by Vi Voxley
She should have been freaking out. From New York to an alien planet with golden-eyed warriors armed to the teeth, who both called her their queen. It was a very valid excuse to panic and break down.
Curiously enough, Chloe couldn't muster up anything else but glee. It was the magic of the two weeks promise. No matter what she did, after two weeks she had a way out and could return home, no harm done. So why not enjoy that wondrously beautiful world and the outrageous palace?
Even if people get killed here for the weirdest things, she thought.
Then again, getting hit by a bus in New York City was common enough. Every society had its weirdness, she figured.
It definitely helped to settle her down a little that during the teleportation, Chloe had managed to imagine the worst sort of possibilities, only to find none of them coming true.
Like, what if her fated match had tentacles? Or if he was... something unnatural, like a worm? Or if he didn't have a body at all? It was important to connect on an emotional level, which Chloe doubted could happen with a tentacled slimy time-beast.
Her relief had been overwhelming, seeing the "boys" were not boys by any standard. They were more like Greek gods with tempers, if the little show they'd put on for her was anything to go by.
So exactly like Greek gods then, she thought cheerfully, running right into a huge garden filled with the most amazing kind of plants as far as the eye could see.
A fountain sprayed her with what seemed to be perfectly normal water. It was a hot day and Chloe honestly didn't mind.
This is like a dream. An awesome dream that I can actually enjoy and touch and taste. And then I get to wake up.
As soon as she looked back at the warriors, a drop of tar fell to poison the pot of honey. The way the men looked at her was like she was an angel that had dropped from the sky – not that her unorthodox means of arrival was too far off. Chloe felt a little guilty, because they had no way to step out of the dream. It was all hers.
The alternative was ludicrous, however.
What was she to do, stay in a world she didn't know, in a time she didn't belong in? With not one, but two guys who seemed to settle every argument with a blade instead of their words like grownups?
I can't do that, Chloe thought, so how am I supposed to try and give this a chance?
It was a question she didn't know the answer to. Instead, she stopped under an arch overlooking a crystal clear pond that invited her to swim with a pull powerful enough to almost make her jump right in.
As she stopped, the men did too.
"Leave," the blond one told the guards who had followed them.
The tall-dark-and-handsome one grinned, baring his perfect teeth in a smile that would have brightened up his otherwise stern features if it wasn't so malicious. It was directed at the blond one, though, which was somewhat of a relief.
"Are you sure?" he asked. "I didn't think you had the guts to abandon their watchful eyes. What a ruler you would make, needing guards to protect you from me."
The blond one glared daggers at the other, opening his mouth to – no doubt – growl back something equally offensive. Chloe interrupted before he could say a word.
"I take it you two don't get along," she said. "Are you brothers or something?"
Until that, they'd been staring at each like they hoped the other would burn to cinders just by wishing it. Then their heads snapped to her. Chloe wondered if the word "brother" was somehow offensive in their culture, because it looked like she'd just uttered the worst possible curse.
She thought it was better not to point out how they calmed down at exactly the same moment, practically mirror images of each other despite how different they struck her otherwise, their eyes nailed to her.
"No," the blond one said, his deep voice making it very clear that there was no love, or family relation, lost between them. "Forgive me. We should have introduced ourselves to you first. I understand this must be confusing and strange to you. My name is Elias. I am the lord of House Greole, the royal family of Haverins, my people."
The dark warrior grinned again and Chloe half-expected to see him roll his eyes. He appeared to be too dignified to sink to such base emotions. Most of the time, anyway. The bit of pettiness between him and Elias was hard to escape.
She hadn't missed the furious look he'd given Elias when he spoke to her, as if the other was taking the words out of his mouth. It was kind of nice to see them fighting over such irrelevant things, all for her sake.
Turning to her, the dark-haired one said pretty much exactly what Chloe had expected:
"That last part is up for dispute, as you might have seen before. I am Vanor, lord of House Merive and the rule of Haverins is mine. I'm looking forward to proving that to you."
The urgency and determination in his voice made something inside Chloe click, remembering where she was and what was going on.
"I don't think we're quite there yet, do you?" she asked. "I didn't want to say anything before, but this queen thing is way too fast. We just met and I don't even know if I'm going to stay."
The looks on the faces of the warlords told her that she kept spewing curses with her words without meaning to.
"You must stay," Elias said and for once, Vanor didn't protest. "No matter what happens to us, it is clear that you are the destined to bring forth a new and better age for our people. I swear you will have a worthy warrior by your side, to give you children and–"
Chloe backed away, her mouth dropping open in shock.
"Whoa, whoa," she said. "What did I just say? We just met and you're talking about babies? Slow down a little. I was sent here with two names and I don't even know which one of you is the fated I was told about."
Once again, the men exchanged looks, but this time it was in mutual understanding.
"You were brought here by the messengers, weren't you?" Vanor asked, his voice even.
"The what?" Chloe shook her head. "No, it was some dating agency... you probably don't even date on this planet, do you? How can I explain this to you?"
