Page 21 of Wanted by the Alien Warden (Cowboy Colony Mail-Order Brides #4)

21

TASHA

W arden Hallum brought me inside his building, then showed me to a small, tidy room at the back.

“These will be your quarters,” he said, returning after a moment and handing me a plate of sliced meat and various fruits and vegetables he’d grabbed from his cellar.

“Thank you very much,” I said, taking the plate and putting it on the wooden bedside table. “It’s perfect.”

It really was a lovely room. Not a speck of dust to be seen. How was that possible? Every other room I’d been in on Zabria Prinar One so far had had dust. The stuff was everywhere.

Not here, apparently.

Even more impressive was that we’d arrived early, so he wouldn’t have had extra time to clean. Which meant Warden Hallum must have kept it this clean all the time.

“There is a basin there for washing,” he said, indicating a medium-sized bucket in the closet. “You can access clean water from the taps in the kitchen and any of the hoses attached to the outside of the house. The outhouse is directly beside the building.”

“I appreciate it.”

Warden Hallum lingered in the room with me, as if waiting to see if I had anything else to say. He stood perfectly still with his hands behind his back. His uniform was just as spotless as this room was. Despite the lack of conversation, he didn’t seem to register even a hint of awkwardness. Just stood there. Like a black-haired, grey-eyed statue. I glanced at my plate, then fidgeted a bit, picking at my fingernails.

This is the kind of guy who could break a man by doing nothing but staring at him in total silence.

I couldn’t think of a single thing to say. Warden Hallum was intimidating.

Tenn, when I’d first met him, had been intimidating, too. But for different reasons. He was intimidating because he’d shown himself to be so competent, so commanding, and so unfairly hot.

Warden Hallum also appeared to be competent, and commanding…

And cold.

Not that he wasn’t attractive. I’m sure some lady out there would have appreciated the cool, calculating quality of his steely grey eyes. That lady just wasn’t me.

I shivered.

Warden Hallum unexpectedly broke the silence.

“There are extra blankets in the closet.”

It took me a second to realize that he’d noticed me shivering, and he knew what it meant because he’d read the book. For some reason, that didn’t make me feel better. He was almost too observant. Like he could take one look at me – at anyone – and know everything about them. Every desire, every fear, every flaw.

“Thank you.” And then, when he still didn’t leave, I tentatively added, “Goodnight.”

“Goodnight.”

He finally left the room, closing the door behind him.

I breathed out, letting myself relax. I hadn’t realized how much tension had gathered in my shoulders in Warden Hallum’s demanding presence. Stretching my neck by leaning my head towards one shoulder, then the other, I walked to the window and cracked it open. Cool night air rushed in.

Along with the sound of someone swearing.

“Tenn?” I called, opening the window wider. I had a feeling Warden Hallum wouldn’t be out there making that kind of racket.

Tenn was directly beneath my window, attempting to set up the tent on a rocky, uneven stretch of ground.

“What are you doing out there?” I asked, leaning my forearms on the windowsill.

“I am setting up my tent,” he gritted out. “Or, trying to.”

“Why don’t you go over there?” I asked him, pointing at a much nicer, flatter spot between some trees about five metres from the back of the house.

“Too far away,” Tenn grunted, finally succeeding in getting the tent to stand up.

“Too far away from what?”

“From you. Obviously.”

Obviously?

Excuse me, sir, but that actually is not obvious at all!

Especially after he’d been so insistent on me sleeping inside and him taking the tent. When he’d said as much to Warden Hallum, it made me feel like he was embarrassed to be seen as wanting to share a sleeping space with me. And yet here he was, trying to get as close as he possibly could without actually tunnelling into the solid wood wall from the outside.

“How’s your room?” Tenn asked, switching subjects before I could internally combust over my own confusion. Now finished with the tent, he tossed his bags into it, then came to the open window to hand me mine. Despite the fact that he was outside standing on an incline, and I was in the house, our height differences meant our faces were exactly level with each other.

“Thanks,” I said, taking my bag and dropping it on the floor. “The room is good. Very clean. Warden Hallum is certainly an interesting guy.”

Tenn frowned. White sparked in his eyes. “He’s not that interesting.”

