Brida Pact

by Leora Gonzales

  “What about my future niece or nephew? Will I ever get to see them? Hug them?” Pixie asked in a sad voice.

  Valerie crossed to stand behind Pixie and put a comforting hand on her shoulder.

  “Pixie, they have a system similar to Skype so you’ll be able to talk to your sister by video whenever she’s available. Also, we’re trying to work out the kinks regarding family visiting. I’m sure you can tell that security is a major issue but maybe we can work out some sort of pass for you to visit if the match works out and you want to visit Poppy and her family. I’m actually unsure if Poppy will be on the ship once the trial passes if she decides to enter the spousal contract. From what I gather, they may go back to their home world to live if he isn’t needed for diplomatic missions on the squadron. I can find that info out for you as soon as possible though.”

  Pixie and Poppy stared at each other, the papers forgotten. Pixie reached for her sister’s hand and held it in a tight grip.

  “I love you, sis. I’ll support you no matter what you decide but I’m going to miss you like hell.”

  Tears were now falling down Pixie’s cheeks and Poppy could feel hers start to fall as well.

  “I love you too, Pix. I’m so excited about this but I know this isn’t easy for you. I’ll make sure that I try to call you as much as possible and I’ll talk to Wheaton about you being involved with our family, if that actually happens.” Poppy smiled. “I have a really good feeling about this though. It’s as if my entire body lit up when he touched me.”

  “I could see that from the cookie bar, Poppy. I’m pretty sure everyone in the room could see that,” Pixie said with a wry grin. “Well, let’s not waste any more time… It’s time for your future to start, sis.”

  Chapter Ten

  On the shuttle ride up to what she assumed was Squadron One, Poppy had tears running down her face. She was probably a runny-nosed mess considering how much she was sniffling. Even she had to admit she wasn’t a pretty crier. Their departure had been anticlimactic. Her car had been brought around by Valerie and unloaded in a guarded lot where a shuttle was waiting disguised with a cloaking device. Wheaton had not touched her again except for a guiding hand on her back when she’d hesitated while walking.

  Dathrow, who had been following the couple, strapped himself into a chair behind them while Wheaton worked on something similar to a tablet computer. He hadn’t spoken to her since their close encounter in the boardroom. She assumed he might have been embarrassed by his strong physical reaction since Pixie had used their goodbyes to tease him about some growling she had heard. She’d also whispered something when walking by him to leave the room after ten minutes of hugging and clinging tightly to Poppy.

  Poppy hadn’t been able to hear the exchange since Valerie had distracted her with questions about her luggage. She would have to ask him about that when they had a moment. The last thing she needed was Pixie threatening to cut off a body part or something along those lines. Her sister’s overprotective instincts were something Poppy was familiar with. Pixie had once been suspended from school for cold cocking one of Poppy’s tormentors in their school cafeteria. Following the knockout punch, she had then dumped the contents of his food tray onto his prone body before walking away like a boss. The scene had been both terrifying and amusing at the same time. Poor Simon had never been able to recover his manly reputation after being felled by a girl almost a foot shorter than he was. Glancing at Wheaton, Poppy grimaced. She definitely needed to talk to him and find out what her sister had said.

  As the shuttle moved toward Squadron One, Poppy peered out the window in the front of the ship. Watching clouds move past in what seemed like puffs of smoke, she felt her stomach drop when they reached high enough that darkness eclipsed her view. Pretty soon the sky was lit with stars and Earth was behind them. A pang of uncertainty hit her. Had she made the right choice? Glancing around the shuttle at the men beside her, she realized it was too late to change her mind now.

  As the ship docked on Squadron One, Poppy reached for Wheaton’s hand but he turned away and started speaking to the pilot. She wasn’t sure why she had reached for him, except everything seemed so foreign she felt she wanted to cling to something, or someone, even a little bit familiar. After a couple moments, Wheaton walked out through a door, leaving Poppy to pick up the duffel she carried with her. Deciding that she wasn’t going to stand there watching his retreating back, she turned to the other man standing with her. Dathrow stood with his hands crossed behind his back, quietly studying her.

  “Poppy, please follow me. I will take you to your quarters to settle in,” Dathrow stated.

  “Ummm…where’s he going?” Poppy finally asked as Dathrow started walking quickly out an automatic door.

  “He is going to a meeting. He will be back to your quarters when his business is finished.” Dathrow was now moving very quickly down a lit hallway. Everything seemed extremely bright, as if it was lit by bright-blue bulbs. The gleaming walls were reflecting light to the point of making her eyes hurt slightly. Poppy struggled to keep up with her fast-moving companion while her eyes adjusted. The hallways were like something right out of a movie. Everything was so shiny and the smooth metal corridor had to be a bitch to keep clean. Remembering her disastrous experience with stainless steel appliances was enough to make her cringe when she caught her reflection on the walls.

