Delilah and Riley by Melissa Nichols (best sci fi novels of all time TXT) 📕

It felt like a long time before I finally quieted and even after I did, I let Riley hold me still. The truth was, I felt safe in his arms, like he would always protect me and never let anything hurt me. I felt like he could single-handedly take on the whole world, move a mountain with his bare fingers and I liked it. Then I heard myself wish that all that I had threatened back in the clearing wouldn’t happen and I felt like it was wrong for me to blame Riley for what my father did. After all, it isn’t Riley’s fault that we are engaged. He’s as responsible as I am. Unable to change it and had no say from the very beginning. I felt incredibly guilty and I pulled myself closer to lose myself even more in his embrace, but before long he was clearing his throat and pushing me away. Confused, I looked up at him and paused when I saw the hard set of his face and the cold gleam in his eyes.

“I don’t know him. Would you like to see if you recognize him?” He said, his voice as cold as his eyes. I mentally shook my head and nodded, my brain switching gears. Riley led me to the bound and gagged figure cloaked in black in the corner of the room. He turned on a light and my heart sank. There, bound like an animal, was one of my friends. Ya-cove was born a few days before me and our mothers are close friends. We’ve always been told we are cousins because we were to refer to the other’s mother as ‘Aunt’, and we’ve also always known we aren’t cousins by blood. But it still hurt to know that my closest friend had tried to kidnap me.

“Well. Do you know him?” Riley growled, impatient. I nodded. “His name is Jacov, a close friend of the family.”

“Want do you want me to do with him?”

I turned on Riley, shocked. I had expected him to simply throw Jacov out of the window and forget about him without my input. But to ask me what I wanted to do? I had never expected to be asked what I liked about anything.

I turned back to Jacov and thought.

“We’ll ban him from the wedding, dump him in front of Father and let him deal with Jacov. That’s all we can do.”

Riley nodded and picked up Jacov. He shoved Jacov out the window, climbed out and phased. I followed Riley and we ran through the forest together, Riley carrying Jacov in his teeth.

About an hour later, we reached the main house. Riley dropped Jacov and we de-phased. I pounded on the door, decided to hell with it and shoved my way through with Riley on my tail. We marched up the stairs to my parent’s room. I pounded on the door and backed off as the door opened.

“What the hell are you doing back here, Delilah?” Father demanded.

“Jacov tried to kidnap me about two hours ago. We’re banning him from the wedding and we leave the rest up to you.”

Riley deposited Jacov in a chair then we marched out, my skin twitching. I wanted out of that retched place, where so much of my blood had been spilled. Riley followed close behind me all of the way out to the forest, then I followed him back to the motel. When we fell asleep, I was curled against his chest, his arms around me and our hands clenched in the other’s grasp.

Four hours later, the alarm went off. We bolted upright with energy from a sudden bout of adrenaline, then our energy sagged as exhaustion took over. We slammed back on the mattress and Riley reached for the button. “Come on. We have to get up. Got a big day ahead of us.” He groaned, rolling out of bed lazily. Groaning and whining, I followed him to the bathroom, where he let me take a shower. He kept his back to me and eyes closed as I undressed and got behind the curtain. I undid my braid, rinsed my hair and washed my skin all over again, the exact same way I had six hours ago. At my request, Riley stuck a brush though a slip in the curtain. I grabbed it and brushed my hair, working the conditioner and tangles out, then I used my hands to wring the water out and use what gathered in my hand to determine how much more conditioner was left in my hair. When the water came away crystal clear, I turned off the water, wrung my hair out one more time, asked for a couple towels and wrapped one around my hair and the other around my body and stepped out. Immediately, Riley turned and we switched places. I closed my eyes while he undressed and stepped into the shower, then brushed my hair some more, braided it as best I could, then bent over the sink to wash my face, neck, brush my teeth and inspected my body for things I might have missed last night.

