How to Marry an Alien (21 page)

"You bring me down to this lowly planet
because you are worried about a supposed threat against your
daughter?"

Dad tried not to stumble over his words, but
a bead of sweat had already formed on his brow. "Your highness, it
isn't just against Alex. This isn't the first time a threat has
been put on both her and Ace's lives."

The queen looked at her gloved hand. "Yes, I
do suppose you are right, but what do you expect me to do about it?
You know I don't approve of this silly little contract you put
together."

"Your highness, if I may," Nerses said. "I
think it would be wise if you would loan us some Caltian troops so
we can get to the bottom of this before any more of our soldiers
fall, or anything happens to your son."

Marsilo tilted his head back and let out a
single laugh. I glared at him, but nobody said anything to stop
him. It showed who was on my side—no one.

The queen let out a deep sigh. "Nerses,
darling, must we keep on with this charade? We've already met twice
this year about incidents that my son and his partner were clearly
able to figure out for themselves, and I see no reason why this
time is any different."

"Your highness, if I may, they were attacked
by a—" Dad tried to speak again, but the queen raised her hand.

She looked up and locked eyes with my dad. If
looks could kill, I swear her eyes would have put a bullet right
through him. "I said that I am fully aware of the situation,
Colonel."

I couldn't take it anymore. The queen had
treated me like trash since before she even met me. It wouldn't
hurt our relationship any more if I stood up for myself.

"Seriously? That's all you have to say?" I
jumped up, slamming my hands down on the table.

A collective gasp rang out from the aliens in
the room.

"Alex!" Dad stood up.

The queen raised her hand, and then locked
her dark eyes on me. It was amazing how similar her eyes were to
Ace's. They both had eyes as black as night and circled with what
looked like eyeliner, but while Ace's were intriguing, the queen's
were just menacing.

"She always did have a mouth on her, didn't
she?" Marsilo said, practically in the queen's ear.

The queen nodded slightly, not taking her
eyes off me. "You do have quite the mind of your own, don't you,
Miss Bianchi, future princess of Calta?"

I swallowed hard. I could feel my body
shaking, but I couldn't back down. This wasn't the first time I'd
stood up to the queen. "When it comes to matters of me and your
son, yes I do."

"Well then, Miss Bianchi." She leaned in,
putting her elbows on the table and resting her chin on her open
palms. "What, with all your wealth of earthly knowledge, do you
suppose that we do about the situation?"

"I-I-I don't know. But if you love your son
as much as I do, I'm hoping you're willing to help us figure that
out."

The queen coming into the meeting did nothing
more than put me and Ace on edge. She said there was no use
bringing other Caltians into the mix, but that she would have
Marsilo let us know if they heard anything. Like that was a lot of
help.

After the meeting, I went to dad's room with
Ace and Nerses to debrief on the situation. My life had now become
just a situation.

Dad sat in the arm chair, Ace and I sat on
the couch, and Nerses just stood, watching over us like a hawk that
was waiting to attack.

"I think it would be best if we look for
other ways to protect Alex," dad said, using his hands to make
gestures. His Italian side came out even more when he was flustered
and his hands moved a mile a minute. "Obviously Calta isn't willing
to help, so we may need to reach out to other planets, maybe even
Venus."

Nerses shook her head, pacing the little area
in front of the television set. "We have plenty of aliens around
Northern Arizona that are watching her, and obviously she has
Ace."

Dad made a noise that sounded like a hilted
laugh. "Yeah, and we've seen that Alex is usually the one that has
to save Ace."

Nerses narrowed her eyes at my dad. Uh oh,
trouble in paradise.

Ace shrugged, looking over at me. "It's
actually sort of true. I'd love to say that I could protect Alex,
but we all know that I'm no match for a Caltian woman, and if it's
dozens of other aliens, there is no way I could even begin to help
her."

Whoa, dozens of other alien? How many were
after me?

