Patty
I was drifting invelvet warmth, soft petals caressing my arms and the side of my face with each breath I took. Fingers caressed my neck, stirring me to wakefulness.
“Patty, we have a dinner to prepare for. Time to wake up,” warm lips said against my temple.
I groaned, pressing my face into Rema’s chest and shaking my head no.
He chuckled, squeezing me tightly in his arms. “The Queen will come and get us if we don’t show.”
I smiled against his skin, picturing Imma storming into our rooms with a flurry of pissed off red feathers.
“Well, we don’t want that, do we?” I said with a sigh, leaning back to look up into his face. I blinked a few times to try and get my eyes to adjust to the dim light and realized I was covered top to bottom by his wings. He must have rolled to face me at some point and brought his other wing over us in our sleep.
“How the hell isn’t that uncomfortable?” I asked, glancing down at the feathers we were laying on, and then up at the arch of his wing above his head.
He shrugged. “They are very flexible. The bones are similar to what you humans would call cartilage. Does it hurt to bend your ears, or perhaps your nose? It is the same with my wings. As long as the joints aren't compressed too much or hyperextended, there is very little that is uncomfortable about laying on them.”
I stroked the feathers of the wing I was laying on, marveling at how soft they were. “That’s good to know.”
One less thing to worry about when I tied him to the bed… eventually.
He lifted the wing over us as I rolled away from him and off the bed, coming to my feet with a hop to grin at him. He was watching me with a crooked smile, his silver eyes warm. His hair had fallen out of its braid and the wavy strands from being braided wet were wild where they fell over his shoulders to pool on the bed in front of him. It was good to know that even aliens got bed heads.
My own hair was probably wild as well. Going to bed with loose wet hair was never a good move, but I hadn’t wanted to take the time to braid it for sleep.
Rema rolled to his back and sat up, swinging his legs over the side of the bed to stand. “I'll escort you to the dining hall whenyou are done getting dressed. You can dress casually, as this will only be the Queen and Lyees.”
I moved across the room, heading through the door into the sitting room. “You are really averse to calling them by their first names, aren’t you?”
“It is a habit… and maybe because I know it annoys them.”
I snickered, glancing over my shoulder at him. “Ah, so there is a little mischief in you after all.”
“They helped raise me. My mother often forgot about me when we were at court. I had nurses, of course, but I wandered. The Queen— Immainthe— caught me once, when I was about five or six, in one of the off limits sitting rooms in her personal wing. As she tells it, instead of fearing her— as most children do— I asked to be held. She swept me up, and I was kept with her younger children from then on when my family was in the capital. It pleased my family that the Queen and her mate had taken special interest in me, but I think it was mostly because they felt sorry for me.”
We continued across the hall and into my rooms, with Rema escorting me all the way to my changing room, stopping at the door to politely stand outside with his back turned. I stepped inside and stripped, grabbing the first set of clothes I found. I poked my head out, holding a tunic in front of my chest. “They’re moms, and probably good ones. Of course they took you under their wings. I’m glad they did.”
The thought of Rema being solely raised by his family made me want to punch something. It was obvious that Imma and Dhenea loved him.
“You are correct. They are exceptional mothers, who remain very active in their children's lives. Much to some of their eldest children’s annoyance,” he said, a smile in his voice.
My mother had left while I was young. Left me with an alcoholic father who enjoyed taking his frustrations out on hischild with his fists. I’d take overbearing, in your business moms any day. Maybe that’s why I’d liked Hella almost immediately upon meeting her, despite how much she’d scared me. Though it helped when she turned off the scary to show me she cared about me, like when she repeatedly bailed me out of jail, even when Jack wasn’t there with me. She’d never judged me either, which had been as much a balm on my injured soul as Jack snapping the neck of a bad boyfriend.
Knowing what I know now about Hella and her real nature, the fact that she’d resorted to pranks for my shenanigans instead of just eating me gave me warm fuzzy feelings.
“I’m glad you had them to make up for your real family's shortcomings. Even if Imma is a walking nightmare.”
Rema’s laughter echoed a little in the dressing room, causing a smile to widen on my face just from the sound. He had a deep laugh, one that came from his gut and seemed to gather strength as it rose. It wasn’t as boisterous as Aga’s, who laughed with his whole body, or as gravely as Ohem’s, who sounded a little like a mountain had woken up and was laughing at the little people who lived at its base, but Rema’s laugh lit a fire in me, one that warmed my soul like nothing else.
What a change my life had made. From no friends, drug addicted and adrift, to one mighty friend, who helped me stay clean, and now to many, many friends, who would stand beside me through any challenge. I was getting married to an alien who adored me, who found me interesting and beautiful, no matter the rocky nature of my past.
If getting abducted led to this much positive change— war and DNA splicing aside— I needed to set up an app or something for the rest of Earth’s women. Click here and meet the alien of your dreams, no credit card required.
Though, judging by how interested so many aliens were in the remaining single women in our group, even with Agadisappearing said interested parties— I was pretty sure he was just reassigning them to different places far away from Sam and not actually killing anyone, but one can never be sure with Aga— Earth might be getting a visit from our future government once the war was over. I imagine quite a few hopeful aliens would push for First Contact.
Sam still got a lot of heated looks and flirtatious conversation even with the threat of Aga hanging over her shoulder. Callie did too, though she either didn’t notice or was choosing to ignore them. That woman took one look at all the fancy spacecraft and it was love at first sight for her. She’d spent most of her time in the flight simulators onboard the Solus, and then she’d been flying pretty much around the clock on Korsal before she was taken. Even if someone had caught her eye, she hadn’t made time for them.
Callie needed a blind date. Or maybe a match maker! Not that any woman needed a male to complete her, but a good fuck never hurt anyone. And I hadn’t seen a single alien cock yet that wasn’t impressive as hell, not to mention that nearly all of them were matriarchal and thought females should be worshiped like the goddesses they freaking were. Good cock that wasn’t attached to a pushy asshole? Literally what every female in the universe deserved. Or if you liked other females, the plethora of beautiful, badass ladies was mind boggling. Or even better, if you like one and all? I mean, really, space was better than heaven.
