Barbarian's Prisoner

by Abella Ward

  “Father should have seen what kind of monster you had become. He trusted you, but you betrayed him,” Darilth said, wincing when a gash seared his upper arm. He ducked and turned around, changing position as he tried to back him up at the nearest wall, parrying and attacking along the way.

  “This ends now!” Darilth said with a finality in his tone and pinned Keralth against the wall with the Lazarus at his throat. “Merelith!”

  “I have his full confession here,” Merelith said, holding up a small circular disc. “And the council is listening to it right now, at this very moment.”

  “Thank you Merelith,” he said, smiling, as Keralth looked around, baffled.

  “Guards!” Darilth said as they entered the throne room, initially confused to see Prince Darilth instead. “Arrest him immediately and send him to the Dark Moon, right away!”

  As the guards took Keralth away, Darilth collapsed on the floor, too weak to stand any longer. The gash on his chest was deep and a throbbing headache pounded at his temples.

  Merelith came toward him. “Let me see that,” she said. “Poison. His sword was poisoned,” she said disgustedly. “Hold up your hand and concentrate, Darilth. Use the power of the Eye to heal you,” she instructed. He did as he was told and within a few minutes, the gash healed itself. Darilth felt his strength returning.

  “The Draco’s Eye... You need to learn to use its powers. It’s a great gift to those who bear it,” she said.

  Merelith’s communicator beeped just then. It was Dr. Wyern.

  “We must go now,” she said, panicked. “Ella is in labor.”

  ***

  Anxiousness flitted across Darilth’s sapphire blue eyes as they made their way to the docking station.

  They chose the fastest ship to take them to R13, making the journey in almost half the time a normal spacecraft would. For Darilth, the next hours on the ship were the most torturous ever. What if she didn’t make it?

  Please hang in there, Ella. Mekarth wailed, already restless and pacing around.

  Merelith sat in her seat and checked the messages on her communicator. “The Council has made their decision. Keralth will be tried for the murder of his father and the misuse of power against his brother and his mate,” she said with a smile.

  Darilth nodded and continued brooding, and Merelith noticed the drained look on his face. He seemed to have aged.

  “We must arrive before she delivers the baby,” Merelith said, concerned. “Her life is in grave danger. She won’t survive for long after the birth. She needs you now more than ever. Only your Drakonaar blood can save her.”

  Darilth took a swig of his wine. Taking a deep breath to calm his frantically racing heart, he raked a hand through his long hair. The ship wasn’t moving fast enough. All he could think of was how much pain she must be in. The feeling of helplessness brought tears to his eyes. He roughly wiped them away with the back of his hand. All he could do was wait and see what fate had in store for him.

  Chapter Ten

  Birth of the Half-blood Prince

  Ella writhed in pain as Darilth stood there helpless, holding her hand. The baby was too big and she didn’t have the strength to push. Dr. Wyern was trying to keep track of the contractions. But he was getting hopeless. The baby was too big and might break the mother’s bones. He would have to go for a C-Section.

  Merelith stood by, reciting incantations that would ease her pain a little, but the situation seemed grave. Ella was pale and gray. Her skin was clammy and her hands were growing cold. Her breath came in shallow gasps. Yet, Darilth saw that there was still a glimmer of hope in her eyes, even though it was quickly contorted by pain.

  “D... Darilth,” she gasped, “If I... die... please... take care of my baby.”

  “No, you are not to die, Ella!” Darilth’s voice broke as he blinked and held her hand tighter. He kissed her face, again and again, trying to rid her of the horrible pain she was in. “You will live! You are not going to leave me alone!”

  But she was too weak to respond.

  “I can’t give her anesthesia. I need her to be conscious. Spinal Epidural will do,” Dr. Wyern said as he injected her with the drugs. Then he made the first incision.

  Soon, the cries of a baby filled the air and eased some of the tension. It was a beautiful boy. Ella smiled faintly as she looked at her son. He was half human and half Drakonaar. A true half-blood prince. The subtle scales on his temples were there but he had human eyebrows too.

