The Parvac Emperor's Daughter (The Space Merchants Book 3)

by Wendie Nordgren

  I rolled to my back and looked at Quaid. “All of that because I want my husband to feel safe?”

  “A simple honest act can have several reactions. The boys know they were spared because they are bonded to you.”

  I heard Neema begin to wake. “I’m going to the restroom. I’ll be right back.” I got up and out from underneath the furs and left the room. Turning down the hall, I went through the door, into the next hall, and into the restroom. I picked a stall. Then, from the sound of things, I realized that I didn’t have the restroom to myself. The Laconians of Chione must not have been big on privacy. At least the stall doors and walls were made of the same tough wood as the doors of the house. I felt my nose. It was still sore. Then, I looked around. Rather than waste paper, the stalls were equipped with a fast-drying cleaning enzyme spray. Yukihyo and I needed to have a talk about that. I could sense that Neema was fully awake, so I hurried to rearrange my clothing, flush, and wash my hands. I met Hiroshi at the sinks. He grunted at me.

  “I know, right? Do we have extra waste paper on Tora?”

  “Yes. However, the blizzard outside makes travelling to our ship hazardous.”

  “Blizzard?”

  “Yes, the snow is knee deep and continues to fall. How is the little Akachan no Nico today?”

  I smiled at Hiroshi and dried my hands on a towel. “Niklos is snug and secure, Uncle Hiroshi. Neema, on the other hand, is about to lose her temper with Quaid.”

  “Allow me to walk with you.” Hiroshi opened the door with his right hand and put his left around the back of my waist. We found Quaid walking around with Neema in his arms singing to her in Laconian. I propped the pillows up on the bed and sat back. After placing her in my arms, he and Hiroshi stepped out.

  When Neema began to grind her gums together, I stuck my finger between her gums and myself. “No, Neema.” Her eyes grew wide for a moment. Then, we finished without any further problems. Quaid had changed Neema, so I let her sit in her bed while I found my brush and tidied my hair. “Let’s go see what there is to eat.”

  Quaid and Hiroshi waited for us in the hall. Neema held her hands out to Hiroshi. When we entered the dining room, noise and activity greeted us. It seemed as though everyone had gathered there. The fires burned warmly, the tables were set, and platters of food had been arranged in the centers of the tables. The men sat, talked, and laughed. Isidora had all of Simon’s attention along with that of some of the soldiers who snuck glances her way. She was gorgeous. I was glad that I had at least brushed my hair. A few of the men watched over food that they heated in the kitchen’s large ovens. They seemed to be enjoying cooking with actual fire. I caught Yukihyo smiling at me from across the dining room. Quaid walked me over to him. Slipping my arms around Yukihyo, I rested my forehead against his chest simply relishing his warmth and being near him. He sent me feelings of contentment and joy.

  “Could you stay here with me and be content, lady wife?” Yukihyo asked in his deep monotone.

  “Yes, as long as I am with you, I can be happy anywhere.”

  I sensed anger through our bond and turned to Nico who wore an unfamiliar expression. The exchange between us wasn’t missed by Quaid, Hiroshi, Phillip, or our new hybrid friends. The four young men sat on a bench across from Nico. I hadn’t meant to hurt Nico’s feelings. He looked at me with guarded eyes. I went to him.

  “Oh, Nico.” I took one of his large hands and placed it over our son. “We know we have to divide our time among our homes and families. Please, don’t get that look. I don’t like it.” I kissed him between his eyes. Nico helped me to sit beside him, and Yukihyo sat on my other side. Nico spread a napkin over Niklos and began filling my plate. Yukihyo had placed ceshoosh on his plate that he had begun to mash with a spoon. He added a little water and continued to mash it until it was thin. He held his hands out for Neema and held her in his lap as he fed her tiny spoonful’s of Chione’s potato. Neema loved it and eagerly opened her mouth for more. A lot of it ended up on her upper lip and chin which had me giggling. I caught Phillip recording the entire thing. After a few more messy spoonful’s, Neema lost interest. I cleaned her up with another napkin and held her while Yukihyo took her plate to the kitchen. “Wow! Good girl! Was that some yummy stuff?”

