by Alyssa Ezra
“Who do you think you are? How dare you…Rayer?”
Rayer deactivated the shield and dropped the two inched to the ground – a shard of demolished stonework dug into the side of his hip.
“Father.” Rayer greeted his father, the High King – he glanced over to a flipped over table and saw that Balkar, had been engaged in a game of Thishral with Rao, Hanneth, and Lahla.
“You are supposed to be at the hunt with the Kaltar!”
“I was sent back – Mother’s father saw that Coletta was in danger. Where is she?”
Hanneth and Rao instantly erupted, calling to various workers that had come rushing at the sound of exploding stone – they demanded answers that no one appeared able to provide.
“Why would she be in danger?” High King Balkar’s voice remained level, yet it was tinged with confusion.
“I do not know.”
“She has been having difficulty with Prince Graith, my High Lords,” Lahla interjected softly.
Rayer, Balkar, Hanneth, and Rao all turned toward the large man. “What are you talking about?” Hanneth, Lahla’s mate, demanded.
“She has been doing her best to sequester herself in the tower to avoid him.”
“There is nowhere in the compound that Graith could hope to get away with causing Princess Coletta,” Balkar insisted.
“No,” Rayer interrupted. “There is one.” Rayer and Lahla both spun toward the entrance form the high courtyard, already knowing where they were heading. Rao, Hanneth, and even the High King raced close behind.
*
Graith set the knife aside now that he had sliced her kaftan completely open and had shoved the two halves aside to reveal her body. Cole could see the disdain in his eyes as his gaze skimmed over her thick curves.
“What does it matter,” she heard him mutter to himself. “I only need you for your ability to produce a viable heir. Maybe Earth females are like chattel – the bigger, the more likely to reproduce successfully.”
Thoroughly insulted, Cole waited until Graith leaned closer before she swung up and landed a hard hit to his face. She was rewarded with the satisfying sound of collapsing firm tissue as his nose fountained blood. While he was dazed, Cole reached to free her other hand. Unfortunately, Graith’s broken nose failed to afford her the precious more seconds she needed. He retaliated with a hard cuff to the side of her face.
Snarling and spitting like a junky in need of a fix on the 45th floor, Graith wrapped his hands around Cole’s throat. He would have been better off pinning her free arm. Cole new better than to waste energy fighting off his hands on her throat, instead she repeatedly struck out with her left – she beat her fist into his face over and over, finally she turned her hand and grabbed onto his face. Cole dug her nails into his cheek and angled her thumb to gouge into his eye.
One of Graith’s hands lifted from her windpipe to attempt to pry her fingers away from his damaged face. Cole thrashed underneath him causing Graith’s hand to slip too high on her neck. She turned her face and sank her teeth into his skin. He howled in rage and pain above her. Suddenly, Graith was gone from the grip of her hand and teeth. Cole gasped, panting to force much needed air into her lungs. Someone was freeing her other wrist form its bondage, and she could hear yelling.
Then everything went silent in the room.
*
Rayer and Lahla had been forced to break the large doors leading into Montala’s wing. His stepmother had come careening out of her chambers in a frothy rage, not even Balkar’s presence could dissuade her from screeching obscenities at Rayer. A little maid – one of the few replicated females that hadn’t manifested the violent illness that had killed so many others, but had remained barren had tried to scamper past them. Rao had grabbed her roughly, realizing that she had been involved in Montala’s and Graith’s plot.
Shoving past Montala, Rayer had skidded into the chamber from which he heard Graith’s violent threats coming. He didn’t know if he froze in the doorway, or if his mind froze, but his body had propelled itself forward on instinct.
Coletta bound to the bed. Graith attacking her. Coletta fighting back. Those three things had Rayer grabbing his stepbrother by the man’s gilt-hued hair and pulling him from atop Coletta. Once he had Graith on the floor, Rayer laid into him with his fists.