“He’s just different, that’s all.”

“Different from what?”

“Well… From you.”

“But you still prefer me.” Technically, Tenn’s sentence was a statement. But there was a warble of uncertainty, a subtle shift in his tone, that turned it into a question.

Affection filled my chest until it became hard to breathe. If I leaned out this window, just a little bit more, I could kiss him.

“Yes, Tenn,” I murmured. “Never thought I’d say this, but you are definitely my favourite Zabrian warden.”

“Good,” he said quietly.

His gaze went to my lips. Goosebumps broke out along my arms. The wind gently buffeted me, pulling a few loose strands of hair from my bun. Tenn caught one of those strands between his claws and held it gently for a moment. Then, he tucked it carefully behind my ear.

“You really don’t have to sleep right here,” I said, even though I was secretly glad he’d chosen to be so close. “You’re going to be on all those poky rocks the whole night.”

“I am not afraid of a few rocks. Besides, what if you need something?”

“Something… Something like what?”

“What if you require my protection?”

I laughed. Tenn’s gaze still lingered on my mouth.

“I’ll be safe inside. And you’ll be out there! What, exactly, do you plan on protecting me from like that?”

He placed his hands on either side of the window outside, bracketing the opening, and leaning so close that his next words fanned across my face.

“Does loneliness count?”

I blinked, stunned to hear my question from the other night turned back on me that way. I remembered how he’d replied, and nodded, my throat growing hot.

“It counts.”

Tenn’s breathing grew slightly uneven. The white returned to his eyes. Awareness snapped between us like an electrical charge.

My lips parted.

“Get some rest.” Tenn suddenly pushed off from the wall and retreated to the tent. “We have lots of work to do tomorrow.”

Tomorrow. Right. We’d be meeting Dorn, Xennet, and Rivven for the first time. I needed a clear head. So far, I’d only met Zabrian convicts who’d been tempered by the presence of their wives. This would be my first time meeting unmarried convicts face-to-face. I swallowed, and pretended not to feel the way my neglected lips tingled.

“Alright,” I said. I closed the window, filled my washbasin, got ready for bed, then slipped under the covers. As much as I’d gotten used to sleeping beside Tenn, being in a real bed again was heavenly, and exhaustion soon pulled me down into the depths of sleep.

I dreamed of myself in that bed. In that very room.

With a white glow coming in through the window.

The next morning I woke at dawn, refreshed from my sleep in the bed and fuelled by the fact that I’d be meeting more of the men today. Since it was so early, I thought I might be the first one up, but after getting dressed and heading out into the kitchen, I found Warden Hallum already waiting for me there. He, too, was dressed, his uniform crisp and his boots impossibly clean.

“Breakfast,” he said, indicating food laid out on the table.

“Thank you,” I said. I glanced around the kitchen.

“Looking for Warden Tenn?”

Damn. He really did see everything.

“He’s awake,” Warden Hallum said. “He’s cleaning up with a hose outside. When he’s finished, we’ll go.”

“Go? Go where?” I’d assumed that, since there were only three men to meet, they would all congregate here.

“One of my men, Rivven, suffered an injury many cycles ago,” Warden Hallum answered. “As a result, he does not work on a ranch like the others, but rather runs a saloon. His saloon is located at a central point, roughly equal distance from the properties of Dorn, Xennet, and myself. We will all meet there.”

A saloon? Interesting. I hadn’t realized that there were any other career options for the men out here.

“Alright. That’s fine with me,” I told him.

“Good,” he said. “I will go prepare the shuldu.”

By the time I was finished eating and had retrieved my hat, the two wardens were outside, each of them holding the reins of a shuldu. I wondered, for a painful second, if Tenn was going to pull another moment like last night when he’d decided for the both of us that I’d sleep away from him. Was he going to make me ride with Warden Hallum?

No offence to Warden Hallum, but I could not imagine anything more uncomfortable than sitting on a saddle in front of him for an entire shuldu ride. It would be like sitting in front of a big, cold rock. A grey one. With very sharp edges.

But Tenn was already making his way towards me, leading the large sable shuldu by the reins.

