by C. V. Walter
"Not at all," Molly said. "If you can make it look as fancy as yours, I'll let you do it every day."
Damina grinned at her. "I might take you up on that."
Chapter 32
Mintonar was leaving the medical bay, almost on time, when a message popped up on his comm that his order in the mess was ready. He hadn't remembered to put one in until he got the follow up that Damina had placed the order to be ready at that time and he wasn't allowed to be late.
His nurse had spent the rest of her shift, when she'd finally come back from helping Maw-lee, humming to herself and looking far too happy. She'd reminded him that his ajoia was waiting and he shouldn't be late. He hurried to the mess to pick up whatever order she'd placed and recognized it as the traditional Joining night feast, all foods designed to be fed to another person and just as good cold as warm. With a chuckle, he sent her a message with his gratitude and turned the comm off for the rest of the evening.
When he walked in to his rooms, he set the packages down on the table and went to look for Maw-lee. What he found took his breath away. She was in the bedroom, organizing her clothes to fit with his in the wardrobe, and wearing a Joining gown, her long hair caught back in elaborate braids. The skirt for the gown rode low on her hips, the lace showing flashes of her legs as she moved. The top, which covered enough of her breasts for modesty, had the flowers of his family house embroidered across the front in a pattern reminiscent of his family crest, and enough lace to suggest her arms were covered. The whole thing left her middle bare, long stretches of skin calling out to him to be licked.
"Mintonar," she said, turning to him. "I wasn't expecting you back yet. I thought-"
He crossed the room and crushed her to him, his lips taking hers before he'd even realized what he was doing. Her gasp of surprise turned to a moan of desire in the space of a heartbeat and he echoed it back to her. His hands roamed over her exposed flesh and the flares of Recognition blazed through him, reminding him how long it had been since he'd touched her.
"I missed you," he pulled back long enough to say, then pulled her close again to continue kissing her.
Her arms were wrapped around his neck and her hands slid into his hair to knead against his scalp.
Later, much later, he explained to her the patterns on the dress and what they meant. Then he fed her dinner and kept her occupied until the morning chime sounded. Reaching for his comm in the morning, he saw a message from the captain that his duties had been reassigned for the next several days. He knew he had things they needed to get done outside of his official medical duties but he appreciated the intent of the time away from his duties.
He was slightly concerned when, after they'd emerged from the bedroom, Molly looked uncomfortable. She told him it was indigestion and he left it at that. Between dinner and the amount of exercise they'd gotten, and how little he still understood about how her body worked, he was willing to take her word for it when she told him it was inconsequential.
Despite his captain's intentions to the contrary, they did not spend the time away from his duties only in bed. Instead, he started fulfilling his parts of the negotiations with his stepson, which meant they spent a great deal of time with Alvola in the laboratory setting up the communications systems to work with the ones on the planet.
One of the first uses the better system was put to was allowing his ajoia to talk to her son while he read through reports in the evening.
"Mom, are you feeling okay?" Aidan asked one night.
Mintonar looked up from his padd to hear her answer. Maw-lee had looked out of sorts for the last few cycles and every time he'd inquired after her health, she'd brushed him off and changed the subject. He'd turned off the ongoing reports from her bio-nanos when she'd objected to them and he was tempted to turn them back on if she didn't give him an answer soon.
"I'm fine, monkey," she said. "Why do you ask?"
"You look kinda green," he said. "And you're frowning when you're not talking."
"Oh, that's just my listening face," she said with a laugh. "You should know that by now."
"No, that one makes you look angry. This one makes you look like you want to vomit. Kinda like Nonna looks with indigestion."
"Oh, that," Maw-lee said, waving her hand. "I think I ate something that disagreed with me. Some ginger tea would probably be all I need to feel less uncomfortable but that's not an option right now so I'm just ignoring it. I'll probably be fine in a couple days."
"What did you eat that makes you feel ill?" Mintonar asked.
