by Bailey Dark
The Commander’s Virgin Queen
Bailey Dark
Copyright © 2019 by Bailey Dark
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
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One
Axis
I scuffed my boot at the meticulously polished marble floor, ground my gloved fist into my palm, licked my lips, blinked hard five times, and bit my tongue. Was there really any way I could argue myself out of this one? It's not like I was already married, or had anyone in mind for the position, I just… I just had always thought I would be the one to pick if I chose to marry someday.
“Listen, Commander, this is a beautiful match—”
“You just told me she is one of the most difficult women you’ve ever heard of!”
Jase laughed. “Well, that’s not always a bad thing. I just meant difficult in that she’s… spunky… spirited… fiery… passionate…”
“You know, Axis. She’ll be… fun.”
I looked at the Beast King as she described my future alliance bride as fun. How was I supposed to argue with him? A slight smile pulled up the scar through his eye as he spoke. I took a deep breath and sighed.
"I serve at your pleasure, your highness. Of course, I will go to Serpul, at haste. And, of course, I have been worried about my Oceans. As you know, these last three months, I have withdrawn from the Special Operations Forces, where I was serving Alpha Jase and have just been serving my people on the Bristola Oceans. I do not understand fully why so many of my animals are dying, but it is the firefins and dolgons who seem to be at the highest risk, though plenty of the much smaller, less fierce animals are also dying in droves, down to the life-giving shrimp and bacteria. If this Princess of the planet Serpul, with all her high-science and spirited fun, can help, I shall be a devoted husband and the best alliance Farian can make.”
The Beast King Kajo nodded. “Thank you, Commander Axis. We are in your debt.”
I scratched my fairly unshaved chin. I had teleported to Capital City almost as soon as I had gotten the urgent call from the King. I hadn’t had time to shave, and I had been out on scouting trips with my sailors, trying to determine how many of my magnificent dragon dolphins were dying from what we were calling the blue flu. It was taking down some of the oldest, but also some of the strongest. It was making their lungs shrivel in the waters, preventing them from coming close to their traditional spawning shores, and decimating many of their feeding grounds. Was it in the water? Their food? In the coral? We weren’t sure. I needed an expert. Kajo seemed to think this Princess Ceritha was the one I needed.
She was at least the one Farian needed.
I looked at Jase, who was grinning at me. He jerked his head toward the exit just slightly. The Beast King was done with me. I may have gone to Academy just a couple years behind Kajo, but he was light years beyond me now.
“Thank you, your highness. I will report back to you when we have returned.”
“Indeed. Good luck.”
"Yes, sir."
“And, Axis?” I turned back to him. “You must find a way to get her on board with this. Your own resistance to the idea must not validate hers.”
I nodded. “Thank you, sir. I will do my best.”
Jase led me out of the throne room. He laughed as soon as we exited the ornate hall doors. He clapped me on the back and shook back his blonde hair. “Congratulations, comrade! Time to plan the bachelor party!”
I frowned at him. “I don’t think that’s how alliance weddings go.”
“Why not? You’re still getting hitched.”
“Well, how about I first propose the idea to her?”
"Oh, you don't have to worry about that." Jase waved my words away. "Our science emissaries and public relations staff have already pitched the whole thing. Her father is on board, and the alliance is set to take place. This was a formality on our side, too."
I swallowed thickly and ground my teeth. Did I mean so little? Jase’s face tensed as he realized the mistake he had made. “No, brother, I didn’t mean… We value you immensely. We just knew you would be willing to help Farian, no matter what. Especially because it really is helping Bristola. I mean, you know what this disease is doing to your Oceans.”
"Yes, yes…" The blue was truly hurting my oceans, which was, in turn, hurting the food supply to the rest of the continent, which was hurting our economy, which was hurting our exports, which was hurting our trades with other planets, which was hurting numerous other aspects of our planetary standing… Kajo hadn't needed to explain it all to me. "I'm on board, Jase. Truly."
Jase looked at me a moment, his brown eyes studious, brow furrowed as if he were trying hard to read me. I gripped his shoulder, the Emerona crest tattooed on my wrist with the waves and sunrise cascading around it, showing stark and clear against my darkly tanned skin. I nodded again. "I really am."
"Good! Then, let's go get a drink to celebrate before you take off. And maybe get you a shave and a haircut. And a shower. Everything about you says you've been out to sea for days. Now, that might be attractive to a mermaid-type princess-like Ceritha, I don't know, but I think her father would appreciate the good hygiene…”
I let Jase continue speaking as he led me toward the nearest brewery. The words I spoke to him were true. I was honored the King of my planet was relying on me for this alliance, and that he had found a potential solution to what my region was so immensely struggling with at this time. But, his words about the princess rang in my head. He had called her fun, spunky, passionate, and spirited, but before that, he and Jase had made it clear that this woman had dedicated her life to the ocean and the rights of ocean animals, never marrying, never even dating. She had been clear that there was no Curan who deserved her time or her heart: how in the world was I supposed to change her mind?
