by May Sage
As an Elite, she could have raised her child. But she’d chosen not to. She’d chosen to return to her life, to people who would hate her for what she’d done if they’d known, to a father who had never even given her his name, to an empty house.
If there was one mistake she could take back, it would have been that one.
“Why would your father say it was Jaycn’s idea?” she asked Alek.
He probably had no clue, but she could use a second opinion, would it be a seven-year-old’s.
The child shrugged.
“I don’t know, that’s just what he does. Uncle says it’s complicated. I think Father doesn’t like dealing with thanks. He’s shy.”
It took some effort, but Lena managed to disguise her laughter in a coughing fit.
His Imperial Grace Calden. Shy.
Hell could freeze over, pigs could fly, and pink unicorns could be parading around town and she still wouldn’t buy that one.
Seven
Ashforth
Jaycn
“She’s awake.”
Finally. Jaycn had barely slept for two days, and one glance towards Calden betrayed the same restlessness.
If the soldiers who’d left her to her own devices to go play in the training room never saw light again, it would be too soon.
Calden agreed; he’d suspended them, and then, reassigned them to the most boring, dark, uneventful system of the entire galaxy.
“You’re to speak to her and get conclusive answers about her father.”
Was he fucking serious?
Oh, yeah. He probably was.
“No.”
The answer was curt and final. Jaycn was done with that ridiculous shit between the two of them. They needed to speak – really speak.
“I beg your pardon?” Calden cocked his head sidewise, eyebrow raised.
“Naish. Nerah. Vierps. Gardj. No. I will not. You will go down, ask her about her family tree, nicely, and then, you’ll tell her what the hell she’s going to walk into when we land. I am your General, cousin, not a fucking messenger.”
“You are what I say you are, cousin, and right now, it is my fucking messenger.”
He did not.
Yeah, he totally had.
“Fine. Perfect. I fucking resign.”
He strolled out of the room; or at least, tried to. Five steps in, he was propelled back on his seat.
“Sorry. She gets to me. These few days…”
Jaycn understood; what Calden failed to get was that those two days had been just as bad for him, if not worse. Truth was, because of Calden’s attitude, he was much closer to Lena than any man should be to a lady he wasn’t attached to. She was his friend, and his cousin was his best friend. Seeing the two of them waste so much time was seriously getting to him.
And OK, it had a lot to do with the fact that Lena appealed to him.
Unbeknown to anyone – hopefully – he’d also tested her against his own genetics. Unsurprisingly, she was a twenty-five percent match – not nearly as impressive as her compatibility to Calden, of course, but it was still the second very damn best result ever recorded.
He really, really needed them to get going and start their bloody heart and flower romance, and soon.
Because if Calden didn’t make a move, Jaycn sure as hell would.
“She almost died because she wasn’t given the right attention. Don’t let it happen again. Tell her what we’re up against. Tell her about the factions. And cousin, grow a fucking pair of balls, and tell her about the Trials.”
Calden’s eyes widened.
“You believe she’d have a chance in the Trials?”
Jaycn just laughed. Calden really, really didn’t know Lena like he should.
There was nothing to believe. He knew that if she stepped into the pit, she’d win.
Lena
She was halfway through a messed-up version of Snow White including a sword fighting princess and an army of giants when Calden’s return interrupted her.
“What happen next?” Alek pushed, still so excited his eyes bulged.
Shit. Thankfully, the emperor had probably never heard of the original, so he didn’t know she was being a total weirdo right now.
She carried on, finally getting to a happily ever after where the girl, rather than the prince, ended up saving the day, because girls rock – might as well ensure her son knew that from an early age.
Alek kissed her forehead and ran out of the room at the end, probably hiding from whatever confrontation was brewing between his parents; the boy wasn’t stupid.
“I recall reading a few hundred books to familiarize myself with your culture. Not certain that story was quite accurate.”
“You read human books?”
She was surprised, and admittedly, impressed – that guy ruled over thousands of planets. A few hundred books from each civilization had to take a good chunk of his time.
“Some,” he replied, rather defensively.
She really, really tried not to, but a typical Lena smirk crept in and she couldn’t help it: “Let me guess, Fifty shades?”
Gottya.
Sure, he didn’t answer, but his expression said it all. He so was a closest romance book lover.
“Jaycn is better at this,” he announced, pointing to her.
If by that he meant, dealing with her, he had a point.
“But for some unfathomable reason, he asked me to do it myself. I need to explain a few things about Magneo to you and I also need you to explain to me how we’ve met your father at your place, when you’re supposed to be an orphan.”
Ok, then, dive right in. No lube, no foreplay, straight to the ass.
Suddenly, she understood why Jaycn was normally doing the talking.
“You’re not good with people?”
Calden glared at her, his golden eyes blazing more than usual.
