by Grace, Viola
“Can you do that? I don’t even know where it is.”
She assumed that he smiled, but he pulled forth one of the ubiquitous hand pads. “Please press your hand in the centre, and I will have your address to have the clothing returned to you so that you may continue your tour.”
She handed him the clothing and shadows wrapped it as he took it behind the counter, sealed it in a bag and entered her address into the computer before placing the parcel on it and letting it slip away.
“Is the whole ship rigged like that?”
Tonos smiled and bowed for her to precede him from the shop. “More or less. All the habitation areas are linked for deliveries of that nature. Our uniforms do not have pockets and the belts that we wear are for devices relating to our work.”
She nodded and tried not to rub the surface of the fabric. “Are you sure it looks all right?”
“It looks lovely. You simply look like a crewmember on their day off.” He smiled, and they left the shop. “Now, we will continue our tour.”
She loosened her hair, and it flowed around her, covering her breasts and her spine to mid-back. “That is a little better. I don’t feel so exposed.”
Tonos looked distinctly uncomfortable, but he smiled, “Your hair is lovely. Do you wear it down often?”
They passed a number of other couples on a promenade, and she gasped when she saw the expanse of the gardens. “Oh my.”
She processed his question and smiled. “I wear it down when I feel like I am running around naked.”
He cleared his throat. “I see. Do you like gardens?”
She smiled and walked to the railing that looked out over what appeared to be the vegetable garden. “I love gardens. I spend every moment I can in our garden growing food for the events. I almost like gardening more than cooking.”
He leaned next to her and his wings fluttered slightly. “How do you spend your evenings on Gaia?”
“We go to dances, I spend a lot of time at the library, watching vids and preparing for events. Normal stuff. What do you do on the ship?”
He leaned out to watch a person below gather a basket of tubers. “I exercise, watch the entertainment unit, go drinking with friends and I fly. The People of the Air have monthly events to gather and compete here on the ship.”
She smiled. “It sounds like a summer fair.”
“Here, it is summer all year round. It is quite a pleasant environment.”
He was smiling in the most charming manner. His wings lazily opened and closed, and she shivered as she started to catalogue the most likely sexual positions that a man with wings would have to use.
Blinking furiously, she straightened, “Shall we continue the tour?”
Tonos nodded. “Of course. Next stop is the transport pod. We will see all of the living zones that we missed on your first day. What happened there, anyway?”
They moved at a leisurely pace toward the pod and rail. “I am a little sensitive to new environments. My emotional reactions shut down, and it takes a while to process all the new information. As soon as I catch up and orient myself, I am usually fine.”
She tucked herself into the pod and smiled as he adjusted himself until his wings were settled comfortably. The pod slipped off, and in no time, they were off into the interior of the massive ship carrying thousands of warriors, their families and support staff into space.
It was a fun way to spend an afternoon, and by the end of the day, just a look from Tonos and she was wishing that the barrier against touching didn’t exist.
Chapter Eight
When they entered the Wilder zone of the ship, she looked around curiously. “So this is where Ziggy lives?”
He laughed, “No, this is where the Wilder live. The Councillor Rothaway and Signy have their quarters in the V.I.P. zone near where you are staying.”
The pod cruised through on a slower track than the commuter units that whizzed past.
“Ah. But these mock forests are their environments?”
“Yes. It makes each race more comfortable to have the environment they were born in represented on the ship. It keeps us grounded, so to speak.” He reached out to touch her cheek, but he pulled his hand back at the last minute.
She bit her lip. “It is difficult, isn’t it?”
“It is the hardest thing that I have ever endured.” His lips twisted in a rueful smile. “To think, all those years of flirting and the woman I was destined for was going to walk right up to me.”
The pod continued on its little tour, stopping at the V.I.P. zone and opening to let them out.
When they stood to leave the pod, she had to ask. “Are you sure? I mean really, really sure?”
“I have never been more sure of anything in my…mmphff.”
Tiera lunged toward him, slid her hand into his hair and pressed a kiss to his hard mouth before he could say anything else.
His body trembled and his wings flicked restlessly. He wrapped his arms around her and crushed her to him while she continued to stroke his lips with her own, occasionally flicking her tongue against the seam of his lips.
Tonos dragged a deep breath into his lungs, and the hands on her back gripped her, pulling her back to create a distance between them. His chest was rising and falling rapidly as he struggled for control.
“Step away from him, Tier.” Ziggy’s voice was calm, and she was standing next to her mate.
“I believe you have something to ask me, Tonos.” Rothaway scowled at him.
Tonos helped her out of the pod and down the steps of the platform with one hand holding hers.
Tiera looked earnestly at Rothaway, “Please tell me that he isn’t it trouble. It was all my fault. I kissed him.”
Rothaway nodded. “We know. We saw. He still has to ask me something. He knows the protocol.”
Tonos nodded and stepped in front of Tiera. “Lord Rothaway, may I have the hand of your charge in legal and moral bonding?”
Ziggy was grinning.
