“She was unaware. Completely unaware,” she says then her body begins to shake. “I don’t want to see him! I can’t see him!”
“No matter what, you’re back in control, Your Highness,” I tell her. “Let the royals help to decide what the King’s punishment will be. Once they all get here and see you’re alive and you tell them your story and how he used his brother in his plan they will deal with him.”
The Queen looks at me. “You don’t understand. The Princess will destroy us. She has the ability to destroy us all. It has to be that she has such a dark side that she wants to rule now. She will kill us all to get what she wants.”
A chill runs through me as one of the guards runs into us as we go down the long corridor to the hidden room I’m taking the Queen to.
His face is ashen as he says, “We have some footage of the group after they got off their ships and seemed to be discussing something. The sound was out. Anyway, there was a young woman with long dark hair. She stood by the Prince and King, she seems to have powers.”
I ask as I move the Queen along and he follows, “What did she do?”
“She made flowers burn on a tree then twisted the huge limb off and tossed it and it seemed as if she was only using her mind. Then she seemed to create a force field around the prince as a few of the guards tried to attack him, but they acted as if they were hitting an invisible wall.”
Emerald laughs. “Perhaps it was all staged to frighten us.”
The Queen shakes her head. “She is capable of that and so much more. We are doomed.”
“We’re not doomed,” I say as I open the door that doesn’t look like a door at all, but a long mirror framed in gold.
Ushering the Queen inside she takes a seat on a comfortable sofa I had put in here and Emerald sees the food on a shelf and goes to get some for her.
“I’m leaving Emerald here with you, Your Majesty. She can keep you company and make sure you’re okay. And I’m going to try to end this with no bloodshed.”
I walk away but she grabs my arm. “Kill him for me, Caleb. Please.”
Emerald stops what she was doing and comes to my side. Her arm goes around my back and she leans her head on me.
My heart pounds and there is just no way I can take the King’s life. None of us can. She doesn’t seem to realize the punishment for such a thing.
I weigh my words before I speak, “Your Majesty, I understand you don’t wish to see the man and I can make sure that doesn’t happen. But I will not be able to take his life as he is a royal, and that is punishable by death. This is my wife by my side and I very much want to live for her.”
Dejection fills the Queen’s face. “No one will kill the man for me. I can’t understand. He did a terrible thing, yet no one sees fit to kill him.”
Suddenly she looks around and I see her eyes go wide. I take her hand. “Your Majesty I placed none of that purple liquor in here. This is a time when you have to keep your head.”
“You don’t understand, Caleb.” Her hands are shaking and her mouth is twitching up on one side.
“I do. Your son will be here soon and he will want to see you I am sure.” I pat her back and look at Emerald. “I will be back to check on you before they make it to the palace. You cannot leave this room from the inside. Someone from the outside will have to let you out.”
“I’m imprisoned in here?” the Queen asks as she looks up at me.
Its sorrow which covers her face. She seems to think I’m against her. “You are not imprisoned by any means.” I kneel in front of her and take her hands into mine. “Your Majesty, please understand. There are better ways to handle this than with the death of the King.”
“But I don’t want to ever see him again,” she says.
I’m reminded of a child who cannot understand things clearly. I have to wonder if the drink has taken parts of her mind. People are about to die because she has turned her anger at her husband for his evil deed into a vendetta the others aren’t even aware of.
“Leave everything in my hands, Your Majesty. All will be right before you know it. Your reign is stable. I will make sure of that.” I stand and her eyes follow me.
“You will?”
I nod and Emerald moves to my side. I wrap an arm around her and kiss the side of her sweet head. “I’ll be back soon.” I look at my wife. “In the cupboard is a box of donuts for you, my sweet. I had Blarto make them just for you this morning.”
With a giggle, Emerald skips to find the food for the Queen and takes the box out. “Care for a nibble, Your Highness?”
The Queen shakes her head. “My appetite is gone, child.”
An uncomfortable tightness forms in my stomach and I walk away from the women. I close the door behind me and have to wonder what happened to the Queen.
Jared meets me at the front entrance. “Everyone is at their stations. The first report has come in. They all walk behind the dark haired woman. It’s assumed she’s the new Princess, Kerr’s bride.”
“I believe the reports are correct. I heard the same woman did a couple of amazing things. Did she walk alone in the front?”
He shakes his head. “She’s flanked be Kerr to her left and the King to her right. Nar and her family are right behind them from what the report said.”
“I’d like to get to the Princess first before they arrive here. I think she might help the Queen to see reason.” I motion to my father who walks slowly towards me. “Father, my equine, do you know where he is?”
