The Impatient Lord

by Michelle M. Pillow

  “I don’t care about the ore. You’re mine. You are coming home with me,” he stated.

  “Then pray to your gods that I win.” Riona lifted up on her toes. She felt him inside her, his fear and fierce passion. This dragon man would die for her, but she couldn’t let that happen. She pressed her cheek to his and whispered, “I feel you, Mirek. Whatever happens, know that I will always feel you.”

  “Your move,” Range demanded angrily. He looked like a petulant child with pouted lips and angry eyes.

  Riona sat and tried to concentrate on the game. The deepening connection she felt to Mirek gave her strength, but it also distracted her with the fear of what she stood to lose.

  Her game was not as strong as it had been against Teev, but she managed to stay relatively close to Range in score, though he was a few points ahead at the end of the first round. Her fingers shook and a few times she was zapped with electricity. The jolt stung, but nothing like the second round. Tiny burns crisscrossed over the backs of her fingers. Each time she jumped, she felt Mirek behind her ready to interfere.

  As the second round started, she closed her eyes and took a deep breath, willing Mirek to relax. Almost instantly, she felt calm. She looked up at him questioningly. Had he really felt her request?

  He took a deep breath and nodded. Riona felt a weight being lifted from inside her chest. Her focus returned. Range tossed his disc. A sliver of electricity shaved the side. It floated a few centimeters and then dissolved.

  “No!” Range yelled, leaping out of his chair. “That was in. I get the point.”

  “The board doesn’t lie,” Riona said calmly, just to irritate him. She knew how much he hated to be mocked. “Maybe you’re just not good at the game.”

  He pointed at her and hissed his breath through clenched teeth. Then slowly took his seat, running his fingers through his hair. “Your move, Ri.”

  She stared at the grid, tapping her finger thoughtfully as she made out a pattern in the seemingly random strikes. When she learned the rhythm, she was able to throw with confidence. Her disc knocked an active one off the grid.

  “Stop tapping,” Range muttered.

  Riona would have sworn she felt Mirek touching her, but when she looked at her shoulder he stood a couple of paces away with his arms over his chest. He stared at Teev in warning. Teev seemed unconcerned and focused on the gaming table.

  “Go,” Range demanded.

  Riona picked up an inert disc and smiled. She pretended to be bored as she again tapped the rhythm. What players like Range didn’t seem to get was that gambling wasn’t really about the game. It was about the players. Men like Range were easy to read because he liked being in control and he didn’t like to lose. Already, he was mad about being forced to sit at the gaming table. He was the type that liked to place bets on others and then beat them with a pipe if they lost.

  They played several moves before Range was zapped again. He glared at the grid and then Teev. “You know, I think you laid bad odds, G’am.”

  Riona arched a brow.

  Range lifted the remainder of his discs and tossed them onto the board at once. They crashed and fizzled, forfeiting the game. Teev made a loud screeching noise. Riona covered her ears and flinched. Range stretched his hands behind his head and laughed.

  “I don’t like having my hand forced,” Range said when the screeching stopped. “You should have taken that into account when you double-crossed me and agreed to this game.”

  Riona held her disc, stunned that it was over.

  Range turned his attention to her. “As for you, I get pleasure out of knowing I ruined your big score. We’re even.” He leaned over and whispered. “Look at your shifter’s angry face. Think of me when he’s punishing you for your deceit.”

  “The terms are set. We will wire your space credits immediately and send a ship to pick up our ore.” Teev moved to the door.

  “Oh, cheer up, Teev. The gods of chance are smiling at the games today, aren’t they?” Range mocked.

  “Let’s get out of here,” Mirek said. He helped Riona to her feet and kept her by his side. She felt the tension rolling through him. They cautiously followed Range and the alien back through the corridor to the exit. When they arrived at the corridor joining the G’am and Draig ships, Riona was careful not to turn her back toward the pirate and his alien friend.