Rothaway inclined his head. “Provided that you honour her and keep her safe.”
Rothaway winced as Ziggy drove her elbow into his side. “And you will have to allow my mate unlimited access to your lady.”
“Of course. So, it is approved then?”
“It is.”
“You will act as my second?”
“My mate and I will witness and guard you.”
Tonos grinned. “Thank you for the honour.”
Tiera poked him. “What is going on?”
Ziggy snorted, “Tonos just proposed to you via Rothaway, and my darling husband accepted due to your confirmation through the initialization of the kiss with Tonos in front of witnesses. You said yes, so he has the right to wed you. It is backward from the Gaian standard, but everyone gets their say.”
Tiera blinked. “Just like that?”
Ziggy laughed. “Come along. We will get you dressed for your mating and by then Tonos should have finished the chemical flush at medical that will allow him a normal wedding night.”
The blush that fired her cheeks made her friend laugh. “Wait. What will I tell my mom?”
“Tell her that you are getting married to one of the Nine. She will be upset and probably want to cater a reception on Gaia, but she will get over it if you are happy.” Ziggy grinned. “Shall we go and make that call?”
It went surprisingly well until Tiera mentioned that she was marrying a Fairy.
“He’s gay, dear?”
“No, Mom. He has huge wings like a Terran dragonfly. I have never actually seen him fly, but I have seen others of his race zipping around the mother ship.”
“I don’t know what the hurry is.”
Tiera debated how to tell her mother and settled on, “It is a tradition of the Nine. We had dinner and a date and now we are getting married.”
“Why can’t you wait?”
“It isn’t the way they do things, Mom.” An image filled Tiera’s mind of her mother meeting Tonos for the first time
with his wings deadly silver and his eyes red. Oh, that would go over well.
“Can we at least meet him?”
“After the wedding, Mom. I will have him make arrangements to come for a visit. Is that okay?”
Her mother sighed heavily. “If you are happy, then I am happy. I just wish I had made his acquaintance before you decided he was the one for you.”
“He is a good guy Mom, and a medic, so he has a good job.” Tiera had no idea if that was true, but it sounded plausible.
To one side where Teva could not see her, Ziggy was chortling silently. Tiera looked around for something to throw at her friend and then got an idea. “I can stay up here with Ziggy. She is so lonely, Mom. It’s sad really.”
A cushion flipped and landed squarely in Tiera’s face. Teva grinned on the other end of the connection. “Well, if you girls are having fun up there and you are sure that this is the man for you, we will wait until you can make it down here to have a party, but we will have a reception for you, Tiera, make no mistake about that.”
The threat was in the air, and looking into her mother’s determined face, she knew that if she and Tonos did not make it down to Gaia in short order, Teva and Renault would make their way up to the mother ship, and they would bring the whole neighbourhood with them.
“I love you, Mom. Never doubt that. Thanks for wanting me to be happy.”
Teva smiled, “And if he doesn’t make you happy, Nine or not, we will come up and kick his ass.”
It was Teva’s standard I love you, and Tiera, with tears in her eyes, waved goodbye to her mother.
As the screen went blank, a chirp near the lav got her attention, and she saw the box provided by the delivery chute. The moment that she removed the parcel, the slot closed and became almost invisible against the wall.
“What is this?”
Ziggy took the box from her and put it on the bed. When she opened it, her smile ended in wobbling tears.
“It is a bonding gown for the People of the Air. You get into the shower, and I will lay out the pieces. It will go on better if we can get the layers on in the proper order the first time.”
Bemused by her friend’s knowledge of the clothing, Tiera went into the lav and took a quick shower of light and air.
It was her wedding day, and she wanted everything to go right.
Chapter Nine
The knock on the door froze both ladies in place.
Tiera looked up at Ziggy, and her friend since grade school smiled. “At least you know what you are getting into. I am learning more about Rothaway’s ways with every day, but it is still an adjustment. It will be nice to have another Gaian to share the fun with and even better to have my best friend with me in this new world.”
“I will always be there for you, Ziggy, even if we are worlds apart.” Tiera reached up and squeezed Ziggy’s hand the moment that her friend finished the hairstyle of the People of the Air.
“Same here, Tiera. You can come to me with any questions. You know that I can find the answers.”
They laughed and hugged before walking to the door and greeting their men.
The attendant at the entrance of the bonding garden took in Tonos’s wild appearance and handed Rothaway the privacy lock.
They walked quietly to the gardens, and Tiera threw cautious glances to Tonos. He seemed under control, but his wings had their blade-like appearance, and his eyes were rimmed with red once again.
As they reached the edge of the gardens, Rothaway pressed a soft kiss on her forehead, and Ziggy kissed her cheek.
Tonos led her into the gardens and following Ziggy’s earlier direction when they were putting on the three silk under dresses, the heavy silk over dress and the corset, she breathed deeply of the flowers that seemed to be always in bloom on this part of the ship.
“Tonos, are you sure that you want this?” They were approaching the altar with the hilt of a knife sticking out of it.