Chloe chewed on her bottom lip for a moment, stopping when she saw the way both the warlords reacted to it. They looked like wolves ready to feast on a lamb. It was disconcerting, and sort of inexplicably hot at the same time.
"You would know them by a different name," Elias cut in. "To us, they are messengers. They possess great power, but they are benevolent. If they weren't, we would have destroyed them already."
I don't think so, Chloe thought, considering what she'd seen, but she didn't say anything.
How do you destroy something that exists out of time and space? She’d read enough science fiction to know stuff like that didn’t usually end well for the offender.
"We know of them, but so far, they haven't brought us anyone," Vanor added. "You are the first, which makes you significant. All the more because you appeared on this day."
"Yeah," Chloe said with a sigh. "I figured I interrupted something important."
"Coronation," Elias said.
Shit. My timing is impeccable as ever.
"Oh. Sorry. I didn't mean to."
"Of course you didn't," Vanor told her, waving the notion away. "You couldn't have known. The messengers gave you two names? Ours?"
"Yes," Chloe admitted, blushing a little. "I know this is awkward, trust me."
"Why?" Elias asked, frowning mildly.
It made his regal features somehow even more attractive. Like cracks in marble gave it personality, or something. She couldn’t quite put her finger on it.
"This is nothing unusual," Vanor added with a nod.
Coming face to face with two incredibly hot alien hunks is nothing unusual? Yeah, right.
"Do the messengers give options often?" Chloe asked, confused. "I thought the whole point of true love and finding your match was that there's supposed to be only one."
Vanor shook his head, grinning like he knew more than she did. He probably did. Shame Chloe’s attention was scattered by wo
ndering how his mouth tasted to really focus as much as she perhaps should of.
"Not in our culture," he said. "Here, a female has two mates. Two fathers for her children, to strengthen the bloodline. They didn't give you options, my queen. They gave you the names of your fated, just as we knew who you were from the moment we saw you."
At this point, Chloe thought she’d had all the excitement and shock she could handle for a single day. It seemed that the universe was eager to prove her wrong.
What? You've got to be kidding me.
Neither one of the warlords looked like he was joking. Chloe opened her mouth to say something, but no words came out. Her mind had completely shut down, unable to cope with the enormity of the news they dumped on her, just like that.
There was only one thing she knew for sure.
Reuben, I'm going to kill you. A little warning!? Too much to ask!?
"Okay," she finally managed. "Let me get this straight. You are both my fated mates and I am yours? You both want me to be the queen for you? At the same time?"
This time, both shook their heads, once again in unison, without seemingly noticing it. Chloe let out a little breath of relief. Okay. So she was missing something here. Fine. She was a corporate lawyer, she could deal with a little misunderstanding.
"Yes and no," Elias explained. "You are our fated and if the circumstances were different, you would have us both. However this cannot be. In two weeks, we will meet again at the temple and the new king shall be determined there, as well as your only mate."
"You're going to fight," Chloe said, unable to believe her ears. "I thought you were joking, or that you were going to, I don't know, duel. But you mean to kill each other."
She didn’t pose her words as questions. She couldn’t wrap her mind around that even being a possibility. Weren’t feudal times far, far behind? Did she travel over 7000 years into the future only to find that the universe still hadn’t figured out that killing one another was not the answer!?
"Yes," the men answered together, unfazed by the madness they were confirming.
"In the meanwhile, you could conceive," Vanor offered like it was the most natural thing in the world to just start making babies. "Like that, at least your first child would bear the genetic strength of two fathers."
Okay.
Chloe ran. It was really the only option.
8
Elias
It took all his willpower not to cut Vanor's throat right then.
Elias watched Chloe running across the green grass, dashing into a little maze that he knew well from the times he visited his father in his palace.
"You are unbelievably ignorant," he hissed at the other warlord, barely keeping himself rooted to the spot long enough to confront the Merive. "Was that really necessary?"
"It's the truth," Vanor said, looking at him with obvious resentment. "One of us must die, nothing can change that. As much as I loathe to admit it, if she conceived a child before the two weeks are done, it could be monumental for our people.
"Your blood is strong, as is mine. You know this."
Elias sighed, gathering his senses. It felt odd to hear Vanor talk like that, almost giving him a compliment, a precedent he doubted had happened between their houses for centuries. The commander of the Haverin fleet was right. Their houses had never joined and never would, but in Chloe, the power they bore in their veins might be joined for the good of all Haverins.
As much as he might have hated the fact, Vanor wasn't the worst warrior. He could very well be the best, aside from Elias himself, of course. Perhaps fate did have a plan for them. In Chloe's child, something good could come of their bound-to-fail joining.
"You might be right," Elias admitted, already walking away from the commander, "but that doesn't change the fact you scared her away. Imagine yourself in her stead. Dropped on a strange world, surrounded by people she doesn't know, far from home. And you tell her we want to breed her like some animal."
Looking over his shoulder, the warlord saw that Vanor at least had the decency to look a little taken aback. Sensitivity clearly wasn’t a strong suit of the Merive warlord. When Vanor started follow, Elias snarled in warning.
