Assistant for the Alien Prince by Tammy Walsh

Zai

The guests tooktheir seats and the installed cameras were switched on again.

They would provide a vista of the wedding ceremonial hall as the guests milled around and made conversation, buzzing like a cloud of fros on a frantic summer morning.

I was dressed in yet another set of robes—these in the traditional Ev’vat style.

They were plain and ordinary—the same clothes every Ev’vat wore on their wedding day.

It was meant as a way for all Ev’vat to be considered equal before the eyes of the Temple of Onsheggas and the Creator that birthed it and us.

My thoughts, as always, returned to Jessica.

I wondered if I could have done more, if I could have phrased my words differently, if I could have done something that would have made her see reason and want to be with me.

Once the wedding took place, there would be no going back.

No king in Ev’vat history had ever gotten divorced—it was rare enough even among the general population.

“What are you doing out here?” Mom said, standing in the doorway that fed onto the observation deck that looked out on a small lake. “You should be inside!”

“I will in a minute.”

Mom glanced back over her shoulder before stepping outside and shutting the door behind herself.

“Ready for the big day?” she asked cheerily.

“Pretty much,” I said without vigor.

“You should be upbeat and over the moon! Today you get to marry your fated mate! There’s no greater feeling in the world!”

It was something I’d heard many times before, and I always expected to be excited about my Pairing Ceremony, and I had been…

Until a few days ago.

Mom took a seat beside me and took my hands in hers.

“You are my son,” she said. “It’s normal to feel nervous before a big event like this. Your father felt the same way before his Pairing, too.”

“He did?”

Mom nodded.

“He was so nervous he forgot the dance moves for the first two tribe daughters! They insisted he dance with them again as he danced so poorly! Luckily for me, he danced with me next and the rest, as they say, is history. If he hadn’t been so nervous, he never would have gotten his dance moves wrong and he might have thought one of the other daughters was his fated mate and not me.”

I frowned.

“That can’t be right. Even if he got the dance wrong, he wouldn’t have felt anything with them. He only has one fated mate, and that’s you.”

Mom took a deep breath and checked over her shoulder again.

“There’s something about the ceremony you should know. I didn’t want to mention it before because usually it makes no difference and the crown prince chooses his fated mate and everything’s fine. But sometimes, it’s not so easy.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, sometimes the crown prince feels nothing for those he dances with. Sometimes his fated mate isn’t among the daughters he dances with.”

This was news to me.

I’d never heard of a crown prince who hadn’t met his fated mate at his Pairing Ceremony before.

“Who?” I asked.

“Your great-great-grandfather was the most recent.”

“How do you know his wife wasn’t his fated mate?”

“Because he wrote about her in his diaries. At first, he found her unattractive and difficult to have conversations with. But there was a member of his honor guard, a male by the name of Pari, who he hit it off with right from the start… Do you understand what I’m telling you?”

She looked at me pointedly.

“He was gay?” I said incredulously.

“Take a look at his portraits in the palace. Notice how… flamboyant his style of dress was. It didn’t matter, because he was the king, but it still made conceiving an heir difficult. His fated mate was a member of his honor guard. His wife knew that—wives always know these things—and accommodated him. I can’t imagine how difficult that particular conversation must have been for her—especially back in those days.”

I couldn’t believe she hadn’t told me this before.

It might have been pretty damn useful if I’d known before the whole ceremony had kicked off!

“So,” Mom said, “if there’s anything you need to tell me…”

She raised her eyebrows suggestively.

“I’m not gay,” I said, feeling the need to fill the silence.

Her face fell.

“I know that! In your younger days, you sowed your oats more than any of your ancestors—combined! But if there’s something… else you need to discuss with me, you can.”

There was that pointed look on her face again.

The one that told me she knew more than she was letting on.

The one that spoke volumes, if only I had access to the same information.

Did she know about Jessica? I wondered.

Did she know what happened between us while we were away?

I couldn’t see how she could…

Unless Jessica had said something to her?

No, I thought. She would never discuss that with the Queen!

But she might have accidentally dropped a hint that the Queen picked up on.

She was sharp about these kinds of things.

Except, in Mom’s eyes, I saw only the curiosity with which she approached most things in her life, not the knowledge of the truth.

“No,” I said. “There’s nothing I need to discuss.”

She nodded and seemed… disappointed with my response.

“Very well,” she said. “But you have to decide about who will be your fated mate—even if it is only for the ceremony. She will become the new Queen and your wife but that doesn’t mean she must be your soulmate.”

She leaned forward to roll up onto her feet but I spoke before she could leave.

“What if my fated mate isn’t one of the daughters?” I blurted.

“Sure she is. You chose Tus—”

“What if I didn’t feel anything for her? What if I chose her because I can’t be with my real fated mate?”

Her eyes checked mine, flicking from one to the other before gently nodding her head.

“I feared this might be the case.”

I was taken aback by her insight.

“You knew?”

“I know what my son is like. I know the kind of women he likes, the kind who would be best for him. And when I saw her… I admit I was very defensive at the beginning. It isn’t only your happiness on the line today. The people look to you to lead them, to rule over them, and be a guiding star. Then there are the tribe leaders to consider and the sleight they might feel if you don’t follow through with your choice today.”

“I know,” I said sourly.

It was, after all, the biggest issue I had with this whole thing.

Duty or love?

“But there is a third choice,” Mom said as if she could hear my thoughts. “A way to get the best of both worlds.”

“How?”

“By following your heart. Choose your fated mate and to hell with the consequences.”

I couldn’t believe the words coming from her mouth.

She’d always been so dutiful, so tuned in to what the people wanted and to think of them first and foremost and never herself…

I never expected to hear her talk like this.

“But what about the people?” I said.

“The people will understand.”

