Star Side

Chapter 67

Most of the fight must have gone on behind the ship, where I couldn't see, which seemed to be a fault in construction in my opinion. But just as I found the switches to turn on the rearview camera, a russet orange alien flopped into the mossy ground before me, splattered in blood and...missing an arm.

Even as I stared at the bloody socket squirting red where an arm should be, he—as he had the tuft and large horns and larger body to be male—struggled to his feet in time to hiss down the much larger and winged mass of my husband. His responding hiss was more of a screech, all his spines and mane on end and his wings out wide to make him look monstrous, even from behind. I couldn't see how the orange male reacted past Gilrack's form, but when he finally put his wings down and de-puffed, only a trail of blood was left of the orange male.

Gilrack didn't return right away. He went off somewhere, which irritated the hell out of me because I wanted to know what the frack just went down to make a guy lose his freaking arm. But it all made sense when he returned wetter than before and blood free. Probably didn't want to leave blood smears on his bride.

He reached out to hug me, but I dodged it, making him pout—and yes, alien demons do pout.

"What was that all about?" I asked.

"A stupid male who seemed to think mating with you would give him wings," he said stiffly.

"Oh? You actually stopped to talk with him?"

"I made him talk. One doesn't just hunt down another's female without good cause, and he was not a sibling."

Which meant he hadn't even seen me before, which would make it rather weird for him to come after me.

"Seems kind of stupid for him to come on his own to face big, winged you just off hearsay," I said.

"Stupid exists."

"Aye, I suppose that's true."

But it still didn't sit right with me. Probably because when faced with that much stupid it was hard for anyone to comprehend it. But come on, the dude lost an arm because of it. What kind of story would he tell his bros? If he didn't bleed out by the time he made it to help.

Gilrack seemed to think along the same lines, as his mind waves tingled with suspicion.

"Where'd they get the idea that mating with me would give them wings?" I asked. "It's already known that you're royal and you were exposed to oxygen so—boom—wings."

For a moment he just looked at me, stunned, and I looked back because I didn't know what he was suddenly so surprised.

"What? What did you think the peak of the mountain had? Did you think the air on the station was somehow magical or something."

He wrinkled his nose, then covered his face with his hand.

"No..." he said weakly.

"That's a lie."

"Yes."

"You're awfully bashful for having just torn off the arm of some guy. Seriously violent, yo."

"He was stupid."

"Yes yes, I'm not disagreeing. Just wondering where all that bamf testosterone went."

"Bamf? Tess—tss—rone?"

"Don't hurt yourself. Let's head home. Arm ripping might have been stress relieving for you but not for me, I want some egg time."

He bobbed his head, understanding completely, and lost no time in complying.

The trip back went by much quicker, as return trips usually were. I suspected we attracted even more stares than before from the city below and around us as we flew high up to the glowing hanger on the ceiling of the great cavern, where the royal throne room and, further up, our nest waited. He barely even spared a glance to his mother who worked below with some of his siblings before zipping up the tunnel and lighting on the landing with all the grace of a butterfly on a flower. His father, who had been standing guard, nodded to us. He must have had something to do with whatever was going on below because he didn't spare us more than a word before beginning his scramble down.