Alien Romance: The Alien's Vanished Princess: Scifi Alien Abduction Romance (Alien Romance, Alien Invasion Romance, BBW) (Space Beasts Book 4)

by Alyssa Ezra

  “Yes, well, this one seems rather sweet, if anything. Maybe a bit shy.”

  “Sets her apart from the other, it does. Though I don’t know about the shy bit. The chamber servants say that His Majesty had her screaming half the night during their nuptials.”

  Dax chuckled, and Moira found her cheeks burning.

  Oh God, they overheard me. Oh God. She covered her mouth with her hand to muffle a squeak of embarrassment.

  “Well, I for one wish them the best. The King certainly deserves it, after the disaster last time.”

  The two moved off down the hall in the other direction, their chattering growing fainter. She didn’t dare follow or she would be risking getting caught, so she backed off and started heading the other direction.

  By the time that she made it back to her chambers, Moira had come up with more questions than answers. Who was the Queen’s Consort’s son and how had he been involved in Tara’s disappearance? Why were the servants forbidden to talk? Why was there a giant cover-up?

  It was looking more and more like something terrible had happened to her sister, and the more she thought about it, the more worried--and pissed off--she got.

  She spent a while searching her chambers, looking for any evidence of their previous occupant, including paging through as many of the books as she could looking for hidden notes. She found nothing but frustration, emotional exhaustion, and a headache.

  When the chronometer on her neck chain chimed, she sighed and got up, standing and smoothing the skirts of her dress. Nothing for it but to face Brenn again. This time, though, she was too annoyed to worry about being super pleasant.

  He greeted her at the door to his chambers with a relieved smile and a kiss, and led her inside. His chambers were larger, with more of those fish-scale tile ceilings and matching floors. They sat in a dining chamber at a small round table, and he carved a fat roast bird with duck-like flesh for both of them.

  “I hope that you find your chambers to your liking,” he said cheerfully as he filled up her plate and passed it over.

  She nodded. “They are beautiful, and the book collection is most interesting. But I ran into a problem which I will need to be fixed as soon as possible.”

  He tensed slightly, and lifted an eyebrow. “And what is that?” There was an edge to his voice suddenly--a cold, uncompromising edge, as if his defenses were slamming up.

  “I explained to you on multiple occasions that my mother is ill, that this is cause for concern for me and that I would need to be able to keep in touch with her. Unfortunately,” she kept her voice as diplomatic as she could, but the cold in his voice sent adrenaline through her system that made her feel angry as well as scared.

  “The commlink unit that I was given does not allow me to contact Earth.”

  He blinked, and set down his fork, scoffing slightly. “Why would you need your commlink to contact Earth? You can always sit with me in my chambers and use mine.”

  She looked him right in the eye. “So I’m to understand that you’re not going to let me have any kind of private conversation with my mother--or any conversation at all, unless you are sitting there listening in?”

  He blinked, and his expression hardened. “You are my wife. You should not feel the need to keep secrets from me.”

  “Keeping secrets is one thing. Not being able to have a private conversation with my own mother about family matters without you controlling when and how long, and listening in on the entire thing, is another. What exactly are you afraid that I’ll tell her? State secrets I’m not privy to?”

  He paled slightly, but the mask of hardness didn’t leave his expression. “Take it or leave it,” he replied. “I have my reasons for wanting to monitor off-planet communications.”

  “You mean, off-planet communications that I make.” Moira glared back at him. “Are you my husband, or do you fancy yourself to be my owner?”

  His jaw dropped slightly, and he paled even further. But then he closed his mouth with a snap. “It’s not negotiable,” he replied coldly. “It’s a security matter.”

  Bastard. She went silent, simply glaring at him.

  In response, he poured the golden fruit-wine into two goblets and shoved one at her. “Drink,” he rasped, and then set to on his own, draining it in a few swallows and refilling.

  She nursed her goblet of strong, sweet wine as long as she could, meanwhile watching him work his way through most of the bottle while refusing to speak on anything that wasn’t completely trivial. They talked about food, the weather, the wine, and he got drunker.

  They talked about the forest wildlife and how it differed from Earth, and he got drunker. Finally, he set down his empty goblet--and knocked it over, scattering a few golden droplets across the tablecloth. “Oops.”

  He didn’t seem to be an angry drunk. His head drooped; his eyelids seemed heavy and his expression looked, if anything, tired and sad. It was such a change from his stone-faced demeanor at the start of the meal that Moira stared at him in surprise.

  Sighing, she got up and walked over to right his glass, and get the bottle away from his elbow before he knocked it off the table entirely. “Let’s just set this aside,” she said quietly, her own anger banked down like embers under ashes as she watched him drown sorrows that she didn’t entirely understand.

  He reached out suddenly and gripped her hand. It was a clumsy grip, but he didn’t forget his strength and hurt her. She couldn’t get out of it, though, which alarmed her a little. But then he spoke, with a note of pleading and deep sadness in his deep voice. “Don’t leave,” he mumbled, staring up at her with bloodshot eyes.

  She blinked in shock, barely fighting the urge to yank her hand away. “What are you talking about?”

