“They are loyal. We’ve done thorough background checks. At this point, the rebellion is small. But it’s growing. Unfortunately, it does require my attention, which means I have to leave you during our courtship.”
My mind races. “I wish I could do something.”
“The best thing you can do is to stay safe. Knowing you are occupied will ease my mind and make my job harder. I will have your friend escorted to the palace while I’m gone.”
“That would be nice.”
“I’m having it arranged. She will have the rooms beside yours. Hopefully this will all be settled by the time I get back.”
My arms itch for him. The well of desire between us is bursting and the thought of him leaving me alone physically hurts.
He reaches out to take me in his arms, and I relax into his powerful embrace. Resting my head against his thick chest, I feel so safe and secure. I don’t want him to ever let me go. It isn’t just the arousal anymore. It’s something more. It’s genuine affection and respect.
He kisses the top of my head. I wish he would kiss my lips again. But instead he bids me goodbye.
For hours I pace my room, as my emotions swirl and shift. I am at a loss and can’t quell the raging storm inside me.
I can’t even eat or read. Relaxing is impossible. My nerves are a wreck. But when the palace AI announces that Sophia has arrived and the butler brings her to my door, I am beyond relieved.
I grab her in a huge hug and squeeze like my life depends on it.
“Are you okay?” she asks as I let her go and we walk into the room. “Did he tell you he won’t help you save Abigail?”
“I haven’t asked him yet.”
“You haven’t? Why not?”
We sit by my favorite window as the sun sets over the forested valley and the city beyond. The distant lights twinkle as twilight descends.
“It’s complicated.”
“It’s not that complicated. He’s king. He wants you. You tell him he can’t have you if he doesn’t save your sister.”
I sigh. I wish it were that simple. “There are extenuating circumstances.”
“Like what?”
“Like they’ve been working on the timegate for decades and the threat of a time paradox is real.”
“Madeline, you can’t let that stop you. You saw how they ate Mrs. Henderson.”
“I’m not giving up,” I grumble. “I’ve been doing research. And everything he says about the science is true. But I have reason to believe that returning to Earth for one girl wouldn’t create a paradox. Unfortunately, that’s not the only problem we’re facing now. Have you noticed increased security at the bridal mansion?”
“We’ve all been assigned bodyguards. Bethany is convinced hers is her match.”
“Bethany would take any Martian.” I laugh. “But there are a hundred million Martians and only a few dozen of us. What do you think would happen without the genetic matching system?”
“Eh… chaos.”
“Exactly. But there is a faction of Martians who want exactly that.”
“That… doesn’t sound good for anyone’s health.” Sophia shivers at the idea. And I don’t blame her. It’s terrifying. Every girl likes the idea of a few boys liking her at the same time. A hundred million huge, horny virgins, on the other hand, not so much.
“That’s why Damious is gone. He has to go deal with it. We were almost attacked in the forest earlier today. I’ve never been so scared.”
“You’re kidding.”
“Well, I don’t know if they would have attacked us, but they were armed with laser guns. Anything could have happened. I don’t want to think what they would have done if they’d gotten hold of me.”
“Oh shit.” Sophia rarely swears so it’s a surprise to hear it come out of her mouth. But I know exactly what she’s thinking. I was thinking the same thing.
“I honestly didn’t want Damious to leave after that. But he arranged for you to come keep me company.”
We are both silent for a moment as the last shreds of daylight fade. “So how are things going between the two of you?”
“Good,” I say, leaving the word hanging in the air. I don’t elaborate. I can’t. I don’t want to tell her how conflicted I feel about attempting to manipulate him into saving Abigail. The more I feel for him, the less sure I am that I have the right to even ask.
“Does being around him make you crazy horny?” she asks. “Like Doris told us about?”
I roll my eyes and smirk. “As a matter of fact, yes. I’m not ashamed to admit it.”
“Do you think that interferes with getting to know him as a person?”
“I’m not sure. There’s a lot going on. It could make it easier to overlook character flaws. He certainly doesn’t have any physical ones.” I bite my lip, thinking about Damious’s chiseled flesh.
“But aside from that, do you like him?”
“He’s a decent person. He can be a little commanding, but he treats me like a lady. He’s very protective and gentle to me. It could just be all his training, but I think I’m starting to see who he is underneath all that. So yes, I like him.”
“That’s good. It would suck if you didn’t like his personality.”
“I’ve been reading about the genetic matching system and they believe that personality compatibility is a product of genetic compatibility. If I’d heard someone say that on Earth, I would have laughed my head off. But I’ve read the research and it’s compelling. However, there is a lot they don’t know, since it was mostly theoretical. Only time will tell. Part of the protocol is to allow for rejection from us Earth women. Then she can choose whoever she wants, or no one. They are all about our choice when it comes to matching.”
“Tell Bobby that. She’s still determined to go back to Earth.”
“Maybe if I ever make it back to get Abigail, she can trade places with her.”
