The Golden Heart: Alliance Book One (Alliance Series 1)

by Jessamyne Hunter

  This was the end of a chapter in his life. A new page, a new chapter began as he walked past the other who had been waiting for him.

  He was only happy that no one saw his tears; that the mask hid all the emotions, he could no longer contain.

  29

  Nuxar; one week later

  Alastair leaned against the wall, watching the Phy’vohranian King discuss something with his nephew.

  Kellan was not the tallest man, but Alastair could clearly see that those big frightening lizard-men highly respected him.

  When he and Kellan had talked on his ship, he had seemed so broken, so shattered. Alastair knew that he still was, but he also knew how to hide it very well.

  Here at court- it didn’t matter which court, every court was the same in a way- he couldn’t afford to appear weak and Kellan did just great.

  He knew that Kellan would someday be a great but also dangerous man to cross paths with.

  The way he hadn’t even batted an eye when he had ordered his father being thrown away in chains and later brought to an insane asylum…it had stroke Alastair as a little cold, but then he remembered that his brother had deliberately murdered Kellan’s child.

  In this light, Kellan had been far too kind with his sentence.

  King Leylos was now coming towards Alastair and he bowed in respect. He felt a little ashamed that he had caused this man and his allies a lot of trouble, but they hadn’t hurt anyone.

  “You swear on your life that the pirates attacking my son Sartak were not of your people?” he asked him and Alastair gave him his word.

  “As I said, they were extremists commanded by my brother,” he added, when the King nodded, thinking about his words.

  “I see. In this case, I have no obligations to your people living permanently on the Red Moon. From King to King…call it a new home for your people, but don’t you ever question my reign. Kellan has also offered EVE-4 as a new home. You can split up if you like; but remember, I am the King of Phy’vohran,“ having said that, the scaled king turned away and walked back to his advisor Lord Daron Jaxtell.

  Kellan watched the King pass him and turned his gaze to Alastair. His nephew gave him a little smile and came towards him.

  Alastair offered his nephew his arm and Kellan took it.

  “Well, that went smoother than expected,“ Kellan said and Alastair nodded.

  “It helped that we haven’t harmed any of his people. And your word, of course, seems to have great weight with King Leylos,” he responded musingly.

  Of course, Alastair had noticed how the Phy’vohranian ruler would always ask Kellan for advice the same he asked Lord Jaxtell.

  Anyhow, his answer had made Kellan chuckle.

  “What’s so funny?” he asked.

  “I’ll be the Regent beside his son, and I will be King Leylos’s advisor in a few months. It should have become my position after the baby was born…but…well,” it was evident he did not wish to speak of it any further, so Alastair stayed silent.

  They had to discuss another topic, anyway.

  “We couldn’t find your father’s closest councilors. The generals have all resigned from duty after the defeat and will be kept under surveillance, but five of your father’s councilors are still missing. They’ve probably gone into hiding. They could be anywhere, really. It seems like we have to just wait until they show up again and I think it won’t be that long. They are burning with rage and hatred. They’ll probably try to free your father or fulfill his plans of taking over Phy’vohran. Or…they’ll just aim to take their revenge on all of us”, Alastair told him.

  Kellan knew what that meant.

  The danger was still not over and they’d have to still be cautious. Assassins and poison would find their way to them again until all five of the councilors could be captured.

  Kellan didn’t have cherished illusions about it.

  “I want to establish a security agency. My people and I…we have enough of our pirate-life. We will never be upright people, but we can at least try. My connections to the underworld might prove useful in the future,” Alastair recounted and Kellan listened.

  “Why can’t you take them to Orsaint? Isn’t it still your home? You’re still married to the Emperor, aren’t you?” Kellan had found it weird that Alastair was a pirate and the King of the Sue’tyrnians when he was already married to the ruler of the former French colonial planet of Orsaint.

  Alastair’s shoulders sank, but he smiled anyway when he turned to Kellan.

