Commanded to Dream

by Jennifer Leeland

  “Yes, Councilwoman. May I ask what this is regarding?”

  “No.”

  Well, that was short and to the point. He nodded and signed off. The hover car arrived a few minutes later and whisked him to the capitol building. Andev hadn’t been to the council chambers since his first Hadaji when they explained to him that he would never be able to attend the ceremony the way other Dormrelian warriors did. Like he had to have that explained to him.

  The residual bitterness of that meeting still left a foul taste on his tongue. He’d been twelve and already dreamed with Shasta Pasquel. There had been no need to explain to Andev that he was “different” and couldn’t reveal that to anyone. Didn’t he know that?

  Since then, the government had carefully chosen his Hadaji partners. None of them had satisfied him the way Shasta did in his dreams. In those fantasies, he could be gentle and loving. In his dreams, he could be himself. Not in real life. The council wouldn’t allow it. What did they want now? It was no coincidence that he was being summoned days before the Hadaji.

  The council chambers were white, pristine and intimidating. Each of the members sat in a semi-circle slightly raised above the stone floor. A bench stood in the center of the chamber. Andev Juno had heard stories about what that bench was for. Public consummations between high ranking Dormrelians were not uncommon. Lately, it had been used for the mating between Sierra Pasquel and Terek Majii. Andev wished he could have seen that.

  “Andev Juno, we need your help.” Councilwoman Patel spoke first. Her scales were a brilliant purple that shone in the bright light of the chamber. Her eyes were a violet color that matched her beautiful scales.

  Andev bowed his head. “I am at your service.”

  “We need Shasta Pasquel’s DNA.” The statement was bald.

  He studied each of the council members. “May I suggest that you ask her? She was quite generous with it during the fight at Asberek, often to her detriment.”

  Shera Patel exchanged a glance with several of the other council members and then met Andev’s gaze. “She will ask questions. We need her commitment to our human population the way we obtained Sierra Pasquel’s cooperation.”

  Andev’s stomach flipped. “An arranged mating? She has no reason to agree to it.”

  “You must get her to agree to it.” Patel stared at him. “We understand you have met the human woman.”

  “Once.”

  Two of the council members exchanged a cryptic glance. What the hell was going on here?

  Councilwoman Patel leaned forward slightly. “Can you convince her?”

  “You’re asking me?” He shrugged. “I’m just another warrior. What do I know?”

  Patel shook her head. “You forget, Andev. We carefully studied your lineage. We had to. Your father is one of our leading scientists and your mother—”

  “Yes, my mother. Why don’t we leave her out of this discussion?” He glared at the council. The bastards. His mother died protecting him, protecting them all, and they dared to bring her up in a conversation.

  “We cannot, Andev Juno.” The woman kept saying his full name, reminding him that he was a descendent of a powerful family. “She was human, descended from the original Asberek humans. You, of all Dormrela, know what happens when human DNA and Dormrelian DNA are not balanced.”

  The memory came at her words. His little sister. She lived only a few months after his mother had been killed by the Ang. Her suffering had been unfathomable. Andev carried the guilt that he was a healthy, human male, and she had died a twisted screaming mass of flesh. Little Ana.

  He clenched his fists and gritted his teeth. “You know I can’t say no. You’ve counted on it.” The trap had been set before he was even born. If it wasn’t Shasta Pasquel, it would have been another female. It was too dangerous, too risky, to allow him to mate randomly.

  There had never been a chance for love.

  Patel’s gaze was soft and compassionate. “Terek Majii also mated this way, Andev. Perhaps you will be fortunate as he was.”

  “Sierra was given a choice, and she chose to mate Ambassador Majii. How do you propose I convince Shasta Pasquel?”

  Salran Fentler leaned forward, his four blue eyes focused intently on Andev. “The usual way. Charming this woman can’t be that much of a challenge.”

  Andev snorted. “You have not met Shasta Pasquel.”

  “I hope to meet her very soon. They arrive in two hours.” The man leaned back and smiled.