“The tribe leaders won’t.”

“They won’t matter so long as the people believe you’re really in love. Are you in love?”

I could barely bring myself to look her in the eye for fear I might break down.

“Yes, I am. I’ve loved her since the very first moment I saw her. And when we danced, I saw that spark, that light you spoke about when you danced with father. No one saw it but us.”

Mom clapped her hands over her mouth and her eyes shimmered, reflecting my joy back at me.

“Then you must go to her!” she said. “You must choose her! The road ahead will be bumpy and rough but it will be all the easier with your fated mate at your side. It’s the only way to win.”

“What about Tus and her father?”

“That won’t be easy, but you must tell her. Tell them both.”

Inspired by her words, I got up to leave immediately, but instead of rushing away, I leaned down and kissed her on the forehead.

“Thank you,” I said. “For understanding.”

“It’s love. What’s there to understand?”

She smiled sadly, watching as I left her and approached the door to head back inside.

“I would use another entrance if I were you,” she said. “The cameras are watching this one.”

I did as she suggested and rounded the corner, skipping another three entrances before I came to one with royal guards standing to attention outside.

Initially, they didn’t recognize me and adopted an aggressive gait before they straightened up and hastily saluted.

I weaved through the hallways until I came to the room I was looking for.

I heard hushed, giddy, and excited whispers inside.

I knocked on the door.

It cracked open and the beaming grin of a female Ev’vat faded as she took me in.

“Uh, can I help you, uh, Your Majesty?”

The voices inside the room hushed to silence.

“I’ve come to see Tus,” I said.

“Of… Of course,” the female said, the bells wrapped about her horns chiming as she moved aside to let me enter.

There were at least a dozen “assistants” on hand to help Tus prepare for the ceremony.

She smiled distractedly at me before turning to them.

“Give us a moment, please, girls,” she said with the grace of a true queen-in-waiting.

The assistants couldn’t have moved for the door any faster if they tried.

They got stuck at one point and it took some careful maneuvering for them to finally dislodge themselves and step outside.

The female who’d opened the door for me smiled sheepishly and bowed as she now shut it behind herself.

“Ignore my friends,” Tus said. “They can be a little… rambunctious.”

“They’re friends. Isn’t that their job?”

Tus smiled prettily, got to her feet, and stood with her hands clasped in front of herself.

“What was it you wanted to speak with me about, my prince?”

I don’t want to marry you.

That was what I had come there to say, but how could I deliver it in a way that wouldn’t make her feel any worse than she had to?

“I… was thinking about our Soul Dance performance earlier,” I said.

She turned misty-eyed.

“And?”

“And… did you feel a spark between us? Or see a shard of light that shone brighter than a thousand suns?”

“No… Should I have?”

Yes,I thought. If we were fated mates.

It only occurred to me then that most people didn’t have royal parents, that they would have only seen the external dance take place and not the bright lights my parents described.

They would have seen a pair of dancers, nothing more.

I turned away from her and ran my hand through my hair.

This was harder than I thought it would be…

Then I thought about Jessica sitting in that big, drafty old house on the fringes of nowhere.

And a steely resolve came over me.

If I wanted to be with her, I would need to be honest with Tus.

My shoulders relaxed but I didn’t turn to look at her.

Letting her down was bad enough, I didn’t have to watch her face close in with desperation as I did it.

“We’re not fated mates,” I said slowly.

That was it.

The words were out and there was no way to take them back.

But I realized, I didn’t want to take them back.

I turned around to look at her.

She had a pensive look on her face.

“I know.”

I blinked at that.

“You know?”

“Sure, I know. I hardly know you. With time, we might learn to love each other, but it would never be the lightning-strike fated mates share. I would have been okay with that if…”

Her eyes flicked up to mine and she fell back on her chair and leaned her elbows on her knees.

“If I hadn’t already met my fated mate,” she said.

I knew it!

It had to be the Keyell tribe member I saw staring daggers at me in the ceremonial hall!

He was looking after her hungrily with the same look in his eyes that I did with Jessica.

“I wanted to say the same thing to you,” Tus said. “I wanted to tell my father too but couldn’t bring myself to do it. I’m glad one of us has the courage to make the right decision. I wasn’t sure I could go through with the ceremony either but with so many people watching… How did you find the bravery to do what your heart truly desires?”

“It’s thanks to the wise words of someone very close to me. As tough as things might be in the short term, they’ll be a lot easier to cope with so long as your fated mate is at your side.”

Tus beamed up at me with all her radiating beauty.

She went up onto her tiptoes and pecked me on the cheek.

“Thank you. I won’t forget this.”

“I need to speak with your father and apologize—”

“Leave him to me,” Tus said. “If you speak with him, it’s guaranteed to end in bloodshed for sure. Let me handle him.”

“Are you sure?”

“Trust me. He has a reputation for being ice-cold, and it’s true for the most part, but the one thing that melts his heart more than anything else is his love for me. He was already in two minds about offering me up to the bad boy prince. At least this way, he can believe he was right.”

“He never believed I changed?”

She shook her head.

All that promo work for nothing…

“But he will see, with time, that you have changed. It’s not a bad boy that chooses his fated mate, incurring all this rage.”

It’s not a bad boy that chooses his fated mate…

That made me smile more than anything else.

She was right.

I was no longer the bad boy I’d always been.

I’d chosen love over power, something the younger version of me could never comprehend.

I had changed and now it was time for me to claim my fated mate.

I hurried to the door, stopped, and turned back to Tus.

“Thank you,” I said. “For understanding.”

“What’s there to understand? It’s love.”

A tingle trailed up my spine like the lick of a melting icicle.

It was the second time someone had said that to me this day.

“Go get her,” Tus said.

“I intend to,” I said.

And this time, I wouldn’t leave without her.