“You are satisfied?” she asked. “Do you have more questions? Is there any reason to delay your transport?”
She looked to me as if offering me one last opportunity. An opportunity I would not take. “No. There is no reason to delay.”
She nodded her head. “Very good. For the record, Miss Adams, are you married?”
“No.” If I hadn’t gotten away, I would have been. In two weeks.
“Do you have any children?”
“No.”
“Good.” She swiped her screen again. “You have been formally matched to the planet Viken. Do you accept the match?”
“Yes,” I replied. As long as the man wasn’t mean, I would go anywhere to escape.
“Because of your affirmative response, you have been officially matched and are now stripped of your citizenship of Earth. You are now, and will forever be, a bride of Viken.” She glanced down at her screen, swiped her finger over it. “Per Viken custom, some modifications to your body are required before your transport.”
Warden Egara stood and came around beside me.
“Modifications?” What did that mean? What was she going to do?
She pushed a button on the wall above my head, which made it slide open. Glancing over my shoulder, I couldn’t see more than soft blue lighting. What I did notice was the large arm that extended out from the wall with a needle attached. “What’s that?”
“No need to be afraid. We are simply implanting your NPU, required for all brides. Hold still. It only takes a few seconds.”
The robotic arm came toward me and poked into my neck. I winced at the surprise of it, but it didn’t truly hurt. In fact, nothing hurt. As the chair moved backward into the room with the blue light, I was relaxed and calm, sleepy.
“You have nothing to fear any longer, Miss Adams.” As the chair lowered into a warm bath, she added. “Your processing will begin in three… two… one.”
Chapter Two
Drogan
“We’ve spent almost thirty years apart. I do not see the need for us to come together now.” I crossed my arms over my chest as I stared across the room at the two men who looked identical to me. My brothers. One had hair that was long, well past his shoulders, the other closely shorn with a scar through his right eyebrow, but otherwise it was like looking in a mirror. I’d known I was a triplet my entire life, known we’d been separated as babies. Even known the reason why.
“The Sector Wars happened when you were infants. After the death of your parents, it was decided to separate you. One child was sent to rule each of the three sectors in order to balance the power of your royal blood and end the war.” Regent Bard looked between us. He was small and frail, but very powerful. We could have killed him easily with our bare hands, but we knew that his death would not change the course of events. I knew it, therefore bloodshed was useless. Since he was still breathing, my brothers must have come to the same conclusion. But none of us had to like it.
Standing next to the regent was his second-in-command, Gyndar. The regent only offered a simple introduction, but from all appearances, the man was to remain quiet and do the regent’s bidding. He wasn’t a young squire, green and eager, but an older man with a serious and calm demeanor. He was easily forgettable, which made him so very good at his job. My spies kept me informed of the regent’s business, and Gyndar played a major role as an intermediary and negotiator, and quietly brokered agreements behind closed doors while Regent Bard kept up his public appearances and persona.
“We don’t need a history lesson, regent. We are all aware that we were the reason the treaty was created, that the war ended,” Tor said.
It was odd to hear my own voice come from someone else. His long hair and the heavier coat he wore were indications of his life in the colder Sector One. I’d never been there, of course, and had no interest in tolerating freezing weather.
“It was fortunate for you that we were triplets, wasn’t it, regent?” Lev added. He moved to a high-backed chair, his short hair and fierce scowl somehow making him appear colder then Tor, but I knew that to be a misconception. Both of my brothers were hardened warriors, rulers of their sectors as I ruled mine. The fact that they’d survived these three decades was evidence of their strength and intelligence.
I could see similarities between myself and Lev. The way I, too, sat in a slouch with my long legs stretched out before me. I saw Lev’s brow arch and, except for the scar, it was like looking in a reflecting glass. He also shared my disgust and disinterest in the maneuvering and scheming ways of politics. Neither brother was enjoying this meeting any more than I. It was an inconvenience, something we all had to tolerate.
The older man nodded. “It was fate, I believe, that your births brought peace to Viken.”
I glanced at one brother, then the other, before I spoke. “And yet we have no peace. We are to mate a woman from another planet. We are to leave behind our homes, our people to live here, to live together and share a bride? You ask this after we have lived our entire lives in different sectors.”
“We may have been born brothers, regent, but we are now enemies,” Tor added. I nodded, as did Lev. I had no desire to leap across the room and murder my brothers, but my loyalty was to the people in my sector, as my brothers’ loyalty was to the people in their own home sectors. We were born brothers in blood, but our loyalty belonged to our homes. To the people who we ruled. To the people who needed us to protect and provide for them.
“Enemies?” Regent Bard questioned. “No. Brothers. Identical brothers, with identical DNA, who will now claim one mate and breed her.”
“So it is not us that you want.” Lev steepled his fingers together. While he looked relaxed, I knew he was anything but. How I knew, I wasn’t sure, but I could sense things in these two other men that I couldn’t in others. Was it because we were triplets or was there some other way we had a bond? “It is the babe that we will make.”