Now someone was trying to pry him away from the bloody mess he kept driving his fist into. It took Lahla, Hanneth, and his father to manage the task while Rao held back Montala at the door. Breathing harshly Rayer looked down at Graith, prepared to spit all manner of curses and threats down on the beaten man. It only took the barest glance to see that Graith would hear neither threats nor curses. He wouldn’t hear anything. He was dead.
Realizing that his mind had caught up with his brute strength, Lahla and Hanneth released him. His father’s hands remained on him – on his arm and chest, patting the way they had when Rayer had been a child. Soft, soothing pats from a parent to a distraught child.
Montala screeched from the doorway, demanding his father seek justice for Graith. The only ‘justice’ that Graith would receive would be a quiet cremation. Balkar instructed Rao to remove Montala back to her chamber, and to take the little maid with them.
Rayer could feel blood and other matter dripping and sliding from his hands as he turned to look at Coletta. She had blood spattered over her, dripping down from her mouth and under her fingernails – and as far as Rayer could see, none of it was hers. She had dark, brutal bruises blossoming around her neck, but he knew they would fade.
They were still, staring at each other, for a moment. Rayer desperately wanted to hold her in his arms but was afraid to put his hands, literally covered in death on her. After another moment, it appeared his mate was through waiting for him to come to her and instead threw herself into his arms.
“You’re here!” Her emphatic whisper was a caress over his ear.
“Yes. Yes I am here.” Rayer wrapped his arms around Coletta and offered a thank you to the universe that he was able to get to her in time.
Rayer’s father had sent them both off to the tower. He declared that he would see to the clean-up, Montala, and the young woman that had helped Graith drag Cole. Rayer had carried her. He had refused to put her down and had bundled her up the stairs, through the lounging room, and into the bathing chamber.
Cole had found herself bathed and pampered, all without a sexual advance. Rayer had then taken her up the next flight of stairs and settled her on the bed. He had excused himself and had retreated back down the stairs to bathe the dust, blood, and grey matter from his body.
Cole was tired, her throat hurt, and she had a killer hangover-like headache pounding behind her eyes. Still, she was determined to be awake when Rayer finally came back. Just as she was fighting dozing off, the bedchamber door opened and her mate walked in.
Cole knew that she had fallen for the alien – or was she the alien? Regardless of who was the alien, Cole was in love and the man’s willingness to kill his own kind – his own family even, gave her a glimmer of hope that perhaps he had feelings for her as well.
“Why are you still awake Coletta?”
“Because I felt that you needed me to be awake when you finally came up.” Cole’s voice came out in a ragged rasp, so she didn’t bother to argue her name with Rayer – she needed her limited voice for the important conversation.
An almost smile curved his lips. He bent and brushed his lips over hers. “Thank you,” he whispered. “I didn’t get into all of this – into you…us thinking that there was any hope for anything more than some entertaining carnal pleasure, and securing my succession. I was completely prepared to let you go back to Earth.” Rayer paused and Cole could almost feel her heart pounding out of her chest.
Rayer looked away, looked out to the dark sky that hung over Siiger’s High Royal Compound and the Forest City. He licked his dry lips, searching for the right words. Cole stayed silent – hoping, praying for more than she had ever thought possib
le.
“I do not think that I can let you go Coletta. I want you more than I have ever wanted anything. If I had to choose between you and the High Throne, there isn’t even a question. I would choose you. I want you to stay. I want you to bear my heir and more children. I want you to be my queen.” Rayer’s voice tapered off when Cole put her hands to his cheeks and tugged his face down to hers.
“Coletta?”
“Shh, just hush and kiss me. I am so happy Rayer – I have been feeling the some way. I think that I have falling in love with you. I want to stay with you. I do not want to return to Earth. It has nothing for me. Everything I could want is here. With you.” Satisfied that he got the message, Cole tugged her mate’s lips to her own and proceeded to tell him with the need, lust, and desire they shared exactly how much she wanted him.