Maw-lee frowned and thought about it. "You know, I don't know. I just woke up feeling like this a few days ago. I haven't actually been able to pinpoint it to a specific food."
"When you told me it was nothing?"
"It is nothing," she protested. "I'm just a little nauseated."
"Mom, you're married to a doctor who actually cares about you. If something's wrong, would you please talk to him about it?"
"Nothing is wrong!" she said, throwing her hands up. "I don't even really want to vomit. In fact, the last time I felt this low-grade nausea was when I was pregnant with you."
Mintonar stilled and waited for Maw-lee to realize what she'd just said.
"So, I'm guessing there isn't a drug store up there," Aidan said dryly. "I'm not even going to ask if you've been using protection."
"Aidan," Maw-lee said sharply.
"I said I wasn't going to ask because I really, really don't want to know," Aidan answered her. "But, hey, I bet the married to a doctor thing might come in handy right about now."
"But, it's, I can't!" Maw-lee protested.
"Mom, have you had your period since you got on the ship?"
"I've been stressed," she said, defensive.
"Sure, I'm signing off and calling Jeff. You go pee on a stick or whatever. I'll talk to you tomorrow."
Aidan's face disappeared from the screen and Maw-lee turned to look at him.
"It's not possible," she told him. "I told you it's not possible. I made sure of it years ago!"
"It's-" Mintonar started, then stopped to think. Then he started laughing. "Tell me again how you made sure of it? What did they do?"
"They cut the tubes that lets an egg get to where it can be fertilized and clamped the ends. It's a very thorough procedure. The only thing more thorough is to take all the plumbing out entirely."
"Which they didn't do, they just created a break in a line and a lot of scar tissue, held together by something metal," Mintonar said. "And I put bio-nanos inside you to learn how to put you back together again. They remove scar tissue, fix broken things, and make sure they're all functioning within normal parameters. And they'll use floating bits of shrapnel or detritus to make repairs or supply things your body is short on."
"But, they-" she stammered and fell silent.
"They weren't programmed to your species or culture, they wouldn't have known what was old or new, just what was broken and needed to be repaired." Mintonar went to her and knelt in front of the chair she was rooted to. "I did not intend this, Maw-lee, but I cannot say I am sorry. We'll go to the medical bay for imaging to be sure but you are my ahura, my ajoia, and I cannot doubt you carry proof of my devotion inside you."
"I didn't think it was possible," she told him, blinking hard.
"Are you sorry?" he asked quietly.
"What? No! But, I want to make sure it's real. Like, absolutely, really real and not some strange side effect of having sex with an alien."
"Oh, it is definitely a side effect of having sex with an alien," Mintonar said with a chuckle.
Epilogue
Aidan was concerned. He didn't really need to call Jeff, a friend of his mom's who was an actual rocket scientist, but it was the only thing he could think to do just then. All the research he'd seen about having a baby in space said it was a bad idea, with lists of all the issues the few babies who'd been born in orbit had shown.
Mintonar's ship was probably fine if they had as many p
eople living on it as it seemed, and some of the manifests he'd seen indicated they'd intended to have lots of children on board at some point, so it was probably okay. He really wanted to know what had happened to the kids they'd planned on?
Before he could call Jeff, he had another video call incoming, and this one made him smile, even if it also made him just a bit nervous.
"Aunty!" he said, answering the call.
"Hey, baby," Mindy said. "How have you been? You haven't been online in ages. I've missed you!"
"Oh, I'm good. I've been super busy since graduation. How have you been? You're still coming to Geniuscon, right?"
"Of course! Since that seems like the only way I'm going to be able to see your mother. Have you heard from her? Last I heard there was some kind of incident on the space station that knocked out communications and a whole bunch of other stuff so I'm sure she's busy."
"I actually just got off a call with her," Aidan said, looking to the side. "She's fine, exhausted, happy. You know, living the dream."
"You okay, baby?" Mindy asked, her voice concerned. "I know you've been missing her."
