CHAPTER 28

Chloe breathed in deeply. She had to calm down. Now was not the time to start cursing the Commander for interrupting what might be her last kiss with Nitiel. She meant her feather-plucking threat, but it should be a last resort. Politeness and reason was what these aliens respected, so she had to start from there.

To her relief, Nitiel did not distance himself from her upon their entry in the Commander's quarters. He kept their hands linked and his wing shielding her from behind. He had a determined look on his face as they followed Vrixiel inside, no sign of the nervousness from a moment ago.

Chloe took another deep breath. They could do this–

"Aaah, look how cute they are, holding hands! Finally!"

Chloe did a double take. What was Trixie doing in the Commander's quarters? And perched on the edge of his desk in a bright red gown, no less?

"My bean, now is not the right time," Vrixiel whispered and went to stand guard next to her and the desk.

Trixie snickered. "Sorry, you know how patient I am… I'll wait a bit longer."

Chloe took in the small room. It was a typical director's office with two seats on one side of the desk and a single seat on the other. The only difference was that the desks and seats were floating over the bare metal floor, and the single window to the right offered a view at Jupiter. "Um, where is the Commander?"

"Vrixiel?" Nitiel turned to his friend, confused himself.

"I'm coming, I'm coming," a male voice sounded from behind the bare wall to the left of the desk. A voice Chloe had heard before over the communicator.

A moment later, that wall slid aside to let a bulky Gaenthian with a wine bottle and glasses in hand pass through. He was so tall he had to duck to prevent his horns from scraping the head jamb. "I decided some Terran champagne was in order."

Chloe stared as he went behind his desk, put the five glasses and bottle beside Trixie, and sat down on his clamshell of an office chair. He met Chloe's gaze head-on as she kept staring, unable to take her eyes off him.

Commander Siriniel had strawberry-blond hair in a single thick braid resting over the right side of his chest. Brown horns swirled like a ram's from the top of his head, both big and thick enough to break down a fortress gate. Big ochre-colored eyes drew the gaze in like shining gold. His beige skin tone somehow underlined the perfect proportions of his very masculine face, softened by a dimple as he smiled. The bulging muscles on his arms seemed barely contained by his uniform – a stretchy long-sleeved bodysuit like Nitiel's but brown in color. His built, even when seated, commanded attention and respect.

"Nice to finally meet you, Lady Chloe." He bowed his head low.

She kept staring.

"Loe?" Nitiel whispered next to her. The concern in his tone was palpable.

She bit her bottom lip. Hurtful or not, she had to say it. Looking at the Commander further would not change what she had felt upon seeing him, and everyone in the room was waiting for her to speak.

"I'm sorry, but… Uhhh…"

Nitiel sighed and let go of her hand. "I understand. He is your niel and–"

"And nothing!" Chloe laughed, relief making her feel lighter inside. "I feel nothing when I look at him, Nitiel! He's blah!" She bit her lip as soon as she realized how rude that sounded. Oops. "Uh, I mean… Commander, you're a stunning guy, don't get me wrong. But as much as I may stare at you, I find nothing that draws me to you. I feel nothing!"

"Loe, are you certain?" Nitiel asked hesitantly, as if afraid to believe her.

"Absolutely. There are no sparks flying, no attraction making me lose my words, no anything." She grinned at him. "Told you the ASI was glitching."

Nitiel did not smile back; he cast a worried look Siriniel's way.

Chloe looked too; in her relief, she had forgotten that her lack of interest in the Commander did not mean a happy future for her and Nitiel. What if Siriniel still wanted her because the ASI had declared her his? What if her rudeness had pissed off the guy commanding all of Gaenthia's troops in the Solar System?

He turned out to be smiling. His beige lips were stretched into a satisfied smile. "Good."

Chloe blinked.

Nitiel was speechless.

Trixie clapped, startling everyone. "It's not just good: it's perfect!" She bounced with excitement on the desk. "For a moment there I got worried we had messed up by tempting fate. You know, like when you lie to your parents you're sick to avoid going to school, and end up getting sick for real shortly after?" Trixie clapped some more. "Aahhh, I'm so happy! See, boo bear? I told you everything would work out at the end. It's not a great sci-fi romance if it ends without a HEA."

Sci-fi romance? Lying to parents? Tempting fate? What the heck was going on?!

A look at Nitiel revealed he was just as perplexed.

"Forgive my niela," Vrixiel interfered, his expression only slightly less worried than it had been upon their entry in the office. "In her excitement, she forgets you need a proper explanation."

"I do not forget, boo bear. I simply let my joy loose for a bit, after having kept it bottled down for long, torturous minutes. I think I deserve it, after pulling this off."

"That is what the champagne is for," the Commander said. "Not just to drink to these two heroes who saved the station from the Hishchians, but also to celebrate what the three of us pulled off."

What. The. Hell.

Trixie picked the bottle up. "Are you kidding me? This is kids' champagne!"

