Time seem to stop as Caleb's breathing was all she was listening to. Then the pounding of their flesh against the others filled her ears.
Her heart was racing and her body was beginning to pulse. She felt his cock twitch inside her and Caleb began to make little grunting sounds.
Emerald’s body began to descend into a magnificent orgasm. Her eyes closed and she no longer looked at the stars as they flew by her window. All she could think about was how Caleb made her feel.
Emerald felt strong and powerful as she knew their future now was going to be nothing like she thought it was going to before that day. Their future was bright and they would be at the pinnacle of the new way all Euthenians were about to begin living.
Emerald’s orgasm coaxed Caleb along and he tensed and came to his own climax with a loud groan. Caleb fell to the bed beside her and pulled her up to lie on his chest.
His heartbeat filled her with strength, safety, and hope. Hope for new life. A new beginning one that their children would prosper in and live happy lives was more than Emerald ever thought she could even ask for.
Emerald looked forward to their children's happiness in the future. Now if she could only get into the Queen’s ear and make her see the death of the king wasn't necessary.
Other things could be done. There had to be other ways to handle things like that.
Caleb’s strong arms wrapped around her, cradling her to him. His lips touched her forehead. “Sleep, Love. Soon we’ll be back home and things will be moving pretty fast for us.”
Emerald closed her eyes and listened to her husband’s heart beating. The new planet would be an experience none would ever forget. The new way of life would ensure a bright future for their children and all the future generations to come.
So much change was on the cusp and she and Caleb would be right there in the forefront, leading the way to a new life for all.
A knock came to the door. Zin’s voice was on the other side, “Caleb, I intercepted a communication meant for the palace. It was the Prince!”
Caleb flew out of bed and turned the light on. “I’ll be right out, Zin.”
Emerald watched him dress quickly, and he ran back and kissed her cheek. “You sleep. I’ll be back as soon as I can.”
She lay back and watched him hurry from the room. His face was bright with hope he could talk to Kerr. Emerald snuggled under the blanket and smiled.
Maybe things will be alright.
CHAPTER 4
Caleb
After waiting some time for Kerr to try to communicate again, Caleb was relieved to be able to talk to him and without revealing who had taken over, let Kerr know not to help his father.
The ship was coming in to land at the port and Caleb found Xavultan looking nervous. “There’s nothing to be worried about,” he told the older man.
“Surely, the Queens thinks ill of me.” He paced and wrung his hands.
“She told us about you. She had no idea who you were, but she was upset when you disappeared. That doesn’t sound as if she thought ill of you,” Caleb told him.
Zan gave the man a smile. “We’ll get you all cleaned up before we take you to her. Don’t worry.”
Caleb went to wake his wife up to get off the ship and found her ready and slipping on her last boot. Her hair was messed up in the most perfect of ways and he took her up in his arms and kissed her.
She giggled as he placed her back on the floor. “You certainly are in a good mood.”
“I was able to talk to Kerr. It made me feel much better. I do think the man will do as I told him to and will leave his father to fend for himself.” He took her hand and led her out of the room.
“But there’s still the matter of the King. The Queen seems very set on his death.” Emerald frowned and leaned against Caleb. “I don’t like it, Caleb. Not at all. I think it’s the wrong way to start off what is supposed to be a positive change.”
He stopped and took her chin in his hand. “Promise me you will not speak to her about this, Emerald. She has the ability to take your head for such a thing.”
She nodded. “I know. I’ll keep my mouth shut. Maybe you though…”
He shook his head. “No! I will not!”
She nodded in agreement. “You’re right. I know you are.”
They made their way to the bridge and found they’d landed. Emerald smiled at Xavultan. “Are you ready to take off about ten pounds of hair?” she asked him.
He laughed. “You have no idea!”
A small shuttle waited for them and took them all to the palace. Where Zin and Zan immediately took Xavultan to clean up.
Jared stopped Caleb before they walked inside. “I’m going back to the settlement to get my wife. I’ll be back before the Armada comes in.”
“Please see that you are. And bring any person who wants to guard the palace until this is over. It may end moments after they land or it may not. One can never tell about these things.” Caleb waved goodbye to his brother and took his wife inside.
Emerald looked up at him. “Should you find the Queen and tell her about our discoveries?”
“We should,” he said then gave her nose a little tweak.
She giggled as they went up the steps. Hand in hand they went into the palace. A guard was waiting for them. “Please follow me, the Queen wants to talk you.”
Caleb and Emerald followed him to where the Queen sat, waiting for them in a room decorated in various shades of pink. She sipped on a purple cocktail with lines of pink flowing through it.
Her blonde hair was pulled up into an ornate up-do with little white flowers tucked in it here and there. Her gown was pale yellow and flowed to the floor.
