“I have a favor to ask you.” I took a seat next to Drindl, and the two of them gazed at me with matching expressions of polite interest.
“Yes?” Drindl said, her bell-like voice trilling the word.
“I need you to make sure Lola Richards understands exactly how a mating cock works.”
Plofnid blinked. “You want us to explain the mechanics of a mating cock to one of the brides?”
“No, no. Not the mechanics. But the … I guess the social conventions?”
They stared at me blankly, so I decided to go all-in on my explanation. “Vos Klavoii wants me to mate with Lola. But I believe she prefers Valtin. I will not stand in the way of their happiness—”
“But Vos would,” Plofnid interrupted darkly.
“Exactly.” I nodded. “He’s determined to have Lola mated by the end of this Holiday Special. So we need to make sure Lola knows precisely what it will take to ensure Valtin is the one she leaves with.”
“You would give up your chance at mating to make certain Lola ends up with the right mate? Oh, you dear male!” Drindl clapped her hands together, then threw her arms around me.
I wanted to tell her I wasn’t as altruistic as she made me out to be, but I wasn’t willing to say anything that might change her mind.
“We will take care of it,” Plofnid assured me.
And they did. I watched the vid from my quarters, cheering under my breath as Lola arrived in the decorated gift exchange room dressed in nothing but a bow, and led Valtin away from all the prying eyes and vidglobes.
“What in all the Zagrodnian hells have the two of you done?” Vos ranted as he marched up and down behind his desk.
Valtin shrugged. “We mated. That’s the whole reason for the Bride Lottery and Games, right?”
Vos seethed. “You were not supposed to join with her. Wex was the one we had chosen for her.”
Valtin’s new mate raised one eyebrow. “But he’s not the one I chose for myself. And as I understand it, this is something you cannot take back, right? This whole mating thing?”
Vos spun to glare at her.
“It’s fine,” I said. “These two belong together, Vos. And I know you had plans for me. But…” I glanced at Valtin and Lola. “You two are right. Lola wasn’t the one for me.”
Vos turned his glare on me. “So I guess you think you have a better idea?”
I nodded. “Yes, but you’re not going to like it.”
He threw his hands up in the air and turned his glare back to Valtin and Lola. “Well, it certainly won’t be the first thing I haven’t liked today.”
I had to fight to suppress a snicker at that. I had known from the moment I saw Lola that, despite what Vos had told me, I wasn’t going to end up mated to her.
No. I had already met my mate.
And if Vos thought he didn’t like Lola and Valtin together, he was going to like this even less. I inhaled, then spit it out. “She’s a woman I met on Earth when I was on the search team for Zont’s mate.”
Vos spun around from glaring at Valtin and Lola to stare at me again. “Why didn’t you mention that sooner?”
“Because I didn’t think it was possible for her to be a bride.”
“Why not?”
“She is currently in an Earth prison for having attempted to violate the Bride Alliance Treaty.”
For a moment, I thought Vos was going to explode. But then he took a deep breath, visibly calming himself down, and leaned forward to rest his hands on the desk.
“You two,” he said, jerking his chin toward Lola and Valtin. “Get out of here. Go enjoy the end of the festivities.”
“So you will register our mating?” Valtin asked.
Vos heaved a long-suffering sigh. “Yes. Just go.”
Neither of us said anything until the couple had left the room.
Vos turned to me. “You seriously want a chance to mate with an Earth woman who violated the Bride Alliance Treaty?”
I felt a smile growing across my face. “I do. And I believe it will make for some great programming.”
Vos narrowed his eyes at me, bit his lip, then picked up an epen and held it poised over the epaper in front of him, ready to take notes. “Tell me more.”
This is going to be amazing.
Chapter Nine
Dee
It was almost a week before I found out that Wex had not actually ended up choosing a bride on the Holiday Special. In fact, I don’t know that I would have ever realized it had I not seen a vid-news headline when I was flipping through channels on my new wristcom.
It didn’t mention Wex by name, of course, but there were pictures of the three new supposedly “happy couples,” and Wex wasn’t in any of them.
That’s when I went back and watched the Holiday Special rerun segments that included Wex. I frowned as I watched him turn into a petulant brat onscreen.
That was nothing like the commanding figure I had encountered in the parking lot of the hotel. The man I had met—alien male, I corrected myself—had been strong, powerful, in charge of the situation. He had turned my knees to jelly with a look and caused me to spill all my information with nothing more than the deep bass sound of his voice.
Lucky thing I didn’t followed my instinct to throw myself at him, if that’s how he acts when he doesn’t get his way.
I gave a mental head-shake.
Men. They were always such disappointments.
The next six weeks were relatively uneventful, rolling along much as I had expected them to—I did my work in the house, kept my head down, and soon enough, some new scandal grabbed the headlines, and my name was mentioned less and less.
I might have been able to go on indefinitely like that and remained perfectly content. Of course, it couldn’t last.
I had begun having dinner with everyone
