by Aline Ash
And then that Witnessing Ceremony... When he brought up the idea of having one of those, I obviously shot it down outright, but good lord, I can’t get the idea out of my head. Watching Jenny and X’oran’s ceremony was... I mean, hot to say the least. And just the thought of climbing onto that table with S’oraj while everyone watched us makes my mouth go dry and my nipples get involuntarily hard. But a relationship? Like... Marriage? It’s out of the question!
“S’oraj...” I start, but I can feel my mouth twisting and chewing on itself in frustration. He takes my indecision as an invitation to proceed.
“B’ecky,” he veritably coos as he stands slowly and saunters toward me. “The bond exists. Whether we want it to or not, it’s there. Resisting it will only cause us distress. I understand that it is an unwanted link that we share, but resistance will only lead to suffering, for both of us.” He slyly slides a fingertip down across my shoulder and takes my upper arm in his hand. Tingles shoot all down the appendage as he continues to coax. “Why not enjoy the benefits of our situation rather than fight against them?”
I can feel my heart beating faster and faster at his touch. And with his mouth so close to mine, every fiber of my being wants to throw myself at him, lock our lips together, take him between my legs and give in to every sexual desire swimming through my imagination in that moment.
I turn my head and physically pull his hands off of my arms to extract myself from the tractor beam of desire that’s threatening to overpower my senses. “S’oraj... You said you were coming to my rooms tonight to eat dinner, not to eat me.”
His eyes go wide with surprise and in an instant, the tension dissipates as his bellowing laughter fills the room.
Oh, thank God.
“You’re absolutely right,” he chuckles. “Let us eat.” He presses a button his wrist communicator and mutters something into it. A minute later, a young Orean woman comes in with a tray, followed by several others who set the dinner out on the large, dark wood table for us. The others leave, but the first woman stays behind, clearly expecting to be introduced.
“B’ecky, this is K’tara, your s’andukar; your serving shanin,” S’oraj explains. “She will attend to your needs and retrieve whatever you wish. She is the daughter of K’orx Nafrit, one of my top ministers of the court. She will help you with anything you need, but let me be clear: do not try to convince her to do anything of which I wouldn’t approve. She reports directly back to me, so I’d soon hear of it. Otherwise, she is at your service.”
The young woman bows with a humble smile, and I mutter an off-balanced thank you as she does. I can’t help but notice the jagged scar on her neck; it’s rough and ragged and doesn’t look like it’s from anything surgical. Rather, it looks like she was mauled by a tiger or something. In spite of it, though, she’s quite lovely for an alien.
“That will be all for now, K’tara,” S’oraj says. “We’ll call for you when we’re through.” The woman – my serving woman? – bows once more and departs, leaving us to eat.
The meal is spectacular – even better than what we normally have at L’arten’s place – and once we’ve finished, S’oraj moves back to that chaise and beckons me to join him. In spite of myself, I feel my feet moving across the floor and turning my body to sit beside him, but at a good distance of a few feet.
“B’ecky,” he says in that ‘I’m going to try to convince you to give in to your lust’ voice he keeps using. “Let’s be reasonable about our predicament. Our physical desire for one another will only increase with time. There’s no denying it, so perhaps,” he scoots closer, “we ought to just enjoy it.”
He leans in and before I know it, his lips are right in front of mine. The heat and the passion that I feel exploding in my chest, begging me to let him proceed, are almost unbearable, but a flash of my family in my mind sends strength to my resolve and, before he can kiss me, I push him away.
“S’oraj, no,” I say. “Look, you can’t have it both ways. I will be part of your team. I will help with strategy and I will look for any advantage we can take to draw the spies out and fight the Raxians so you can win your war as quickly as possible. But I’m only doing it to get home to my mother and sister. I don’t care what this bond is. I don’t care what kind of desire or attraction I feel. I’m not going to give my body to my captor. Is that clear? I’m not into that Stockholm shit like Lisa and Jenny are.”
“Ah, so you admit you are attracted to me?”
Son of a bitch. “Yes, S’oraj, fine. Yes. I’m attracted to you. There is a desire there. I’ll admit that much. But like I said, I’m not about to—”
Before I can finish my sentence, his lips are on mine and the entire universe explodes inside me. My body temperature rises by about a million degrees in an instant and my heart beats so hard I can feel it in my feet. His hand caresses the side of my face as his tail wraps around my waist and pulls me closer to him, sliding me across the fabric of the chaise, pressing our bodies together in the hottest embrace I’ve ever felt in my life. His fingertips dig into my hair, and their pressure on the side of my head makes me want to cry with pleasure. He squeezes me with every ounce of himself, and then like lightning, pulls away, stands, and vanishes out the side door.
I’m left panting, hardly able to breathe, on the verge of collapsing at the edge of the chaise. My mind is racing faster than I can keep up with.
Dammit. Dammit! This is not what I need!
I’m on the verge of tears as I try to catch my breath. I can’t get it together. I can’t do this! Why did this ‘Fated Mates’ crap have to be real? It’s going to be next to impossible to resist it now.