  Another planned surprise. Andev curled his lip and stared at Shera Patel. This was her doing. He shook his head. “You work fast.”

  Patel stared at him, her expression sober as the grave. “I have to, my friend. We’re running out of time.”

  The meeting was over, and Andev stormed into the lobby, his head pounding. Opposite feelings warred for dominance. Inside, he roared with satisfaction that the object of his every sexual fantasy was going to be on Dormrela. And his. His stomach churned with anger at being used by his government to further some genetic experiment.

  He took a deep breath. No, experiment was the wrong word. Cure was a better one. Could he condemn any more children to the horrific death his sister had suffered? Regardless of what he’d said in the council chambers, Shasta Pasquel was known for being a self-absorbed little twit, not magnanimous.

  “There is much more to this than we’ve revealed to you, Andev.” Councilwoman Patel laid her hand on his arm. “The council is divided. You must bring peace.”

  “I don’t know what you mean,” he said.

  “The Dormrela are dying,” she said bluntly. “The same affliction that is destroying the Ang is also eating away at our people. The human hybrids are no longer the only children being born deformed.”

  Andev’s mind spun. Dying? What did she mean? He had heard of birth defects spreading planet wide but had attributed it to environmental factors, not genetic. “The Ang are dying because their DNA is a closed door. They spent years only allowing certain Ang couples to breed. They’ve created their own problem. We don’t have that kind of culture. How did this happen?”

  “Walk with me.” The councilwoman’s head came to Andev’s shoulder, and her diminutive size should have made him feel confident and powerful. Instead, he felt awkward and clumsy. She led him to a huge vid room filled with several screens and a control panel. On the screens were secret human conclaves, a combination med unit and haven for the many that lived a lie to maintain the Dormrela façade.

  Patel pressed a button and a chart rose onto one of the screens. “With the increase in those Dormrela that advocate pure DNA, the number of birth defects are staggering. Even our human population, so carefully controlled, has become genetically stagnant. It’s only when the Dormrela DNA combines with human DNA successfully that the genetic dead end is broken.” Her four eyes focused on Andev, and he felt like a child again, like his mother was telling him something important. “That’s the reason the Ang tried to steal you. That’s why they killed your mother.” Her gaze floated back to the screen. “But our secret won’t be a secret much longer.”

  Andev started. What? They had kept the human population on Dormrela a secret for over a hundred years. What had changed?

  The colony and the Pasquels had changed things. “I still don’t understand.”

  “The Junos have never truly acknowledged you, have they? The Dormrela side of your family allowed you to carry their name but gave you nothing else. It is your grandfather who leads the Dormrela on the path of destruction.”

  Andev gritted his teeth. “Pater’s political opinions are his own.”

  “He does more than have opinions, my friend.” She stared at him as she pressed a button. On the screen, Andev’s family gathered. At least two of his uncles and his grandfather seemed to pour over a genetic tree transposed on the wall. Weapons, charts, and military maps filled the screen.

  His family was planning a revolt.

  “I have no control over them,” he said. What could he
do? His family had hated him, rejected him, despised him. “They fight because they believe the Dormrela have been diluted, tainted, by human blood.” And so they had.

  “More than that, Andev. They want to reinstitute the Barracks.”

  Shock held Andev silent. The Barracks? No! Never! That remnant of Ang domination still stood, but only because the only weapon that would obliterate them was too powerful. Huge complexes sprawled over an entire continent now abandoned by his people. There, the Ang had experimented, tormented, forced bred the Dormrela and, later, the humans they’d captured from Earth.

  How could any Dormrelian ever consider bringing that back?

  “What have they done?” He forced his hands to relax, uncurling them from the fists he’d unconsciously made.

  “Take my word—”

  “Show me!”

  The councilwoman tightened her lips and pressed another button. On the screen, Andev’s grandfather, his blood kin, watched as he forced a human-Dormrelian hybrid woman to mate with several Dormrelian males. Her rape was brutal, ugly, violent. The hatred emanated from the screen. This was no experiment. This was revenge, hatred, bigotry.

  “I don’t understand,” he whispered.

