Chapter 90—Maxx

“Nera!” I lunged to catch her before she fainted. “Get a doctor!”

Anxiety speared through me at the sight of my bride. What had happened? I’d seen her just a few hours ago when we’d talked to Pete, and now… She looked near death on what should’ve been the happiest day of our lives.

I would fixing destroy whoever had done this to her.

Miekil crouched down next to me. “Are those slash wounds in her side from a dagger?”

Bile climbed up my throat when I saw what he pointed at. A single deep cut, too small to be from a machete, but about the right size for a dagger. The daggers she’d stolen from her ex? Had he done this to her because she was marrying me?

I leaped to my feet, a growl escaping my throat that made the approaching doctor and several others shrink back.

“Whoa, steady,” Miekil said, putting his hand on my shoulder. “You stay with your wife. I’ll check the beach house.”

“Give me some room,” the doctor said as he knelt next to Nera.

Thankfully, it was her ship’s doctor, a kindly older gentleman, not the drunkard on the staff of Alien Love Paradise.

From his medical bag, he extracted something in the shape of a pill and broke it in half underneath her nose.

Immediately, her eyes snapped open. Hard and sharp and cunning before they lit into a smile when she saw me.

“Oh, hi,” she said.

Relief flooded through my veins.

“You’re hurt,” I forced out around the knot of emotion tying up my throat.

“Clearly,” she muttered. “But I’m still standing, aren’t I?”

With an unsteady hand, I smoothed her messy hair away from her face. “No.”

“Oh.” She sighed deeply. “Well, shoot.”

“Do you know what did this to you?” the doctor asked, his expression grim as he took in the cut on her side. “A wild animal?”

She shook her head. “But if by that, you mean Captain Mike Early, then yes.”

“I will kill him. Slowly. Piece by fixing piece.” That wasn’t just a promise, but a vow, the first of two I planned on making today.

Nera’s crew seemed to be on board with that idea. Across from me, Darc seethed, her expression brimming with hate. Mosely cracked his knuckles and split the toothpick in his mouth in two with a simple flex of his jaw.

Philip, her communications officer, just nodded. “Yeah, I’m afraid you’ll have to get in line.”

“After me,“ Oreo said, but her attention was focused more on Nera and less on the state of her dress, makeup, and hair while she clasped her hands to her chest.

Nera smiled up at everyone. “Sounds like a party. Looks like I’ve already brought the hangover feeling.”

“We’ll get you patched up and feeling up to your wedding in no time,” the doctor assured her. “Think you can stand?”

“Only one way to find out.”

With my help, she wobbled to her feet and leaned hard against me. “Swear you’ll wait for me for a take two on our wedding?”

I huffed out a humorless laugh. “I swear it.”

Gently, I scooped her up in my arms, and a small caravan started toward the beach house. A concerned murmur went through the crowd of onlookers as they parted for us, sending Nera well-wishes and telling her she looked beautiful.

“My sentiments exactly,” I told her when she snorted.

“So blood does it for you, huh?” She rested her cheek against my chest and closed her eyes. “I’ll keep that in mind.”

“You know what I mean. You would have to try really hard to look any other way than perfect. Always.”

“You’re just saying that because I agreed to marry you.”

Somehow, I chuckled and held her tighter in my arms. She sighed against my silken purple wedding robe and snuggled in closer.

Miekil met us at the back door of the beach house, dangling two pairs of handcuffs. Both empty and stained with blood.

“Are you fucking kidding me?” Nera asked him.

“At least he left a trail of blood with him out the window when he escaped,” Miekil said. “I can go follow—“

“No, you stay,” I told him, frustration fizzing up through the crevices between my scales. “I’ll deal with him later.”

Miekil gave me a nod as he let us pass inside.

I laid Nera out on the couch, flinging the lube we’d used just last night to the floor. I’d learned my lesson long ago not to take anything for granted because things could change so drastically from one moment to the next. Still, this was a harsh reminder.

Both the doctor and Nera’s style team got to work, none of them in each other’s way, each working quietly and efficiently, their sole focus on Nera and her comfort. About half an hour later, Nera sat upright and smiled at me, looking like the battle she’d gone through had never happened.

And it never should have, but I’d deal with that fuller later.

As our fingers intertwined, the weight of the day began to lift from my shoulders, replaced by love and determination.

Time to marry the most extraordinary human I’d ever met.

Hand in hand, we made our way back to the wedding. Phosphorescent flora and twinkled fairy lights glowed with a soft iridescent light and formed an aisle leading to the altar. As always on Klio-3, the sunset sky was a palette of radiant, shifting hues.

After kissing her on the temple, I made my way up the aisle without her so she could make her grand entrance.

Soft strains of the Xenoxx battle slash marriage march began to play—the song was played for both events. Not because the events were the same, obviously, but because they were both momentous, serious occasions. The music resonated deep within my alien hearts.