  Range eyed Mirek’s hold on her and realization of her situation dawned in his expression. He looked at Mirek’s face and then hers. “Now that I think about it, what do you want to stay here for? Your debt is cleared. Come with me. Join my crew. Let’s go have some fun.”

  She didn’t trust him or his offer, but even if she did, she had no desire to fly away with him. “Sorry, Range, you’re not my kind of pirate.”

  “Are you sure? I’m betting there is something we can place a wager on.” He smiled, a deceptive look that hid the almost desperate need in his eyes for something to happen.

  Riona felt a little sorry for him, for she’d been like him in some ways. She’d been trapped in her life, endlessly searching the universes for answers to questions she didn’t know to ask. Whether it was luck, chance, fate or the gods, she’d found the answer she needed. Mirek. He was home. He was family. He was her life.

  “When you find yourself in prison, don’t think of me,” Riona said. “And I will never think of you.”

  Range smirked and gave her a quick nod. Then, frowning at Teev, he grumbled, “You owe me fifty-thousand space credits.”

  “Is that a challenge?” the G’am asked.

  “Let’s get off this ship before they change their mind.” Mirek took her by the arm and practically ran with her through the air-lock corridor joining the ships. He punched in his access code and barely waited for the door to slide past before pulling her through the narrow crack. Not letting the door open fully, he ordered it to close and detached the corridor. He stood, holding her tightly to his body as the ships unhooked.

  “Get us out of here,” Mirek demanded over the intercom. “Now.”

  “Please be seated,” the pilot answered.

  “Now,” Mirek yelled. The ship lurched. He held on to her with one hand and a metal bar with the other while bracing their weight against the violently shaking motions of sudden flight. “The Fajerkin made this happen?”

  Riona nodded, gripping him so she didn’t fall. “Yes. They told Range. I knew he’d have bounties out on me.”

  “I’m cancelling their order. We will no longer do business with them. No one attacks my wife.”

  “Mirek, it’s all right. We’re safe,” she assured him. “I don’t want you hurting the business because of me.”

  “I was thinking of breaking ties with them ever since you told me how they treat their women,” he admitted. “Their business is no loss to us.”

  “I love you, you know it. You’re a good man, Mirek.” She gasped as the ship unexpectedly changed course and began to vibrate.

  “You are never allowed to gamble with your life again, my love,” he growled and strengthened his hold. “It is no longer yours to do with as you please.”

  “Excuse me?” Riona pushed against his chest and he loosened his embrace. Though still in flight, the ride smoothed. He still held on to her as he walked her down the corridor toward their seats so they could prepare for their decent onto Qurilixen.

  “You said you felt it. You’re inside me, Riona. I can’t live without you. The ceremony doesn’t matter. I realized we don’t need the formalities to be together. You are my wife. I don’t know if we were foolish or in denial, or if the gods simply decided we’d finally earned it, but you are mine and I am yours. My life is no longer my own. All that I am is yours. And all I ask for in return is you.”

  She forced him to stop walking and jerked him to her. Lifting up on her toes, she grinned. “Well, dragon man, if you put it that way…” Riona kissed him hard and didn’t intend to stop.

  “The alien craft has left our airspace. It is safe to go to y
our seat, my lord,” the pilot’s voice said. He paused. When Mirek didn’t answer, he insisted, “Um, my lord? I can’t land until you’re seated.”

  Mirek leaned to press the intercom button. “Take us around the planet a couple times. I’m busy kissing my wife.”

  “Yes, my lord.” The pilot’s tone held a trace of laughter. “Orbiting the planet now.”

  Riona leaned to the intercom and pressed the button. Smiling seductively at her husband, she said, “Pilot, you’d better make it three times.”

  Epilogue

  Breeding Festival Grounds, Draig Palace, planet of Qurilixen

  “No children? Are you sure? Can nothing be done?” Prince Ualan gave his cousin a sad look. The Draig princes and noblemen watched the tents being raised for the upcoming festival. Their wives and children were inside the palace waiting for them. It was believed their eight blessed marriages would bring luck to those who searched this night, and so the princes and noblemen went to honor the prospective grooms with their presence. After the brides landed, they would slip away to join their family.

