Boone’s throat was suddenly dry. “Fourteen?”
“At a minimum. Though some females in their first cycle may require penetration and completion up to twenty or even twenty-five times.”
“That’s…” Boone coughed. “That’s simply not possible.”
“Not for one of your species, no. But for an Erian it’s the norm.”
Boone shook his head. “But…we’re all human. All our people came from Earth-that-was.”
“That was millennia ago,” the Empress snapped. “We’ve evolved. You only have to look in the viewer at your own excessively large frame to see that. Where would your people be if they hadn’t mutated in order to live on a heavy G world? In the same way, my people have adapted to live on Eros. The compounds in our atmosphere have molded us into what we are today—a highly sexual people.”
“I…see,” Boone said slowly.
“You begin to see,” the Empress corrected him. “I hate to be blunt, but there’s simply no way you could satisfy an Erian female’s sexual appetites during her mating cycle. Especially not a royal one. Our appetites are more…voracious than most.”
Boone frowned. “So you’re saying I can’t be with K because I can’t get it up twenty times a night? There are other ways to satisfy a woman, your highness.”
The Empress’s eyes flashed. “Indeed? And you’re really so full of hubris that you believe your crude sexual methods could help Krissana get through what is certain to be the most difficult trial of her life?”
“I think she’d have an easier time being with someone she wanted,” Boone said stolidly.
“The mind may be willing but the body is weak,” the Empress said, frowning. “You think that because you were able to help her through the first phase of her cycle you will be able to finish the job.”
“I would certainly try,” Boone said.
The Empress shook her head. “Trying isn’t enough. Though you might be able to satisfy her cravings manually or orally during the first and second phases of her cycle, when she goes into the third phase and her eyes turn pure gold, Krissana won’t just crave multiple sexual encounters, she’ll die without them. Only a pure bred Erian can help her.”
“Damn it,” Boone growled. “There must be a way—I know I’m not the only non-Erian to love somebody from Eros. I won’t stand by and let K be raped by some stranger just because he has the right bloodlines and I don’t.”
The Empress actually threw back her head and laughed—long peals of mirth that made the short hairs on the back of Boone’s neck stand on end.
“Oh, do forgive me,” she said at last, blotting her eyes daintily with an embroidered linen napkin. “But rape? You speak of rape? You really don’t know anything about the Erian sex cycle, do you?”
Boone glared at her. “I don’t know what’s so funny. What else would you call putting K in a room with a stranger and telling her to go for it even if she doesn’t want anything to do with him, because he’s your choice to be the future Emperor?”
The Empress sobered. “Firstly let me say that whoever Krissana chooses as her consort with be simply that—a consort. He will never be the ruler of this planet. Only Krissana has the exulted blood—only she can rule. And secondly, let me inform you that it is much more likely that she will rape him—whoever it is that she chooses—than the other way around.”
Boone shook his head. “What the hell are you talking about?”
“About matters beyond your span of knowledge, obviously,” the Empress snapped.
Boone struggled to control his temper. “Well then please, your highness, enlighten me.”
“Gladly.” She leaned forward on the throne. “When a female royal goes into the third and final stage of her cycle, there is no stopping her—no controlling her. She must mate and she often becomes quite…feral at that time.” She steepled her long, slender fingers and looked at Boone. “Believe me, I am actually doing you a favor by taking away Krissana.”
Boone frowned. “What exactly are you implying? I don’t—”
The Empress cut him off with a wave.
“I’m afraid this conversation is at an end. I have many matters to attend to and you have taken enough of my time.” She nodded at two of the guards who were standing on either side of her throne. “Escort him out and see that he goes only to his own chambers. I don’t want him anywhere near the princess,” she ordered.
Boone started to protest but the guards had both leveled their pulse sabers at him. Clearly this discussion was over. He turned to leave but he couldn’t resist saying one last thing.
“This isn’t the end, your highness,” he told the Empress. “I swore to K that I would take care of her and that I wouldn’t leave her.”
“My dear giant,” she returned. “Did it ever occur to you that Krissana might not want you to keep your promise? She’s back where she belongs—she has a home and a life and duties to take on. She doesn’t need you anymore.”
Boone wanted to say that the Empress had no idea what K needed—no idea at all. But by that time he had already been herded out of the throne room and was being marched back to his quarters.
I’m sorry K, he thought with a mixture of frustration and regret. Sorry I brought you here at all. But I swear I’ll figure something out. Some way to get you out of here.
But how when they were practically under house arrest here at the elaborate and well guarded palace? And even if he did manage to escape with K, what was he going to do with her? He wasn’t afraid for his own safety—even if she did go feral when she entered her third phase, he could handle himself. But he did worry about her dying if he couldn’t give her what she needed. If he couldn’t satisfy the sexual demands of her body.
God… Boone ran a hand over his face as they passed down the long marble hallways that led to the guest suite where he’d been installed. All this was so much simpler back before I kissed her and started her damn cycle.
But as problematic as it was becoming, he couldn’t regret his deepening relationship with K. Couldn’t regret loving her or stop hoping that she could learn to love him back.
* * * * *
“I can’t believe it—nothing has changed.” K looked around her old room in wonder.
