Alien Orc’s Prize (Starlight Brides)

20. Luna

CHAPTER 20

LUNA

I went two full days without seeing Galbrath. And if I had been inclined to soften my stance and talk to him about everything, his glaring absence hardened my resolve right back up. I’d expected him to be practically breaking down the door the morning after the whole Althrop mess. But I’d slept in with nary a noise to disturb me, and when I’d finally poked my head out late in the morning, no one had been there.

Strangely enough, everyone else seemed just as absent as Galbrath. It was as if the whole castle – Neena and Noona and the staff included – were now avoiding me for some reason.

The only person I saw much over those two days was Galbrath’s mother. Queen Ohelia carried herself with the confidence of a monarch, but she wasn’t arrogant. I liked her, same way I’d instantly liked Neena and Noona. She listened more than she spoke, and I often caught her staring at me with a satisfied sort of smirk on her face, almost as if she were enjoying the fact I was ever-so-slightly putting her son through the ringer for being such a butthead.

She didn’t tell me where Galbrath was, and I was too proud to ask.

But on the morning of the third day without him, my pride was splintering into something a lot more like hurt. Was this Galbrath’s way of rejecting me? Or was my mood stinking up the palace so badly he couldn’t stand to be here?

Whatever it was, by that third day, I was done. I got up, got dressed, and wrenched open the bed chamber door, intent on finally finding my husband.

But I found someone else entirely.

Someone with eyes the exact same colour as mine and hair that was two shades lighter.

“Lyric?!”

My sister grinned broadly at me as I stared in amazement.

“In all my glory!” She said it teasingly, but I could see the tears gathering in her eyes.

“Oh my God. What are you doing here?” I choked out.

I tried to throw my arms around her, but she backed up and called out a loud warning. “Ah! Watch the dress!”

I’d been so distracted by her unexpected appearance that I hadn’t even noticed she was holding something. If it was a dress, it was impossible to tell. It was encased in a protective bag.

“Come in. I still can’t believe you’re here. What the hell is happening?” I asked in teary disbelief as I held the door open for her to enter.

“Nice digs!” she said, looking around and nodding in approval. “If I knew you’d end up in such a swanky castle, I never would have complained about you joining this program so much.”

“You just about talked my ear off about what a big mistake I was making!” I reminded her. “And now… Now you’re here? What are you doing here?”

I wondered how many times I’d have to ask that question before she actually answered. Maybe she was getting tired of me repeating it, because she turned around, rustled the bag in her arms, made a celebratory trumpet sound between pursed lips before grandly announcing, “I’m here for your wedding!”

“Um… My what? Lyric,” I said gently, not wanting to hurt or offend her when I was so fucking happy to see her, “I’m already married.”

She shook her head.

“Prince Gal tracked me down and contacted me at my new job. He told me your first wedding wasn’t good enough and he wanted a do over. He said that you’ve mentioned me and he thought you’d want me there. I guess it’s all supposed to be a surprise or something. He negotiated time off with my bosses and everything.” She opened the bag and pulled out what looked like liquid gold. “He had this dress commissioned to your exact measurements. I said I’d bring it up to you and help you get dressed.”

“It’s… It’s a wedding dress?”

It felt like the room was spinning.

“Yeah. I guess an orc wedding dress can be any colour, but he wanted you in gold because he said it would look nice with your hair and eyes. And he also said something about it reminding him of the way you looked the first time he saw you.”

The gold and green dress. The one he pulled the pins out of, grumbling the entire time.

I miss him.

The thought hit me like an arrow between the eyes. I would have fallen over if Lyric hadn’t hustled over with the dress and started bugging me to put it on.

“To see if it fits?” I asked dazedly.

“No, silly! The wedding is today!”

“Today.”

“Yup! Chop chop, buttercup!”

There was never any arguing with Lyric. I stripped out of my clothes and let her help me into the gown. If I’d thought that first gold dress was beautiful, it was nothing compared to this one. Every inch of the bodice was decorated with hand-sewn pearls that spiraled down in elegant swaths at the full skirt. The sleeves were made of the finest lace I’d ever seen, sheer and iridescent as spider’s silk. The neckline gave an ample glimpse of my cleavage, and for the first time in three days, I laughed.

“I can definitely tell Galbrath helped design this to his liking,” I said, pointing at the bare expanse of my chest.

Lyric whistled.

“You look fab. And, yeah, I have to agree. He didn’t make it, but he was definitely in charge of the dress. It sounds like he’s basically single-handedly planning this entire wedding.”

“He’s what?! ”

It would have been just as outlandish if she’d told me Galbrath had grown a tail and planned to become a cowboy just so he could use it as a lasso.

“Well, maybe not entirely single-handedly. I met his sisters. They’re the ones who gave me the dress downstairs. But they seemed kind of put out that he was doing so much wedding planning and leaving so little to them.”

Galbrath. My Galbrath. My grumpy, grumbly, horny, arrogant, idiotic husband was planning our wedding.

It made me want to cry. In the best possible way.

He knew I was hurt about what he’d done. He knew I was sad about not having a real wedding.

And he was trying to fix it.

Once the dress was on and fastened – it fit like a dream – Lyric got to work on my hair.

“I can’t believe you’re helping me get ready for a wedding you never even approved of,” I said as she twisted and pinned my hair in a pretty chignon, leaving some strands free at the front.

“That was before I talked to him,” she said through a mouth full of hair pins. The same ones Galbrath had pulled out of my hair after I’d fallen asleep on him that first night. “The man sounds absolutely gone for you, Luna. As he should be! But seriously. He adores you. It’s so fucking obvious.”

I watched my cheeks grow pink in the mirror. It was a good thing Galbrath wasn’t here, or he’d probably be preening over how my scent had changed in response to what Lyric had just said about him. I cleared my throat and changed the subject.

