by Emma Dean
But watching him, she only felt regret. She was to blame for having missed something so obvious. This creature had torn her family apart, and felt no remorse. As he continued his explanation she felt that if she’d just looked a bit closer she could have prevented at least some of the destruction.
“As Darius I poisoned the king and got Raena riled up enough to believe she had to prove her power and strength with force,” he said, ticking off his deeds on his fingers as he stared up at the ceiling in thought. “Then I snatched Alpha right after your coming-of-age party which was really perfect because after all the planting I’d done with Raena she asked me to spy on you for her. It was easy enough when Alpha had kept tabs already. It was all on his personal shreve.” Drozer grinned at her like they were the best of friends and Adelina bared her teeth, rage burning through her tears as she pulled against her restraints.
“Ah, ah,” Drozer chastised, tightening the metal bands. “None of that now. My king has been waiting so very long for you. I don’t want you to hurt yourself, and I certainly don’t want to have to tie you down more than you already are.” Drozer checked her wrists and grimaced. “Please, my queen. Be careful.”
“Stop calling me that,” Adelina hissed. “I am not your queen.”
Drozer studied her and then grabbed a stool from under one of the desks. He sat down with a bit more space between them for which she was grateful. Adelina couldn’t stand the sight of this monster wearing the body of a male she loved and cared about. Alpha was family to her and he was still in there somewhere…
Part of Adelina was so relieved, so grateful that Alpha had never truly betrayed her. That he was still the male who’d told her that she should follow her heart and go after Prince Nash. But inside she was falling apart.
There’d been a monster among them for so long – her father… “Did Raena kill herself?” Adelina asked, choking on a sob. She already knew the answer, but she needed to hear the words.
Drozer shook his head. “We don’t have our powers of persuasion when inhabiting a host body. But she trusted me as Alpha, even took me to bed a few times I think to spite you. So I waited until she was in the bath the night I knew the king would die. I climbed in behind her and slit her wrists. Then held her until she bled out.”
It was so matter of fact for him – her sister’s death was nothing at all. Just a means to an end.
“Raena would have fought,” she snarled at him, seeing red.
Drozer nodded with a grave expression on his face. “Yes, she would have. But I used an untraceable paralyzer in the wine I’d given her. Well, untraceable in Draga. What you don’t understand, my queen, is that Raena would have made a terrible ruler regardless of my influence. She offered you to the king without any help from me. Raena was selfish.”
Adelina was sobbing so hard she could hardly hear him, but those words drove into her head like spikes. Her glorious sister with her flawed humanity – but she hadn’t been the monster she’d turned into. Raena could have been a good queen given the time and opportunity. If their father had lived and finished his rule as it should have been.
Her entire life was shattered and broken. This male had taken so much from her. The Neprijat had stolen a father and a sister and a future. Adelina had never wanted to be queen. She’d only wanted to fall in love and travel the universe as ambassador. How foolish and naïve she’d been.
But it was the guilt that ruined her.
She’d never known Darius very well, but Alpha? If Adelina had been paying attention she could have saved her sister. Raena’s death was because of her failure and no one else’s.
“I knew Giselle wouldn’t be able to handle the weight of the Crown,” Drozer continued, wiping the tears from her face again. “Her death was not required. I stayed with her and Ian as part of the royal guard and suggested she relinquish the Crown to you. She was more than happy to give it up when I explained how her freedom could help the people – how you were so much better prepared than she.”
Adelina couldn’t stop sobbing. It wracked her chest and her entire body. She leaned away from Drozer. There was no way to come to terms with the revelation – no way for her to simply accept this.
“We need a queen,” Drozer said softly, his voice full of some indiscernible emotion. “There were multiple plans in place to get one, but it is you we need. You don’t understand the sickness and the hunger. Without a queen we are subject to so many atrocities…please remember that when the king takes you as his bride.”
She didn’t care.
Adelina didn’t want to know anything about the Neprijat. She just wanted to get away – to escape and hide in the eyrie until someone else finished the war. Adelina regretted not handing the throne over to Asher. Her blasted honor had trapped her, allowing Drozer to take her as he’d predicted the outcome of Giselle’s abdication and Asher’s message.
An alarm went off and Drozer in Alpha’s body checked his wrist-cast. “It seems your husband has found us and he’s brought the pirates along,” he mused.
Varan – and the bracelet he’d given her. Adelina’s tears turned into laughter as she remembered the tracker in the bracelet – and the weapons.
“It’s probably best this way,” Drozer said. “Taking out Varan and the other two males will make it easier on you in the long run and I’m sure my king will be pleased to have those loose ends wrapped up. It’s such a shame. It’s not even really a fight with the difference in our tech.”
Adelina clenched her teeth as she angled her hand, ready to break her own wrist if necessary. She refused to let this monster kill any more of her family. Biting the inside of her cheek to keep from screaming, she managed to bend her wrist and press the back of her hand against her thigh. Still, she couldn’t get her finger to the bracelet to activate it.
