by Roxie Ray
Maybe everything Kali and Ronan had told me had just been…a test, or something.
Maybe my handsome, dashing future husband had been here aboard the ship this whole time.
But no—when I turned, I only saw four arms and Ronan’s handsome face standing in the doorway to my bedroom. I hadn’t heard the doors open, which meant Kali must have left them open once again when she left.
“Oh. No, that’s just Ronan.” Admittedly, now that I’d had a chance to think about it, it was kind of a relief that King Brixta wasn’t on the ship. If everything I’d been doing since I got there had been a test, I imagined I would have failed it the second I asked Ronan to wash my body in the bath earlier.
“Apologies, Your Highness. It’s just—”
“My door was open.” I gave him a tired smile of understanding. “I know. Knox…”
“I seem to have made a mistake.” Knox chuckled. “My apologies, Alora. I shouldn’t have assumed.”
“Ronan is my bodyguard,” I explained to Knox. “Not the king.”
“Of course. Well…on that note, I should be going.” Knox laughed again. “Before I put my foot in my mouth any more than I already have.”
“I do not mind,” Ronan said from behind me. “Should I go instead?”
“No, no.” Knox waved Ronan’s words away. “I’ve kept Alora for far too long already. Although…you will call me when you reach Lunaria, won’t you, little troublemaker? Father will want to speak with you as well, I’m sure, but it’s best if you talk to me first.”
“So you can warn me about what kind of mood he’s in?” I guessed.
“Exactly.” Knox gave me a little wave goodbye. “Stay safe, little troublemaker. And get some sleep—I imagine you need it.”
“Goodnight, big troublemaker.”
By the time I hung up the communicator, Ronan was laughing.
“What?” I asked as I put the communicator on my bedside table. “What’s so funny?”
“Big troublemaker. Little troublemaker,” Ronan said, grinning.
“They’re nicknames!”
“They are cute,” said Ronan. “Please do not think I am laughing at you, Your Highness. It is only, I never had siblings of my own. The closest thing I’ve ever had was my comrades in the military…most of whom are either hidden away or locked up now.”
“I’m sorry. Kali said.” I glanced at the open doors at Ronan’s back. “Shortly before she left my room open to intruders again, I guess.”
“She is not accustomed to being a servant, I’m afraid. She’s more used to having them. I will remind her not to do so in the future,” Ronan promised me. He opened his mouth again, and I half expected him to tell me more about these comrades of his, but he seemed to think better of it. “I merely wanted to wish you a good night, my queen. Your brother was right. You have had a long day. You should get some sleep.”
“I’ll try.” I tucked my legs back beneath the covers again. “Catching up on my beauty sleep is about all I have to do here until we get to Lunaria anyway, I guess. Might as well get started now.”
“On the contrary…” Ronan smirked. “You’ll need to be up bright and early tomorrow, Your Highness. I’m telling you to sleep now because you’ll need it.”
“Really? Why?” I couldn’t imagine any use I’d be here on the ship. From what I’d experienced so far, my presence here mostly just made unwanted extra work for everyone else. “I could offer my services in the kitchens, I suppose, but—”
“You. In the kitchens?” Ronan chuckled and shook his head. “No, Your Highness. You’ll need to begin your training. The kitchens will have to wait.”
“My training?” I nearly swallowed my tongue as I looked Ronan up and down. All four of his arms were folded across his chest in a manner so domineering, I couldn’t help but wonder…exactly how did he plan on training me? I could think of a few ways I wouldn’t mind being trained by him—none of which would be approved of by my husband-to-be, I was sure—but if he wanted to give me orders… Well. Looking the way Ronan did, I’d be more than happy to follow them. “What, ah…what kind of training?”
“For the court, Your Highness. We cannot have a queen who does not know how to behave herself in her own palace, can we?”
“No, we most certainly can’t.” I supposed, given all the other lapses in my briefing documents, it wasn’t unheard of to be trained in the ways of the Lunarian court, but…
“Goodnight, my queen.”
“Goodnight, Ronan.”
As I watched him close the doors behind him on his way out, I couldn’t help but imagine exactly the way someone like Ronan might train me.
All four hands moving my body to where he wanted it to go. His lips, intoning commands. His warm orange palms on my shoulders, pushing me to my knees…
But that was silly, of course.
Queens didn’t kneel—and certainly not for men who weren’t their kings.
6
Ronan
Sometimes in my dreams, she spoke to me. Stay strong, my king, she’d tell me, believe in yourself. In me. In us.
Sometimes in my dreams, Alora would kiss my shoulder, and every old ache in my battle-scarred body would relax, just like that. Sometimes, she’d smile at me, and the sun would rise behind her fiery head, rays of light radiating all around her like she’d been crowned by the heavens themselves.
Sometimes in my dreams, we made love.
I knew it wasn’t real. But the way she clung to me as she rode my cock, gasping and moaning in ecstasy…it was too enthralling, too enchanting to deny myself. The slick heat of her sex throbbed around my manhood. When she ran her hands down my chest, the cum in my balls boiled, churned, desperate for release.