"Let me talk to her," he snapped. "You would only make matters worse. I'll see if I can calm her down. If she hates us both, nothing good will come of any of this."
Vanor seethed, but reluctantly nodded, staying behind.
Elias kept walking in the direction Chloe had disappeared, thinking it was the weirdest day of his life. In the morning, he'd had the rest of his life planned out and in order, certain that he knew how things were. Now, he had found his fated and she was everything Elias had ever hoped for. Yet he couldn’t simply rejoice in the joy of that understanding. As always, there had to be a complication.
He was forced to deal with Vanor. And as much as the other warlord made him want to strangle the life out him, Elias had to admit that when it came to their fated, the commander was almost tolerable. Which was perhaps the most insufferable thing of all.
Why did it have to be him? he lamented once more as he skulked through the maze.
He found Chloe sitting on a stone bench under falling vines, breathing heavily. As soon as she noticed him, her eyes went wide with fear.
It cut like a blade, stopping him in his tracks.
"Don't come any closer," Chloe said, her voice shaking a little.
"I won't," the warlord replied, choosing to omit my queen this time. "Can I talk to you? I – We didn't mean to scare you."
"Scare me," Chloe repeated, her hazels shimmering with equal parts shock and bemusement at his words. "I don't think that does this mess justice. I mean, what in the world was Vanor thinking? What were you both thinking? I have been on your world for an hour and so far, it's one insanity after another.
"You want to crown me. You want to put babies in me. You both want to fuck me. I don't even know this stupid planet's name."
She ran out of words, clinging to the seat, her head bowed and her beautiful body shaking. Elias saw no tears, but her distress was visible and hurt him almost physically to see.
He searched for words, determined to be better than Vanor. Unfortunately that left him with an unaccustomed duty of defending his enemy. Taking a step closer, the warlord crouched down a few feet from her, speaking quietly so as not to spook her further.
"The planet's name is Corolon and it's very beautiful," he began. "You must forgive us for being excited to see you. Vanor might be coarse and brutal, but I know he didn't mean to scare you. No Haverin would treat a female like that.
"Our people are mighty, but the ancient powers that once made us great are slowly fading. Vanor was wrong to put that pressure on you, but he only wants a chance to help our people. I think he has the wrong ideas in so many matters, but I don't doubt his heart and his love for you."
And his desire to claim you, his internal monologue added unhelpfully.
Slowly, like the first rays of the suns rising above the rooftops in the morning, Chloe lifted her eyes to him. It was one of the most beautiful thing Elias had ever seen, filling his heart with devotion and the will to do everything in his powers to make her happy. To never see her broken and distraught again.
"How could I help with that?" Chloe asked, confused. "I'm not a warrior, I'm not even a Haverin."
Elias smiled softly.
"No," he admitted, slowly moving closer to her. "But you are our fated. You have the ability to bear children that bear the abilities of both of us. I don't sing Vanor's praises often, but he is a powerful warrior and so am I. What he says is true. Any child of yours with us as fathers would be a born king or a fierce princess."
The words practically stung on his tongue as he spoke them. Never had he expected to be the one to talk up a Merive, much less Vanor.
"That is still way too much for me," Chloe replied, shaking her head. "I didn't ask for this. I only wanted to meet my fated."
As did I.
"And you did
," Elias said, coming to sit beside her when she didn't tell him to back away. "This is what we are. Trust me when I say that whichever one of us will survive to claim you will treat you like the queen that you are for the rest of your life."
Chloe looked at him, her face inches from him. Her big hazel eyes were filled with curiosity and, if he wasn't mistaken, desire.
"I am not some trophy to be won," she said, her voice heavy with emotion.
"No," Elias agreed, leaning in. "But you are worth fighting for."
He could not stop himself from doing what he did next. His lips touched hers and it was like lightning struck him. Every inch of his body came alive with passion, needing more of her even as he tasted her mouth. The warlord pulled her into his arms, loving the soft yelp that left her lips, drinking it like the sweetest wine.
Finally, he could feel her weight in his arms, the same way Valor had when he had carried her. Jealousy disappeared as he drank his fill of his queen.
Chloe's mouth on his felt amazing. Her pink lips were soft and full as Elias caught them in a fiery battle to kiss her deeper, his tongue meeting hers in a dance.
One of his hands was around her waist, groping her everywhere he could reach. The other was in her soft hair, pulling on it gently, making her squirm and moan into his kiss. It was driving him mad with lust. All he wanted was to rip that odd, tight dress off her, bare her naked body to the sun and take her like she clearly wanted.
The images before his eyes urged him on, picturing Chloe in the ripped dress, remnants of the garments hanging off her body as he thrust his hard cock into her, again and again... Her hazel eyes, more gorgeous than any pair of gold he’d ever seen, shining up at him… Her body begging for more…
It was the hardest thing he'd ever done to stop kissing her, when Chloe suddenly pulled back, looking right behind him. Elias turned, still holding her in his embrace, to see who dared to interrupt the moment and lose their head very soon. It seemed Leah was determined to become the shadow of misery in his life, standing without shame at the end of the walkway leading to them. There was not a hint of fear on her face, just contempt.