by May Sage
His head was going to explode if something didn’t start making sense right now.
You’ve initiated the search for a hundred percent match to Sir Jaycn. Tania Webber, a human on our records, fits the requirements.
Calden was baffled, speechless. It had taken five years for their system to find his mate, Lena, and he’d only given the orders regarding Jaycn earlier on that morning. It didn’t seem possible.
Unless…
Unless she’s already a breeder.
She is.
Shit. Jaycn would murder the Klint who had fucked his mate; he knew he certainly would have, if it had been Lena.
However, Tania Webber just signed up. She is not yet attributed.
Thank fuck for that.
Order, he thought very clearly, and the microchip connected him right through to the center of command. Pull Tania Webber out of the breeding program. Get her the best protection possible, and bring her to Magneo on the next available transport.
He wasn’t sure how to deal with that yet, but it could wait five damn minutes, that was for sure. He had another couple of crisis on his hands.
Lena
The girl in front of her deserved no pity, because she had no honor.
They were in the middle of the last Trial determining who would become the Empress of the entire Galaxy and Talue had point blank cheated.
She’d enrolled as many of her supporters as she could, and four had made it to the race; instead of just running, like they were supposed to, they’d attacked the other competitors, ganging up two or three against one.
The plan would have worked, too. She would have been crowned by now, if it hadn’t been for Lena.
Lena had discovered her ability to create things over five years ago.
She’d attempted a jump, but it had been clumsy, so she was contemplating the appealing prospect of falling on her ass and walking funny for a week, when she thought about a bar; a strong bar around which she could have turned. Out of the blue, it had appeared in her hand.
She’d still ended up on her ass, because that had shocked the hell out of her.
It was a very clear instruction, her microchip had informed her. Including the material, the way you wanted it to be built. I’m able to synthesis things, as long as you can describe them accurately.
She’d asked Jaycn why he hadn’t told her that Chip could do that, and her friend had chocked his hot chocolate out of his nostrils.
Apparently, people couldn’t do that – not that easily. After she’d demonstrated her skill, he’d made her swear she wouldn’t say a word to anyone about it, and she hadn’t; hardly difficult, considering the fact that she had, like, two friends and one of them was a cat.
She did tell Mr. Pepper, but the ball of long fur had sworn to take her secret to the grave.
When it had come down to a choice between keeping her secret and fighting the wannabe Empress, Talue, Lena had chosen to let the crazy out.
She’d fitted herself with an exosuit, knowing there was no way she – a human – could physically rival against five strong, well trained Klint females without it.
Now, she didn’t need it. It was just her against Talue, on a fair one to one; and Talue had already proven herself a coward.
The girl unsurprisingly went at her head on; there was no subtlety to her brutal force.
Lena was all about subtlety. She moved left at the last second, dropping to a crouch; her hand firmly pushed against the ground and she lifted her legs to hit Talue right on the flanks.
The Klint ungracefully dropped to her skinny ass.
Lena jumped up, and smirked, letting her enemy return to her feet, although she could just have ended things now.
Talue was a coward. She didn’t deserve any favor; but right now, Lena wasn’t proving herself to her.
She was asserting her position to everyone else watching her.
She knew exactly what they thought of her. She was human, and to them, it had meant weak.
It was time to correct them.
Seventeen
Chosen
Tania
She’d been so excited when the Klint had knocked at her door, so her words were like a punch in the guts.
Refused. Rejected. Good for nothing.
Needing to do something – anything – she’d offered the Klint a cup of tea. The female lifted an eyebrow, surprised.
“That would be appreciated, thank you,” she replied, smiling.
Tania served her some green tea with lemon and honey, and warmed up a muffin, too. She needed the female to stay there, because that meant that she would keep it together for a little while. Maybe by the time she left, she’d be in control, and wouldn’t fall into fits of tears?
Yeah, right.
“I’m not sure why you came to tell me in person,” Tania said, “but thank you.”
A letter would have been a hundred thousand times worse.
The Klint’s reply made her question whether she was just having a bad dream.
“I am here because I have been assigned as your bodyguard, Ms. Webber.”
Closing her mouth took a while after that. Her bodyguard?
“You haven’t been approved as a breeder, although you were perfectly adequate, because of a reason I am not at liberty to discuss with you now. Once that information is passed on to you, things will become clearer, let me assure you.”
She tried pretty hard, but her grey matter was just not processing what she’d heard, so she gave up and admitted:
“I don’t get it.”
The drop dead gorgeous Klint female warmly smiled down at her.
“May I sit?”
Tania looked around her studio flat, taking in her battered, second hand fold-up settee bed, the tidy-ish kitchenette... There didn’t really seem to be anywhere for that larger-than-life creature to sit.
“Sure. It will have to be the sofa,” she replied apologetically.
The Klint waved off, as if to say who cares.
