Page 15 of Married to the Alien Mountain Man (Cowboy Colony Mail-Order Brides #5)

15

JAYA

A ll this talk about the Lavariya made me extra anxious to get back to her. It also had another secondary effect of making me feel irrationally close to Oaken.

I wasn’t supposed to actually open up to my husband.

The easiest way to put a stop to that would be to create some space between us.

“I should probably go now,” I said. “Before I do, do you want me to try to use the knitter on you? It’s best used to stop active bleeding, and you obviously aren’t bleeding now. But it still might do some good.”

“Do not trouble yourself,” Oaken said with a flick of his tail. “Just wait here for a moment, please.”

He disappeared into the house’s bedroom. When he emerged, he had a large leather pack slung over his shoulder.

“What’s that?” I asked, jutting my chin in the bag’s direction.

“Travel supplies,” he answered. “A water skin. My hatchet. A tent.”

“Are you lending it to me? I don’t think I’ll need any of it. I definitely don’t need a tent.”

“Oh, the tent is not for you,” he said quickly, heading for the door. “It’s for me.”

“For… Hold on!” I called. Even with the limp, the man was damn fast on those long legs. He was already out the door.

“Why do you need a tent?’ I asked, running after him.

Oaken paused, hitching the satchel up higher on his bare shoulder.

“Well, I suppose I do not need a tent,” he replied. “But whenever I camp away from home, I tend to use one. And it will be useful if it rains tonight.”

“Tonight… You mean, you’re coming with me? For the whole night?”

Oaken cocked his head. The three moons of Zabria Prinar One were visible in the inky sky, casting pearlescent light down on the dark river of his hair.

“Of course I am coming with you. Was that not clear?”

“Uh, no. That wasn’t clear. You don’t have to come with me. I can use Lala to find my way back.”

Oaken snorted. His tail flicked across the ground.

“I am not sending you alone and unguarded into the mountains,” he scoffed.

“Besides Lala and the occasional ferry job passenger, I’ve basically been alone for the past ten years!” I exclaimed. “I know how to take care of myself!”

“I’m sure you do,” Oaken said. “But that was out there.” His tail snaked up and off the ground, pointing up at the moons and stars. “Now, you are down here.” His eyes glowed fiercely. “And you do not know down here as I do.”

I opened my mouth to argue, but the words died in my throat. Goddamnit, he was right. I didn’t know what predators or pitfalls awaited me in the mountains. I didn’t even have my stunner anymore now that the warden had so kindly confiscated it from me.

Besides, it wasn’t like Oaken had invited himself to sleep inside my ship with me. And while I couldn’t say this was anything close to a free country, considering it was a penal colony and all, I also couldn’t tell him he wasn’t allowed to make camp where he pleased.

“Alright. Fine,” I said, turning away from him to stare off in the direction of the mountains.

I pursed my lips and rubbed my arms. The day had been hot, but the night was surprisingly chilly. I shivered, trying to increase the friction between my palms and my arms. The last thing I needed was Oaken commenting on my “caboosebumps” again.

But he didn’t. Instead, without a word, he whisked something heavy, thick, and incredibly warm around my shoulders. Every part of me froze. Even my lungs. I didn’t breathe as Oaken carefully secured what I was fairly certain was some sort of leather around my shoulders.

And you thought you didn’t need him.

“What is this?” I asked once my lungs decided to start working again. It didn’t appear to be an article of clothing, or if it was, it didn’t have any seams, sleeves, or fasteners.

“It is the blanket from my bedroll,” Oaken said, closing up his satchel.

“Oh. Well… Thanks.” I unclenched my fists from my arms, and then clenched them around the blanket instead so that it wouldn’t fall.

Oaken gave me a sweetly crooked sort of smirk. He looked immensely satisfied to see me wrapped up in his blanket.

“You do not need to thank me for something like this,” he replied on a murmur. “I am your husband. This is what I’m meant to do.”

What I’m meant to do…

The man made it sound like keeping me warm was the highest, most holy purpose of his life.

“So. How do we get there? Do you have one of those slicers, like the warden?”

“No one but the wardens have slicers,” he told me. “Normally, for any other sorts of long distances, I’d take you on Fiora, or one of my other shuldu. But the ground is quite treacherous between this valley and where your ship landed. Those rocks are one of the few terrains around here where we would be less liable to injury than a shuldu.”

