Page 13 of Chosen By the Alien King
Miekil crouched down next to me.“Are those slash wounds in her side from a dagger?”
Bile climbed up my throat when I saw what he pointed at.A single deep cut, too small to be from a machete, but about the right size for a dagger.The daggers she’d stolen from her ex?Hadhedone this to her because she was marrying me?
I leaped to my feet, a growl escaping my throat that made the approaching doctor and several others shrink back.
“Whoa, steady,” Miekil said, putting his hand on my shoulder.“You stay with your wife.I’ll check the beach house.”
“Give me some room,” the doctor said as he knelt next to Nera.
Thankfully, it was her ship’s doctor, a kindly older gentleman, not the drunkard on the staff ofAlien Love Island.
From his medical bag, he extracted something in the shape of a pill and broke it in half underneath her nose.
Immediately, her eyes snapped open.Hard and sharp and cunning before they lit into a smile when she saw me.
“Oh, hi,” she said.
Relief flooded through my veins.
“You’re hurt,” I forced out around the knot of emotion tying up my throat.
“Clearly,” she muttered.“But I’m still standing, aren’t I?”
With an unsteady hand, I smoothed her messy hair away from her face.“No.”
“Oh.”She sighed deeply.“Well, shoot.”
“Do you know what did this to you?”the doctor asked, his expression grim as he took in the cut on her side.“A wild animal?”
She shook her head.“But if by that, you mean Captain Mike Early, then yes.”
“I will kill him.Slowly.Piece by fuxxing piece.”That wasn’t just a promise, but a vow, the first of two I planned on making today.
Nera’s crew seemed to be on board with that idea.Across from me, Darc seethed, her expression brimming with hate.Mosely cracked his knuckles and split the toothpick in his mouth in two with a simple flex of his jaw.
Philip, her communications officer, just nodded.“Yeah, I’m afraid you’ll have to get in line.”
“Afterme,“ Oreo said, but her attention was focused more on Nera and less on the state of her dress, makeup, and hair while she clasped her hands to her chest.
Nera smiled up at everyone.“Sounds like a party.Looks like I’ve already brought the hangover feeling.”
“We’ll get you patched up and feeling up to your wedding in no time,” the doctor assured her.“Think you can stand?”
“Only one way to find out.”
With my help, she wobbled to her feet and leaned hard against me.“Swear you’ll wait for me for a take two on our wedding?”
I huffed out a humorless laugh.“I swear it.”
Gently, I scooped her up in my arms, and a small caravan started toward the beach house.A concerned murmur went through the crowd of onlookers as they parted for us, sending Nera well-wishes and telling her she looked beautiful.
“My sentiments exactly,” I told her when she snorted.
“So blood does it for you, huh?”She rested her cheek against my chest and closed her eyes.“I’ll keep that in mind.”
“You know what I mean.You would have to try really hard to look any other way than perfect.Always.”
“You’re just saying that because I agreed to marry you.”