  Their walk was spent in complete silence. Dathrow did not explain where they were walking or what they were passing. He simply moved silently, barely letting her keep pace with his long strides. Taking an elevator to another level, Dathrow turned and waved his hand at a door. Poppy watched the movement with curious eyes. She didn’t see any type of handle on the door itself and wondered how it opened. It took Poppy a minute to figure out he had been moving his wrist over an almost unnoticeable pad next to the opening. Catching a glimpse of the silver band around his wrist light up, she realized it was acting as a remote to the door when the pad blinked with the same color light. Interesting. Hands-free entry. No wonder there were no fingerprints on the walls or other doors she had seen.

  Dathrow gestured to his wrist when he caught Poppy’s curious glance. “Wheaton will be back later to take you to get your band fitted. He suggested you watch the videos he has loaded onto his viewer to learn some of our history and culture.”

  Poppy stepped inside the room and turned around to ask how to do that when the door swished closed and she was alone.

  “Well shit,” she said to the empty room. “What the fuck do I do now?”

  Exploring the quarters, she found the bathroom with a shower that seemed fairly easy to use. After setting out her toiletries in the small space, she walked back to the living area. The apartment consisted of two rooms. The living room had a small kitchen with a peninsula coming out from the wall to separate it from the main area. On one side of the room was a small white leather couch and the opposite wall was blank with a large screen flanked by electronics.

  “Okay…video…video…where could you be?” Talking to herself was apparently going to be her only company this evening so she might as well go for broke. “Helloooo….maybe this button. Nope. Maybe this one? Nope.” Pushing random buttons on the wall was probably not the smartest thing to do on a spaceship, but things didn’t seem to be blowing up so she was going to keep going. “How about this one? Ah ha! Score.”

  A video system popped up onto the blank wall space opposite the couch and she wondered if it was touch screen or there was a remote. After fiddling with the wall, she figured out it was some type of touch screen. Everything was marked with odd symbols, so she hit the one that was listed first. A movie was starting up so she sat down and got comfy. Then she almost fell off the slick white couch. Holy shit! This was porn! And not even good porn, but really cheesy, cheap porn. How could a woman function with fingernails that long? Okay, wrong video. Way wrong video. Selecting another movie, she found yet another porno. Seriously? What was wrong with this guy? Apparently h
e had the libido of a teenage boy if all these videos were pornos. By her count she had another fifty to go.

  Twenty-five videos later, she found something that appeared to be a history program. This must have been what he was talking about, because the men resembled some of the warriors she had seen on the Intake Center screen. Unfortunately for her it wasn’t in English, so she wasn’t going to get anywhere by watching this. Well that was a total fail. After an hour had passed and she had nothing to do, she took a fleece blanket out of her duffel and snuggled in with her e-reader and iPod.

  She awoke to the feeling she was floating and realized someone was carrying her. Smelling leather and sunshine, she understood Wheaton was back and carrying her into the bedroom. She must have fallen asleep while reading. How much time had passed? As she became more awake, she realized she was actually pretty hungry.

  “Food,” she said in a sleepy voice, patting Wheaton’s shoulder.

  “Food? Did you not eat?” He stopped walking toward the bedroom.

  “How the hell would I have eaten? I was left here not knowing what to do and couldn’t figure out how anything would work. Where’s the fucking fridge?”

  “I apologize. I meant to return sooner. The meetings kept me longer than I planned.” He turned around, carried her back to the living room and sat her down. “Stay and I will get you food.”

  He turned and busied himself at a small counter. Poppy took this time to try to clear the cobwebs from her head. Watching him move was like watching a dance. He was extremely large but moved silently back and forth at the small counter. No movements seemed to be wasted. Wheaton turned toward her with a plate piled high with french fries and a cold sandwich.

  Wheaton was hoping to distract Poppy with food while he figured out how to explain his earlier absence. When he had left her after the ship had docked, he could tell she was directing anger his way. On the ride to Squadron One, she had reached for his hand at one point and he had felt almost frozen in place. His earlier episode—when he had nuzzled her neck and rumbled—had been so out of character for him it was enough to cause him concern and he had decided to visit the med center to have a scan run to make sure he had not contracted an Earth disease during his visit.

  Her tears on the flight to the ship had upset him, which added to the fear that something was wrong. When she had reached for his hand and he had felt a warm tingle followed by his chest feeling heavy, he had quickly found a med pad and placed a request for a regen bed immediately. When he had left Dathrow to take care of his new bride, Wheaton had gone to get scanned from head to toe. The regen bed had come back showing normal scans on all fronts, so he was stumped as to what was happening. At the very least it was disconcerting.

  “You have regular food here?” she asked, taking the plate from him. Apparently she was hungrier than she had thought. She practically snatched it from him as if she hadn’t eaten in a week.

  “Yes, we took classes to become familiar with common human foods. We have a generator that will make almost any food item once it knows the base components. We just have to assemble it when complete. Once you get your band, I will program your favorites so the generator will know what you desire.” Wheaton sat next to her on the small couch and watched her eat.

  “Dathrow mentioned a band, but I don’t understand why I need one,” she said between bites.

  Wheaton held up his arm and showed her the silver wristband that was thicker than a bangle but narrower than a cuff that graced his wrist. She saw small colored lights blink off and on.

