Page 3 of Ready for Her Alien Husband

Nitiel delivered an answering playful tug at Vrixiel’s front left horn, then they were off to the landing bay. Vrixiel would have enjoyed a flight to their destination, as the exertion would help him relax somewhat, but flying along the station’s corridors was prohibited unless there was an emergency. Walking would have to do.

Once in the landing bay, he and Nitiel approached the worker in charge of the landing spots’ allocation. The Cordubian’s six tentacles kept operating a holo-console while she took them in with all but one of her eight eyes. She directed them to where Lady Trixie’s aircraft was expected to land. “Congratulations, Goddess-blessed,” the worker chirped afterward.

Vrixiel bowed, some of the nervous tension at the base of his wings dissipating. He needed the reminder from a stranger that what awaited him was a union blessed by the Goddess. All would be all right.

That thought stayed with him as he waited for 53 minutes for the arrival of his Terran bride. It stayed with him as thespaceship entered the landing bay and Nitiel took a few steps back, leaving Vrixiel to greet hisnielaon his own. The positive thought didn’t waver even during the landing process, which seemed to take forever.

It was when the exit hatch hissed open and Vrixiel saw his female that his positivity left him.

Because, a moment after their gazes locked for the first time, his future wife slumped to the floor.

CHAPTER3

Bean

“Niela!”

Trixie heard the frantic call but couldn’t see where it was coming from. There was blackness all around her, as if someone had blindfolded her. The sound was muffled too, as though it came from a distance, or she had cotton stuck in her ears.

“Please,niela.”

This time around, she could tell the voice belonged to a man, and it no longer sounded far away. Trixie willed her eyes to focus, to distinguish something amid the endless black surrounding her–

There! Light up ahead was swallowing more and more of the dark as she looked. Simultaneously, sounds came rushing in: the flap of wings, the whoosh of air, the soft murmur of a man’s voice right next to her in a foreign language. Sensations came back to her as well: big hands holding her, a hard surface against her side, warm skin under her cheek…

“What the fuck?” she heard herself croak.

“You’re awake! Thank the Goddess.”

Trixie looked up and, finally, the blackness was gone entirely, allowing her to see the man with the alluring voice. Only, he was no man.

Four sharp horns – two small ones at the front and two long ones behind them – pointed straight up from a black-haired head. A green face loomed over Trixie, complete with darker-green lips and ears pointed like an elf’s. Eyes as green as the fresh grass of spring studied her under a pair of expressive black eyebrows, one bisected by a sexy scar. As their gazes met, those plush lips stretched into a tentative smile.

It all came rushing back: her standing at the exit hatch, the excitement, the anticipation, the first glimpse at her fated mate, the shock… Then nothing.

“What happened? Where…?” Trixie was so confused.

“You lost consciousness,niela. I’m flying you to the medical bay.”

“I fainted?”Wow. Way to make a good first impression. She should die from embarrassment–Wait, did he sayflying?

Trixie took in her surroundings. Now those sounds and sensations from earlier made sense. She was in her mate’s arms, pressed securely against his hard chest as he carried her like a bride. His majestic green wings were taking them fast down a tube-shaped corridor of silvery metal. Gaenthians and other aliens pressed themselves to the rounded walls to stay out of his flight path. No one looked shocked or unhappy about it, which meant this was a regular occurrence on the station.

It was no regular occurrence for Trixie, though. Had she known this would happen, she would have fainted on purpose, embarrassment be damned. She was in the strong arms of the most gorgeous male she had ever seen! They were flying! Could things get any more romantic?

“We’re almost there. Have no fear,” he said, determination etched into his striking features.

Okay, perhaps things were not entirely romantic: he was taking her to the medical bay. “The only fear I feel in your arms is of the doctor, Vrixiel,” she told him. “Can’t we not go?”

He stopped flying so abruptly he startled her. “You do not fear me?”

Trixie blinked. “Should I?”

“No, of course not, but… you lost consciousness upon seeing me?”

“Oh, that.” Her embarrassment returned with a vengeance. The poor guy thought she had fainted at the sight of him. Well, Trixie sort of had, but not out of fear. He was so spectacular he had taken her breath away, literally. Although, there had beenshock involved at the realization how big her fated mate was in person: tall, broad-shouldered, heavily muscled... How were they supposed tofit?

“I don’t fear you,” she said, patting his uniform-clad pectoral. “I was simply overwhelmed, I suppose. But now I’m good.”

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