  Neema reached for my plate, and I pushed it out of reach. I glanced up in time to see a fork on which a piece of meat was speared, poised to enter my mouth. I opened. Nico finally smiled for me while I chewed. Rozz, Izaac, Zam, and Traviz were quietly eating their dinner. The Militia soldiers watched them suspiciously. Yukihyo returned to his seat beside me, and we had an enjoyable dinner. It was like being at home on Tora but with about seven times as many people. With thirty of us, twenty rooms, and a blizzard raging outside, Yukihyo had assigned the hybrids to a room together. Yukihyo, Nico, Quaid, Neema, and I were sharing a room together as were Simon and Isidora. That meant that only a few soldiers would need to share.

  I felt guilty for thinking of Zam, Izaac, Rozz, and Traviz as hybrids. It was racist. If what Rozz had said to me was true, I had bound them to me. I didn’t know if I had or not. Thunderdrop had bound himself to me when he had sensed my terror and pain. Had I felt theirs and bound them to myself? I only had a little Laconian blood passed on to me from my Grandmother through my mother. I felt Quaid calming my mind. Nico continued to feed me bites of steak.

  “The snow has reached the second step underneath the door,” Kaoti reported.

  “So, the snow is basically over my head?” I asked.

  “Yes,” Yukihyo answered.

  “How will we get back to our ships?”

  “We may need to wait a few days. Do not worry. We have plenty of food, water, and firewood.”

  “Do we have plenty of diapers?”

  Concern finally crossed Yukihyo’s face. “If we run low on diapers, I will return to Tora on foot and retrieve more. Digging out a path for the transports wouldn’t be worth the effort.”

  “No, but a few blasts from a fighter ship would clear the way,” I suggested.

  Yukihyo shook his head. “That might cause an avalanche, massive amounts of snow, ice, and rocks falling at terrible speeds down the mountains which surround the entrance. It is safer to wait.”

  I was disappointed. Shooting from a fighter ship was fun, not that I would have been the one to get to do the shooting anyway. In my condition, they wouldn’t even let me sit in my fighter. “Without a large vid-screen, we can’t even have movie night. What are we going to do?”

  “Who says we can’t have movie night?” Phillip asked. “Don’t you worry, Cupcake. I’ve got it all figured out.”

  I gave Neema to Nico and began clearing plates.

  “No way, Princess Teagan,” a Parvac soldier said with a frown.

  I blushed. The soldiers cleaned up. Isidora and I exchanged looks. Nico grinned at me. He had me outnumbered, and I was too tired to argue. Everyone flowed into the living room. Phillip and Gary had hung an emergency blanket on the wall. Then, Phillip used his vid-screen to project a movie onto the blanket.

  “Yea!” I clapped. Neema clapped with me which was adorable.

  Phillip showed us a movie about a half man and half ice bear monster that terrorized survivors of a crashed starship in the isolated Chione wilderness. Neema had taken over her daddy, so I clutched Nico’s arm. By the time it ended, my face was buried against Nico’s shoulder, and I clutched his arm so tightly that his hand was wedged between my thighs. I didn’t understand how the soldiers had laughed through the terrifying movie.

  “Nico, I would be happy to protect Teagan from the next movie,” Quaid said when the lights came on and he saw how we had ended up.

  “How generous of you, but I can manage.”

  “Is the next one going to be that scary?” I asked.

  “No, Cupcake,” Phillip said.

  “Isidora, do you have to go?” I didn’t want to go to the restroom by myself after that movie.

  Neema was sound asleep in a blanket in which Yuk
ihyo had wrapped her. I disentangled myself from Nico and walked through the dining room with Isidora. We both jumped at the sound of shifting firewood and then laughed about it. The next movie was about a group of Laconian hunters who were lured away from their group one by one by an angry snow spirit who had possessed a mountain goat. As soon as it tricked a hunter into getting too close to a mountain precipice, the mountain goat rammed its horned head against him and hurled him over the edge.

  “Oh, no, Yukihyo! Please, don’t ever hunt the mean mountain goats ever again. I had no idea that they were that horrible.” I pictured my family being terrorized by goats. I could eat something else. I started crying. Nico patted me but started laughing hard. Affronted, I slapped his arm and scowled at him. He laughed harder.

  “Mean mountain goats?” Traviz asked.

  “Wait until you have your own tender-hearted off world pregnant wife to feed before judging me, boy,” Yukihyo said.