She’d lived in the little town all her life, so Tania had never come face-to-face with a Klint before, but she’d heard they were supposed to be cold, aloof. Neither term even remotely fitted the tall, stunning blonde who was devouring her homemade muffins with gusto. That woman was the opposite: a real BFF material – although she reserved judgment until she’d heard her take on music, boys, and books.
Then Tania shook her head. Was she that desperate for friends? Yes, probably. However, that woman was probably hundreds of years old, although she didn’t look a day over twenty-two. No way did she dig sexy alpha shifter romance.
“These are delightful,” she said, after licking her fingers clean. “I am going to attempt to explain things as well as I can without going against my direct orders. My name is Xian, and I am His Imperial Grace’s first cousin. I also am a commander of his army; my brother Jaycn is the General. After analyzing your blood, we have found something that makes you incredibly valuable to us. I have volunteered to escort you to Magneo myself.”
Try as she might, Tania couldn’t wrap her head around it. That didn’t make a blink of sense; none of it. No human – not even the politicians who’d begged for it – had ever been invited into space, save for the breeders who’d opted to live and raise their children with their Klint baby daddies. Even then, they often ended up in minor planets; not Magneo, the center of the galactic empire.
And being escorted there by royalty – or imperiality – seemed even more preposterous. She was dreaming, right?
If she wasn’t, there was no doubt that a chance like that would never present itself again… however, she’d been refused as a breeder. That meant she needed to carve a life for herself here on Earth, somehow.
“I… I can’t.” It was physically painful to force the words out of her throat. “If I disappear out of the blue, I’ll lose my job at the diner.”
Not exactly her dream job, but it paid the bills, and more importantly, it allowed her to put away a good hundred dollars e
very month. She already had a bit of money on the side; eventually, she would be able to leave that dreadful town, maybe even make a life for herself in a city.
Doing what?
She didn’t have a plan, now she’d been rejected. Dumb, but the program had been her dream… which admittedly was pretty damn lame. Some people had grand ambitions, she’d just wanted to be an incubator to an alien.
“I’m sorry,” the Klint said, seeming as though she genuinely meant those words, “but according to the treaty, we are entitled to take a certain number of humans every year. We have chosen you.”
Everything revolted against the idea of being taken regardless of her wishes but the wave of anger didn’t last. The Klint in front of her was hardly abducting her; she was just drinking tea and trying to patiently explain stuff that she didn’t technically need to tell her. Tania had read enough about the treaty to know she could have just bound her wrists, put a leash on her and taken her wherever she wanted to, kicking and screaming. No one would have batted an eyelash.
“You don’t want to do some… research on me?”
Nothing, so far, had indicated that the aliens loved cutting people open and play with their entrails, but you can never be too cautious.
Xian smiled indulgently.
“On my honor, we do not.”
Calden
Lena was ruthless. She made a dog’s dinner out of the female’s face; obviously, pulling her punches – or kicks – wasn’t in her nature.
Eventually, Talue stayed down. She didn’t seem dead or passed out, so it meant she’d wised up and decided she had enough of getting her ass kicked. Clever girl.
“You know, I kinda fancied Lena,” Jaycn openly admitted, shaking his head. “But all things considered, you can have her.”
Although Calden definitely intended to have her, in every possible way that expression could be interpreted, he shuddered at the thought of their future arguments. With a bit of luck, he’d make it without permanently losing any essential body parts.
Now she was done playing with her prey, Lena looked at the other females around her; as every camera was still focusing on her, they could see her expression, and it wasn’t aggressive at all.
“Right,” she said; the bugs littered around the pit picked up her voice, and retransmitted it around the stadium, “shall we race, then?”
By everything holy in the entire universe, would she stop stressing him out? She’d won. No one was going to contest it. Why was she giving someone else a chance now?
Calden’s hands gripped the armrests as he prayed for her to hurry the fuck up.
“Clever,” Jaycn complimented her, and he glared at him in response.
What would have been clever was asserting her position now, demanding their fealty and coming back to him.
The two sisters and Celma exchanged glances; then, without a word, they dropped on one knee, head down.
Calden could only observe, mesmerized and pretty damn confused. Submitting wasn’t in the nature of most female Klints; particularly the kind who entered the Trials. They were the most vicious of the lot.
Yet, here they all were, doing exactly that, without being forced to.
Well, most of them, anyway. One of the main cameras had focused on the Gunivan brunette, revealing what that spineless cheat was up to.
She was slow and clumsy, holding her sides, pretty battered after the beating she’d just received, but she was close to the finishing line; considerably closer than Lena.
Calden’s fists were almost drawing blood, willing her to turn around and see that sneak who’d been advancing while she’d been busy protecting everyone else.
The rules were clear. If that female made it, she’d become the Empress, little as he – or anyone else – might have liked it.
Finally, one of the contenders noticed. Celma lifted her head and dashed out like a cannonball.
