Chapter 23

"I have a gift for you."Aeson was behind me on the trail. It was a little too narrow for us to walk side by side the entire time given that the thickest part of his tail would take up most of a human sized doorway.

I turned to look at him.

He held out a necklace.

It was unique, unlike the jewelry I'd seen most of my life, but still having the eye-catching sparkle and beauty of a good accent piece. The centerpiece featured a winding design, coiling around itself in a complex pattern. The material used was unexpectedly light and shimmered with an iridescent sheen, changing colors as the light shifted.

This winding form was made from a material that had the same warm glow I associated with gold but had a solid weight to it. I adjusted the piece in my hands and it shifted like a living creature.

"This is gorgeous, though," I held it back out to him, "why is it moving?"

"It settles once you put it on," he replied. "It adjusts to your form and is currently taking bio readings."

"What does it do?" I asked. "If it is taking bio readings, does it like send them to you? Is it monitoring my health? I'm not sure if I like that idea."

"Your wristband already does that." The smile faded from his lips. "I can show you how to turn it off."

"How long has it been sending you info on me?" I demanded.

"Since you visited the Norratar doctor," he replied. "I used it heavily during the… program that you went through to ensure you weren't in any physical danger. I didn't feel comfortable doing it without that information as I'm not experienced enough with human bodies."

"You were experienced enough to give me head," I pointed out.

"Giving you pleasure is not the same thing as convincing your body that it is in danger," he pointed out. "On which subject, that is what this necklace is for."

"To convince my body it"s in danger?" I smiled as I deliberately misunderstood him.

"No," he replied, his tone even and patient, not responding to my bratty poke. "To protect your body from danger. This is a device the Norratar developed after first contact with my species. It is a compression protector and a kinetic force disruptor."

I stared at him for a long moment.

"You're giving me a piece of space jewelry that…" I trailed off, feeling suddenly vulnerable.

"It will protect you from choking or compression," he replied. "As well as from most forms of kinetic weapons that exist on this planet."

"Magic armor," I replied, blinking rapidly as tears filled my eyes.

"It is technology, not magic," he said gently.

"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic," I quoted. "It's space magic."

"Space magic." He smiled.

"Help me put it on." I turned around, putting the necklace against my collarbones as I draped the two ends over my shoulders. They slithered around my neck, clicking together behind me with a distinct clack, causing me to immediately want to know the answer to my next question. "How do I take it off?"

"There is a release compression under the middle panel that only you can trigger." He pointed at the bulkier section of the necklace.

"Well, so much for the getting to lightly brush my neck while you put a gorgeous piece of jewelry on me moment I was hoping for," I sighed and immediately headed down the trail. There were small pieces of stonework around us, covered in a lush climbing vine. There was one taller wall section ahead that would be perfect for some shots for my social media channels.

A wild boar emerged from the foliage up ahead.

It was as tall as my chest, an absolute unit, and its tusks gleamed as it let out a high pitched squeal. I had a heartbeat of a moment of pure shock, my body tensing, and in that moment of hesitation, Aeson was suddenly around me. He spiraled around me, his skin caressing mine as he wrapped me up in his body, lifting me slightly off the ground and blocking my view of the boar.

I heard another squeal and a crashing sound.

"It has fled after it hit me." He slowly unwrapped, spinning me in a gentle circle until my feet rested back on the ground. I reached my hand out as he moved, feeling the play of his body against my palm.

"Are you okay?" I gasped, inspecting him for damage. From what little I knew, boars were dangerous and generally aggressive when startled.

"It was unable to harm me," he replied.

"I wonder if our host is going to wait until the one she has in the basement gets that big before they slaughter it." I left my hand resting on his tail. He hadn't touched me since we left the moon, and leaving my hand resting on him felt like stepping back into the sunshine. I loved the feel of him, the way his skin was soft, yet textured, incredibly hard and durable but somehow sensitive when he held me.

"Do you think she will want that one?" He turned his head to look in the direction it had run.

"Yeah, probably." I shrugged.

"Stay here," he replied. "I will retrieve it."

With a surge of his tail, he lowered his upper body and darted off into the bushes, moving at a speed far beyond how he traveled when keeping pace with me. I frowned. He'd been slowing down to move at my speed and never even mentioned it.

I let that moment of discomfort at yet again not noticing something about my new husband fade away as I walked over to the ivy covered wall.

I flipped open the livestream app and started a stream.