“I’m the Emperor of an entire galaxy.”
That couldn’t have sounded more egocentric if he’d tried.
“That means,” he carried on, actually getting in the room, shutting the collapsing door behind him, “that my subjects keep me at arm’s length. I don’t get to speak to many on a personal level. So, no. I’m not good with people.”
The admission shocked her more than anything she’d ever heard from a Klint. Sure, she could have guessed that herself, but the fact that he actually said it was just weird.
“Your father. Please start at the beginning. I won’t judge. Nothing he does will have any impact on your status amongst us. I just need to understand.”
Lena looked at him for a long time, while trying to decide whether she could believe that.
Eventually, her gaze took in something peculiar on his forearm.
There was a long gash, slim and faint, but still visible. It hadn’t been there the day before.
“Tell me why you went to my house, first,” she challenged.
He generally had no issue confronting the full force of her glare, but his eyes went to the corner of the room, and he bit his lower lip, uncomfortable.
Shit. Here come the hordes of unicorns.
He was shy. Or perhaps not, but modest, in any case.
“Jaycn and I realized that there would be no reasoning with you if you left something you cared for.”
“Jaycn hates pets in general, and Mr. Pepper in particular. Try again.”
Ok, she was just being nasty now, but this was fun. Calden actually squirmed.
“I chose to go get him,” the Emperor amended through his teeth. “Happy?”
Yes. Yes, she was. Actually, she was a bit giddy, and part of her wanted to go give that guy a hug.
Then, her brain kicked in and she stayed on her bed. He certainly wouldn’t welcome that kind of thanks. Instead, she gave him a token of gratitude he would appreciate: she talked.
“Before you arrived, I used to be called Elena Snow. My dad is Michael Ashforth. He was very high up in the army, and he led many attacks against the Klints. When
you won the war, he formed the Dissenters. I wanted to stay out of it, so he helped me do that. Step one was to ensure no one knew who my father was, hence the change of name. Everyone called me Lena, anyway.”
She watched him closely as he took it in.
He didn’t even flinch, and there was nothing in his gaze when she revealed the one secret she’d never shared.
“That’s why you ran, all those years ago. You thought we’d found out.”
She shrugged.
“You wouldn’t have gotten anything from me. I don’t know what he does, where he is. We barely have any contact. When he pops in, he asks me about my job, my cat, my son. We don’t talk about things we know we won’t agree about. It’s pointless.”
Calden really wasn’t bothered, which was a shock to the system. She’d expected to at least get a gasp out of that confession. At worse, she’d believed she would be escorted to a torture chamber just to check she was telling the whole truth.
“There are some kind of Dissenters in most planets we annex, to start with. They generally disperse within decades, at most. There are bigger problems out there… Which leads me to my reason for being here. I have suspected, and I can now confirm, that the attack on us wasn’t perpetrated – or at least, not organized – by humans.”
Eight
Factions
Calden
There was no doubt in his mind, now.
He’d thought of it from the moment he’d heard the first bomb go off, and by the time the attackers let him go, he’d been fifty percent sure. Speaking to Michael Ashforth had made things practically positive.
Truth was, the earthen Dissenters had no reason to want to harm Alek. The child was half human; if anything, they could be certain of his empathy towards their lone, defenseless planet, because it was the home of his son.
However, there were those amongst his rank who weren’t singing the same tune.
Since they’d invaded Earth, his personal enemies had quadrupled. There were those who saw Earth as their weakness – because they supposedly needed its females for their evolution.
It had been true enough a while back. Now, they were mistaken.
Over the last years, there had been hundreds of births – a number he wasn’t broadcasting – and half of those were females; fertile females. Within fifty years or so, the Klints would be stronger than ever.
But then, there were the new enemies, from within, those who belonged to political factions. The purists, the feminists, the traditionalists, the radicals.
Some of the breeders they’d brought from Earth had established themselves with their partners; they were currently heading households, just like Klint females, and a lot of people were against it.
They all had their rational behind it, but bottom line was: these Klints believed that the human females were inferior and should therefore be enslaved for the greater good, or at least, treated as pets, not partners.
The fact that Calden was firmly opposed to their opinion made him an obstacle to eliminate.
The issue? Most of those partisans were females and Calden, for all his power, had no authority on female Klints. No one did. No one would, until he got a consort.
With no way to punish or interrogate any female suspect, they’d ran around in circles, and would have carried on doing so for the next hundred years if the Ancients hadn’t called for the Trials.
The fact that his son had been attacked days after the announcement of the upcoming Trials wasn’t lost on him, either.
He explained the faction’s belief, and Lena was visibly pissed off, predictably; then, Calden surprised himself by stepping forward, and sitting down at the foot of her bed.
She didn’t protest.
“I have to go back a few thousand years to get you to understand what’s happening right now. Before we started exploring the galaxy, before technology, when we weren’t anything, except warriors.”
