Page 73 of Alien Prince’s Fake Bride (The Tentacle Throne #1)

- Mareliux -

I lead Umbra towards the other side of the greenhouse, trying to avoid most of the plants. Now I will make sure she’s safe myself. Her presence beside me makes my mind brighten up, and I never want to be apart from her again.

“I saw the cages when we arrived,” I tell her.

“And I ordered them broken open. Let’s get out of this unpleasant room.

” The floor is full of dead Vyrpy, blood and weapons and dirt from the soil the plants are standing in.

“Allow me, my love,” I say as I lift Umbra into my arms. I would normally never do anything like that with a fellow soldier where other soldiers could see it, but she’s my wife and she shouldn’t have to walk through this.

I carry her quickly over the battlefield and out of the door, while my soldiers make way for us. “Umbra is a warrior of the Empire,” someone says softly.

In the corridor the air is less sticky and smelly, and some of the former prisoners are waiting for us.

I let Umbra down. “The prisoners came to help us in the battle. Without them, we would still be fighting. I think they were angry.”

“Sigise!” she exclaims. “Are you all right?”

The shock trooper grins. “I am now, Highness. My Prince.” She gives me a shallow bow. “I’m happy to see you returned from your battle to help us with this one.”

“That battle was a sham,” I tell her, still keeping hold of Umbra’s hand. “It was only designed to pull me away from Umbra and lure both of us away from Khav to this wreck of a ship.”

“Oh?” Colonel Grast’s tentacles move slowly. “What would be the purpose of that?”

“To kill us,” Umbra says. “Have all the prisoners been freed?”

“The whole ship is under your control, Highness,” Grast says. “There are a couple of Vyrpy prisoners in those cages now. Perhaps they will be able to reveal some of what has happened.”

I turn to my Operations Officer. “Temiux, get all our personnel off this ship along with any caged prisoners. Don’t touch that green blood in the garden hall.” I give them several other orders, including what to do about Khav itself.

Guarded by Gramjeon and Grast, Umbra and I make our way over to the Gladiux. The impact when we crashed into the Merxast tore big hole in the old ship, but the Gladiux only suffered some small scrapes along its ram bow.

T he medical bay is full of both our own wounded and a handful of Vyrpy, tightly bound, that my medics and specialized robots will treat for their injuries. I grab the most necessary items and drag Umbra to my cabin, setting her down on the bed because it’s lower than the chairs.

I kneel on the floor. “Let me see those hands.”

Her dainty little palms are dirty and bleeding from small punctures.

“Not very deep,” I observe with relief as I examine them. “No damage to tendons or muscles, I think. But it must have been excruciating.”

“It was unpleasant,” Umbra admits. “But you came and got that Phrexz away from me. Why did you come to Khav in the first place?”

“I realized that I was being lured away,” I tell her with clenched jaws.

“I didn’t know why. I thought perhaps the Phrexz were launching a major attack on Khav itself.

It didn’t cross my mind that what was happening was even worse than that.

I can’t tell you how sorry I am that I didn’t get rid of that Phrexz impostor sooner. ”

Umbra reaches up and grabs hold of my tentacles, looking me in the eyes.

“That Phrexz had everyone fooled. Not just you. Most of the Khavgren leadership lived with it for years as their empress without realizing that it was an enemy. Or that it had taken charge of the Tentacle Throne. And they didn’t fix the problem. You did.”

I treat her other minor wounds tenderly, conscious of how delicate she is compared to me. “Or rather, you did. Without your immense Syntric strength, this would have ended differently. We would both be dead, and the Empire would be conquered in a matter of months.”

Umbra looks through the medical equipment and starts treating my wounds, while I’m still busy with hers.

“That Phrexz sat on the Tentacle Throne, it said. It wasn’t sending strength through the Syntrix, but weakness.

That shapeshifter had poisoned the Emperor to be so weak that he let the Empress sit on it instead of him. ”

“The Throne knew only the impostor,” I fret, anger rising in me. ”It no longer knew the Emperor, its rightful master. When I saw it, I should have unmasked that Phrexz. But the Vyrpy attack was well timed. I had no time to take care of it, and I decided to deal with the problems on Khav later.”

“And that’s what you did,” Umbra says soothingly, hearing my self-critical tone. “The enemy was unmasked and destroyed. I’m glad you crashed your ship into us. That interrupted the Phrexz.”

“The Gladiux is made for that,” I tell her as I finish up cleaning and closing her wounds.

“In desperate situations, it can ram an enemy ship with that bow. Inside there’s a tunnel that our forces can use to enter the enemy ship through the hole in its hull.

Brutal, but effective. And I knew it was urgent.

I could feel your pain through the Syntrix. ”

Umbra holds her hand with the Syntrix ring up to mine. “They’re still glowing.”

“That’s appropriate,” I tell her as I sit down on the bed myself and lift her onto my lap. “It’s the way it should be with Soulbound. Oh, my Umbra... I got so close to losing you!”

