Chapter 10

I was barely payingattention to the ceremony.

My plan had been to smile at the camera every once in a while to make the eventual audience feel like they were a part of everything, like they were on the journey with me, but I couldn't look away from him.

He had colorful frills around his head that had spikes on the end.

How I had managed to avoid stabbing myself on them when I climbed on his back was a serious mystery I needed to solve. But not at the moment. At the moment, I couldn't do anything more than stare at them.

They changed colors.

His headdress was a slowly shifting array of iridescent colors that fluttered like wind across the surface of a lake. His eyes were also changing colors, matching the display so that a color would cross the whole plane of the painting he was creating, from one side, across his eyes, and to the other.

The muscles in my shoulders relaxed.

It was like having my head and shoulders supported while I floated on my back in a heated outdoor hot spring, looking up at the brilliant stars above my head and knowing that I was a small speck of star dust riding on a massive spaceship called Earth as it hurtled, spiraling as it chased after the gravitational pull of a runaway star.

I blinked as a word caught my attention, pulling me back to what the preacher was saying beside me with a surge of emotion.

"I'm sorry, what did you say?" I asked. "You want me to repeat what?"

"The vows." The preacher frowned at me. "I vow to be obedient and..."

"Oh, heck no," I cut him off. "There is no way I'm including obedience in my marriage vows. Are you seriously marrying people and having them declaring a kink in front of the entire audience. You are one spicy preacher."

The man's face turned bright red.

"Caley." I turned to look at her. "Make a note; you need to write up some vow options to give to the prospective couple or give them a minute to write their own. Don't spring kink on them without letting them decide that for themselves in advance."

"Obedience isn't kink!" the preacher squawked.

"Shush, you clearly don't know what you're talking about." I turned back to smile at Aeson. "I can come up with my vows on the spot, I'm great at improv."

"I am eager to hear them." Aeson smiled down at me. "I am delighted that you reject obedience as a promise to me. I would rather you promise to challenge me."

"Oh, that's a good one. Okay. Are we still recording Caley?" I asked.

"Yes," she replied. "Do you want me to stop? Should I have stopped while you were giving notes?"

"No, no, that's why this isn't live streamed," I added.

I took a deep breath and gave Aeson my best, adoring smile.

The colors fluttered across his cobra like hood of fringes in response.

"I vow to challenge you," I started out. "To encourage you to be the best version of yourself and to provide a safe place for you to discover that. I promise to be by your side through sickness and health, to listen with empathy when we need to talk things out, and to be patient when we need it so that our bond can grow. I vow that I will choose honesty."

"Aeson, seventh son of the seventh clutch of the Tsalu Salintinith Matriarch, you may recite your vows," the preacher said.

"I vow to defend you with my body, mind, and heart, to provide for you in every way that you need and every way that you desire," he said, the words sending a shiver through my spine. "I vow to support your dreams and your goals, to lift you up so that you may touch the stars that live in your mind. I vow to always give you the honesty of my heart, the directness of my mind packaged in kindness, and the patience that comes with knowing that your thoughts and feelings are precious gifts to be cherished."

"That's beautiful," I sighed, the warm glow in my chest burning brighter, bringing the sharp cut of tears forming suddenly in my eyes. I widened them, letting the dry California air hold them back, keep them in place.

"Aeson, the ring," the preacher said, and Aeson lifted my hand and slid a ring on to my finger. "You say, with this ring, I thee wed."

"With this ring, I thee wed," Aeson said.

I looked down at it, the sudden sparkle of gems catching the sunlight. The shimmering, smooth, chromatic band was a metal I didn't recognize. It was embellished with tiny glowing jewels that glowed with an otherworldly light. The design of the ring revolved around a transparent, sparkling diamond dome that held what looked like a miniature comet flying through a background of stars.

"I had it made in preparation of this ceremony," Aeson said softly. "It is made with material from my family's ancestral lands."

"I don't have a ring for you." I looked up at him.

"The Atisari tradition of marking a married man… I mean, a married male is different," the preacher said. "We are honoring the individual traditions of each species in a blended ceremony."

"Right, okay, what do I do next?" I asked.

The preacher cleared his throat and turned around to reach for something leaning against the archway behind him. He turned back, holding up a clipboard and a dagger that was the same chromatic color as my wedding band.

"The female marks her mates herself with her claws," Aeson said. "Since you do not have the physical ability to pierce my skin, I have brought a dagger that will suffice."

"You want me to do what exactly?" I shot a look over at Caley.

"To claim me as yours, you must carve your design into my chest." Aeson's deep voice drew my gaze back to him.

The preacher held out the knife.

