“He’s upset. Our kingdom needed this alliance.” Themba scratched the side of his head. Saying Melisizwe was upset was putting it mildly. He’d disappointed his brother. Their father was most likely frowning down on him from the afterlife. His younger brother had thought his leaving was a joke, and the palace officials and staff had been in shock. His actions had rippled throughout the palace and most likely the kingdom before he’d powered up his transport vessel and left the planet’s atmosphere. “No, Melisizwe has no use for me anymore. I’m no longer a royal.”
Themba had gone into the meeting to discuss the bonding contract terms, fully prepared to fulfill his duties and mate with Chikondi. But once there he knew he couldn’t live a lie. Not even for his Kgosi. Themba told Melisizwe how he felt about Payton and hadn’t held back. He couldn’t imagine spending his life with anyone but Payton, and to his surprise, that was one of the things that had rushed out of his mouth.
Melisizwe had let him say everything on his mind, and as Themba rambled on about his love for Payton, Melisizwe’s face had tightened. His usually calm demeanor changed. Melisizwe reminded Themba of everything the kingdom would lose with reneging on the union. Chikondi’s family, feeling slighted, would most likely align themselves with another kingdom who might, with the newly added credits, begin aggression with theirs. Kingdoms and powerful families may now see the bu Kumkani Kingdom as unable to hold their word. Contracts might get broken, and chaos could ensue.
Even knowing all that, Themba couldn’t bring himself to forget about Payton and see through with the bonding. To absolve his family and kingdom from any fallback from his actions, Themba had renounced his position and with it, his family. When he’d left Ipakethe, he’d left everything behind.
She lifted her head to stare down at him. “Wait. What?”
“I’m no longer a prince. I’m a commoner.” He frowned, thinking about it. “I’m most likely not allowed back on Ipakethe. I didn’t ask Melisizwe if I could visit.” He shook his head. There had been no reason to ask. The look on Melisizwe’s face had said it all.
“Themba. I didn’t want you to give up your life for me. I’ve had someone do that before, and it didn’t work out. Mike resented me for ruining his life.”
Before this, Themba didn’t know he could hate a name or a person as much as he did now. “It would be so easy to travel to Earth and breach the planet undetected. The only difficulty I see is finding the correct Mike. I wouldn’t want to inadvertently kill the wrong one.” He cocked his head to the side. “How many Mikes are there on Earth anyway?”
She slapped him on his arm. “Don’t say that. I don’t need or want him killed. All I’m saying is that you’re starry-eyed about our relationship now, but when the newness wears off, you’ll blame me for everything you had to give up. I’ve been there. I’m not doing it again.” She rolled away. “Call your brother. You have to make things right with him and go home.”
Themba grabbed her arm and pulled her back. “Without you, I don’t have a life. Payton, you’re my true lifemate. Most Ngonyama’s spend a lifetime waiting for what I’ve found. I could never be with another. My soul, my very essence belongs to you. The blood rushing through my veins sings your name. There’s no going back from this, and I would never want to anyway. If we lived in a hovel and had no credits at all, I would be just as happy as I am now. Because we would be together.”
Her eyes began to water. “But, Mike—”
“So help me, Payton if you mention that name one more time I will have no choice but to go to Earth and do away with him. He didn’t deserve you, and he knew he wasn’t worthy of you or your love. He’s a coward and a fool who doesn’t deserve another thought from you.”
The breath she let out was long and deep. “It’s just me and you then?”
“Just us.”
“And Jack.”
“And Jack,” he repeated.
“And the other humans when I find them.”
“Of course. We’ll have to figure out how to locate them. If I were still royalty, I could have our investigators find them. I’m sorry that I’m not.”
“Can we still hire investigators? Is it expensive? I could get a job to help pay for it. I still have the pictures that I took on Turolois, and as soon as I figure out how to market them, I can sell them. I mean, it’ll take a little while, but I want to make photography work. I know that might be far off, but I’ll look for something else in the meantime.”
He tapped his comlink and checked his credit account. “There’s no need for you to get a job. I have businesses I can draw income from. We can hire investigators, I’ll just have to find a service to go through. The investigators that would’ve been available to us on Ipakethe were the best. I hate leaving something so important to you to people I don’t know.”
“I don’t care. Just as long as we get the process started soon. Are you sure I don’t have to work? Because I don’t mind. I don’t want to be a slug or anything. I can pull my weight. I don’t want you to think that you have to take care of me.”
He pressed a few more buttons on his comlink. “Payton, after what you went through, you can be a slug. I’m assuming my translator’s second definition is correct, and you do not wish to turn into a tough-skinned slimy mollusk. But regardless, it would be my honor to spend the rest of my life taking care of you.”
“But credits? I don’t want to feel like I’m living off of you. I know you aren’t...him...but I just can’t go back to asking someone for money again. It’s demeaning. I don’t have any kind of degrees or anything, but I can figure out how to make money and bring another income into the house.”
He nuzzled his chin on her head. “You want to become a photographer. We’ll make that happen. But this is only because you want to. Not because you have to.” It would take some work to make her feel loved, secure, and bring her confidence back, but he would do it. Even if it took a lifetime.