She glanced at Drozer and shoved her wrist at the same time she pressed as hard as she could with her leg. The snap was loud in the silence and she had to bite down, drawing blood, to keep from screaming in pain. Drozer dove for her, but Adelina pressed once more and her finger hit the bracelet.
The shield activated right before Drozer reached her. It sliced through the bonds holding her down. Adelina jumped up and aimed at the monster, holding her broken wrist up with her other hand. “Stop the ship and allow them to board,” she ordered.
Drozer held up Alpha’s hands and gave her a sympathetic look. “It’s already done, my queen. The weapon is locked and about to fire.”
“Then stop it!” she yelled, coming around the table and stalking toward the male.
He wiggled the hand with the wrist-cast. “I can’t. It’s done. Only you as queen can override my command, and I can’t let you.”
Adelina’s hand snaked out and wrapped around his throat. “You can’t stop me.”
He smiled at her, so calm and patient. “You will have to kill me to access my tech. And you won’t do that. Not with Alpha still in here waiting to be let out,” he said, tapping his forehead.
Instantly she froze.
If Adelina let Drozer take her it would be billions of lives in the balance. Her entire galaxy would fall to their knees for the Neprijat with her by the king’s side. Adelina didn’t even think Asher would fight them with so much already lost.
She searched Alpha’s face desperately and knew she was running out of time. Her heart clenched and she breathed so hard and so fast it was all she could hear. Adelina’s chest felt like a raw gaping wound and the pain lanced through sharp and ragged as a thousand razors.
Adelina knew what she had to do – she knew what the right answer was, but she couldn’t bring herself to do it. Tears streamed down her face as her hand shook on his throat. Drozer didn’t move a muscle, he just watched her – completely in awe.
“You have seconds to decide,” he whispered.
Goddess, please watch over Alpha’s soul – tell him…tell him I love him and I’m sorry. Tell him I will see him in the next life.
And before she could second gue
ss herself Adelina sank her deadly, sharp claws into the throat of the male who she’d laughed with through the halls of the royal palace as children, who had been her constant companion her entire life – the male who had been her first lover, who had sworn to protect her in every possible way…
As the blood started to run down his throat Drozer didn’t try to fight her. He simply smiled with something like relief on his face. “My queen…what our people could be if we had someone to care for us like you care for them.”
Those words…broke something in her. She tightened her grip and Adelina ripped, tearing his throat out. Drozer slumped to his knees and she went down with him, sobbing as she caught him in her arms. Alpha’s face looked up at her and he gurgled as blood gushed.
“I knew—” Drozer gasped. “I knew how right you would—look…covered in blood…” His eyes closed slowly as his—Alpha’s blood pooled around them, drenching everything.
Sobbing and cradling him to her chest, Adelina tapped the wrist-com and deactivated the weapon headed toward Varan, her DNA scan allowing her control.
“Alpha,” she murmured with her lips against his hair. “Please forgive me.”
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Adelina
Alpha’s Starship
The Hai Galaxy
She didn’t know how much time had passed as she held Alpha in her arms. His cold body heavy and the blood sticky by the time Varan, Kaiden, and Nash reached her. She wouldn’t let him go, screaming at them as they tried to remove him from her arms.
It wasn’t until Nash knelt before her in the blood that was everywhere, holding her face just rough enough to get her attention. “Adelina, where is he? Where is your captor? There’s no one else on this ship. We checked when we docked. Did he escape?”
His questions only made her cry harder. Adelina brushed Alpha’s hair back from his forehead and she tried to wipe a speck of blood from his cheek but she only smeared more across his face with her good hand. Her right was completely useless, but it didn’t matter.
Adelina was numb.
She didn’t feel the physical pain – only the chasm in her chest where her heart had broken. It seeped as she tried to explain to the three males who were desperate to help her, but there was nothing they could do. It was already over.
“Lina, please,” Varan begged, his voice cracking as he knelt beside her. “Please tell me what happened.”
It was all she could do to keep breathing as she stared into Nash’s aapoak eyes. “The Neprijat can upload their consciousness into someone else’s body.”
The sharp inhale of breath from all three males reminded her she wasn’t alone even though it felt that way.
Adelina pulled Nash’s hands from her face. They were alive because of the decision she’d made. She wouldn’t end up wed to the Neprijat king. The Draga Galaxy still had a future. Her people still had a chance because of the sacrifice she’d had to make.
Looking down at Alpha…she knew he would have told her to do the same. He would have told her one life was not worth trillions. Alpha would have given his life willingly if he’d been able to speak. She only wished it didn’t have to be him…that at the very least – she could have said good-bye.
Adelina kissed Alpha’s forehead and didn’t bother to wipe the tears from her face, not when her hand was still covered in his blood. “I’m sorry,” she murmured, knowing she would never be able to say it enough. “Thank you for everything you’ve done for me and my family.”
It didn’t matter how bad the pain in her chest was or that she felt so broken and just…weary. Adelina was a queen now and she still had duties to perform.
“We are bringing him with us, and then I want you to tow this ship back to Hai Delta,” she ordered no one in particular. “We need answers.”
Varan took her hand and she hissed at the pain. He snarled when he saw how broken her wrist was. “We need to get you back on our ships and have a physician tend to you. Darling, did he hurt you?”
