Brida Pact (25 page)

“Maybe they were called down to the training centers.” Behyr
was already moving to check the computer for messages. “Well…it doesn’t say
where they are but it does say here that we are to expect four brides today for
checkups. At least, that is what the schedule has recorded.”

“Really?” Poppy practically skipped to the message center,
she was so excited to meet the other brides who were on the ship.

“Yes, it says here that they are to arrive this morning
after Valerie has a scan.” Pausing to glance around the center again, he shot
Poppy a questioning gaze. “Is she sick?”

“Ummm…I think she wants to get a baseline in the system. You
know, since she’s stuck here and everything.”

Not wanting to tell another’s secrets, Poppy tried to make
herself busy by gathering the welcome bags she’d prepped for the brides last
week. They weren’t much but she figured that any human female would appreciate
a bottle of lotion and familiar soap along with some other female products they
may have forgotten to bring or run out of by now. Poppy smiled, remembering
Tamin’s look of disbelief when she’d asked if they had ribbon for her to make
bows. He’d ended up shaking his head but provided her with some blue medical
string from the supply closet. She was happy she was going to be able to give
these out and meet some of the other ladies.

“Poppy?” Behry’s deep voice penetrated her thoughts.

“Oh, sorry. I’ve just been anxious to meet these women. It
seemed like it was never going to happen.” Smiling at him reassuringly, she put
the bags back down. “Come to think of it, I should become friends with as many
as I can, right?”

Behyr nodded, peering at the bags she had set down.

“What are these?” Picking one up, he read the bottle that
showed clear through the cellophane wrapping. “Peaches and cream?”

“It’s lotion.” Taking up a basket that had the loose extras
for more bags, she flipped open the top of a similar tube. “For some reason,
when Earth sent supplies for the brides, they put in a large shipment of
scented lotions for the women.” Holding the tube up to his face, she puffed
some air out and a glob popped out the opening to hit the tip of his nose.

“Aaack!” He jerked back with such a reaction of disgust
Poppy couldn’t help but laugh hysterically.

“It’s only lotion, you goofball, not acid.” Reaching for a
tissue to help him clean off his face, she found he’d already done so with his
hands and was sniffing them.

“This smell is…pleasant.” As if he didn’t know how to
describe it, he kept sniffing his hands. “Could I have one of these packs for
Hannah?”

Smiling at how sweet he was toward Hannah, she held out the
basket. “Of course you can. There are different scents, though. Do you want to
smell them all to see which one you like more?” Reaching for another bottle,
she giggled when he snatched it from her.

“I’ll do that. You seemed to laugh so much before that I
think you may have done that to me on purpose.”

After going through the bottles, he settled on one that was
a vanilla-sugar blend. Noting his pick, Poppy figured it wouldn’t be a bad idea
to let Hannah know he preferred that scent over the other ones that were
available.

Behyr stuck around long enough to help Poppy prepare
everything, since the docs still hadn’t arrived. He seemed to ask about everything
human-related and Poppy got a kick out of pointing out the different things
human women might like or need. Behyr became obsessed with a shower pouf and
kept rubbing his thumb over a foot pumice stone, but when Poppy pulled out a
box of tampons, he dropped the items and quickly found something to do in
another room. If he did end up taking Hannah for a bride he would need to get
over the squeamishness of the female cycle. Remembering she’d had to explain it
to Wheaton and what had happened made her smile to herself. Wheaton had been
curious when he had found her empty birth control packet and asked if they were
vitamins. When she explained it regulated her cycle and prevented pregnancy, he
had been full of questions. Apparently the warriors had been given information
on human anatomy and how the body worked but he hadn’t fully understood all
that it entailed.

Stacking boxes of tampons and pads hadn’t been on Poppy’s
to-do list for the morning but she was so excited to meet the other brides she
decided it was a good idea to stay busy so she didn’t get too nervous. Hearing
the tone at the med center door, she almost jumped out of her skin and couldn’t
help the disappointment that came over her face when she realized it was just
Tamin and Rodin.