As he came, I found myself powerless against the image of him, the picture he created. His broad, confident steps. The strong lines of his shoulders and biceps and the tension of his forearm as he held the reins. That brutal jaw, thick neck. The eyes like orange flames and hair like silver-dusted snow.

“Good morning,” I said, feeling suddenly shy after not being with him all night.

“Good morning. Are you ready?”

“Yeah. I think so.”

Tenn tipped his hat towards me. Then, he released the reins and clasped my waist, lifting me up the way he’d done before with Rabbit.

I’d gotten so used to leaning forward and holding onto him on the slicer that having him behind me now was intoxicating. His arms caged me in. His frame cast a shadow over me as he bent at the waist, hist front flush against my back.

“Follow me,” Warden Hallum said, mounting his massive black shuldu and turning it towards the path we’d travelled yesterday.

On our shuldu, we exited the forest at a solid clip. There were a few times that I worried I might get bounced right out of the saddle, but Tenn’s tail was there, fastened tightly around my waist, keeping me secure like a shuttle seatbelt.

Once we were clear of the trees, we followed a broad dirt road through rolling hills dotted with swaying golden-green grass. Eventually, a large wooden building came into view in the distance.

“That is Rivven’s saloon,” Warden Hallum called over to us. “They should all be gathered now.”

As we approached, I could see that he was right. Three figures stood outside the saloon, appearing to wait for us by the road. I was surprised to see that, unlike what I’d seen of men like Fallon, Oaken, and Silar, they were all fully dressed. They were even matching, wearing the same outfits of black and white and….

Holy fucking Terra. Were those tuxedos?!

Yup. There was no way I was wrong about that. As Tenn brought our shuldu to a stop and I got a better look at the three Zabrian males before me, I could see that they were absolutely wearing tuxedos, complete with bowties and cummerbunds.

And cowboy hats. Couldn’t forget the cowboy hats.

Interestingly, they removed their hats after Tenn helped me down and I got closer. I hadn’t really noticed any of the others do that before. Had I written that in the book somewhere? That it was polite to remove your hat?

I must have. Where else would they have gotten the idea?

And why else would they be wearing tuxedos?!

“Tasha, these are my men,” Warden Hallum said after dismounting. He aimed his tail at each of them in turn. “Dorn. Xennet. And Rivven.”

I looked at the three men.

Three pairs of very white eyes stared back.

“Hello. I’m glad to meet you,” I said. I approached the small group, aware the entire time of how close Tenn followed at my back. I held out my hand to the first man. “Dorn?”

The largest of the three men, both in width and height, took my hand in his rust-red one.

They definitely read the book.

We were off to a good start.

“I’m Dorn,” he confirmed, giving my hand a hesitant wobble before letting go. His reddish-brown hair was shorter than any other Zabrian male I’d encountered thus far. It appeared to have been cut messily, and was tied back in a low ponytail that was only a few inches long.

“And you’re Xennet?” I held out my hand to the next one.

“Yes!” He grabbed my hand tightly and shook it a lot harder than Dorn had. Glossy, pale purple hair was pulled back from a regal, almost elfin-looking face with light green hide.

“Um. Great,” I said. My hand was beginning to go numb.

“That’s enough, Xennet,” Warden Hallum said.

He dropped my hand. I let blood flow return to my fingers before I finally came to Rivven. Like the others, Rivven’s hair was pulled back. It was a deep midnight blue in colour. His hide was blue, too, but paler. The colour of clear winter skies.

He held out his hand.

His left hand.

That threw me for a moment. His right arm remained at his side, and I quickly realized why. His right arm ended at his wrist, the hand obviously amputated some time ago.

The injury Warden Hallum had mentioned?

“Hello, Rivven.” I smiled, and raised my left hand to clasp his.

“Hello. And welcome,” he said gruffly, releasing my hand after giving it a tentative shake. “This is my place here. I don’t… I don’t have a herd.”

“Yes, Warden Hallum told me. That’s fine.”

Rivven looked startled.

“It is?”

“Absolutely,” I replied as we all walked into the saloon. “I’m sure there are many human women who’d rather work in a place like this than help run a ranch.”

“Oh.” Rivven looked like he wasn’t sure what to do with that information. It was like he wanted to be pleased about it, but was too afraid to let himself.

