“Thank you,” he said. “You may go.” And the Karalians left him alone to undress. His thoughts filled with Vanessa as he sat in the chair and waited for the decon’ to be completed. It seemed to take an age, his impatience growing. He hated being apart from her; more and more he was beginning to realise how Marin and Torac felt about their females.
While he lay back with his eyes closed, he wondered if the human race had some kind of subtle power over the Karalians. In the same way that he could subtly change her mood, could something about Vanessa influence him?
The Hier Ruler, leader of Karal, began to take over, to come back to Lytril, and he thought about asking the scientists to consider this. But it would mean turning a specimen over to them and he couldn’t bear for it to be Vanessa. No. Even if it were to the detriment of his species, he would not turn her over to them.
Instead, he would form his own opinions and work out how they could combat the effect. Because there must be something else going on here; perhaps the Presidency on Earth had become engaged in biological warfare. The females were treated with a chemical which could be used to gain control over Karalians.
If not, he could not understand how he, so schooled in controlling his emotions, could feel so strongly for Vanessa. Only days ago, he had made the cold-hearted decision to make sure that all females would eventually end up in the breeding house. Now, thanks to Vanessa, that would not happen. He had already promised her an island. To Lytril, it felt as though the invasion of Karal by the people of Earth had already begun.
As the decon’ ended, he made himself dress slowly. Enough was enough. He would stick to his promises, he would do his best to make Vanessa love him and stay with him. But only because if he made her feelings for him stronger, he would regain the control that seemed to flip flop out of his control.
When the door opened and he walked back towards the cruiser, ready to depart for Karal, he walked slowly and evenly, his colours now completely under control. Perhaps the decon’ had taken away whatever hold she had on him. Maybe it was a virus or a disease.
Yet when he saw her, it was obvious to him his feelings for her were still there. But he kept them to himself. The Hier Ruler was about to return to his planet. Lytril the romantic fool had to stay behind.
When she smiled at him, excitement in her face, he smiled, but with no feeling, no emotion. She noticed it, her eyebrows furrowed, but she didn’t say a thing, didn’t ask what was wrong. But he felt her mood dampen and realised that if he played this right he would have his control.
However, the price he would pay would be to watch her passion die. The very thing he loved her for would disappear. Inside Lytril, a new battle ensued, between the Hier Ruler, who needed control, and Lytril, who wanted to be free to love Vanessa.
And to make her love him in return.
Chapter Sixteen – Vanessa
They boarded the cruiser once more; this time their destination was Karal. Okil had told her what would happen and prepared her for the landing. However, in the brief time they had been alone, he had not raised the subject of how she was supposed to help Karal and Earth work closer together. She let it go. Perhaps there were listening devices on the space station; she needed to be careful and not put either of them in danger. This was not her world now, she was the alien, a thing she must never forget.
Lytril took his position next to her, yet something about him was different. As though his feelings towards her had changed. No, that wasn’t it; his feelings were just not there anymore. He had shut her out.
She wouldn’t let him dampen her excitement, although she fought not to feel disappointed. Vanessa Roderick was about to land on a new planet filled with life. She planned to enjoy every minute of it. Launching from the space station, her stomach was left behind as they fell towards Karal. They dropped rapidly, in through its atmosphere, lower, and lower, the planet looming up, larger and larger in the small viewing window beside her.
“Oh, wow, it’s beautiful,” she breathed, as colours flooded her senses. She turned to him, her face happy and smiling. Yet he still looked blank; the man who had been on Earth had gone. The ruler of Karal was here next to her in his place.
Her heart squeezed with dread. Had she made a terrible mistake? Was everything he said to her lies? Lytril had made her promises, but only to her, no one else had heard, not even Okil. If he went back on them, she would have no recourse. The ruler of Karal had what he wanted, her, and she was now at his mercy.
She placed her hand on his, wanting to try to steal back the real Lytril, and somewhere deep inside him she felt the stirrings of that man. But then he was gone, leaving Vanessa a mixture of confused, and yet hopeful.
If he had been there once, he was hidden, not gone. Once they were settled and they … well, consummated their relationship, surely she would be able to open him up to those feelings again. Yet she had no experience with men. There was a chance she would disappoint him so badly that he would send her away, to the dreaded breeding house, instead of the island he had promised.
Turning back to the view below, she felt her enthusiasm and joy seeping away. Then they flew over a forest, the trees so tall they must be as high as mountains. Forgetting the now sullen man beside her she asked, “Is that the forest? The one you father took you to?”
He didn’t even look as he answered, “Yes, that is the Dressel Forest.”
“Will you take me there? One day, no matter what happens. Will you take me there with our child?” She wanted to get back the connection they had shared on the night he had stayed at her apartment. To remind him of the painting of him and the child. She had touched him then, could she do so again?
For split second, Lytril came back to her and his face softened and he said, “Yes. I promise that we will go there. I want it to be a lasting memory of the son you will give birth to.”