“Thanks, Poppy. I can see you are thrilled to see us.” Rodin
smiled at her and rolled his eyes. A habit he had picked up from watching her
do it so often.

Feeling bad that she had let her emotions show so clearly,
she went up and gave him a hug.

“Where is mine?” Tamin spoke from behind Rodin.

“Well, I can’t forget one of my favorite doctors, now can
I?” she teased back.

Both men seemed to have their hands full so she took a box,
only to have it snatched from her hands quickly by a scowling Behyr.

“You are not supposed to lift anything heavy.” Setting the
box down on a table close by, he mumbled, “Wheaton will kill us if he finds out
you did that.”

“Oh c’mon now, guys, he’s not that bad.” Crossing her arms
over her chest, she pouted for a second. “Plus, that wasn’t even heavy.”

The men all paused and stared at her in disbelief.

“He’s not that bad?” Rodin said, almost choking over the
words.

The men glanced at each other and burst into laughter in
unison.

“What’s so funny?” Poppy thought to herself for a moment and
couldn’t come up with a time when Wheaton had tried to restrict her since the
baby news.

“Poppy, the first thing Wheaton did when he found out that
you were pregnant was give us a list of what was acceptable and not,” Tamin
said while moving more boxes out of her reach.

“And this was
after
we explained that working here
wouldn’t harm you at all. At first, he wanted to keep you in the apartment all
day until I explained that it made more sense for you to be here in case there
was an issue and you needed medical attention.” Rodin was smiling now as he
explained. Pointing at her stomach, he smiled and went on, “Don’t even ask me
how many questions he had regarding sexual intercourse and your baby. He was
sure that he was going to poke the baby while he was enjoying your—” Obviously
embarrassed, Rodin had to search for the right word before he settled on,
“attentions.”

Poppy was full-on laughing by now at how Wheaton must have
been freaking out a bit. She had to give him props though. He had never let on
that he was scared something would go wrong since their original scan…or that
he had been worried if sex was okay. Deciding to give him a little extra
attention tonight for being so darn cute, she held up her hands.

“Okay, guys, boxes are off-limits. I’ll just go over here
and make sure these gift packs are ready for the millionth time.” Sarcasm was
apparently lost on the warriors because they nodded like that was a good idea
and went back to sorting through the boxes.

“What’s in there, anyway?” Casting a glance back at her
favorite supply closet, she tried to peek into one of the boxes that Rodin had
opened and was digging through.

“We received some more supplies from a shuttle mission
today. Phaeton Two is close enough for a shuttle to send supplies back and
forth and since we have brides aboard and they do not, then we received some of
their excess.”

“But I thought we were in deep space?” Poppy asked,
confused.

Rodin nodded and handed her a couple more bottles of lotion
out of his box. “We are. Phaeton Two is heading to Earth and we are heading to
our planet. While we are passing the other ship it will be within shuttle
distance for a couple of hours.”

“Wait, why are they going to Earth?”

“Part of our agreement is to always have a presence near
Earth.” Seeing that he had confused her even more, he tried to explain, “Part
of it is for protection.”

Behyr interrupted Rodin, watching Poppy with one of the more
serious expressions that she had ever seen him have. “We are not the only ones
that exist in space, Poppy. There are dangers that even Earth is unaware of.”

“Earth is safe, right?” Concern for her sister was the first
thing that popped into her head.

“Yes, most other life forms will not openly attack Phaeton
warships or anything that we consider ours…and Earth is something that we
consider ours.” Behyr had never seemed more like a warrior than he did now as
he was speaking. “Many of the other life forms are peaceful and not as
technologically advanced. That or they are in trade.”

Poppy winced when she remembered how Wheaton had had to
explain the Pleasure Sector to her. That had been an uncomfortable conversation
all around. Wheaton had become embarrassed explaining about the life forms that
worked in the “skin trade”. Realizing he was talking about visiting space prostitutes
hadn’t sat well with Poppy either. And then Wheaton had suggested that she
might even like going to the Pleasure Sector when they had a chance. Even going
as far as to say that he had enough credits for her to pay for anything she
wanted.