"I don't have a design." I glanced at the knife, then back at Aeson. "Don't get me wrong, I want to honor your culture, but scarring your body is a pretty big thing for me to be put on the spot for."

"You do not need to come up with your design right now, just make one mark to start it." Aeson stroked his thumb over the back of my hand, brushing against my ring. "Most females solidify their design over time, adding onto it every time they add a new male to the harem."

"Harem?" the pastor croaked out, taking a step back.

"No harem," I replied, dropping Aeson's hands to reach out to take the knife out of his hands. "This is a one woman, one alien kind of deal."

I turned back to Aeson and he pulled his shoulders back, lowering himself on his tail so that he was closer to my height.

"Here." He tapped his finger on the right side of his chest. "Over my secondary heart."

"Secondary, huh?" I asked, placing the knife against his bulging pectoral.

"Your species is small enough to only need one heart." He gestured at his long tail, which curled back behind him down the path. "You have not faced enough violent evolutionary pressure to develop interlinking redundant systems. My species has different circulatory needs."

"Let's do this then." I pushed forward with the knife, trying not to wince as I dragged it down his chest to make a small cut. Blue blood oozed out of the cut. "With this cut, I thee wed."

"I now pronounce you husband and wife," the pastor sighed. "You may now kiss the bride."

Aeson leaned into the knife, and I tried to pull it back, but he wrapped his arms around me and lifted me up off the ground, turning so that he wrapped around me with his tail, securing my hips against him in a tight grip. As he gently squeezed my legs together, a wave of heat surged through my body. The sensation of his scales gently rubbing against the outside of my dress and pulling up the hem to brush against my calves added to the delicious friction.

I lifted the knife up and pressed it against his throat, and his eyes flashed.

Red, like a sunset dipped in blood, flashed across the hood framing his face.

I parted my lips, not sure what I was going to say or why I was even threatening him like this. I didn't end up saying anything at all, instead just watching as he leaned his throat against the knife, lowering his face down to mine. When I saw the small trickle of blue run down the side of his throat, I pulled the knife back, removing all obstacles between us.

His lips found mine.

The world vanished around me as I was pulled back into the reality where only he and I existed. All that mattered was the sensation of his hand stroking down the side of my body to grip my hip. All I could feel was his fingers threading through my hair, gently controlling my head as he captured my mouth, tasting me, invading me, sparking a firestorm of desire that went beyond basic arousal.

With his kiss, he was making me a promise.

When he pulled his mouth away from mine, his eyes flicking back and forth across mine, I realized my feet were dangling in the air.

"I'm ready to go home now," I said, the huskiness of my own voice surprising me.

"In being accepted into this service, I was tasked with making sure I adhered to proper human traditions." He gently sat me down on my feet, lowering his upper body and keeping one of his arms wrapped around my waist. "I have prepared a honeymoon."

"Oh, you have, have you?" I asked. "Where are we going for our honeymoon?"

He lifted his hand and pointed at the sky.

I looked up, seeing the beautiful silver orb of the moon lined up with his finger.

"Say it," I demanded.

"I have prepared a honeymoon," he said.

"WHERE is our honeymoon?" I demanded again, my fingers gripping his arm. "Exactly where?"

"On the moon, as it is a honeymoon." He blinked rapidly. "There weren't any proper resort facilities there, so I had one built to properly accommodate both of our needs."

"You built a honeymoon resort on the moon?" I repeated, squeezing my eyes shut for a moment before opening them again. "So that we could honeymoon?"

My heart was a solid steady beat, rising in tempo as the strangeness of it all made me feel like I was at a distance, watching a strange sort of play that was acting out in front of me.

"Yes." He tilted his head to the side. "Are we having a translator difficulty?"

"No," I shook my head. "By all means, take me to your spaceship… after we swing by my house. I can't just fly off to the moon without some outfits."

He didn't have to be asked twice.

He swept me up in his arms, one going under the back of my knees, the other across my upper back, and he carried me across the massive backyard, heading deeper into the acre deep yard. Adrenaline raced through me as I felt his strong arms wrapped around me, holding me up in the air like I was nothing more than a toy in his grasp.

It was strange, delightful, and exciting all in the same moment.

But there was something more important than the fact that my new husband could alien-handle me like my hours working on the weight machines in the gym meant nothing at all.

Something I couldn't live without.

"Wait!" I cried out, reaching back towards Caley. "My phone!"

Caley was already following after us, my phone and my purse held up. She knew me so well. Aeson stopped, turned, and lowered me so I could grab them out of Caley's hands.

"That isn't going to work on the moon," Caley pointed out. "But I do have something better."