Lena’s gaze followed her, surprise and betrayal evident on her expression, until she saw what the pink-headed Klint was aiming for.
Damn, today was not the Gunivan’s day. Celma launched on her and tackled her to the ground, one knee digging on her wounded side.
“There’s a good girl. Stay.”
Until this day, Calden hadn’t much cared for Celma, his haughty, whinny, exuberant breeder. Now, he regretted he hadn’t gotten to know her; never would he have pegged her for the fiercely loyal kind.
“She’s done it,” Jaycn smirked, amused, rather than surprised. “Twenty minutes, and she’s earned the crown, and found herself three influential supporters.”
Lena walked leisurely, winking towards Celma as she passed her.
“Come on!”
Tradition dictated that the Elders gave her the crown, so their seats had been on the first row, facing the pit, while his was high up, where he could see everything.
In his haste to make it down to the pit, Calden was running down the stairs, missing one or two steps here and there.
He reached the fields just when Lena passed the finishing line.
The seven Elders before her bowed, and she inclined her head in return. Then the leader amongst them – a white-haired, cold-eyed Klint who was rumored to have written the two-thousand-year-old history manuals kids studied – walked forward, a green cushion in hand, upon which a plain, silver diadem identical to his had been placed.
Lena knelt and another ancient stepped in to place it on her head.
Calden’s next breath hitched in his throat. Fuck. She really, really had managed to carve her place next to him – with her bare knuckles.
He wanted to tell her how amazed, how proud he was, and throw the kind of celebration the world would talk about after their deaths, however now wasn’t the time to revel in her accomplishments or to cover her body in slow, languid kisses, from head to toes, as much as he would have loved to.
He ran to her and took her in his arms, squeezing hard, enjoying the peace for all of three seconds, before landing the bomb on her.
“Alek has been kidnapped.”
Eighteen
The Heir
Lena
Lena looked at the monitor showing the cells again. She’d only bothered to arrest two people.
Talue, of course. She’d considered her followers, but thought better of it: they were mere sheep, in the grand scheme of things. Hopefully, their leader’s detainment would teach them to think twice before blindly following a bully next time.
The other captive was Adna of Gunivan, who’d seemed so desperate to win the race, although she must have known no one would have respected her or endorses her victory because of the way she’d gone about it.
“We should interrogate her. As Empress, you will have the clearance to access their chip and check whether what they say is true.”
“I will. Just not yet.”
Interrogating the females would take time – precious time she didn’t have right now.
“Lena, we need to…”
“Not yet,” she snapped at Calden.
Mr. Pepper flinched at her tone, looking confused – probably wondering which one of his offenses had made her use the voice. She absentmindedly ran her fingers through his sleek fur, to reassure him.
“Give me a few minutes, ok?”
Concentrating took a while.
Lena hoped that would be the last disruption. Really, couldn’t the guys take a hint?
She saw the glance Calden sent to Jaycn, but she ignored it. She hadn’t lost her mind, and she was certainly not prostrate with grief, contrary to what those idiots obviously believed.
She was just ever so slightly busy scanning every single microchip connected to their interstellar system. She knew Alek’s identification code; while his chip had obviously been turned off, she might find where it had transmitted for the last time.
Chip did most of the work, but she needed to focus, and their constant interruption wasn’t helping.
Got him. Coordinates recorded.
I owe you a ma
jor update, Chip. Get it on the screen.
“I have a location,” she said out loud, as Chip hacked the nearest screen; the two cells disappeared, to be replaced by the image of a ship, on orbit around a green and bright pink planet.
It was a damn beast of a warship, big enough for a small army.
“That’s the Gunivan vessel. How did you…”
“Later,” she interrupted Jaycn. “Just do what you can and let me carry on working.”
After that, they didn’t try to disturb her, thank fuck.
I have a plan. It’s insane.
It sure is.
Chip had obviously already followed what her mind had come up with.
But it might work.
No, Chip replied. It will work.
It wasn’t the first time that it hit her: it sounded as though her microchip cared.
A problem for another day.
Alek
He’d counted less than four thousand seconds since he’d woken up; under an hour had passed, when something pretty weird occurred.
Alek wasn’t stupid: he’d known without a doubt that one of his parents would come to the rescue; the only question had been; which one would make it first?
He hurried and grabbed the chip floating towards him. It was bigger than his, and more powerful – so much so that it made him feel dizzy when he connected it to his nervous system. Wow. So there was a reason why kids weren’t allowed the good stuff.
You’re Lena’s Chip.
Righty-oh.
Is she coming to save me?
No. You’re going to save yourself. Now, quiet. Let me take your dimensions.
Alek frowned, startled, because that microchip sounded nothing like any computer he’d ever heard. Normally, chips and systems were silent, only responding or reacting to direct interactions. Their communications were simple, to the point – formal.
