by Tamsin Ley
The woman gripped the edge and stared down into the green fluid. “Arazhi, you need to wake up.”
Georgie’s brows drew together. Had her eyes been playing tricks on her? Maybe she had a concussion. Or perhaps Arazhi was somehow concealed in the blue layer at the bottom. “Is Arazhi in that one?”
The woman’s head jerked up, her gaze instantly shrewd. “You must be Georgie.”
“Yes.” The woman’s posture and tone made Georgie want to take a step back. Who was this person, and why did she seem so hostile? A vague memory of the photos Arazhi’d had on his ship popped to mind—a blue-haired woman wearing a crown of interwoven diamonds. “Are you his mother?”
Gaze flicking over Georgie’s body as if judging and finding her lacking, the woman said, “I am Empress Vella.”
Realizing she was standing face-to-face with the empress of the entire frickin’ galaxy, Georgie attempted an awkward curtsy. Then she felt silly. Did aliens even curtsy to royalty? “A pleasure to meet you, your highness. Is that the correct title?”
“I have no time for titles.” Empress Vella turned back to the tub. “Leave us.”
Indignation prickled along Georgie’s spine. She understood a mother’s concern, but Arazhi was important to her. “I was in the accident with him. I need to know he’s all right, then I’ll go.”
Still facing away, Empress Vella’s shoulders remained rigid. “He’ll be fine. But he almost died because of you.”
“Me?” Georgie put a hand against her chest. Where was this woman’s anger coming from? “I didn’t cause that crash.”
“Not directly, but it was aimed at you.” With a glance over her shoulder, the empress all but threw daggers from her eyes.
Georgie sucked in a breath. “Why would anyone want to kill me?”
“Because they think you’re going to bear Arazhi’s heir.” Empress Vella turned to face her. “It would be one thing if you were, but you can’t. He could’ve died protecting you, and you can’t even give him the one thing he needs.”
Nausea rolled up Georgie’s throat. “We don’t know that yet. He says the healers can probably fix me.”
The woman’s indigo lips pursed. “I just spoke to the healers. They say they can’t.”
The room seemed to tilt, and Georgie caught herself with one hand against the stool. Guess there’s no such thing as HIPAA when it comes to alien doctors. “Did they say why?”
Empress Vella crossed her arms. “Only that you aren’t compatible or you’d be pregnant already.”
Hating the hope Arazhi had created inside her, she said, “That’s not fair. Arazhi and I have only known each other a few days.”
The woman crossed her arms. “Do you know where we got most of our data about humans? From females who were abducted by black market traders to become breeders. We rescued them from slavery, but all the humans on board that ship who’d been pleasured by Kirenai had already conceived. It seems that humans are uniquely receptive to Kirenai insemination.” Arazhi’s mother stepped closer. “Or they’re not.”
The woman’s words snapped Georgie’s tenuous hope, sending pain crashing into her like a ten-thousand-pound steel beam. She couldn’t breathe. This was exactly what she’d feared when Arazhi’d suggested they try to let the healers fix her.
Ripples shuddered across the surface of the green fluid behind the empress. The surface parted, and Arazhi’s face appeared. His eyes remained closed, but his lips moved. “Damma, stop.”
Empress Vella didn’t even look in his direction. “You can’t protect her, Arazhi. She deserves to know what will happen.” She moved forward again until she stood an arm’s length away from Georgie. “You have more than your own future to consider. Remember the slaves I mentioned? If my son fails to produce an heir, our enemies will seize control of the galaxy, and the first thing they’ll do is force every fertile female on your planet to become a breeder. A slave.”
Cold shock crashed into Georgie. Then she remembered the auction, and her shock turned to anger. “Isn’t that what your son already tried to do at my auction?”
This time Arazhi spoke, his face still the only part of him showing. “That was a misunderstanding. A bondservant willingly enters a contract, and I relinquished my claim to you when you clarified our terms.”