  Ella was relieved but could feel herself slipping away.

  “Darilth, you must do it now,” Merelith said.

  Darilth nodded and cut his wrist with his knife. He then sucked his blood filling his mouth. Then he cupped her chin with one hand and closed his mouth on hers, slowly draining his dragon blood down her throat with the swift movement of his tongue. All the while, Merelith recited incantations.

  He made her drink his blood until she drifted into a deep slumber. He knew she would be fine when she awakened and arose like a phoenix. Yet, she would have changed. She would be one of them, a Drakonaar. It would take some time for her to cope with the change. The Ella he fell in love with would still be there – her soul just the same. The same innocent woman he adored. But she would be much stronger than before. And she would be his Queen forever.

  ***

  Darilth walked down the great halls of the castle toward his chambers. The Council meeting had just ended and the Chief had finally sentenced Keralth to death. He would be executed the next day. The dagger Keralth had used to stab his father was found as well as the assassin who killed the guard and the maid. Before they could get him to confess, though, he killed himself.

  Darilth was at peace, but part of him felt sad. He just wished his father were alive to see his grandson. He would have seen then that his son was truly worthy of the throne. But it wasn’t destined to be. He took a deep breath and quietly entered his chambers.

  ***

  Ella woke up. The first thing she saw was the light coming through the large window of the room. She was at the castle. She tried sitting up, but her head spun. Otherwise, she felt better, rejuvenated, as if filled with some kind of renewed energy. She looked at her hands. They were the same, but she felt different and she couldn’t figure out what it was.

  Suddenly, she thought of her baby. Where was he? She slowly got out of bed and walked up to the window. She stopped halfway when she caught her reflection in the mirror at the opposite wall. She wore an ivory and gold chiffon dress. The gold, laser-cut, intricate motif covered her neck up to her breasts in a halter fashion. The fabric beneath the motif clung to her breasts, and the sheer fall of the gown just below her waist gave her an ethereal look. What caught her attention was that she was no longer an albino - no longer even human. She was one of them: a Drakonaar. She stared at her reflection in the mirror. The woman staring back at her was confident and beautiful. Her hair was silver-white with a beautiful sheen. Her eyes were now a deep shade of sapphire blue. Her skin was still pale, but a different shade of white. She touched the subtle scales that appeared on her temples and forehead. The brow-line was prominent with its subtle scaly ridges. She thought she looked strange but beautiful.

  She was still gazing at her new image when Darilth came up behind her and wrapped two strong arms around her waist, his hard body against her soft one. He kissed her neck, his nose in her hair. Her scent was more exotic now, headier even.

  “Darilth...” she whispered and turned in his arms, facing him. “How did this happen?” she asked him.

  “I promised you that I would make you my queen, remember?” he said with that gorgeous smile of his. “I couldn’t let you die so soon.”

  She simply gazed back at him in wonder. He claimed her mouth by his own with a passion so fervent and demanding that it took her breath away.

  “Where’s our baby?” she asked.

  “Come here,” he said in his low voice as he led her toward the other end of the room. A crib was placed
there alongside one wall and in it slept their son peacefully.

  “Thank you, Ella, for this wonderful gift. Thank you for giving me a reason to live,” he said, kissing her again.

  “You are welcome, husband,” she said smiling her dazzling, alluring smile. She picked up the baby and held him close to her heart.

  “What should we call him?” she asked.

  “Prince Zoralth Rothgar,” Darilth said, smiling down at his son. “It means brave warrior.”

  “I like it,” she said as she rested her head on his chest, the baby between them.

  Epilogue

  Six months later, Prince Darilth Rothgar was crowned the King of the Rothgar throne, and Ella Darilth Rothgar was crowned his Queen. The ceremony was grand and the people of Iovis celebrated their new King and Queen.