Her immediate reaction had been to jump to the conclusion he
was suggesting a threesome. Her face had showed her disgust and he had laughed
at her assumption. At her expression of disbelief, he had quickly told her that
the port also dealt in spices, jewelry and craft items that they sold in the
marketplace. He explained that it would be a nice place for her to pick out a
gift for her sister if she wanted to find something unique. Grateful he hadn’t
been suggesting an alien orgy, she agreed that Pixie would flip out if she got
a gift from space.

Remembering that conversation, she could admit now that it
had made sense that these men, who lacked any physical outlet, would visit the
equivalent of a space whorehouse. She understood it, but she didn’t have to
like it. Wheaton had explained that when ships were close enough, they would
have shuttles going back and forth for the men to take advantage of what was
available for purchase…and that included sex. When she had asked why they
simply didn’t use these women as brides, Wheaton had said they were not a
compatible match for reproduction with most of the species available. A
majority of the female species were sterilized as a work precaution. When she
had cast him a glare of disgust, he had tried to reassure her that they were
not similar to human women at all. The races that sold themselves were born and
bred for prostitution. Many of them were engineered to be as physically
attractive to as many alien races as possible. That had actually made her even
more grossed out.

Unable to stop herself, she’d thought of the
Total Recall
chick with her three boobs. Poppy had held out her palms in a “don’t say
anything else” pose and told him that what was in the past was forgotten, but
if he ever even thought about visiting the Pleasure Sector again, for anything
other than items in the marketplace, she would neuter him. That had pretty much
ended that conversation. Realizing that the men were staring at her while she
had her mini-flashback, she smiled at them.

“I get it, guys. Wheaton had given me a run-down on some of
the other species that you encounter when traveling. As long as my sister is
safe on Earth then you don’t need to say anything else.”

The men, realizing that she had been made aware of what
“trade” was, busied themselves with the boxes and spent the next hour
organizing the new supplies they’d received.

Something had been in the back of her mind and she took the
quiet time to ask. “Has anyone seen Dathrow lately?”

He had not been around the last couple of days and Poppy
missed her friend. At first she had assumed he had been called to the Council
meetings but Wheaton had not mentioned him recently.

“Did Wheaton not tell you?” Rodin asked, surprise on his
face.

“Tell me what?

Behyr held out his hand to stop the other two men from
talking. His movement quieted them almost immediately.

“I will tell her. Why don’t you two make sure the regen beds
are up and running? The brides should be here any minute.”

Seeing the glances of sympathy the two men cast her way as
they were leaving made her stomach churn a bit. What the hell had happened to
Dathrow?

“Is he okay?” Poppy’s worry increased when Behyr seemed more
uncomfortable the longer he stood silently in front of her. “Spit it out. Is.
He. Okay?”

Behyr obviously realized the more he stalled, the more
anxious Poppy grew. “He is fine,” he started, only to stop when she waved her
hands for him to keep going. “Quit flapping your hands at me. I will tell you
what I know, but I need you to listen to all of it and not interrupt. Agreed?”

Poppy was instantly relieved to find out Dathrow was okay
but now Behyr was making her more curious by the moment with the
cloak-and-dagger treatment. Nodding her head, she waited for him to spill the
beans.

“Wheaton was concerned when he found out that you were being
shadowed so closely by Dathrow when you were initially separated.” Holding up
his hands again to stop her from talking, he went on, “This was made even more
of a situation when Dathrow approached the Council and explained that if
Wheaton
did
choose Hannah over your own bridal agreement, then
he
would step forward to claim you as his bride.”

“
What?
” Poppy was stunned. Utterly stunned.

Dathrow had been so sweet and never let on he was interested
in her, other than a couple comments such as, “I would be grateful for a bride
like you” or “Wheaton is a lucky warrior”. Poppy had thought those moments were
just him trying to cheer her up when she was bummed about what’d been
happening. She never took it as a serious interest in her as his bride. Feeling
awful for him possibly getting in trouble with Wheaton, she had to ask.