Both Ossisos looked relieved as Nicot spoke. “Excellent, I’ll arrange it.”
As if they practiced it, the Ossisos turned at once and filed out of the room.
The moment the door shut, the crew turned on Amina.
She stepped back, holding up her hands. “What? I didn’t ask for a gift of labor!”
“We know that,” Helmen said.
“What happened last night?” Desur asked.
Did they know about the fight? Who told them? Gis said no one would find out. Helmen and the crew were already overprotective of her. They were going to be insufferable now.
“It wasn’t a big deal.” Amina tried to retreat back to her room. “I need to comb out my hair or it’ll tangle.”
“Not a big deal?” Helmen repeated, advancing on Amina with the rest of the crew close behind.
Except for Teshor, who cut off her retreat. “You slept with a Talin, someone significantly bigger than you, without any of us there? How could you do something that dangerous?”
Desur looked scared for her. “What if he’d gone into rut? You could have been hurt or even killed. You should’ve at least waited until we were back here.”
Oh, so they didn’t know about the fight, which was a relief, but that didn’t mean she wasn’t still in big trouble with her cousins.
“No need to worry about that; Talins don’t go into rut,” Amina said.
“Don’t act as if that’s the only concern,” Jossulum said.
“Did he do this?” Teshor asked, grabbing her arm and holding it up to show off a bruise on her wrist she hadn’t noticed.
“There are more bruises on her neck,” Desur said.
Everyone growled at Desur’s words.
She pulled her arm out of Teshor’s loose grip. “First, everything that happened was consensual. Second, that’s all I’m willing to say about my sex life to my cousins.”
That’s when Myrum walked in the room, his arms full of food containers. He was wearing his scarf with Ruby’s head poking out.
“I’ve brought enough food from the pleasure ship for everyone,” he said.
Four sets of angry Ugarian eyes turned to glare at him.
Before they could go after him, Amina jumped between her cousins and Myrum. “I’ve made my choice. Everything was fun. Myrum was wonderful. No one is allowed to be mean to him.”
Desur’s ears went up in surprise. “Amina, are you in love with this Talin? Are you finally thinking about marriage?”
Ugarians were all about marriage and family. She was the only member of the crew that wasn’t married. At her age, it was considered unusual and a little worrisome to her Ugarian relatives.
The moment Desur asked the question, everyone jumped on the marriage bandwagon.
“Do you want me to start the paperwork?” Teshor asked. “If we send it using the station's comms relay, it should reach an Ugarian outpost. It might not be fully approved by the time we get back, but at least it’ll be filed and allow Myrum temporary entry.”
“I’m going to send a message to the matriarchs,” Helmen said. “They’re going to want to do a full ceremony. Everyone's been waiting for this for a long time.”
“If we get back before the final harvest, we could do the mutual agreement part of the ceremony in a blooming field of filk,” Jossulum said. “I did that when I married into the Palsor family. It was beautiful. I have the image captures of it if you want to see.”
Amina turned around and drew Myrum further into the room. “I’m sorry, everyone figured out we slept together last night, and they’re jumping to conclusions.”
Myrum blinked, looking a little stunned as her cousins kept talking and planning around them. It was funny that Ruby looked a little dazed as well.
