Enemy of the Alien Bride Lottery by Margo Collins (sight word readers TXT) 📕

and that she was not married—truly married—according to human law.

Satisfied with my day’s work, I keyed in the code to log out of the secret system.

Deandra wasn’t going anywhere anytime soon.

That gave me time to figure out how to convince Vos Klavoii to put us both in the Bride Lottery so I could choose Deandra as my mate.

Over the next several Earth months, I kept a watch on the proceedings in Deandra’s case.

Earth legal systems confused me, what with their variations among regions and endless motions and appeals. Khanavai justice tended to move much more swiftly—and was more likely to be lethal.

Then again, we tended not to prosecute things that had been resolved.

Under Khanavai law, the fact that Amelia Rivers had been apprehended and was now happily mated to Zont meant that everything had turned out favorably. With that kind of outcome, no one needed to be prosecuted at all. Which was, of course, why Amelia faced no repercussions from her actions.

On Earth, however, the authorities apparently remained infuriated that the Bride Alliance between our two planets had been endangered. If they could have charged Amelia with a crime, I feel certain that would have. But since she had diplomatic immunity as the mate of a Khanavai warrior—the brand-new Khanavai Ambassador to Earth, no less—the Earther authorities had chosen to go after Deandra instead.

Her prosecution was big news, too. The most popular vid stations played endless stories of her ongoing legal troubles. The day the news hit about her fraudulent marriage, vid drones caught an image of her walking into some official-looking building with her human attorney.

My heart clenched when I saw that clip. Even mediated through technology, everything about her called to me, even though she appeared worn and haggard, anxiety drawing her skin tight across her beautiful features.

I hated that I had done that to her.

That afternoon, I put in a vid-call to Zont. He was back on Earth, setting up the new permanent Khanavai Embassy that he had been tapped to run.

I jumped immediately into the issue at hand without bothering with pleasantries. “Is there anything we can do to help Deandra Casto?”

Zont sighed and ran a hot-pink hand through his dark hair. “Amelia has been on me like a Lorishi sand-gnat to do something about, as well,” he admitted, his tone more than a little rueful. “But Dee endangered the Bride Alliance. The Earthers want to make an example out of her. The most I’ve been able to do is get the prosecutor to agree to request a reduced sentence if she is found guilty.” He twisted his lips in an almost helpless expression. “The news that she engaged in a fake marriage to avoid the Bride Lottery isn’t doing her case any good.”

Acid regret bubbled up in my stomach. I hadn’t thought through the repercussions of reporting her fraud.

I only wanted to keep her safe. For myself.

I hadn’t thought about what that might mean for her.

She’s alone and probably afraid. How unbelievably selfish of me.

“Why do you ask?” Zont tilted his head to one side curiously. “Wait. You talked to her as we were boarding the shuttle, didn’t you?”

“Only briefly. Just trying to figure out who she was.”

“Did she say anything interesting?”

“Not particularly. She told me she had helped Amelia as your mate was trying to save you.”

“I’ll pass along that information to the prosecutor. It might make the human jury more sympathetic to her.”

Zont’s plan backfired, however. Instead of using the information that Deandra had tried to help Amelia save Zont, the prosecutor called me to testify that Deandra had admitted to aiding Amelia in her flight from the Bride Lottery.

It was all done via vid, so I couldn’t even watch Deandra’s face as I repeated her words to me.

I saw it in the replays, however. The whole time I spoke, Deandra sat at the defendant’s table, glaring at my face on the screen in the courtroom, her beautiful body tight with anger. As I sat in my quarters on Station 21 replaying the vid loop over and over, I was certain I saw true hatred in her eyes.

That was twice now that I had interfered in her case.

It wasn’t turning out at all as I hoped.

I was beginning to suspect that I had made convincing her to become my mate—assuming I could even find a way to get her up to Station 21 and entered into the Bride Games—much more difficult than I had thought it would be.

Chapter Five

Dee

Three months in a federal penitentiary.

That’s how long the jury gave me.

Plus ten years’ probation.

My attorney told me it was a good deal, that I should be glad it hadn’t been worse.

And it almost had been. He had encouraged me to take a plea deal, to accept two years in the same prison. But I hadn’t been willing to do that.

I suppose I was lucky. Many of Earth’s governments were howling for my blood. Having the Alveron Horde show up on our planet—not to mention the attack on Station 21 that had occurred almost immediately afterward—had been a visceral reminder of how much we needed the Khanavai.

But I found support from some unexpected quarters, too.

Apparently, there were plenty of humans who thought sending our women off to pay for our planet’s safety was a barbaric practice.

And in the end, doing my time ended up not being all that hard. In order to protect me from anyone who thought I should die for endangering the Bride Alliance, I was given my own cell.

I was practically a celebrity in prison among the women who despised the idea of the Bride Lottery. After all, it was entirely possible to get out of most legal trouble by agreeing to have your name dropped in the lottery multiple times.

And that was the worst part of my sentence. To appease all those who thought I should face a harsher punishment, the judge had added one stipulation. My marriage to Samuel had been dissolved, annulled. And for every year