by Roxie Ray
I sowed that seed as deep inside her as I could with desperation—rough, roguish, animalistic desire. Heat unfurled in my chest like a wildfire engulfing us both.
“Mine.” I claimed her with that word as I panted over her. I wondered what color my eyes were now— blue with lust, or red with these flames I could feel hollowing me out into ash and dust.
“Yours,” she said back to me, smoothing her fingertips over my cheeks. There were tears in her eyes, but they weren’t tears of sadness. The smile on her lips was one of joy.
Mine. She was mine. No matter her husband, her station, her king.
And somehow, I would make it so. Not just in words, but in reality.
I could not lose her. Not now. Not ever.
Not after this.
15
Alora
If it hadn’t been for the wine, the next few weeks would have gone badly. They should have gone badly. There was a rebellion on Lunaria out to get me, unless Ronan’s mothers could get word to Lord Haelian before the next wave of assassins was sent in. A rebellion on Earth threatened not only the life and safety of my only brother, but my position here in the palace as well. Somehow, I had to manage to keep the king happy without sleeping with him, keep the king’s harem happy without making enemies of any of them, and keep my own head together through all of the twists and turns of two planets’ politics as well.
That was what the wine was good for.
Actually, the wine was excellent for that.
Every night when the king called me to his chambers, I poured him glass after glass until his body slumped back on the bed and his eyelids sagged shut.
I became an expert at getting Brixta to rant and rave about this lord and that as he drank. He was suspicious of all of them, especially after the assassination attempt at the wedding feast. As far as I could tell, he had every reason to be. More than once, I’d listened to Brixta slur out his conspiracy theories at night, only to hear the women in the harem confirm those same theories in whispers as I passed them the next morning.
King Brixta did not have the love of his people. He didn’t have the fealty of his lords. Even his guards were beginning to grumble about his uselessness. Under the cover of night, more and more lords and ladies were leaving the palace with every passing day.
I also became an expert at pretending to drink with the king. Every time he insisted that I pour myself a glass, I complied. Of course I did. But when he closed his eyes or turned his head to belch, I always either dumped the contents of my chalice in the king’s own cup, or in the potted plant by his bed. At first, the plant had wiggled and writhed with spiky green tentacles that shot out through the air in search of flying insects. But after the second week of dumping wine into it nearly every night, the plant was becoming a little lethargic and more than a little insistent about having access to its supply. As I left one night, I could have sworn I saw the plant reach out for the decanter and water itself with the sloshing red contents.
As bad as I felt about turning the king’s houseplant into a drunk, though, I couldn’t really feel too bad about the rest of it. For as long as Brixta was too drunk to fuck me, he was too drunk to bother the rest of his harem as well.
As I moved through the halls that morning, each of the harem members I passed offered me a smile and a low bow as I walked by. Gone were the looks of pity, which was a relief. I was certain they suspected what I was doing to the king every night—and that it wasn’t anything carnal in the least, for that matter—but now that the king was always either too drunk to bother anyone or too hungover to remember he had a cock between his legs at all, at least the women he’d forced into joining his collection were having an easier time of things.
There were no more beatings, no more rapes. The king was happiest, as it turned out, when he was too drunk to do anything more than stuff his face or fall asleep, and the harem was happier for it too.
I smiled as I turned down the hall to head toward the gardens. None of this was perfect, no. I didn’t have a perfect marriage and I knew I never would.
But I was doing fine here in the palace on Lunaria. Even if fine just meant rendering a tyrant incapable of tyranny by keeping him too drunk to do anything else… it was something.
It was more than I’d ever been able to manage on Earth.
And even though I didn’t have a perfect marriage here on Lunaria…
I had other things.
“Aah!” I let out a short cry as a hand shot out of an alcove and captured my wrist. The cry was stifled by another hand placed over my mouth. A third hand grabbed my hips from behind, pulling me into the alcove. It held me against the body it belonged to, tall and firm and warm.