"Heeeeeeey, Soul Fam!" I crooned, seeing the numbers immediately spin upwards. My immediate viewer count was increasing way faster than normal. Normally I left a ‘streaming soon' page up to gather viewers before I started talking, but it looked like I didn't have to do that anymore. People were hungry to hear from me, and it showed in the numbers. "I'm back on Earth! It has been an absolute wild ride with my new alien husband and a lot has happened. I can't wait to tell you all about a huge project I have coming down the pipeline, so remember to like and subscribe so you can be the first to hear the details when they drop. Right now, we're traveling to cool spots all over the world so that my hubby can get a good taste of the beautiful cultures that our gorgeous planet has produced. Now, make sure to take a minute to vote on where you want to see us go. I can't promise we'll go there, I'm looking at you voters who wanted us to go to Chernobyl, but I will deeeeeeeeefinitely take your votes into consideration."

As I talked, my eyes skimmed over the comments, absorbing them while trying to not let them distract me.

There was still a lot of hate, carefully disguised so that my auto moderator didn't immediately ban them from the channel, but I could still see it. It wasn't hard to notice large chunks of thumbs downs in the chat, but at the same time, these people were still watching my channel. It amazed me how people could spend so much time paying attention to someone they claimed to hate.

While reading the comments, I felt my normal numb sense of unease at the negative ones, but there was something missing.

I felt like I could breathe deeply.

I hadn't taken my old meds in days now and I didn't feel that sensation that my ribs were being weighed down by rocks made out of words, like I couldn't get enough air in. It wasn't pleasant to read them, but they weren't spiking my anxiety.

Plus, there were a lot more positive comments than the last time.

So many people were coming out of the woodwork to support me. There was an entire contingent of people who labeled themselves ‘monster fuckers' of all things that were being very active in my chat channel. I had no idea where they even came from, but they were here now. Their positive comments were overwhelming the bad ones.

"I'm seeing in the chat that a lot of you absolutely loved my wedding video I put out!" I crooned at the positive commenters, completely ignoring the others who didn't deserve the full radiance of my attention. "I'm so glad you loved it! This has been such a whirlwind romance for me, it is hard to put into words everything I'm experiencing, especially in a stream like this, but I'm hoping to give you a more detailed taste with more long form, edited, video projects like the wedding video. I know it is sudden for everyone, it was sudden for me, but I'm starting to realize that this might have been the best decision I've ever made in my life."

Those damn tears collected in the corners of my eyes again and I widened them, yet again, to try to keep them from falling. In all my experience as an actress, I could never get the darn things to come in when I wanted them to, and here I was in the space of several days on the edge of turning into an emotional waterfall.

"Oh, I see there are a lot of requests to meet my husband well…" I glanced up to see Aeson emerging from the bushes, a boar slung over his shoulder, its throat slashed open and blood absolutely coating Aeson's chest and the entirety of one of his arms. "Um…"

The chat absolutely flooded with comments.

All they could see was my face and my face had to be saying a lot in this moment.

"I have returned." He smiled at me all proud and shit.

"Just so you know I'm livestreaming." I smiled at him, keeping the camera pointed firmly at me and not at him. "They want to see you."

I paused, trying to find the words to communicate to him that it wasn't a good idea without causing another problem with my fan base.

I didn't have a chance to figure that puzzle out.

Aeson slithered over until he was next to me, setting the bore down on the top of the wall behind us, causing me to angle the video to avoid it being seen, before lowering down so that he was next to me, blood and all.

"Hello," he said, talking into the translation app on his wristband. "I am Aeson. I understand you are all interested in Jessica, and that some of you have been verbally abusive to her."

He held up his bloody hand.

"It is remarkable how fragile life forms on this planet are." The smile on his face was devastatingly sinister; all I could do was watch him as he undid all the work I'd done as painting him as a gentle creature in the wedding video. "It takes so little to cause irreparable harm. For example, the wild bovine that just threatened my mate was startling easy to dispatch."

My chat was absolutely spammed with water splash, panting, and heart emojis.

A few of the comments were asking about hunting permits, but most of them were drowned out by the sea of thirsty emojis.

"Right, so." I was just saying words, waiting for my brain to kickstart back into functionality after being lost in the same land of the thirsty emojis. The difference between them and me was this alien was here with me, and I was definitely going to get to fuck him. Ideally soon. And not while he was covered in blood. "Anyway, while we're on the subject of defending ourselves from dangerous animals, which does not require a permit by the way, Aeson, can you tell my viewers why your species is so tough?"