"It's bubbly and grape-flavored. I know my quality Terran alcohol, Lady Trixie–"

"What the fuck?"

That finally got the Commander's attention.

Chloe marched on. "Will someone explain what is happening here?"

"Yes. Please," Nitiel chimed in and retook Chloe's hand.

The Commander tilted his chin at Nitiel. "First I want to know why you are here, Subcommander. I have a good idea from the way your wing is intimately wrapped around this female, but I wish to hear you say it."

Chloe felt Nitiel standing taller beside her, then he brought their entwined hands to the center of his chest. "This Terran is mine, Commander. Mine to love with both my hearts. Mine to cherish every single planetary cycle. Mine to call niela until the last molecule of oxygen leaves my lungs. No matter what the ASI says." He looked at Chloe before adding, "If Lady Loe would have me."

Chloe found it hard to breathe. His words were like a wedding vow; how could she possibly not melt in a puddle at the sweetness?

"Lady Chloe?" Siriniel prompted. His lips were stretched into a knowing smile.

Chloe turned to Nitiel. "I would have Subcommander Nitiel. Totally. I may have one heart only, but it belongs to him entirely. He belongs to me. No algorithm can change that."

Nitiel looked ready to kiss her for the possessive statement, but propriety kept him in place.

Chloe didn't care about propriety. She grabbed him by the uniform and slanted her lips over his.

The champagne bottle popped, cutting that much-needed kiss short. "Cheers to the ASI that brought one more niela to her niel," the Commander announced while pouring the kids' drink in the futuristic curly glasses. "May you produce many Gaenthian babies, strong and honorable like their father."

Just like that, the confusion was back. Why cheer to the ASI?

"Commander?" Nitiel asked hesitantly.

"You heard me, Subcommander. The ASI matched this female to you."

And Chloe had thought her jaw couldn't hang any lower.

"But… Commander?" Poor Nitiel was even more shocked than her. "How? The ASI–I'm not on the database–I'm clan-less!"

Siriniel relaxed into his seat and took a delicate sip of the kids' champagne. "You have your mother's clan. That is what I entered in the ASI database."

"But–But that's illegal!"

Siriniel nodded. "You have not been recognized by your mother's parents, that is so. But clan-less by our laws or not, you have been matched. The authorities can do nothing now that the ASI has spoken and your bond has been consummated. It has been consummated, correct?"

Nitiel was more stunned than Chloe, so she replied. "Thoroughly consummated."

"Eeee!" Trixie clapped again, while next to her Vrixiel looked uncomfortable.

"Commander, why?" Nitiel still sounded incredulous.

"Why did I break the law to help you find your niela?" Siriniel took another small sip of his drink. "Because this rule about clan-less Gaenthians not being entitled to the ASI's assistance is bullcrap, to use the Terran term. I've served with several clan-less males, Subcommander Nitiel, so I know better than the legislators: horns and skin color do not make a male deserving. His deeds do. And you, my friend, have proven yourself on and outside the battlefield countless times. Consider this little machination of mine my parting gift to you."

"But–But…" Nitiel scratched the base of his horn and fluttered his wings.

Chloe squeezed his hand. "But why not tell Nitiel I was his niela from the very beginning? Why let him believe he had to keep his distance from me? His sense of duty nearly prevented us from getting together!"

Siriniel nodded sagely. "That sense of duty, Lady Chloe, is why I had to resort to unorthodox methods. I feared that if I told your niel how I had broken the law for him, he wouldn't accept this gift. He would consider himself undeserving and choose to never pick you up from Terra. He is prone to self-punishment like that."

"He is," Vrixiel tuned in. "Commander Siriniel consulted me before initiating his plan, because of my close friendship with the Subcommander. I advised in favor of keeping my friend in the dark. For that, Nitiel, I beg your forgiveness. But know I would do the same if given the chance, knowing what it is like to have my niela by my side. You deserved to find yours."

Wow. Just wow. Chloe didn't know what to think.

"How-e-ver," Trixie spoke up, her eyes shining in excitement, "the boys didn't know how to deal with the wee problem of Nitiel keeping his hands to himself. An additional intervention was needed to crush his sense of duty to his Commander." She blew a raspberry in response to Vrixiel's accusatory look her way. "I'm saying things as they are, boo bear, so shush. And that's where this alien romance expert came in!" She waved her hands in the air. "I chose the perfect tropes for you two based on what I was told about you. I kept adapting my plan as things progressed, and it worked!"

"With many hitches, my bean. You have to admit it."

"Yes, many, many hitches, but all is well when it ends well, you Gaenthians! Love conquers all!" Trixie downed her glass of kids' champagne, then filled it once more. "Ask away, Chloe, I can see you're dying to."

Chloe shook her head. She had no idea where to start with the questions. Nitiel was still speechless and staring at Siriniel calmly sipping his drink.