“Our enemies make no such contracts,” Empress Vella added. “They take what they want by force. That’s why an heir is so critical. You have to let my son choose another and fulfill his destiny.”
Georgie realized she was shaking her head in denial and stopped. Over the past few days, her feelings had grown for Arazhi. Grown into something she wasn’t sure she was ready to admit. And his insistence that he wanted her regardless of whether or not she could bear children had almost broken down her resistance. She wanted to be his wife. To learn to love him and spend the rest of her life at his side. But if Earth’s future was really at stake, it changed everything. How had she suddenly become responsible for the fate of the galaxy?
Arazhi said softly, “Damma, she is my destiny. My form has settled.”
The empress’s alabaster skin flushed pink, and she spun to look into the tub. “You already bonded with her?”
“All but the final step.”
What was he talking about? What final step? And why could she only see his face? Although he’d told Georgie that his people were shapeshifters, she’d never had a chance to ask what his real form looked like. Now he was claiming to have settled. Did that mean she’d never get to see his true shape? She stepped closer to the tub to peer into the green liquid. But although the face at the surface was Arazhi’s, the body connected to it didn’t look like a body at all. It looked like a lump of blue modeling clay.
Georgie took a step back, uncertainty roiling in her gut. “What happened to your body? Did the accident cause this?”
His eyes opened for the first time, seeking her out. “This wasn’t how I wanted to introduce you to my resting state.”
“Resting state? You mean this is your Kirenai form?” She took another backward step. “Are you going to look like this from now on?”
“No. Once I’m recovered, I’ll be as you saw me before. As you prefer.” The surface of the liquid sloshed against the sides as if he was moving beneath it.
The anxiety that had been crawling up her throat subsided, but only a fraction. Seeing him as a disembodied head was disturbing. She took another step backward until she could no longer see anything but his face.
Empress Vella spoke in a low voice, less angry and more desperate. “I understand you must bond with her. But before you do, you must sire a child with another. There are other females in the palace who’d be willing surrogates.”
“I’ll find no pleasure in another,” Arazhi growled, the liquid sloshing more violently. “Georgie, please don’t go.”
“You’re not doing it for your pleasure,” the empress insisted. “You’re doing it for the fate of the galaxy.”
“Empress Vella.” The familiar, raspy voice made Georgie jump. At the doorway stood one of the healers, small pink tail twitching rapidly back and forth. “The emperor has urgent need of you.”
The empress’s eyes widened. “I’m coming.” She cast a final glance at Arazhi. “You know what you must do.”
Then she stormed out without another glance at Georgie.
Georgie stood frozen for several heartbeats, uncertain. Half of her wanted to flee, to leave Arazhi to make his own decisions. The other half wanted to rush to the tub to be near the man—alien—who claimed to love her.
“Will you please come closer, kikajiru?” Arazhi asked. “I want to see you. I worried I wouldn’t be able to protect you from the fall. Are you all right?”
Slowly, she approached, the final moments of that fall now making sense. Arazhi’s arms around her. The sudden sensation of being encased in something. He’d literally enveloped her with his own body, taking all of the impact to protect her. “Thank you for saving me.”
“You’
re my mate.” The blue figure under the liquid now had a semblance of arms and legs, although it certainly wasn’t the body she remembered. “I need a little more time in the regen fluid, but I’ll soon look the way you want me to. I promise.”
She smiled, surprised she wasn’t more put off by his current appearance. “Hey, I’m no princess first thing in the morning either.”
“I like how you look in the morning.” He grinned.
Her smile slipped. “Why didn’t you tell me about the human slaves?”
“I meant to. It just hadn’t come up yet. I’ll take you to see them as soon as I can get out of this pod.”
“Wait. They’re still here? On Kirenai Prime?” She frowned. “I thought your mother said they’d been freed.”
“They are free, but we set up a community here on Kirenai Prime where they can raise their children. Kirenai don’t do well raised without their own kind to teach them.”