  “For now,” Mirek answered. He wanted children, but he was willing to trust the gods would bless him if and when it was time. “But my wife is awake and healthy. For that blessing, I would give her the medication a thousand times. If it is not meant to be, we will take in an orphan.” He looked at his adopted brother and grinned. “Welcoming Vlad into the family turned out all right.”

  Vlad winked at him. “The House of Draig needed a little wild blood in it.”

  “And if none of that happens, I will have my nephews and my little cousins.” Mirek smiled. Nothing could dampen his spirits. Riona was his life and he was hers. That would be more than enough blessing.

  “I, for one, am just glad I do not have to don the loincloth again,” Bron said. “I would not have survived another failed attempt.”

  “But waiting for your bride was worth it,” Prince Zoran stated. He stood with his arms crossed, looking at the valley as if he was a general overseeing his army encampment.

  “Yes,” Bron agreed. “More than I can express with words.”

  “I, for one, am very pleased I don’t have to read any more Lithorian documents,” Prince Olek said. The Royal Ambassador had thanked Mirek profusely when he’d found out the happy news.

  “Oh?” Prince Yusef inquired. “Please don’t tell me we’re no longer getting chocolate. My firebird won’t be happy.”

  “Do not worry. Princess Olena will be well stocked. Lady Riona renegotiated the deal. We get all the chocolate we want, whenever we want,” Olek said. “All we have to do is place the order.”

  “Well done, Lady Riona,” Ualan stated, nodding happily. “This will please the women greatly.”

  Mirek watched as a group of loinclothed men walked through the grounds. He could see their excitement in their steps. Soon that energy would be pulsing through the air as dusk came to the planet. The small thrill of anticipation filled him as he thought of what was to come. Though not necessary for their marriage, his wife had insisted he bring the loincloth with him. Apparently, she had her own night in a tent planned and for them there would be no restriction on what could happen.

  “I almost feel sorry for them,” Mirek stated, nodding at the grooms. If they found brides, they would not be able to claim them completely until the ceremony was finished. “If they’re blessed, they’re in for a very torturous night.”

  “After the problems with the last shipment, we almost cancelled our business with Galaxy Brides, but then we’d deny all these men the chance at the happiness we have found. I may not like how they do business, but who are we to question how the gods deliver our fates?” Ualan motioned the others to follow him down into the valley. “Come, let us find the rum and make a toast to our hearts. Without our wives, our lives would not be whole.”

  * * *

  “I can’t explain it,” Riona told the women. They sat in Princess Nadja’s palace home surrounded by sleeping babies and trays of decadent chocolate. Her high-backed chair practically swallowed her in comfort. “Mirek and I have a special bond.”

  Nadja and Olek had a relaxing home filled with life—from the abundance of plants, to the center water fountain in the front hall, to the walls of giant fish tanks.

  “What do you mean special?” Princess Morrigan asked. She cradled her son in her lap. The baby already showed signs of being strong-willed. He had his mother’s dark hair and his father’s brown eyes. Morrigan lightly stroked his hair, causing the thin strands to stand up in a strip of hair down the center of his head.

  “We feel each other,” Riona said. “I don’t know how it happened, but I can sometimes feel him so much that his mind becomes clear to me.”

  “And he calls you from across the castle?” Nadja asked. Her son lay in a bassinet. The boy was a tiny little thing, but with the way he ate he’d soon catch up to the others.

  Riona nodded. “Yes.”

  “All the Draig couples have that,” Olena said, bouncing her red-headed son to keep him from fussing too loud. Riona couldn’t help but smile when she thought of the woman who’d drunk whiskey with her on the Galaxy Brides ship and spoke of marriage like it was something to mock. Oh, how time had changed that woman’s tune. Olena was completely smitten with her Prince Yusef.

  “They do?” Riona asked in surprise. She looked at Aeron, who nodded in confirmation. Baby Lantos snuggled next to Clara’s and Kendall’s newborn sons on a blanket. The three boys were constantly in each other’s company when they were at the fortress home.

