by Eve Langlais
“We have to find her. Have you located the vessel that initiated the transport?” It couldn’t have gone far. He’d not been gone that long.
“They are working on it.” Klardivus pointed to the security team, a female he’d never met, dark head bent to her task, the other a slim fellow tapping on a tablet, relaying her softly murmured findings.
“I’ll ready my ship.” Jedrek was ready to leave this instant to rescue Azteriya. He didn’t know who had the gall to raid the Maez home planet, but he knew it wouldn’t go unanswered.
I’ll rescue you, princess. Even if he’d wager by the time he reached her, she’d managed to cause a mutiny and take over the vessel. She was glorious that way. Look at how she’d taken over his heart and life.
“Sir, we found the offending craft, heading rapidly towards the Xevion wormhole.” A shortcut between galaxies that would lead the vessel to a nexus point with a half-dozen more.
Jedrek would have to reach them before they slipped away and he couldn’t track them.
His father slapped him on the back. “Let’s get to the Attlus, boyo. We’ll get your woman back.”
“Sir, hold on, incoming message from the transgressing ship.”
“Play it aloud,” said Klardivus.
“Attention, planet Maezotomia. This is Zuz’eteran Gaw’dessa, known through the galaxy as the Punisher, first rank warrior of the planet Aressotle. Your unlawful detainment of my daughter has ended. At this time, we won’t declare war, but should you engage in pursuit, or otherwise detain us in any fashion, your transgression will meet with the immediate cease of trade between our worlds and the commencement of hostile action.”
In simple terms, if Jedrek went after Azteriya, it would mean war.
But his foster father didn’t care. “Does he dare threaten us? Bah.” The rapier gaze he’d come to know and respect fixed Jedrek. “Say the word, boyo, and we’ll go fetch your woman.”
And start a conflict? One that would pit two warrior planets against each other? Over a woman?
Not just any woman. My princess.
Even he wasn’t so selfish.
He shook his head. “Let her go.”
If she truly wanted him, she would have fought to stay.
And if I truly wanted her, shouldn’t I fight to get her back?
He went looking for the answer at the bottom of a glass of grog. Dozens of them.
Seventeen
A part of Azteriya hoped there would be a reply to her father’s brazen announcement. Some kind of rebuttal—by Jedrek, his grumbling voice declaring, “Hand her over or we will go to war!”
She was disappointed, for the only message her father received was one simply stating, “We have no wish at this time to engage the Kulin in a war over a female no one has claimed.”
And there it was. Jedrek hadn’t claimed her. He had no idea she’d claimed him.
No one knew, not her mother or father. They’d just arrived and taken her.
Now she had to deal with the aftermath.
Mother, her arms crossed over her ample three breasts, had finished her harangue detailing the ways Azteriya was ungrateful, headstrong, and determined to bring shame on their house. The next part was about her future. “Since you’ve satisfied your need for adventure, it is time to return home and do your duty to your people.”
“It wasn’t a need, mother,” Azteriya muttered. “It is what I want. I want to feel as if I’m doing something meaningful with my life.”
“Mating the right male and producing heirs will give you that meaning.”
“No, it gave your life meaning. I am more than just a womb. I am a warrior.” She glared at her mother.
“Why, because you can fight?” Without warning, her mother dove on Azteriya, wrestled her to the ground, and quickly too, and then lay atop her, one arm over her throat. “I can fight too. But that doesn’t make me a warrior. Nor does it mean I can change the laws.”
“Laws can be changed if enough of us demand.”
“Except, those who wish to be like you, to eschew their fate are few, too few to execute a change. And why should your dissatisfaction punish them?”
“Because I’m not happy.” Azteriya shouted the words and felt remorse as her mother actually flinched.
Clambering to her feet, Mother smoothed her skirts and expression. “I see. I did not realize I was such a horrid parent.”
Azteriya tried to apologize. “I didn’t mean it that way.”
“Perhaps not, and yet it’s clear I’ve failed you. Failed this family.” With those words, her mother sailed out of the bridge, leaving her with Father.
Silence reigned for a moment until she said, “Do it. Lecture me.”
“Lecture you about what, following your own destiny? I wouldn’t do that to you. But I will give you a piece of advice. Happiness doesn’t come from fighting.” The statement had her turning to look at her father, who fiddled with the controls of his ship.
“It doesn’t come from making babies either,” she retorted.
“I wouldn’t say that. Making babies is a pleasant thing for both involved.”
“Father!”
A grin caught her by surprise. “There is no shame in the act. Just like there is no shame in admitting the greatest joy I have in my life is my family. Which includes you, my daughter. When I first beheld you, and then cradled you in my arms, I experienced an awe and delight never found at the tip of my sword.”
“That’s easy for you to say. No one’s asking you, though, to stay home to care for that baby. You could leave anytime you wanted.”
“Yes, I can leave, and I miss you and your mother every time I do. The life of a warrior seems glamorous to you now. The adventure and adrenaline. But that’s only because you’ve not experienced the other side of it, the slogging through jungles on a wet planet, where everything wants to drain you dry of your blood, and your only reward is surviving because the employer was killed and there is no payment.”