Epilogue
She was tired – happy, but tired. Cole lounged on a wide chaise in the upper courtyard – she was trying to get a small recharge in before the celebration got going. The celebration was proving to be of an even grander scale than the massive feast than the Mating Rites celebration a year before and though it was soon to commence, workers were still bustling to complete preparations in time. None of the workers ventured to the area that Cole was occupying, none dared – not with her little defense system quiet for the moment.
Cole felt the cushions of the chaise dip as someone settled on the wide lounge behind her. Judging by the way the interloper settled against her and draped an arm possessively over her hip, Cole knew who it was.
“What are you going to do if my mate catches you up on me this way?” She asked conspiratorially. Her humor was rewarded by a poking finger prodding her stomach. Cole jolted back against the man and looked over her shoulder at his exquisitely handsome face. “Oh! Rayer, it’s you,” she giggled.
“Some days I think you intentionally try my temper and force my jealousy to the surface.” His chiding tone was undermined by the humor sparkling in his eyes. Her mate’s understated humor might not be understood by everyone – but Cole had come to more than understand it over the past year, she had gotten pretty good at tickling it.
“Well, it has been rather quiet recently; I thought we might need some excitement for the celebration.”
Rayer chuckled and rubbed his face in her curls before leaning over her to peer into the low, scooped vessel, woven of thick reeds that sat beside the chaise. An involuntary warm smile curved his full lips as he stared down at the little sleeping face at one end of the portable crib, then his smile grew as his gaze switched to the little face at the other end of the crib. Their father’s lavender eyes glowed in the face at that end of the crib.
Twins. Cole liked to tease Rayer by telling him that he exceeded the terms of the contract by getting her pregnant with twins. A boy, Balkin, with his father’s lavender eyes and her golden skin and mixed shade hair; a girl, Kylee – for Cole’s grandmother, with Cole’s eyes and her father’s coloring otherwise – they were beautiful. There wasn’t anyone that saw the twins that didn’t exclaim of their angelic appearance. Pity they weren’t angels all the time, even at two months they were proving to be quite the troublesome pair.
Before Balkin could wake up his sibling, Rayer reached over Cole and plucked the soon-to-be squirming infant from the reed crib and settled him against his chest. They laid in contented silence for a few minutes until a stack of benches at the other end of the courtyard toppled with a large crash, waking Kylee. She announced her displeasure with a shrill screech, which her brother felt obligated to echo in stereo.
Sighing, Cole sat up and lifted a wailing Kylee into her arms. Shaking her head she turned toward Rayer, “I guess the peace could only last for so long.”
“I am hopeful that they will sleep tonight.”
“Yeah – I could use a night of uninterrupted sleep,” Cole sighed. Rayer let out a bark of a laugh. “What?”
“If they sleep the night through, you will not be.”
“Oh…Oh!”
*
Rayer leaned against the stone next to the bulging alcove of windows in the tower. The festival had gone wonderfully. There was talk of sending a team back to Earth for a long term search for women willing to take a risk on the males of the Sii. Coletta liked the idea of giving women who had been in her position the potential of a life they couldn’t imagine ever having.
At the peak of the celebration – after he had presented the first naturally conceived and birthed children in nearly half a century, his father had added a surprise to the celebration. He had stepped down, declaring Rayer his successor and the new High King of Siiger.
Now, standing in the darkness of the deep night, Rayer listened to his mate putting their children down for the night. Due to the layout of the tower rooms, they had a maid to help with the babies at night – but their mother liked to put them down herself. There were a number of things that Coletta insisted on doing herself that members of the Royal houses would think nothing of having a worker do for them.
Over the course of the year, Rayer had more than come to love and treasure his mate, he liked her. He considered Coletta to be a friend, a confidant, someone with whom he could share the weight of the High Throne with.
A delicate tread on the stairs told him that his children were down for the night. Once more Rayer threw out his hopes to the universe that the twins would sleep through the night. He missed being able to touch and tease Coletta, in the pursuit of mutual carnal delight, the way he had become accustomed to. He hoped to rekindle that flame tonight.