“I don’t mind walking. I definitely don’t want your mount getting hurt. Speaking of which…” I lifted my foot, pointing my toes at his ankle. “What about you? Are you going to be OK going all the way back there on foot?”

“It will not be a problem. You want to get to your ship. And I am going to take you there.”

Something about the determination in his voice, and in his expression, touched me deeply.

And I certainly couldn’t have that.

“Alrighty, then!” I said in an impersonally chipper voice. “Off we go!”

Oaken and I made decent progress at first, but as we got deeper into the mountains, things got trickier. Oaken hadn’t exaggerated about the treacherous ground. My smooth, easy flight on the slicer had given me a false sense of how easy the journey would be. And it was twice as bad in the dark. More than once, I stumbled over a rock, or a crack, or the toes of my own boots, and it was only the quick reaction of Oaken’s arm – or tail, in some cases – that kept me upright.

I was a bit embarrassed about the way I’d tried to push away his help earlier. The way I’d so proudly told him that I could take care of myself. It turned out that more than a decade piloting a small ship on my own hadn’t prepared me to walk through Zabria Prinar One mountains in the dark.

Not to mention the fact that it was actually pretty creepy out here at night. The boulders and peaks, which had been a pretty pinkish-gold during the day, took on a dead, bony quality at night. Shadows between rocks looked much deeper and darker than they should have, and every time I took my eye off of one, it seemed to move in the peripheral of my vision.

Several times, Oaken and I walked beneath arching stone overhangs that blocked out the moons and stars. Unfortunately, it was in those moments of pure, pitch black that I realized Oaken’s eyes, for the first time since we’d met, weren’t glowing. I guessed he was too busy making sure neither of us broke an ankle to feel any big feelings on our walk.

But even without his eyes acting as my own personal lanterns, I was still really glad he was with me.

If I’d come here without Oaken…

Yeah. I’d probably be shitting my pants right about now.

I might even have turned around.

And in the next moment, I almost did. Nearly ran right back to Oaken’s house when I saw something move a metre ahead of me. Something big.

“Holy Terra!” I choked out. “What the hell is that?”

“Get back,” Oaken hissed. One of his hands was on me, shoving me behind him. His other hand somehow had a hatchet in it, though I didn’t know how he could have pulled it out that fast. His tail must have done it, transferring it to his hand before I’d noticed.

“What is it?” I whispered, peering around him and squinting in the low light. Whatever it was, it the same colour as the rocks it slithered through. Its body was at least two – no, probably four – metres long.

“A common mountain serpent,” Oaken replied quietly, keeping his hatchet at the ready. “Not venomous, but certainly strong enough to do some damage. Especially to you.”

“A thing that big is common around here?!”

Oaken grunted in reply. He didn’t move, keeping himself between the serpent and me, his entire body tense and prepared to strike.

Thankfully, he didn’t need to. The serpent didn’t seem to have much interest in me, maybe because of the big, weapon-wielding Zabrian that had planted himself in front of me.

Once the serpent had slipped out of sight into some mountain hidey hole that I was sure would now haunt my dreams, I let out a shuddering sigh.

“Sorry,” I breathed, trying and failing to force my heart into a more normal rhythm “I swear, I’m usually a lot more badass than this. But I also usually have my ship with me. My ship keeps me safe.”

Oaken lowered his hatchet, then hooked it onto his belt. When he turned around to face me, his eyes were bright white again.

“We may not have reached your ship yet. But I am with you, Jaya,” he said. “And I can keep you safe.”

My throat ached.

“But who will keep you safe, Oaken?”

If something happened to him out here because he was trying to help me, I’d never forgive myself.

He didn’t answer. Because he didn’t have an answer.

Oaken had no one.

Sure, he had his cousin nearby, and Magnolia, and Killian. But they weren’t with him now. They weren’t here . They were all asleep, a little family unit together in their home.

And Oaken was alone.

I swear, if he doesn’t get the kindest, hottest, most loyal human wife in existence after I leave, then I am going to fucking cut a bitch.

“How far do we have left to go?”

Oaken turned his head this way and that to get his bearings.

“I would say that we are not quite halfway there.”

