Page 50 of Alien Prince’s Fake Bride (The Tentacle Throne #1)

- Mareliux -

“Where is my love?” I ask as I enter the new apartment I’ve picked at random.

“Right here,” Umbra says and jumps down from the wide windowsill, a bright smile on her face.

I go over and kiss her, then hide both hands behind my back. “Pick a hand.”

She thinks about it. “That better not be a bomb. That one.” She points to my right hand.

I show her my empty hand. “Oh no! You missed the bomb.”

“I specifically said I don’t want a bomb,” she says and puts her hands on her hips. “Now I don’t want to choose.”

“It might not be a bomb,” I try to tempt her. “It may just be a newly hatched monster from that jungle planet. You liked those, right?”

Umbra gapes in mock outrage. “This is getting worse! I’m not sure what gave you the impression that I liked those things that tried to kill us. Did you think that’s what I meant when I screamed my head off and tried to kill them? You didn’t like them much, either.”

I scratch my chin. “That’s true. Well, maybe it’s not that. Maybe it’s something nice.” I can’t remember the last time I felt I could joke and play with someone like this. Umbra has really brought a playful side out in me, one I haven’t really noticed… well, since Terieli.

“Oh, just show me,” Umbra sighs.

“Catch!” I toss the knife spinning into the air above us.

Umbra squeals, then takes a quick step back and snatches the knife out of the air with her Syntrix, then grabs it with her hand.

“Nice moves,” I exclaim. “I can see Darient made you practice.”

Umbra pulls the knife out of its sheath. “Practically all day. Then Sigise flew the gunship into space and showed me how to fly it. That was fun. This is a really nice blade.”

“It has a built-in gun,” I say as I embrace her.

“Five shots. It’s the kind of thing a princess can carry without arousing attention.

It looks like a ceremonial knife that’s purely for decoration, but it is actually quite powerful.

Only shoot in extreme need. The first four bullets are different from the last one.

They will kill a person who’s not wearing armor, but they won’t go through walls.

The last one will go through armor if all else fails. Do not use it inside a spaceship.”

“You think I’ll need that?” she asks, turning the weapon over in her small hands. “Armor-piercing bullets?”

I look over at the small window in the room. “It’s a feeling I have. It’s better to be prepared for a tough enemy and then not meet one than to meet one and then… well, you see my point.”

The new apartment in the palace is old, and it only has a view of the courtyard.

But it’s elegant and comfortable in an old-fashioned kind of way.

A ray of afternoon sun comes in through the single window.

I can see it because there’s a good amount of dust in the air.

I didn’t allow any cleaners in here before we moved in. I’m starting to suspect everyone.

Umbra strokes one finger along the knife’s sheath. “I thought you said no weapons for me.”

“I changed my mind.”

“You really want me to be safe,” she says and looks up at me.

“Always,” I tell her truthfully. “I heard about the excursion in the park.”

“What did you hear?”

“That the people of Khav love you. Which is a new experience for everyone.”

“They love you, too.”

“They think they do,” I correct her. “They don’t know me. Only the soldiers have ever met me. Anyway, we have received a roomful of wedding gifts. We can inspect them if you want.”

“Can we do it later?” Umbra asks. “I’m really comfortable here.”

“Of course.” I lift her, making her squeal, and carry her with me to the nearest ottoman and sit down with her on my lap. “You had a long day already. Did you hit it off with Darient?”

“She’s very nice,” Umbra says, wiggling her butt to get comfortable. “Intense, but sincere. She told me a lot about you.”

“Oh no,” I groan as my cock swells from the near contact with her behind. “That’s not what I wanted. You regret marrying me now.”

“I don’t,” she says as she reaches up and takes hold of a tendril. “They were all nice things.”

I make the tendril twist around one of her fingers, tightening around it. “Are you sure?”

She grabs another tendril and strokes it. “I’m sure. We had snacks, and we saw all the old stone monuments about the old wars and the battles. How’s the new war going?”

I sigh. “The new war s . Plural. Not good, Umbra. The Vyrpy keep getting stronger. As if they’re being helped by someone. Some people think they’re seeing— oh, never mind.”