  There were things he did not want to talk about, and his official husband was one of them. He’d tell Kellan all about it, but not just now. It was still too painful and too humiliating to tell his nephew the story of how he became the King of an alien race when he had started out as an emperor’s spouse.

  “The Emperor and I are married, yes. Though, we have no friendly feelings towards each other. He tolerates my wild life as long as I don’t bother him in any way,” was all he had to say about it before he sped up his steps and hustled along through the hallway.

  Kellan followed behind, his own pace speeding up slightly too, so he could catch up with his uncle.

  The man had an atmosphere of mystery clinging to him and Kellan sought to find out more about him. Though, it seemed like a tough task. He’d probably need a lot more time, but he was sure he’d have a better relationship with his uncle than he ever had with his father.

  At least he didn’t feel compelled to make it right for Alastair; he had no desire to bend and change himself to make his uncle like him.

  They had sympathy for each other and they had a common pain in their hearts…it was something to start with.

  Kellan wanted to give him a leap of faith. He just hoped his uncle would never give him a reason to regret his decision.

  As they walked down the corridor, both of them talked about nothing in particular. It was just every-day talk about what was going on in the world and it was a big world they were talking about.

  The vast universe, not discovered in its fullest by far, was a wild place.

  So many races inhabited their world and so many things were still to be discovered. All of them thought they knew a lot, but it was probably just a little, barely anything at all.

  Soon they reached the gate to the gardens. They stepped out into the sunshine.

  Courtiers were all over the place, walking in groups and chatting and laughing. They wore bright colored robes and some of the kmer and ladies even wore flowers and headpieces. All of them seemed so careless and happy, Kellan envied them. He couldn’t be happy right now, his loss far too recent.

  When Alastair offered his arm to Kellan again, he took it without hesitation, knowing that his uncle had noticed his change in mood.

  Silently, they walked by some courtiers, who bowed politely to Kellan and his uncle. Of course, everyone knew Alastair was the spouse of an emperor even though Alastair himself didn’t seem to care a bit about it.

  They were somewhere in the gardens when they were joined by Horrghra, Squavt, and Solor who were Sue’tyrn and by Derek, Jaden, and Storm, who were human. All of them belonged to the Sons of Sue’tyrn.

  Only a few minutes later Kellan’s brothers joined them too. Gods only knew how they’d all wound up here.

  Derek, the redhead with the brown eyes and freckles, talked with Kellan’s brother Luke about soldier training and agreed to participate in the morning run. The two other human ex-pirates wanted to take part too, which Kellan couldn’t understand.

  Who the hell would voluntarily do rounds?

  Kellan had been forced to run fifteen rounds- one time it had even been thirty rounds- alone once, but that was because he had been a little shit to his military instructor.

  Maybe he shouldn’t have complained when the man had told him to run ten more rounds because he was complaining about the weather being too warm to do anything. All the other trainees had almost choked on their breaths; none of them would have ever dared to speak to the inst
ructor in such a way.

  Kellan, though, had done it in hopes to get thrown out, but he had only impressed his instructor when he had done his rounds, doing some extra acrobatic stuff while he ran.

  Maybe he shouldn’t have done jumps, flips, and somersaults on the obstacle course.

  He wouldn’t run those courses ever again if he could help it, so it was a mystery to him why the others wanted to do that voluntarily.

  Jaden, because of his jade eyes and black hair; and Storm, because of his gray eyes and dark gray hair, were so excited about the morning run, both Alastair and Kellan shook their heads.

  At least his uncle could understand the madness in such a wish. How could anyone be that excited and happy about extra training?

  Blake just watched all of them with a funny face but didn’t say anything about it. He stayed out of the conversation. He had other things to worry about anyway…like his official inauguration as the next President.

  Kellan didn’t envy him a bit.

