Alien Prince: (Bride of Qetesh) An Alien SciFi Romance by Juniper Leigh Read Free Book Online

pointing to where it had landed — I considered whether I might not have been happier if I’d stayed in the village and mated with the Europax they’d assigned to me.
    I’d met her briefly; a dear friend had lured me back to town with the promise of a private meal shared between two compatriots. Against my better judgment I had gone, with the intention of staying the Winternight and leaving early the next morning. And he was there, my friend, the great warrior Waelden, with his new bride. And mine.
    “Welcome, Calder,” he said, bearing a strange smile on lips I had known to be stern and stoic. “This is my wife, Vanixa.” The woman was tall, thin, with black hair brushing her waist, and dark, narrow, discerning eyes. I got the sense that she didn’t speak our language, as simply nodded her head when she heard her name. “And this,” Waelden went on, “is Fina. She has been assigned to you.”
    Fina was as tall as I was, and a quarter my width. She had little in the way of bottom or breast, and forgive me if that’s crude, but Qeteshi women are made of stronger stuff. She kept her perfectly spherical head free of hair, and her blue eyes were wide as saucers. She extended her hand to me.
    “Calder,” she said, her voice smooth and sweet as honey, “I’m so pleased to meet you at last.”
    “Well, you should not be,” I said, giving her hand a tentative squeeze. “I have no intention of making you a wife or mother, so you are better served finding occupation elsewhere.”
    Fina blinked her fine blue china eyes and Waelden cleared his throat in a manner meant to warn me. There was a time where Waelden would have come right out to tell me I was being an ass. Apparently, the presence of the Europax ladies meant that that time had long since passed.
    “Shall we eat?” Waelden asked, and we did. His Vanixa had prepared some strange foodstuffs that were altogether too sweet for my taste, and I was never very adept at hiding my displeasure. As such, my sour expressions made Vanixa keep her eyes on the floor. Though Fina, to her credit, was growing bolder by the moment.
    When at last I tossed my fork upon my plate, Fina stood up, the sudden force of her movement sending her chair toppling backward. “I think you’re very rude,” Fina said to me.
    “Yes,” I agreed. This only seemed to make matters worse.
    “And I…I don’t think I want to be assigned to you anymore.”
    “Well, that suits me just fine,” I assured her. Her entire head turned red with her rage, and I marveled at how high a blush could travel.
    “I will mate with someone else if you do not amend your behavior,” she said, one final chance for the likes of me to bed the likes of her, but I was having none of it.
    “Do what you will,” I said, rising myself from the table. “It matters not to me.” I gave a sharp nod of my head to the heretofore mute Vanixa, but she did have a word to offer me.
    “Cad,” she said, and I couldn’t help but laugh a little.
    “She speaks!” I said to Waelden, who was fuming. I held up my hands defensively. “Forgive me. I have lived too long outside the village, and am no longer fit for mixed company. Thank you, sincerely, for your invitation, friend. Even if it was an ambush, it is always a joy to see you.” I wiped my mouth with the back of my hand, and made a show of making a little bow. “I’ll show myself out.”
    As far as I knew, Fina made good on her threat to mate with someone else. Some lucky young lad got to claim her, no doubt, and if there is any justice in the universe, they are both very happy together. But she was not for me. Nor, I thought, was any female creature. Not since all the strong and proud and beautiful Qeteshi women had died off.
    I had spared no thought to Fina from our first meeting until that moment, tromping through the underbrush. I thought, perhaps, that it would be one of her kind, womanfolk who had been sent to the planet and were in distress. And if it were, I