Page 7 of Wanted by the Alien Warden (Cowboy Colony Mail-Order Brides #4)

7

TENN

T hough it looked and smelled more than palatable, I ate little of the food Fallon and Darcy had prepared. Part of that was because it felt rather ridiculous to consume food that had been arranged in the shape of a smiley face on my plate, something Fallon had very proudly claimed credit for.

But the larger, more nagging part was that I could not stop staring at Tasha.

She was seated between Darcy and Cherry, the three human females on one side of the table facing me. Silar and Fallon were stationed at the ends of the table, each one brushing elbows with his wife.

I was the only one seated on this side of the table.

And for the first time in a very long time, I felt a subtle, sudden creep of loneliness, like an intruder stealing through me in the dark, hoping to cause some secret pain before I noticed and beat it back down.

I liked my men. I spent a good deal of time with them.

But I was not entirely among them. When it came down to it, they were the convicts, and I was the warden responsible for them.

And here, now…

They were parts of couples, each of them with a wife at their side.

I had no one at my side. All I had was a face made of meat and cheese smiling lopsidedly up at me from my plate. That, and a pretty human woman across the table who steadfastly pretended that I did not exist while she ate.

As I was clearly not capable of ignoring her the way that she ignored me, I watched her. Watched the way her delicate jaw worked as she chewed her food. Watched the way the candlelight of Fallon’s kitchen turned her eyes to dark and dreaming pools. Watched the way the frosty distance she held me at vanished when she smiled so sweetly and so sincerely at either Darcy or Cherry.

As the meal progressed, even Silar and Fallon earned a smile or two from her. For the very first time, I found myself jealous of my men. Jealous! Jealous of these foolish, shirtless exiles who likely wouldn’t know their claws from their tails if their wives were not there to tell them.

At least they know why a human’s stomach growls.

I stabbed the face on my plate, right in its bracku cheese eye. And then I ate it.

“So will you go to see Magnolia next?” Darcy asked Tasha, pulling me away from the violence I was currently enacting on my plate. “It takes like a month to get there. So it’s good you’re staying that long.”

“It wouldn’t take a month on my slicer,” I interjected. For the first time since we’d started eating, Tasha’s eyes met mine from across the table.

“What’s a slicer?” she asked.

“It is a vehicle. A type of hovercraft,” I explained. “The wardens each have one in case of emergency. It’s much faster than travelling by shuldu.”

“Oh, that’s very good to know,” Tasha said, bobbing her head up and down. “And, yes, I will definitely be going to visit Magnolia. I need to meet Garrek and make sure she’s alright.”

She wasn’t looking at me anymore. Once again, I was struck with that boyishly idiotic desire to get her attention by any means necessary.

With more anger than was truly justified, especially for a warden in full control of all his faculties, I stabbed and ate my plate’s other eye.

“I’ll have to meet Oaken and Zohro, too,” Tasha continued. “And the men in the other provinces.”

The cheese lodged in my throat. It was only with great effort that I managed to swallow it.

“You never told me,” I rasped, “that you intended to meet the convicts in the other provinces.”

She stiffened at the word “convict.” Perhaps, in Fallon’s jovial company, she had forgotten what had brought these men here. Perhaps she had forgotten why she was supposed to be so suspicious of them.

“Well, of course, I should meet them,” she said. “If they want to participate in the program, then I definitely need to speak with them before I agree to bring any more human women here to potentially marry them.”

“I see.” I rose from my chair, sending the legs of it scraping back against the wood floor. “Excuse me for a moment.”

Cherry and Fallon both made questioning sounds as I left the kitchen, but Tasha and the others were silent. Though, even in her quietness, I felt Tasha’s gaze on my back, burning through my uniform even after I’d left the house and closed the door between us.

I stalked away from the house towards Fallon’s barn. An excited barking filled the cool night air, and Fallon’s hound, Sora, came streaking from the building.

“Got the bracku settled for the night, girl?” I asked, scratching her furry black head as she panted gleefully, her tongue lolling out. “Well done. Back to your post for the night, then.”

She gave a high, happy bark before turning to lope back to the barn. I watched her black fur morph into shadows and then disappear inside as I mulled over what Tasha had just told me.

Visiting the other provinces. Blast . I hadn’t even considered she’d want to do such a thing. It could be arranged, of course. But it meant clearing it with the other wardens first. Warden Hallum’s province was closest. All the others would take more than a human month to travel to, even using my slicer.