"Okay, I'll explain everything." Trixie rubbed her hands together. "The first thing I wanted was to get you in close proximity to each other. That malfunction of the artificial gravity aboard the limo? It was switched off at my instructions. Again within the forced proximity trope, I had Chloe"s baggage misplaced and your ship to the station sabotaged, so that you would need to use each other's body heat. Preferably naked." She winked.

"My God, we could have died popsicles!"

"Now, now, Chloe, we both know you enjoyed that ride. The sabotage was a well-controlled one, you weren't in real danger."

"I knew Nitiel could reroute the heat to the cockpit," Vrixiel added.

"When you two getting up close and personal from the get-go didn't result in you declaring undying love for each other upon arrival at the station, I had to up my game." Trixie nodded at the Commander. "He had to stay out of your way, or else his inability to lie would have him confessing to everything."

"But you told lies to me, Commander," Nitiel found his voice. "You sent me to get your niela."

"I never called her my niela, remember? I ordered you to bring the niela to the station. I kept using her name when giving you instructions to guard her. And when I told you I couldn't meet with her because I needed more time to prepare my speech?"

"You spoke of a speech for the unique circumstances… I assumed you were referring to the uniqueness of having found your niela, but you were talking about–"

"My speech for this very moment, yes."

"Unbelievable," Chloe muttered. Now that she thought back at everything that had happened to her since meeting Nitiel, the script became more obvious.

"You put the pests in Loe's cleansing chamber," Nitiel rumbled, his glare switching between the three conspirators one after the other. "They could have burned her skin off!"

Trixie winced. "Chloe was supposed to hide in the shower dome until your arrival. I did not expect her to disregard my warnings and go pet the little monsters!... But you came to her rescue and everything went back on track in the end, didn't it?"

Nitiel rumbled some more. "You emptied my wardrobe and had my bench sabotaged to fall apart. So that I would be forced to share a bed with Loe."

"You bet! And not just that: we had a programmer change the settings of your bed gel, so that any modifications to its structure would last for no more than 15 minutes. In case you decided to build a wall between you two. By the looks on your faces, I gather you did try to build one?"

Chloe kept shaking her head in disbelief.

"I honestly didn't expect it would take so many interventions on my part to make you act on your feelings," Trixie continued. "I was growing desperate, so I decided to bring you closer together on a flight. That's so romantic, surely you would appreciate being flown in Nitiel"s arms, Chloe… But that pesky teen Biriniel J didn't follow my instructions. Instead of releasing just one or two of the young cibiris – enough to prompt Nitiel to fly you off to safety - he set all of them loose."

Chloe gasped. "Trixie! They nearly killed Nitiel!"

"I know, I know. It's that boy's fault. And someone forgot to mention the young cibiris go cuckoo after eating coffee-like bushes in the Arboretum." She shot Vrixiel a look.

He shrugged. "Everybody knows that. They are held in a pen for a reason. Thankfully, Nitiel's wound was small and he recovered in record time, thanks to his niela being by his side."

"Oh?" Chloe looked questioningly at Nitiel.

He was rubbing over his chest where the bite wound had been. "That explains a lot. A Gaenthian's body is known to be stronger and faster to heal when he has a niela," he told Chloe.

"Anywho," Trixie butted in, "I was worried I had overdone it with the cibiris, so I decided to take Chloe to the ball to check how things with Nitiel were standing. Would I have to keep intervening? I thought from your words, Chloe, and from the sexy idea we came up with, that the HEA was just around the corner… Guess again! Nitiel was on the verge of leaving the station without his niela."

"I was only out for a flight, to clear my head," Nitiel assured his Commander. "I hope the enemy's attack was not part of the plan?"

"Goddess, no." Siriniel put his empty glass away. "That was an attack that exploited a weakness we should never have allowed. I have already sent patrols in that area."

Trixie tapped on her glass to bring everyone's attention back to her. "So, what do you think? Do I deserve to be your maid of honor and the godmother of your babies?"

Chloe bit her bottom lip and looked up at Nitiel. He sought her gaze at the same time. Their eyes held for several seconds.

Her lips stretched into a smile, and his gaze softened.

"It's okay," she spoke for the both of them. "I mean, what you all did is nuts. But you did it to help Nitiel, going against the rules when Gaenthians are all about rules. You helped me as well, so… the end justifies the means in this case. I think."

"Yes!!" Trixie jumped off the desk and rushed to give Chloe a hug. "I knew you would understand! The happy ending is worth the drama leading to it, in every single romance book I"ve read."

Chloe laughed and hugged Trixie back. Nitiel and Vrixiel shook pinkies, hopefully in a sign of everything being good between them. Siriniel raised his glass in their direction, a contented smile on his face.

Some time would have to pass for Chloe to wrap her mind around everything the three conspirators had done to get Nitiel hitched, but for now it was enough knowing that he was not getting exiled or punished in another way. There was nothing preventing her from being with the man–alien of her dreams.

A happily-ever-after indeed.