Chapter 6
S’oraj
Drak, this is infuriating! Standing just on the other side of the door through which I’d just come, I lean back and rest my head against the cool wood. I thought I was doing the right thing by installing her in the rooms next to mine. I thought it was wise to keep her locked in and secure—that it would be the best course of action. I had been confident that my intentions in doing so would be clear. I truly believed that she would see that everything I was doing was for her protection.
But now it’s clear as sky; my judgment is already clouded by the S’ulin Kara bond and I’ve already begun to make missteps. I hadn’t anticipated that the symptoms would be so strong and come on so quickly, but the evidence is plain to see.
This feeling of possessiveness that I have... This need to protect her by my own hands... To know that I am the one actively and physically guarding her and keeping the rest of the universe at bay... I’ve never felt such feelings toward anyone before. It’s horribly disconcerting to be feeling them now.
And what’s worse, the ill-judged actions I’ve taken so far have served no purpose but to push her further away from me. Her disdain and resistance are almost physically painful to bear, and meanwhile, my desire for her – to join with her physically – grows more and more irresistible every moment.
I will have to develop a new tactic; a new plan that may break down some of the walls that she’s built around her heart. And I’ll need to do it quickly. If my judgment continues to falter as it is already, I won’t be the leader I’ve always been, nor the leader my people require to win this war and save us all.
I shove myself away from the door and pace my rooms, pouring myself a large glass of golden wine to ease the throbbing in my brain and in my trousers. The fortified drink soothes my nerves and I’m able to think a little more slowly. I need to win her to me. I must show her what it would be like to be united with one another. I cannot win through argument. I must win through action. As I drift off to sleep with my head buzzing from the wine, a new plan forms.
In the morning, I waste no time in getting to work. I call for my serving kren, who attends me instantly and departs with his orders. Within moments I know that a beautifully arranged bundle of flowers will arrive along with B’ecky’s breakfast. Beside them will be a card in which I’ll apologize for my brash b
ehavior last night and hope that she’ll allow me to join her for supper tonight.
Before I’m finished dressing, my kren returns with a message.
“Your Majesty,” he mumbles weakly. “Shan B’ecky requested that I tell you... ‘No, thank you.’“
I stare at him for a moment before asking, “What did she actually say?”
His eyes go wide with terror, but at the snap of my fingers he barks out the words she’d actually used. They were not as polite as he’d made them out to be. I dismiss him and go about my tak, scouring my mind for other ways to win even a small fraction of her affection.
After a few more taks of sending jewelry, flowers, and singing messengers to her rooms, she finally allows me to join her for supper one night. I try to keep the atmosphere light, talking military strategy and pleasantries, only hinting at anything resembling our bond, but the moment the subject is even near at hand, she fixes me with that harsh look and ends the conversation then and there.
“I’ve made this clear,” she says sternly. “I am not giving in to this whole thing. I’ll stay here at the palace, but if you keep me locked up like a slave, don’t expect me to treat you with anything short of disdain. You keep saying I’m not a prisoner and yet you treat me like one. Make up your mind already. And until you do, get out.”
I try to explain, but she orders me out another time, and for some reason, I obey her! I find myself back in my own rooms, my lonely cup of wine in my hand, berating myself for being so weak.
The following tak, I don’t request supper with her, I order her to come to my rooms and join me. She arrives, but it’s obvious she’s already angry about it. I once again try to lighten the mood, but she hardly even looks up from her plate until she’s finished eating, then she just looks off toward the door leading back into her own rooms. I try and try to get her to engage in conversation with me, but to no avail. I can feel my fury rising and finally I decide to try something drastic.
“I can see that you’d like to return to your rooms.”
“Oh, is it obvious?” Her jibe stings, but I keep going.
“Allow me, at least, the pleasure of walking you to the door.”
“I can see the door from here. I think I can make it on my own.” She stands and makes to leave, but I jump into her path.
“Please,” I say as softly and deferentially as I can. “Please, let me at least just do this.”
“Fine,” she sighs, letting me take her arm in mine. We cross the room and I turn to her before opening the door.
“Thank you for joining me,” I say as sweetly as I can muster, stomping down on the fury that’s building in my stomach. “I appreciate your gesture.”
“Mm-hm.”
This is the only chance I’m going to get. This is the one opportunity. Do it now! I lean in to kiss her on the cheek, but she shoves me away and breaks for the door. It’s finally too much to bear and I snap.
“Enough!” I roar, turning her around. She quakes in terror at the sound of my voice alone. “I am the King of this entire planet and I will be obeyed! When I order for something to happen, it happens! I am given what I demand! If I want something, I get it! So, rest assured that the only reason I haven’t taken from you what I want is out of respect for you. But if I choose to get what I want, there wouldn’t be a thing you could do to stop me!”
In the few breaths that span the time between my roar and her reply, I know what I’ve done. I can see it in her face, and I can feel it in the depths of my soul. I’ve made a huge mistake.
