Page 42 of Resisting the Alien Rider

“And this is when you left?”

There was no judgment in his gaze. Just something that resembled a grave sort of sympathy.

“Not quite, but soon after, yeah,” I told him. “I had to stick around to resolve all the legal stuff. Nelson’s will was ironclad. He’d even put aside a specific fund to pay his lawyer to settle any problems or lawsuits that might crop up. He thought of everything.”

“So you received the credits.”

“I received the credits,” I said wanly. “Didn’t spend a single one of them on myself, mind you. I put some of the money aside to fund my siblings’ education and then I donated the rest. A few days after that, I saw the advert for the bride program. And it just… It just felt like the first glimmer of hope in way too long. All I could think about were all those little ships in bottles, just like the real ships people had sent out on the sea, sink or swim. Live or die. You’d have to be so brave to do something like that. And I guess I wanted to think that I could be brave, too. I wanted to reach for happiness with both hands. Nelson had always told me to do that.”

The moment stretched, taut and heavy. I felt bad for dumping all of this on Garrek when he had his own problems to deal with, so I tried to lighten it.

“And since I hadn’t had much luck with dating the idiotic human men on Terratribe II, I figured that this could be my chance.”

“Your chance to start again?”

“My chance to find love.”

“Love. Here.” Garrek raised a sardonic brow. “Among the convicted murderers of the Zabrian Empire.”

I laughed, and it was genuine. I didn’t think it would have been possible to laugh after talking about Nelson for the first time in so long. But somehow, Garrek had made it so. I swiped a few more tears from my eyes, then plastered an adhesive bandage onto Garrek’s chest wound.

“In my defense,” I said, grinning at him, “I was lured here under false pretences. I didn’t actually know any of you were convicted felons until I arrived.”

Garrek looked surprised by this.

“Truly?”

“Truly. Don’t ask me why; I don’t know what happened there. Take it up with the warden, I guess.” I shrugged. “Pass me your tail, would you?”

Garrek dutifully draped the wounded end of his tail across my outstretched hands. I got to work dabbing more antibiotic ointment on him. Neither of us spoke for a bit, and I thought that the conversation might have run its course. I didn’t typically like silence. I found it awkward, and usually succumbed to the need to fill it, just like I had before on the shuldu with him.

But this time, I didn’t. It felt strangely comfortable to sit here in the quiet night with Garrek. Safe.

Without warning, Garrek broke the lulling peace of that silence.

“Oaken is not a murderer.”

“What?” I jerked my head up. It was unsettling, bordering on alarming, how hearing my groom’s name felt a bit like being splashed with cold water.

I hadn’t thought about Oaken even once tonight.

“Oaken is not a murderer,” Garrek repeated.

“What do you mean? I thought everyone here was-”

“Convicted, yes.”

“So…”

“So he was convicted. That does not mean he did it. He is likely the only male in this world, besides perhaps the wardens, who has not actually killed someone.” His voice roughened. “He is likely the only one of us who might actually deserve you.”

I put away the ointment and bandaged Garrek’s tail, absorbing this new information but having no real clue what to do with it.

“How do you know this?” I finally asked, gingerly setting down Garrek’s tail.

“Because he is my cousin. And the man he was convicted of killing was my father.”

“Your cousin,” I repeated, my mind scrambling to catch up “killed your father?”

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