Queen's Ransom: The Golden Bulls of Minos

by Isabel Wroth

  "I am not upset now, and I was not then, but we're not talking about me today, my love. Were your parents unkind?"

  "No." A shaky sigh rocked through her, her words colored with disbelief and amazement,

  "He told me he was proud of me. The first time, and all my anger and that resentment that got me through, I wanted to let it all go.

  “I have perfect recall, I remember everything about my childhood, but all those memories are tainted with my interpretation, and they made me look at it all differently.

  “Really look at it, objectively, and I don't think it was half as bad as I made it out to be. I made a mistake, but I don't know what to do to fix it. Or if I can fix it."

  "I do not know what to say to comfort you, Jalia. But only a fool would look at you, at all you've accomplished and become, and not be proud of you. Your sire doesn't strike me as a fool, but he serves as a warning to me."

  He could feel her frown before she lifted her face to look down at him in confusion, "A warning?"

  She leaned into his touch when he stroked a length of her dark hair from her face, tracing the fine edge of her jaw, the softness of her lips,

  "To remind you often how much you mean to me. I had everything and nothing before you came, and now I have everything and more. More than I ever dared even dream of, Jalia."

  Dhega reached up and tugged the jeweled ring out of his nose, the one he'd kept for so long as a reminder that he had no one, needed no one, and was strong enough to go through life alone. Jalia missed nothing, what it meant when he tossed the ring away.

  Her smile was like the sunrise, slow, brilliant, warming all the cold places in him and banishing the shadows that had plagued him for so long.

  Dhega had gone his whole life not knowing what it was to love until a soft female, with no horns, no fangs, no claws, no scales or hard plates of bone to be seen, had fought her way through the dangers of his world to show him.

  Jalia was under the misconception she was the lucky one, and he didn't have it in him to argue, but she was so wrong.

  She brought wild color to his life, love, laughter, hope, the future.

  Everything.

  Everything and more.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

  "I will never forget the look on your face as long as I live,"

  Jalia laughed up at him while he rocked with her on the daybed, her cheeks still pink from exertion, her eyes sparkling with happiness even though she was so tired she could barely keep them open.

  Dhega was still trying to catch his breath, to stop trembling with the overwhelming surge of emotions still rolling through him.

  Dhega traced the tiny fingers splayed possessively on Jalia's breast, such delicate, fragile bones beneath skin soft as flower petals, grinning when the baby gave an irritated grunt to be so rudely disturbed.

  His eyes were closed, his brow furrowed in concentration, his perfect lips puckered and working furiously to sate his appetite.

  "My son has pink hair. I was surprised," Dhega drawled defensively, but he couldn't find it in him to care.

  The baby's hair was the color of the suns rays at dusk, and on his brow was a tiny crescent moon, shimmering silver as it caught the light.

  Jalia had no explanation as to how her Luna Patch had reproduced, or why their son had made his exit from the womb with such shockingly pink curls. He was healthy in every way, perfectly perfect, but that hair...

  "I'm sure it's just temporary, his Luna Patch has to mature too. Why haven't you held him yet?"

  There was no criticism or worry in her question, only gentleness as she tipped her head back and pressed a kiss to his jaw.

  Dhega swallowed thickly, his one hand big enough to swallow half his son's body. So tiny. So fragile. So very precious.

  "I want to," he rasped, but in truth want was too weak a word to describe the way he ached to hold his son,

  "He's so small. I don't want to hurt him if I accidentally hold him too tightly,"

  "There are no safer hands in the world than yours," she left him speechless, humbled by the absolute conviction in her voice.

  She had such a talent for bringing him low with amazement and making him feel like the tallest bull in the world all in one fell blow.

  The baby released Jalia's nipple with a sleepy murmur, his tongue working at his lower lip before they smacked together, his little frown easing as he dozed. Perfect.

  Dhega studied that tiny, beautiful face, seeing himself reflected in the boy's features. In the placement of his little horn buds just there above and behind his almond-shaped ears.