  “All of the brides will have a band on their wrists similar to this one. It is your identification and will also give access to portions of the ship.” He added, “It will let others know you have been matched and mated so you will not be approached by single males searching for a mate.”

  Now her stomach was full, Poppy was unsure what to do. She almost wished she had more to eat so she could keep her hands and mouth busy. “What was your meeting about?” she asked.

  “Nothing to concern you. Would you like to start physical relations now?” he said, standing up and reaching out his hand to assist her.

  “Wait, what? Physical relations? We barely know each other…” Poppy turned red and the now lead weight of the sandwich she’d wolfed down made her feel sick.

  “You seemed eager for my touch earlier, and I did not think humans needed to know each other for sexual intercourse.” Wheaton seemed confused and placed his hands on his hips. No doubt according to everything he’d studied, this was the point where clothes came off and the physical contact started. She let her face tell him he’d assumed wrong. In a big way.

  Poppy stood up and mimicked his stance. Then she poked out a finger and pointed it at his chest.

  “Hold your horses there, buster. I may have acted…receptive…yeah, receptive earlier, but I don’t sleep with strangers. You’re pretty much a stranger. I mean, hell, you just left me here. What am I saying? It wasn’t even you who walked me here, it was that Dathrow guy and all of a sudden you’re done with your ‘meetings’ so you want sex? Well that isn’t going to happen tonight!” Her voice started getting louder and she was literally poking Wheaton’s chest.

  “You are angry that I left? I explained that I had a meeting.” Wheaton obviously had no idea how pissed she was getting, because he then added, “Do you want sex or not?”

  Hell. No. She stepped back to put space between them, and basically to also get away from the temptation to stroke the chest she had been poking just a second earlier.

  “That would be a no. We will not be having sex until I figure out if I like you or not. And speaking of sex, what the hell are you doing with all that porn on your TV?”

  “The sex videos are educational. We believed humans were aware of the lack of females on our planet. Were you not told?” He raised an eyebrow in her direction.

  “Of course we were told! I wouldn’t be here if you didn’t need women. I just meant, that’s a lot of porn,” she huffed out. Poppy had a feeling this was going to be a long conversation and she was pretty tired.

  “Also, those are not educational. Granted I’m not one who’s had really good sex but all those people are faking it. At least I’m pretty sure the women are. They don’t look like they’re enjoying it at all. It’s completely unrealistic!”

  “I do not understand. That sex is not real?” He really did seem stumped and was staring at the blank wall as if it was going to give him answers.

  “Wheaton….those are people paid to have sex for entertainment. It’s all about the sex part. Not kissing or cuddling or….well…anything really that a woman would want. I mean, some of the stuff is probably nice but those women there are acting. Those moans are most likely not real.”

  Oh boy, if she was going to have to be the lead once it came down to them actually consummating this thing, then it would be like the blind leading the blind. Her experience with an actual living breathing male was fairly limited and she had never been able to climax during intercourse. Most of the time it had been afterward, either by herself or with the help of the men she had slept with using her trusty bullet vibrator on her.

  “Kiss? Cuddle? I understand the words but do not understand how they relate to sexual intercourse for procreation.”

  “Well, it’s arousing for one…you know, ummmm…gets the juices flowing.” At his blank stare she then mumbled, “Okay, so no you don’t know. Since this isn’t even an issue tonight we can talk about it when I’m not in a food coma and tired on top of that. Can you just show me where to sleep and we can talk more tomorrow?”

  “You will be sleeping with me.” With that he again picked her up off the couch and carried her into a room that she had assumed was the sleeping quarters but where she hadn’t seen a bed.

  Wheaton holding his wrist up to the door caused a bed to fold out from the wall. Poppy recognized a Murphy bed and it was pretty large too. At least if she had to share a bed it would be with enough space to not have them on t
op of each other.

  After Wheaton set her down on her feet, Poppy excused herself to go to the bathroom area to get a sleep shirt. Hoping it was enough to cover her without her being embarrassed, she walked back into the bedroom.

  Poppy guessed embarrassment wasn’t something he would experience, because standing next to the bed was a very naked Wheaton. He was also very aroused.

  “Holy fuck,” she whispered as she stopped in her tracks.

  He was a sight to behold. His body was something women dreamed of. Lickable abs flowed into a strong set of shoulders and arms in one direction and then into the vee of his hips and sturdy legs in the other. Standing there staring at him, she noticed he had minimal body hair, except for a small trail that went from his bellybutton down to his groin and then a dusting on his legs.

  “You use a lot of ‘holy’ words. My translator doesn’t process some of them. ‘Fuck’ is translating as a slang term and earlier you said ‘shit’, which was translated as excrement. Can you explain?” Wheaton was now fully facing her with his hands on his hips. He stared at her as if she were wearing too many articles of clothing and the only thing he could concentrate on was figuring out how many layers he would need to peel off her before they were able to sleep comfortably.

  Poppy on the other hand was completely unable to think at all. He was ripped. And not just ripped but also very blessed in the privates department. Her sister would be high-fiving her right now if she’d been able to get a peek at the manly goodness in front of her. Figuring out she needed to not stare so hard, she tried to move her eyes away from the beauty in front of her.