A fourth hand reached around me to cup my breast as a searing kiss was pressed against my neck.
“Quiet, my queen.” Ronan’s voice was smooth as velvet, deep as the darkest hours of night. “Unless you would like the whole palace to hear you?”
“Mmphf,” I moaned into Ronan’s hand just before he pulled it away. “If you keep squeezing my breast like that, the whole palace will hear me.”
“You like it, my queen?” My queen. He still called me that, even though I knew at this point, my marriage to the king must have been a punch to Ronan’s gut every time he was reminded of it.
“I do,” I admitted. I closed my eyes and bit my lip as Ronan squeezed my breast even more roughly. He dug his fingertips firmly into the soft flesh of it and used the claw on his thumb to wind circles around my nipple over the fabric of my top. It felt…amazing, actually. But at the same time, my breasts were so tender and sore from all this corset-wearing that it also hurt a little. “But be gentler, will you? I mean it, you know. I will scream if you make me.”
“Promises, promises.” Ronan kissed my neck again, just below my earlobe. “Maybe I would like that, Your Highness. Your sweet voice crying out in ecstasy through the palace halls as I take you here, right beneath your useless husband’s nose.”
“I’m starting to think you actually like making a fool of the king, Ronan.” I arched against him as his hand on my hip moved lower. He cupped my sex with his palm and fingers, giving it the same treatment through my skirt as he was giving my breast. It made heat flare up through my thighs and my belly. It made my breath short and my knees weak.
“Yes,” Ronan purred. “Perhaps I do.”
I whimpered as Ronan squeezed my breast even tighter. In an instant, he pulled his hand away.
“Am I really hurting you, lovely one?”
“Yes. I mean, no.” I leaned back against him and closed my eyes. “It’s hard to explain. I feel so much more sensitive right now than I have in a while. It’s been happening ever since we first…well. You know.”
“Your body has finally been awakened after being denied pleasure for far too long. It knows me now, though.” Ronan’s fangs grazed my neck. My skin rippled with goosebumps as the sharp points of his teeth traveled up to my ear. “It knows my scent. It knows to expect pleasure when I am near.”
“You think so?” I still wasn’t so sure—but then again, sex education in the sectors left a lot to be desired, even when you were the daughter of the president. I’d learned the scientific side of it, of course. I knew what the ovaries were, how periods worked. But beyond that, I’d only really been taught that sex was for marriage and a woman’s virginity was meant for her husband. No one else.
There had only been two rules, and after twenty-five years of waiting, I’d managed to break both of them before my wedding day had even occurred.
Beyond those two rules, I had no idea how any of this was supposed to feel. I’d never had a chance to speak candidly about sex with another woman before. The mother who should have been there to prepare me for what to expect had been dead for years now. My only friends on Earth had disappeared off into their own marriages long ago, and my only friends here on Lunaria were two half-human teenagers and Ronan—who was currently slipping his hand down my skirt.
“My b
ody feels it too, Alora.” As much as I liked it when he called me his queen, I liked hearing my name from his lips even more. “I have been drawn to you since I met you. Now that I have claimed you, and you have claimed me, the pull is becoming impossible to resist.”
I sighed with pleasure as his fingers teased the lips of my pussy beneath the skirt. He ran his fingertips up and down my slit, gathering wetness and spreading it across my clit.
“Is that why you pulled me into this alcove?” I asked with a shudder. “Because you can’t resist me?”
“Yes.” Ronan’s lips smiled against my ear. “And because I have good news.”
“You’ve killed the king and now I get to be yours forever?” That was a joke, and I knew it…but still, it was nice to dream sometimes, especially in times as dire as these.
“If only,” Ronan sighed. “But no. I’ve received word from Lord Haelian’s palace. My mothers were able to reach out to Haelian. They understand now that you are not only not a threat…but that you are mine, as well.”
“Mm. That’s a relief.” I turned my head to the side so I could nuzzle the tip of his nose with the tip of mine. “But what happens when you decide you don’t want me to be yours anymore?”