She gulped and looked at his body once more. “Are the babies shapeshifters from birth?”
“They’re born looking like their mother’s species, but the males will fall in and out of a resting state soon after birth. It takes them time to develop the ability to shift to other forms.”
She’d be terrified if her baby suddenly melted to blue slime in her arms. “That must’ve been quite a shock to those women.”
“Yes. But humans appear to be wonderfully resilient.” He grew more somber. “I’m sorry the healers didn’t have the answer we wanted.”
She nodded and looked at the floor, trying to sort through her emotions. “Me too. But at least we can use a surrogate.”
“Kikajiru, are you certain you’re okay with that?” His voice had taken on a rough edge.
She shrugged, still not looking at him. She didn’t want him to see her disappointment. “It’s not like you’re going to sleep with her or anything. I can love your baby as my own.”
He remained silent.
She dragged her gaze back to his face. His pained expression made her sink backward onto the stool. “What are you not telling me?”
His eyes squeezed closed. “Artificial insemination isn’t possible for Kirenai. The woman who bears my child will have a bond with me, though not as strong as a mate bond.”
She looked at the wall of scrolling text, numbness creeping through her. The woman who carried his child wouldn’t be a mere surrogate. It sounded like she’d be a second mate. But how else was he going to have an heir? He had to protect Earth and who knew how many other planets across the galaxy from being enslaved. I don’t want to share him. She deserved better. And to be fair, the mother of his child deserved better, too.
Standing, Georgie took one last look into the tub. Even though Arazhi’s body wasn’t currently human, he was still the perfect man. Committed. Understanding. Supportive. He was going to make a wonderful husband and father. For someone else.
Tears filmed her eyes. God, she wanted to kiss him one last time. To feel his arms around her, sense his heartbeat next to hers. But the only way he’d do what had to be done was if she was gone. “I can’t stand the thought of sharing you,” she blurted.
“Georgie, I—”
“You have to mate with another and become emperor.” She took a step back, each word feeling like it was choking her. “Give the mother of your child your heart if you can… It’s the right thing to do. I’m leaving, for everyone’s sake. Goodbye, Arazhi.”
Before he could say anything else, she turned and rushed from the room.
16
Arazhi tried desperately to pull himself into his human form, to get out of the pod and follow Georgie. But the connective tissues in his matrix had been damaged in the fall, and holding a specific shape was nearly impossible. Even the small task of maintaining his facial features while speaking had been excruciating. The sedatives infusing his regen fluid were threatening to force him into sleep once more.
Curse Damma for interfering. Georgie’s pain lingered in the room, infusing his Iki’i as strongly as the sedatives flowing through the regen fluid. But he also felt the unyielding titanium of her resolve. She was going to do as his damma had insisted.
Reject him.
“Healer!” he called, hoping his voice was strong enough to carry to the next room. He needed to catch up to Georgie and make her stay, but he couldn’t even configure limbs while affected by sedatives. He could endure the pain without them if that’s what he had to do.
He dipped beneath the surface, green liquid blurring his vision. He couldn’t remember ever feeling this weak or frustrated. Kirenai were strong—nearly indestructible. Damma was right in assuming the accident hadn’t been intended to harm him—it had been aimed at Georgie. But that meant the Senburu had spies in the palace. How else would they have known she was here and what she meant to him?
Kuzara, what if they tried again? And here he was trapped in a regen pod. He had to find the strength to get out. Struggling to pull himself together, he surfaced once more.
A pink-scaled Qalqan stood looking down at him. “Go back to sleep, my prince.”
Arazhi was having difficulty keeping his eyes open, let alone his face above the surface, but he recognized the healer as Elthos, his father’s personal healer. “Turn off the sedation. I need to get out.”
“No.” Elthos’s flat denial was jarring, but his lipless mouth and slitted eyes remained as unreadable as ever.