As soon as I took my place, all eyes turned to the beginning of the aisle. There she was, radiant in her gown.

My pulse stuttered, same as it always did when I saw her.

But today, despite her fuller of an ex-husband, despite a second round of makeup and hair, she looked absolutely stunning. So much that she took my breath away all over again.

A rush of emotions fizzed up out of me unlike any I’d ever experienced—awe and hope, love and happiness. I’d been waiting for this moment for so long, even though we’d only officially known each other for a few weeks. Time didn’t seem to matter to my hearts.

She floated toward me in her magnificent gown woven from threads of interstellar stardust, unmarred and as perfect as she was.

I didn’t know how they’d done it, not once but twice, but Oreo and Smitha stood at the beginning of the aisle with obvious delight. So much so that they held hands, both with happy grins on their faces.

Good for them for finding love here as well.

By the time Nera stood at the altar across from me, I didn’t think I’d drawn a breath since she’d started up the aisle.

When Xenoxx began marrying humans, our wedding vows had to be changed slightly to reflect the unique bond between aliens and their earthly brides and the harmonious fusion of two very different worlds. I’d said the standard Xenoxx vows at my wedding to Bexx, so I’d had to do some last-minute relearning, all thanks to Axxel’s four-in-the-morning reminder.

You do remember you’re marrying a human, right? Better learn the differences or else! Humans are sometimes prone to be Bride-zillas.

His message had sent me down a rabbit hole that I’d had to cleanse from my mind with an hour of cat videos.

I took my bride-to-be’s hands and inhaled a deep breath.

We didn’t have pastors or priests or any other licensed marriage officiant like humans did. It was just us, our friends, and the Xenoxx goddess looking down on us from above.

“I, Maxx, King of Xenoxx,” I began, “promise to journey with you through the boundless expanse of the rest of our lives. With every joy we experience and every challenge we encounter, I vow to cherish and protect you, and I vow my complete honesty, my beautiful star, my human bride. I promise to ease your transition to Nera, Queen of Xenoxx, to help me lead in any capacity you desire.”

“Queen Nera, oh my god,” she muttered, her face flushing. “Kind of forgot about that part.”

I grinned. That was something we hadn’t really discussed yet, but it was a bit of a given when you married a king. She was already a natural leader. I had no doubt she would be a fantastic queen.

“I promise to worship you in sickness and health. I promise to stand by your side, my hearts forever open, and to love you intensely and eternally,” I finished.

A rush of air heaved from her chest as she smiled up at me, her depthless brown eyes shimmering with love and light.

“How am I supposed to top that?” she muttered.

I laughed. So did the guests in the first few rows.

“You don’t have to,” I assured her.

She nodded, took a deep breath, and began. “I, Nera Cotrobin, human from the planet Earth, pledge to explore the wonders of the universe with you, Maxx, King of Xenoxx, my cosmic companion. I promise to embrace the mysteries of your world and to share the marvels of mine. I promise to be your anchor, your solace, and your earthly, trustworthy tether. I promise to love you unconditionally, to reach for the stars with you, and to find the extraordinary in every moment we share.”

To hear her say the words pounded my heart faster. This was real. Every moment. I almost couldn’t believe it was finally happening.

From my pocket, I retrieved the Ring of Eternity, crafted from rare Xenoxx metals and crystals. Slowly, I slipped it onto Nera’s delicate ring finger of her left hand. It emitted a soft, pulsating glow, which meant that my goddess herself blessed this union.

Not that I was nervous She wouldn’t. Both She and Nera were cut from the same fierce design.

Nera had no such ring for me. Xenoxx men were marked permanently with their bond in a much different way. My pants grew tight at the thought, my blood practically singing. My kaxxui thrummed within me and begged to be released.

“Now we kiss,” I whispered.

“About time.” She hooked her finger into my wedding robe and hauled me closer.

I leaned down to devour Nera’s mouth with mine.

Everyone gathered on the beach threw their hands in the air, and a shower of iridescent sparkles rained down upon us. This was the stardust blessing part of the wedding, a token of goodwill. Stardust held the collective wishes and dreams of everyone in the universe, and it was believed to bring good fortune and harmony to our union.

The stardust sparkled like tiny diamonds in the air, and while I hungrily kissed my bride, my hands knotted tightly at the back of her head. I freed one to take hold of Nera’s ringed hand and touch the celestial unity amethyst on the tree-trunk altar.

It was infused with the energy of my goddess, and as we touched it simultaneously, the jewel emitted a brilliant, otherworldly glow that enveloped us in a cocoon of shimmering light and glittering stardust that hovered in midair, frozen in time. Our guests had disappeared, still on the beach with us, but nonexistent in our goddess-made bubble of privacy.

“Maxx…what…?” Nera panted out, her attention caught between my kisses and the beauty of our starlit oasis.

I swept her up against me, feeling all of her delicious curves, and growled into her neck, “Now comes the fun part of our wedding.”