“Thank you. I always wanted to become a photographer. I’m not skilled, but I want to learn. I’ll have to get a job to help pay for expenses to buy equipment and despite what you say, help find the others.”
“Payton, my treasure, check your credit account.”
“I-I don’t know how to do that.”
He lifted her hand and showed her how to access her account on her comlink. “Now, tap this icon, and it’ll translate the numbers for you.”
She flinched. She undoubtedly expected to find it empty and hadn’t wanted to view it, but she tapped her comlink anyway. When she gasped, he smiled. He would give her a lifetime of good surprises.
“When? How?”
“That’s yours. You don’t have to ask me for anything.”
“Soooo many zeroes.”
“If you want to learn how to become a photographer, I am with you one-hundred percent. But you don’t need to work for credits.”
“I feel like I should.”
“How about this? Why don’t you concentrate on learning this new life? That can be your job for now. I signed you up to take the universal language classes at one of the universities. We both need to learn about life on Cleaprea. We need to explore this and the surrounding sister planets. We can find photography classes for you to enroll in and figure out how to get the pictures you took on the market. Starting over is hard work. There’s a lot for us to do if you’re worried about being idle.”
She snuggled deeper against him. “And we’ll do all of this together?”
“Together. But the exploring part with Jack too.”
Chapter Twenty-Three
Payton read the last line of the holo-file and not seeing the information she searched for on that page she used her hand and swiped left through the air, and a new page appeared. Some of the funny alien characters twisted and did a number on her eyes and brain. The translator within the program worked to change the universal language to English, and as it did, her world went topsy-turvy for a few minutes.
She had explained the feeling to Themba as
being on a roller coaster ride. He had no clue what that meant.
Once the letters settled into place, the feeling disappeared, and she felt like herself again. Not all the words could be translated, which left the sentences a mish-mosh of mess. Of course, reading like this wasn’t ideal, but until she learned the universal language, this had to do for now.
For the last month, she’d taken lessons via a traditional classroom setting. Her instructor and Themba had both assured her she was progressing as expected. She’d pressed herself, taking on extra lessons because she had a fire under her to learn to read.
She had to find out what happened to the others, and if she couldn’t read all the words, she might gloss over or miss vital information.
Payton scanned over the file, letting her brain fill in the words she couldn’t read and guessed as to what they might mean. The file had been one in many that she’d gotten from the news outlets around the same time they’d all been in The Hunt. She’d figured since humans were a protected species, one popping up randomly would hit some kind of news outlet, as her move to Cleaprea had. She’d found out what happened to Spencer a few weeks ago. He’d ended up as a pet in a reverse harem situation.
She would figure out how to save him—if he could be saved. But for now, all of her attention was focused on the people she couldn’t find.
Where are Mary Ann and Kaylin.
Had that contract hunter caught Miranda and the kids?
Was Ben claimed by that female hunter?
Did Yesenia take her hunter up on his offer?
What happened to Danny and Min?
What about Esme?
Esme had been so unsure of her ability, naïve and sweet. Payton couldn’t imagine the horrors she’d gone through once she was captured. If reading how Spencer had ended up was any indication, Esme’s life as a Level One prey was most likely horrendous. And Level One was what Payton had convinced herself that Esme had been caught in. She’d wanted to believe Esme could’ve made it further, but with only the knife Payton had forced her to take, she’d known Esme hadn’t stood a chance against the lizard who’d gone after her.
Payton couldn’t imagine the shy virgin being used by that lizard or his one-armed friend.
Payton got to the end of the page, and just like the other information she read, nothing mentioned humans. She swiped left, and this time as the words adjusted, she closed her eyes and pinched the bridge of her nose, trying to alieve the headache that quickly moved from annoying to debilitating.
Strong hands were on her shoulders. The thick fingers kneaded her muscles, breaking up the tension. Payton let her hand drop and head fall forward, relaxing instantly. This was one of the benefits of having a hybrid cat alien as a mate. They sure did love massages. Deft fingers separated and worked out the kinks in her shoulders and neck.
“No luck yet?” His smooth voice rumbled across her eardrums. The effect made her nipples perk in response.
“Nothing on Esme or anyone else. I just...” She took a deep breath and slumped.
His thumbs moved up the back of her scalp and massaged. “We’ll keep searching. We’ll find them.”
“Did you get a response from your query?”
“The same.”
Themba had inquired about Esme and the others in the hopes that the people who ran The Hunt would provide him information on who’d captured them. That at least would’ve given her a starting point on which sector of the galaxy they should search, that was, if any of them remained in this galaxy at all.
“Everything about The Hunt is confidential. The only person who is responding to the inquiries isn’t even confirming The Hunt exists or that they know anything about humans at all. The response states, ‘There is no available information regarding your inquiry.’”
She wasn’t getting anywhere. Payton let out a heavy sigh. Themba fisted her hair and gently pulled her head back, making her stare into his striking eyes. “Listen to me. We will find them. I don’t have my family’s resources as I did before, but I still have contacts, and I’ve called in favors to all of them. We’re doing something. We’re searching, and we won’t stop until we find them all.”