“Please have a seat, Tasha,” Warden Hallum said, indicating a single rectangular table with a bunch of mis-matched but sturdy-looking wooden chairs. Beyond the table was a polished wooden bar with plates, glasses, and various jugs and containers behind it.

“You too,” Warden Hallum told his men.

I chose a chair on one side of the table. Dorn, Xennet, and Rivven sat down across from me.

Tenn didn’t sit. He stationed himself directly behind me, so close that I was surprised he didn’t end up resting his hands on top of my shoulders. Warden Hallum decided not to sit, either. He stood with his hands behind his back near the door we’d come through.

“My men are ready,” Warden Hallum said. “They have been studying your text closely. They are prepared to do whatever it takes to earn a place in your bridal program. Put them through whatever tests you wish to.”

“Thank you, Warden Hallum. I can tell you guys have read the book! But I don’t exactly have any tests to give any of you. I’m just hoping to get to know you better. To determine your compatibility with a potential human bride, should the program continue.”

“Ask them questions, then,” Warden Hallum suggested.

Dorn, Xennet, and Rivven waited tensely.

Alrighty, then.

I guessed I’d just jump right into it.

“Would there ever be a good reason,” I asked the convicts before me, “to hit your wife?”

All three men visibly stiffened.

“No,” Rivven and Dorn answered in firm unison. Warden Hallum look satisfied with their answers.

Until his grey eyes went to Xennet, who had not yet replied.

“Well…” Xennet hedged.

“Well?” Warden Hallum repeated frostily.

“Well, what if she is choking?” Xennet exclaimed. “I might need to give her a whack! On the back!”

“A whack… on the back…” I echoed, blinking.

“No, Xennet,” Dorn interjected. “Do you not remember that chapter? If a human is choking you lick… something.”

I attempted to hold back a snort. Warden Hallum betrayed no emotion on his face, but the muscles in his cheeks and jaw looked tight.

His mouth opened, and I assumed he was about to reprimand the three tuxedo-clad alien cowboys before me, when Rivven spoke, bringing him up short.

“It’s called the Heimlich,” he said. “If a human is choking, you perform the Heimlich manoeuvre to dislodge the food and help her breathe.”

“Oh. Right,” Xennet said. “I would like to change my answer, Tasha. If my human is choking, I will do the lick manoeuvre instead.”

“We will review that chapter,” Warden Hallum growled, pinning Xennet with a pointed gaze. “Please continue, Tasha.”

“Thanks. Alright. Let’s see… If your wife was upset, or exhibiting some sort of anxiety or emotional distress, what are some things that you could do to help?”

All three of them remained silent for a good, long while. This was a bit of a tough one, I had to admit. Before I’d arrived this morning, these guys had never even met a human woman. Comforting women could be hard even for men who’d spent their entire lives around us.

Finally, it was Dorn who ventured forth with his answer first.

“I could… feed her?”

“Good!” I said, nodding. He visibly brightened at my praise.

“Pet her!” Xennet cried, apparently not one to be outdone.

“I… I suppose. You mean like a massage?” I asked. “Physical touch can be quite calming. It helps release the bonding hormone oxytocin.”

Tenn shifted behind me, making the wooden floorboards creak. I could have sworn I felt some part of him brush the back of my neck.

“I would feed her and then pet her,” Xennet said, padding his answer.

“You can’t steal my idea,” Dorn grumbled.

Feed her… Pet her…

Hold on.

Were they talking about how to calm a human, or a freaking shuldu?

“Rivven?” I asked, suppressing a sigh. “What are your thoughts?”

He rubbed the blunt end of his right wrist with the clawed fingers of his left hand, hesitated, then haltingly said, “I would try to find out why she was upset.”

“Very good,” I said, impressed. “And then?”

“And then I’d fix it.”

OK. I like Rivven.

“I would also do that!” Dorn said quickly. “After feeding her.”

“I thought you said we couldn’t steal each other’s ideas?” Xennet hissed.

“This is not stealing,” Dorn scoffed. “This is merely… resource sharing.”

“Brainstorming?” I suggested.