“No, go on,” Umbra urges me, flicking the tip of one tendril. “What are they seeing?”

I think about it. Is this something she needs to know? “I don’t want to scare you.”

She tugs on two tendrils, and it’s not unpleasant. “Oh, you think you can scare me? The girl who attacked your Gladiux in a craft made of foil and sticky tape? Try me.”

I smile at her challenge. “Some of our legionnaires think they’re seeing Phrexz. On the battlefields and in space. Just one or two, and then they lose sight of them. I don’t know what to make of it. Nobody’s actually seen a Phrexz. I mean, no Khavgren has.”

“You worry that the Vyrpy and the Phrexz are allied now?”

“It’s hard to imagine the Phrexz being allied to anyone.

But yes, if they are, that is a worry. It could also be battlefield fatigue.

These battles are tough on our legionnaires.

They might be seeing things that don’t exist, the things they fear the most. It’s just one more reason why we really need an Emperor who can use the Syntrix right!

But our forces are not getting any help from him. ”

“They need you on that weird throne.” Umbra tries to tie two tendrils together in a knot, but I make them twist and writhe to make it harder for her.

“That would be better,” I agree. “But even Craxallo should be able to use the Syntrix somewhat . He’s not that weak. Sick, yes. But even sick people have use of the Syntrix. Now we lost track of the Vyrpy main fleet. Last we saw them, they were on a course straight for Khav.”

I’m not sure if I should share all this with Umbra.

It’s none of her business, after all. It’s not her war.

She’s only looking forward to going back to Earth with some of our spaceships.

But it feels completely natural to tell her about my worries.

As if she were my real wife, and not my fake one.

This is what being truly married feels like, comes an unbidden thought. This is what I want from a marriage.

“I keep wondering,” Umbra says as she keeps trying to tie all my tendrils together in one big knot, “what’s limiting his Syntrix.

I never had Syntrix myself until recently.

As you’ve seen, there’s not much I can do to stop it.

It does what it wants. Or rather, it does what I want, even before I know what that is.

He must be really weak to not be able to use it. ”

I frown. “You think someone is stopping him?”

Umbra looks at me with her big, clear eyes. “Would that be possible? Could someone keep him so weak that he can’t use Syntrix, but strong enough that he doesn’t die? Keeping the Empire weak for years and years, while the enemies come closer?”

I think about it. “I suppose that could be possible. I’ve never heard of it happening.

You’d need some kind of… hmm.” I don’t say the last word, poison .

I’m sure we’re being eavesdropped on, even in this apartment.

And if it is the Empress, it’s better if I don’t reveal my suspicions.

“No, it’s too far-fetched,” I state as I quickly flick my gaze to the ceiling.

“Nobody could keep him weak. There’s no way I know of. ”

Umbra gives me a little smile, showing me that she understands I’m really speaking to our unseen audience, not to her. “All right. I was just asking. This is all so new to me. Oh, we saw the Mareliux Park today. It was so wonderful…”

She goes on to tell me about her day, and when she takes a break to draw breath, I lean in to kiss her. “Let’s continue this in the bedroom.”

Later, when I’m looking into her eyes as I penetrate her, I see the understanding in her eyes.

There’s such warmth in her, such care! And she’s the one who’s kept me alive since we got to Khav.

I thought she would give me problems. But she has done the opposite.

She has made everything easier. And she’s made my life better.

What if it were possible? What if I could keep her here, as my wife?

As my princess? As my empress? She handles my family well.

She deals with the people in a way nobody else ever has.

She makes friends everywhere she goes. Even my spoiled rascal of a brother respects her, having tested her with outrageous remarks and had her completely turn them back on him in an unassailable way. What an empress she could be!

“I love you,” I moan as I spray inside her and she screams out her own, Syntrix-strengthened climax.

And I mean it. I love her. Not for what she can do for me. But for what she is.

“Stay with me,” I growl into her ear when we’re both recovering from the intense exertion. “Stay. I need you. We need you.”

“Yes,” she says, still shaking from the aftershocks of her enviable climax. “I need you, too.”

She falls asleep in my arms. And my life suddenly looks brighter than before.