The old man didn’t argue. “Yes. This child will unite the three sectors once again, become the ruler of all three. Equally. United. Together. Viken will once more come together under a single power, a single ruler. The wars will end once and for all.”
“I, for one, do not desire an alien bride. If unity is your goal, we should claim a mate from Viken,” Tor said, leaning against the wall of the room.
We were on Viken United, a small island with a handful of government buildings. This was the place all interstellar visitors arrived, where all formal meetings between sectors occurred. The giant white center building with its steep pinnacles and statues dedicated to all three sectors—the arrow, the sword, and the shield—was the one place considered neutral territory for all three sectors.
Weapons were left at the border. It was a safe area, a peaceful zone where tension could be resolved.
While the war had ended decades ago, animosity ran deep. Cultures varied. I disliked my brothers out of principle alone. I knew nothing about them besides what they looked like. Our bodies were identical, therefore I knew that Tor’s cock angled to the left and Lev had a birthmark on his upper back. The rest, we were creatures of our people, creatures of our sectors.
“There is no Viken woman alive that can be truly neutral.” He looked between the three of us. “Would you claim a mate from another sector?”
We each shook our head. It would be impossible to mate and fuck a woman from another sector. She would detest me and I would tolerate her. That was not the way of a mate and we all knew it. The bond had to be strong, powerful. Once mated, the connection was more powerful than anything else on Viken.
“Therefore, you have been mated to a woman off-planet. An Earth woman.”
“Which one of us?” I asked. “Not all three of us are required for this. Surely one of my brothers knows enough about a woman to breed.”
The men didn’t argue with me. If they were anything like me, breeding a woman would not be a hardship or a problem.
“One is not sufficient.” I swear Regent Bard
paused for effect. “All of you must breed her. And it must be done within minutes of each other. You all must have an equal chance of siring the child.”
The three of us glanced at each other, but said nothing. However, I knew what they were thinking. I couldn’t hear their exact words, but I knew them just the same. “I don’t share, regent. I’ll take a bride, if you insist, but I will not share her.”
“Then there will be war.” At the regent’s words Lev shifted his stance and Tor’s scowl deepened. “You three are the last of the royal bloodlines. The entire planet acknowledges your claim to the throne of Viken. You must claim a bride together. You must overcome your differences and lead your people to a new age of peace. We must stop fighting with each other and focus on the interstellar battle groups. We are no longer at liberty to fight amongst ourselves as children. The outside enemy draws near, and our warriors do not volunteer. Instead they stay home and raid one another’s territory like spoiled children.”
The regent took a deep breath, his rant one I’d heard many times. From the look on my brothers’ faces, the regent’s words were not new to them either. “You three are identical in every way. Your seed is identical, therefore any child from the mating union will represent all three of you, all three sectors.”
“So we don’t have to do this together,” I said. “Either one of them can have the woman.” I tilted my head in my brothers’ direction.
As long as it wasn’t me who ended up with the female. I didn’t need one. Vikens treasured their females and children, but since I didn’t have to worry about pleasing a woman, or taming one, life was so much simpler. When I wanted a woman in my bed, I took one. When I was done, she returned to her life as I returned to mine. I certainly didn’t need to breed a female for any reason. Children meant devotion and a family, which I did not want. By all accounts, our parents had a loving mating, yet look where that got them. Dead. I didn’t need to bring a woman to Viken and have her be killed for political reasons.
“I don’t want a mate,” Tor said. “He can have her.” He pointed at Lev.
“Me? I don’t want a mate.”
The regent was so damn calm, so intent to set the planet to rights before his death. He was old and frail. Unlike the three of us, he’d witnessed a peaceful Viken. “It is done. She has been matched to all three of you. As Vikens, you know your responsibility.”
Responsibility. That had been forced upon me from a very early age. There was responsibility to lead the planet, but not to breed a woman with my estranged brothers.
“We didn’t ask for this,” I said, speaking for my brothers as well. When they nodded, it was perhaps the first thing we’d ever agreed on.
“And will you all accept and name the child of your brother as your successor?”
“No.” Lev’s eyebrow arched again.
“Never.” Tor’s hands clenched into fists.
I did not respond, for my answer was the same. No. Never. I would never abandon my people to the offspring of another male. They were my people. My child would inherit the sacred mantle of leadership.
“And now you understand. You must all mate her.” The regent raised his hand to silence me as I opened my mouth to argue. “You weren’t asked to be born the three rulers of the planet. You didn’t ask to be separated as infants. You were meant to be together, as one. You were born to rule, but your life has been, and will be, full of sacrifice. For the sake of the planet, for future generations, the feuding must end. Our warriors must once more rise in service to the Interstellar Coalition. We must protect our planet from the Hive, not fight amongst ourselves. If we do not once again meet our warrior quota, we will be removed from coalition protection. I received word that we have eighteen months to comply, to once more contribute to both the bride program and the warrior ranks, or Viken will be abandoned. I would see Viken unified and strong again. Protected. Proud. Before I die, we must restore Viken to its place as a powerful force in the fight against the Hive.”
