Page 73 of Married to the Alien Mountain Man

I squinted.

Some of the trees were moving.

My heart rammed. My legs shook. Adrenaline made my hands tingle then go numb.

Two riders were heading this way, leading their herds behind them.

And behind the herds…

No. It can’t be.

But she was bigger than the bracku. So even behind them all, I could see her. The sun spilled over her hull, glinting brightly, turning her into a fucking beacon.

TheLavariya.

They’d found her. They’d found her, and had somehow hooked her up to the bracku and shuldu. Slowly, they dragged her over the land towards me.

Towardshome.

I took off at a sprint. When my husband saw me coming, he dismounted in one great leap and started jogging my way.

“Oaken!” I cried. I collided with him so hard I would have knocked a normal human man flat on his ass. As it was, Oaken only made a slight, “oof,” sound. Then, his arms went tight around me, Clutching and tense. As if a part of him had been worried he’d come back and find me gone.

After a moment, his arms began to slacken.

“Jaya, you must let go. I have something to show you!” Oaken said urgently against the top of my head.

I ignored him, hugging tighter.

“Jaya!”

“I know, Oaken! I saw her,” I breathed against his chest. “But this is way more important right now.”

I felt his sharp inhale. Then, he stilled. Something warm pressed against the top of my head.

Oaken’s cheek.

“Where are we taking this thing?” came the gruff rumble of Garrek’s voice.

I finally pulled out of my embrace with Oaken, but I slipped my fingers down his wrist to hold his hand. I didn’t want to stop touching him. Immediately, his fingers laced with mine.

Garrek and the animals had gotten quite a bit closer. He was holding Fiora’s reins in his blue fingers.

“Right beside the house, please,” I said. “Right besideourhouse.”

Garrek gave a grunt of acknowledgement in reply and continued onwards with the bracku and theLavariya.

“Our house?”

Anxiety rippled, but I smoothed it out, like I was running my hands over wrinkled satin. I thought of Nali, yawning and cozy in Killian’s arms, totally at ease because everything was alright now. And Magnolia, telling me that this world had a habit of turning your entire life upside down…

Only to right it in the best possible way.

I looked into Oaken’s questioning eyes. And I was not afraid.

“Our house,” I repeated serenely.

“But your ship!” he exclaimed. “I truly do think that it is alright! It appears as if the storm merely picked it up and set it gently back down. Once you have your new part-”

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