by May Sage
She was sipping her second glass of champagne, when a tap on her shoulder made her turn. She expected Lena, but it might have been just about anyone, from a servant to the Emperor himself.
The one person she would not have thought of was him.
Him.
Her scientist.
Her genius, slightly imbalanced – well actually, pointblank crazy – Klint of a mate. Long shaggy hair, gorgeous grin and all.
She stared and blinked. Then, she pinched her arm, for good measure. Ouch. Nope, she was definitely not dreaming.
“You’re here.”
Ok, a bit obvious, but given the fact that she hadn’t seen the man for twenty years, she felt quite entitled to a couple of minutes of shock.
“So it seems.”
After one very, very long minute of silence, she stated:
“Sooo… that’s totally not awkward.”
“I never apologized,” Cedar replied, his eyes fixed on hers, yet so distant. “I never actually bothered to say I’m sorry, Willow. I am. I was wrong.”
Willow shouldn’t have been quite so stunned; after all, the guy had totally withdrawn from civilization.
“Excuse me, have you or have you not killed the pig who raped me?”
He opened his mouth and closed it again. Good.
“Have you or have you not brought back hundreds of women, and given information which allowed us to save more?”
“I was responsible for…”
Willow was not a violent person by nature, but she couldn’t help it: she poked him on his hard chest, right between his pecks.
“Don’t you dare. There’s a huge chain of events, from the minute I left Earth to the day that scumbag assaulted me. I don’t blame you.”
Over the years, she had – blamed him, and her parents, too. They should have cared for and protected her, they should have fought for her.
Then, she’d put herself in their shoes. Her dad had been brought up in a way that made what she had done – fucking her boyfriend without having a couple of rings on her finger – seem completely evil. He’d believed he was protecting her younger siblings from her influence, when he cast her out. Sure, that was very old fashioned, but it was part of his beliefs. Cedar had believed he was doing the right thing, too. He’d changed his mind because he was smart, but at the time, he hadn’t for one instant thought that he might possibly be in the wrong.
The man who came to her room and forced her had known; he’d loved her despair, her angst, her agony. He’d bathed in her screams. That was evil. This was unforgivable. Ignorance wasn’t a sin anyone of forty-three should blame others for. There were many things she’d believed completely harmless twenty years ago, too.
Stupid as it was, Cedar had genuinely believed that humans weren’t quite sentient, quite intellectual enough to be ruled by emotions. Did anyone ask their pets whether they’d liked to be washed on a certain day? Did anyone ever think twice about the feelings of their vibrator before making use of it? Just a few hundred years ago, humans were treating their own race exactly the same way, because of where their ancestors were born, because of the color of their skins, their sex. Hell, it was still the case in some parts of the world. Ignorance was a widely spread disease; she admired Cedar for breaking free.
“I should have protected you. There should have been no other priority in my existence.”
Oh, for Christ’s sake.
“Fine,” she snapped. “You, my mate, should have protected me. For this, I blame you. I blame you for not being there when I broke my arm last year, and every time I might have wanted someone to rely on. You aren’t responsible for what has occurred twenty years ago, but me being alone every day since? That’s on you.”
And on that note, she turned her heels and walked out.
He stared at her back blankly for all of twenty seconds, before rushing behind, grabbing her hand, pulling her to him and taking those damn full lips.
Alek
Two hours later, he was in his room when his door opened behind his back.
“What do you want, cousin,” he sighed, without stopping his hasty packing.
Normally, he didn’t bother with much luggage, but he had no idea how long he’d be gone; as long as it took. He wasn’t coming back until he’d either find a grave or his mate.
“Nothing. I just have to say, as hissy fits go, that was rather dramatic. Just the right amount of flair. Too bad mum and dad were still away, they would have liked the show.”
He was pretty certain they would; they were missed, every time they left in their long, pointless excursions to find Uncle Jaycn’s lost sister.
Well, until now, he’d called it pointless. He finally got it. If it took him twenty years to track down Ava Williams, so be it.
Except that he wasn’t likely to be alive in two years, let alone twenty.
Ana Williams’ presence had tipped the scale back to zero: he wasn’t bestial anymore – but he would be, and soon, because he wasn’t going to be in the same room as that harpy ever again, if he could help it.
“Go away. I don’t need a freaking babysitter, Stel.”
“You’re right,” his cousin nodded. “You never did. You needed a friend in your corner. I’m here to say sorry. Mum will totally kick my ass when she hears I’ve stopped you from going to find your mate.”
Alek shrugged.
“You had orders.”
“I sure did. But the thing is, I am Duke of Essa. You’re heir to the entire Galaxy. Screw orders, cousin. We freaking rule. So, I figured I’d make up for my lack of guts before and tag along with you now.”
Thirty-Five
Pairings
Jaycn
He was going to murder her, there was no way around it. Two decades. She’d led them in that merry chase for two freaking decades.
