You may now kiss the bride rings out in my head.
“Nope!” I bark out. “Nothing at all! Maybe a handshake but that’s it. Nothing else.”
“Then we will shake hands on it, Kim,” the big cat alien says. He holds his hand out to me, palm up.
After a moment’s hesitation, I place mine in his. It feels slightly springy on the palm and fingertips, kind of like the pads of a cat’s feet, but it’s shaped like mine. Five fingers, too. There’s dark, retractable claws hiding under his finger fur, but I notice it’s less thick here than on his shoulders and upper chest. Interesting.
Not that I care about a praxiian’s hands.
He lets me rest my palm flat on his, and then jiggles it. “A shake to seal things.”
I try not to snicker. That…was not a handshake. But it’s still kinda cute. “Totally.”
“Congratulations,” the szzt says. “You are now officially mated…for some reason.” He shrugs. “The forms will be filed later tonight. Now, get out of here.”
Nassakth puts his big hand back on my shoulder and gestures that we should leave the courthouse. As we head to the door, I see a tall, lean blue figure leaning against the doorway. It’s a familiar woman in a thick, dark cloak, and she pushes the hood back as we approach. A smile curves Bethiah’s face.
“Are congratulations in order?” the bounty hunter asks, smirking.
14
NASSAKTH
To my great surprise, my small, delicate human mate lunges for the bounty hunter. “You!” I grab her before she can get herself into trouble, and Kim flails and punches at the air, snarling at the mesakkah woman. “You…cheater!”
“Someone’s not happy with their purchase, I see,” Bethiah comments. “Which is odd, considering she’s marrying it.” The bounty hunter looks over at me. “You must be persuasive.”
“I want my money back,” Kim shouts, squirming in my grasp. “You cheated me!”
“No refunds,” Bethiah says, and winks at me.
“You sold me the neighbor I was trying to get protection from!”
“So you’re marrying him?” She squints, then shakes her head. “Humans. So irrational.”
Kim makes another noise of outrage.
I stroke Kim’s head, trying to calm her with some petting. “My Kim thought I was threatening her. She was not happy to see me, but we have worked out an agreement.”
“Your Kim?” Bethiah echoes. “Another happy customer, I see.” She ignores Kim’s snarl of rage and looks over at me. “I’m here for the other half of my money.”
“No one’s paying you!” Kim bellows, louder than I knew a human could be. She twists in my grasp again, and I set her down before she can hurt herself. When I try to pet her soft head again, she bats my hand away. “And you, what are you doing?”
“Calming you,” I answer. “And I will pay Bethiah. It is only fair. She did the job she was asked to do.”
The bounty hunter smirks. “I knew I liked you, cat. And she’ll come around. I’m guessing she hasn’t gotten a chance to get her hands on the grand masterpiece of yours?”
My tail flicks with embarrassment.
“What grand masterpiece?” Kim asks, brows furrowing. She looks up at me.
“I said it was grand, not a masterpiece.” Then, I clear my throat. “And it is not important.”
“Seemed pretty important to me, but whatever.” Bethiah just grins and puts her hand out. I fish a few more credits out of my wallet and pass them on, and the bounty hunter gives me a nod. “Pleasure doing business with you, cat. If you need anything in the future, you know who to call.”
“Not you!” Kim sputters. “I tried calling you all night long—”
Bethiah puts one long finger over Kim’s mouth. “Shhhh. Shhhh. Let me give you a little tip, friend.” She leans over and whispers something into Kim’s ear, and even though I prick my ears, I cannot make it out. The bounty hunter strokes Kim’s cheek and then saunters away, heading out of the courthouse. “Be seeing you two around…maybe.”
I look over at Kim, whose face is bright red. “What did she say to you?”
“Nothing. Nothing at all. Let’s just get out of here.”
We head back out to Kim’s air-sled, a model several generations old and badly in need of maintenance. I fire it up, frowning to myself at the rattle the engine makes. I knew Kim’s farm was small and unpleasant, but I had no idea that all of her equipment was outdated and on the verge of being destroyed. How do they expect these helpless humans to cope if they aren’t given the proper tools? Do they even know what the proper tools look like? I say nothing, because I don’t want Kim to think I’m criticizing her. She’s doing the best she can. I steer the sled to the outskirts of town and glance over at my new mate. Her hands are twisted in her lap, her knuckles white, and she gazes out the window as if lost in thought…or desperate to be away from me.
That makes me sad. I wonder if she will ever let me prove that I can be a good mate to her, or if she is just determined to hate me. “Shall we go to my homestead?”
“I’d rather just go home to my house,” Kim admits, glancing over at me. “I’m sure we can set you up a bed in the living area.”
“Your noli is due to be harvested soon,” I point out. “It might not be wise for me to be around it for long periods of time. It might…affect me.”
“Oh.” She looks over at me with a skeptical expression. “Why did you want to marry me if you can’t even be around my farm?”
Because I do not want you for your farm, I want to tell her. Because ever since I saw you in the streets talking to another human while in port, I wanted you. Because you smiled so brightly at her that it made all the dark places in my heart disappear. Because I want you to smile at me like that. But I cannot say those things to her.
So I just shrug.
“I guess we can go to your farm for a bit. But I don’t know if I’ll want to stay there.”
“Of course. Whatever you want to do, we will do.”
Kim snorts. “People keep saying that and yet I keep getting pushed around. I’m supposed to have more freedom than I did as a slave, and yet I find myself cornered far too often for me to feel free.” She stares out the window of the air-sled again and I am left with a sense of guilt.
Does she feel I pushed her into our mating? Does she hate me for it?
Yet…she was not the only one without options. The moment I heard she hired the bounty hunter to bring her a husband, I knew I had to take action to protect her.
I did not want to have to get rid of another one of her “suitors.” Even on a farm planet, if people go missing for too long, it is bound to attract notice. Especially the bad people—they tend to have more connections than the good ones. A human female goes missing and no one notices, but the moment you get rid of a mesakkah male who’s frequently at port, people start to wonder.
No, Kim is safest with me. She just doesn’t realize it yet. No other male would be idiotic enough to offer to marry without sex, but I am so lost in my heart-feelings for her that I am exactly the kind of idiot she needs.