Jailed by Viola Grace

How she had slept through that smell would have to be one of the great mysteries of the universe.
    Nikada came back once the engines were engaged and she was surprised to see them both up and clean. “Well, off to your quarters, Norod. If you can find a way of wedging onto a bunk with her, you are welcome to it.”
    “Would you prefer to sleep alone, Kori?”
    “I have slept alone my entire life. If I am to get used to you, it would be better to do it now while I am adapting to everything.”
    He grinned. “Not romantic, but I will take it. Nikada will need me to fly at some point. So let’s go to bed.”
    He staggered and she leaned, but they managed to work their way to the sleeping quarters and into his room.
    “She calls that a bunk?”
    The bed was large enough for three men Norod’s size. Kori simply climbed into it, transforming her Masuo into a long silk nightgown.
    He stripped off clumsily and eventually crawled between his sheets, looking for her.
    His hand skidded along the silk. “What are you wearing?”
    “A silk gown. Just enough to keep us apart for the night. You need to sleep and I am recovering from whatever that was. We need sleep.”
    He sighed, wrapped his arms around her and nuzzled his lips against her neck. He breathed in and out, and a strange sound and sensation came to her. He was exhausted, but he was purring.
    Kori went to sleep with that sound around her.
     
    The trip back to Wyencar Prime was four days in total. By the time they arrived, Nikada was sick of seeing them together and was very verbal about hardly waiting until the rest of the family took their shots.
     
    Kori stood straight in front of the sixteen members of the Ru family.
    Nikada’s aunt Miri came forward. “Why do you want an alliance with the Ru family?”
    Kori smiled, “I don’t. I want an alliance with Norod, not his family, however, the family comes with him, so it is not a bonus but rather a price I am willing to pay.”
    Miri blinked several times. “You do not wish the riches of the family?”
    “Not really. Money is nice and all, but you can’t take it with you. Family is more important than riches, so as long as I have Norod’s love and Nikada’s friendship, I will be fine.”
    A few of the cousins came at her, insulting her hair, her skin and her height. They circled and sniped, but Kori ignored them. She answered their insults and kept her head high.
    It came down to one thing, “If Norod has no issue with my hair or body, neither should you.”
    That was a fact that could not be argued with.
    After two hours of the worst family gathering she had ever been to, Nikada called a halt. “Enough. She’s not going to break, he’s not going to break and we are done today. She will become a member of the Ru family tomorrow at dawn. I have already filed the documents with the immigration councils.”
    Nikada’s word was final. Everyone subsided and the mood turned from hostile to welcoming.
    Norod came up beside her and put an arm around her as he introduced her formally to his family. She relaxed against him and he tightened his arm. She was still recovering from whatever the doctor had done to her, and her body was both weak and hot at the same time.
    Miri looked at her. “Are you sick?”
    She shook her head. “No. I just went through a genetic rewrite so that Norod and I have a chance at having children. My body was hostile to his seed until now.”
    Respect ran across Miri’s features. “You did that for him?”
    “I did. Why wouldn’t I? On Wyencar, next to touch, family is everything. I would not deprive him of that by not doing what I could.”
    Miri grinned, and Kori could feel her hostility shifting to approval. “You might just be what he has been looking for. The stars know he has been looking long enough.”
    Miri hugged her and Kori hugged back.
    It was the sign that the rest of the family had been waiting for, and Kori was hugged, touched and several of the cousins remarked on the