The Hive was a race of artificial beings that killed indiscriminately in their search for resources and new biological beings to assimilate into their collective. They took all free life forms and implanted them with technology, neuro-processors, and control mechanisms that stole a living creature’s mind and soul. All member planets in the Interstellar Coalition contributed resources, ships, and warriors to the ongoing battle with the Hive and their indiscriminate evil.
The Hive had to be stopped. And the regent was correct. Viken had not sent its full quota of warriors, or brides, for many years. The thought that we might be abandoned had not occurred to me. The threat to the planet was real and unacceptable. Two solar cycles was barely enough time to breed a female and see the child born. Which meant we were truly out of time and out of options. I hated him for this, for telling us the truth. But I knew what must be done, no matter how much I didn’t want to think of it.
“You have remained outside of the realm of interstellar politics and government, until now. Now, you must step up to the mantle and accept the responsibilities you were born to bear. All of Viken must be protected. We must be united. Viken must be strong. That is the truth, and it’s the dream for which your parents sacrificed their lives.”
Lev growled. “They died not because of peace, but because of war. The rebel factions hunted and murdered them in a bid for power. The Viken civil war ended because you split us up, not because you kept us together.”
“You were babies then and could not yet rule,” the regent added. “Now, now you have returned to Viken United, to the central sector of our planet to bring peace, not in a short-term measure, as your placement was, but forever. You three must put aside your differences and become a true united front. Together you will be powerful. Three brothers. One infant. One future.”
“Fuck,” Tor murmured. They were my sentiments as well. There was no escape from the regent’s plan. There was no escape from the need to protect our people from both the Hive and the rebel factions on our own world. The rebels wanted a return to tribal ways, to a hundred different sectors, each with their own ruler, their own agenda. They wanted to return to the way Viken lived hundreds of years ago, before we became a member of the interstellar community, before Viken was one planet among many.
The rebel faction leaders wanted war and strife, they each wanted to rule their own little kingdom with absolute control and iron fists. They wanted to believe they were omnipotent. Gods.
They were antiquated ideas leftover from thousands of years of culture. They had no place in the new world, in a world where the Hive could wipe out our entire planet’s population in a matter of weeks if our foolish ways left them unprotected. We needed our warriors out in space, on the battleships, not bickering over backyard crops and women.
“You could have told us about the coalition’s demands, about the warrior quotas falling,” I said. “You could have told us about your plan, about our bride.”
My brothers crossed their arms over their chests and nodded.
The old man arched one gray brow. “And would you have agreed? Would you have submitted to the matching process?” The regent tilted his head, the expression on his face one of relief. We were done arguing. He’d proven his point. I was not unreasonable, and neither, it would appear, were my brothers. We had not agreed, but we were listening.
Tor rubbed his jaw. “How did you match one of us? And to whom was this bride matched?”
The regent actually looked embarrassed, the pink in his cheeks a color I’d never before seen on his lined face. “The medical checkup you each had last month was a ruse for the testing. We sedated you and completed the testing while you were in a dream state. Some was done while you were completely unconscious.”
At his words, I shuddered. I knew exactly what he spoke of. I’d gone in for a general health screening, as was required, and woken sweating, with my heart racing. The experience had been unusual. I’d never woken in a med unit with a hard cock before. Nothing I thought of had broug
ht it down. I’d had to excuse the doctor and use my hand to alleviate the discomfort. It had been some kind of dream, something so intense that I’d been beyond aroused. The fuck if I remembered what I’d dreamed. “So, which one of us is her match?” I wanted to know. I needed to know. I did not want to fuck a female who wasn’t mine. I’d do it once, if that was required to protect the planet, but I would not bond with her, I would not allow myself to care for her if she wasn’t mine.
The regent chuckled. “All three of you. We combined your profiles in the program and she was matched to you, combined. She will not only accept all three of you, in the manner you each prefer, but she will need each of you to be truly happy. Each of you possesses a trait she needs, something she craves, something she will require to be made content.” The regent paced, his hard gray boots peeking out from his robe as he walked. He wore a soft robe with battle-ready boots imbedded with blades. Soft words, followed by the sting of an iron will. The look suited him. “I did not wish to bring you here until the match had been made, until the transfer was to occur. I could not risk one of you refusing her.”
Since that was blatant fact, none of us replied.
“Fine. Fine,” Tor repeated. “So we are supposed to fuck this woman until we breed her? In the same room? At the same time?” he asked.
The regent shrugged. “You can share her, or you can take her one at a time. I’ll leave the details to you.”
Tor nodded. “Good. Then she will travel from sector to sector and we will each fuck her.”
Regent Bard held up his hand. “As I said, you must each take her in a short time allotment to ensure that all of your seed merges and you all have an equal chance of siring. While fucking her together is not required to breed her, the mating laws do require—”
Lev ran his hand over the back of his neck and stood to pace. “Are you serious?”
Tor moved away from the wall. “We don’t even like each other and you expect us to come all over her at the same time?”
Claimed by Her Mates Page 2