He nods and turns back and shouts at another one of my brothers. I look at Jared. “I have no want to bring war to any of these people. They have no idea of the pain, agony, and horror which will follow them the rest of their lives. The ones who live, that is.”
My black equine, Jasper is brought to me and I jump into the saddle and speed away to meet the group who went to Earth for a wedding only to return to their home where all has gone awry.
Please let them allow me to approach them without annihilating me!
CHAPTER 3
Kataline
I halt the procession as a man on a black horse comes towards us at full speed. I look at Kerr. “Should I deal with him?”
My husband squints and holds his hand to cover his eyes from the suns overhead. “No. That’s Caleb. Allow him to approach us.”
Kerr waves his hand high in the air. The gold cloak falls away from his arm, revealing the large bicep and my knees go weak and I heat in regions best-left un-thought of at this tense moment.
A man with amber waves of thick hair rides up to us and quickly gets off the steed. He bows in front of us. Then his eyes fall on me. They’re deep green and he’s extremely muscled for an Earth man.
“I am Caleb, and you must be the new Princess,” he says as he smiles.
“I am. And your smile is an odd thing to have at a time like this,” I say.
“Sorry.” He holds his lips in a tight line. “You’re right. Things are not well at this moment.” His eyes dart to the King and I instinctively place a shield around him to protect him from whatever the man may have planned.
Kerr asks, “Can you tell us what the hell is happening?”
“I can tell you this much.” Caleb’s eyes go to the King. “This man has secrets which threaten us all.”
Kerr takes Caleb’s attention. “My father has recently confessed to asking his brother to murder my mother and then taking his brother and dumping him on another planet.”
Caleb looks a bit relieved. “Good to hear I don’t have to deliver that bit of news then.”
“What are you here for?” Kerr asks. “To let us know there is no reason for any kind of war?”
He shakes his head. “Unfortunately no. But I wanted to know what your demands are.” He gestures to me. “It’s been thought by the one who has taken over that this woman wishes to take control.”
I shake my head. “I have no desire to take over. I merely will be taking this party back to their rightful places in the capital
and making sure the person responsible for turning me into something I wasn’t, steps down.”
“You are capable of all that,” he asks me.
I nod and look over to find Kerr nodding as well. “She is more than capable. You may want to go back to the palace and let whoever has taken over know this news. That way any fighting could be avoided completely. Which is a thing I believe we all want, Caleb.”
Caleb nods in agreement. “If you would come with me, Princess, I think a talk from you would do the trick.”
Kerr takes my hand in his and delivers a kiss to the top of it. “Caleb, she is more than precious to me. And to be honest, the only reason I will agree to this is because she can protect herself better than any of us can protect her. Hence, why she is leading this group of well-trained and well-muscled people.”
Caleb smiles. “I have heard a bit about some of her actions just after you landed. I believe you. And I think you know you can trust me, Prince.”
Kerr takes me up in his arms and places a kiss on my lips. His hands travel over my ass and I blush with his actions in front of so many people.
He presses his forehead to mine. “Try your best to talk some sense into whoever has taken over. I really want no injuries or deaths because of this.”
“I will do my best, Husband.”
Kerr releases me and Caleb climbs onto the equine and holds his hand out to me. I grab it and he pulls me up to sit behind him.
“You should all wait close by for my return.” I wave goodbye to them all and hope I can get through to the person who is trying hard to make me into their puppet.
CHAPTER 4
Kerr
My body trembles as I look into the blue eyes of my daughter-in-law. Her words are hard and even. “Why have you done this to me?”
Falling to my knees I bow my head. “Please, please don’t hurt me. I’m sorry. I was desperate! Please, have mercy on me!”
“Why are you on your knees?” she asks. “Get up and face me and explain why the hell you’re alive first. Then why you did what you did to me.”
Caleb takes my arm and helps me up. I look at him and ask, “Are you no longer going to protect me, Caleb?”
Kataline sighs. “Your Majesty, I will not hurt you. I swear it. I merely want to know how it is you’re alive. We can start with that.”
I don’t believe her. “My husband made the poor choice for an assassin. His brother couldn’t bring himself to kill me so he hid me out in a secret underground city.”
“Why didn’t you just come out and tell all about what the King had done to you?” she asks.
“Well, you say it as if it would’ve been an easy thing to do. I was devastated. Heartbroken. Confused.” I sit heavily upon the overstuffed sofa in shades of pink. I run my hand over the soft fabric and smile. “Pink is my favorite color. Caleb, can I have some of that drink I love so much now?”
“I’ll get you some later, Your Highness. Right now we need you to deal with this little problem we have. You see no one wants a war. I spoke with Kerr and he wants nothing more than to come home.” Caleb moves in front of me. “Can I go to your son and tell him he and the rest of the people who were on the ships, they can all go home peacefully?”