Nerses blinked slowly, both sets of eyelids,
like a fish. "I guess you do have a point, Vince." She stopped
walking and clasped her hands together in front of her. "What do
you propose we do, then? Unless the queen reconsiders and loans us
some of their guards from the royal family, then I really can't
stretch us any thinner than we already have."

"What if Alex just stays here?" Ace asked.
"She is already doing one online class; I'm sure she could do
more."

I stood up, trying to catch the eyes of
everyone in the room. "Can we stop talking about me like I'm not
here?"

I walked over to the television and stood
next to Nerses. "I'm not going to quit going to school, and there
is no reason to give me some sort of an entourage to follow me
around. I knew the moment I started dating Ace that there would be
problems, and we've managed to survive them the past year. There is
no reason to stop what we have been doing. It's worked so far,
albeit a few mishaps."

Dad shook his head, standing up and putting
his hands out for another Italian, man-style sign language charade.
"But what if this time you can't protect yourself? I would be sick
knowing that you are out there without protection."

I didn't know what to say. I knew that there
was a chance I could just end up getting both me and Ace killed.
Obviously, the car accident almost did that to us. How was I
supposed to protect us both?

Ace stood, walking over and making a small
circle. "I can make a call to some people on Calta and see what we
can do for some extra surveillance. I know the queen wasn't willing
to help us, but maybe if I talk to some people, they will
reconsider."

"And do you think they will follow through?"
dad asked.

Ace's eyes narrowed. "Are you saying that I
don't want to protect Alex as much as you do? What kind of alien do
you think I am?"

Dad raised his hands, palms out, to Ace.
"Whoa, I'm just saying that I want to make sure they have as much
interest in protecting her and will actually do it."

Ace rolled his eyes. "Of course they will
protect her. The queen has the treaty, Simone has been
incarcerated, and for Andromeda's sake she is the future princess
of Calta!"

Nerses cleared her throat. "You have half of
those right."

I snapped my head in the direction of Nerses.
"Which half?"

Nerses swallowed hard. It was the first time
I'd ever seen her look so uncomfortable, shuffling in her flats.
"Simone has—what would you call it on Earth?—diplomatic immunity,
so we could only hold her for so long before we let her go back to
Calta."

"WHAT?" Ace and I practically said in
unison.

Simone was out? She could be the one after me
and no one informed me of this.

"This is true." Dad sighed. "We had to let
her go, but we gave her over to the Caltian authorities, and they
assured us that she would be in a similar situation there. We don't
believe that she is a threat at this time."

"Ugh!" I sat down on the couch and threw my
head in my hands. I wanted to break down right there on the stiff,
white sofa. Why was all of this happening to me? I tried being
normal and obviously that didn't work, so I would be stuck forever
with a giant ball of intergalactic issues.

I felt pressure next to me on the side of the
couch, and soon, Ace's cold arm was around me. "Princess, I promise
you that we will get through this."

I looked up to see Ace's dark eyes staring
back at me. Hopefully he was right. We had gotten through many
alien attacks together, and I just hoped this wouldn't be our
last.

Life went back to normal. Well as normal as
my life ever could be. Ace and Circe called in some extra recruits,
and all of a sudden there were a lot of new students taking summer
school. I hadn't been back to Circe in awhile, but I enjoyed having
Ace stay over whenever he could. Being close to another Caltian
helped to prevent Caltian women from trying to sleep creep.

With Ace spending the night more, Lucy took
that as a chance to stay at Riley's. Riley had a small apartment
off campus. Her roommate was really into online gaming and rarely
came out of her room, so it was kind of like Riley had her own
place anyway. But they still spent enough time in our dorm room
when Lucy had homework or they just wanted to hang out. It was nice
having Ace around and still getting to enjoy time with my
roommate.

If only I could enjoy a Saturday morning
without having my mom call for a video chat.

"What is that noise?" Ace grumbled, pulling
the pillow over his head.

"Ugh!" I groaned, shifting to the noise of my
phone. "That's my video chat ring. Can you just stay hidden and
quiet for like two minutes? Mom will keep calling until I talk to
her, so it's best to just get it over with."