“They’re down for the count,” Coletta murmured as she came into the bedchamber. “Let’s hope that sleep wins. So High King Rayer, you are doubtless going to be busy in the coming days.”
“I am sure,” Rayer replied, turning to enjoy the sight of Coletta undressing. Since she had their babies to concern herself with, she had fought with Shali and Glanna over donning an elegant costume for the celebration. Eschewing higher fashion, Coletta had insisted on wearing one of her simple robes with slits up both sides to above her hips. Beneath it, she had worn a fine pair of silk pants and a highly decorated pair of slippers. With the precious solar stones across her chest and dangling from her ears, she had been a vision of simple, functional, elegance.
Rayer waited until she had toed out of her slippers and had tugged the ear wires carefully from her lobes before reminding her of his plans for the evening. “Leave them,” he said simply when her fingers touched the latch of the heavy necklace.
Coletta glanced up at him and must have seen the heat in his eyes. Instead, she slipped her hands beneath the long front panel of her robe and eased the silk leg clothes down her thick, shapely legs. The silk clung a moment on her hips and again, as it bunched, on her full thighs, then it slid down to the floor to puddle around her bare feet.
She flicked the closures of her robe open and shrugged it off her shoulders. It pooled on the ground like liquid gold. Coletta took a step away from her abandoned clothing and stood nude, save the glowing gems that scattered light over her breasts and face, in all of her golden glory. Her body was lit by the solar stones and the faint light of the night sky.
Rayer took a step to her and drew her toward him. He turned and pushed Coletta onto the wide seat that sat within the bulge of crystal panes and metal framing. The large, low-backed, armed chair would be perfect for what he wanted to do, what he wanted to share with his mate.
Still clothed, Rayer dropped to his knees and leaned into Coletta, setting his mouth to hers. He sipped on her lips, tangled his tongue with hers and delighted in the pleasure of her soft skin beneath his hands. When she whimpered against his lips, Rayer allowed his mouth to drift from hers. His lips feathered over her neck, he caught the dewy flesh at the hollow of her throat in the suction of his lips, causing Coletta to arch against him.
*
Cole had missed the feeling of Rayer’s hands on her body. She missed the intimacy, but had been hesitant to seek it back out. Pregnancy
had distorted her body more than she had anticipated. However, Rayer didn’t seem to mind the widened set of her hips, her thickened thighs or the jiggle of her still stretched belly. Her already large breasts had become massive – Cole privately hoped that the Sii could orchestrate a good relationship with Earth so that she could openly order some correctly sized support garments.
Instead of recoiling from her post-baby body, Rayer had sat Cole in a comfortable chair as if she were a throne and had gone to his knees to worship her as she was. It was the most empowering feeling. That was one of the frequent gifts that the High Prince – now King – gave her. He went out of his way to give Cole confidence where she was lacking it, to make her feel worthy as she was, when she had spent most of her life thinking that she was only appealing to men that had a kink.
Rayer had proven over and over that she was perfect to him, and sometimes went out of his way to allow his jealousy to show. While he could doubtless keep such an emotion hidden under his social mask of inscrutability, her mate would allow it to show so that she not only noticed his continued interest, but the appreciative gazes that other men tried to covertly cast her way.
Now, he was determined to make her forget all of those things, as his fingers wandered toward the junction of her thighs and his mouth drifted down to latch onto one swollen nipple. Cole’s hands sunk into Rayer’s hair and fisted as his mouth suckled on her need-filled skin. Psychologically, she had desired renewed intimacy, but this was the first time since just before the twins’ birth that she was physically feeling the carnal need that had started hers and Rayer’s relationship.
He switched from one nipple to the other and slipped first one finger into her moist cleft. He was careful, unsure of how tight or tender she still was after giving birth. He took his time, stroking the already quivering bud of need as he gently prodded her sheath.
*
