Total pages in book: 127
Estimated words: 121146 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 606(@200wpm)___ 485(@250wpm)___ 404(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 121146 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 606(@200wpm)___ 485(@250wpm)___ 404(@300wpm)
“I do! I do!” Now Peter was watching the clock as well. It was only a few minutes until one, Celia saw, glancing up at it herself.
“Very good.” The priest nodded. “And do you, Celia Marie Alvarez take this man, Peter Frederick Thielgood the Third to be your lawfully wedded husband?”
“I do not!” Celia exclaimed, before he could go on. She turned to Peter again. “It all makes sense now—the whirlwind courtship, your rush to get married. It was all for the money!”
“Cece, please! Be reasonable!” Peter exclaimed.
“I am being reasonable—for the first time since you ‘swept me off my feet,’” Celia exclaimed. “The minute you met me all you saw was a gullible, stupid woman who was willing to sign that draconian Prenup saying I wouldn’t get a single cent when you divorced me—which I know you’re planning to do in exactly a year!”
“I never said that! That was Mother’s idea!” Peter denied. “Cece, please—just say ‘I do’ and we can work all this out. We’ll draw up a whole new contract—you can have whatever you want!”
“What I want, you can’t give me.” Celia took a step away from him. “And don’t call me ‘Cece’—I’ve always hated that nickname!” she snapped.
She turned and marched down the aisle with Hold and Fierce behind her, ignoring all the shocked faces in the pews on either side.
“Where is she going?” Mother Frances shrieked. “She mustn’t get away! It’s nearly one—we don’t have time to find another bride. Get her! Bring her back!”
All of Peter’s groomsmen—mainly his brothers-in-law—came running down the aisle. But they stopped short when Hold and Fierce turned to face them.
“The lady won’t be getting married today,” Hold said politely but firmly.
Fierce was more direct.
“Fuck off!” he growled. “You lay a finger on Celia and I’ll fucking break it for you!”
The sight of two seven-foot-tall, muscular alien warriors seemed to put off Peter’s groomsmen. They all worked out and were in reasonable shape, but none of them was anywhere near as big and strong as the Twin Kindred.
“Get her! What are you waiting for! Don’t let her go!” Peter’s mother kept shrieking but the groomsmen fell back, eyeing Fierce and Hold warily.
“Come on, my lady,” Hold said to Celia. “Let’s leave this place.”
“Yes—let’s get the fuck out of here,” Fierce growled.
“Coming,” Celia told them and the three of them hurried down the aisle amid shocked gasps as the guests watched them go.
As the chapel door banged shut behind them, Celia could hear her former-future-Mother-in-Law wailing,
“It’s past one now—it’s too late! Too late!”
Good, Celia thought to herself. I hope whatever homeless charity the money goes to gets everything!
Peter and his horrible family didn’t deserve a cent as far as she was concerned and she was glad to leave them behind forever.
55
CELIA
They made it outside the chapel and down onto the sidewalk outside the church when Celia stopped short. In the excitement and confusion of leaving Peter at the altar, she’d forgotten something important.
“The ship is this way, my lady. My lady?” Hold stopped, turning to see what was wrong.
Fierce stopped too.
“Lelka—what is it?” he asked, his dark brows drawn low in a worried expression.
“I…I can’t be with you—either of you,” Celia told them. The words hurt coming out, but she knew they were true. “I’m sorry but there’s something you should know. I should have told you in my note, but—”
“Celia, we know,” Hold said gently.
“We know,” Fierce echoed. He shoved a hand in his pocket and brought out a limp, wilted pink flower.
“You’re pregnant and it’s a girl,” Hold said.
“And before you ask, yes we know it’s not our baby,” Fierce went on. “And we don’t fucking care!”
“You don’t?” Celia stared at him distrustfully. “After everything you said about me having another man’s baby and—”
“I know what I said was stupid and wrong.” Fierce dropped suddenly to his knees before her, right there on the sidewalk. “Please, Celia—I was an idiot.” His voice was low and earnest—hoarse with emotion. “Please forgive me and come back to the Mother Ship with us. We can’t fucking lose you again!”
Celia stared at them uncertainly.
“I’m not giving this baby up,” she said, putting a hand over her lower belly protectively. “I don’t care who the father is, she’s mine and I’m going to raise her with love and caring.”
“And all we ask is to be allowed to raise her with you.” Hold took a step towards her and put out a hand pleadingly. “Please, my lady—you have my word we’ll treat her like our own.”
“We’ll love her like our own!” Fierce swore. “Twin Kindred almost never get to have daughters—more than any other branch of the Kindred family tree, we almost always produce sons.”
“You know what reverence we have for females,” Hold went on, taking up his brother’s narrative. “Having a daughter to raise is considered a great blessing on a Twin Kindred household. A gift from the Goddess herself!”