Last but NEVER least to my fellow author friends in this scandalously, awesome collection Sienna, Erosa, Bridget, Aliyah, Latrivia, Pepper, Tiana, Serenity (Button) thank you for taking a simple idea and plan to give something special to the readers and jumping in feet first to the deep end! It is amazing what we can think of while eating and drinking around a table at a conference or on a cruise.
They picked the wrong warrior cat to abduct. Rym never liked being ordered about so when he discovers his freedom is weighed against his agreement to breed with Krysteena, the Amazon queen’s daughter, he practically purrs at the chance to prove to the beauty who’s truly in charge and escape.
Chapter One
Rymingten couldn’t help it. Her scent was driving him wild. Slowly moving in closer to her, he pretended he wasn’t paying her any attention and headed to another part of the house. In a flash he leaned in and nipped her on the hindquarters. He wasted no time dodging out of the way, knowing what was coming.
Hissing, Krysteena pivoted and swiped at him, sharp claws extended. If you bite my ass again…you’re going to be missing one of your bronze eyes, she mentally transmitted to him. She gave a single flick of her speckled tail and turned away, head held high, and left him in the middle of the kitchen floor.
It had been the same thing she’d said to him repeatedly through the days that made up the year they’d been together. Krysteena’s disposition had not changed by the Earth’s calendar—365 days.
He could not help admiring her as she was. Even though the form of a feline was not something she would ever carry in the reality of their world like he could, he could not help his mind from conjuring up images of them on Kitcy, his home planet, with her as one of his people.
Leaning back he licked his belly, deciding there wasn’t much else for him to do until lunchtime.
If there was one thing that had become clear to him, it was never piss off a fifth galaxy Amazonian queen. Especially don’t piss off one that was also a majji, a galaxy sorcerer. However, that was precisely what he had done. Being abducted the night before his expected nuptials, taken to another planet and telling the head of said planet he refused to marry her daughter had its consequences.
Consequence: cursed for a year to be a house cat on Earth.
Oh, yes, Eyleen, the Queen of planet Argona, had a sense of humor if nothing else. A cat was what he was. It was what all the people on Kitcy were. The only difference was that normally he was over five feet in length, adding another four feet for his extraordinary long tail, and he weighed close to seven hundred pounds, pure muscle in his cat form.
Looking down the length of his short, rotund belly towards his back paws and puny tail he could do nothing but see the humor in making him a two-foot, fifteen pound lap animal. A fat cat was what he was, a shame to his former image. Even worse he was unable to shift to his flesh form.
However that’s where the humor stopped. The vengeful Argona majji had decided to drop them off in the parking lot of one of Earth’s cat shelters. Within minutes, before he and Krysteena could figure out what was going on, they had both been scooped up by a human and taken inside. In days, they had been fixed. The thought of the word still placed a foul taste in his mouth and made him shudder in disgust of the humanoid planet’s barbaric practice.
He’d awakened with his procreation appendage altered and was promptly adopted with Krysteena by an elderly man. The shelter had thought they were a cute pair since they were “found” together and had given them away as a set.
He should feel thankful Krysteena, the queen’s daughter, had been placed on Earth with him. However, without being able to mate with her in cat or male form it was just too cruel of a punishment to smell her beguiling scent sun up to sun down over endless days.
Rymingten wondered how long Eyleen would leave them there. She had said a year, but when the sun rose on the day, there was no sign of the queen. He could tell that even Krysteena was worried her mother would not free them. Most of the days, his feline companion, who normally was only a long-legged female, sat staring out the front window of the house. Her head tilted towards the sky as if any moment her mother would appear.
It broke his heart during the first month to hear her mental thoughts as she pawed the amulet around her neck and attempted visual telecommunication with her mother. Pleading with the woman to free her and return her to their planet. The amulet was Queen Eyleen’s way of being able to locate them when the time came. So, even if he wanted to separate from Krysteena, he’d be lost to this world as a house cat for all eternity, and Kitcyians had long lives, double that of Earth people.
Through no fault of her own, Krysteena had been cursed and sent to Earth. No. Since he had turned down the offer to marry Krysteena, the queen had made him live with her oldest daughter. A punishment to see what he would be missing and the same reason the majji had doubled and intensified Krysteena’s scent.
And even worse, Krysteena hated him for it. Her bitterness was almost palpable in the air of the small one-room home of the old man. Rym could at least be thankful that she allowed him to curl up beside her at night, when the loneliness and longing for their own planets pressed in on both of them.
If he had that day before the queen to do all over again, knowing now what would happen to him, he would have broken the vow of his father, the King. The vow that had linked him with a female Kitcyian and brought shame to his family name, it had happened anyway. Even without being on Kitcy, he knew that he’d dishonored an oath of his father, because when he didn’t return, the nuptial ceremony would have been called off and Dyssa given to another.
Females on his planet were born few and far between. Therefore bargains and negotiations were made immediately following the birth of a female. It was a way to control fighting among men once the female reached maturity. At the point of maturity, a Kitcy female’s mating scent would permeate the air so strong that it would cause anarchy among unattached males—to the death of some.