  It took Ella a few months to adjust to her new form. The dizziness and headaches went away eventually and Darilth taught her how to summon her inner dragon. It was a strange and thrilling experience for her when she first shifted form. It was as if she were discovering a whole new side of her inner self. Her dragon was pure and graceful, a manifestation of her soul. Darilth named it Saphira the Magnificent.

  Their son grew up fast – faster than a human child. He seemed to be two years old when he was actually six months. He was an unusually intelligent kid with bright blue eyes and dark hair. Merelith predicted that he would grow to be a strong warrior, stronger than other Drakonaars as he was a half-blood prince. Ella knew that she was finally home, and she was eternally grateful for that.

  *****

  THE END

  Bought by the Barbarian

  Description

  His broadsword is his only love. Until he sees her curves.

  T’Shav mercenary Ronan doesn’t want love. He wants a woman to take care of his ‘condition’, meaning raging hormones. And the bridal service is going to get him one. So where is the sweet, submissive wife he ordered?

  Paramedic Erica Chase is bored to death on her spaceship. Until she and her cousin Bethy are sold to a bridal service. There’s no way she’s going to submit to her new owner. But why does he have to be so mouthwateringly hot?

  What’s a gal to do? Just devour the sexy alien? Hell no. He says he’s not touching her until she’s on her knees begging for it. He must be joking.

  But Erica needs the hunky alien to find back Bethy. And Ronan has his own mission to complete. Space is a crowded place with enemies at every corner. It’s a good thing Ronan enjoys a bloody fight.

  Stuck on the same spaceship, Ronan knows one thing for sure. Anybody who thinks they can lay a finger on his mate and his unborn child will find another thing coming.

  What Ronan wants, Ronan gets.

  Chapter One: Erica

  The medical bay of the USC Battleship Sidhe was probably the most impressive one in the United Species fleet. It was full of the most up-to-date medical equipment, including DNA scanners that could tell a person what diseases they were genetically predisposed to in under a minute. It was also connected with real-time updates on scientific breakthroughs on various species: Dibat, Aphrosian, Suesue and many more.

  Erica Chase could remember vividly how she had felt the first time she came aboard the ship. She had been in medical school back on Earth before waking up one day to find she had been abducted and kept in a stasis chamber for hundreds of thousands of years. Almost everything she had known was ancient history. Even now, if she stopped to think about it, she was overwhelmed, feeling like she could easily have a mental breakdown. So she simply didn’t think about it, focusing on her job as a paramedic relief aid worker.

  Erica stood at attention, waiting for the chief medical officer, a green-skinned, winged Odap, to address the gathered paramedics. The translator chip implanted behind her left ear was buzzing. She'd have to get someone take a look at it soon.

  "Teniscore can be a dangerous world," the CMO said, glaring at the volunteers. "It’s been hit by a small asteroid, causing extensive worldwide damage, and as such it's the responsibility of the United Species Corps to step in and help the residents out. But the denizens of Teniscore are mainly T'Shav mercenaries, so you need to keep your wits about you. Especially the females among you. Understood?"

  Erica nodded, though she had to fight the urge to roll her eyes. T'Shav were thought of nothing more than mercenaries across the galaxy. The males were considered especially dangerous because of their musth, a hormonal fluctuation that made them more prone to violence, but that also produced pheromones that made any woman exposed to them go crazy with sexual lust.

  But Erica had met several T'Shav, and they were perfect gentlemen towards her. In fact, she had been rescued from a medical corporation that wanted to perform experiments on her by the T'Shav warlord Zon and given a place in his human sanctuary, until she decided to explore the galaxy.

  "Some of you might not take me seriously," the CMO continued, flapping his wings so he lifted a few inches from the ground. "But for your own good, you must not stray from the Corps officer assigned to your group. Do not leave the regulated safety zones. The USC cannot protect you if you don't follow the rules."