  Having a big official party with all the stick-in-their-asses politicians from Earth and other planets would be no fun. Stupid only that Kellan needed to attend the festivities too. And the other stupid thing about it was that Kellan was the one who had mostly planned said party. If anything was or would go wrong, it would be Kellan’s fault.

  So he watched Alastair’s people and tried to think about something else…like the leap of faith he wanted to give him. He had been thinking about it for quite a while and had now come to a conclusion.

  Just as Leylos had already mentioned to Alastair, Kellan had invited them to live on his planet EVE-4. He also had another idea about Alastair’s plans of opening up business. They’d need either references or someone who’d vouch for them.

  “You are welcome to live on EVE-4. But you can also open a business here on Phy’vohran. How about having half of your people here and then swap them after a few months? So one half is on vacation while the other works,” Kellan offered and Alastair responded he would think about it.

  The next morning, Kellan found himself on the military moon where his brothers and his uncle’s pirates wanted to do some running.

  The fine thing about it was that they’d do that shirtless.

  Kohtah was here with Kellan, and both of them cheered for the men whenever they came across them on their rounds.

  Kohtah laughed and gave Kellan a smug grin.

  “I like those hunky pirates,” she said.

  “I heard Kalik is well again,” he started, getting a nod from Kohtah.

  “Yes, both are fine now. I was so afraid…but they are strong,” she answered.

  Kellan was happy to hear about it. He had been worried about both of them.

  He had only seen them lying on the floor, blood pouring out of their wounds. It had been a frightful sight and he had believed them both dead.

  He was lucky, he had been wrong about this. At least this problem, this sorrow was no longer weighing down on him.

  He had come to like his guards far too much to bid them farewell this soon. Even though Kalik would leave his services in the near future, it relieved Kellan a great deal to know he was well.

  Anyway, he would see the man very often, since it looked a lot like he was going to marry Kohtah. Though at the moment she was watching other men, but naturally, everyone needed a bit of eye-candy from time to time. It didn’t hurt to appreciate others as long as the heart belonged to someone, and only that one person.

  Kellan looked back at the running men, his eyes locked on suntanned skin that shimmered with a thin coat of sweat. The muscles moved underneath their skin with every movement, drawing his attention.

  It looked really nice, but Kellan wasn’t much interested.

  He had never been very interested in other people’s bodies. He liked how men looked and he liked how women looked, he found both of them beautiful. Kellan just never had understood how other people could focus their mind on bodies and feel aroused by it.

  Of course, he liked bodies for aesthetical reasons, but he didn’t get hard because of them. But with Sartak though…

  His husband was very nice to look at but what aroused him was how he touched him, how he behaved towards him- always so passionate and tender.

  He loved how caring Sartak was and how he could make him feel. No one else had ever made him feel like Sartak did- not even the one he did not wish to think about anymore, even though, he had believed that they had been in love. And his girlfriend on the ship…their relationship had never been like what he had with his husband now.

  So, yes…bodies were nice to look at, but Sartak was more interesting to Kellan.

  “Do we bore you that fast? Oh well, we are happy enough to have drawn your attention at all! Mind you, you have Mr. Sexy Eye-Patch as your husband!” Derek shouted from across the field.

  Of course that man had watched him, and of course, he had seen how Kellan had given their trained bodies a short acknowledging glance.

  Rolling his eyes, Kellan made his way back inside the building where Mr. Sexy Eye-Patch had some discussion with his uncle, Alastair.

  Mr. Sexy Eye-Patch…someone must have overheard that name when Kellan had jokingly called his husband like that and Kellan blamed Kohtah for it.

  Of course, the pirates and his uncle would find the name hilarious to use whenever Kellan was around or maybe even when he wasn’t. Luckily, they didn’t dare to call Sartak directly like that…well, everyone besides Alastair who’d do it anyways.

  As soon as he stepped into Sartak’s office, he was taken into a tight hug. His mate started to kiss his nose and then moved on to his lips.

  “I love you,” he whispered and let go, since Alastair was in the room too.