It was pure chance that he’d stopped on Dragnes. Tania had expressed the wish to see it and well, there wasn’t much he could deny Tania – not even those two damn cats she’d made him buy – so he’d dialed through and requested permission to land, only to be met by his freaking little sister.
Riding a dragon.
If the rest wasn’t enough of a valid reason why she deserved excruciating pain, the fact that she rode dragons sealed her fate. He’d never been as envious in his life – except when he’d believed Tania and Calden had a thing.
“Stop being grouchy. I mean, we didn’t see each other for what, fifty four years before that?”
“At least I knew you were alive!”
“Come on, you’ve found my marks,” she shrugged, dismissing him. “Besides, I was working on Beneth. He’d almost agreed to visit you guys, but then, we had Reiss. He grew a little bit protective during my pregnancy.”
Recalling the way he’d barricaded Tania when she’d been expecting Stel, he couldn’t, in all fairness, blame the barbarian for that.
“Then one thing led to another and… well, years pass pretty quickly.”
That sounded reasonable, to his great dislike. That only left one protest:
“But he wears a skirt!”
The seven foot tall barbarian growled, while the humongous mountain of scales behind him chocked out something that sounded like a laugh.
“Well, yes. There’s that. I’ve been trying to sell him on the pants thing, but no dice.”
“This is a great traditional…”
“Skirt,” Xian interrupted her mate, dropping a kiss on his cheek and smiling.
The barbarian shook his head, attempting to disguise his goofy grin, and failing.
“We have to tell Calden you’re OK. He’s as worried about you as I am, you know. Why didn’t you just send an all clear with your microchip?”
“I was on a mission; soldier’s microchip can’t connect to the Imperial system when they’re off course, for security reasons.”
He opened his mouth and closed it again. Oh, yeah. That little rule he’d implemented…
“Ok, stay here one sec. I’m just sending
a quick word to Lena – she’ll read us quicker than anyone.”
Interplanetay communication via microchip was not a piece of cake, so it helped to address someone who could take control of the connection.
After some effort, Jaycn managed to log in, and regretted it immediately when he was greeted by a sniffle.
Lena was sniffling. Not the way someone who had a cold would, either. She’d been crying.
The world was ending, there was no other explanation.
“Lena?”
“Jaycn,” she replied weakly in his mind.
“What’s wrong? Is it Calden? Alek?”
“Alek…”
Holy shit. No, that wasn’t possible. No one was stupid enough to attack the Wild Prince, the entire galaxy would hunt them down.
“Alek hates me, with good reason,” she brawled and Jaycn released his breath.
Oh, good. She was just PMSing.
“Now, I’m sure that’s not true…”
Then, she told him what had occurred.
“Oh. Well, you’re right, he probably hates your guts right about now, then.”
Two hours into their visit, Jaycn was enquiring about the cost of real estate and planning the details of a permanent move. This was their kind of place; simple, drama-free, and full of cool dragons.
“Come on, it’s just two of us. We won’t even stay the whole year – can we do timeshare?”
“No,” was the constant reply coming out of the WarLord’s mouth.
It may not have been wise to comment upon his choice of clothing quite so many times.
“But tell me of this nephew of yours. How does he hope to find his mate in the entire planet?”
Jaycn was quite worried about it, too. From what he understood of Lena’s babbling, the girl had left no trace for two years – no credit card, no permanent address, nothing. It might not have been a problem, if Alek hadn’t been in such a tight schedule – he’d revert back to his bestial behavior in no time.
“Well, perhaps…”
Everyone glanced up to the barbarian, who just shook his head.
“You cannot do this. There is a galactic law about starting sentences and just leaving them hanging like that. It’s been classified as a form of torture!”
“You people really need to spend some quality time with ropes and chains,” Beneth protested with a disgusted expression.
Smirking, Xian sent him a suggestive look and echoed his “Well, perhaps…”
The barbarian’s jaw hit the floor. Then he turned towards Jaycn and retracted his statement:
“Good point. We’ll add this to our laws, too.”
“Finish what you started and I might do the same.”
Oh, his sister was a very, very wicked lady.
“I meant to say that perhaps there may be a way to… speed up the process. You know.”
Everyone shook their head, because they didn’t, in fact, know.
“It’s not a very hard situation. Here, it would be resolved in a few minutes. When you track a prey, you must have a good idea of what you hope to catch, and the tools to find it.”
“Beneth dear, would you please say whatever the fuck you could possibly mean?”
“This Alek boy knows what his mate looks like – he probably recalls other things, too – smell, aura. He can do nothing with this information… but if the child had a dragon, together, they’d find her in two hours, tops.”
Alek
He was pretty sure he was dreaming. Everything since his conversation with Uncle Jaycn had been completely, utterly surreal.
He was on Dragnes. As in, the system no one ever goes anywhere near, Dragnes, the home of barbarians so powerful the Empire had never even considered annexing them.
And he was there because his long-lost aunt was reigning upon its people. Also, her mate had called to ask him if he’d like to get himself a tracking dragon.
