Page 44 of Rescued By the Alien Bull Rider

About all of it.

I had to get this all done quickly so that I could marry her before her wits returned. Then, I would have at least two human weeks with her. To woo her, as the warden had suggested.

In all honesty, the prospect was even more intimidating than the final exams at the Medical Academy of Zabria. I was good at studying. Good at surgery.

I was not good at… social things. Particularly with females. Back on Zabria, the women in my sphere had either been my competition at the Medical Academy, or my sister. And I’d been too young to want any of them the way I now so feverishly wanted my bride.

I’d barely slept last night with her heat behind me. I’d fantasized about her waking, turning to me, touching me.

I did not know if I was allowed to touch her in the bed.

I supposed that would have to come after the wooing.

Which I did not know how to do. Tasha, while explaining many facets of human culture, history, and biology in her book, had utterly failed to instruct me on how to make my wife want to remain my wife.

A rather unforgivable oversight.

I would have mentioned this to her, but I had more pressing things to speak with her about when I found her outside the warden’s tent.

“I will need literature,” I told her without preamble.

“Well, good morning to you, too, Zohro,” she said, shading her brown and white eyes. “What sort of literature?”

What an imbecilic question.

“Medical literature, of course. What other sort would I bother with?”

“People bother with all sorts, Zohro. Have you ever stopped to think that Jolene might like to read other kinds of things?”

The uncomfortable silence that followed clearly told her that I had not.

“Well,” I huffed, “I am sure that anything my bride deigns to read is worthwhile. But what I want is medical literature. Human medical literature. Everything you can get me relating to human pregnancy and childbirth.”

Tasha’s lips parted. Then, she gave me a knowing sort of smile.

“That’s very thoughtful of you.”

“Thoughtful?” I scoffed. “It is necessary! My bride is pregnant, and I refuse to be caught like some first-cycle student who hasn’t turned in his lab report!”

“This is bringing up a good point, though,” Tasha said, tapping her chin thoughtfully. “Jolene’s due date is around the end of the marriage trial. If she decides to stay, she’s going to give birth here. We’ll need to be prepared for that.”

“She will have Zohro,” Warden Tenn said, emerging from the tent and placing his hat atop his head, the Zabrian warden’s badge there glinting. “That should be enough.”

“Not necessarily,” Tasha cautioned. “No matter how far medicine has come, giving birth still has its risks. We obviously don’t have a hospital here.”

“Zohro has a surgical suite. He has spent cycles slowly converting a large shed.”

“For the animals!” I reminded him sharply. “I cannot inject Jolene with a sedative meant for a bracku ten times her size!”

“Definitely not,” Tasha agreed quickly. “We’re going to have to get some human-grade supplies right away. Medications, equipment…”

“How much will it cost?” Already, I was running the mental tallies. I’d told Jolene I would provide for her, and for her child. I had no problem paying for all of it.

But new medical equipment would not come cheaply, especially in the timeframe we would require delivery.

“We will pay for it.”

Tasha and I both looked at the warden.

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