  “Bron uses it to make food requests,” Aeron drawled. “I finally managed to block him, after he kept making me visualize my hands stirring a giant pot of stew.”

  “That’s what you get for trying to cook,” Kendall said. “Alek never visualizes me using a food simulator.”

  The women laughed.

  “Ask the queen. She will tell you all about it. I’m pretty sure she gave all of us the lecture.” Pia made a face even though her tone was ominous. “At least she did to us princesses.”

  In the room full of baby boys, there was only one girl—Zoran and Pia’s daughter. It was kind of perfect that a girl was born to the largest, most fierce of all the princes. Pia confessed that she’d already called off three of her husband’s soldiers who had been ordered to act as the baby’s bodyguard. Though Riona could see why Zoran would worry as a father. Already the baby showed a strong favor to her mother’s stellar looks. But in some ways Riona felt bad for the girl child. She would be raised around boys and she was already set to be married to a Var prince. It was part of the peace agreement with the cat shifters.

  “No,” Aeron said, “I’m pretty sure I got it from the queen too, when we came here to warn them about the Tyoe.”

  “Ah, I missed out on that,” Clara said. “What did she say?”

  “That, insert husband’s name, had put every chance at happiness in, insert wife’s name,” Morrigan stated regally, mimicking the queen’s voice.

  “Oh, and he gave his life to you,” Pia added. She looked at Olena.

  “Um,” Olena bit her lip thoughtfully. “Fighting always makes warriors happy, for it’s something they know how to do?”

  Laughter again rang throughout the home. Pia and Morrigan grabbed their sides and Nadja struggled to breathe.

  “I’m pretty sure that’s the wrong lecture,” Pia stated.

  “Huh.” Olena shrugged. “Honestly, I kind of daydreamed through some of her lecturing. Oh, I believe it was something about how married men can’t have sex with other women because of the whole crystal breaking and…I think around that time they brought in a tray of food and I just stopped listening.”

  “She said they share their life with you,” Nadja inserted softly. “I think it’s terribly romantic.”

  “Yes, well done, ladies,” Morrigan nodded regally before continuing on with her impersonation, “By giving you his life, he shortened his and extended yours so your fates could remain
together. If you were to choose to leave him, he would be alone for the rest of his days.”

  Though they were joking around, Riona found herself listening intently.

  “I do not sound like that,” Queen Mede scolded from the doorway.

  Morrigan gasped, looking properly horrified before laughing. “I was trying to give your lecture the right tone.”

  “I don’t lecture,” the queen stated. She began making the rounds to each child, kissing their heads. “But if I did lecture, you ladies deserved it and much more. We have never had a more stubborn batch of brides.”

  Clara, Kendall, Aeron and Riona all laughed at the princesses.

  “I was talking about you ladies as well,” Mede said. It was the princesses’ turn to laugh.

  “So what does this life force exchange have to do with my feeling Mirek?” Riona could feel her husband now, even though he was out of the room.

  “Oh, well you didn’t tell her the best part,” the queen said, kissing another head. “When you are bonded completely, you will be able to hear his thoughts in your head. You’ll sense his troubles. You’ll hear him call to you from across the palace. You’ll know every moment he wants you, when he’s sick, when he’s hiding something from you in an effort to protect you.”

  “And he’ll be able to place an order for dinner,” Aeron added.

  “What’s this about dinner?” Bron asked, leading the husbands into the room. “I’m suddenly very hungry for stew.”

  Riona smiled and instantly stood to greet Mirek. She went to him and slid into his arms to kiss him.

  “Not stew,” Alek said. “Great-grandfather’s Qurilixian rum. The ladies can finally drink it and this seems like the perfect celebration to break open the old bottle.”

  “Save me a glass. I have to attend the ceremony,” the queen said as she left.

  “I missed you,” Riona whispered to Mirek.

  “Not I,” he answered. “For I carry you inside me always.”