Everyone knew about the Trials; it was strange to have to explain it out loud.
“In those days, there used to be a code of honor. Women killed women, men killed men.”
“Because women weren’t as strong?” she guessed, rolling her eyes.
He laughed out loud.
“Sorry. No. Because women are more vicious, have a higher pain threshold, and are more dominant, too. Our society is matriarchal.”
She liked that; she liked that a lot. He’d never seen that broad, beautiful smile. He hated that she’d owned it for so long and never shared it with him.
But then again, he’d never given her a reason to. Perhaps she shared it with Jaycn.
“Cut to the chase: we formed a government, which needed rulers. While the males had been reasonable about it, and a vote had been enough to choose the one they believed was the strongest amongst them, the females weren’t as easily contented. Eventually, they decided on a series of trials to pick their leader. Over the years, we’ve tried a few different methods – voting, again, and some rulers have had the leisure of choosing their partners, during times of peace – but whenever it is required, the oldest and wisest amongst us call for the Trials.”
Calden thought back to what Jaycn had suggested. He could see it; his mate in the pit, fighting against all the other contenders.
For him.
In his mind, she was strong, unfaltering and victorious. Reality was something else entirely. Lena had a lot of internal strength, but during the Trials, females needed more. Even amongst Klints, only those who’d been trained since birth for that very purpose stood a chance.
Regardless, it was exactly why he hadn’t even attempted to form any kind of bond with her: to avoid putting her in a situation where she had to defend herself against a female Klint.
“We need these extremist factions to stop; that can only happen if we can interrogate females. So, the Ancients called for the Trials. They are taking place in a few days.”
Her green eyes found and held his; had they always been so intense? He wasn’t sure what to make of this look, but it was powerful, intrusive.
“So you’ll marry whoever wins?” she summed up.
She’d gotten better at hiding her emotions than she’d used to be. The voice was flat. The face betrayed nothing.
But the eyes…
She didn’t like that. Not one bit.
Yeah, he felt pretty damn smug about it.
“Yes. Although marry is an inaccurate term. We’ll be contracted.”
Which meant one compulsory fuck every year or so.
She broke the eye contact, uncharacteristically landing her gaze down on her knees.
“What has it to do with anything? The attack…”
“The attack was targeting Alek. Truth is, he is a wild card, in the sense that he, and not any child raised by my consort, is my heir. He’ll be closely watched, and intensely trained over the next…”
He let the words die on his lips when he saw Lena’s expression.
Fuck. Where had that come from? Fire. She was all fire right now.
“Your potential consorts are already trying to get to our child?”
Was it wrong that he really, really wanted to get her naked when she said that? Our child. Half her, half him, perhaps conceived in a pipette, but developed in her womb.
“Yes. It’s customary. Alek will be protected by…”
“You bet he will. How do I sign up?”
Calden blinked, unsure of what she’d just said. Or rather, really, really hoping he got it wrong.
That was what it meant, right? The way his heart had started beating so damn fast. It was concern for her wellbeing. No way was he elated about the fact that she’d be willing to take the Trials.
No way. He knew better than that.
For everything holy in the universe, was he really smiling? It took some effort, but he managed to stop.
“You can’t mean to…”
“I’ll die before I let some skinny ass get her claws on my boy, so how do I sign up to your Trials?”
“Lena, you can’t. I’m not doubting your capacity to pass the intellectual trials, but there will be a physical test; a fight, against very well trained Klints. They could… they would hurt you.”
“And trust me on this, I will hurt them back.”
Fuck. He was hard. And pretty damn annoyed, too, because he saw that she wasn’t going to let that one slide.
But mostly, hard.
“In any case, I’m your best option. Think about it – what if the winner was a partisan of one of your factions. What would you do then?”
One beat passed, where he couldn’t do anything, save for staring at her, blankly.
Shit.
He really hadn’t considered that possibility.
Jaycn
After a detour via Lena’s new quarters, Jaycn returned to his cousin, knowing Calden probably needed help, since Lena had told him she’d announced her intentions to enter the Trials.
While it was unlikely that the Emperor might choose to confide in anyone, Jaycn felt compelled to offer his support. And a few shots of something pretty damn strong, if necessary.
Antithetic, sure. They were, after all, both interested in the same female. The thing was, Jaycn was more concerned about Lena’s happiness than getting in her pants – ok, marginally. While there was any chance that she might be content with his cousin, he would encourage them both.
He found Calden in the Commands, but instead of paying attention to the various screens around him, he was reading on a portable device.
The Emperor was so immerse in that report that for the first time since they’d met as younglings, something close to one hundred and forty years ago, he didn’t even notice his arrival.
Jaycn caught a word when his eyes inadvertently glanced down over his cousin’s shoulder.