  “They trick and entrap human hybrids,” Shera Patel said flatly. “They offer a solution, hope to those who have lost loved ones like your sister. They promise research, but what they seek is a way to manipulate the DNA, to end the human population on Dormrela.” She waved her hand toward the screen. “Sometimes, their subjects get wise. When they do, the Sidharta use them as examples.”

  Andev swallowed. How many times had he heard his grandfather spout just those ideas? Too many. To see his family participate in a brutal rape like this made his stomach roll.

  One of his uncles took great enjoyment in subduing her. “Yield, bitch.”

  The woman’s gaze focused on her rapist’s face, and she spit at him. “I am a Dormrelian warrior. I will never yield.”

  Her words unleashed a fury in her abuser Andev had never seen. He beat the woman, his fists pounding into her soft flesh again and again.

  Andev ground his teeth and watched until the end. The woman died, but she didn’t go down easily. Until the bitter end, she scratched and clawed until blood streamed from her mouth.

  Finally, Andev’s grandfather shot her with a disintegrator. It was almost a relief.

  “My family. My blood,” he whispered. He glared at the councilwoman. “What does mating with Shasta Pasquel have to do with…that?”

  “The council is split, Andev.” Shera Patel stared at the screen. “On one side are the traditionalists, the members who desperately want to hide our human population from the harsh glare of the rest of the galaxy.” Her gaze swung to lock onto his face. “The other side wants chaos and destruction, beginning with exposing our council’s biggest lie.” She took a deep breath. “Each side has an agenda.”

  “And what side are you on?” he asked.

  “Neither,” she answered quietly. “At least, I don’t support the extreme versions of the combatants’ opinions,” she said with a wry smile. “I understand the consequences of both. If we continue to hide that we continued the breeding restrictions the Ang began with our human population, when the secret gets out, the rest of the universe will distrust us, hate us. If we allow the Sidharta to reveal our secret, they will use it to create instability, tapping into the most negative parts of our people; their bigotry and xenophobia.” Her gaze was steady and clear. “I believe there’s a middle ground.”

  “And where do you plan to plant me?”

  Patel’s four eyes deepened to a darker violet. “You’re going to touch off the revolution.”

  Chapter Three

  The first thing Shasta noticed on Dormrela was the trees. On Asberek, most of the vegetation was thick and heavy, but not tall. The forest off to the right of the shuttle landing bay where the Asberek ship landed was filled with huge, giant trees.

  An official greeting party clustered around the entrance to the building at the shuttle bay. None of them mattered to Shasta. There were only two people she wanted to see—her sister and the strange Dormrela warrior.

  An odd hum began to vibrate from the crowd of people that lined the windows of the building. “Elise,” Shasta heard one of them whisper.

  She shot a glance at her mother. What had her mother done to create such a weird reaction? The hum stopped, and the silence was even more eerie. Hundreds of Dormrela lined the entrance to the shuttle bay building.

  A hand gripped her arm and squeezed. “Shasta!” Her sister’s voice was filled with both pleasure and concern.

  Shasta whipped around and stopped dead, staring. This was her sister? When Sierra had left Asberek, she’d been a shy, plain Jane. Shasta still towered over her in height, but Sierra had a confidence, a strength, that was new. Sierra’s hair was braided in a complicated hairstyle, and her hazel eyes were emphasized by dramatic eye makeup. Her gown was simple but absolutely stunning, showing perfect curves Shasta had never noticed before.

  Mating had been good for Sierra.

  “Sierra! You look fantastic,” she said.

  Sierra grinned. “I know. I glow, don’t I?” she joked.

  There was something bright and beautiful emanating from her, and Shasta thought pregnancy had changed Sierra into an exotic woman.

  Elise hugged her daughter. “You look so happy.”

  “Mom, I’m so glad you’re here, but…” Sierra shot a glance at Shasta. “I didn’t know you’d brought Shasta.”

  “I thought it would be a nice surprise.” Elise seemed unconcerned and puzzled. “Why?”

  “I’ll explain later. Meanwhile, you need to move quickly before we cause a riot.”