I woke with my seed still warm on my stomach. It was incredible that I had any left in me at all. I’d stroked myself to completion once immediately after bathing Alora last night, then again to help myself sleep.
And now, I would have to spend all day with her, knowing that even without touching me, the mere thought of her could make me come even in my dreams.
It was not real, no, but I wanted it to be.
I needed it to be.
My need was not the question, though. The question was, how—and I did not have the answer for that.
Not yet.
I showered and scraped my razor down my cheeks, across my jawline, over the most vulnerable parts of my neck until my skin was smooth to the touch. When I dressed, I chose my finest uniform. It felt like I was preparing myself for my wedding day—or, perhaps, for my own execution.
After the night Alora had unknowingly given me, I wanted to look my best for her today either way.
I waited for Alora in the ship’s training room. Normally, it would be filled with warriors sparring between battles, but today, it would have to suffice for a makeshift ballroom and more.
I paced the room nearly twenty times, round and round, while Kali finished preparing Alora for her lessons today. I had given Kali express instructions to treat this no differently than the day that Alora would be wed.
I knew I could rationalize that if anyone asked, this was not Alora’s culture. Our customs were not hers. Alora needed to know what to expect on her wedding day, from the way her hair would be prepared to how she would walk in her gown. No matter how badly I would have liked to stop it from happening, the more she knew, the better she would be able to handle herself—and for royals, presentation was everything.
But there was another reason, of course. A far more selfish one.
I simply wanted to see her as she would appear on the day of her wedding without the dark cloud of her future husband’s presence marring the total effect.
Kali slipped through the doors of the training room first and closed them behind her. A wry smile played on her lips. She looked exceptionally smug.
“Presenting Alora Rosenvale, first and only daughter of the president of the sectors, Earth.” Kali winked at me as she stepped to the side of the doors. “
I think you’re about to be impressed.”
When the doors opened again, though…
Impressed did not quite express how I felt.
Bewitched was the word. The only possible one. As Alora stepped into the room in an elegant swish of heavy black skirts, she cast more than just a lovely figure. Her spell swirled around me, making my throat tighten and my chest tense.
She was a vision. Even more beautiful, more perfect than she had been in my dreams. Her hair spilled down over her shoulders, not bone straight as it had been when she first arrived, but glossy and thickly waved. A sheer black veil was draped over her head, obscuring her features from me. When she lifted it, her green eyes had no visible kohl around them, but her eyelashes were so dense and dark that it hardly mattered. Her skin was pale and flawless. The only paint she wore was on her lips, a splash of blood-red across them the same color as her hair.
“How do I look?” she asked.
I opened my mouth, then closed it again.
If I let words pass through my lips, I was not sure if I would profess love for her, or simply curse the cruelty of fate for not making her mine.
Instead, I merely hummed with approval and gave her a nod.
“Admittedly, I wasn’t expecting the black.” Alora plucked at her skirts, and I saw a flash of her feet. Bare—no heels to stumble on. Not today. “These are funeral colors on Earth, you know.”
“House Brixta’s colors,” I explained. I didn’t dare let myself speak too much right now. She would have to forgive me for that—looking the way she did, it was easy to be lost for words. “The colors of your own house soon, too.”
“Two weeks, right?” Alora seemed like she was doing her best to appear happy about that, but her facade was not quite as strong as it had been when she arrived. The comments that Kali and I had made on the actions and temperament of her husband might have been getting to her.
I wished I could say I was sorry about that, but I was not.
If she truly intended to go through with this marriage, she would have to learn what she was getting herself into sooner or later.
A terrible thought brought a smile to my lips.
Perhaps if she learned enough now, she would change her mind.
“What color do they wear on Earth?” I asked. “Many of the other human brides I have met insisted on white.”
“White is traditional, yes.” Alora glanced at Kali. “Is that the color your mother wore?”
“I’m not sure,” said Kali. “I was still in the womb at that point.”
“Is that…common, on Lunaria?” Alora’s face went a shade paler. I could imagine what she was thinking—fearing: that perhaps King Brixta would attempt to mate with her before their wedding night.
It was a reasonable fear. When she met him, I suspected she would begin to fear mating with him at all.
“It is not,” I said. Hopefully, it would be at least a little reassuring. “Kali’s parents were an unusual case. They fell in love when Bria was supposed to be sent back to Earth, and, ah…”
“They had sex before marriage.” Kali rolled her eyes. “I guess some people just can’t wait.”
Kali’s gaze slipped toward the door as Orion entered. Her cheeks went a shade darker as their eyes met, and she could not contain her grin.
“But waiting is customary,” I said firmly—more for Kali’s benefit this time than Alora’s. “It would be very unwise not to wait in the current political climate, especially.”
“Yeah, yeah.” Kali rolled her eyes again, blushing harder. “I know, I know.”
“It’s customary to wait on Earth, too. Not everyone does, of course…but we’re, ah, very patriarchal.” Alora gave Kali a kind smile. “The woman vows to love, respect, obey, and bear children for her husband—then, the marriage is consummated.”
I regarded Alora with an amused interest. Could she see Kali and Orion’s attraction toward each other as well, I wondered? In the moment, it felt as if we were both warning Kali of the same thing.