“Have I told you how much I love you?”
He smiled. The hard angles on his features turned soft. “Not today.”
She returned his smile. “Well, I do.”
He dropped down, covering his mouth over hers. Their kiss was long and deep. His hands moved from her hair and shoulders, over her clavicles and palmed her breasts. Those same nimble fingers squeezed and caressed her. She moaned into his mouth and arched her back into his touch. Her hands found their way into the mass of his hair.
Knock. Knock. Knock.
She groaned.
“Are you expecting company?” he said, pulling his mouth from hers.
“Nope. Uninvited guests. How rude.” One thing she learned about the residents in her neighborhood was that they didn’t think twice about showing up unannounced. Once they were invited inside, it was hard to get rid of them.
“Yes, rude.” Themba had explained that since he’d once lived in a palace he’d never experienced any such thing as an uninvited guest. A first he’d been happy to meet the neighbors, now he was tired of them interrupting their day and most importantly, their lovemaking time.
“We should ignore them.” She pulled his mouth down on hers to resume the kiss that would ultimately lead to her bent across her desk or him carrying her to their bedroom. She didn’t care where they did it, just as long as it ended with both of his cocks deep inside her.
Knock. Knock. Knock.
“Ugh.”
“It seems like they won’t go away.” He straightened. “I’ll get rid of them while you get out of those pants.” He made his way toward the front door.
“If it’s the children again, tell them you can’t come out to play right now.”
He grumbled something as he left. Jack followed happily by his side. The nosey adults he could get rid of easily. He had a harder time sending away the neighborhood children who wanted to play and wrestle. Themba was itching to have some of their own, and once Payton could find the others and clear her mind, they would do just that.
“Give me two minutes to save my search so I won’t have to start over from scratch,” she called out.
As she saved her search history, muffling sounds came from the door. She didn’t worry Themba was in trouble. Their neighborhood was safe, and so was the planet. She’d heard some planets were completely lawless, but not Cleaprea. It was the kind of planet she could see them raising their children on.
Payton pushed away from her desk and stood, stretching again. She didn’t know how long she’d spent searching today, but no doubt she would do the same tomorrow. Since she’d been freed from The Hunt, she’d spent a fair amount of the day on this task, and she’d only been able to find one other person. They couldn’t still be on that planet and trapped in The Hunt, could they?
She quickly pushed that thought from her head. She didn’t want to think of them in that barbaric game hiding, running, and fighting for their lives while she was free and living her best life. No, there had to be another reason why she couldn’t find the others. Maybe whoever had taken them kept them in secrecy? That had to be it. She couldn’t find what had happened to Mary Ann or Kaylin and they’d both been taken before her.
Continued talking from the door caught her attention. She’d expected Themba to be in their bedroom buck-naked by now. It seemed that he might need some help convincing the children now wasn’t a good time to play.
Payton made her way to the front door. Her feet softly padded across the plush carpet, a luxury she had gotten used to but would never take advantage of. Not so long ago she’d been sleeping in the mud with animal feces smeared across her skin.
Standing at the door were two men who looked like Themba. They held themselves in a rigid stance and had different builds, but it was very apparent they were of the same species. The tense way The
mba held his broad back told her instantly that whoever these newcomers were, he wasn’t happy to see them. Jack sat dutifully by his side, his tail wagging. Whoever they were hadn’t intended to do them harm or Jack would’ve been growling and snarling. That he did neither was proof it was safe for her to approach.
She came up silently behind Themba as they spoke.
“Why does he request the presence of my mate?” Themba asked.
“He didn’t tell us,” one said. “His only directive was for you to return to Ipakethe immediately and for your mate to join you.”
Themba grumbled, and Payton rubbed his back, hoping to calm him. “At least he recognizes Payton as my mate.”
“What’s going on?” Payton asked.
“Melisizwe, my brother has demanded our presence.”
“Requested,” one newcomer corrected.
“If it was a mere request I could turn it down.” Themba widened his stance. “Can I turn it down?”
Both newcomers grimaced.
“That’s what I thought. He wouldn’t have sent members of the elite guard to get us if this was merely a social call.”
Elite guards? Payton studied one of the men. She swore he seemed familiar. She’d seen someone who’d looked just like him when she was shopping in the open air market a week ago. She couldn’t be sure, though. She’d thought to tell Themba that she’d seen another Ngonyama, but she hadn’t found his presence odd. Cleaprea was a melting pot of sorts of different species.
Now if she’d seen another human, that would’ve been something to run home and tell Themba about. As far as she knew—because everyone she met told her—she was the only human on Cleaprea.
“We have clearance to leave the planet’s airspace within the hour.”
“Strategic as ever,” Themba remarked. “Melisizwe isn’t allowing me enough time to think this over.”
Payton wrapped her arms around him. “It’s okay. We’re in this together, remember?”
Themba didn’t relax, but he leaned down and kissed the top of her head. “Together.”
Hunted by the Alien Prince Page 22
