Page 37 of Return of the Nine

His normally cocky behaviour wobbled. “You want your family to meet me?”

She started to laugh and slowly trailed her fingers down his chest. “We can live here, work here, do whatever you want to here, but they have to see us, to see us happy.”

“Are you happy?” There was vulnerability in his eyes that caused an ache in her heart.

“I cannot imagine me feeling more for anyone in the universe. If that is not happy, I don’t know what is.”

He chuckled and spun her around in his arms, and despite the discomfort, they managed to get up to six.

“Are you happy that she is here, Signy?” Rothaway caressed his mate’s creamy shoulder in the early light of the ship’s dawn.

She smiled up at him, and the glow of happiness coming from her features nearly blinded him. “I am so very happy that she is here. Will there be a problem with the People of the Air for having one of their princes taking a Gaian to wife?”

“If there are, Tonos will handle it. He has always known what he wanted and that it did not reside on his home world. Perhaps coming out here was fate, destiny or just good planning on his part. All I know is that now that she is wed to him, my mate has more time for me, and so in that case, I wish them all the love in the worlds... that we are not using.”

Signy reached up to him and pulled him to her with her rapidly increasing strength. It may be coincidence, but she had more Wilder characteristics with every passing day, and to be honest with himself, Rothaway couldn’t be happier.

Hiding

Return of the Nine Book Three

By

Viola Grace

Chapter One

The first time she heard of a Gaian marrying one of the Nine, she didn’t believe it. Daphne Hallow still didn’t believe it when it was announced that the reception for Tiera McKenzie and a huge pixie named Tonos was going to take place at the hall where Daphne worked.

Now, surrounded by alien warriors from the ship above them, Daphne was finally cluing in that it might be true.

She and the rest of the serving staff were on alert, waiting for the introduction of the couple. Her heart pounded as the gathering filled with beings that were similar to those of Gaia but different in a variety of ways.

They were predominantly male and seated separately from the Gaians. The Nine were in the shape of creatures of myth and legend, from Fairies like the groom, to shadows that clung to living flesh.

Daphne and the other servers had been selected after a rigorous security scan to make sure that the incoming Nine would be safe with them. She had never been a high-security waitress before, but she supposed that there was a first time for everything.

They had been through days of etiquette training, practice runs and disaster drills. It was the most intense thing that Daphne had been through since her parents were taken in the first of the Tokkel raids and never seen again.

The facility manager and the etiquette advisor of the Nine passed their ranks with careful attention. All the hair on the females had to be braided and fastened at the back of the skull. Sleeves needed to be long to prevent accidental contact.Trousers were to be loose and a wide sash on the long shirt fastened and flattened everything into a column. The men were dressed the same. They were all completely sexless and lacking any individuality. Perfect.

Daphne had to admit that she was happy to be lost in a crowd. Normally, she needed to exert herself into being ignored, but in this group, she blended into nothing.

The uniforms that they wore were unrelieved black. Normally, the colour would not be considered for a wedding banquet, but this was a special occasion. It was the first celebration between a Gaian and a member of the Nine.

The member of the Nine sent to prepare them was a woman of the Wilder clan. She sniffed the air carefully as she passed, shaking her head at a few of the women, sending them back for another shower to remove all traces of scent from their skin.

That the Nine were scent sensitive was an oddity that made a certain sense to the Gaians. They were picking up their own peculiarities as time went on and enhanced senses were only the tip of the iceberg.

When Daphne was authorized, she relaxed slightly. Her station in life had taken a turn when her family had died, and she had turned from a student of Gaian and Terran histories to a general labourer.

Most around the colony had something that needed doing, and she was excellent at being unobtrusive in her work, no matter what the task was.

She perked up as one of the McKenzie family stood to speak. “Ladies and gentlemen from Gaia and the Nine, welcome one and all to this celebration of the union of our two races in the embrace of this couple. Tiera and Tonos.”

The crowd turned and applause rang out as Tiera McKenzie and her husband, Tonos, made their way to the head table and sat down.

With the signal given, Daphne and the others moved into action. It was time to serve.

---