"No problem. I can just go back to
sleep…maybe."

I grabbed my phone, slid out of bed and ran
over to sit at my desk. At the right angle, mom wouldn't be able to
see Ace curled up in my bed. I slid open the phone and there was my
mom's face staring back at me. Albeit, she was a little too close
to the screen and I could see every nose hair.

"Good morning! How is my favorite co-ed?"

"You do realize that we have a two-hour time
difference, right?"

Mom looked over at the clock and then covered
her mouth with her freshly manicured hands. "Oh, I’m sorry, Alex! I
completely forgot! Do you want me to let you go back to sleep?"

I held the phone back. She tended to yell
when she was on video chat. "No, it's cool. I'm up now. What's
going on?"

"Okay, well, I can make this quick!" She
removed her hands from her mouth, and then the camera moved in
circles. I saw her shuffling through some papers on the table. "I
know your wedding won't be for at least a few years, but I just got
some information from this wedding planner who is looking to maybe
have me ghost write her memoir."

"Uh, huh." I yawned and hoped she would stop
moving the phone so much. I didn't need to get motion sickness as
well.

It looked like she set the phone down on the
table and then all I could see were her hands and a bunch of
brochures for hotels, banquet facilities, and caterers.

"You said it was just some information. That
looks like a whole slew of stuff," I said staring at all the
information she held in her hands.

"You can never start planning too early,
especially if you want to book some of these places. Did you know
you have to book for a cake through Bella Luna bakery at least two
years out?" she said, shuffling the papers in her hands.

"I guess it couldn't hurt to start looking at
some things. Lucy and I did find a couple of dresses we thought
would look good in the magazines you sent…"

Mom squealed. "Oh, I can't wait to go dress
shopping!"

The first and last time I went dress shopping
with my mom was for Fall Ball and that didn't end too well, so Ace
and I skipped prom all together. There wasn't another ex-girlfriend
around trying to kill me, but every time I even went by the dress
rack at a department store I got a creepy, ghostlike chill up my
spine.

"Yeah, maybe we can look when you all come
and visit this fall." I actually smiled. My mom might have been
eccentric, but she did love me, and I couldn't deny that I had been
thinking a little bit more about my wedding even with all the other
alien stuff going on. Maybe dress shopping wouldn't be in the
picture, but I couldn't pass up some cake tasting.

"I'll get Brian right away, and we can start
planning our trip! I will call you later when I have more info!"
she said.

"Okay, Mom, talk to you later," I said, and
she disconnected the call.

I closed my phone and turned to see Ace
sitting up in bed.

"Good to see that you're awake now." I slid
out of my desk chair and crawled up the bed until we were nose to
nose. "Do you want breakfast or maybe something else?"

I trailed my fingers up his bare arms. If I
pumped the air conditioner up to full blast he didn't need his
temperature control suit, and I liked having him in bed in nothing
but his boxers.

Ace shook his head. "Alex, we need to talk
about something."

I sat straight up, covering my mouth with my
hands. "Oh God! You aren't breaking up with me are you? Because
that sounds like a line that guys use when they are breaking up
with someone."

Ace pulled my hands from my mouth and held
them in his. "I'm not breaking up with you. This is serious."

His eyes were steal and held my gaze in a way
that told me he meant business.

"Okay, then what is it?"

"It's about the wedding," he said.

"What about it? Are you mad that my mom and I
were talking about wedding details? She's just excited. If you want
I can talk to your mom or someone else about Caltian wedding
details and we can totally incorporate those." As long as they
weren't too weird. I didn't want to tell Ace, but the whole alien
wedding ritual idea scared the bejeezus out of me. After hearing
that alien probing was real, I could only imagine what they did for
weddings.

"Well…the thing about a Caltian wedding…"

"Yes?"

Ace looked down at the blankets, and then
back up at me, rubbing his palm on the back of his neck. "We kind
of already are married in the Caltian sense."