“I know not everything ends in victory.”
“It can also end in companions being lost. Missing out on important moments in your daughter’s life.”
The frank admission caught her by surprise. “I didn’t think you cared about those things.”
His lips took on a wry tilt. “Because a warrior is taught from the cradle to not care. To never show or admit it.”
“But you’re telling me.”
“Because you still see battle as a glorious affair. It’s not. There are times I wish to retire and never see the inside of a latrine unit in need of repair or shake out my boots so I don’t get bitten by a skorpia.”
“Then why don’t you? We don’t need the credits.”
“But then I’d be with her”—a look shot at the doorway Mother had left through—“every single moment of the day.”
“She’s your mate.”
“She is, and best taken in small doses.” He smiled. “We would kill each other if we spent too much time together. By going on adventures, we both have a chance to miss each other and indulge in those moments we have.”
Azteriya could understand what he said. She and Jedrek were like that. Sparring and butting heads then doing more intimate things.
No more. He was gone now.
“How did you find me?” she asked. She already knew Mother had hacked the message account she’d set up with Dorrys. They probably used that insecure thread to follow her.
“It wasn’t that difficult since I knew where you were. Or did you really think no one would notice you’d jumped on that ship?”
Her eyes rounded. “You knew? And let me go?”
Again, his lips quirked. “It was plain to anyone with eyes you wouldn’t be satisfied until you got the adventure you craved. So I might have enabled your escape.”
“But Mother—”
“Never knew. She’d have eviscerated me otherwise.” Father shuddered, and she giggled.
“Why?”
“Why did I let my daughter
with the fiercest of hearts and bold spirit of adventure go out and fulfill her heart’s desire?” He arched a brow.
“If that was your intent, why fetch me so quickly? I wasn’t done.” What she didn’t admit was her uncertainty she’d ever tire of it. She’d discovered a whole other way of living. How could she go back?
“Your mother is tenacious. Once she found out you were gone, she went on a rampage to locate you. I could only delay so much.”
Azteriya sighed. “I wish you’d waited longer.”
“I take it you didn’t find what you were looking for.”
Oh, she’d found it. Problem was, she couldn’t have it.
More like I can’t have him. That, more than anything, was what depressed her.
Eighteen
Depression sat on him and made everything a chore. In an effort to fight it, Jedrek got drunk. A lot. Over and over.
It didn’t make him feel any better, especially when Zayn arrived, fresh from his honeymoon—known as the Official Creation of an Heir period—and yelled louder than the tapping hammers in his brain could handle.
He winced. “What the fuck, brother?”
“I want to know why you are wallowing.”
“I am not wallowing. I am partaking of the fine wines the local vendors have to offer and increasing their profit margin.”
“You’re getting drunk.”
“So what? What’s it to you? And why are you here? Shouldn’t you be off screwing your new bride?” One of them should be having fun.
“My bride is well pleasured. Probably carrying my heir as we speak, which is why I have time to deal with you.”
“I don’t need to be dealt with.” What Jedrek needed was more wine because his goblet was empty.
“You are being pathetic.”
“Gee, thanks. Want to slap me while you’re tossing around insults?”
Slap.
Jedrek glared at his brother. “I didn’t mean to actually slap me.”
“You need it. You need to wake up, brother. Why do you sulk here and wallow in defeat rather than fetching your mate back?”
“She’s not my mate.”
“Did you not deflower her in the garden of our forefathers under the triple light of the moon?”
“Yes.”
“Then you claimed her.”
Perhaps in the ways of the Maez, but he doubted Azteriya would see it the same way because, if she did think they belonged together, she wouldn’t have fucking left!
Jedrek shrugged. “It doesn’t matter what I want. She’s gone back to her people.”
“The same people she left because they could not provide what she needed.”
“And, apparently, I wasn’t what she needed either or she wouldn’t have gone.” The bitter truth spilled out.
“Perhaps she had no choice. A child’s duty is to obey their father.”
“Without a message to me?” Something, anything that said, Sorry, babe, daddy’s being a jerk. Miss you. Love you.
“So the onus is entirely on her?” Zayn arched a brow. “I did not realize relationships were so one-sided.”
“They’re not.”
“That means you told her that you wished to keep her and bore affection for her.”
“No.” Not exactly. They’d said some things but never had a chance to hash out what it meant.
“If you did not tell her, then how was she supposed to know?”
His bleary eyes glared at his brother. “What the fuck is it with all this relationship advice? This doesn’t sound like you. What the fuck?” Because, in the past, Zayn had an attitude of screw it but run like the wind come morning.
“Blame my human mate. She made me see that sometimes stubbornness can get in the way of true affection. We almost did not become mated because I refused to admit my need for her. Thankfully, I came to my senses, killed everyone in my way, and claimed her.”
“Well, I can’t exactly kill those who took Azteriya considering it’s her family.” Her father’s proclamation had made it clear what would happen if Jedrek made a move.