I shake my head. “I can’t allow it. This one did not kill the King as I directed and all the others are still supporting him. I simply cannot allow it.”
The screen on the wall lights up. The cameras at the outside entrance must have caught something, and it’s being broadcast to the palace surveillance screens.
Kerr and my husband stand in front of the palace with the royals and royal guards behind them. “They followed you, Caleb! Or are you a part of them now?” I ask as I suck in my breath.
Caleb looks confused. “I have to go.” He runs from the room, shutting the door behind him and leaving Kataline, Emerald, and me alone in the room.
The other women take a seat on either side of me on the sofa as we all watch the screen. My heart is pounding as Caleb flies out of the front entrance and we watch as he does.
“Kerr, what are you doing?” he shouts.
“We are taking the palace back.” He draws a sword and the light glistens off the long, steel blade. “I have killed your brother and taken his sword, Caleb. Do not make me kill you too.”
Emerald gasps and her hands cover her mouth. “No!”
Then to my horror, my husband holds something up and I lean forward to make sure I am seeing it right. It is a man’s head and Emerald wretches. “It’s Caleb’s father’s head!”
Caleb draws his sword and looks around, then shouts, “Death to the King and all the royals!”
Out of the dense and thick blue flower gardens on both sides of the palace come the rebels, brandishing various types of weaponry. Most of them homemade. A few are conventional.
Kerr steps in front of his father and Nar’s husband, Luthus steps in behind the King to keep him protected. I place my hands over my mouth. My eyes glued to the large screen on the wall. “If they don’t move away from him they will be hurt!”
Kataline’s voice is flat as she says, “They will be killed.”
I glance sideways at her. “Can’t you do something to stop this?”
“No, but you definitely can, Your Highness.”
“I’ll stop it only after the King has been killed,” I say and look back at the screen.
My teenage nieces move forward and stand on either side of their father. Latice and Lavine have gotten even prettier since I last managed to catch glimpses of them a few years ago when they were at the palace.
Lavine’s dark hair hangs in little ringlets around her porcelain-like face. And the screen is big enough for me to see Latice’s blue-green eyes, just like Kerr has. Her blonde hair hangs in waves around her shoulders.
“What are the girls doing?” I ask as I look at Kataline. “Can’t you use your powers to get them out of the way and to somewhere safe?”
She merely shakes her head at me, sending her dark waves bouncing over her narrow shoulders.
I turn back to find my sister joining the circle of people, guarding the murdering King. “Why? Why do that all protect him?”
It happens so fast, I barely noticed the one man running headlong into the group and he has some sort of bowed blade on the end of a long stick and just like that, he cuts through a couple of the royal guards.
Emerald and I scream as their heads fall away from their still standing bodies. Then they collapse on the ground in a bloody heap.
Kerr steps forward and then he’s pushed back and it’s Nar who is next to lose her head. “Nar!” I stand and my hands touch the screen where my sister lay in a pool of blood. Her head is a few inches from her body.
Tears fill my eyes as I watch one by one be killed by the mob of Earthlings I made into an army.
Sitting back on my heels, my eyes focus on Kerr who’s trying to make sure his father is protected at all times. Latice jumps forward in front of her father as one of my men jabs a long pointed metal rod at him. And she gets it run through her stomach.
I can’t even scream anymore. I’m so devastated. I can hardly think.
Luthus roars and hits the man with some type of board, but he’s quickly run through by another man with a long blade.
Some type of an arrow flies through the air and hits Kerr in the head. He falls, and another arrow misses my husband as my niece, Lavin, jumps in front of it.
I clutch my heart and can’t even breathe. They are all dead. My entire family is dead and yet the King, the murdering King still stands.
Rising, I scream his name, “Hexultan! You bastard!”
Caleb rushes in and takes his head in one swipe of his long, shining sword. He grabs Hexultan’s head and holds it up as the Earthlings of my army cheer.
“The King is dead!” Caleb declares and holds Hexultan’s head up to the camera so I can see it. “My Queen, your command has been carried out.”
Emerald’s voice comes from behind me. “A
re you happy now, My Queen? Your husband is dead. All the wrongs have now been made right in your mind, I suppose.”
“Why does it feel like this?” I ask as I hold my hand to my heart which feels as if it might explode.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Kataline looks at me with little bits of gold shooting through her blue eyes. “You should feel fantastic with his death. It’s what you wanted so badly you dissected my inner mind and brought out a monster in me to make sure it happened.”
Alien Romance Box Set: Alien Former: Sci-Fi Alien Romance (Books 1-5) Page 101