Humility
Her husband was a liar. A big fat lying liar who lies. Okay, he wasn’t fat, but when Odette had waddled off the cruiser escorted by a tall imposing doting warrior, Goru had sucked in his gut and Leif had straightened his posture. The warriors all along the row puffed out their chests or scrambled to look industrious all the way to the clinic. None of this had happened when Kave led Humility into the camp. It was clear who was really in charge here, and it wasn’t Kave.
“Honestly, I’m fine. I just need a nap, not a fricken’ exam,” Odette told the warrior escorting her to the clinic.
Scrubs came out of the clinic and much to the warlord’s annoyance, circled around a pregnant Odette to another woman. The second woman sported a blond pixie cut and a set of overalls, also bulging, and Scrubs began to scan her belly without so much as a howdy do.
“Nice to see you too, honey,” she said, smacking him on the arm.
This must be the infamous Clover, Scrubs’s mate, who according to her husband, knew everything about Terran women and was an expert in bedside manners. He was still intently scanning her baby bump.
“Medic!” Athen called.
Scrubs waited a fraction too long to look up and acknowledge the warlord as anger flashed over Athen’s face.
“Tend to my mate!” Athen ordered.
“Oh shove off, Athen,” Odette said. “Give them some time. I can scan later.”
“No. Now.”
Scrubs turned his attention to Odette to placate Athen.
“Healthy sons for both of us,” he pronounced after a brief scan.
“And when can I get this sucker out of me?” Odette said, patting her large belly.
“When your labor starts.”
“And that will be…?”
“Soon?”
“That’s helpful.” Odette shook her head and turned to waddle off.
“Where are you going?” Athen demanded.
“Naptime? I think I mentioned it.”
“Ah. I will join you later.”
She didn’t bother to turn around and just waved in his general direction.
Athen waited until Odette was out of view, and then, without the slightest provocation, turned and punched Kave in the face.
Hue wasn’t sure where it came from, but she suddenly found herself letting out a half scream, half war cry and throwing herself down in front of Kave. He might be a liar, but he was her liar.
Her gesture was completely useless, because Kave immediately rolled, covering her instead.
To his credit, Athen looked completely baffled by the whole thing.
“Your new mate, I presume.” He crossed his arms and glared down at them with a skeptical eye.
“She stabbed me!”
“Did you deserve it?”
“I did.”
“Good then.”
With that, he turned and walked towards the HQ building. Kave scrambled to his feet and then lifted her back up. He grinned down at her and then with a quick kiss and a pat on the rump, followed his commander.
“What the hell?” Humility asked to no one in particular.
Meadow sauntered over. “Oh, don’t worry about it. They’re best friends. Athen punches him all the time.”
“Kave’s not in charge.”
“He was, but he’s only second in command. Don’t worry, Odette will still probably let you be the WL, especially since she’s due any second.”
Let her be the WL, the wife liaison, as if it was a position she’d campaigned for. Odette could have it back any time. That was not what interested Humility.
The whole premise of taking this marriage agreement had been based off the promise that her new husband could actually do something about her father’s illness. The Mahdfel had medical technology that was reserved only for the elite and privileged among them.
Humility stalked over to the mess tables and stewed in her own anger. Technically, Kave had never told her he was in charge. In fact, he’d said just the opposite. He had no great house back on their home planet and he had no family either. He had never claimed to be in charge of anything other than the warriors on a small outpost on the fringe of the galaxy. At least that’s where she thought they were. This was definitely the alien version of roughing it in the middle of nowhere. There were no Suhlik to kill and no cities of multicolored aliens bustling about, filled with all the alien technology she’d seen in the vids. In fact, all the women were from the same planet.
So now she’d been sucked into an alien marriage with nothing but mind blowing sex to show for it. Being the WL wasn’t much of a perk either. It entailed listening to all the women complaining about stuff, the little stuff that didn’t really matter, and Humility having to deal with it.
Many of them were from more affluent parts of Earth. Humility expected a tropical paradise to be like a pleasure resort but somehow, she had ended up the concierge.
Humility recognized the signs, the subtle tells in nature of some of the women suggesting they had lived through the worst of the war. For them, this really was a paradise with no starvation, poverty or death. They were slow to accept this new reality as permanent. While things had been a struggle since the invasion for Humility, she had always managed to put food on the table.
As long as Mason’s medical bills remained manageable and Wendy didn’t cave in and fork over much money to her brothers, her sister would be comfortable. For the first time, Humility actually felt a wave of homesickness, not so much a pang for weeding the vegetable garden, or walking in on her brother ransacking the kitchen for cash, but more for the comfort of her sister’s cheerful smile.
Humility pondered for a moment the possibility of bringing Wendy here. She would be safe here but no, that would never work. Even living on Noven 90 where all the warriors were matched, Wendy would not be exempt from the lottery. It would only ensure that she would not find a husband herself but instead, be matched and sent off to some other distant planet. Plus, if her father were left to fend for himself, he’d probably take the quick way out. He still had enough strength to operate the shotgun.
No, Wendy was fine for now.
“Humility!” Bethany, one of the more entitled wives, came charging up in a huff. “They said you were still in charge.”
Hue didn’t ask who “they” was, knowing it was probably Meadow or Jane. She silently cursed them for their loyalty.
“The replicator stopped working. You need to get them to fix it.”
Humility sighed. She knew this was coming. Every warrior had a replicator allotment, which was temporarily increased the first few months that he had a wife. Once she’d settled in and had a chance to build an appropriate wardrobe, his allotment was reduced.
Bethany had been using the replicator as if it were an unlimited charge card with a bill that never came due.
“You’ll have to wait for the next cycle,” Humility told her.
“And when’s that?”
“Two or three weeks, I think.”
“I can’t wait that long.”
“Well, then you can discuss that with your husband or trade another wife for what you need.”
“But-”
On any other day, Humility would have been nice and probably given Bethany something out of her own replicator rations. Having just arrived, she was still on the larger allotment and didn’t use most of it anyway. But today, she wasn’t feeling it.
“Deal with it. You already use more than anybody else.”
“Bitch. I bet Odette will have something to say about this.”
“You step one inch toward Odette or the medical bay and I’ll cut your hair off and hang it from the flagpole.”
Bethany huffed, but when Humility put her hand on the knife holster at her hip, Bethany backed up and strutted in the other direction. Finally, the reputation of stabbing her husband was paying off. Humility heard applause in the background. Standing outside the clinic were Meadow, Jane and Odette. Scrubs looked on disapprovingly, but Humility was certain that look was directed at Odette who was waddling over to her side.
“You definitely have the job,” she told Humility.
“I don’t want the job.”
“If you can tell off Bethany, you’re way better at this than I ever was.”
“I’m having a bad day.”
“Well, I’m having a baby, so that makes us even.”
Scrubs whipped out the scanner. “Not right now, you dolt. Go vaccinate someone or something,” Odette said, waving him off. “I’m gonna go pee and then take a nap, both of which I can do on my own, thank you very much.”