“Have you learned nothing, brother? If you cannot kill, then you injure them instead.”
“What are you suggesting? That I just go to Aressotle and kidnap her?”
“Now he understands. Did you know that their history annals speak of an ancient tradition where the warriors stole their brides?”
He snorted. “Azteriya would disembowel a man who tried.”
“The question is, would she disembowel you or be glad of your attempt?”
“I’d have to go through her father to find out.”
“The man is a warrior, used to injury. So long as you don’t kill him or maim him for battle, he will admire your tenacity and skill if you make it past him.”
“He’s not the only one I’d have to make it past. We’re talking about infiltrating a planet full of purple warriors.”
“So you bring a team with you. Someone to aid and abet your path to the surface and escape with your prize.”
“Are you volunteering to possibly start a war?”
Zayn’s eyes widened with a false innocence. “Who, me?” He smiled. “They make a splendid foe, and it’s been awhile since we’ve indulged in a planetary skirmish. Our arenas could use some new blood.”
Because the Maez didn’t believe in full-scale wars that decimated planets or cities. The cost of destruction wasn’t worth it. Instead, they resorted to a more civilized method. Champions and tourneys, where the final fighter standing won the war and took the agreed-upon concessions.
“What if she doesn’t want me?”
At the complaint, Zayn cuffed him. “You’re welcome.”
Jedrek glared. “Just because I taught you the expression ‘smack some sense’ doesn’t mean you get to act on it.”
A wide smile said otherwise, which was how Jedrek found himself aboard a ship, not his, it would be recognized, but another that would act as a Trojan horse, an ancient Earth fable that he still remembered decades later.
I am coming for you, princess, whether you like it or not.
Nineteen
“We have a suitor arriving for the evening meal period,” mother announced.
“Don’t you mean victim?” was her father’s gruff murmur.
Azteriya almost laughed, except there was nothing funny about her mother’s determination to marry her off.
Apparently, now that Azteriya had gotten her small adventure—an adventure sorely missed—she should now be ready to settle down with a warrior and spit out babies.
Well, the joke was on Mother because she wouldn’t marry any of those males. “You might want to cancel that meeting,” she told her mother. “Cancel all of them because I highly doubt any of them will want to mate with me.”
“They are willing to overlook your less than conventional attitude.”
“Will they overlook the fact I’m not a virgin?”
At the words, her father took on a grim expression while her mother looked utterly appalled. “You lay with a male?”
“Not just any male, Jedrek.” And she’d not been able to stop thinking about him. Missing him.
“Who is this warrior? I don’t think I know the name.”
“Because he’s not a warrior. He’s a ship captain from Earth.”
“A human?” Mother’s lip curled. “Filthy barbarian. How dare he lay hands on you.”
“He dared because I wanted it.” Azteriya wasn’t about to let her mother malign Jedrek.
“Even worse!” her mother yelled. “You should have killed him for the temerity.”
“Fear not. I shall rectify the matter.” Father eased out his sword and began sharpening it. “I’ll have the ship readied for immediate departure.”
The discussion about killing Jedrek made Azteriya snap. “You will not ready the ship. You will do nothing, do you hear me? I will not have you harm the father of my child.”
The silence was thick enough to cut.
“You’
re pregnant?” Mother asked, her expression as flat as her query. “Are you sure?”
“I am. And before you say another word, I am keeping the babe, and no one is killing Jedrek. As a matter of fact, I am thinking of fetching him that we might raise our child together.” So many revolutionary words in one sentence. It would have felled most mothers.
Not Azteriya’s. Mother’s back straightened, and her eyes took on an icy glint.
Azteriya braced for the harangue.
“You will marry him.”
“You can’t…wait, what?” She fumbled as her mother’s words sank in.
“You will marry him.”
“But he’s human.”
“And? So are the mate’s of Tren and Jaro. Or are you going to tell me they’re not worthy of respect because of their choice in mate?”
“Of course not.” They were this generation’s greatest warriors.
“I think your choice is just what this family needs,” Mother said. “New blood will make your progeny strong. I’ve heard Tren’s child wails loud enough to shake mountains.”
“So you approve?” She was so confused.
“I don’t,” Father grumbled. “Miscreant laid hands on my daughter.”
“Because I made him,” Azteriya retorted. “Do you really think it would have happened otherwise?”
“Still want to kill him.”
“You’ll have to go through me first. But fear not, you shall still possibly get to fight. We must go fetch him from the Maez planet. They might not allow us to take him.” Jedrek himself might balk. They’d never truly discussed a future.
“Start a war?” Father’s expression brightened. “They do have fabulous facilities for battle.”
Mother groaned. “Would it kill you to stay home for a short while instead of haring off to another fight?”
“Yes,” Azteriya and her father answered together. Mother and Father got along best for short periods of time.
“When do we leave?” Azteriya asked.
“When the dawn crests. I’ll have the ship prepared.”
Which meant one more period of sleep before she went after the male she should have never left.