In the center of the room her old sleeping platform still stood. It was big and puffy and pink with delicate white hand stitched lace edging everything. Her favorite stuffed animal, a purple bearicorn, was lying in state in the center in the middle of the many pillows. To the left of the bed was a shelf filled with toys and to the right was a dainty white dressing table, a miniature of the one she remembered being in her mother’s rooms.
“I used to sit here,” she murmured, placing one hand on the back of the tiny ornately carved chair. “Sit here and pretend I was getting dressed for a ball.”
“That you did, child.” Vanja, her old nurse, smiled. Her kindly face was just as K remembered it—a bit more wrinkled and careworn, maybe, but the faded blue eyes with their thin outer gold rings were still kind and understanding. “You loved playing dress up and pretending you were a grown up lady,” her nurse went on. “It was your favorite game.”
“I guess…it won’t be a game for much longer.” K sat heavily on the pale pink sleeping platform and ran a hand through her hair. She had tucked her skinsuit into one of the inner pockets of the stylish red dress she’d gotten from Illesca so she didn’t have to explain it to anyone. It made barely a lump under the silky red fabric but K was very aware of it, especially as the needs of her body grew. Her nipples were already tender and tight and between her legs she could feel herself growing damp and sensitive. The feeling of emptiness inside her was becoming too intense to deny.
K knew she needed to put the suit on soon…but something still stopped her. How would she feel about Boone once the suit was on again? Would she retain any emotion at all? Or would it wipe her clean and turn her back into the emotionless killing machine she’d been before he found her? More importantly, did she want to go back? Her doubts that
morning had been almost overwhelming. But now all she could think about was being with Boone again and finding some way to get through this mess she found herself in so they could be together.
“Oh dear, you’re deep into the second phase of your cycle, aren’t you?” Vanja’s voice pulled her out of her worried contemplation.
“Are my eyes glowing again?” K asked, turning to face her.
“I’m afraid so, dearie.” Vanja sat down beside her. “Would you like me to ask your mother to send in someone to take care of you?”
“Take care of me?” K frowned.
Vanja cleared her throat delicately. “You know…someone to give you a release.”
Understanding washed over K. “You mean she’ll get some stranger to contaminate me,” she said flatly. “No thank you. I’d rather feel the pain.”
“Now dearie, it’s not so bad,” Vanja said reasonably. “After all, the second phase doesn’t last very long. And once it’s over, you’ll have a little reprieve before you enter the third phase. Your mother should have all the candidates lined up and ready for you to pick from by the time your eyes turn solid gold.”
“But—” K started.
“She’ll get you a good selection, my love, never fear,” Vanja said earnestly. “You can pick the one you want.”
“Unless the one I want happens to be Boone,” K muttered.
“Well, no,” her nurse acknowledged. “You can’t have the giant, dearie—he couldn’t help you anyway. Not when it came to satisfying your first cycle.”
“He did fine satisfying me last night,” K muttered and then felt her cheeks get hot. Why had she admitted such a thing to Vanja?
But her old nurse seemed completely unperturbed.
“He might be able to see you through the first phase of your cycle—maybe even the second, my love. But no non-Erian could possibly help you get through the third.”
“Why?” K demanded mutinously. “What’s so special and different about Erians?”
“Why, an Erian male can give you satisfaction as many times as you’ll need it to get through your cycle.” Vanja spoke as though it was obvious. “You’ll need to be bred, dearie. Fourteen, fifteen—maybe as much as twenty or more times. The male you’re with when those urges come on you must be able to give you what you need.”
K felt her stomach drop. “When you say bred, you mean…penetrated—right? He’ll have to be able to…to penetrate me that many times in a row?”
“And fill you with his seed. That’s the mating urge.” Vanja still seemed extremely calm and unembarrassed. Apparently this wasn’t an awkward topic for her at all.
Probably because they’re so disgustingly preoccupied with sexual procreation here, K thought, feeling ill. The idea of letting a stranger penetrate her over and over and inject his essence into her made her stomach roll like the spicy helikat Loki had given her the first time she’d tried eating.
“I can’t do it.” She jumped up and began pacing.
“You’ll have to, dearie—your body will force you to choose,” Vanja told her. She leaned forward, a cautioning expression on her face. “Only, don’t pick the one you want for your permanent consort as your first lover.”
“Why not?” K turned to face her. “And why would I pick more than one?”
“Well, my love, you royals are so high strung…” Vanja looked as though she was trying to think of a tactful way to explain. “Oh dear, this is dreadful. If only you hadn’t been taken so young—you really don’t know anything about your cycle, do you?”
“No, I don’t so just say it,” K said. “Tell me what you’re talking about.”
“Well…” Vanja cleared her throat. “It’s just…the first candidate might not survive your encounter together. The second either. Really it’s best if you try to save the one you really want for your third or fourth pick. That way most of your mating rage will be spent on the first two or three and the one you want as a permanent consort should survive.”
“Survive?” K raised her eyebrows at the older woman and stared at her. “Survive? Are you telling me I’ll be so irrational, so completely out of control with lust I might actually kill the male I mate with?”