  Beside her, her cousin Bethy shifted, snickering under her breath. She brushed a strand of impossibly fine hair from her face. It was always falling out of the bun that United Species Paramedics were meant to keep their hair in. Erica's own brown bun was still tightly in place. But then, it had always been thick and coarse.

  "The way he's going on you think that these uniforms were negligees," Bethy muttered.

  Erica snorted loudly, which caused a few of the others to give her dirty looks. The uniforms were shapeless things, designed for comfort and maneuverability rather than looks. Erica had needed a size larger than what was commissioned to accommodate her extra-sized curves. She wore it as baggy as possible, but sometimes she still thought that she might as well walk around naked. Back on Earth, she had been self-conscious about her size. Everything about her was curvy, from breast to butt to thighs to stomach.

  Out here, though, curves on women were highly sought after. Not like on Earth where the ideal seemed to be big boobs, big butt, stick-thin everywhere else. In this new world she found herself in, they wanted curves everywhere. Flat stomachs were unattractive. 'Thigh gaps' were a cause for medical concern. When she first mentioned wanting to lose weight to her doctor, the Dibat had been horrified at Erica wanting to 'starve' herself.

  The downside was that Erica now found herself the center of unwanted attention, and she didn't know how to handle it. Going from being the girl nobody looked at to the girl everybody wanted was tough to get used to.

  The CMO grunted from where he stood and shook his head. "Take a look around you. Some idiot in this group will be certain to leave the safety of Corps protection and won't come back. Do you want it to be you?"

  "Oh, just shut up and get to the actual medical rescue already," Bethy muttered under her breath. "We get it, dangerous world."

  Erica repressed another snicker. The Odap took a moment to look around again. "I would again remind our human recruits that laws on human sentience are not yet fully legislated. There are still corporations that would love to get their hands on your universal DNA, and species that are dying out that would love to use you as breeders. But you are all so very smart that I doubt you would listen to me. Get to your shuttles."

  Bethy and Erica headed to the station they would be manning together. It was their job to record which paramedics were going to the surface and to make sure they had the supplies they needed. They weren't even going down to the planet, which Erica thought was pretty cheap. She left Zon's sanctuary with Bethy to explore the galaxy, but so far all she had seen was the USC paramedics training barracks and the inside of this ship. Not to say that the technology that she was encountering wasn't awesome, but she wanted to breathe the air of a new planet, she wanted to actually treat more than a few minor burns.

  She wanted an adventure. But she wasn't going to ask to be sent
to the planet, not until she had a better grasp on the first aid. After all, she and Bethy were still quite new to all of this. Right now, as boring as Erica found it, they were best suited for the job they had been given.

  "You know what's weird about T'Shav?" Bethy asked as they settled into their station. "Apparently their women don't ovulate like us. No periods. Must be nice. I wonder why it's only the males that go through musth. Do you think it works on lesbians?"

  "How should I know? You're the expert in that area, not me."

  Bethy shrugged. They started their work, which went smoothly. They had been well trained. Erica stared longingly at all the paramedics being sent to the surface but reminded herself that doing what she could do to save lives was more important than having her adventure. Soon, it was just her and Bethy left in the medical bay, keeping an eye on medical requests, making sure that the robots did what they were designed to do: essentially nothing.

  Several hours after this mind-numbingly boring activity, Erica's comm activated.

  "Paramedics Chase and Chase, you're needed on the surface!" The CMO's voice was strained. "Get to shuttle A-43 at once. The robots can take care of the processing."

  "Yes, sir." Erica glanced at Bethy to make sure her cousin also got the message and headed for the shuttle. "Why do you think he changed his mind?"

  "There must be more wounded down there than they anticipated."

  The shuttle was a small vessel that ran completely on autopilot. With the medical supplies crammed into it, there was just enough room for Bethy and Erica to squeeze themselves in. Erica's heart pounded with excitement, and she checked her belt three times to make sure she had everything she needed. Fleshseal, Bloodstore, regenerators.