This also meant that the future marriages of my men Zohro and Oaken might hinge upon the behaviour of convicts I had no relationship with or history of authority over.

At least it is Warden Hallum who is nearest, I thought grimly. I knew him to be a paragon of Zabrian excellence in discipline and leadership. Which meant he was as hard as a blade and twice as sharp. I did not expect that he would tolerate any nonsense, and if anyone could produce convicts that might pass Tasha’s judgment, it would be him.

With the stars and three moons sending silvered light down through the trees and long grass of Fallon’s property, I removed my data tab from my pocket and used it to contact Warden Hallum.

After only a few moments of waiting, his face snapped into focus on my screen. Smoke-grey eyes with centres of pale ice looked out above severe, sharply-cut cheekbones. His black hair was tied smoothly back, the dark strands a sharp contrast to the light yellow shade of his hide.

“Warden Tenn.”

“Greetings, Warden Hallum,” I said in reply. “How go things in your province?”

“Nothing new to report here.”

“I see.”

“I take it you have something new to report,” he observed coolly. “Considering this sudden call. And the recent update that I’ve had from the empire. Apparently, three of the human females have been successfully settled in your province.”

“Yes. That’s actually what I’m contacting you about.” I cast a glance back towards the house, then returned my attention to the screen. “A fourth female has recently arrived.”

“Another bride?”

“No. The organizer of the program. The human-Zabrian liaison, Tasha.”

“I don’t see why this warranted a call to me.”

“Can’t a warden call another just to catch up a bit?”

Warden Hallum stared flatly back at me, no hint of amusement curving his harsh mouth.

“Never mind,” I said with a dismissive flick of my tail in the dust behind me. “I’m calling to alert you that things have… changed.”

His voice went knife-like. Cutting, cold, and precise.

“In what way?”

“There was a communication mix-up,” I explained. “Perhaps an intentional one. Apparently, the empire never informed the human side of the program that the men here are convicts. All three brides in my province know now, and they have chosen to remain with their husbands. But Tasha has only just found out. She has come here in person to inspect the conditions and meet the men. She is threatening to potentially prevent the program from moving forward, both here and in other provinces in the future.”

“Other provinces,” he said on a low growl, “meaning mine.”

“Yes.”

Warden Hallum rolled his jaw.

“Your province was the test run,” he reminded me, his voice still so sharp I imagined it could – and would – cut a lesser man. “If it fails there, no other men will have their chance.”

“I know. But, frankly,” I added, bristling, “I think it is rather a testament to my men that they’ve managed to win their wives over, despite this obfuscation.”

Warden Hallum gave an unimpressed grunt at that. Clearly, he did not put much stock in the wooing capabilities of my men. Which, to be fair, neither did I. But against all odds, Silar, Fallon, and Garrek had all managed to win the love of their women despite their past crimes and their current idiocy.

“So, why are you calling me, then?” Warden Hallum asked. “I have not yet informed my men about the bride program. I was waiting until it was deemed successful in your province and I received the go-ahead to instate the program here as well.”

“I’m calling you because I need your help,” I replied. “Tasha has decreed that she would like to meet more of the unmarried males in the colony. Both Oaken and Zohro in my province. And the men in yours.”

A long silence. Then, “You are telling me that you will be bringing the human female Tasha here? So that she can inspect my men and judge their worthiness as potential husbands for future human females?”

“Correct.”

Impatience gnawed at me. If Warden Hallum did not agree to presenting his men before Tasha for her judgment, or if they made a bad impression upon her, I was certain it wouldn’t merely cost them their chances at wives, but Oaken and Zohro, too.

It truly did seem to me that this was all or nothing. For better or worse.

“So?” I asked, my voice coming out louder than I’d intended. “Will you do it? Will you and your men be ready to receive us when we come?”

Something went metal-hard in Warden Hallum’s grey gaze. When he spoke, it was quiet, but so drenched in determination that it sounded more like thunder.

“I have never once faced an inspection that I did not pass, and I do not intend to start failing now,” he growled. “Bring the human here as early as you wish.”

“It will probably be a few days of travel by slicer. Two or three, I’d say. And a day or two of preparation before that.”

“Understood,” he replied. And then, in the moment before his face disappeared from the screen, he fiercely added, “We’ll be ready.”