“That will never happen, vringna.” Ronan turned me around to face him, shifting and repositioning my body with his ever-wandering hands. Now, his fingers were pressed even more firmly against my clit. If they so much as twitched, I knew I’d be gasping in ecstasy in mere seconds. “You do not think that I bedded you simply because you asked me to, do you?”
“I thought that might have something to do with it,” I admitted. All of my moments with Ronan since we’d met had been stolen ones. And given the undeniable attraction between us, there hadn’t exactly been much time to talk about what we really were to each other. “Twenty-five years was a long time to remain a virgin. I imagine twenty-nine was even harder.”
“I would have waited a lifetime for you, Alora. But now that I have you…” Ronan smirked down at me as his fingers finally began rolling my clit in delicious little circles. “No. I will never let you go. If I were to lose you, I think I might die myself.”
“Mm. Good thing we don’t have to worry about assassins anymore, then.” I wound my arms around his neck and laid my cheek against his chest. My hips shifted towards him, matching each of his strokes against my clit. “Fuck, that feels good.”
“It will feel even better when the rebellion finally deposes your husband once and for all,” said Ronan. “I have been down to visit Kali’s and Orion’s parents in the dungeons as well. The prisoners are ready to riot as soon as the rebellion is ready. Soon, we will not have to do this in secret anymore. The king will be dead, and I will be able to claim you as my bride. Mine alone.”
My pussy gushed with honey, with wetness and need. My entire body throbbed eagerly with every beat of my heart and every stroke of Ronan’s fingers against my clit. And when he slipped his fingers lower—
“Ronan.” I pulled back suddenly, blinking as I realized what he’d just said.
“Yes, precious thing?”
“Are you…actively part of the rebellion, then?” I hated to do it, but I took Ronan’s wrist and pulled it out of my skirt. “Because if you are—”
“My mate is married to a baz-terd king who is destroying my society and my planet, Alora.” Ronan spoke slowly. The way he looked at me…it was like he suddenly saw me as a child. “My comrades are imprisoned. My people need retribution.”
“Your people? Ronan, you talk like you think just because you’re fucking me, you’re…king, or something.”
“Perhaps I should be,” Ronan said softly. He sucked each of the fingers that had been toying with my clit just a few moments ago between his lips as he raised another hand to my cheek. “Perhaps I am. It would solve much of this, would it not? You would still be queen, still be mine. Together, no matter what happens on Earth, we would be able to set Lunaria right.”
“Ronan, that’s…” I turned my face away from him. “That’s not how this works.”
“Is it not?” Ronan gestured beyond me. “And this is working so much better for you right now? For us?”
“Kind of?” I took his gesturing hand in mine and pulled it back into the shadows of the alcove. “You heard what Knox said on the night of my wedding. We’re in no position to be choosing sides until we know who will win.”
“A coward’s position.” Now, it was Ronan who was pulling away from me. There was hurt in his eyes. Their color shifted from the dark, lusty blue that I adored to that sad, misty gray that broke my heart. “When we spoke of fate all those weeks ago, you told me destiny was something that had to be acted upon.”
“When the time is right, Ronan! There are still so many pieces in play here, so much at stake—”
“The rebellion is upon us, Alora!” Ronan’s voice was still low, but the way his tone had shifted, it felt like a shout. “The time to choose sides has come. We either claim our destiny, or we lose it. We risk losing each other as well.”
“And you feel that your fate is to become king?” Ronan wouldn’t make a bad king. Quite the opposite, in fact. He was brave. He was noble. He was everything anyone could want in a leader. It wasn’t that. This was just coming out of…well, out of nowhere for me.
“I do,” Ronan said with a solemn nod. He looked so certain. Like it wasn’t just his conviction, but something he’d seen written across the faces of Lunaria’s moons. “When I was stranded on Edon…I discovered things there that Lunaria has long forgotten. The history of my people. The truth of our past.”