Two
Ceritha
I pet the dolgons shiny, rubber-like skin as she purred. She was one of my favorites, a queen among her tribe. She whispered her feelings to me, pushing them through our telepathic connection, and I could feel her concern for her pod and for the rest of the animals in the oceans. Her name was Tulasa. I rubbed her porpoise-like bottlenose which led back to the horned-crown of a dragon and the feathery fur of sea lion's mane. I rubbed under her chin, and she gurgled a purr and chitter-chattered happiness toward me, her massive fins fluttering in the water, so they made a wake that rocked my little 12-foot dinghy. I brushed my hand along her forehead again, then reached back behind the left side of her crown and inserted the small needle, Willing her my intention to do so, but she still jolted a little with the spike of pain.
“Shh… Tulasa… it’s okay…”
Her purring stopped, and her fins were rigid in the water, purple eyes, their pupils huge, were wide and bulbous as she watched me warily. I pulled out the needle and capped it quickly. “Thank you…”
She chittered out a string of sound that seemed more like a reprimand, then pushed back off the boat with a heave that left me rocking, her fins like wings in the water, colored oranges, yellows, and reds, beautiful and wispy at the ends of the hard rubber paddles. Her flowing tail flicked as she dove deeper into the water and disappeared, but not before she pushed back the feelings toward me that she understood why I needed her blood, and she would send others to me later that day.
I labeled her blood sample and put it in the cooler, next to the five others I had taken that day, all from different species. I was just pulling up my sail when a spaceship broke through the atmosphere and descended toward the spaceport near the Capital City.
I groaned and anger rushed to my face as I saw the Farian crest on its side, with the blazing sunrise over ocean waves of the Bristola Oceans set beside it.
There came my escort and husband-to-be. How could they make this decision for me? I had no intention of being some Commander’s Virgin Queen…
Commander Axis of the Bristola Oceans and the Seawards Special Operations Unit of the Emerona Empire. I knew all about him. I had read his files. I had had the full report form his emissaries, pitching him like a fine dinner I was supposed to be charmed to eat, or a present I was supposed to be honored to receive. There had been no request for my hand; there had been no permission asked of me. It had been a decision made by those above my head. Granted, it would be a worthy alliance for both our planets. Our water planet was much smaller, once a colony of Farian's that had gained independence many centuries ago but could do with a new alliance. We relied on Farian for many of our imports and military support, if we were ever to be attacked. We were both Curan. Serpul even had a small island of Bordash farmers to the south, but they made no trouble for us. We had developed our telepathy skills to be more in touch with our ocean planet animals, though, whereas the Curans on Farian had never made many advances in speaking to the higher sentient animals. And we also were more advanced in our nautical sciences. It was why my scientists and I had some answers to how to cure this blue flu, and they did not. They needed us, now…
But, why couldn’t we come up with some other type of alliance? Why did it have to include enslaving me through marriage to a man that, yes, I had heard about in his rumors of combat excellence, but that I had never before met?
I had long ago vowed to serve the seas, to devote myself to the animals I loved… I had never spared much time for men. Most of them were too stupid and too boring to be worth my time, anyway. They were either focused on their next conquest in battle or their next mundane academic goal. I preferred to live in a state of excitement; doing good for the world around me while chasing a bit of fun.
There was no way this Farian Curan could match me.
So… I was destined to go to his planet and be his Queen. Help his Oceans recover… And bide my time. I would find my way out.
I would find my way back to Sereni.
I dipped my hand into the beautiful turquoise waters of my ocean and let them sift through my fingers. Then I bit my lip and nodded hard. That’s right. I would make my life my own, no matter what.
Then I pulled the mast up, whipped the boom around, and set sail toward the port. Let me go meet this man that I was to wed and let's see what type of game I could put him through in the meantime. If I was going to be forced to be near him for a while, at least I could make it fun…
The wind billowed into my sail and I sped away, accelerating quickly, leaning hard into the wind, letting the dinghy keel over so I was leaning high over the other side to keep her out of the water, spray splashing up, flying across the water, skipping fish doing what they did best: skipping out over the bouncing bow.