For the first time, Vanja looked distressed. “I know the idea of killing someone is frightening and appalling, dearie. Believe me, I do. But you have to think of it this way—all the candidates know what they’re getting into when they are called by the Empress. And they consider it a great honor. If they die, they lose their lives in service to their home planet. Don’t you see?”
“It’s you who doesn’t see.” K turned to face her again. “It’s not the killing that bothers me, Vanja. I killed my first man at the age of twelve—it earned me a step up in rank. But if I’m really going to be that deadly—”
“Not until you reach the third phase of your cycle, my love,” Vanja said earnestly. “And you’ll have plenty of warning—your eyes will go pure gold just before the mating rage takes over. By then your royal mother will have all the candidates for consort assembled. She’s calling them together—they should all be here in the palace by tomorrow morning at the latest.”
K felt numb. The Empress was calling together a group of strangers for her to mate with—males who would contaminate her over and over. What was she going to do?
Suddenly she had a comforting thought. Boone knows genetics. He’ll be able to help. I just have to get to see him. She grasped at the thought desperately. Yes, Boone—she had to see Boone. Of course.
“I’m in pain now, Vanja. I don’t want to wait for tomorrow morning.” She gestured at herself. “I need help…someone to help me.”
The older woman rose heavily from the bed. “I’ll just go have them call someone for you.”
“No.” K frowned. “I don’t want anyone but Boone.”
“But dearie,” Vanja began patiently. “I’ve already explained to you why you can’t have him. He can’t satisfy your needs. And even if he could, you’ll want to leave him be if you truly care for him. There’s nothing worse than killing the one you love and waking up later to realize what you did.” She stepped over to K and looked at her earnestly. “Believe me, child, I’ve seen it happen.”
“You have?” K looked at her uneasily.
Vanja nodded. “It happened to your mother. Her first cycle—it was one of the worst I’ve ever seen, before or since. She put the one she really wanted as her consort second in line—the first candidate was such a big, burly fellow, you see. Much like your giant. Your mother thought he would last through most of her mating rage and then she could have the second fellow—the one she really wanted—as her permanent consort.”
K put a hand to her throat. “What happened?”
“She killed him,” Vanja said sorrowfully. “The one she really wanted. The first didn’t last very long at all, you see. She ripped out his throat after the first few matings and then it was on to number two. And then three and four.” She sighed. “Actually, it was the fifth candidate your mother ended up with as her consort. And she never really loved him, you know. It was one of the greatest sorrows of her life—made her afraid to love again. I think that’s one reason she let you imprint on me when you were born.”
“I…see.” K ran a hand through her hair again. The story hit home in a way Vanja’s other warnings hadn’t. What if Boone couldn’t help her after all? What if…? But she pushed the thought away. If he couldn’t help, she would do whatever was necessary. In the mean time, she’d never know if he could help or not unless she got to see him. And considering the entire squadron of heavily armed guards the Empress had left outside her door, it was clear she was going to need some help getting to him.
“Let me get you someone, dearie. Your eyes are glowing more all the time,” Vanja said.
“No, please…” K forced herself to put her hand on the other woman’s arm. The skin-to-skin contact wasn’t as bad as she had feared—maybe because she’d been imprinted on Vanja when she was little—but it still
made her skin crawl. Purity, she needed Boone now.
“Child…”
“Please,” she said again. “I swear I just want Boone to help me through the second phase—that’s all. But there’s no way I’ll get to him without your help, Vanja. The guards they have posted outside my room—I’ll never get by them alone.”
Of course, she could have taken out the entire squadron with the stun gas capsules she had in her skinsuit but she wasn’t certain she could drop them all before they sounded an alert. And then she would also have to take care of whatever guards were posted outside Boone’s door and somehow get them both out of the palace…
Vanja sighed heavily. “There is a way you can get to your giant. I shouldn’t tell you, though.”
“Please.” K tried to beg though it was foreign to her nature. “Please, Vanja, I need to see him—to be with him again. He’s the only one I want to touch me. Please.”
“Ah, dearie…I never could refuse you anything.” The older woman shook her head. “All right then. Come on.” She led K to a corner of the bedroom which was hung with pink satin drapes. When she pulled the heavy, silky material aside, a small archway carved with tree branches was revealed. “In here,” she said, motioning for K to enter. “It’s your old library.”
“Real books—not reading cubes.” K stepped into the room and ran her hand over their leather bound spines in wonder. There were fairy tales from Earth-that-was as well as the usual Eros classics. “Berlita and the Talking Bearicorn…The Princess and the Cawrin… The Boy who cried Garneg…I forgot about these,” she murmured. “I forgot so much…”
Whatever memory block the Purists had used on her, it had been extremely extensive. Only now, when she was finally coming face to face with her old life was it finally giving way. A sudden thought came to her—maybe this was why the High Sentinel had been so against letting her see the Erians she was supposed to kill. Maybe he feared the sight of people from her home planet would trigger her memories.
But why had the Purists taken her in the first place? And why train her to be one of them? Why not just kill her outright? K didn’t have any answers and didn’t expect to get any. Her body throbbed with need reminding her that right now, she just wanted to get to Boone.
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