“Oh, is that how you think this is going to go?” she roars with a laser-focused fury. “You think that this ‘mating’ bullshit entitles you to get whatever you want out of me? You think I don’t have a choice in the matter? You think you can just lock me in a room, imprison me, kidnap me, and then have your way with me? You think that any of what you’ve done so far is going to make me want to be with you?”
“I—"
“You’re a fucking idiot, S’oraj! There is no way, on any planet, in any time or place, that I would ever fall for a man who has treated me the way you have. Ever! You want me to like you? Hm? You want me to trust you? You want me to let my guard down? Yeah? Is that what you want? Then let me go! Keeping me imprisoned like this is never going to make me want you. You’re a criminal and an asshole and the only thing you’ve succeeded in doing is proving me right. So if you want to improve my opinion of you, if you want there to be even a chance that I won’t despise you, if you want to make me feel anything other than hatred for you, then let me go. Trust is a two-way street, asshole. I’ll never trust you if you won’t trust me.”
And before I can say another word, she’s out the door and gone with K’tara close on her heels to see her back to her rooms. I can hear the lock of the door and it sounds like the lock sealing the tomb around the corpse of what could have been our love.
How did I get this so wrong? And what in the name of Oraj am I going to do now?
Chapter 7
Becky
I slam the doors behind me and K’tara has to put a little skip into her step to keep up and make it inside my room before she gets smashed by it. I look around the room for some idea of what I could possibly do to diffuse this rage I’m feeling, but with such limited space and resources, I’m reduced to throwing myself face-down on the bed and screaming into a pillow. K’tara’s little demure voice reaches out and tries to intervene in her own small way.
“Shan... Is there anything I can do for you?” She’s a sweet enough girl, but I don’t want a serving woman, I want to go home.
“No, K’tara, I’m fine,” I grumble, sitting myself up. “You can leave. I’d rather be alone right now.”
“As you wish, shan,” she says, disappearing out the door faster than I’ve ever seen her move.
Oh, good, Beck. You’ve even scared the help. That’s just great.
I start pacing the room and let my mind wander through every thought that it’s filled with. After sorting through the mounds of fury and frustration, I can’t help but acknowledge the feelings that I have for this guy and how much they’ve started to grow in the last week or so. And how infuriating it is that that’s the case.
Fated mates or not, the attraction I feel for him is real. And every time he comes to my rooms to have dinner or talk or whatever, it’s taking more and more energy and effort to ignore and push away all that desire. And God, his lips...
That one kiss that he snuck on that first night! I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it since, and it took everything I had inside me to push him away just now when he tried to kiss me again.
But if he really cared, he wouldn’t have me locked up like a prisoner! I can’t help but come back around to that, no matter how much I want to just give in to how I’m feeling and let him do what he wants with me. No matter how often the image of doing that Witnessing Ceremony with him while everyone watches comes into my head, no matter how often I catch myself getting unbearably turned on thinking back on that kiss, no matter how much I want him, the fact remains that he is my captor twice over and I cannot justify giving in to his advances.
And besides, even if I did, what would that mean when there’s finally a way to get us home to Earth? I can’t start up a new relationship right now. Not here, not with one of these guys. There’s just no room in my life for this.
I stop pacing and huff out this decision with a loud, nasal sigh. I think it’s time I go back to L’arten’s place. Maybe being here is just making all this worse than it has to be.
The sense that this is the right course of action settles on me heavily. I’m not used to being so uncertain about what direction to go in any situation, but there’s something about at least putting some distance between us that feels like it will help.
I walk to the wall communicator and am about to call the girls when it chirps that there’s a new message for me. I press the play button and S’oraj’s contrite voice crackles out.
B’ecky. I wish
to apologize for my inappropriate advance this evening. I understand your reaction to it, and I want you to know, you’re right. Trust is a two-way street and it is important to me that I’m able to show you that I do trust you as an equal partner in our situation. Tomorrow evening, I would like to send K’tara to bring you to my rooms once more for supper. If you’d join me, I’d like to apologize in-person, and perhaps the change of scenery would be nice for you. If you wish, you can have K’tara deliver your reply. I hope you’ll accept.
The line goes silent and I’m left feeling even more drained than I already did. This guy is not going to make keeping him at arm’s distance easy, is he? I call for K’tara, who appears nearly instantly, and send her with word to S’oraj.
The following night, she unlocks the doors adjoining our rooms and leads me to him.
“Thank you for joining me here, B’ecky,” he says, bowing.
“Sure,” I say, trying not to let my temper get the better of me, but still doing everything I can to keep all my feelings at bay.
“If you’d like,” he continues, “it would please me to give you a more complete tour of my quarters. Since you’ve only seen this one room, I thought perhaps I could show you around the rest. What do you say?”
“Um... Sure, I guess.”
“Wonderful. Follow me, please.” He takes me on a short journey that leads from one room to the next. I mean, I figured a king would have some luxury to work with, but this is beyond anything I would have imagined. I’d seen the one living room where we’d had dinner before, but he has so many more rooms, all them adjoined to his main one and to each other. There’s a private gym, a quote-unquote closet the size of my mom’s house, his bedroom (in which we linger for just a hair longer than I’d have liked), and a study.