Emerald and Caleb bowed as they entered the room which smelled sweet. Emerald smiled at the woman. “You look very pretty, Your Majesty.”
A smile crept over the older woman’s pink lips. “What a nice thing to say, Emerald.”
She gestured for them to take a seat on the small sofa in front of her throne-like chair. They did as she suggested and a young woman brought them drinks as well.
“My guard told me you brought in a primal man from that planet. Why would you do such a thing, and who is he?” Her pink lips touched the edge of her glass as she peered over the edge, looking at Caleb.
“That man is not from that planet. That planet has not been inhabited by any humans as of yet. The man we brought back is your husband’s brother, and we found him on the planet we visited.” Caleb took a sip of the drink and found it too sweet and had such a high content of alcohol he could actually taste it.
With furrowed brows, she said, “Why would I want that man’s brother here?”
Emerald took the Queen’s attention. “Because he is the one who was sent to kill you but hid you instead. For his help, the King had him taken to that planet and left there. I’m sure to die, but the man managed to survive.”
The Queen’s eyes went wide and her hand covered her chest. “You mean to tell me, my husband exiled the man who helped him? His own brother? See how much he deserves to die?”
Caleb squeezed Emerald’s hand in an attempt to get her to keep her thoughts to herself.
It didn’t work though as Emerald answered, “Death is a punishment best left up to the one who gave us life. Do you not agree, Your Highness?”
Caleb looked at her as if her mind had been taken. “What she means is…”
The Queen held up her hand, stopping him. “Please, Caleb. I want women to learn to speak up after all. What should I do to the man who fooled me into believing he loved me like no other ever could?”
Her light blue eyes stared into Emeralds and Caleb found his stomach tense. Emerald answered, “Your Grace, I do not have an answer for you. I wish I did. The only thing I do know is taking a life is wrong no matter who is doing the taking.”
“But the call is yours, Queen. No one is saying anything other than that,” Caleb jumped in to say. “Now, about the man we found. His name is Xavultan. Did
the King ever speak about him to you?”
“I knew he had a brother. I had never met him, though. My husband wanted his past left far behind him. I suppose the fact he was a commoner who might have had Earthling blood made him want to keep that away.” The Queen took another sip of the strong drink and picked up a little, white, round, ball off a platter on the table in front of her. “Help yourselves, please.”
Both shook their heads and Emerald asked, “No thank you. Do you suppose Xavultan could stay in the palace?”
“The man saved my life. He will always be welcome here. In honor of finding him, I will order a feast to be prepared for him. All these years I feared him dead. To find him alive is a great day for me,” she said then rang a little bell.
A man walked in quickly and bowed. “Yes, Your Highness?”
“We have a very welcomed guest this evening. Have a feast prepared for twenty, if you please.” She waved him away. “I’ll want it served in two hours.”
He ran off to get it accomplished in the small amount of time. Caleb watched him run off, and he said, “Then at the feast, he can tell you all about the planet. I see no reason we can’t get working on it as soon as you want to. There is enough there to sustain an initial party of builders. The flight is a mere six hours so we can easily take materials there to build with.”
“Wonderful news. I cannot wait to see the place. Tell me, are there delightful creatures there?” She sat up and placed her hands on her thighs and a real smile traveled over her lips.
It made Caleb happy to see her like that and the thought ran through his head how happy Kerr was going to be to find his mother was alive.
Emerald smiled and said, “There are some unique creatures there. We didn’t come close to seeing them all, but the one which excited me the most was this tiny thing with a huge howl. I named it a howler hopper.”
The Queen clapped her hands. “Did you get a picture?”
Caleb answered, “Not of that one. It took us by surprise as it was tiny and the noise was so loud. When we finally figured out what was making the sound, I’m afraid I frightened it away without being able to get a picture of it for you.”
“At the feast put all the pictures together and show us all what you found. I’ll let you two go get cleaned up and changed and see you in the grand dining hall in two hours then,” she told them.
Caleb rose and took Emerald’s hand in his. They bowed and left the room. As they walked up the stairs to his room, Emerald asked, “Does she seem a little better than she was before?”
“I think when her son arrives, it will make a vast difference in her. She has been through so much. I know the King wronged her terribly, and he has to suffer some punishment for it. I hope he gives the woman an apology, at the very least.”
Caleb opened the door and let Emerald go in first. She turned back after she walked into the room. “I do too. I hope he can find something inside him to do the best he can to right his wrong.”
“I don’t know what one can do to make something that horrible right, but admitting how wrong he was, is a start.” Caleb pulled his wife into the shower, and she smiled at him.
