Taking her by the hand, she pulled Lauren down the alleyway toward the busy marketplace beyond.
Chapter Six
“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me,” Rast said, looking down at himself. The black haired warrior named Deep had made him strip down to his skin. Then he’d given Rast nothing to replace his clothes but a furry green kilt-thing to wrap around his waist and green fur boots to match.
Deep raised an eyebrow at him. “You don’t like it?”
“Of course I don’t fucking like it,” Rast growled. “I look like a reject from a Conan movie.”
“Too bad.” Deep clapped in on his bare back. “Because the ceremony’s starting and I promised my female I’d have you dressed and in line in time to participate.”
“What do you mean? What am I supposed to do?”
But Deep was already leading the way out of the changing tent and around the side of the grove of green and purple trees Rast had seen earlier. He felt beyond strange in the weird alien outfit but at least there didn’t seem to be many people in the immediate vicinity to witness his shame.
Taking a deep breath, Rast decided to try and go with it. It pissed him off to no end that he had to change into some strange get-up in order to even talk to Commander Sylvan but he supposed it must be part of the Kindred culture. It was bizarre but he would have done stranger things than wearing a furry green kilt and matching boots in order to solve this case and bring Lauren home safely to her grieving mother.
He followed Deep, who was stalking around the side of the grove of trees purposefully. The warm scent of growing things almost made Rast forget he was inside a spaceship and the artificial green sun hanging overhead beamed down on his bare shoulders in a way that was strangely soothing. Again he was overcome by the oddest feeling. Not déjà vu exactly. More like…homecoming. As though he belonged here somehow. As though—
“Here we are,” Deep hissed, breaking into his musings. “We’re just going to slip in the side here.”
Rast nodded and followed him through a narrow path in the green and purple trees. He felt like he had as a kid, playing Cowboys and Indians, stalking silently through the trees to ambush…
A wedding.
Rast stared blankly at the assembled group of people. Yup, no doubt about it, for some reason he was about to take part in a Kindred wedding. The groom was Commander Sylvan and his best man was Commander Baird. Both of them were dressed in the same fur kilt and boots outfit that Rast was wearing but the bride—one of Lauren’s cousins—was wearing a traditional white lace wedding gown and her bridesmaids were wearing simple pale gold sheaths.
It was obvious what was going on, but not why he was being made to take part in it. “Hey,” he whispered to Deep, who was already pushing him into line beside Commander Baird. “I think there’s been some kind of mistake.”
“No mistake,” Deep growled softly. “Just stand there and shut your mouth. You don’t have to do a damn thing until the luck kiss.”
“The what?”
But Deep had already faded back into the trees, leaving Rast to watch as a beaming Commander Sylvan said his vows to his bride in front of a very stern-looking priestess.
He looked around uncertainly. Should he just stand there and do nothing? He didn’t want to make a scene and, regardless of how strange the situation was, he was a nice enough guy not to want to ruin someone else’s big day. But what was it that the dark Kindred had been saying about a kiss? Was he supposed to kiss someone? And if so, who?
Rast looked speculatively at the two bridesmaids standing across from him. One was Lauren’s other cousin—he recognized her from the conversations they’d had on the viewscreen. The other was a tall, slender girl with long, pale blonde hair that flowed over her shoulders like a golden shawl. She had sharp, clever features and bright blue eyes which were currently fixed directly on him.
Why is she staring at me? Rast thought uneasily. He returned her look, giving her a challenging gaze in return. But instead of dropping her eyes and blushing like most girls would have done, the blonde bridesmaid stared back. A teasing little smile curved the corners of her lush mouth and Rast couldn’t help thinking she had the softest, pinkest looking lips he’d ever seen.
The rest of her wasn’t bad either. She might be slender, but she had curves where it counted. The pale gold dress clung to her lovingly, making it apparent she was all woman. He raised his eyes to her face again and saw her arching an eyebrow at him. Obviously she’d seen him checking her out. Rast felt his cheeks burning—he’d been ogling her like a horny teenager. But he refused to look away. Instead he looked into her eyes, taking their staring contest to the next level.