  In the ferocious power of his lungs which had made his demands clear earlier. Not a single person had been confused by the boy's screams, and he hadn't quieted until Jalia put him to her breast and allowed him to feed.

  It was an odd thing to be proud of, to know at only a few hours old, his son was already a mighty, commanding little prince.

  "He needs a name,"

  "Yes, he does. Any ideas?"

  "Not a single one," he confessed, "you?"

  "David," she whispered, stroking her fingertip down their son's chubby cheek.

  The boy opened his eyes for just a moment, the deep blue orbs focusing on his mother's face.

  He blinked, grunted impatiently, and scowled as though trying to convey his intention to sleep, and would appreciate their silence.

  Jalia sighed heavily and got up, shaking her head as she stared down at their boy,

  "No doubt about it, your majesty. This is most definitely, one hundred percent, your son. Here,"

  Jalia carefully, but firmly pressed the baby into his arms, and gave him instructions to get comfortable.

  "I'll be right back."

  "Back? Back? Jalia, don't—" without an ounce of mercy, she left him alone with the baby. The baby who was staring up at him with obvious displeasure.

  Dhega hadn't been so nervous in...well, hours. Jalia's labor had come on so suddenly. The birth had been dramatic but free of complications, quick according to the midwives. Clearly, their scale of time was off, as Jalia had quickly spent all day and all night laboring to birth the little person now occupying Dhega's hands.

  "David," he said, testing the way it sounded as he stared into his son's scowling face. David grunted, yawned, and dismissed his father by closing his eyes.

  "Everything. I have everything and more."

  *****

  Jalia had been gone five minutes, desperately needing a minute to use the bathroom and to give Dhega time to get over his absolutely beautiful fears of holding their son. She was exhausted and wanted nothing more than to lay down and sleep for a while.

  She walked back out onto the terrace and found her enormous husband stretched out on her daybed, dead to the world with both his hands folded protectively over their baby where he lay snuggled against Dhega's chest.

  She stood there for a long time, just watching them, unable to believe the twists and turns her life had taken, and this was where she finally ended up.

  "I have it all. How lucky am I?"

  CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

  Minos was the safest place in the galaxy for Jade to be right now, and as mom was busy helping Jalia with the new baby, Jade had agreed to prepare Myrminth for the archaeological dig her mom wanted to do in the mountains near there.

  Digging the dirt and sand out of the corners and scrubbing the floor, ruining her manicure, her clothes, it was so much less than she deserved. Twenty million people on Reupra had died from the Blue River Fever, and Jade had created the plague that killed them.

  She had created so many terrible diseases to cure or eradicate others, and never once had Jade wondered if those virulent strands she'd created had been used as bio-weapons.

  The interrogators sent for by OmegaTech had spent hours asking her if she'd created anything for anyone else, used company property to make designer contagions...

  They'd spent so much time questioning her because she had no idea. Samples hadn't ever been s
tolen from her lab before, and there were planets, people whose illnesses she hadn't cured or had a hand in eradicating, but who was to say she hadn't?

  Jade had spent her life in a lab, bent over a microscope, running simulations, trials. She'd physically been on two planets in her entire career to administer her cures with her own hands.

  Ultimately, OmegaTech and the UC had cleared her of any actual involvement in the deaths on Reupra, but it didn't matter. Twenty million people had died because of Jade's viral samples.

  Someone else had stolen them, turned them into a bio-weapon, but they would never have gotten such an opportunity if she hadn't cooked the virus up in the first place.

  One thing was certain in the mess that had become her life. Jade was never going to create anything that could possibly be stolen and used to kill, ever again.

  Surprisingly, she wasn't upset about walking away from her life and her job as one might have thought.

  For months before the trial, so close to death, Jade had resigned herself to never returning to OmegaTech alive anyway. Perhaps that was why it wasn't so difficult to accept her new circumstances.