Once I was close to sparkling, I left the bathroom to get on a suitable gown to wear until it was time to put on my wedding dress. I chose a simple sapphire blue gown and matching sapphire tiara and earrings. I really liked this color and it seemed darker when my hair was draped over my shoulder, making my ivory pale skin seem as light as my hair. I also slipped on the two inch white heels I would be wearing with the wedding dress and sat on the bed, turning on the TV to laze away the remaining time until Riley finished getting ready. Only once he’s ready to go will we depart since my whole world now revolves around him…in more ways than the romantic implication. Once he says so, I will do something and only when he says.

I found a decent carton about a cat who chases a mouse and always gets so hurt, but turns around and keeps chasing that rodent, fully healed. Despite the stupidity of it, the antics made me laugh and enjoying the clips was enough to keep my head away from today’s events and my near-kidnapping.

When Riley stepped out of the bathroom, he made his way to the closest and pulled out jeans and a T-Shirt.

“Ready to go, Riley?”

“Yeah. You ready?”

“Been ready. What’s the name of this cartoon?” I asked, hoping I could catch some more of it online.

“Uhh…” He said, fixing his belt then leaning over to look. “Tom and Jerry. It’s a classic for kids.”

“It’s funny but it’s also stupid.”

“That’s the point. A classic tale of the cat and mouse but designed to make kids laugh though the mouse’s ingenuity and the cat’s constant pain and misfortune. You’ve really never seen it before?”

“Never. I was always limited to tutorial videos about how to present myself as the princess of the Lune Pack and future Alpha Female of the Domiscuss Pack. I never had time to goof around or even be normal.”

“Well, once we’re married, you can watch any show you want....except for the ones I warn you away from. There are movies out there that no one should see. Okay? That’s a promise.” Riley said, sitting on the bed by my legs. “And the ones you really like we can buy or rent. Though I should introduce you to my favorite knock-off movie. It’s based on the play The Pirates of Penzance. But since you don’t know what genre you like, I should introduce you to several of each to help you understand. But I think you would like the romantic stuff.”

“I think I would, too. But we should get going.” I said, turning off the TV. “Only a few more hours until we’re married and we still have a lot to do.”

Riley nodded and stood, holding out his hand. I grinned, took it and let Riley help me up.

Nine hours later, after everything was in place, all of the flowers counted, strings put up, guests in place, etc…it was time for me to put on my dress and have my hair and makeup done. The whole process took about an hour, with the hair and makeup stylists working at the same time after my dress was on and adjusted. When they left, Mother came in, gave me some last pointers, hugged me and left. Then Father came in, reminded me of my wifely duties to Riley then led me out the door with my hand in the crook of his arm. He also informed me of Jacov’s punishments for attempting to kidnap me and I nodded in approval. He wasn’t put to death, merely confined in solitary in a one-acre corner of the territory for one month with no tools for survival. If he died, it wouldn’t be on our heads and it would make the pack marginally stronger since his genetics would be out of the gene pool, leaving room for the stronger to survive and reproduce. But that’s assuming he died.  If he didn’t, then he would be chastised again for kidnapping me and his life would continue as it had before. But right now wasn’t the time to think about it. Right now, my wedding was taking place and I found myself entering the doorway of the chapel and looking straight at Riley, decked out in a black suit with a sapphire tie. As I walked up the aisle, trying to keep time with the song, my eyes forgot about the many hundreds of people who had gathered, but focused and saw Riley and Riley alone. Then it became so much harder to keep my feet moving to the tempo of the wedding march rather than sprint headlong down the aisle to land in his arms. To help me control the powerful urge, I clamped on harder to Father’s arm and focused on keeping time.

At last, Father and I reached the end of the aisle and Father passed me over to Riley, saying the necessary stuff, but I barely noticed. All I knew was I was so close to becoming Riley’s and his alone that I wanted to jump for joy and throw my arms around him. But I didn’t. I could do that later. Right now, I went with Riley up the remaining steps, our hands joined. As the preacher began his lecture on the joys and responsibilities of marriage, I zoned him out and stared Riley in the eyes, seeing his joy and happiness but also a darker hint of worry. I got so caught up in his sapphire blue eyes and the apprehension I saw that I barely noticed when the preacher said “For as long as you both shall live?”

Without hesitation, I