Married to Krampus - Marina Simcoe Page 0,39

I asked impatiently, doing my best to ignore the stares of the fathers and the staff alike.

As one of a handful of women under the dome and the only human, I attracted a lot of attention. The ogling would make me uncomfortable had it not been for the anticipation of meeting the two little guys soon. It kept my focus off the crowd and their scrutiny.

“Soon.” The Colonel patted my arm in a calming gesture. “They have a number of protocols to follow before the children can be released.” He shifted his weight to his other hoof. “May I request something from you?”

“Sure. What is it?” I glanced at him.

His expression, even more serious than usual, made me pause.

“I prefer not to introduce you to my children as my wife,” he said. “I don’t want them to know that we’re married.”

I had no plans to tell them that anyway, of course, but something inside me deflated at his request. As if a piece of my excitement had chipped away with this reminder of how things really were between us.

“But wouldn’t the children know that already?” The entire country knew.

“According to the rules of The Ministry of Children’s Education and Wellbeing, all family news is to be delivered to students by close family members, unless instructed otherwise.”

“And you have never told them?” It’d been months since he’d learned about me.

“No. I wanted to meet you in person first.”

I didn’t blame him for wanting to protect his children.

“Do they know that I’m here, at all?”

“No. I was going to tell them later, after—” He stopped himself. “Well, after you would’ve settled.”

But I hadn’t. I hadn’t settled into my role of his wife and his children’s stepmom as the whole world had expected me to do. At this point, I wasn’t even their nanny. As far as the children would ever know, I was a nobody—a random visitor from another planet, who would be gone from their lives by the time of their dad’s next visit here.

All of it felt so excruciatingly sad.

Yes, my husband was...difficult at times. Not counting that initial burst of lust, the only feelings he’d expressed toward me had been those of duty and obligation. This marriage was nothing more than a status symbol to him and empty misguided hopes for me. But I wondered what would’ve happened had we tried hard enough to make it work.

Right now, it felt like we hadn’t tried at all.

“It’s fine,” I said to him. “I understand. You have nothing to worry about. I’m just visiting here.”

He watched me carefully for another moment, then opened his mouth as if about to say something.

The wide sliding doors on the opposite end of the dome finally opened, and several columns of little Voranians marched out. Arranged by height, from the shortest to the tallest, a few hundred children filled the grassy space under the dome.

Walking in sync, they maintained perfect order, like a true military parade. Until about halfway through. Once the kids started spotting their dads in the crowd of parents, the rows and columns wavered then broke apart.

“Dad! Daddy!” seemed to come from everywhere at once, as children ran to their parents.

“There they are!” The Colonel grinned, stepping forward then taking off in a jog toward the approaching children.

Two little fur balls in gray uniforms separated from the crowd, dashing his way.

“Daddy!”

He caught them, each in one arm, then took them for a spin a few times. Their little arms wrapped around his thick neck, they giggled and covered his face with kisses.

My heart melted and ached at seeing them together like that, and I pressed my hands to my chest, struggling to hold it together.

“I’ve brought someone who wants to meet you.” He set the boys down on the ground, tilting his horns my way.

The kids let go of him, staring at me with two pairs of wide-open eyes.

“What’s this?” one asked, taking a tentative step my way.

“Not what! Olvar, where are your manners?” The Colonel looked mortified, and I laughed.

“My name is Daisy.” I crouched down to bring myself to their eye level.

“Are you a girl?” The other one shifted hoof to hoof next to his brother. Their little uniforms were almost identical to that of their father, gray with gold-and-red trim. Instead of his impressive epaulettes, however, they had narrow stripes of gold on their shoulders.

“A woman,” the Colonel corrected. “And I demand you two treat Daisy with respect.”

“Yes, father,” they said in unison.

Being an identical copy of each other,