10
Damious
When I arrive at the capital, I am in a deadly state of mind. What happened in the forest was unacceptable. The people responsible for threatening my match will be brought to justice. There will be no exceptions, no excuses.
I walk through the front doors of the Council Chambers and take my seat at the head of the table. The other members of the Council have already arrived. I grit my teeth and call the meeting to order.
“This cannot happen again,” I say in a low voice. “The men responsible must be found, tried, and jailed immediately.”
“Security has already apprehended the men who swarmed you and your match in the forest,” says Captain Noru. “But that doesn’t account for the leaders of this movement. They are the true threat to the planet and the matching system. And, ultimately, the Earth females.”
“This cannot be allowed to continue a moment longer,” I growl. “What happened today…” I can’t go on. I am so full of uncharacteristic rage that my words catch in my throat.
“We are investigating the group who call themselves the Mating Equality Movement.”
“This is absurd,” says Malico Ossi. “After all the work we’ve done. After all the years we put into this. The entire planet was in agreement. We made sure of it. For anyone to…”
He can’t go on. I know the feeling. It is a deep betrayal, not only to the Earth females who are in our care, but to the entire planet of Mars, our civilization, and our values.
Admiral Raylon Bishto begins, “We are closing in on the leaders of the group. But the infection seems to have gone much further than we had originally anticipated. We’d first thought it was just a few dozen disgruntled men. But now we see it is far more than that. Initial reports suggest there are several thousand in this district alone.”
“What?” My voice is too high, too angry. This is unlike me. This is unlike any Martian I have ever known. We are changing before my eyes, and I wonder if it is the effect of the matching serum we have all taken. I decide to keep this insight to myself for now.
Whatever the cause
, I need to stay calm or I will not be able to lead. Mars needs me rational, now more than ever. Now that we are so close to correcting our past mistakes. Now that we have females again, I can’t risk losing it all because I could not stay levelheaded enough to lead when it really counted.
I close my eyes and breathe deeply for several beats. I can feel myself calming down. This situation is like any other, it requires decisiveness and logic. It requires I be the king my people depend on me to be.
“How do we handle the press?” Jaxxo asks. “You know they are out for blood with this.”
After what happened to Jaxxo, when the Council antechamber was bugged, the press has become a problem here on Mars.
After decades of collective effort toward our goal for returning to Earth and bringing females to Mars, it seems the people of this planet have lost their minds.
Our systems and social structures make crime unusual. In the past, it had only happened when someone’s mental health had suffered. Which itself was rare, considering our genetic alterations. Mars had been extraordinarily stable for the last five hundred years. But all good things come to an end.
“We tell them nothing,” I say. “It is better if we take care of this in private.”
“What if we consider their demands?” asks Connon Ingar.
We all look over at him. The implications are chaos. It is impossible.
“In what way?” I ask, trying to keep my cool.
“The timegate. It worked once,” Connon says.
“We cannot return through the timegate,” says Martix Controi. “We have not passed the event horizon.”
“Even if we did somehow find a way to avoid a time paradox before passing the event horizon,” I ask Connon, curious to hear his response, “how exactly do you propose we procure enough females for all of Mars?”
“Worst case scenario, we take them from Earth.”
“Are you suggesting we abduct women from Earth? That would make us no better than the Mantises.” I am trying to keep my voice low, but it takes a great effort not to bark at him. We do not abduct women.
“The way I see it, they are all going to die anyway.”
The chamber goes silent. I hear no voices of agreement or disagreement. I shake my head and pinch the bridge of my nose.
“What about the possibility of sending the dissenters back in time themselves?” asks Captain Jaxxo Noru. “Would that avoid a time paradox, if they go and don’t come back?”
“What purpose would that serve? We still lack adequate weapons technology to fight them,” I say.
“We would be able to peacefully resolve the issue here,” Jaxxo says.
“If there are several thousand of these men in the capital alone, that means there could be twenty thousand across Mars. That’s nearly a quarter of our population! Where are we going to get the ships for that many men?” I ask.
Jaxxo taps his tablet pencil on the desk. He of all people should realize the limitations of our naval force. Sending twenty thousand Martians back to Earth to do God-knows-what to the Earth females is not a possibility.
“I simply do not see how we can fight this battle head to head. Not if there are that many who disagree with the matching system,” Jaxxo says.
“Their solution is not acceptable. Would you give up your match to one of these rebels?” I ask him.
Jaxxo clears his throat and grits his teeth. “I would fight to the death for her.”
“Then we should do the same for all of them. The Earth women cannot be swarmed by twenty thousand Martians.”
“It would be helpful to get their take on this,” says Connon.
“I have already spoken with my wife about it. She’s asked many of the women in the bridal house if they would prefer an open dating system. And ninety percent said no. Five percent said they don’t want mates. Only five percent said yes. That means in total, three girls are willing to be bombarded by twenty thousand men. The odds of winning one of their hearts is better in the matching system.” Jaxxo’s voice is low. He is annoyed. As a man who has a pregnant wife at home, he has more at risk than anyone else in the room.