  “A riot?” Shasta’s mother echoed. “What do you mean?”

  “Mom, you’re a superstar here,” Sierra said, exasperated. “Didn’t you know?”

  While they talked, Sierra shoved them toward the exit and nodded to several big Dormrelian warriors who flanked them. The crowd surged forward, their scaled hands reaching toward Shasta and her mother. Where the hell was their escort? Ben and the other soldiers were swallowed up by the masses, and Shasta lost sight of them.

  A contingent of Dormrelian soldiers stepped forward and pressed the crowd away from them. A hovercar slid parallel to the curb, and they were rushed inside it. The door slammed shut, and Shasta sank into the cushions. “Well, that was interesting.”

  “Alright, Sierra,” her mother said firmly. “What the hell is going on?”

  Sierra’s gaze touched her mother’s face and then she turned away. “Like I said, you’re famous here, Mom.”

  Elise shrugged. “I study their culture.”

  “It’s more than that,” Sierra said. “It took me a couple of months and a very tense conversation with a Dormrelian ambassador to find out why.” Sierra stared at her mother.

  “The stones.” Elise sighed. “That was supposed to be a secret.”

  “It is.” Sierra’s gaze dropped away. “But there are too many secrets.”

  “Like what?” Shasta asked. Her sister had a look on her face that Shasta hadn’t seen since they were children. Sierra had often been privy to her sister’s secrets, their escapades. Keeping such things from their parents drove Sierra crazy. This was the same expression. “Spill it.”

  “I can’t.” Sierra glanced at Shasta and then her mother. “Things have gotten complicated.”

  “Why is that?” Elise raised her dark eyebrows.

  “The Sidharta have attacked several compounds.” Sierra sounded evasive. She’d never been a very good liar.

  “What else?” Shasta demanded.

  Sierra sighed. “I didn’t want to tell you this, Shasta. The Ang released another of their damn vids. I think it’s because I’m pregnant. The Sidharta attacked in response.”

  “Those assholes,” Elise muttered, and her hand tightened into a fist.

  “I don’t understand,” Shasta said. What the
hell were they talking about?

  “One of their prophecy vids.” Sierra tightened her lips.

  ‘Oh.” Shasta had nothing else to say. Every few years, the Ang released these vids that spouted the prophecies associated with the Pasquel sisters. Shasta ignored them, refused to watch them. Apparently, these damn things incited local violence.

  “Is that why those crowds were there waiting for us?” Elise wanted to know.

  “It played a part, I think.” Sierra rubbed her temples. “Your arrival is viewed as some kind of omen.”

  “They seemed fairly harmless,” Shasta said, trying to make light of the subject.

  Sierra sighed. “For every Dormrelian who believes in the prophecy vids, there are ten who hate us because the predictions are from the Ang.” She shook her head. “Right now, having you both here is like throwing gasoline on a fire.”

  Elise’s hands twined together in her lap. “Make arrangements for us to leave, Sierra. There’s no point in making things worse.”

  Sierra nodded. “There’s no flight out until tomorrow.”

  “Damn it.” Elise bit her lip. “Alright. We’ll have to hole up at your house.”

  The hovercar slid inside a massive gate that closed behind them. They stepped onto a rock driveway that led to a palatial house. Standing on the porch was a tall Dormrelian who wore a long, red robe indicating his rank as an ambassador.

  “Shasta, this is Terek, my mate.”

  A large Dormrelian male with bright green scales held out one of his right hands and his robe parted. He wore black pants, but no shirt. Shasta couldn’t help comparing him to Andev. The scales were a different color, Andev’s a slightly different green. Terek’s were a deep green, shiny and slick. Andev had gold threads glinting in his scales, giving them a brighter look.

  Shasta couldn’t believe the house where her sister lived now. It was huge, sprawling in every direction. The colors were natural, with warm browns and muted reds dominating the rooms. Artwork depicting stunning sunsets filled the room with bright color and beauty.

  Shasta’s mother dispensed with formality and hugged Terek. “Thank you, Terek. I know my daughter is happy with you.”