Ohem handed me my choker’s matching bracelet and clasped it around my right wrist.
He pressed the bracelet, and a 3D hologram map of the ship lit up above my wrist. He touched the hologram and zoomed in the same way you would on a touch screen. He zoomed in on our common area and it had three glowing yellow human shapes seated at a table, one yellow Ohem, and a red me.
“Locate Rema,” he said. The hologram moved, a yellow line highlighting a path from us, through a maze of corridors along the ship, until it stopped at what was probably the bridge and on Rema’s glowing shape.
“That is the coolest thing ever. Thank you.” I touched the bracelet, and the hologram disappeared.
“You can communicate with us through the neck comm unit. You are welcome, Nin At’ens,” he said, smiling with his Izi at me.
I frowned at Ohem, “Nin has a bunch of different translated meanings in my mind. What does it mean when you use it like that?” I asked.
Ohem nodded. “It means honored lady, or wife, when used as a title. If only called Nin, it would mean queen. The crew will treat you as my wife even before any formal ceremony. Are you agreeable to this?” He asked me, his voice a little unsure.
I laughed and shook my head at him. “Ohem, we’re mated. As far as I’m concerned, we’re already married. Though, my people don’t really get married in the traditional sense. Mates are mates. We have a celebration after the mating is complete, but no preacher and no government paper is needed.”
Ohem leaned over and down to rub his jaw against my hair and rumbled a joyful sound at me. “Then we will have a celebration. My people only state that they are joined in front of witnesses, and it is so. I have already done this, and you did not deny it, so we are married in their eyes.”
It was official the second I sunk my teeth into his flesh, but I was kind of glad his people didn’t do any grand scale thing. Plus, getting “officially” married in front of an enormous crowd of strangers without my mother there would suck. My mom was going to be pretty put out that she didn’t get to do the whole “I’ll break your neck if you hurt my daughter” speech. Never mind that I didn’t need any help with breaking necks. One didn’t take away my mom’s thunder if they wanted to live.
“We should have a private celebration, too. Just you and me. With no interruptions,” I said to him, staring up and into his eyes so he’d understand exactly what I was saying. No fancy meals, no music. Just naked, writhing bodies on an actual bed. Or in his tub. Or on the sink. Heck, the floor was really nice with all those soft furs everywhere.
Ohem flared brightly, his eyes narrowed to slits. “Yes. Tonight. A feast can wait. I can not,” he said, his voice deep enough to vibrate the water in the glasses.
Callie cleared her throat awkwardly.
I turned to glare at her. “We’re having a moment here!”
She gave me a pleading look.
I rolled my eyes. “Okay, alright! We’ll stop. For now.”
Ohem chuckled and leaned away from me to sit upright in his seat again. “You should go explore. There are only a few places that are restricted, but that is only because they pose a danger to you. Jack and I are needed in a meeting with the officers to explain my brother and his involvement.” He paused and met each of the girl’s eyes before continuing. “We are safe on my ship. I trust most of her crew, but once we break the news of my brother’s betrayal and of what my mate is, I would like you to keep your ears open while you explore. Be careful. Stay alert. We can never be too cautious. If you want a guard, I can assign one to you.”
Patty perked up at this and got a sly look on her face.
Ohem caught it and pointed his clawed finger at her. “Not Rema, he is needed elsewhere.” He laughed when Patty deflated against the back of her chair and pouted at him. Ohem sighed. “I suppose I can let him skip this meeting. He was already briefed about my brother and Jack.”
Patty beamed at him and immediately got up from her seat and started to leave the room.
“Um Pat? You don’t have shoes on,” I said, shaking my head at her as she spun around and ran to her room to get the red leather flats we’d been issued. She jogged out of her room and waved at us over her shoulder as she left through the door.
Ohem chuckled and turned to me. “Rema told me about Patty kissing him. He is unsure, and a little intimidated by her, but finds her beautiful and fascinating. The females of his kind are solitary, shy creatures. To have one such as our Patty pursue him? He is in for a shock. I look forward to watching it happen.”
“We’ve corrupted you.” I laughed and stood, holding out my hand to Ohem. “Let’s get this meeting over with.” He took my hand and rose.
I turned as we were walking to the door to glance back at Sam and Callie, still seated at the table. “See y’all later?”
Sam raised her coffee glass and smiled at me. “Have fun! I’ll be in the lab with Dr. Ghix. I want to see if I can help with your nano data.”
“I’m going to go check out those black jets we saw in the hangar,” Callie said, practically vibrating with anticipation.
I waved goodbye and followed Ohem out into the hall, tilting my head back to look up at him. “On a scale from one to ten, how fucked are we?” I asked. I was going to need serious chiropractic work done from all the staring up at him I was going to be doing for the rest of my life.
He chuffed and cocked his head at me. “What do you mean?”
I waved my hand in the air in front of me. “You know, how much trouble is this going to be? Telling your people their leader is an asshole and I’m the creature out of the worst part of their history books.”
Ohem paused for a moment to pull me into the portal tube. “My officers are the best soldiers in the Unity. I hand picked and trained most of them. There are a few that I would like to watch, however. One has always given me trouble. The rest of the crew? While I am confident that most are loyal, it is impossible to know if all of them, down to the last sanitary worker, will be as trustworthy as I hope. It was something that Rema reminded me of when I spoke to him this morning. My second is rather skeptical of others. You and he are very much alike in that regard.”