Rather like parents, now that I thought about it.
I should not have, but the thought made me smile as well.
“What does the man vow?” Kali asked. “Does he promise to respect and obey too?”
“Ah…no.” Alora cringed. It made her nose wrinkle adorably. “The man vows to protect his wife. Not much more.”
“You will find Lunarian vows to be familiar, then,” I told her. “Some couples write their own, but in your case, they will be largely the same.”
I did not add that the protect bit would be mostly just for show on King Brixta’s part. Alora would be assigned new guards when we arrived on Lunaria. It would be their place to protect her, not his.
I was not sure that King Brixta knew how to protect much other than his goblet of wine and whatever food was on his plate at one of his numerous feasts.
“Should we start my, ah…training, then?” Alora looked at me expectantly. It was hard to tell whether she was excited or nervous—maybe a little of both.
I nodded to Kali and Orion. “Yes. We should begin.”
Kali moved behind Alora and lifted her train up off the floor while Orion positioned himself across the room, hands clasped solemnly over his lap.
“What exactly are we training for today?” Alora asked. “The wedding, I suppose?”
“We are. When you hear the music begin—” I nodded to Orion, who dutifully began humming a rather jaunty version of the Lunarian royal wedding march— “You will pass through the doors of the throne room and slowly approach the king.”
“And where will the king stand?” Alora asked.
“Just before the officiant.” I nodded to Orion. “In this case, Orion will play that part.”
Alora nodded and took a step forward…then stopped and looked at me again.
“I think I might need someone to play the groom.” She smiled at me. “You know. For the visual effect.”
“Of course,” I said slowly. “For the…visual effect.”
This was wrong. It was a thought that was crossing my mind more and more frequently these days. Particularly where Alora was involved.
In fact, only where Alora was involved.
In my dreams, she was mine—but those were just dreams until I found some way to make them reality.
Until then, in reality, she belonged to him.
Nonetheless, I moved to stand in the groom’s place as she had asked. Satisfied, Alora began moving forward again.
Toward me.
She took a step, and I recalled how smooth her skin had been beneath my hands last night as I washed her. Supple, firm. Moons, how she had responded to my touch.
She took a step, and the vision from my dreams spun through my mind once more. Alora on top of me, her breasts bouncing, hips shifting sensually as a low moan of pleasure left her throat.
She took a step, and I saw my whole future coming to me.
At the same time, I saw my whole future walking away if I could not find some way to prevent this wedding from coming to fruition.
“Now what?” Alora turned as she stood before me. Her smile had not yet left her lips. It stunned me. How could she still smile, knowing that the next time she walked toward a male while wearing this dress, it would be the wrong one?
I swallowed hard.
Perhaps that was the problem.
From my dreams, I could be so certain that she belonged to me. But for her…perhaps she could not yet feel this undeniable connection that I so clearly felt.
“You will say your vows, then—” I began.
“To love and obey?”
“And to bear cubs,” I reminded her. “That is an important part.”
“Let’s run through them, then.” Alora looked to Orion. “What do I say?”
“You should take each other’s hands first.” There was a devious glimmer in Orion’s eyes as he glanced between us. Behind Alora, Kali snickered.
“Okay.” Alora held her hands out to me. I took them
gently into my own and marveled at the softness of her skin once more. Smooth as silk warmed in the sunshine. “Then?”
Orion fed us the vows, turn for turn. My mind was not on the words as I spoke King Brixta’s part, though. My tongue moved of its own volition, like a ship on autopilot.
These were not my vows, I knew. Were I to wed Alora, I had so much more to promise her than simply my protection.
I would offer her my love, my respect, my devotion too—the same that, in Alora’s vows, she offered to me.
Just in the way that, in a few weeks, she would be forced to offer to him.
My thoughts were miles away from those words in that moment, though. I could not stop staring into Alora’s eyes, pools of bright green that were so easy to get lost in, even when I didn’t mean to.
“May your union be blessed with many cubs.” Orion made a broad, sweeping gesture with his hands when we were done. “Kiss your mate, my king, and be merry. Hail Lunaria.”
Alora laughed. “So…this would be the point where we kiss, then.”
I licked my lips. My mouth was suddenly very dry. “Yes. I suppose it would be.”
“Should we…” Alora stared up at me for a moment, then blinked and blushed. “I mean, of course not. How silly.”
“Perfectly ridiculous,” I agreed, though every cell in my body was shouting at me to pull Alora against me and claim that kiss anyway.
“So…” Alora looked to the side and hugged herself. “What will happen after the, ah…the kiss?”
“The warriors present will swear their oaths to you, then…”
“The bedding,” Kali and Orion said simultaneously.
“Oh.” Alora was looking more and more uncomfortable with every passing second. “Well. At least we don’t have to practice that.” She glanced up at me tentatively. “Unless…”
Yes! My body roared, even as my lips said, “No. Of course not. That would not be my place.”
“In that case…what will you train me in next? Dancing, maybe?” Alora suggested.
“Nothing quite like dancing to bring people together, is there?” a cold voice called out from behind us.