“Do we have time for a little steamy fun in the shower?” she asked as she ran her hands over his large biceps.
“Always time for that, Love.” He kissed her as he pulled her clothes off and she pulled at his too.
***
The food at the feast was fit for a King, a Euthenian King, but a King all the same. Beautiful platter after beautiful platter was heavily laden with every type of food they had. Golden beetles in silver sauce, butterflies in edible silk, and even chocolate grasshoppers.
Xavultan sat to the right of the Queen at the honored place at the long table. He looked like a different man, after getting his hair cut and a shave. He resembled the king in many ways. Yet his eyes were softer and he held his jaw less tight.
Their reunion was one with a few tears and a hug. Neither seemed able to talk much as the emotions were too high.
Both had been set up to die. The King, the person who had ordered both deaths. His wife and only brother, he wanted dead. Yet they’d managed to survive and Caleb found it a common bond with the two.
A silent bond. One all could feel the enormous presence of in the large dining hall.
Caleb saw Emerald struggling with the food which people from Earth did not cotton too well at all. He placed a chocolate grasshopper to her lips, and she shook her head and held her lips tightly together. He laughed. “I really must insist, Love.”
Her eyes went big, and she shook her head with vigor. “No…”
Caleb popped it in before she could close her mouth shut again and she quickly swallowed. “See, not so bad, right?”
“I didn’t really taste it. I kind of panicked and swallowed quickly as I could.”
He picked up another one and held it to her lips. “Try this one. Think of it as a crunchy chocolate.”
Emerald let him put the food in her mouth and she took a couple of chews then swallowed it down. “Ew. I felt its legs. But it tasted just like chocolate.”
Caleb tried to hold back a laugh but out it came out, anyway. The Queen noticed Emerald’s uncomfortableness with the food. “Emerald, perhaps this creamy soup would be a better match for your taste.”
She gestured to a bowl of steaming white soup and it was passed down to Emerald. Who placed a spoonful in the small bowl of her place setting.
Her first spoonful had her digging in for more. “Delicious!”
The Queen smiled. “Good!”
With the last bite finished, Emerald wiped her mouth. “Thank you for suggesting that, Your Majesty.”
“I thought you might like it. It’s a very nutritious blend of some of our finest ingredients.” The Queen gave her a smile. “I think a little bit of everything is in that soup.”
Emerald’s face went pale. “Everything? Like bugs?”
“Insects are the main part of our diet. Of course, there are some in there. They’re blended, though.” The Queen seemed pleased with her little deception which got Emerald to eat.
“A true mother you are, Your Majesty,” Emerald told her with a smile. “Tricking me into eating something otherwise, I wouldn’t have. Clever.”
“You liked it, so now you’ll eat it. You won’t think about what went into it. You’ll just remember it tastes good.” The Queen’s gaze went to a man who was entering the huge dining hall.
He wore a grave expression and looked right at the Queen. “Your Majesty, there has been a signal sent to us from every ship in the Armada.”
The Queen’s eyes pulled wide. “Every ship?”
“Yes, Your Majesty,” the man looked grim. “All are sending a distress signal and all are without the power to come home. Something has drained all their power and left them in complete darkness and floating in space.”
The Queen’s color left her beautiful face. “All power lost means they have limited air to breathe.” Her light blue eyes looked around at every person at the table. “We could lose every royal we have, save me.”
Caleb spoke up, “Should we send a rescue team?”
She shook her head. “Not enough time.” She looked at the man who had delivered the bad news. “Turn on the tractor beam and make sure you put it on the highest level. We have to get them in as fast as we can. My sister and son are on those ships.”
The man turned to leave but looked back at the Queen. “If we’re able to catch them, it will take three days to bring them in. That will be just in time before their air runs out.”
Caleb’s stomach knotted. “Then get on it, man! We’ve no time to waste!”
The Queen was shaking in her seat. Caleb got up and went to her. He took her hand and helped her up. “Thank you, Caleb.” She looked at Emerald. “Emerald, please accompany me to my parlor where we can sit and wait to see if the tractor beam can catch them.”
Emerald hurried to her side and held her hand as they left the room. “I’m sur
e the beam can catch them. We have to have faith at a time like this, Your Majesty.”
“That we do, child. That we do,” the Queen said with a shaky voice.
Caleb wasn’t as sure as his wife. Hope still found a place in him, though. But even if they did make it back home, what if Caleb stood with his father and he was ordered to kill the man who was as much a brother to him as any of his real ones?
His heart was heavy, and he wished like hell the Queen would call the murder of the King off.
With this change of events, can I get her to see reason?
‘Allied with the Alien’
Alien Romance Box Set: Alien Former: Sci-Fi Alien Romance (Books 1-5) Page 98