by Calista Skye
Ator'aq shrugged. "Perhaps. For what it's worth, you pass. The blade loves you now. It never did before."
For three long seconds she stared at him. Then she, too, gave a little smile. "You're more devious than I'd ever imagined."
She presented her blade for him to slide along his forearm, and he did she same for her. It was tradition – even after a training session, the sacred blades had to taste blood before they were put back in their scabbards. Her forearms had hundreds of little white scars from earlier sessions years before.
"A king must be devious," Ator'aq agreed and placed his sword back its sheath. "Am I not right, King Crixael?"
"Sometimes he must be," Crixael said. "Though any deviousness that was used here and now escapes me."
"I'll explain later," Dani said. "Now I want the two of you to come to terms, as one future grandfather to his future son-in-law and father of his grandchild. And as one king to another."
"I think we will." Crixael sauntered over to Danai's side, gently grasped her forearm and touched the little cut, sealing it.
"Useful," Ator'aq nodded. "If indeed this is as good a situation as it seems, then it solves many serious problems for Brax and Earth. But it remains to be seen."
Crixael walked over to the older king and faced him. Dani was struck by the similarities between the two men. They both held themselves with straight backs and great confidence, and they were both powerfully built. Perhaps Ator'aq had more sheer muscle mass than Crixael, but Crixael looked leaner and younger. His golden aura made him look supernatural, while Ator'aq's immense presence made him seem just as dangerous.
Yes, she thought, it was probably better for everyone if these two were on the same side.
"Many dark things have happened between our peoples," Crixael said. "And most of them, I fear, can be blamed on mine. But I hope and believe that the future will be very bright."
He held out his hand, and Ator'aq slowly reached out his own to take it. "I agree."
Their hands met, and Dani half expected sparks to fly. But it was a calm greeting between kings.
Then Crixael smiled at her and lit up the room in a very literal way – it definitely became brighter. "Now that the matters of state have been taken care of, I think you said something about a pregnancy?"
44
Ator'aq had gone to see his wife and it was only the two of them.
Dani slid one hand across Crixael's chest, feeling the hardness. "He was testing me to see if I'd made the right choice. Those swords are special."
He nuzzled her hair the way he liked, taking in her scent. "Made to kill Ethereals."
She cupped his hardness outside his pants. "Yeah, but there's something else, too. If the person fighting with it is a hero who will be of vital importance to the Braxian kingdom, it will seem to come alive in her hands. That happened to my parents. But not to my brother. And not to me. Until now"
He placed a hand behind her neck and bent down to kiss her lips. "You're a hero, then. Seems redundant to have a sword determine that. He could just have asked me."
She looked into his eyes. The stars in them twinkled as brightly as ever. Even when Benirsheba had reduced him to an almost ordinary human, they had stayed the same. She would never get tired of seeing that. "No, this was important. If becoming a negotiator and diplomat was the wrong choice, the sword would have been just the same as ever. Now he knows that the warrior path is not for me after all. I will do something vital in other ways. Ways that are right for me."
He reached behind her to cup her butt. He always liked doing that. "More vital than creating heirs to the throne? Seems pretty important to me."
She opened his pants and greedily stuck her hand down inside them. "Sure. But I think that's expected of a royal. It has to be something else. Something big." She got a hold of his manhood and smiled. Big indeed.
He opened her jeans and impatiently began pulling them down. Her ample butt and hips never cooperated too much with that process. "And marrying an Ethereal king, securing his help against other Ethereals and giving birth to a Braxian/Ethereal/human royal baby, while at the same time ensuring that the Vlon go the long way around, doesn't qualify? I marvel at the thought of your future deeds."
His pants dropped and she held his rock-hard cock in both hands, feeling the hard throbbing in it reflected in hard tingles in her pussy. "Well, I guess those things are pretty huge. But you know, it gives me a lot of confidence for the future. There may be bigger things in store for me."