Arazhi fought to put authority into his voice but ended up slurring, “As your prince, I command you.” The healer had to obey a direct order. “I need to reach my mate immediately.”
“I fear I cannot allow that to happen.” The scaly pink muzzle lowered to within inches of Arazhi’s face. “I always rather liked you, so I’ll try to make your passing painless. But the galaxy must come first.”
Adrenaline shot through Arazhi. The healer’s words made no sense. Elthos wants me dead? Not possible. He must’ve misunderstood. The Qalqan was part of the emperor’s inner circle. He probably just means he can’t let me bond with Georgie. It would make sense for the healer to be aligned with his parents in that regard.
Using every bit of energy he had, Arazhi pulled his form together, trying to ignore the stabbing pain in his matrix. “Elthos, stop. Listen to me.”
Elthos reached a pink-scaled hand into the regen fluid and pushed Arazhi under.
A wave of something fungal and bitter flooded Arazhi’s cellular matrix. He could feel himself reacting, denaturing. Poison? Just like his father. It was all beginning to make sense.
He struggled under Elthos’s hand, tried to reform his face at the other end of the tank so he could cry out, but the sedatives had been increased. He was helpless. Dying.
Elthos really intended to kill him. The royal healer had been with the Senburu this entire time.
As Arazhi’s respiration slowed and his mind faded, the last thing he thought before blackness took him was that at least when he was dead, Georgie would no longer be a target.
17
Georgie hurried from the clinic, grateful the hallway was empty as tears blurred her eyes. She’d finally found a man willing to love her no matter what—even if it cost him a throne—and she was being forced to reject him. Leaving him made her feel worse than she’d ever felt before. Her legs felt like they’d been strapped with twenty-pound weights, and she wasn’t sure how much of that was because of the accident and how much of it was grief.
Pull it together, Georgie. She stepped into an alcove along the hallway and sank onto a stone bench. Tall windows looked out on a dark, empty courtyard. Stars glittered between the trees, and her breath hitched again. Soon, she’d be headed back into space, back to Earth, where she belonged.
Then she remembered that Arazhi’s security officer had said Earth was closed to interstellar travel during the investigation. Even Lora wanted her to stay away. How long would Georgie be stuck here? And where would she live while she waited? Perhaps in the human community Arazhi’d mentioned. The community he’ll pr
obably visit to find a new mate.
She scrubbed angrily at the tears on her cheeks. So much for not believing in love at first sight. How had her heart become so entangled with his? And why did he have to be the freakin’ prince of the universe? She’d never be able to escape his face; an alien prince looking for love would definitely make the tabloids on every magazine rack now that the world knew aliens truly existed.
“Come, human,” a deep voice behind her made her flinch.
Turning, she saw one of the palace guards standing at the entrance to the alcove. His gray armor encased what appeared to be a Qalqan body, only with blue scales instead of pink. She’d seen a lot of Kirenai in the shapes of other species, but this was the first she’d seen as a Qalqan. Then she remembered one of the healers had mentioned the security team wanted to talk to her. “Are you here about the accident?”
“Yes.” Although his placid, reptilian features showed no malice, this dude was giving her a suspicious vibe.
She shook it off. He was looking for clues about who’d caused the accident, so of course he was suspicious, even of her. Standing, she attempted to calm her topsy-turvy emotions. At least when she’d finished answering their questions, they could take her to the empress so she could ask to be sent home.
She stepped forward to join him, glancing up and down the empty hall. Where was the guard’s partner? Didn’t they usually travel in pairs?
He wrapped his long, clawed fingers around her arm and pulled her out of the alcove.
A shot of adrenaline spiked through her. No one except Arazhi had touched her since her arrival here—even the healers’ scanners had been touch-free. The empress’s words came back to her: The accident was aimed at you.
The hair on the back of her neck rose. What if this guard was actually an assassin?
She dug in her heels, trying to pull from his grip. “I need to see the empress.”
“Not now.” His grip tightened, forcing her to keep walking.