Adelina pulled out of her husband’s grasp. “No, he didn’t. Take me to the ship.”
She wasn’t ready to tell them more yet. Adelina still needed time to absorb all she’d learned – everything Drozer had told her, and then come to terms with the consequences of her actions.
Oh, how she wished she could hand over the crown to Asher, but it was too late now. It had already begun. She’d already made a choice that affected three galaxies. There was no point in handing over her power now.
Asher didn’t deserve the consequences of her decision.
The three males said nothing as they led her to their ship, Kaiden carrying Alpha’s body. They kept sharing looks, but she ignored them. She didn’t have the energy to appease delicate male sensibilities. It was a Kharan ship which meant Nash had helped. Adelina let them lead her into a chair while Kaiden gently set Alpha on the floor. Then they left her alone while they conversed with the Ravager on their way back to Hai Delta.
The trip back was a blur. Nash had a hushed conversation with Nadyah, but Adelina tuned it out as she felt her body sway with the motion of the starship. She couldn’t stop staring at Alpha’s body and wondering if he would mind having a pyre on Hai Delta or if he’d rather be shipped back to their home – the place they’d shared as children.
He probably wouldn’t mind a funeral on Hai Delta. Adelina could bring his ashes back home and bury them in the royal forest next to her father and sister. He would give new life to the trees they’d climbed as children. Alpha had declined the position of prince once, but couldn’t deny her treatment of him as one now.
If he had any family left she would honor them – but Adelina would have to find another way to keep his memory alive so that no one would forget his sacrifice.
“Adelina,” Nash whispered.
She blinked and her eyes refocused. He was kneeling before her again, but this time they were on his ship and it had stopped moving.
“What can I do?” he asked.
Varan and Kaiden stood behind him and Adelina looked up at her husband. The grief and guilt she saw there mirrored her own.
These males needed her. They desperately needed to care for her even if she didn’t think anyone could heal the pain in her heart. Only time and vengeance could do that.
“We need to warn Asher about the Neprijat snatchers,” she said. Adelina tried not to think about how flat and emotionless her voice sounded. “Then send someone to deliver the message with my acceptance of the Crown and title.”
It wasn’t what he’d expected her to say, but Nash nodded regardless. “I’ll make it happen.”
“Delphine should take the message,” she murmured, taking Nash’s offered hand and following them out of the unfamiliar starship.
“Of course, only someone we can trust,” Varan agreed, walking as close to her as he could.
Kaiden brought up the rear and she heard his wings snap open to block the wind when they walked down the ramp of Nash’s ship. “I will make sure Alpha’s body is preserved until the right time.”
The way the three of them worked together, trying to help her – it was everything she’d wanted only a few hours before. Now…there was a body in the ship of a male she’d loved as fiercely as she did her brothers.
Nothing could change that stark fact.
“Adelina!” Nadyah rushed up, but stopped when Adelina flinched away.
It was difficult to suffer someone touching her at the moment. Adelina already felt so fragile and brittle. Somehow her males knew it, because not one of them tried to touch her despite the fact that she could feel the heat of their bodies from how close they were.
She paused before the bridge, the one that connected the landing pad on Hai Delta to the Royal Eyrie. This was where Drozer had taken her. The snippets of their conversation before he’d sedated her had slowly been returning during the trip back.
“I’m fine, Nadyah,” Adelina told her courtesan. “I need to see a physician for my wrist, but otherwise I am perf
ectly healthy.” She turned to Nadyah and didn’t bother trying to smile. One couldn’t lie to a courtesan about emotions.
“Then let’s get you to a physician,” Nadyah said with a slight bow of her head.
Adelina could only operate as queen and Nadyah could sense that. Anything else would have her sobbing on the floor again. She yearned to comfort Varan and the others but…Adelina had to catch her breath. In the meantime she would allow them to hover.
She’d disappeared and they’d nearly lost her to the Neprijat. Even in her broken state she wasn’t cruel enough to send them away when they so desperately needed the reassurance that she was there and safe.
Nadyah led her up and into The Jasmine. Her crew and warriors stopped what they were doing to watch. They didn’t know yet, but soon they would. Adelina wondered how they would treat her when they found out she was now queen.
How many people would she lose to rank and protocol? How many more would she lose to save her galaxy and kingdom?
Physicians must have been alerted because two came rushing from the bowels of the ship. Nadyah instructed them to follow, and then she led them all up to Adelina’s personal and private suite on the top floor.
The silence was strange, but she didn’t try to fill it. Her mind was still on the body in Nash’s ship.
Adelina had killed two people.
Never would she forget the way Drozer spoke to her…despite everything he’d done there was something about him that resonated with her. His words…“His name was Drozer,” she said suddenly.
Everyone in the lift jumped at her soft voice.
“As he was dying he said to me, ‘My queen…what our people could be if we had someone to care for us like you care for them.’ What do you think he meant by that?” Adelina asked no one in particular.
The physician looked at her with concern and then dosed her with a painkiller. Instantly the agony in her wrist faded away.