I knew I was fudging a little bit with the defending part, given the fact that Aeson had chased it down, and the fact I was in a country where I didn't know the exact laws, but the boar had technically struck first, and I didn't need to deal with any more keyboard warriors.

"The ecological conditions on my species" planet of origin were more severe with extreme fluctuations, and there were multiple mass extinctions through which my ancestors survived," he spoke to the camera, the translator repeating his words. "By the time we achieve spaceflight and extra planetary colonization, our bodies had evolved to be able to live in a variety of conditions."

Dozens of questions were popping up on the screen.

Aeson held his wrist unit up a little higher and tapped something.

"Your viewers wish to know about my species mating habits?" he asked me.

"Don't tell them!" I practically squealed, putting a little extra energy into my react to overdo it for the screen. "That is risking my channel getting demonetized. I already got a warning for the last thing that shall not be mentioned."

"You do not need to earn money from this." Aeson lowered his wrist to look at me, ignoring the stream. "You have complete access to all of the earnings I have accumulated throughout my life to impress my mate once she chose me. What is mine has become yours and your planet is considered to be extremely impoverished. We have more than anything you could hope to earn from any Earth job. Please only do work that brings you joy with all your heart."

I stared at him, my mouth open in shock so long I could feel it start to dry out.

"The question that is repeating the most is a variation, asking about flirtation habits," he pointed out. "That seems like a good one to answer in this context."

I shut my mouth and nodded.

"First, if a female has given enough notice to a male for him to feel like he may approach, a male presents himself, showing off what he would bring to the nest, both his accomplishments and his body," Aeson began. "If she accepts his interest, she decides how many of her existing mates he must battle to prove his physical capabilities. He must battle as many times as she deems satisfactory. If she accepts him, by doing the action that you did to me when we first met, then all of the resources that he has accumulated joins with the nest, under his mate's primary direction."

"Is that really how you guys flirt?" I asked, the question blurting out. "You just fight and flash cash?"

"A female will often also ask a male to prove his intimate capabilities before she accepts him as well," Aeson offered.

"So basically you've already done all the things you think necessary to woo me." I immediately realized my mistake after the words slipped free and the chat exploded. This time I didn't look at it. I focused on Aeson.

"Not at all." Aeson reached out, and when I didn't move away, he gently tucked a strand of hair behind my ear, electricity sizzling where his skin brushed mine. "Right now I am wooing you by demonstrating I am a capable travel partner who can keep you safe and aid in your positive experiences. I am planning on escalating physical touch over the course of our trip depending on your reactions, as humans require non-romantic physical intimacy as much as my species. I also have a surprised for when we go back to the honeymoon base. I have created something… extra."

His eyes held mine and I could feel the supernova sparking into life between my legs, a slow, low heat that promised to build, reaching up towards my heart with a radiant touch.

I tore my eyes away from him and back to the livestream.

"Okay, Soul Fam, I think I need to spend a little more time in the present moment and a little less time with you, so sorry not sorry." My words were a little breathless. "Like and subscribe if you want to be the first to know about my upcoming project and the small moments of adventures that I am so blessed to experience, otherwise, love and light to all of you."

I shut down the stream.

"Let's go see if Maria knows what to do with that boar." I smiled, gripping my upper arm with my other hand as I felt suddenly, and strangely, bashful. "And maybe if there is a way I can help you wash up. I think there was a hose outside, and I can see about getting some soap."

"You wish to wash me?" he asked.

I nodded without answering and headed down the trail.

I wanted to touch him, to feel the intimate lines of his body, to get to know him inside and out. Who was this male who had come into my life? How had doing a promotion for my friend's new business turned into me feeling like my heart had never truly known what it was like to have another person genuinely want me?

Aeson wasn't just here for a marriage of convenience.

He was giving me his life.

He had come into this, ready to hand everything he had ever earned over to me to support my dreams and to make a life together. He hadn't asked me for anything, not even the sex he so awkwardly demanded when we met. All he had done was take care of me and help me find my way to a better health, even when it wasn't a particularly pleasant thing to do.

He was thoughtful, giving me gifts that were genuinely useful.

He was kind, rerouting all his previous plans to focus on what was best for my health.

He was more than I had ever thought I could possibly find in a husband. Every single person I had dated up until this point was reserved, held back, portioning out their affection in relation to what I was willing to give, making the relationship something that was doled out in doses balanced on a scale. I had no thought that a creature like him could exist, and yet here he was.

And the twisting feeling wrapping around my heart was something entirely new.

Something I hadn't realized I'd been missing until I'd started to feel it.