  In my mind, I saw images of goats that were furrier than the ones on the farm, but who looked just as sweet. I stared at Izaac in shock. I had been eating big sandwiches full of sweet goats like the ones I had petted? My tears transformed into mournful sobs. Calm embraced me like the warm ocean waters of Epopeus. I slumped against Quaid who had traded places with Nico, so he could get his laughter under control.

  “Traviz, don’t interfere again unless you understand our reasoning. She can’t survive on pastries, and we don’t want her to burst into tears every time she craves meat,” Quaid said.

  “I merely asked her a question. Izaac showed her the truth,” Traviz tattled. Izaac shrugged.

  “Oh, no! Is that what was in the shop the farmer said was closed for the day? They eat them?”

  “Even spiders must eat,” I heard in my head.

  “They eat lots of yucky rats,” I answered out loud.

  “You could eat fruits and vegetables.” Izaac said as he showed me images of berries. I thought about steak and sighed.

  “Whatever, Izaac.” Quaid and Nico stood and helped me up.

  “Gentlemen, we must deprive you of the company of the fair ones for the remainder of the evening,” Simon announced.

  Various voices said goodnight. As soon as Isidora and I were out of the room, they planned to watch movies that they actually considered scary. If the two we had just watched weren’t considered scary, I didn’t want to know what was. We walked along the center hall to the end and turned at the last door on the left. From this direction, ours was the second door on the right. Simon and Isidora entered their room first. I heard her laughter at Simon before he had closed the door all of the way. Again, I didn’t want to know. I grabbed my toothbrush while Yukihyo put Neema to bed. Then, Quaid and Nico walked with me to the restroom. While I brushed my teeth and washed my face, they peed which was funny and disturbing at the same time. Unfortunately, hearing them made me have to go. Yawning, I gathered up my things and returned to our room. When I got back, Yukihyo left for his turn. I changed into my gown and crawled under the covers. Nico cuddled up next to me.

  “You’re wearing pants?” I said as my feet tried to find their favorite warm place on his shins.

  “It is a concession to Quaid.”

  I didn’t like the exercise pants. “Come on, Quaid. Can’t he wear underwear and you be fine with that? My feet are cold.”

  Quaid snorted. He was wearing pajamas, the top and bottom. “Only if they are the knee length variety. I’ve seen him in swim shorts.”

  Nico didn’t have any of those, and Yukihyo’s knee length pajama pants were on Parvac. “Oh, maybe that is why those are popular back home,” I said as I thought of polyandrous marriages.

  Nico kissed my neck and placed his hand over my stomach. Yukihyo returned and secured our door with a horizontal wooden beam. It reminded me of my housing unit door back on Earth. My safety in that shed had been a false illusion. Yukihyo checked on Neema once more. Then, he turned out the light and got into bed.

  “Whoa.” I had never before experienced such total darkness or quiet. Even on Tora, there were the sounds that the starship made or the sounds of meteors striking the shields. Yukihyo slid his hand up my leg, under my gown, and pulled my undies from me. My heart thundered in my chest, and I dared not even breathe. I felt him lifting my gown and was shocked even further when Nico helped him. With his hand, Yukihyo found me already eager for him. It had been days since we had last been intimate. His knees moved my thighs apart. My left leg bumped into Nico as Yukihyo drove himself into me. I ached around his hardness and moaned as he filled me. Carefully, he held his weight off of me and on his forearms. I urged him to move faster, but stubbornly he refused. He knew his slow deep pace drove me wild.

  I whimpered, “Please, Yukihyo. Please.” Grabbing his hips, I tried to quicken his pace. He merely chuckled and kissed me breathless. Then, I couldn’t catch my breath as wave after wave of pleasure crashed through me. Yukihyo shuddered above me and then laid beside me. I could hear his heart thudding against his chest. I laid there trembling.

  A warm mouth closed over my breast. I drew in a deep breath at his pulls. A large warm hand pulled me by my inner thigh toward the center of the bed. Then, Nico placed himself between my legs. He muffled my shocked words of protest before I could utter them with his mouth and tongue. Nico wasn’t slow. He was fast and hard but careful not to enter me fully. My nails scraped his back as I came. He caught my hands and trapped them over my head. Still, he drove forward. I bit his shoulder with the force of my second release. He yelled his release into the pillow under my head. With closed eyes, I shuddered. I felt as though my body was comprised of little bursting bubbles, and I laughed.

