Page 42 of Alien Protector's Nanny

“So, will you accept me, or do you just want Ayla and never to see me again?” Axur asked, waiting. She took a soft breath in, looking at him as she tried to calm her mind. The answer was simple, really.

NINETEEN

AXUR

Axur waited with bated breath. He had found a dream, one that had been locked inside his stoic, cold heart despite everything he’d tried to toss over it and bury it in obscurity. Katie had punched through those walls with her relentless drive to keep Ayla safe and sound.

He watched in that courtroom how Katie’s face changed, softening to realize their mutual adoration.

“You really mean that?” she asked, quiet in the big room.

Axur pushed past the bench and came up to her. She was struck by his forwardness, he could tell, but he also knew that she admired that in a man … in anyone, for that matter. She fiercely fought for the right to care for his niece. But she needed him to show that his own love for the child outshined any devotion he had for a career. And that was exactly what he was doing.

“I do, Katie. I can feel it inside me. I want us all to be a family. That is all that matters to me now. If you can accept that, I will do what is necessary. Always.”

Ayla sat in her little chair, legs swinging and cautious illumination of hope in her eyes. Katie bit her lip, and then finally, the most beautiful smile grew upon her lips and lit her green sea eyes ablaze.

“Yes, Axur. That is what I want. It’s what I always wanted, for all of us.”

Ayla leaped up from her seat, clapping uproariously. The grumpy judge hammered her mallet, albeit confused by the progression of the moment.

“Order, order,” she said. “Please speak directly to the court, General Axur. You as well, human visitor.”

Katie quietly sobbed, but she was gleeful. She had been holding out for him to step up, white-knuckling it, but utterly prepared to take care of the child on some foreign planet all on her own. She was the most incredible, formidable woman he ever met.

“Judge, please hand us the adoption papers. Katie and I are going to sign them as Ayla’s legal guardians.”

There were only a few people in the courtroom to act as witnesses, but they were all from his planet … varying shades of blue, a spectrum from neon to near jet black … and they all gazed up at the general at the same time. Due to their upbringing, they all held the same sentiment about military work and family life: rigid and archaic. Their looks were scathing.

“Right, General, here they are,” the judge said after a brief pause.

Axur walked up to the bench, holding his head high. As the judge handed him the thick file folder, Axur went to take it, but the judge held on. Axur’s eyes darted up to connect with his elder, who gritted her teeth grimly.

“Do you have any idea what you are doing?” she said, hissing down at the general. “Once you sign these papers, everything you worked so hard for will be inash.Set on fire. Gone into the ether.”

Axur only solemnly nodded and pulled at the file folder so it tore from the judge’s hands. The elder stared down, spectacularly appalled.

“I know what I’m doing. Thank you for the warning.”

He walked away from the bench, his head still held high. He laid the folder on the table before Katie, who wiped her eyes gently. She was infinitely magnificent.

Axur pulled a silk handkerchief from his blazer pocket and dabbed at Katie’s eyes with a tenderness even he didn’t know he was capable of. Her smile was brighter than an eclipse, more smitten and romantic than a sea of satin roses.

“Thank you,” she whispered.

Axur kissed her forehead, then moved down to Ayla, who was rambunctiously impatient to return to her fantasy world outside the monotony of legal matters. He kissed her forehead, too, and she covered her mouth to giggle.

“We will be heading home soon, sweetheart,” he said, cupping her chin. “A few more minutes, okay?”

She nodded with jubilance, and in the mirror of her plum-hued eyes, he saw his brother. It made his heart twinge.

As if to sense his plight, Katie pulled at his arm, and he straightened. They both looked over the documents as critical eyes bore down. When they got to the section that required his signature, he noticed Katie holding her breath.

“Only a legal resident of the planet can sign this,” the judge reiterated. “If you have changed your mind, good General, then do not sign. Leave it to the human.”

Axur felt his temperature rise. He was ready to snap the judge’s neck off her shoulders but managed to transmute that energy into something that felt strange but undeniably, quintessentially, love.

He picked up the pen that sat on the table, found the lines that required his mark, and swooped his initials in a matter of seconds. A quiet gasp filled the room as Axur dropped the pen, which turned into a grumble from the witnesses and the judge and a sigh of relief from Katie.

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