of myself as an explorer type, but the way he talked about all these places made me want to go there too and see them with my own eyes.

I flopped down onto the chair in front of my computer and pulled up the forum with all the other Starlight brides, wondering if any of them managed to go on extended trips with their husbands.

Chapter 10

Vera

---