Page 59 of The Marriage Bargain

“You are my mate,” I said firmly, gathering her hand and holding it to my heart. “You did not choose it. I did not choose it. Fate or the gods or the stars themselves chose it. If you will stay with me and be my wife, my mate, I cannot promise to fulfill your dreams and make you an architect, but I can promise I will do everything in my power to assist you in doing whatever you want and being whatever you want. I can’t promise there will never be challenges, but I can promise I will be there to face them with you. I cannot promise to give you everything, but I do promise you will have all of me. Forever.”

I paused to let the words sink in, uncaring of our audience, before I added, “I love you, Delle.”

She smiled a watery smile. “I love you too.” Then she reached up to twine her arms around my neck, pressing herself into me. “I love you too, Overlord. Never dreamed I’d say that, but here we are,” she half-giggled. “We’re going to stick together and work it out.”

“I cannot believe this.”

My father’s icy voice cut through the sweetness of the moment, the joy and the triumph at finally hearing my wife proclaim herself in love with me and my forever mate. Delle slid down my chest and we both turned to face my sire.

“I give you this grand opportunity,” he snarled, stalking several paces closer, “and you reject it? For her?”

He pointed at Delle, his finger in her face. Instinctively, I reacted, shoving his hand aside.

“Mind your distance, Father,” I snapped. “Recall your manners. You would not wish to break the code of Asterion Elders, would you?”

“Damn you and any codes,” Father raged. “You are returning to Asterion with me, Caide. I have no other offspring.”

“Then find a female and breed yourself some!” I shouted back. “I have chosen life on Earth and I have chosen Delle. You cannot take that from me.”

“Can’t I?”

“No, you can’t. You see, Father, that is the beauty of life here on the forsaken planet. Your influence as an Asterion Elder may take you far on our home planet, but here no one cares so very much. Here, it is what you can do and what you can build and what you can make of yourself. I’ve chosen life here. It may be simple and small in comparison to Asterion, but it is mine. And hers,” I added, nodding towards my wife. “You cannot take it from us.”

“I’m no mere Elder anymore,” my father sneered. “I told you I’ve been appointed Lead Advisor on the Interstellar Coalition. One word from me and I can have your position, your life, your job, even your freedom just like that.” He snapped his fingers, the sound harsh and loud. “I can take your precious wife and give her to him,” he continued, gesturing at the Flight Commander who approached.

Leaving Delle, I stepped in-between the other male and my mate.

“I will kill him first,” I breathed.

Abidah’s eyes narrowed, darkened. “You would not be the first to think you could kill me and die in the effort.”

“Do you assume I am frightened of you?” I laughed harshly. “Back away from my mate, Abidah. She is mine. You have lost. Find another female to breed. Maybe try one who is willing to have you this time.”

I saw his jaw clench, heard the foreign words he hissed through his teeth, and saw his hand flash towards his belt.

“Caide,” my wife screamed.

CHAPTER 33

CAIDE

I was already moving, shoving my father aside and leaping towards the Gorgathelian male. He’d reached for his stagger, a weapon capable of instantly stunning, paralyzing one’s opponent. The venom in the stagger came from cheksi insects on Planet Indor. It did not kill or do lasting harm, but victims were rendered helpless for several hours.

Plenty of time for the Flight Commander to seize Delle and spirit her away—which is what I’m sure he intended.

I crashed into him, his hand and arm pinned between us. With no other weapons at hand, I sank my teeth into the side of his neck, heard him growl in fury. He thrashed to roll me off, but I clung even tighter, grabbing his wrist so he couldn’t draw his stagger. Or, the stars forbid, his actual pistol, or even a blade tucked somewhere on his person.

I was so caught up in the struggle with the Flight Commander that I hadn’t been paying attention to Delle. She yelped, “Caide, your father—” and I heard nothing else because, seizing on the split-second of distraction, my opponent thrust with his hips and spun sideways. My teeth tore lose from his neck. Green blood streaked his neck. He yelled, but kept his wits about him. The Flight Commander had been in far too many fights among the stars to lose his mind over a struggle like this.

As he managed to throw me off, I was still holding onto his hand. I landed on my tailbone, seized his hand holding the stagger, and brought it down sharply across my knee. Groaning, he dropped the weapon and I snatched it up. In the moment it took me to roll and fire, he was already rolling and grabbing for his pistol. It was halfway out of his holster when my stagger shot took him in the chest. Instantly, he seized, his eyes rolling back in his head, his entire body trembling violently. He dropped to the floor, flat on his back, staring up at the ceiling.

Knowing he was no longer a threat, I switched my focus to my father and Delle. Everything had occurred so rapidly there hadn’t been time to stop and plan a complete defense. I suppose I hadn’t expected to see my father, never one for any sports more physical than fencing with starlight blades, locked in wrestling match with my wife. In fact, I was so shocked that I believe I froze, as my mind attempted to decipher what my eyes were telling me.

During the commotion with Abidah, my father had leapt at Delle. A pair of silver wristcuffs dangled from his fingers. I suppose he’d meant to do his part in subduing her for Abidah while Abidah subdued me. If that had been their plan, they hadn’t counted on me being able to overcome Abidah—which, I had to honestly acknowledge—had involved a great deal of luck on my side alongside sheer desperation to defend my mate. I was nowhere the trained fighter Abidah was. On an even playing field, he would have taken me down. I wasn’t too proud to admit it. But love and the need to defend one’s mate gave a male supernatural gifts, and the stars had been with me.

Now, Father faced his own mistake just as Abidah had faced me. He hadn’t reckoned on the strength and feistiness of my human bride. Delle must have sidestepped him. He must have lunged for her, catching the back of her coat. She’d cried out for me. I couldn’t help her, being busy with Abidah. But now I looked up in time to see my father clinging to her coat, while she was trying to get away. I started to go to her defense. Before I could move, my father hauled back on her coat, seizing her arm, but Delle was not going down easily. In fact, she used the momentum of my father’s pull to turn and put the full strength of her body into a solid punch that landed square on my father’s jaw.

He was not prepared for that. Likely, he harbored some foolish notion that Delle, being female and human, would not dare to strike an Overlord and a Coalition member.

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