As we got closer to the spaceport, I could see men and women gathering about, Serpuls greeting Farians, likely my father and escort apologizing for my absence. Honestly, I had forgotten that the Farians were coming to fetch me today. One man stood apart, hands on his hips, his black hair whipping in the fresh Seawind, shoulders square and strong from swimming in the sea, chest broad and straight toward my approaching dinghy. It looked like he was taking deep breaths of a sea air that surely smelled a little different than his own; but not too different; after all, Serpul had been terraformed to be similar to Farian's own waters.
I began to take in a little of the sail, bringing down the speed a bit, but still keeping up a healthy pace. I pointed the bow right toward the black-haired man where he stood at the edge of the port, the wind allowing me to bring my boat in right toward him, as if I were going to hit him.
Right at the last moment, I tightened the sail, swung it to the side, and slid the boat into the right to bring it slipping to a halt at his side, coasting it gently in, so my held up hand barely kissed the dock. The anger in my ears had faded a little, as I focused on my excellence, but as I looked up at the gorgeous man framed by the melting sun, who was bending down to offer me a helping hand, my blood boiled again.
“Expertly done, Princess Ceritha,” the man said. “Toss me the line.”
“I won’t be staying long.” My words were clipped and harsh.
“I see.”
“Are you Commander Axis?” I asked the question but I had seen a picture of him just the day before and knew it to be so. He was quite beautiful. Darkly tanned, black, piercing eyes to match his black hair. The signs of tattoos beneath his long maroon sleeves. A sword at his hip and a bandolier across his chest armed with throwing knives that I was sure he was skilled with through telekinesis.
“I am.”
“Then I supposed I am to be your bride. When do you expect we shall leave to Farian?”
“I believe we are to have a celebratory dinner tonight, then leave in the morning.” He had withdrawn his offered hand and was standing straight up again. I had not moved from my seated spot in the back of the dinghy, one hand gently holding my boat to the dock, the other holding the sail’s line in.
“Fine. Then I shall see you tomorrow morning at the spaceship. Enjoy your evening.” I pushed off the dock with a whiff of telekinetic Will and pulled the sail around to luff it into the wind and was quickly pulling away from him, my heart beating quickly. I aimed the sail and dinghy into the wind and took off, back toward one of my favorite coves where I knew I could stay the night, collect more samples, and sneak back into the City at some point to gather my things and consult with my scientists.
When I looked back to the quickly disappearing dock, hearing voices calling after me, my heart still beating in time with the anger thudding in my ears, I was disappointed to see that the Commander wasn’t even standing there watching me go. My heart sank a little. What had I expected? That he would be the one calling after me?
No matter. Thanks to the Worlds, I could be alone.
Other people were calling after me, though, including my father’s contingent, and pointing into the waters. I squinted to look at what they were pointing toward…
There was something swimming after me! Quite quickly, too.
I reached out with my telepathy and made a call into the ocean waters, reaching out for any nearby animals. Serpuls could only communicate with higher sentient ones. It would only be by luck if one of them were nearby to tell me who was swimming, and as luck would have it, a firefin spun out of the water, his long, flowing red fins sprinkling droplets of water into the air as he arced over the object acing through the water behind me, his barbed tail flicking.
“Who is that…?” I asked the firefin.
The firefin Willed the image of Commander Axis, shirtless, shoeless, and absolutely rippling with muscles and finely tuned swimming technique as he tore through the turquoise waters, into my mind.
Goodness sakes…
I loosened the sail to catch a little more wind and angled into a more str
ategic flow, capturing a more wayward course, but a swifter path toward my hidden inlet. The little dinghy accelerated with my commands, and I began to leave Axis further behind.
I can’t believe he is following me! Swimming behind me, no less! What is he thinking? How can he possibly think he can catch me?
There was part of me that thrilled at this little chase. My anger was melting and a slight smile was tugging at my lips as I looked back behind me to see him still swimming back there, then I turned to look back at my course.
A raceboat flashed by in front of me, careening out from one of the coves without looking, two teenagers cheering and jumping around at the steering wheel. “Sorry!” They yelled over to me, as the jet engine’s wake nearly capsized my boat. I quickly made adjustments to avoid spilling over with the dinghy, and the raceboat sprinted onward.
“Fools!” I yelled after them. They were some of the ignorant assholes that ignored right-of-way rules, slashed scars across the backs of my beloved dolgons and firefins, and in general made chaos on my waters. I was tempted to telekinetically rush a surf over the side of their boat and swamp their summer linen suits… then restrained myself, remembering the swimmer in the water behind me.
A swimmer who, had he been closer, might have been the one to be scarred by their roaring jet engines.
“Axis!” I called, tying down the sail, flat into the wind so that we were stilled in the waters, and looking back behind me. I couldn’t see him anywhere. Where had he gone? Had he given up and gone back? We were out of sight of the dock and spaceport by this time, gone around the curve into one of the coves. Had he drowned?