  But it wasn't the faces of the gentle Reupri crying rivers of blue blood that haunted her dreams.

  It was the smile on Nivir's face that first time she'd pressed her lips to his cheek, and the view of his back as he'd walked away thinking she had so eagerly crawled into his bed because her brothers had sent her to seduce him.

  It weighed heavily on her heart, kept her up at night because she couldn't bear the memories of his kiss, or the exquisite pleasure he had lavished on her.

  Jade hadn't ever had a lover so dedicated to ensuring she went mad with ecstasy. Or one who had made her feel so safe.

  Or one who had left her tied to his bed while they slept, his one hand between her thighs, the other cupped possessively around her breast, as though with every part of him he was saying, this is mine.

  Her body ached for his touch like she was going through withdrawal, and she hadn't seen him since that day on J-Alpha almost a year ago.

  Dad had taken care of her problem with Onyx, Jared was serving time on one of the UC prison planets, Jalia had carefully allowed the rest of them to visit and after he had been forced to retire, asked their father to assist with the training of the warriors and pilots manning the three battlecruisers in orbit around the nebula.

  For their mom, Jaclyn had heard there was still some mystery surrounding the Rir—a species of aliens not recorded anywhere in the UC database or heard of by historians—and had begged to be allowed to do some research.

  Jade thought it also gave their mom an excuse to stick close by as Jalia's pregnancy had progressed, and there was no denying his royal highness, Prince David of Minos was already being spoiled rotten by his parents.

  He was an adorable baby, even if he did have pink hair and a symbiotic alien attached to his forehead.

  Once again, Jade found herself in a place she didn't want to be, looking around her and realizing how colorless her life had become.

  She'd been jealous of Jalia as a teenager for all the adventures her sister had had. Envied her rebellion, her freedom, her fearlessness.

  Jade knew to her soul she could have had all the same things, but somehow stability and career had meant more to her. She scoffed, raising her arm to wipe the sweat from her brow, grimacing as she felt the scrape of dust and sand on her skin.

  "And look where all that got me," she grumbled.

  She hated cleaning, but doing penance wasn't meant to be enjoyable. Her condo had a self-cleaning feature which meant she hadn't ever had to lift a finger, other than to schedule said cleanings.

  Myrminth didn't have a single automated feature in the entire place, but it was comfortable—or it would be by the time she got finished—and had beautiful mountain views.

  She and a few others had spent weeks cleaning the forty bedrooms, ten ballrooms, forty bathing chambers both public and private, digging out the ponds and gardens, the entire palace having been abandoned about fifty years ago.

  There was no soil to grow crops in the surrounding rock-strewn fields, no villages within a hundred miles, and no real way to get in and out on foot after a massive storm had caused a landslide, cutting Myrminth off from the rest of the world. It might be primitive, but Jade loved the quiet.

  She could see a hydroponic garden set up in one of the ballrooms, wind turbines to create electricity, barrels on the roof for rain collection, a landing pad for a shuttle; it could become a veritable paradise back here. So what if she was lonely, was it anything less than she deserved?

  Jade took her time putting her cleaning tools away, the ache in her knees and back letting her know she'd been scrubbing the grime from the beautifully tiled floor for hours, and she was only about halfway done in this ballroom.

  It would be dark soon, and thankfully this was one of the rare times she was completely alone with no one to tell her she needed to eat or rest, that she was doing too much. She didn't have to fake how carefully she had to move, how she hurt.

  It took her a while to climb to her feet, the trek upstairs was slow, and as soon as she hit her bedroom, she started stripping. The cool water of the shower felt amazing on her overheated skin, the dirt and grime washing away, but the loneliness wasn't so easily shed.

  She supposed she would get used to it. Maybe she could find a pet to keep her company. Did they have pets on Minos?

  *****

  Nivir had gotten home in time for David's birth and caught a glimpse of Jade as he'd passed through the crowd of people to help Zavir keep Dhega calm while Jalia had labored, and he hadn't liked what he'd seen.