“What about you? How’s the nanny gig going?”

She grimaced, making the pins fan out wildly.

“It’s… It’s not ideal. The kids are crazy and the mom is even worse. And the dad is…. I don’t know. I’m looking for a new opportunity. As soon as the right one comes along, I’ll take it.” She gave a mirthless laugh. “Maybe I should join the Starlight Brides program, too. I’d do it if I could get somebody like your guy.”

Before I got a chance to ask her more about what was bothering her so much at her new job, a knock at the door made us both jump. Lyric placed the last few pins in my hair then hurried over. She opened it a crack. My heart slammed when I heard her tell someone, “It’s bad luck for a groom to see the bride before the wedding.”

“Not for orcs,” came the gravelly reply.

God, even just hearing his voice was affecting me. I was a pathetic, besotted loser.

Luckily, it kind of seemed like he was, too.

Lyric twisted to look at me and mouthed, “Can he come in?”

I swallowed against a hot lump in my throat and nodded. She beamed, then opened the door wider, letting Galbrath in.

I stood to greet him and promptly forgot every word I’d ever learned. He looked so good that I was left astonished and speechless. His hair was oiled and braided, his face solemn and even more gorgeous than I remembered it. It was as if even that short time apart had dulled the memory of him, had softened the stark, virile, brutality of his beauty. And now he was here and it was all battering its way back in, stunning me into silence. He was wearing a leather vest I’d never seen before, inlaid with pearls that matched my gown.

“Well, I better go get dressed for the party! See you two down there!” Lyric distantly called before slipping out the door.

Alone, we stared at each other, close enough to touch. An entire ocean apart.

“Luna.” My name was a guttural sigh. Like seeing me caused him pain and relief at the same time.

“Hi.” That was all I could manage. He was so beautiful, and it felt so good, hurt so bad, to be near him.

Fortunately, he seemed to have prepared something to fill the silence. Though it didn’t start auspiciously.

“I am not a poet.”

“I, er, know? You told me that before.” I cocked my head at him. One of the loose waves of hair Lyric had left at the front shifted, and Galbrath’s eyes tracked it with something like devastated hunger.

“I have agonized,” he said, “these days without you, what I might say to make this better. I am at a loss. I have never been a garrulous man. And there’s something about… you… that seems to stop up my throat. Frankly, Luna, you make me stupid. The first time I saw you, I thought you were beautiful. And I promptly compared your face to cheese.”

That drew an unexpectedly genuine laugh from me.

“To cheese? ”

“The colour of your skin. Like whisky mixed into milk. To make cheese. My favourite cheese, just so you know,” he added gruffly.

“I’m glad you told me,” I said, smiling despite myself. “A man’s favourite cheese seems like the sort of thing his wife ought to know.”

“I know it’s a comparison that does not do you justice. I only use it to illustrate… How difficult this is for me. I want to get it right.” He took a deep breath and squared his magnificent shoulders. “The first time you touched me, when you put your hands on my head, I thought your touch was just like water. Cleansing rain. Your voice is music to me. And your scent… That I dare even the greatest poet of any world or timeline to describe.”

My eyes filled with tears. His jaw tightened.

“When I first saw you, I already began to love you. When you dared to flick me on the forehead, it deepened. And then, when I saw how much work you went to in the kitchens, trying so hard to help my people, I knew that I could never be without you. I respect you.” The declaration was like a sword through my chest. Left me breathless. “I admire you more than you could ever know.”

He raised his hands and did something I’d seen others do before. He pressed his thumbs against his tusks. But instead of letting them drop, he pushed harder and harder, until blood beaded.

“Galbrath!” I gasped, closing the distance between us and reaching up to tug at his wrists. He let me pull his hands down. “You’re bleeding!”

“It’s an orc gesture. It signifies the highest form of respect and devotion. Luna, stop looking at my thumbs. I need you to hear this.”

I held his bleeding hands gingerly in my own, and slowly raised my face to look at him. His eyes blazed.

“I love you.” Guttural. “I want to marry you properly, in front of my entire kingdom, because I am proud of you and I am endlessly grateful that you are my bride. I’ve run myself ragged making the preparations all so that it might please you. Everything is planned down to the finest detail. The decorations, the music, the food. There are honey cakes. Noona said you’ve never had one. And all your seaweed recipes, too. I’ve wanted to come to you so badly, but not until everything was ready.”

He bent his head. His mouth was so close to mine I felt his words on my lips, making me shiver.

“Luna, love. Will you marry me?”

Tears streamed down my cheeks. The hurt of the past few days was receding, giving way to excitement and adoration and hope.

“Luna,” Galbrath groaned when I didn’t answer right away. “Don’t make me wait any longer. The past few days were more than enough.”

“Do I even need to say it?” I murmured. “Surely, my scent must be telling you how I feel.”

“I’ve gone so mad dreaming of your scent that I no longer trust myself to analyze it. Say it out loud. Please .”

“I love you,” I whispered. “And no matter how idiotic your intentions were when you brought me here, I forgive you, and I’m even a teensy bit grateful to them. Because you’re right. Otherwise, we never would have met.”

That idea left me so stricken with grief I had to briefly squeeze my eyes shut, as if to protect myself from something that hadn’t even happened.

I squeezed his hands, feeling the slickness of his blood, and kissed him.

“I’ll marry you, Galbrath.”

A sigh shuddered out of him. His forehead bumped mine, and he left it there.

We stood there together for a long, silent moment, me crying, him bleeding.

Finally, I patted his hands, smiled at him, and said, “Come on. Let’s get you bandaged up and go start the rest of our lives.”

Then I flicked him on the forehead.