Page 66 of Resisting the Alien Rider

My heart squeezed.

“But next time,” he said with mock sternness, “I will make sure I am well enough to go and get her myself. So that some strapping, growling, blue-tailed riderdoes not woo her away from me before I even get the chance to meet her.”

“I really am sorry, Oaken. I never meant to-”

“Don’t be sorry.” He patted the mattress. He was just a little too polite, I guessed, to pat my leg or my hand when we’d only just met and I clearly wasn’t feeling my best. That tiny courtesy touched me deeply.

“I have a feeling,” he said, “that things worked out just as they were meant to.” His green ears twitched. “Speaking of which…”

Must have been that legendary Zabrian hearing. Because Oaken turned towards the bedroom doorway a full three seconds before I heard the heavy fall of boots approaching at rapid speed.

Garrek nearly fell through the doorway. His body was chaos and beauty and motion. Motion that stopped when the piercing white of his eyes landed on me.

“You’re here,” I whispered. Even though Oaken had said he was, a paranoid part of me hadn’t truly believed him. A part of me still couldn’t disentangle my memories from dreams.

“Of course I am.” He swallowed, thick throat bobbing. “I heard your voice. I ran.”

Garrek came all the way into the room and sank to his knees beside the bed. Oaken discreetly got up and moved away. Or, he would have been discreet if he hadn’t hopped and hobbled and nearly knocked over the chair, swearing under his breath the entire way.

He closed the door behind him.

“What happened?”

With Garrek’s hands cupping mine and his thumbs pressed to my wrists – as if he needed to feel the rhythm of my pulse – he told me. He told me about the ardu bite. About Oaken coming upon us and then the mad dash back here. About Oaken’s miraculous cure. About the fact that I’d been asleep for a full day, a full night, and most of the next day after that.

“Killian brought our things and the animals here,” he told me. “They’re safe in one of Oaken’s pastures. And he’s been helping me construct another small cabin on Oaken’s property. We can stay here while you recover. And while Oaken recovers, too. Killian and I are assisting him with his herd and his chores.”

“Oaken told me… He told me the wedding is off.”

Garrek didn’t look surprised by this.

“Yes.”

“You know I love you, right?” I blurted. “Because Oaken said you told him everything, but I don’t know what everything is. I don’t know what’s real and what isn’t. And I’m afraid that maybe I’ve just dreamed the past few days, or-”

Garrek swallowed my words with his own mouth. I jerked in his arms, then melted, my tired muscles relaxing instantly against him.

Relaxing because he felt like home.

His lips moved over mine, both comforting and pleading. I wasn’t strong enough to kiss him back the way I wanted to. The way that would tell him I understood. I weakly squeezed his fingers, tears gathering in my eyes, hoping that he’d know it anyway.

“I love you, Magnolia,” he rasped against my mouth. “I have since that very first night I met you.”

“You… You have?” I felt dizzy, and it wasn’t from the ardu bite. He’d acted like he barely tolerated me in the beginning. “But… You never let on…”

“My eyes did,” he said cryptically.

My head swam. I was too tired to figure out what he meant about his eyes.

“Magnolia.”

I focused my hazy gaze onto his face.

I’d never seen anything so beautiful.

“I want to marry you,” he said. “I want to build a life with you. Family. With you and Killian both.”

My battered heart took flight.

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