  Jade hadn't seen him, too engrossed in trying to remain out of the way and invisible. In that brief glimpse, he'd seen the dark circles under her eyes, the way her smile seemed brittle and false, how uncomfortable she seemed.

  Distracting his brother had taken up all of his attention for the next two days, but now little David was finally here, with a shocking pink pelt—Dhega was never living that down, king or not—and it was clear to anyone who got close enough to disturb him, that baby was his father's son.

  All demanding bellows and furious fists, but the second Jalia's arms went around him, David was cooing with happiness.

  His presence no longer needed, Nivir hadn't had anything but time on his hands, and that time was spent thinking of Jade.

  Jade, with her crystalline green eyes and beautiful blonde hair, her shy smiles and those sweet sounds she made as she writhed on his cock...

  A year hadn't diminished the power of his dreams, or the memories of how amazing it had been to be with her, or how terrible it was to hear the truth behind the lies she'd told him.

  Only a few months ago, Zavir had gotten in contact to explain the truth of why Jade had been at J-Alpha and how her deception it hadn't been exactly as he had been led to believe.

  Jared and the twins had taken the opportunity to use Nivir's lust to their advantage, and though Jade had indeed had motives beyond merely wanting him, those motives had nothing to do with pumping him for information on Minos or it's monarchs.

  Jade had been hiding on J-Alpha because someone had been trying to kill her to keep her from testifying to mass murder via some disease she had created as a cure.

  Zavir told him a woman had died, one of Jade's research assistants, because the assailants had mistaken her for Jade, and the next two times she'd nearly been murdered, it had only been sheer luck that saved her life.

  Jade had confessed her innocence to Jalia, and as unfriendly as his brother had felt toward her, Zavir said he believed her. His brother was with him now, having caught him in a rare moment alone to update him on Jade's status even though Nivir hadn't asked.

  "Jade refused to return to her place of work, refused ever to touch another tool of her trade. She's been working to ensure Myrminth is habitable for her mother to come later and explore whatever it is Jaclyn is looking for in regard to the Rir. The spy
I placed—"

  "You placed a spy?" Nivir scoffed, secretly thrilled to see Zavir having taken to his position as Dhega's left hand so well.

  His little brother shot him a thankless look, "I've placed several in all our problem areas, as I am confident you would have."

  "I would. You've done very well without me to hold your hand,"

  Zavir narrowed his eyes, though there was a playful spark behind his glare.

  "Would you like me to continue, or would you prefer not to learn anything more about the former Dr. Justus?"

  "Of course, please. Your spy?"

  "My spy, reports that Jade exhausting herself, eating very little, sleeping very little, and what sleep she does get is disturbed by nightmares.

  “I'm told she is kind to everyone she speaks to, but she doesn't speak often and socializes even less. She worked tirelessly to make Myrminth habitable for everyone and doesn't leave unless her presence is specifically requested.

  “In the eight months she's been there, she's left twice and been completely alone on multiple occasions. When my spy mentioned to her she should be kinder to herself, not work so hard; Jade replied doing penance wasn't meant to be a vacation."

  "Penance? I've never heard of it,"

  Zavir hesitated, looking conflicted. "She's punishing herself to gain the forgiveness of those she feels she's wronged. I happened to overhear Jalia questioning her mother as to why Jade had cut her hair, and Jaclyn said Jade was adjusting to her new life. Jalia didn't seem convinced,"

  Nivir frowned so hard he felt the skin at the base of his horns pull taught. He hadn't noticed a difference in Jade's hair, it had been slicked back from her face as though she'd just come from the bath, and he hadn't thought anything of it other than to remember the times Nivir had taken her in the shower of her quarters on J-Alpha.

  "I don't understand the significance. Jalia cuts her hair all the time,"

  Zavir made a familiar motion of licking his lips and reaching back to tug at the muscles of his neck, the telltale signs whatever his brother was about to impart was grave enough to make him question whether or not he should share it.