“The best course of action is to focus on the timegate,” says Connon.
“We don’t yet know the effects of our single trip through the gate. It will take years to fully understand the repercussions!” says Malico. “We have already agreed. To play with such things because some men are impatient for a match is preposterous. This is not the Mars I know. I am deeply disappointed by this behavior.”
He goes silent and no one disagrees with him. But Connon continues.
“If we were able to go once, we are able to go again. There have been no changes, no paradoxes. We didn’t suddenly have less technology or disappear from the face of Mars when the ship returned. We can go back and rescue another load of girls. If not dozens.”
“We can battle a few Mantis ships, but not an entire fleet. The time it took to rescue one ship of captives was almost too much,” Jaxxo says. “I personally would not want to risk it again.”
“We should have been working on our weapons technology this entire time,” says Admiral Bishto. “Then we wouldn't have this problem.”
“The resources and manpower were not there to develop both. It was the timegate or weapons. We all know this,” I say. I’m beginning to get tired of this discussion. “Going over old territory is not helping us solve our current problem.”
“What is your decision?” asks Malico.
“We need to secure our society before we can consider either developing new technologies, returning through the timegate, or anything else. Once we are assured of the general peace, we can discuss these topics again. I agree with you, Admiral; weapons technology should be our next collective effort. With it, we can take out the Mantises in the past and save Earth for all time.”
“But the time paradox!” Malico says.
“Admiral, put down the rebellion. You have the full financial backing of Mars. Malico, the science department should be crunching numbers. I want twenty proofs of the exact time of the event horizon at our next meeting. Now, this meeting is adjourned.”
I stand as the other members file out of the chamber. Since the instance with Jaxxo and the media, I have the entire building swept for bugs multiple times a day. If this situation leaks to the press, who seem to have turned their backs on Mars, then it will make matters much worse.
Being the king who must put down a rebellion after a thousand years of peace is not what I’d wanted for my legacy. How quickly things change.
The questions and possibilities suggested by the council play through my mind as I take my vehicle to the naval headquarters in the capital. We have much to discuss. More intelligence is coming in by the minute, and none of it looks promising.
The worst part is that I will be required to be away from home much longer than I’d originally planned. I hate leaving Madeline in the middle of our courtship. We’ve barely had any time together. And the thought of her finally rejecting me weighs heavy on my heart.
My need for her is deep. But I must put my full strength behind Mars until I am sure the danger has passed. I consider bringing her to the capital to be with me. But it would make little difference, as I would be in meetings and distracted regardless.
She is better off back at my fortress. Safe and secure with her friend behind my walls. Still, I already miss her, and it has been less than a day.
I put my vehicle on auto drive and flip to the text app on my wrist device.
“I already miss you. I hope all is well. Council meeting is over. Headed to naval headquarters. Wish I was headed home to you. Should be back tomorrow.”
I send the message and realize I didn’t even consider my courtship training while writing it. The entire message came naturally, directly from my heart.
I really am falling for her. She is an extraordinary woman. It is a privilege to be matched with her. I had expected it to be the other way around. I am king. But now that I know he
r, all I want is to serve her needs to my best ability.
Soon, I will return home and do just that.
11
Madeline
Having Sophia at the palace while Damious is gone is a huge comfort. I hadn’t expected to miss him so much. But I got a pit in my stomach almost instantly the moment he left.
Sophia and I are playing cards in the large living room on the second floor when my tablet buzzes with a notification. I pick it up and read the text from Damious.
My heart melts. I’ve heard that expression a million times. I thought I knew what it meant. When I saw a cute video of puppies or babies, I got that same feeling. But this text, it’s something else entirely. It isn’t just like my heart melts. It’s like my entire being melts. I make a little moaning noise and Sophia asks me what’s going on.
“Damious just sent me the sweetest text.” The sound of my voice is so syrupy, I can barely stand myself.
“What did it say?”
I show it to her, and she melts too. Now I know that it wasn’t just me. Am I really falling for him? A few hours after he left, the crazy horniness started fading, so I know that this feeling isn’t because of that. Damious is just sweet and considerate.
I’m genuinely sad that I can’t spend more time with him, getting to know him. We were just getting started when all of this rebellion stuff blew up. It’s insane.
“I miss him too,” I tell Sophia. “And it’s only been a few hours. I think I’m really falling for him.”
“Well, it helps. Don’t you think?”
“I suppose it does. But I still haven’t asked him about Abigail. With the rebels demanding that they open the timegate again, I don’t feel like it’s a good time.”
“You can’t give up!”
“I know. I’m not going to give up. I just… I feel bad. Because I realize how hard this is for him. He’s just trying to do his best for his planet. It’s a lot of responsibility. Leading Mars is everything to him.”
Alien King's Match: Alien Abduction Breeder Romance (Timegate Mars Book 2) Page 6