  “Don’t leave. Don’t betray and leave me like Tara did. Please.” He stared into her eyes, and his own were full of such pleading and deep pain that it struck her to the core.

  Betray and...leave? What does he mean, leave? “What are you talking about, Brenn?”

  “She...she...changed her mind. I walked in on them. She told me she didn’t want me. Called me a heartless...robot. She went away….” He dropped his face into his hand, finally letting Moira’s wrist go as she stared down at him, gasping for air.

  “She’s gone. I couldn’t look at another woman for twenty five years, and then you came along and I...took a chance...and now you are angry with me.” He raked his hand back through his hair and stared up at Moira desolately. “Don’t go. Please don’t go.”

  Her jaw dropped. She had never imagined such vulnerability or despair from him. But finally she simply forced a smile and patted his shoulder. “I’m not planning to go anywhere,” she reassured. “I just want to call my mother.”

  That seemed to mollify him some, and he offered a small, drunken smile. But the whole outburst left her picking at her food as she stared at him now and again. What is going on, Brenn? What did you do to my sister?

  Chapter 7: The Servant’s Tale

  Days passed as the two of them got used to each other. Brenn became busy with the work of running his world again, which from what she could see mostly involved spending long hours on his commlink, heading meetings and giving orders.

  More than once she found him poring over tablets of information about the output and input of the factory moons and their trade with other worlds. Sometimes, he busied himself reviewing the troops down in the main courtyard, and had her watch, impressing her with both his command of them and how disciplined his men seemed to be.

  No matter what aspect of his job he was doing, he was calm and commanding about it, revealing nothing of the drunken, sorrowful man that she had tried to mollify during their first private dinner together. And even though she still didn't know if she could trust him, and now worried more than ever that he might have been responsible for something happening to her sister, she felt drawn to him more and more.

  She spent every night in his bed, in spite of her caution, in spite of the anger th
at she felt when she thought about how he was trying so much to control her and her communication with others. Even as her worry about her sister and her frustration at her inability to get to the bottom of the mystery grew, she still ended up in his arms night after night.

  She tried to ignore the rosy feeling that she felt every time that she woke up from making love with him and felt herself wrapped in his arms. She tried to tell herself it was mere chemistry--that his skill in bed, and her afterglow from it were responsible for all that warmth. But it kept getting stronger, and after a while, she had to admit that she was starting to get scared.

  I cannot fall in love with him. I have to remain objective. Just because he knows how to get me off does not make him a good person. It doesn't mean that I love him. It doesn't even mean that I have a crush on him. Brenn knows what happened to my sister and he's not telling. Until he lets me know what in the hell is going on, and starts to be transparent about things, I can't even begin to trust him.

  But in spite of all of her intentions, the feelings just wouldn't go away. Her body trusted him--and terrifyingly, maybe her heart did too. Those soft, warm feelings only got stronger over time, and the best that she could do was tell herself that all they were were lust and afterglow: a matter of simple, animal attraction.

  Despite her frustration and need to have someone in whom she could confide fully, Moira finally caved in and made her call to her mother under Brenn’s supervision the next day. She kept it audio only, not wanting her mother to see Brenn leaning over her like some kind of an untrusting authority figure.

  “Oh hello dear. Did you have a good trip? How long has it been?” Her mother's voice sounded weak, worrying her.

  “Just a few days. Don't worry, Mom. The transport trip was uneventful, just like you said it would be. I don't really have any news for you yet, but as soon as I do, I'll make sure that you get it. I just wanted to check in and really, and let you know that I arrived safely.”

  “Oh, good, good. See? You worry too much.” Her voice broke up into a weak coughing fit. “So what about this King fellow? is he a good man after all? Was he able to tell you anything?”

  Moira broke in quickly, before her mother could let slip anything further on what she was talking about. “He's fine, Mom. I'm really not doing badly here. I just don't want you to worry. Look, how is your health doing? Is the attendant working out?”

  “Oh yes, she's a lovely young lady. Makes great sandwiches, and she’s very careful with me. But I do miss you. I know the whole time anomaly thing will make it hard for you to visit, but I really hope that we'll see each other again soon.”

  Moira laughed a little awkwardly. “Well, ‘soon’ is relative, with the temporal flux in place. But I'm working on it. I’m hoping to have a lot of news for you very soon.”

  “Oh please do. I can’t wait to hear what you have for me. Will I get to see your face next time that we talk on the commlink?”

  She had to force cheeriness into her voice at that. “Of course, Mom. I’ll work something better out than just voice-to-voice, I promise.”

  “All right, sweetie.” She coughed weakly and cleared her throat. “I'm going to go now, I have a treatment that I have to be at in half an hour. I love you.”

  “Love you too, Mom.” She shut down the commlink, and then turned to Brenn accusingly. “There. Are you satisfied yet? I just wanted to talk with my mother. And not everything that we had to talk about are things she would be comfortable discussing around someone that she doesn’t even know!”

  He sighed through his nose and rubbed his temple. “Well, it's fairly obvious that you're not conspiring to do anything against my world with her.” His brows drew together. “How ill is she?”