  To his surprise, Lord Foxav was there too. When the old man saw him looking at him, he smiled.

  “I’m helping Sartak to sort his stuff. His office is a mess!” Eryon said, making Sartak roll his eyes in slight annoyance.

  “How nice of you to adopt a grandfather. You just made sure I’m going to go mad in a few months,“ Sartak threw his hands up in the air, but Kellan only chuckled.

  That was when they heard a tap on the window. Their heads almost turned as one. Dershra was outside; flying and doing stunts while Gorsha was trying to catch him.

  “We’re all mad, my love. Muscled men, who are running rounds voluntarily, crazed wyverns of different sizes, pirates who change their business into guarding. Everyone’s mad in their own kind of way, but we are harmlessly mad, so no one cares,” Kellan answered, snatching a little pink fruit from Sartak’s plate and popped it into his mouth.

  “Go to the tailor…you need a suit of some kind for Blake’s ceremony of becoming the President,” he reminded Sartak and got a roll of his eyes for that.

  “More formal attire…is that truly necessary, my love?” Sartak asked, his eyes begging him to let him wear more comfortable clothes.

  “Sartak…” was all Kellan had to say to make him obey, though only reluctantly.

  30

  Earth; New Britain; Ballroom of the Buckingham/Harrison Palace; two weeks later

  Blake was holding his last official speech for the evening when the Dean of Voxus University nudged his side with the elbow.

  Kellan turned around and gave Dean Madxvirji- who was seemingly a mixture of everything that could breed with each other- a questioning glance.

  He looked wild with his feathery hair in the color of a flamingo and his thick, leathery dark gray skin. His eyes were like brilliant blue sapphires and his black nails were like little spears. His face looked slightly like that of a fish, his thick, plump lips curved into a smile. Iridescent little scales covered his face and neck.

  He was crazy and dressed like he was about to celebrate carnival, but Kellan loved that man, anyway.

  The Dean had been one of the few persons to always support him. He had been lucky to have ever met him.

  Madxvirji directed his glance to Sartak and gave Kellan an appreciative w
iggle of his thick scaly eyebrows, to which Kellan could only groan.

  “That’s a nicer pick than that old man, you know,” he whispered and Kellan acted like he hadn’t heard him.

  He should have known that the Dean wouldn’t stop but continue to tell him, even more, stuff that could be appreciated about Sartak.

  “Oh, for heaven’s sake. Please stop!” Kellan exclaimed the same time Blake finished his speech and opened the banquet.

  “I’ll stop…only if you follow my invitation,” he started, making Kellan curious, “The anniversary of the Tournaments. Voxus will host the Tournament of Stars this time. Compete. I’d bet all my stuff on you.”

  With that, he left him back where they’d been standing, puzzlement still showing on his face.

  The Dean hadn’t given him time to respond, probably knowing his answer already.

  Of course, Kellan would take part in the Tournament. Sartak had already stated that he wanted to see Kellan fight and of course, his brothers had heard about it.

  They’d asked him tons of questions about the illegal pit fights. Both of them had known about them but never taken part. After hearing that Kellan was the three-times-in-a-row Champion of Voxus, they’d forced him to vow that he’d invite them to the next tournament he was going to participate in.

  How could Kellan not want to make his husband and family proud?

  So naturally, he would take part in the Tournament of Stars. He had only heard about it but never been able to take part in it. It was hosted at different locations every ten years.

  Champions from all over the universe would gather there to fight for the ultimate victory- the Starlight-Sword, a sculpture made of a big smooth stone with gleaming stars embedded in its glass-like rock.

  He watched Dean Madxvirji mixing in with the other people.

  They were the heads of different planets, all here to congratulate Blake or merely because they wanted to see this for themselves.

  Everyone had thought Samuel would be President for a long time, but then he had suddenly become impatient. Impatience often led to the fall of great people, of powerful people and Samuel had been no exception.