  I heard Quaid cussing in Laconian. Yukihyo chuckled. Nico moved off of the foot of the bed. I felt the mattress shift as he got back in on the far left side of the bed. Searching hands found me in the dark. Quaid’s hands moved from my outer thighs and up my sides sending pleasure through me along the way. He sent pleasure through me with each kiss and every touch of his flesh to mine. I tossed my head from side to side helplessly on the pillow. He was as hard as the stone of the mountain when he entered me, and I screamed. My toes curled under, and my legs shook. I threw my ecstasy back to him. By the time he had found his release, I couldn’t stop trembling. I was so far from myself that I couldn’t recall my own name and didn’t care. Instead of worrying about it, I slept.

  I awoke to total darkness, alone. Nearby, I could feel Neema and the others. For a moment, I was reminded of the underground room where I had been trapped under the mining facility on Malta. I hurried to the edge of the bed and tried to find the light. I felt the furs and mattress under my hands. I was safe and warm. My panic subsided, and I curled up against the pillow. The door opened admitting light into the room. More calm soothed me, but the light from the hall that showed me dove grey hair soothed me even more.

  “I remembered Malta when the miners kidnapped me. It’s nothing. I’m fine. I don’t like waking up without you. Will you turn on the light?” I yawned and stretched. My thoughts returned to the night before, and I could feel that it hadn’t been a dream. My husbands had decided on a traditional Parvac marriage. I reached out to Yukihyo when he bumped the bed. In the darkness, my hand touched his leg before finding his hand and pulling him down for a kiss. When his hungry lips met mine and intense pleasure shattered me, I knew it wasn’t Yukihyo who kissed me. Shocked, I pushed against his chest. His hand caressed my face in the dark as his lips left mine.

  The door banged open, and I recognized the feral rage approaching. “Yukihyo! I think this may have been my fault.”

  With a snarl, he said, “He knew in your wake from sleep that you thought him to be me. He took advantage.” Yukihyo filled the door frame waiting for who I now thought must be Izaac to attempt to escape. “He sensed your fear and got here first. I know exactly what happened.”

  Nico loomed behind Yukihyo in the hall. “What do you expect any boy in his place to do? Turn the light on for our lady and
go before Yukihyo rips your head off,” Nico ordered.

  Izaac turned on the light, and I shielded my eyes from the sudden illumination. Blinking, I looked up at Izaac who stared down at me. Following the path of his eyes, I pulled a fur up over my chest. Evidence of Izaac’s arousal was defined clearly by the light’s illumination. “You said brother, not lover,” I reminded him.

  “Out,” Yukihyo said.

  Nico placed his hand on Yukihyo’s shoulder to keep him from beating Izaac to a pulp as he got close enough to the door to squeeze past him. I saw a shaved head in the hall and knew Traviz had come for Izaac. When it was just Yukihyo, Nico, and me, I felt my face turn red.

  “There is no need for you to explain. I understand the minds of young boys, and apparently, hybrids are no different,” Yukihyo said as he sat beside me and pulled me against his chest.

  “Where is Neema?”

  “She is being showered with attention by Isidora and Simon. I fed her ceshoosh and sips of goat’s milk. She played in the mineral bath with us this morning. Currently, she plays with her blocks.”

  “What time is it?”

  “It is almost time for lunch. Come. I will guard you while you bathe.”

  Nico held a robe and slippers out to me. “I’ll go make you lunch,” he said as he grinned at me.

  Yukihyo helped me with the slippers as I covered myself with the robe. We left our room and entered the hall. Leaving our section, we turned into the other hall. I made a stop in the restroom. Then, I followed Yukihyo along the hall and through the next door that led into the bathing chamber. The cavernous room was warmed by a crackling fire that burned in a massive fireplace that took up most of the wall. I left my slippers and robe on the semi-circular bench surrounding the warm blaze. Yukihyo sat by my things with his back to the fire and watched me.

  I stepped into the water and felt sand under my feet. Gradually, the pool became deeper. At its deepest, it reached the middle of my stomach. Dipping down below the water’s surface, I wet my hair and scrubbed at my scalp with my fingers. I wiped water from my face.