He finally succeeded in pulling the jeans down over her hips. "Undoubtedly. Raising a one quarter Ethereal may just be the greatest challenge of your life. And probably mine."
They were both naked, and she enjoyed her first look at an Ethereal king in all his glory. And he had a lot of glory to him.
She grabbed his hand and led him into the bedroom in the huge Admiral's quarters. Here, the ceiling was transparent and showed black space with a myriad of stars strewn across it. And right now, she felt like the whole universe was hers. Everything had finally clicked into place, better than she had ever dared hope or had even fantasized about.
She got onto the bed on all fours. He loved her butt and hips, and that had made her love them, too. They had been her least favorite parts of her body. Now they just made her feel womanly.
She rested her head on the mattress, spread her knees far apart and arched her back in the most feminine position she knew, offering all her treasures to her beloved.
"I don't know if you've thought about it," Crixael said and positioned himself behind her. She was ready, and he probably realized it. "But when we get married, you'll be the queen of the Ethereals. Of my wave, at least. I wonder if you'll get any Ethereal talents when that happens."
He placed his cock at her slit and she gasped in delight and expectation. "I guess we'll see," she said, wanting him to just take her. "And if not, that's fine with me, too. All I need is you."
He slid his manhood slowly up and down her slit, making sure it was well lubricated.
"And I need you, my queen, more than I thought was possible. In fact, let me just state it so there's no doubt: I love you. And you're the only person I've ever loved."
He applied a little pressure and slid deep inside her. She whimpered as she felt his full girth and heard his deep, satisfied growl when he felt her around him.
"I love you too," she gasped.
45
They felt it most appropriate to have the wedding on Earth, since they were both half human. It was the grandest event ever seen on the planet. The Braxian royal house was all there, including colorful warrior noblemen and their elegant wives. Every dignitary on Earth had fought to be invited, but only the best ones were. Still, there were two thousand guests.
There was even an Ethereal delegation, and even if there were only six of them, they overshadowed everyone else with their supernatural beauty and grace.
And their danger. Many Earthlings remembered the last time mankind had encountered their species, and they kept a safe distance to the unspeakably elegant beings. But since they had arrived a few days before the wedding, the incidence of violent crimes had plunged to almost zero all over Earth. "Scared straight," the newspapers tried to explain the phenomenon. But Dani thought it was something else: The Ethereals exuded danger and sex like nothing else, and their sheer presence inspired everyone to get busy behind closed doors.
They had the ceremony outdoors, surrounded by spectacular scenery at the fiords of Scandinavia.
King Ator'aq himself officiated, because the Ethereals didn't have any clerics, and Earth had too many.
Crixael had toned down the Ethereal tendency to dress in gold, and wore only shiny black with a hint of silver in it. It made him look so spectacular that Dani could almost get jealous. But her wedding dress had also been procured by Crixael, and its exotic fabric shone so brightly white in the sun on the crisp, clear day in spring that every eye was on her anyway.
The ceremony wasn't too l
ong or complicated. They both said 'I do', they kissed and then they were married. And Dani was Queen Danai'a of the Ethereals.
The reception was held at the same place, partly in huge, spectacular tents and partly out in the open among light green trees where buds were about to burst into small leaves, the green hillsides dived vertically down into turquoise water and the distant mountaintops all had pristine, shimmering white caps.
Dani tried to exchange a word or two with as many as possible. Even among all the remarkable beings among the guests, she felt that she as the bride was the most important person there. Except Crixael, of course. He would always be the most important person anywhere he went.
She saw him a few yards away, smiling benevolently and chatting with Earth royals who were clearly giddily impressed by their own bravery for daring to talk to someone as powerful and potentially deadly as him. He kept sending little looks in her direction, checking on her and making her feel very, very loved.
"I'd never have believed it," Crown Prince Ter'Umion said. "My own baby sister. An Ethereal. Their queen, even."
He clinked his glass with hers.