Now, his father had lost the right to bid first on another female for him. It was possible that once he was returned to his home planet, if it ever happened, he would live out the remainder of his days as an unattached male, forever yearning for a mate with whom to bond.
Groaning internally, he rolled up to his feet and padded towards the washroom to wait for the old man to dole out his lunch. Yes, because fat cats on Earth were placed on a diet, their food rationed out in small portions. He longed for the days on his home planet where he could shift and hunt his own food.
~YH~
Mother. Krysteena tried to hold the name back. For months she had kept her thoughts of home to herself, instead of mentally pleading and whining for her mother to release the bands of the curse. She was a majji, too, like every female on her planet, but the queen’s aura of power was stronger and no other could unlink the strands of magic that Eyleen had put in place.
Today, she had attempted not to give in to the desperation in knowing that this day was supposed to be the end of the curse. However, as the sun began to set, she could no longer stave off the fear setting into the marrow of her bones. Mother wasn’t coming. Her heart cried.
Turning her head away from the window, she glanced in the direction of Rymingten, the cursed male cat. This was entirely his fault.
No one on Argona could fault her for her actions in kidnapping one of the King of Kitcy’s sons. The man had seven and Rymingten was the youngest. It was known all over the galaxy that her planet was dimensioning. It was reducing in population because Argona was primarily made up of females, there were very few men. Since shortly before her birth no male children had been born. As a magical planet there were many things they could create or produce; clothing, food, plants, and housing, but not life.
No, they needed males for this.
Their lack of the masculine gender was also the reason warriors from other planets had repeatedly attempted to invade and take over Argona. Many of the women were captured and made laborers on other p
lanets. However, they were not only majji, they were warriors themselves. So, they had battled fiercely, bringing victories over and over again. They wanted males to join with them to rebuild their planet with offspring not attempt to dominate the Argonian inhabitants. If they had been lesser females—frail and weak—then all would have been lost.
However, they needed more than a strong present, Argona needed a future. They could only achieve that future by joining with strong males, fighters. They would have to understand and honor the strength and way of an Argonian female. That led their search to Kitcy, to Rymingten.
Rymingten. He would be the first of many. She was sure that his disrespectful refusal to join with her had put a halt or at least stalled her mother and the battle council’s plan to proceed in their abduction scheme to claim more galaxy males.
Queen Eyleen. A whimper slipped out of Krysteena as rejection and loss ate at her core. Mother. The scream broke forth in her thoughts as she tried to draw an image of her mother in her mind. Quivering, it faded. As always the figure appeared and vanished, shredding her soul with despair. She screamed mentally.
“Hello, my daughter.” Suddenly, Eyleen’s image was there in the living room two feet away from the old man as he slept in the overstuffed chair. Vibrant and clear, her mother stood clothed in a melon-hued floor-length chiton with a serene smile on her face, as if it had only been yesterday that they had last seen each other. In Fifth Galaxy time, it was barely thirty days. Their days, with their three sons, were much longer than an Earth day.
She rushed to her apparition and stretched her cat form prostrate at her queen’s feet. I thought you would never come. That you had decided to leave me here.
“Never, Krysteena. I always keep my word to my chil—”
Queen Eyleen! Rymingten came skidding around the corner of the kitchen, his striped gray body tumbling and sliding along the tile as he lost his footing in his haste.
Krysteena gazed at him from her stooped position and laughed at his clumsiness and ridiculous appearance as an Earth cat. Now that her mother had finally appeared, Krysteena could allow her humor to come forth. Soon Rymingten would be out of her life for good. She didn’t take heed to the echo of sadness in her heart or allow it to grow. It was true that over the year she had gotten to know him and even recognized the spark in her belly that ignited every time he was close to her, that she kept buried inside, but their time had come to an end. He didn’t want her, had never wanted her, refused to assist her people and she would only allow herself to feel joy at his departure.
Finally, finding purchase, he halted and came to her mother and dropped down to his belly. I humbly ask your forgiveness, Queen Eyleen.
Her mother’s figure hovered before them silently. They both raised their heads, glancing up at her.
“Do you recognize that I am a powerful queen and my wishes are not to be brushed aside like a stardust moth?” Her eyes were fixed on Rymingten.
I do. And as I stated a year ago it was not my intention to refuse your petition, however—
“Do not allow your next words to cause me to regret coming to get you, Rymingten. I can very easily leave with only Krysteena.” Her mother warned.
Krysteena watched the male cat press his jaws tightly together and the short, low growl that emitted from him.
For a brief moment, she wished he would say something that would make her mother leave him here on Earth truly alone. It would serve him right for pissing off her queen and being banished, not to mention having made it so that she was cursed with him. But, Krysteena could not wish that for him. After a year with him, they were linked in an odd way. When he suffered, even the smallest of things, like hunger for food, she felt a small awareness of his ache.