“I am sure. While I found Signy fascinating when I met her, I believe now it was because you were imprinted on her mind, and it bled out into the air around her.”
His fangs made his speech precise and slow. They had grown a quarter of an inch since she had seen him earlier in the day.
They stood in front of the altar, and he turned to face her.
She shivered as she realized that if a woman could stand in front of one of the Nine in rut and manage not to scream and run, it must be love.
“Take the dagger from the stone.” His voice was a low rumble.
She followed his direction and hefted the knife that had a rough surface on the handle to catch her genetic code.
“Cut my wrist, here.” He showed her the point and helped her line up the dagger for the quick slice.
When blood beaded and coursed down his wrist, he lifted her hand and the dagger it clutched, and he bit down sharply.
She inhaled, the floral scent swept through her in a wave, allowing her to calmly watch as he connected their wounds so that her blood became his and his hers.
Dizziness washed through her, and she buckled as details of his life flicked into her mind. Memories that were not hers started to work through her, and she saw the elegant home with its tall spires on an alien world, rich clothing and a formal court filled with elaborately clothed women and men with huge, fluttering wings.
“Tiera, Tiera, are you all right?” He was holding her, and the red was still in his eyes but concern was overriding his lust.
“I am fine. I was just unprepared for your memories. They overwhelmed me.”
He frowned but spoke gently. “Put the dagger back in the stone and we are officially wed.”
It took her two tries, but when the dagger slipped into the stone and it lowered beyond her sight, she sighed with relief. Her body was still weak and tingling from the wash of memories, and when he lifted her in his arms, she smiled as the feeling of being secure and protected surrounded her.
He walked to the edge of the shielded area, and when Rothaway saw them coming, he opened the barrier.
He tried to block Tonos’s progress, but to Tiera’s shock, Tonos’s wings hummed, and they lifted into the air.
The feeling of security kept her calm as he flew them across the gardens that filled the centre of the ship, and they approached the zone of the People of the Air. They flew down halls and past startled occupants as they flattened themselves against the walls to allow him to pass.
Tiera was afraid of distracting him, and his intense face was far too grim for her to interrupt him while he flew.
He settled lightly in front of a door that had a strange glyph on it. “Open the lock.”
She blinked and smiled as it came to her that he had put her biometrics in his rooms already.
The door slid open, and he walked inside with a long stride. The interior was a mix of soft gold, greys and blues. They were the same colours that were active in her gown.
He set her on her feet, and she looked around quickly, taking in the location and the view of the gardens from the wide balcony windows.
“You could have just flown here.”
He chuckled and came up behind her, pressing his hands to her shoulders and kissing her neck. “I could have, but then you wouldn’t know where we lived, and that would make your knowledge of the area incomplete.”
A tear came to her eye as she realized that his courtship, the tour, it had all been part of easing her into knowledge of the mother ship.
As his lips trailed up her neck, and he turned her in his arms, she looked up into his green eyes rimmed with the red of his rut and smiled, “Now, Tonos, you can answer a question for me.”
He smiled down at her, and his gaze heated as she moved close to him, rocking her hips against him and sliding her arms up his back, stroking the base of his wings lightly.
“What can I answer for you, bondmate?”
She blushed and leaned up to whisper against his neck, “How many ways can a man with wings have sex? I have to admit that i
t has been a pressing question for me.”
His body went rigid for a moment before he lifted her up to meet his gaze eye-to-eye. “I will do the work, you keep count. Fair enough?”
She laughed, and he carried her into his bedroom, demonstrating that he was far more familiar with the clothing that she was wearing than she was.
When the final layer of silk was all that stood between her skin and his, he slowed down and caressed, touched and kissed each inch of her that was exposed while removing the final obstacle.
She shivered with heat by the time he moved over her and joined their bodies. They rocked, twisted and writhed together, and he held her arms over her head when her caresses on his wings became too much for him.
Her mind spun as she started to come back to herself after leaving her body and whirling through the stars. The best part had been that Tonos was with her, and when he looked into her eyes with his own clear, green ones, she leaned up, kissed him and whispered, “One.”
His grin ceased before he pinned her to the bed and rolled her to her side. As he lifted her leg and entered her again, she shivered at the intensity that rolled through her.
By morning, the count was up to five, and it only stayed there because she was not willing to have him with her in the lav. Having a seat on the vanity to allow him in was tempting, but she was sore, sticky and as she told him, “There are so many more days before us.”
When she tiptoed out of the lav with a sheet covering her, Tonos smiled and gestured to the delivery slot. “There is a new dress for you as well as some shoes.”
With a little help from him, she managed to get herself dressed as a woman of the People of the Air.
“How do I look?”
He grinned, pulled her in for a kiss and said, “You look like mine.”
She laughed. “I am glad that you think so, because we are going to have to go to Gaia to prove to my family that you are mine. Ziggy may be held her as the Potential, but I am not, and my mom is a little confused as to why I would fall for a man I had just met.”
His normally cocky behaviour wobbled. “You want your family to meet me?”