  Moira’s jaw trembled. “She is ill enough that she may become terminal at any point. She has spacing cancer. It is dead common in the early generation of subspace pilots, before they improved shielding enough to protect them. Cosmic rays have basically riddled her. Now and again, some of her damaged cells mutate and start a new tumor somewhere. We never know where those cells are going to pop up next. In the last few years she’s gotten so many different kinds of treatment that she’s now several kilograms underweight from all of it.”

  “...Oh.” He sat back, his eyebrows going up. “And she does not like discussing her illness with strangers?”

  Moira wiped her eyes impatiently. “Let's just say that until she knows you very well, she is not going to feel comfortable talking about the kind of illness that leaves her throwing up her meals most of the time, and may kill her at any point. She's my mother. I want her to have at least a bit of dignity even if she can't have her h-health.”

  Moira’s vision was blurring, and she realized suddenly that she was starting to cry. She wiped her eyes impatiently again, and looked away from him, but he reached out and put a large, warm hand on her shoulder.

  “I am very sorry. You must understand. There has been great betrayal in my court before. I could not understand any good reason for you to want to keep your conversations with your mother from me. But if you were attempting to preserve her dignity, that is something else altogether.” He lowered his head slightly.

  “I would like it if you introduced us, yes. But...I will enable interplanetary calls on your commlink. Therefore, you and your mother will be able to discuss her health issues in private.”

  Moira swallowed the lump in her throat, and smiled with real gratitude. She had thought that he had simply been stubborn and controlling. But he was literally afraid of betrayal--and apparently, not without precedent.

  She had no idea what it was that her sister had been up to here--or how he had responded to it when he discovered it. But she did know that at least, he was willing to learn to trust her more.

  She sniffled, and was very surprised when he came over and wrapped his arms around her. Even more surprised, when she started to sob, with something that was as much relief as sorrow. She had never in her life had anyone to comfort her when it came to her worry over her dying mother. Now she did--even if she didn't know what his true motives were yet or if she could trust him--at least he did something when he saw that she was in pain.

  When had she ever had that kind of comfort from any man, ever? Once again, she felt torn in half. “Sometimes I don’t understand you,” she murmured against his shoulder.

  He buried his nose in her hair. “I have the same trouble with you, at times. I only ask that you not give up.”

  When she got back to her chambers that night, after they had made love again, and he had gone off to a late night meeting, she found herself in tears again. She felt torn right down the middle every single time that she thought of Brenn. And it was only getting worse.

  Even as much of a hard case as he could be, even as much as he intimidated her at times, and even though she really didn't know what his true motives were or what he had done with her sister, she realized now that she was falling for him. Really falling for him, in that dangerously vulnerable way that she had been fighting against the entire time.

  She cried so hard that for several minutes she did not realize that Telara had come in to pick up her dirty clothes and linens. She didn't realize that the woman was standing there awkwardly until her tears lessened enough, and she started to get her feelings under control.

  Finally, she looked up, and saw the older woman staring at her in shock and worry. “Oh my goodness, dear. What is it?”

  What she did next was stupid. Objectively, she knew it. But she simply couldn't stand it anymore, and so everything came spilling out of her mouth. “I'm scared. My mom’s so sick, I had to go away from her, my sister is missing, and no one will tell me what happened to her--”

  “Your sister? What are you talking about?” She sat down carefully in one of the chairs across from the couch that Moira had thrown myself down on.

  Morag pushed herself up, and stared in her eyes with as much earnestness as she could muster. “I know that you said that it is forbidden to
tell me about who lived in these chambers before me. But you need to understand that not knowing what happened to my little sister is making me crazy, and it's making my mother more than that. She is in despair. Is there any way, is there anything that I can do, that will convince you that I need the information that I asked you for? Because I can't stand the idea of my Mom going to her grave without knowing what happened to her favorite daughter.

  It took a minute for this to sink in; Telara sat there and stared at her, then finally stammered out, “Lady Tara is your sister?”

  Moira buried her face in her hands. “Yes. Originally, before I met Brenn and we...clicked, it was the reason I came here. I had to lie. Nobody from the consulate or the court would let us know what has happened to my sister. No one would even let us know whether she was alive or dead. Whether she had married the King...whether she had even arrived safely on the planet. And when you have a loved one missing, and you’re searching for the truth, you hear all these...rumors....

  “I didn't come here to make trouble. I just want my sister back. I have to know what happened to her. If you know something...please, just tell me! You can blame me for it if you are caught! Say I forced you to talk! Just please...don’t leave me and especially my mother in the dark!” Moira wiped her eyes, lips trembling, embarrassed by her outburst but also totally sincere.

  The servant stared at her for a very long time, and then let out a low sigh. “I see. So that's it. Though...I do hope that your affection for Brenn isn’t just an act because if it is, you're going to break his heart. And his heart has already been broken. I am not certain he would manage again without becoming very bitter indeed.”

  Moira shook her head convulsively. “I don't want to break his heart. I never wanted to deceive him in the first place. But I've been spending all this time wondering if he'd simply killed my sister.” She sniffled, and looked up at Telara bleakly.