She held out a small wristband. It was narrower, about the size of a delicate watch strap. I held out my hand and she slipped it onto my wrist. There wasn't any screen on it or anything. It was just a light green leather looking strap.

"Thanks?" I lifted my eyebrow at her.

She grabbed my wrist that held my phone and tapped my phone against the wristband. There was a small chirp.

"There, it is synced to all your data. Tap on the indentation when you want to call me." Caley pointed at the center of the strap. She straightened up, rolling her shoulders back and thrusting out her chest. "It is my responsibility to make sure my clients are satisfied with their match and you can't go flying off to the moon without being able to call me and tell me about it."

"I will," I laughed. Then I thought about what had happened with Aeson's tongue a few hours before the wedding. "Eventually. Probably not right away."

"Understood." Caley relaxed her jaw and smiled at me. "I sent your address to your new husband's unit so he knows where to go. Have fun."

Aeson took that as his cue to book it back towards the back of the garden, where there was a large empty cement slab. As we approached it, a light shimmer in the air rippled, revealing a two story tic tac.

A hole opened in the bottom of the tic tac and Aeson carried me inside and set me down in chair. The chair was thick and plushy, and I sank down into it like it was determined to eat me. The soft yellow surface pillowed around my arms. I tried to lift my arms up, only to discover that the chair was indeed eating me.

"I had this added for you." Aeson patted me gently on the head.

"Aeson, I can't get up," I pointed out. "You made a restraint chair just for me?"

"Yes, to ensure you are unaffected by the acceleration and directional changes of my craft," he replied, the hole in the wall sliding up and vanishing. The rest of the room was a soft beige, a smooth interior surface with no other furniture or defining features. There weren't any portholes or screens.

Just beige.

Aeson wrapped himself around my chair several times before lifting up in the air above my head.

"We will be there shortly," he said.

Then he stuck his entire upper body through the ceiling.

"Alright then," I said. "Going to swing by my house in a giant tic tac."

I sat there and waited.

Nothing happened.

This was weird.

I'd just married an alien and then gotten on his spaceship.

It had only been a few minutes since he stuck his upper body through the ceiling, but I could feel my heart racing. It felt like there was a weight pressing down on my lungs. My thoughts ran away from me, trembling like a hamster on a wheel, spinning endlessly in one space, round and round, over and over. Should I have gone with him? Was I making the right decision? Had I just thrown my life away, getting into this spaceship with an alien I barely knew who had been vetted by a friend who didn't even warn me he didn't have any legs? Not that it should matter, or should it? What if he was a double amputee human and I didn't know it before I met him, would that be the same thing? No, this guy was a giant snake man, a Naga, something that showed up repeatedly in human lore and knowing that in advance, at least knowing a little bit about his culture so that I didn't sexually proposition him as my first interaction, would have been a good idea. I didn't know that so maybe this whole moon base was me agreeing to something else that I didn't know about in advance. Maybe this was a terrible, horrible idea.

I really needed to take a Blamex.

At that moment, the floor disappeared.

I was sitting in a chair, my feet dangling out over open space.

Not the ground, but outer freaking space.

The Earth was below me.

It was a brilliant blue, green, and gold gem, a breathtaking sparkle on a shimmering black backdrop, splattered with stars. It was gorgeously overwhelming, set to the background drumbeat of my out of control heart pounding as if I was sprinting up a mountain. I took a deep shuddering breath, trying to rein my thoughts in and focus on the present moment of exquisite beauty, but what should have been a gorgeous moment filled with overwhelming, rising panic.

I couldn't move my arms to grab my meds.

I needed them. They had worn off and I needed them. I needed something to stop this crushing terror. I was going to die. I was going to suffocate, out here in space, at the mercy of a monstrous alien that I married because I was tonguematized and would rather go hard in the direction the haters hated me for rather than ghost the guy and go on a groveling apology tour. I didn't have to do this. I didn't have to be here. I could have just rolled over and shown my belly and hoped the internet mob would take pity on me and convince my job to take me back. Instead I was in space with a giant monster snake who wasn't taking me to my home. Who knew where he was taking me?

A sob ripped free from my mouth as I desperately tried to suck in air.

Tears streamed down my face.

I was suffocating. I was being crushed. This chair was too tight. I struggled against it, trying to free myself but I couldn't move at all. It was compressing me.

There was a small, logical part of my brain that quivered under the wave of anxiety, calmly noting that in the past, these intense surges of panic only happened when I tried to get off the meds, that maybe the situation was quite the way I was thinking of it, and maybe if I had just snapped off a piece of the pill bar and popped it before getting in the ship, I would be looking at things differently.

But that part of my brain was swept under by a tidal wave of panic.

I screamed.