"Well," she admitted, "I'd never have believed it myself."
"But it's not bad," he said and took a sip. His contained expensive champagne, while hers had locally sourced spring water that was the clearest and cleanest-tasting liquid she'd ever tried. She had an unborn life to consider. "Married and queen and baby all in one go."
"Oh, it was easy," Dani said, matching her brother's breezy tone. "Inches from death just a couple of times. Saw my whole unit killed, almost eaten alive by the Ethereal queen, run completely through by same, fought my own father to the death – well, almost. You know, just an ordinary month."
Everyone was discreetly looking at them, Dani knew. Well, she looked good. And, she coolly judged, Ter'Umion looked great. His large, muscular frame filled out his suit so perfectly every woman present had trouble taking their eyes off him for even a moment.
"You did good," he said. "But no one expected anything else. I heard you'll be heading up the new Encounter agency."
"Yeah. I guess Mom saw sense."
Queen Olivia had recognized the need to meet aliens with something other than the muzzle of a ray gun, and had ordered the creation of the Encounter section of Space Force as the first element of mankind that new aliens would meet as Earthlings expanded their presence into space. It would be staffed by negotiators and diplomats and linguists, all using Dani's methods. With an elite rapid response unit of Space Marines right behind it, for use in cases where the outstretched hand approach didn't work.
"I guess so. Of course, nothing can quite compare with a band of warriors for dealing with aliens."
"Depends on your point of view, of course," Dani said. "How are things in the Braxian kingdom?"
Ter'Umion shrugged. "Same as always. Partying and fighting. Expanding slowly. Fixing things those people – I mean, your people – destroyed last time." His little smile and wink took the edge off his potentially aggressive words. "But I heard you're a fighter yourself. The sword has designated you as a hero of our people."
She knew this was a sore point with him. He had wanted the sword to dance in his hands, to be a hero vital to the kingdom. So far, it hadn't happened.
"Oh, who can tell with those stupid swords," she said. "I think dad just helped me along to make me feel better about myself not living up to his warrior ideal." They both knew it was a blatant lie. But that was the point – they knew it.
"Anyway," the crown prince said, "I see you'll soon be ahead of me in creating an heir. I'll have to step up my game."
"Oh yeah? Anyone special in mind?"
Ter'Umion was not a player, and she knew he had a tender heart, but she also knew that women threw themselves at him everywhere he went, and he would not have been human if he hadn't taken advantage of it. But she wished more for him than that. She had detected loneliness in him for years.
"Nah," he said casually, glancing over at an especially attractive member of a European royal house. "There will be time for that."
"There will," she agreed and took another sip of her water. "There absolutely will."
- - -
"He seems happy enough," Dani said and nodded over at her father, chatting wittily with a group of Ethereals and Earthlings, always the center of attention without even trying.
"He loves events like these," Queen Olivia said. "He'll claim to dislike them, and he's grumpy as all heck in the time leading up to them, but then he just sparkles. Though I should mention that this time, he wasn't grumpy at all. His own daughter's wedding seems to have released something in him. He's happier. Which is weird, because he was always the happiest person I ever knew. Except for me."
Dani hid a little smile behind her glass. Her mother was still in love with her husband, and she never hid it. "He's pretty great. When he first met Crixael, I really thought he wanted to kill him. But he was just acting. He had already made up his mind that he would give it a chance. He just wanted to test my determination."
Olivia smiled like she always did when the conversation turned to her husband. "That's him all over. So easy to be taken in by that pompous, blustering act he sometimes puts on. And then he turns out to be the smartest guy in the room."
"Did you really think it would break his heart that I chose Crixael?"
Olivia nodded. "Oh, I did. That's his sore spot, the Ethereals. But he can still surprise me sometimes. After twenty-four years of marriage. He always turns out to be greater than I ever thought."
- - -
The view was beyond spectacular. It was hard to believe that such a perfect place could exist.
