Page 10 of Bound By the Alien King

“Starcursed female,” he snarled. “Walk back into the sea if you are so eager to die. Don’t make me go to the trouble of dropping you in it.”

“You’ve already proven you won’t hurt me.”

“No, but now you’ve forced me to deliver you to those who you say will,” he said grimly. He took her elbow and steered her down the passageway, conscious of the thick velvet that separated her tender skin from his touch. His fingers tightened reflexively, seeking the shape of her beneath the fabric, but she wrenched her arm away.

“I won’t go!” she said hotly. She paused and, smoothing the front of her bodice, inhaled deeply. When she resumed speaking, her voice was unnaturally level. “You don’t have to deliver me anywhere. Carry on with your life, Damir. I’m no longer your responsibility.”

If only that were true.

If only he were not the king. If only he did not have to marry a stranger in two nights to protect his people. Then he could—

He wouldn’t even let himself think it.

He banded his arms around her and, half-flying for the last stretch of passageway, launched them both out of the cavern’s mouth and into the night air.

One, two, three beats of his wings, and they cleared the treeline. Another two and they were high enough to see the colony’s pinprick lights where it rested like a stain in the dark waters of the Bite. Aster twisted in his grip, shouting into the wind. It took everything in him to keep from dropping her. And he nearly did when she jammed a knee up into his balls.

The pain made his left wing cramp and sent them careening toward the shoreline. He righted before they clipped the spiky top of an elannot grove that bordered the crescent beach, just in time to land gracelessly in the sand.

“Cease or you’ll endanger us both!” he raged. She marched away from him in the direction of the cave, moons-light shining on the twine of her plait as it swung in the center of her back. “If you think I will not force you to return, you are being wishful. And if you think you can survive a night alone in the forests, even more so.”

She whirled back on him. “I am being wishful? You are, if you think I will do your bidding simply because you ask it of me. If I were such a woman, I would have stayed in the colony and married my hateful cousin. I am thankful to you for saving my life, sir, but I do not owe you my safety, and I do not need your permission. The risk is mine to bear, like Herold’s thumbprints were.”

Once again, she confused her own interests with his. And this foolhardy female could listen—he knew she could. If only she would stop long enough to hear him speak! She was already almost to the scrubby strip of brush that lined the edge of the forest.

He was on her in an instant, catching her wrists in one hand before felling them both into the soft sand, careful not to crush her. Her skirts fanned out beneath him as they landed, their lips nearly touching as a swift wingbeat slowed their fall. Still, the landing knocked the air out of both of them.

When he’d recovered his breath, he said, “You risk more than a few bruises at a cruel man’s hands. You risk both our people. You risk voiding our careful peace. It is not some selfish desire to return you. It is a necessity for my kin. Nothing must jeopardize the Revel this year or even put a question on it.”

“Too late for that,” she said defiantly.

Chapter 6

“What do you mean?” he demanded, face only inches above hers.

“I told you,” Aster grit through her teeth as she struggled and failed heave him off her. Pinned under his dense weight, hips cradled by sand, she sighed. “I told you. The wedding. It isn’t just me and Herold. Everyone’s afraid the Nightborn king will choose their daughter as his bride, so it’s been a frenzy for husbands since Manna-moon. I’d already be married off if it weren’t for my shortcomings.”

“And those are?” The moons-light glinted in his dark eyes.

“Many,” she bit out, as if they weren’t on full display. Her lack of delicacy, her stubbornness, her unwilling nature. She steered the topic away from herself before she was forced to confess them all. “The competition for matches drove the dowries so high that the council gave an order to keep the peace. All colony women of age must be matched by the Revel. They paid an outsider to offer herself as the only choice, so your king will have to accept her. But how can a human queen keep the peace between us if the council doesn’t care about her welfare?”

He stilled, and something passed over his face. He understood then, how terrible it was. The poor woman the council had recruited, likely with lies and bribes, was not insurance against a future war. She was a sacrifice. He understood.

“So you see,” she continued. “It is not I who risk the Revel, it is their selfish schemes. If I’m caught, they might blame me, but I would not have left if it weren’t for their order.”

“You would have stayed and married Herold if they hadn’t forced you?” He delivered the question with a bit of a growl at the end.

“Of course not. But neither would my father have promised me to Herold without my consent,” she explained. “He’s cold, but he’s not a monster. Not usually.”

Damir released her instantly and stood back as though she were still drenched in saltwater. “Is that what you think of me, even still? A monster?”

“No, quite the opposite.” Despite his habit of restraining her against her will, he was the most civilized male she could recall meeting. He spoke with conviction and kept his word, at least. Aster sat up, gathering her skirts to rise.

“Yet I am the one forcing you to marry Herold by returning you to the colony, so I must be,” he said sadly. He reached a hand to help her to her feet and then set about brushing damp particles of sand from her skirts, taking extra care around her hips to avoid any impropriety, even after he’d seen her behaving so wantonly. His thoughtful aid put a lump in her throat.

“You’re still going to do it, even after what I’ve told you? Knowing full well the council will not meet the terms of the treaty in good faith? That they will force the king’s choice?”

“Will you let me fly you home now without killing us both?” he asked, ignoring her question.