She straddles me and gets comfortable by wiggling her butt in my crotch. “You finally realize that we are? I mean, even I was convinced some time ago. And I’ve only known about Syntrix for a few weeks. The connection is just too strong to deny.”

I kiss her on the lips. “First I was afraid that it would ruin everything. Then I was afraid that being Soulbound with you would make it too painful when you left. But now, it’s obvious. We’re Soulbound. Our Syntrix are connected and have always been. Somehow.”

She reaches up to twirl a tendril on my head.

“I’ve done the math. Only roughly, but I think it’s close enough.

I lost Ashlynn when you lost Erieli. Within one year, anyway.

I thought there had to be some meaning in that.

That we’ve been connected all our lives.

Well, all my life, anyway. You’re a few years older. ”

I stroke her hair, noticing it’s sticky with all kinds of battle debris. “I love that, my love. And now, as the older of us, I decide that we need a bath. Both of us.”

Umbra jumps off my lap. “Speak for yourself. I’m always clean.”

I pick a twig out of her hair. “So this is only decoration?”

“It’s stylish,” she sniffs. “You haven’t heard of the twig trend?”

I get up and hug her close, lifting her so we’re eye to eye. “I want you to tell me all about it. But first: Umbra. My love. We have not been married for a while now. But we are Soulbound and everyone thinks we’re married.”

“Actually, no one believes it,” she chirps. “The Phrexz said so. But go on.”

I look into her eyes. “Be that as it may. Umbra Hadley. Princess Umbra Hadley of Earth. Will you marry me? For real, this time? On Khav? With the real intention to get married and maybe even sign some documents? Be my wife for real?”

A little smile plays around her lips. “Will you go away to a battle, leaving me locked up in an apartment that the enemy will blow up?”

I wince. That was far too close. “Never again. We will always be together. I will never lock you up at all. You need to be free. If you’re not, there’s no real marriage.

My love, I did abduct you. And I did practically force you to fake marry me.

Those things were… abhorrent. I admit I was out of balance after I got the message from the Emperor.

It made me act rashly. Just know that if what you really want is for me to take you back to Earth and leave you there, with the spaceships and the engineers, then I will. If that is your choice .”

“I made my choice a while ago,” Umbra says. “Freely. Yes, Mareliux. Yes. I’ll marry you. Again, if you want. But I’d honestly prefer it if we just signed some documents and were done with it. I don’t need the ceremony.”

“You don’t need it,” I agree, so relieved I have to concentrate to prevent my knees from buckling under me.

“And I don’t. But the people of Khav do.

They need to see our love be celebrated.

And they need to know that the bad times are over.

There hasn’t been a real Imperial celebration for many years, not since Juriniel and Craxallo got married.

I think it’s time. And also, I lied. I need it, too.

I need everyone to see me marrying you. Everyone . Now come with me.”

I toss Bellatriz onto the bed and carry Umbra into the waterfall shower. I strip her naked and drop my own battle-stained clothing. We clean each other for a good while as the water cascades over us, chatting calmly about recent events. The usual post-battle euphoria rises in both of us.

“Now this is magic,” Umbra sighs, standing under the waterfall and closing her eyes. “Getting clean in space. We don’t have indoor plumbing on our space station. Or outdoor plumbing. I could just stand here all day.”

I stroke one finger up along a soft breast. “Really?”

“Oh…” she moans. “Now you’re being naughty.

Fine, we’ll get back to bed and celebrate that you finally realize we’re Soulbound.

But then we’ll sweat and we’ll need to get clean again.

And then we have to celebrate that we won the battle.

And then we’ll need to get clean. And so on. You see where this is going?”

“We’ll be unusually clean?” I reply as I lean in and sniff her hair, which is now clean and wet, which makes it smell even better than before.

She scrubs her arms. “Well, obviously. We’ll be going back and forth between the bed and the shower for hours. Mareliux, aren’t you worried about the Calanian Guards on Khav clearly being on the Phrexz’s side?”

“Oh, I am. But two cohorts of shock troopers are getting ready to land at the palace and take control of it. With the Phrexz dead, the Calanians won’t have much motivation left.

That part of the Syntrix is gone forever, and I’m sure they can sense it.

” I let my hand slide along her wet, slippery behind.

She casually takes hold of my stiff rod. “Will you send Sigise with them? I just think it will mean a lot to her.”

“Hmm,” I pretend to think deeply while I stroke her lower back. “I seem to recall that those two cohorts will be led by a certain General Grast… is that the one you mean?”

Umbra frowns adorably. “No, she’s a col— oh! You promoted her!”

I grin. “She got you off Khav. I’ll give her a medal, too. No, two. Three. Big ones.”

“She really deserves it. She took a big risk.”

I can’t wait. My manhood is rock hard. “Tell me all about it later. Right now, I need my wife.” I lift her and carry her to the bed, both of us still dripping wet from the shower.