Page 36 of The Bride Contract (Princes of Xaavia #1)
36
EPILOGUE - Kiahn
It is traditional on Earth for newly wedded couples to sit down and feast with their loved ones after the wedding ceremony has taken place. I look around at all the attendees of mine and Niska’s traditional Earth bonding ceremony, and feel a lightness in my chest that I don’t think I’ve ever experienced before. They all witnessed my female become mine for the rest of our lives, and me become hers for an eternity. And it wasn’t just the strange words we had recited in front of them all that made our bond official in the eyes of Earth laws.
My Niska had walked down that aisle to gasps from all our guests as she proudly displayed my bite markings on her delicate little neck for all to see.
I normally strive to be a humble male, but I cannot deny the way seeing my mark on her made me feel like I could take on the entirety of my father’s principalities, all his court, and still have the energy to fuck my Niska until she’s a wrung-out, mumbling mess of a female.
And she had been right.
I thank all of the Goddesses, and all of the stars in the skies that she was right about my bite. She’d said she loved me without it - a fact that makes me smile to myself like an imbecile - and that the bonding bite is just the stamp and seal on the whole thing. She… she loved me enough that my venom didn’t change her at all. And I her.
We didn’t need venom to bond to each other.
We had already built that before my fangs sank into her.
Although…
I am just obsessed enough with her well-being that I will be ordering a physician to keep a close eye on her.
There is no way in all of the known galaxies that I would let her fate be similar to that of my mothers. I will never neglect our bond, and she will always feel my love for her, no matter if that means troubles with my father.
He did not attend the wedding today, citing other, more important business in the capital. He did send my Aunt back to me, however, and I am not sure how to interpret that.
Aunt Zalora had pulled me aside to apologize this morning, stating what I already knew deep down. “I only wanted to do what was best for my family.”
“And now your family includes my bride,” was my only reply.
I know her heart is true and she has love for us all, but I suspect she will find new ways to try and appease my father and keep our family’s control of our principality.
And I’ve not forgotten my responsibility in that task, either. I know my Aunt will be pushing my brothers harder than ever now to enter into some useful breeding contracts. But I would like to take a different approach, by forging alliances and relationships with other principalities and members of my father’s court through offered jobs, open lines of communication and trade that doesn’t involve a poor female being strapped to a breeding bench when she doesn’t feel like she has a real choice.
Many of those members are here today, currently gathered around Jaya and Lois asking what the significance of being a ‘bridesmaid’ actually is. They all seem enamored, but none more than my brother, Az. He’s currently only two drinks deep but he’s leaning against the bar as he stares at Lois like he’s inebriated by her very existence. Which would be amusing enough, but I spy my Aunt making her way to him through the crowd, dragging along some poor senator’s daughter that I’m sure she’ll sing the praises of to him.
“Good luck with that,” I snort into the glass of my bubbly drink.
“What was that?” my love asks as she sits beside me, her own drink half-way on its journey to her lips.
I smile and shake my head, my hand finding her thigh even though it’s covered by layers upon layers of ivory fabric. “Nothing,” I dip my head to say, “just wondering when we can slip away and enjoy each other again.” My eyes dip to her uncovered neck, noting the way her pulse-point jumps beneath my bite marks.
My fangs start to descend the longer I look at her, my body knowing that I’ll never get enough of claiming this little female.
The little female in question smirks, like she knows the effect she has on my body.
Of course she does.
I start to lean into her, about to say something wholly unrespectable about her pretty little cunt, when someone approaches our table.
It’s Gibbi, one of the many females my Aunt had tried to tempt me with, and one of the ones I have since offered a position on my council. “Lois just told us about the throwing of the flowers!” she tells us excitedly, her face a little flush from drinking and merriment. “Can you do that part now, Princess Niska?”
I look at my bride.
My wife .
My Princess .
It has been a long time since Xaavia last saw a Princess.
And it’s clear Niska is so stunned by hearing the new title that she just gapes and blinks back at Gibbi for a moment or two before shaking herself out of it. “Uh, yeah… sure… sure… uh… we can do that.”
She looks at me with a stunned expression on her face. I only grin back at her, tucking away thoughts of calling her my princess any chance I get.
A human wedding is full of many traditions, it seems. The flower throwing, or ‘tossing of the bouquet’ as my research called it, will signify which wedding guest will be next to wed.
A gaggle of Xavianns, both male and female gather together, readying themselves to catch my Niska’s flowers. She’s stunning as she stands there in her special dress, a wide smile on her face. Stunning, and all mine.
Turning her back to the crowd, they count; one, two, three, before the small bunch of flowers she’s been carrying around all day goes arching through the air. There’s some squabbling in the crowd, and I grin at the sight of my athlete brother, Az throwing himself into the mix, elbowing people out of the way for a chance to be the lucky winner.
Instead, it’s one strong, raised hand that catches the bouquet cleanly and fairly. When the crowd parts, my brows raise at seeing who it is.
Zann grins at everyone as people clap and some of the losers grumble. He is the last person I would have thought would entertain even a modicum of an idea of bonding with one female for life.
“It’s quite fitting, really,” Zann calls out over the hubbub. The guests around him go quiet. “I think now, at my dear brother’s strange Earth-bonding-ceremony-thing, it might be a good time for us to announce that the lovely human, Jaya and I-” he pauses momentarily, ushering for Jaya to come to his side. I freeze as I watch Zann sling his arm around her shoulders. “- have entered into a new breeding contract together! ”
Some of the guests don’t know how to react, others cheer and clap. My geliklik of a brother just raises that fucking bouquet in the air like it’s a fucking drak-ball season trophy.
Niska hurries to my side as she eyes our guests crowding my brother and her friend Jaya. “He wouldn’t force her to do anything, right?” she whispers.
I can feel my jaw tick. “No, he wouldn’t do that,” I admit, glaring at Zann. “He’s likely struck a deal with her.” I fold my arms as I continue to glare. “I’m sure he thinks being in a breeding contract would make him exempt from the temporary exile my father plans on sending him on.”
My bride folds her arms too, mirroring my stance which is… insanely adorable. “Will it?”
I sigh, not knowing the answer to that. My brother catches my eye with a twinkle of amusement in his own. That idiot has the fucking gall to wink at me between talking to well-wishers. I grind my teeth before leaning down to murmur to Niska, “is it traditionally considered bad luck for the groom to kill his brother on his human wedding day?”
My bride rolls her eyes but her expression is soft when she unfolds her arms and wraps them around me instead. “I’ll make you a deal,” she offers as we sway a little together, her hand coming around to draw idle patterns on my chest. “If you can promise me zero murders on my wedding day, then I might just let you bite me again tonight.”
Leaning down, I brush my lips against her smiling ones. “You drive a hard bargain, little human,” I rumble into a soft kiss, completely ignoring all the chatter of the scene around us. “But you already know I’ll give you anything you want.”