“It looks so big. I have never seen so many trees. Oh, there are birds, so many birds.” Her face pressed against the small window as she tried to take in every bit of the view in front of her.
The cruiser slowed, and headed for a landing strip. They bumped along, before the wheels took over completely, but they didn’t stop; instead, they left the airport, if that’s what it was. There were no other cruisers parked there, just the long landing strip and a few hangars. As they drew up to what looked like security gates, a man, who looked in awe of Lytril, ushered them through.
“You don’t come through here often do you, Lytril?” Vanessa asked.
“No. I rarely leave the tower. There is always so much to do.” He sat looking disinterested as they drove out across open land. Green grasses, their heads heavy with seeds, swayed as they sped past.
“You live in this wonderful world and yet you take little notice of it.”
“This wonderful world stays so because I work hard. I wish I could just walk away. But I can’t.”
“Just as your father couldn’t. Is that right?” she asked gently, seeing how his life must be. A repetition of his father’s: doing the same thing because that’s what he was supposed to do.
“Yes,” he said, looking at her, but his eyes were distant, somewhere far away.
“Lytril. I want you to think about what I said, about children needing their mothers. But I also need you to promise me that you will spend time with our child and show it all the wonders of your planet.” She placed her hand on his, feeling nothing, only the warmth of his skin. He had completely shut down his emotional reactions.
“You ask for too many promises, Vanessa.”
The cruiser slowed and before she could say another word, he unbuckled his seat belt and rose from his seat. “Okil will look after you for now. I will come to your quarters tonight. It might be late. But please be ready.”
Stunned, she watched him walk away down the exit ramp, and into a group of aliens who had been waiting for him. At that thought, she stopped herself. Now she was the alien. On this planet, she was the one that didn’t belong. Once more, her enthusias
m waned, and she wished she hadn’t been so easily swayed into accepting the lottery prize. Because right now it felt as though she had won the forfeit.
“Shall I show you to your rooms?” Okil appeared in front of her, holding out his hand. She took it, feeling his emotions spill out across her skin.
“Thank you, Okil. I appreciate the sentiment.”
He grinned at her. “I don’t pity you coming here, or having the Hier Ruler as your mate. But I do pity you the road ahead. He is going to be a hard one to break.”
“Does he need breaking?” she asked, not sure what he meant.
“Only the way he sees you and the other people of Earth. I have walked among you, more than anyone else on Karal has. It has taken me many months to understand you. Now I know we have to break the Hier Ruler’s resolve, and only you can do that. If you wish to save your species, Vanessa, you have to find a way.”
She stood up. “He’s not going to make it easy, is he?”
“No. But I have never seen anyone have such an effect on him.”
“Saw anyone, because now it’s gone. He isn’t the same person I met.”
“That person is still in there. You just have to reach in and find him. Many of us will support a change in policy where humans are concerned. If nothing else, we are willing to go out into the vastness of space and help you find a new home.”
“Because you don’t want us all on Karal?”
“That is a thing that will never happen. Even I would not support that. Nor, I believe, would you ask it. Not once you have seen the beauty of our planet.”
“Because we would ruin it?”
“There are just too many of you, Vanessa.”
“I know.” She sighed. “Can we forget about this for now? Take me to my rooms, I would love to see where I am going to spend the next few days, because something tells me that might be the only length of time I am here. If I’m not careful, I will no doubt upset Lytril and be exiled to this island of yours.”
Okil laughed. “That would not be too bad. Grenvet is a beautiful island.”
“Okil, will he keep his word about that? Or will he send me to the breeding house?”
“If there is one thing Lytril is, it is loyal and true to his word. If has given you his promise, then he will not take it back.”
“You are a good man, Okil. If that’s what I am meant to call you? Or is that an insult, because here on Karal you despise men.”
“You can call me what you want, Vanessa. You cannot offend me. I see through to your soul. I know how you helped that old woman and her son. It is why I know you were the right person to persuade Lytril that we have a duty not to abandon Earth.”
“Wait, how could you know? That was before I met Lytril,” she asked suspiciously.
“Here we have an all-seeing eye onto the Earth. We have satellites, which record your world. They are left over from before we made ourselves known. We used them to collect data.”
“That is so wrong.”
“Regardless of the rights or wrongs of it, I watched you help them. I saw your compassion.” He smiled sadly at her. “I had to know who you were. When Lytril asked me to help him, I had to know who I was helping.”
“Oh, Okil, I wish that you hadn’t. I have spent so long trying to distance myself from other people. Now you have thrust me right into a thing I wanted nothing to do with.”
“Are you so sure?”
“Yes,” she insisted as they walked down the ramp and she took her first proper breath of clean, fresh air. Shielding her eyes, she took in the breath-taking scenery. “Oh, my!”
“Still sure?” Okil asked.
“Okil, do you have paints on Karal? I brought what I had, but they would never do justice to this view.”
“I’ll see what I can do. But maybe you are pleased you came here now?”
As she took in the green grass and the trees festooned with heavily scented blossoms, she couldn’t deny that whatever happened between her and Lytril, this view alone would have been worth winning the lottery for.