"I'm fine, Mindy," he said. "I'm really looking forward to seeing her. I just really hope she can still get away for Geniuscon."
"She better. I'm going to be pissed if she's not there to drink with me and heckle the mad scientist panel. It's the highlight of my year so she better not miss it."
"I'm sure she'll do her best," Aidan said.
A notification popped up and he blanched.
"Aidan, what's going on?" Mindy asked, her voice stern. "I know that look. Something's wrong."
"Nothing's wrong," he lied. "But I've got another call coming in. I've got to go."
"Aidan, talk to me," Mindy demanded.
"I'll see you at Geniuscon. Love you, Mindy," Aidan said and disconnected the call just in time for the other one to pop up.
One of Mintonar's people, the one with a broad chest covered in an important looking uniform, and streaks of silver in his dark blue hair came up on his screen.
"You are Aidan, son of Maw-lee," he said, his English stilted.
"I am," Aidan agreed. "It's a pleasure to meet you Captain. How can I help you?"
"You negotiated with Mintonar for your mother's return," he said, his face impassive. "This is not possible."
"Temporary return," Aidan said. "So she can see her friends and I can see in person that she's alright. I've worked my ass off to make it possible and you can't back out of it on his behalf."
"It is not possible," the captain repeated. "You will come here."
The screen blanked out and Aidan was left gaping at it in surprise. Then, he started receiving packets of data, all of them with the signature of the tech guy he'd been working with on the ship to set up the communications. They'd tested sending things back and forth but nothing like this had come through his system before.
When he opened them, he swore in ways his mother would have smacked him for if she'd been nearby.
Reading through the badly, though better than they'd been, translated instructions, along with all the things he'd have to prepare, he was profoundly grateful that they'd kept to the originally agreed upon dates. They wanted to meet a bunch of human scientists and they wanted him to introduce them.
Well, there wasn't going to be a bigger bunch of scientists who'd fall all over themselves to meet actual aliens than Geniuscon and he'd just added five more guests to the guest list.
Keeping the most relevant files open in front of him, he called Jeff.
A human man, which seemed strange to Aidan suddenly, answered his phone. Unkempt salt and pepper hair sat over wild eyebrows that weren't even barely concealed by the thick lenses he wore.
"Aidan! Buddy! How ya doin'? How's your mom?"
"She's great, Jeff. In fact, she asked me to call you and ask for some help. You down to help me figure out some approach patterns to keep a ship from being picked up by, uh, everybody?"
Jeff's eyes gleamed with excitement. "Of course I am! Whatcha got?"
Author’s Note
Hello lovers!
Thank you so much for reading The Alien’s Accidental Bride! I hope you had as much fun reading it as I did writing it. Book 2 in the Alien Brides series, Bound to the Alien Engineer, is coming soon! In that one, Alvola meets his match, the lovely and dangerous Mindy.
If you enjoyed this book, and would like to see more like it, leave a quick review on Amazon. It would mean the world to me!
About the Author
C.V. Walter, author of Mates by Design, is currently working on her alien romance series. She thinks the family that you choose is more important than the ones you were born into. She lives in Colorado with her two husbands, two kids and a variable number of pets. To hear more about upcoming releases, sign up for the mailing list at cvwalterauthor.com
STAND ALONE STORIES
Amazing Girl Meets The Reporter
The King's Chamber
The Archivist
Lisa’s Revenge
Shifter Stories
Under the Blood Moon
The Werebear Hunter
Mates By Design
Full Moon Faire
For the Halibut
SERIES
Amanda the Governess
Amanda the Governess: Robert
Amanda the Governess: Caroline
Amanda the Governess: Tug of War
Amanda the Governess: Charlotte
Amanda and the Automatic Butler
Myths of Lust and Love
Marble Goddess
Gift of the Gods
Invisible Lover
Evil Sorceress in Training
In The Dungeon
In The Tower
In The Circle
On The Rack
Sacrifice