That bit was the one thing that guaranteed he was awake. He didn’t have enough creativity to imagine something like that.
“You have to understand the consequences,” the impressive, huge badass said, his voice grave and theatric, but it went well over Alek’s head, because he was staring at the dragon behind the guy.
The thing was currently on its back, and his aunt was stroking its scales.
“Yeah, definitely.”
“What did I just say?”
Man, he hated when people caught him out like that.
Getting his chip to rewind the last few seconds, he summarized:
“If I get a dragon, it’s going to change my life. I’ll need to have a big ass ship wherever I go, and rebuild a home about ten thousand times the size of my current one.”
Totally worth it.
“It is a bond for life, just like the mating you’re fighting for.”
“Hm hm. Is the dragon purring?”
Understandably, meeting the giant cat wannabe had given him a somewhat impractical idea of what dragons actually were.
One hour later, he was shown otherwise.
The creature in front of him was quick, silent, intimidatingly intense, and gorgeous. Purple scales, a long tale and velvety wings.
Beneth had warned him the dragon would be small, now; they all were, before binding their souls to their riders. He hadn’t realized that small meant the size of an average car.
He soon worked out what the shield in his hand was for – after getting half of his hair singed off.
He also realized something else. The dragon hadn’t wanted to kill him – otherwise it would have aimed lower.
This was just a game, an introduction.
Safe in that knowledge, the Wild Prince did his thing.
“Alright, you wanna play? Let’s do this.”
He wasn’t nearly as proficient as his mother, but his gift for creating matter was equaled by no one else. Within a minute, he was covered in an exosuit fitted with wings.
“Catch me if you can, pal.”
On that note, he jumped up, powered up his suit and flew towards the skies.
Somehow, it worked. The dragon just couldn’t resist a race.
Ten minutes in, he casually dropped his frame behind its wings.
Alek stayed two painful days; he was in a hurry, but being rude to his extended family wasn’t an option. Each time they crossed paths, Beneth was grumbling something about his two hour hunt. Apparently, some guys took weeks to bring their dragon back, the first time.
Finally, though, it was time to return where he belonged.
Thirty-Six
The End
It was the crappiest job she’d ever had so of course, it was also the longest. Five months, she’d lasted, so far. She could totally imagine that now she’d found somewhere that couldn’t possibly be any worse, she’d be left alone.
Fantasy number five hundred and seventy four was leaving the continent. Surely, Ana hadn’t yet conquered Europe? Australia? Africa?
Give it time, Ava thought bitterly.
She was just getting in her cupboard size apartment after a long ass day – Ava needed a shower and, as per its default state now, her hair needed a wash or ten, but she just dropped on her tattered sofa and turned the TV on.
Oh, that looked interesting. She couldn’t afford cable, so the programs she generally had to put up with sucked, but it looked like there was a pretty good film on; she did love a good old fantasy movie.
After a while, Ava frowned, when the familiar face of the seven o’clock anchor man came on screen. She checked it – twice – but the TV really was turned on the news, yet cameras were filming a guy riding a freaking dragon from the west coast to the east coast.
What. The. Hell.
It wasn’t April’s fool, and there wasn’t any major political campaign, so what was it all about?
She turned the volume up.
“We have had confirmation. This has indeed been sanctioned by the Empire. In fact, you’ll find that the… the gentleman currently riding the fucking drag…
mhh… the creature is his highness Adelei Leyn Eljun Klauss. Yes, ladies and gentleman. The dragon rider is in fact half human!”
The news guy was shouting like it was a football game and she could hear the crowd filming him cheering proudly.
“Now the question is, what reason could he possibly have to head towards… is that Annapolis?”
Ava nodded as though the guy could hear her. Yep – it was definitely Annapolis.
Oh damn. With the luck she had, he was probably storming into her place to tell her off about her sister.
She laughed at her own silliness, until the doorbell interrupted her.
She frowned; she didn’t know anyone here.
Getting up, and reluctantly shutting off the TV, she dragged her feet towards the door and looked in the peep hole.
Oh, the owner. She’d said she’d stop by to pick up the rent.
“One minute,” she called out, grabbing her bag to quickly write out her rent money.
She opened without checking again and almost caused herself a heart attack.
The first thing she noticed was the guy himself – she recognized him immediately, although it had been perhaps nine month since she’d seen him at that hotel.
Then, she saw the dragon behind him, chasing its tail on the dirty grass square her landlady called a garden.
Fucking shitty hell. No. That couldn’t be. Ana hadn’t sent a pissed off alien prince to her door. She just couldn’t have been that dumb.
Focusing on what she could control, she turned to the woman who’d gone into shock and handed her the check.
“Hey Brenda. Thanks for dropping by. Bye,” she added.
She took the very subtle hint like a champ, the seventh time she told her to go, but in a way, Ava was grateful; by the time she was done shooing her away, she had regained some of her countenance and could manage to look into the deep amber eyes of the freaking yummy Prince of the Galactic Empire and official owner of Earth without swooning.