I swallowed a groan. We’d been at this for at least an hour, and we weren’t even halfway?! The journey wasn’t going to get any easier from here on out, either. Already, my tired muscles were cramping, and blisters were screaming on my heels. I hadn’t bothered stopping to use my knitter on them, because I knew they’d just start rubbing and then open up again as we walked.

“I didn’t think it was that far,” I said, dismayed. “The journey on the slicer was so fast!”

“The distance is not truly very great,” Oaken explained. “Your ship is located only a few spans from my property. The uneven footing and rocks are what slow us down. If this were flat ground, we would have reached your ship by now.”

“For fuck’s sake.” I scrubbed my hands up and down my face. Exhaustion was creeping through me, winding along my limbs like the serpent we’d just seen. I’d been awake for way too many hours already before I’d landed here in the morning planet-time. And it had been at least another ten or twelve hours since then.

“What is it?”

“Sorry, Oaken,” I said. “I shouldn’t have dragged you all the way out here.”

“You did not drag me,” he said, so kindly that it broke my fucking heart. “I volunteered.”

“I know but… Still. This isn’t working. Damn.” I took in the hostile darkness of the valley ahead and felt the weight of my weariness triple. “I don’t think we should keep going tonight. Especially if you’re going to be sleeping outside in your tent when we get there.”

The tent thing had seemed fine back in the relative safety of his idyllic, fenced-in ranch. But out here, faced with the uncaring reality of the mountains and their shadows…

I wouldn’t hear of it.

“What do you want to do, Jaya?” Oaken asked. There was such a deep sense of patience in the question. He didn’t sound frustrated with me, despite the fact I’d just brought him on a fruitless hour-long hike when he probably would have liked nothing more than to be in bed by now. He asked the question as if he really, truly wanted to know the answer. Like he was prepared to wait as long as it took, and would not once complain.

What I wanted…

What I wanted was to already be at the Lavariya . I wanted a cup of chai in my hand and my butt in my own bed.

But…

I also wanted Oaken not to be alone. Or maybe I wanted not to be alone.

And I knew I didn’t want to go any further on foot in the dark tonight. I made my decision and silently promised the Lavariya that I would see her tomorrow.

“I want to go back to your place.”

I was too frustrated with how this night had gone, and too tired, to get embarrassed about how dirty that sounded. I doubted Oaken was experienced enough with human ladies to pick up on the connotation of that phrase, either. He just looked at me with those bright, patient eyes, and said, “If you want it, then it is done.”

Apparently, “it is done,” meant I was no longer responsible for walking any longer. I yelped, nearly dropping Oaken’s blanket, as he easily hoisted me up into his arms.

“What are you doing?” I cried, wriggling.

He tightened his hold on me. “Careful,” he warned.

“Shit. Sorry. Please don’t drop me…”

“I’d never drop you.”

“But if you tripped-”

“I still wouldn’t drop you,” he replied without hesitation. “I’d take the brunt of the fall on my knees if I had to. But you would never touch the ground.”

This big, green son of a gun. I actually believed him.

“Why are you carrying me?” I whispered. Already, the fight was oozing out of me like blood from a wound. Oaken’s body heat seeped through the blanket, warming me, coaxing me to melt into his solidity.

“Because I can tell that you are tired. Maybe even sore.”

“How the hell can you tell that?” My pride had been injured over and over again tonight, but at the very least, I could honestly say I hadn’t once complained about my sore legs or my feet while we’d walked.

So how could he possibly have noticed?

“Because you started slowing down. And your gait changed,” he said simply, as if stating the most obvious fact in the world.

“My gait? What about your gait?” I countered. “You’re the one with a broken foot!”

“It is not broken anymore.”

“You know what I mean…”

Man, this felt good. Too good. My treacherous neck gave out, my head tipping to the side to lean against his chest. His skin was hot beneath my cheek. I felt the pounding of his heart, and found it to be a strangely comforting rhythm. Fighting a yawn, I tried one more time – though maybe not as hard as I should have – to convince him to put me down.

“I can walk on my own, Oaken,” I protested drowsily.

“I know,” he murmured against my hair. And then, in the last moments before I fell asleep, he softly added, “But you don’t have to. Not while you’ve got me.”