Alien Orc’s Prize (Starlight Brides)

3. Luna

CHAPTER 3

LUNA

T he first thing my alien orc husband-to-be said to me was, “Oh, no! I am not the groom.”

I’d been encouraged by his warm smile when he’d come to collect me from the Starlight Brides hub. He was so freaking huge, a monolith of green hide and tusks and muscle. But the genuine friendliness in his expression had put me at ease enough to unlock my anxious throat and say, “Hello, Prince Gal. It’s an honour to meet and marry you.”

But then his thick, dark brows had shot up and he’d sputtered, “Oh, no!” Like I’d made some terrible mistake.

And then the damning, “I am not the groom!”

He was an orc from Orhalla. That much was obvious. The massive stature, jutting fang-like bottom teeth, and moss-green hide all contributed to that conclusion. A conclusion only solidified when my gaze snagged on the finely-crafted and deadly-sharp Orhalla blades at his belt.

“You’re not… You’re not the groom,” I repeated brainlessly. I didn’t see any other green-skinned males with shoulder-spans to rival the diameter of entire planets around here to marry.

“I am Padreth. Prince Gal’s advisor. I have come to wed you as his proxy and bring you back.”

Wed me… by proxy…

“This is most unusual,” Ranna, my Starlight Brides liaison officer, said on a slight huff, her antennae bobbling. “We typically require the groom to come here to meet the bride, so we can make sure both parties are satisfied and that everything is going to plan.”

Padreth turned a blankly pleasant, conciliatory look on Ranna. It looked alarmingly well-practised.

“Apologies. But Prince Gal has been very busy taking over all the ruling duties in the wake of his father’s death. He simply could not make the time to be here. But rest assured, I have every permission to act in his stead. I have a letter to that effect.”

From somewhere in the vicinity of his tight leather trousers he pulled out an honest-to-goodness hard copy of a note that looked to be hand-written.

“It’s in standard galactic,” he added helpfully as Ranna’s four eyes scanned the document.

“So it is,” she said, returning the letter to Padreth. “While this is unusual, I suppose we could make some concessions for royalty like Prince Gal. But only if you are alright with it, Luna.”

I blinked, startled by the sudden turn of attention to me. It was as if, now that I knew my own groom didn’t even have the time to come here and get me, that no one else would have the time for me or my opinions either. But both Ranna and Padreth watched me with expectant eyes.

Don’t do it. Don’t be stupid. You can’t run off and marry someone you don’t even know!

My sister Lyric’s words echoed in my skull.

Easy for her to say. She’d recently gotten a paid post as a nanny to some rich alien couple.

Meanwhile I’d just lost my one and only job in the cafeteria of a now decommissioned ship.

And I hadn’t been able to find another.

Lyric’s pay wasn’t good enough that she could send much money back from her job to support me, and I didn’t want that, anyway. Since our parents’ deaths, she’d always been the one looking out for me. Looking after me. My beautiful, ferocious older sister who shone so brightly it was all I could do to trail gratefully along in her shadow.

It was time for that to change.

And it’s not like I was marrying just anyone. I’d be marrying literal royalty . Mind-boggling as that was.

I once again wondered, a sick little worry at the back of my head, what exactly might be wrong with this prince that he couldn’t find a willing wife on his homeworld. This concern was only exacerbated by the fact that he hadn’t even shown up today.

Maybe he wasn’t too busy to come.

Maybe he was hiding.

As long as he isn’t cruel.

I was pretty sure I could put up with anything but that. Weird food, weird weather, weird customs. Weird dicks.

My face went hot.

“Luna?” Padreth nudged, and not unkindly. My eyes fell shamefully to his crotch, as if the bulge in his leather pants might give me some clue as to what I’d be dealing with. I yanked them back up lickety-split and squawked, “I’ll do it!”

And so it came to be that I was married in a wedding ceremony that lasted less than two minutes, to a man who wasn’t even my groom.

Go fucking figure.