“And what about the promises of marriage?” his mother said, leaning down to pick up the discarded papers on the ground. “This has to be worth something! She waspromisedto our son, for Christ's sake!”
Filbur ignored her and turned to Maxwell, who looked more embarrassed by the minute. “A promise signed by her parents holds no value to us. As far as we are concerned, Tamara did not consent to her union with the tiny man. She is to remain here—”He paused, sliding a hand over my hip and turned his eyes to me. “If she so wishes.”
***
“Please, forgive me for this whole thing Miss Matossi,” Maxwell apologized, holding both my hands while we stood next to the shuttle meant to bring my past back to the station. “With the…forgedevidence they possessed, I had to come and settle this.”
I forced a smile. “Of course. Unlike my husband and his people, we aren’t able to detect lies just by looking at someone’s face.”
Maxwell quickly glanced at Filbur, standing just a few steps behind. “I had no clue. If I had known, I would have come straight here and ensured they were properly questioned before bothering you with this.”
At least he felt bad for believing I’d lied.
Maxwell was a bit of an odd man, but he still had been kind during my prolonged time in the station. This project was his whole life. He’d joined it freshly out of university and had worked in this system ever since. All the species here may have started to have severe fertility issues only twenty to thirty years ago, but Maxwell had been working here for over sixty years, monitoring them all.
Good thing being on the station made the humans there somehow age slower…He still had a few decades ahead of him. I doubted he was ready to retire anyway. At least, not until the fertility issue was resolved and all the species were back to being able to reproduce on their own.
What the original scientists had done here may have been morally questionable—playing with DNA and playing a part in the evolution of some species by making some somewhat a bit human—but Maxwell and his team were hellbent on making things better. They may not be able to go back in time to preventthis from happening, but they worked hard to find a way to fix all the issues that had risen.
“Do not worry about them anymore,” he said, letting go of one of my hands to squeeze my arm. “Unless they manage to come back here illegally and crash on the planet, they will never bother you again.”
“That’s an oddly specific scenario.”
He shuddered. “I hope this…situationwill never happen again.”
Right…Wendy had told me all about how she had ended up on her husbands’ planet without stopping by the station first.
Good to hear it had been a one-of-a-time situation.
“Alright, we need to get moving.” He turned around and waved at his crew to start the shuttle. “We will see you at the station in a week, remember?”
I nodded, remembering perfectly well about the monthly check-ups.
Maybe I would meet the next bride, like Wendy had met me when she came for hers.
For some reason, I was excited about it. Although Wendy had added to my anxiety by having not one buttwohusbands, seeing how her giant men treated her had also soothed my nerves. She’d been visibly happy, and they were pretty obsessed with her.
It seemed to run in the system…Because now, I had my own big alien man to look after me. To love me.
Like he heard my thoughts, both of his arms snaked around my middle to bring my back close to his front. His lips landed on the top of my head and my body melted against his.
I waved back to Maxwell just before the shuttle door closed and we all stepped back, giving it the space it needed to fly away.
“Human males are so…tiny,” Guidy said as she came to a stop next to Filbur and I.
“I hope this one never comes back here,” Tegha added. “Actually, all of them. They were all small and angry and mean.”
My parents hadn’t uttered a word, but, for obvious reasons, I also wished I’d never see them again.
I had a new family here, and they were all I needed.
18
They’ve certainly put their hearts into the task.
Tamara
“How are you so…comfortable and serene?” I asked Filbur while crushing his hand with mine.