“And you think that truth is—”
“Not think, Alora. I know. I saw the bones of my four-armed ancestors in sacred caves on Edon. Holy caves just like the ones we have here on Lunaria. I saw paintings where my forefathers wore crowns.” Ronan gripped my shoulders and arms with all four of his hands. “I saw visions, Alora. I still do, in my dreams. Prophecies.”
“And you believe that they’re real?”
Ronan shifted two of his hands up to my face. “I saw you, Alora. I dreamed of you long before I ever saw your face. When I finally met you in person…you recall it. The way I nearly kissed you when you fell into my arms the first time. I did so because…because in my dreams, I had already kissed you more times than I could count. Because when I dreamed of being crowned king of this planet, you were at my side.”
“That’s…a lot to take in.” I couldn’t meet his eyes. Not now. Not yet. My brain was spinning as it tried to process all of this. On one hand, it seemed like crazy-talk.
On the other, I was the queen of an alien people, standing here being held by an alien man with four arms on a planet so far from Earth that when I was born, our astronomers hadn’t even named it yet.
It sounded crazy, sure. But this whole situation was crazy.
“Please believe me, Alora.” Ronan turned my face up towards his, forcing me to meet his gaze. “Tell me that you believe this. It is the truth.”
“You believe it, Ronan,” I whispered. “If destiny really is just action and faith…that’s all that really matters, isn’t it?”
“Then you will stand beside me in all of this?”
“I…I don’t know.” I took a step back. I had to. Being so close to him like this…it made it way too easy to say yes. “I don’t even know if you love me, Ronan.”
“How can you say that, vringna?” Ronan looked at me like I’d just slipped a knife between his ribs. “After all this time, has that not been clear?”
“I’ve…I’ve hoped for it, yes. But now… Fuck, Ronan. Now, I don’t know if you love me for me, or if you just want me because you dreamed me!” I hugged myself tight and shook my head. “How can you expect me to stand beside you on this if the only reason you want to be with me is because of some…wild hair of destiny?”
“Alora, please—” Ronan begged.
And then, his words were echoed from behind me. “Yes. Alora, please.”
&
nbsp; I turned sharply and stumbled backward into Ronan’s arms. Standing in the entrance of the alcove was a pregnant Lunarian woman with thick, wavy gray hair and intensely yellow eyes.
“Leonix.” Ronan spoke her name before she could introduce herself. “How long have you been standing there?”
“Long enough,” Leonix said dryly. “I must admit, Ronan, this is not how I wished to meet the queen. Or how I wished to speak with you again for the first time in fifteen years, for that matter.”
“This isn’t what it looks like,” I said quickly. I shook Ronan’s hands away from me. “Whatever you heard—”
“Queen Alora. Yes, you are as pretty to look at up close as you were from afar—and as idiotic too, I am dismayed to learn.” Leonix’s eyes shifted back to purple as she regarded me. “I knew the two of you had something from the moment I first saw you together. I would appreciate if you did not insult my intuition by lying to me.”
“She is no idiot, Leonix.” Ronan came to my rescue just in time to make me feel embarrassed about not having a comeback of my own. “There is no need to be unkind to her. She has been hurt by all of this just as much as you have.”
“Has she?” Leonix raised her hand in front of my face—or rather, she raised her wrist. The hand that should have been attached to it was missing. A pale orange scar over the stump took its place. Her other hand moved to her round belly, bared by the gap between her short top and her low-slung harem pants. “I think not. Not yet.”
“I’m sorry,” I breathed. I didn’t know what else to say.
“I do not need your pity, Your Highness.” Leonix hissed the word like a curse. “But sorry—yes, I think you will be soon. Tell me, my queen, how long have the two of you been sneaking around like this—and have you bled this month?”
“I—I don’t—” My mouth gaped open for a moment as I struggled to think about the answer to that question. “Maybe. I’m…I’m not sure.”