She looked out over the valley with the thin, turquoise fiord at the bottom of it. If the hillsides plunging vertically down into it was any indication, that little body of water would have to be thousands of feet deep.
Thousands. Sixty thousand Space Marines dead. Was it because of her that Nichole and Kienle had died? And all the other ones? Should she have realized that Crixael was bad news, that he attracted death, and then told him to go to hell? Gods, she would have done anything to have them here today.
She had asked for emotion-proof makeup, and she was glad she had. These were not the first tears she had shed on her wedding day. And she was sure they would not be the last.
"That's war," a deep voice said beside her. "People die. You were at war with Queen Benirsheba. We all were. We didn't even know it. But you can bet that she did."
She sniffed. "They didn't have a fighting chance. It was just an execution."
He shrugged. "From a strategic point of view, that was a war-winning move. Surprise the enemy before he even knows he's at war and then hit as hard as you can. You can't actually fault it from that perspective."
"Can you really think about it like that?"
"Oh yes. About events and battles where I didn't take part directly. But the things you have seen yourself – well, it's different. Do you feel guilt?"
"Of course. Huge, steaming helpings of guilt whenever I think about it."
"That's normal, but unproductive. I'll just put it like this: If it hadn't happened, then there might now not be an effective defense against the next waves of Ethereals. Many more than those sixty thousand would have died in the years to come when Benirsheba casually decided to take the route through human space and eradicated everyone. You might have been dead, too, alongside your friends. And all of mankind would have faced a grim future. Brutal as it may seem, this was actually the best outcome under the circumstances that were forced on you."
She kicked the grassy ground with an immaculate shoe. "It feels like a cop-out to think like that. Like it makes them less. Their sacrifice. Like we're better off because they're dead, thanks a lot, now we can just celebrate."
"Isn't that what a sacrifice is?" he said mildly. "You sacrifice something so that others can have more. By all means, honor them and remember them. You will have no choice about it. Tha
t event will be with your for the rest of your life. Those dead may well have saved mankind. But today, I think you've done enough. You have remembered them and shed tears for them. Now return your attention to the living."
He took her by the shoulders and turned her so he could hug her.
For a moment she clung to his wide chest. He always knew the right things to say to her.
"Yes, dad."
- - -
This far north, the sun would stay high in the sky until late in the evening before it would briefly dip beneath the mountains in the north. And it was still as bright as day. But finally Dani had to stifle a yawn.
She felt hands around her waist.
"My queen is tired," a deep voice said into her ear, and she felt the familiar tingle of excitement shoot down her spine. Damn, how did he always do that?
"Maybe a little," she conceded. "How about the king? Does he know no such thing as tiredness?"
"I do know it," Crixael said. "But not as often or as intensely as full humans do."
"I'm glad to hear it. Because even if we leave now, I'm not sure I want the night to end."
"Nor do I. There are still important activities to carry out. But possibly you'd prefer that in private? It's all the same to me."
She was pretty sure he was serious. Probably he wouldn't have minded to continue the evening in full view of everyone still present. And there were many. It seemed that no one wanted to leave.
"Maybe we should go somewhere private," she said, as if it was a new idea to her. "I mean, this first time."
He raised his eyebrows. "First time? I seem to recall several times. I mean, in your mother's cabin. In your old bed in your childhood home. In your father's spaceship. In my spaceship. Here on this planet, only yesterday. Do you mean I was dreaming? I mean, those are the kinds of things I'd dream. But they seem so lifelike..."
She laughed and slapped him loosely on his hard chest. "I mean the first time as a married couple! It's supposed to be special."
"To me, every time is special," the Ethereal king said earnestly and grasped her hand, leading her to the Ethereal building that would be their home very temporarily until it zoomed back into space and joined up with the gigantic ship that had been Benirsheba's and was now Crixael's and Dani's royal residence. The module was shaped as an exotic palace, all white and gold, and Dani already loved it dearly.
