Page 41 of My Human Wife

{Duet+Rae+First Minister}

l.Rae leads me in to Kamos’s official receiving room. We bow when we reach Kamos and his guards at the other end of the large room. Looking around I’ve never seen such wealth on display nor so many impressive Imperial men in my life. The room is quiet with all eyes on me. I make eye contact with Kamos trying to read him, but his face reveals nothing.Has he figured out that I’ve been reading his messages while he sleeps when I stay the night in his room?

k.“Lara from Earth, then from Lord Juo and now mine,” I say looking at my adorable pet. She’s obedient and says nothing. “It wasn’t mentioned in your provenance from Gala that you spent a week at the Fertility Goddess’s Temple or time with Gael the Returner before you ended up in Gala. It says on this IGC report from the sex temple you married Gael. But this can’t be true. Speak now and explain.” Lara begins to explain herself in her seductively accented Imperial. It’s difficult for me to believe she married Gael the Returner for anything but a Uru nun’s cruel joke on her. Lara’s mine now and I’m happy to have saved her from a half-life in the galaxy.

l.I know if I say one thing incorrectly, I will be found out so I choose my words carefully. “I was kept at the horrible Fertility Temple as a ward of the sadistic nuns. They beat me and told me that I’d die with an alien rutting inside of me. When Gael the Returner came, the nuns were disappointed I wouldn’t die the way they wanted me to. They were upset about the UCs they wouldn’t make by selling a video of an Agnorrian or Uru male’s tentacled penis slowly poisoning me from inside as it rotted in my vagina. So they made Gael marry me if he wanted me so badly so then at least I would be off their hands.”

k.“And then?”

l.“Gael the Returner gave me my freedom. He said he didn’t keep pets. I pleaded with him to keep me.” I touch my exposed breasts and the men in the receiving room murmur. “I showed him how pleasing I could be, but he refused me.” I channel all the women’s thoughts I’ve been surrounded by in the harem to make myself more convincing. “But Gael refused and the UCs he gave me ran out very quickly as I didn’t know how to live. I don’t want to be free in the galaxy. I’m used to being cared for. I’m an indoor human. So I allowed myself to be sold at Gala for a new master.”

k.“It’s as I thought, you’re not a stupid pet. However I’ll have to keep you very safe from now on. Even if your marriage to Gael wasn’t real to you, he won’t annul it and it’s real to the IGC. Which means the IGC is after you.” I watch Lara’s face expression to see if she knows what this is about. She seems genuinely confused. “You see, my sweet little pet, Gael the Protector’s wife, you are legally responsible for all of his crimes. That’s the matriarchy for you.”

l.I hear Kamos’s words and my world begins to spin. I think I’m going to faint. Out of the corner of my eye I see Kamos jump upand run to me. The next thing I know I’m looking up at familiar grey faces.

r.“It’s the pregnancy I’m sure. She was healthy just a moment ago.”

l.It’s not the pregnancy. It’s the knowledge that I’m responsible for Gael’s crimes and that he won’t annul the marriage.Is our marriage real to him? Or does he plan on making me take the blame for all of his crimes? Why is Kamos in touch with Gael again?Have I been duped?

k.“Lara, I won’t let the IGC have you.” I say to her, then to Rae, “Take her to the medical center to make sure she really is fine.” I watch as Rae and my guards carry Lara away. As soon as they have left my first minister addresses me.

fm.“She could be lying.”

k.“To what end? Gael wouldn’t be able to fully protect her from the IGC and it wouldn’t have been difficult for her to find out that I’m one of the only people who could offer her a good life and IGC protection on this side of the galaxy. I think Coco is jealous of her and as for Gael well, it’s believable that he would’ve done that to free her. Of course he would have.”

fm.“It seems too convenient that she was brought to Gala on the same day you were buying though.”

k.I hold up my hand. “It was a coincidence or as I’d like to see it, good fortune. I’ll hear no more of this. If she were a spy she wouldn’t be such an eager pet and she would’ve definitely learned better Imperial before coming here. She’s been not only compliant but agreeable.”

fm.“And she’s carrying your child.”

k.“That’s only a testament to her wanting to make a permanent home here,” I say. Since Lara passed the language test my cultural minister devised for her, I’ve rewarded her by having her sleep in my rooms at least a few times a week to retrain her in what men like on this side of the galaxy. She’s become one of my favorite pets and I won’t give her up because my first minister has his doubts. “You’re being overly cautious about a harmless human pet.”

Lara

In the medical center, the doctor insists on running a complete scan. Rae and the guards wait by my side. No one is talking except the doctor to his assistant. “The pregnancy looks good.”

After another ten minutes the doctor says to Rae, “You must keep her calm.”

“I will.”

“You may go.”

Rae searches my eyes. “Can you walk?”

“Yes,” I say, taking her arm for support. The guards continue to follow us all the way back to the ornate gates of the harem. Once there, I want to go speak with Coco. She knows more about the galaxy and Gael than anyone else. But when I try to walk away from Rae she holds me back.

“You must rest.”

“I want to see Coco.”

“You can’t she’s having her baby soon. She’s been taken away to the birthing place.”

“Where’s that?”

“Not here.”

“When will she be back?”

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