Up above her head the dual suns wound their slow deliberate paths around each other. Okil stood patiently while she took her fill of her surroundings. She didn’t care what her rooms were like. Not when the outside world held such joy.
Chapter Seventeen – Lytril
He was tired. A thing he rarely experienced, but the journey from Earth had drained him. Immediately on exiting the space cruiser, he had been thrust back into his old life. The strain of using his willpower to both keep his own emotions in check, and read other Karalians had increased his fatigue.
There had been a small dispute while he was away; he had been hard-pressed to keep his temper under control while he listened to both sides. A Karalian, who seemed predisposed to not taking on any gainful employment for his whole life, was caught stealing from a farmer, ruining some of the harvest in his haste to get away. With so much abundant food, if the thief didn’t want to work, he could no doubt live off the land. But he was too lazy to even do that and had taken the farmer’s produce.
Now the judgement was over, he had ordered fifty lashes to the thief, a typical punishment on Karal. The whip carried an electrical current that did not harm the skin, but reverberated along the emotional receptors. It hurt, but not in the same physical way a bullwhip would. Karalians were not that inhumane.
Now that was settled, he could move on to the more mundane aspects of his job. Although all he really wanted to do was go and find Vanessa. The longer the day wore on, the more she consumed his thoughts.
“How did you find Earth?” Torac asked. They were eating a brief meal before the Hier Council continued their meeting.
“Dismal.” Lytril ate one more mouthful of food, and then sat, breathing in the cool night air, fragrant with flowers. “It was worse than I could ever have imagined.”
“And the woman, the female who is your mate?” Torac was watching his ruler closely. Not for the first time did he feel there was something unsaid between them.
“I like her. She will give me a good son.”
“And you still intend to send her away?” Torac pushed the question that had been foremost in his mind.
“I hope not. But who knows.” Lytril hesitated, before adding, “I have agreed to allow the females who do not stay with their prize after producing a son, to be relocated to Grenvet.”
A hush settled over the room, all the council members looked at him. But he had born their stares before.
“These are not the same savages our mothers were. And in light of what I have seen on Earth, I believe that giving them the freedom of the island will keep them content.” He glanced around at the council, gauging their reactions. Lytril knew he would have to give them more than that, or they would believe Vanessa had already taken control of his mind. Had she?
“You want to hand over the island to them?” asked Ishk. Ishk had been voted as the person responsible for bringing the views of the farmers to the Hier Council. It was these farmers who would have to give up their land.
“If we do nothing, and simply send them to the breeding house, as our fathers did, we will have a revolt, and these females do not arm themselves with sticks and stones.”
“But they do not have weapons here. We would be able to control them.”
“I have a different idea. In the same way, the breeding house was set up to house the last few generations of mothers. We have to do something different. Something more radical. We need these females to be cooperative. It is the only way our sons will thrive.”
“Cooperative is one thing. But to give them … what, a colony?” Ishk stood, his face red with anger, the colours not flowing; he was livid.
“Sit, please, Ishk, hear me out.” He motioned for Ishk to sit, and when he hesitated, Lytril brought forth the power of his emotions on him. Forcing him to his seat. “I will not allow dissent in this council.”
“Apologies, Hier Ruler.” Ishk’s face still showed red, but the colours were more m
uted now.
“The colony may be small. Many of the females may choose to live with their chosen mate. Because while on Earth I was given an idea of how we should run this lottery in a better, more productive way.”
If emotions were voices, the whole room would be a murmur of small voices of unease. As it was, they remained silent. Lytril continued. “We will increase the number of females arriving on Karal. DNA matching and observance of the fertility of all those who enter will still take place. But now we will take into account the preferences of the females.”
“Hier Ruler.” Ishk half stood and then sat down with a thump, his face ashen.
“If you no longer wish to be a member of this council, Ishk, you may leave. Or you will do me the courtesy of listening.”
Silence, Ishk looked away, staring at his hands. Around the room, others stirred and for the first time Lytril knew he was in danger of a mutiny. Only Torac, Hier Commander, was in agreement with him. He could sense this was what he wanted, but a female from Earth had influenced him too. Lytril should have abandoned his promise to Vanessa; she was indirectly swaying his mind. He knew it. Yet he had given her his word and that must be upheld.
“The females will be more manageable if they are kept separate, a distance apart. If large numbers gather, then we are in danger of them becoming a force too big. We will be spending too much of our time dealing with them instead of raising our children.”
He looked around the room, his council calmer now. So he continued, knowing this was the biggest gamble he had ever made as Hier Ruler. No. It was the only gamble.
“We will start with the farmers. Ishk, chose one hundred of your people. I want them spread out across a wide area. The women we will match them with will be expected to work alongside their prize. It will keep the females occupied. If they do not want to stay once they are with child, they will be removed. But those that do will be expected to earn their place here on Karal.”
Power: BBW Alien Lottery Romance (Chosen by the Karal Book 3) Page 6