“There are no storms in my brain,” Xennet exclaimed, looking rather offended. “I assure you that my brain is very calm! Very normal!”

Yes… Clearly…

“What would you do,” came the unexpected rumble of Tenn’s voice from behind me, “if you found your female in a thorny bramble bush?”

I twisted to scowl at him for lobbing his weirdly specific question into the fray. But the others were already speaking, so I quickly faced forward again.

“Why would she be in a bramble bush in the first place?” Dorn asked, plainly confused. As he should be, because it was a ridiculous question to ask.

“She probably fell,” I explained, blushing.

“Is she upset to be in the bush?” Dorn asked.

“If she is upset,” Xennet said, “then I would feed her! I would bring her a very nice snack in the bush!”

“Let’s all just assume she doesn’t want to be in the bush,” I groaned. “She’s stuck.”

“How could she be stuck?” That was Dorn again. The man had a hell of a lot of questions. I guessed I couldn’t blame him for wanting to get as much information as possible about the scenario so that he could have the best chance at coming up with a reasonable response. There was a lot hinging on this for him. For all of them.

“Because she has very long and beautiful hair,” Tenn explained, “and all the various strands have become tangled in the brambles and branches.”

“I could pull the bush out by the roots,” Xennet said thoughtfully.

“Your objective is to get the woman out of the bush,” Warden Hallum reminded him sternly, “not get the bush out of the ground.”

Dorn fingered the rough, uneven ends of his short reddish-brown ponytail. “I suppose I could cut her hair if necessary.”

“Or the branches,” Rivven added.

“Or, I could douse her head in oil!” said Xennet excitedly. “Then she would slide right out!”

“Practically speaking, I guess that would work,” I admitted. “But I’m not sure the woman in the scenario would appreciate that tactic.”

“Oh.” Xennet looked deflated. Which was extremely cute and actually quite encouraging. He was disappointed that this imaginary woman in a bush would be unhappy with his actions. Which meant he wanted, ultimately, to please her.

“Let’s move on from the bush question, shall we?” I said. “Hopefully, none of your potential wives would find themselves in such an outlandish situation.”

“It can happen,” Tenn grumbled from behind me.

“Yes, Tenn. That-”

“To even the most impressive and competent of women.”

I ignored the way my belly seemed to fall all the way down to the place between my legs at his words.

“Thank you, Tenn,” I said dismissively through a forced smile. “Gentlemen – let’s continue.”

The rest of the morning continued in much the same fashion. I asked the men questions, and they gave me their best – if often unorthodox – answers, all while Tenn did his utmost to derail things with his embarrassingly specific scenarios. Such as, “What would you do if your wife came here with no clothes?” and “How would you protect your wife if she was constantly putting herself at risk of breaking her own butt?”

You know, only the most pressing and significant questions. The sorts of subjects that would likely define human-Zabrian diplomatic relations for centuries to come.

Not.

But even so, I considered the morning to mostly be a success. Dorn, Xennet, and Rivven were obviously completely inexperienced when it came to women, but they were earnest. They all worked hard, wracking their brains to come up with answers to my questions. No one had given me any real red flags yet. Except maybe Xennet. But his was more of a brown flag. Some muddy spot between red and green. He didn’t seem malicious. He just gave me slightly chaotic, loose cannon vibes. I’d have to learn more about him before I made any final decisions.

We stopped for a short lunch. It was prepared by Rivven, who seemed relieved to get a break from the interrogation and spend some quiet time alone in the saloon’s kitchen.

And after that, we were right back to it.

By the time Warden Hallum called a halt to the proceedings, Dorn, Xennet, and Rivven appeared to be absolutely exhausted. Their tuxedos were rumpled. Their faces were drawn.

Frankly, they looked like they’d just come back from a war.

“Dorn and Zennet will have to leave soon,” Warden Hallum informed me, “if they are to return to their herds before dark.”

“Of course,” I said. “We’ll continue this tomorrow morning?”

“Yes,” Warden Hallum answered for his men, all three of whom appeared to have lost the ability – or maybe the will, after today – to speak.

Buck up, boys , I wanted to tell them. If you actually plan on marrying a human woman, then you ain’t seen nothing yet.