She wasn’t sure what her mother’s purpose had been for placing her with him. Over her span of life, Krysteena had been nothing but a devoted daughter, following the queen’s every order. So, why she wondered.
“We return.” The queen declared when no further words were uttered by the Kitcy warrior.
Queen Eyleen waved her hand in a circle high above her head and a celestial wind rushed around her, Krysteena, and Rymingten like a million tiny stars.
Krysteena’s ears began to ring and her body felt constricted by the pressure of cosmos trekking. It wasn’t comfortable, but it was quick.
Before they took their next breath they were once again in the throne room of Argona in their normal form. Krysteena was overjoyed to finally be rid of the fur that had covered her body for a year. As if time had not moved, her mother sat regally on the throne, Krysteena stood beside her and Rymingten was on his feet before the queen. The council members were seated at a long table on the side of the room observing.
She’d almost forgotten how handsome and virile he was in the flesh. His short dark-golden colored hair, so different in length and texture from hers, made her fingers itch to touch it. He now wore the open shirt and trousers of his planet and seeing the way the material clung to his great height and the multitude of muscles covering his body made her feel feminine in a way she’d never experienced before. It was similar to the deep ache in her core that she had felt while they were in house cat form. But greater. That desire that had throbbed through her body and the scent she emitted had been manifested by her mother to taunt Rymingten, it hadn’t been real. However, what was happening to her body now was very real.
It wasn’t only sexual attraction; as an Argonian sexuality was common for them, something they learned to embrace at a young age. On her planet there may not have been males for them to join and breed with, but they did have sex dens with males from different, lesser planets. Non-warrior men. What she was experiencing was something else, something more intense and unfamiliar. It was so powerful she feared it, but as an Argonian female she was taught to fear nothing.
“What say you, Kitcy warrior? I offer you the blessing of joining with my eldest daughter. Live with her in her dwelling and breed with her. Submit yourself to my rule. Her authority.”
Unlike before, when Rymingten’s response was quick and negative, he took his time to glance away from the queen to Krysteena. Those bronze eyes of his locked on her, eyes she’d become used to staring into during their banishment.
She wished her power allowed her to mind read, see what it was that he was thinking, but it didn’t. So, she waited with the queen and the other council members staring at the scene before them. They were most likely wondering how it would play out this time.
“What is your desire, Krys?” Rymingten asked.
My desire? Krysteena wasn’t sure how to respond to that question. This could truly be her out. She could tell her mother that after spending a year with this warrior she had no desire to be with him through galaxy eternity. That she would prefer another be found that was more to her liking. However, as she stared into those majestic eyes, she couldn’t get her mouth to open and make the request to have him banished or sent back to his own planet.
“I am the one making the request here, Kitcy male.” Queen Eyleen leaned forward and shot Rymingten with a piercing look.
Seeming unfazed, Krysteena watched as his gaze slowly left hers and was set on her mother.
“My pardon, Queen Eyleen. Please do not take any disrespect. However, it’s possible your daughter may not be willing to join herself to me. If this is the case I do not believe it is important whether or not I give my consent if she does not wish for the situation to be made between us.”
Not waiting for her mother’s response to his small speech, he once again stared at her.
His gaze was too intense. The heat radiating from the unwavering look he gave her had heat spreading through her breasts and making her nipples draw tight against the standard soft material of her chiton. Tightening her hands at her back, she stifled the urge to place a protective globe around herself to ward off the effect of his gaze. However, she wasn’t even sure it would work in such a manner.
“You may be correct in your assessme
nt. What say you, offspring of my womb? Have this warrior or should I send him to the labor board for work?”
Krysteena knew the custom of her planet that captured males who refused to submit to a joining usually were sent to the harvesting fields to work, but for some reason she couldn’t see such a life for Rymingten. She wanted to harden her heart against the imposing male, but something she truly didn’t comprehend hindered her. Was it possible that the Kitcy people were some kind of emotional sorcerers?
“We wait?”
“What shall you have for my life, Krys…joined to you or the fields?” His gaze may have been intense, but, she noted the small arching of his brow.
Is he funning me? Did he see this all as a joke? Perhaps even now after experiencing the queen’s power he was plotting a way of escape? Hm, he would learn soon if this was his scheme that it was not possible. The boundary of protection around their planet was put there by using all of the Argona females’ powers, it was unbreachable. Impossible for anyone to travel out of it or in it without an inhabitant’s presence aboard a vessel.
However, that wasn’t the situation or an issue at present—her answer was.
“I will join with him. Now your fate lies in your own hands Kitcy warrior…what say you?”
Krysteena was sure if he rejected her mother again, the queen would end his existence. Even if her mother appeared to offer him a choice of labor…she knew what the queen most likely suspected—this warrior would be too much of a risk. He had enough stubbornness and determination that he could incite an uprising with the other males there. So, the best would be for Queen Eyleen to turn him into galaxy dust and release his soul to the gods.
Scandalous Heroes Box Set Page 138