I was even more surprised by how much I genuinely enjoyed her company. Simply listening to her chatter about everything and nothing—her observations about the stars, her memories of better times with Jolie, her dreams for their future—brought me more joy than I could remember in what felt like forever.
I’d just let her nudge the propulsion system with her tiny finger, which sent up a cascade of brilliant ion bubbles floating through the void like luminescent pearls, much to her delight, when the shuttle’s comm unit buzzed with an urgent, insistent tone.
“Lilibet, I need to answer,” I told her, my voice suddenly tense as I carefully lifted her from my lap to the co-pilot’s seat where she would be safely out of sight. “Can you be very quiet for me?”
She pressed her small lips together in a tight line, nodding solemnly as she slid lower in the oversized seat, her emerald eyes wide with understanding. My heart spasmed painfully at how she instinctively understood the need to remain unseen and unheard—a survival skill no youngling should ever have to master.
I hit the comm button, and a haze of blue-green light slowly materialized on the screen, the particles gradually coalescing into the familiar features of the king.
“Hello, cousin,” Vraxxan drawled, his voice deceptively casual, but the rigid set of his teal gaze was anything but relaxed. There was ice beneath the warmth of his greeting.
“Hello.” I offered a faint smile that felt strained, even to me.
Vraxxan steepled his long fingers together as a prop for his angular chin, a gesture I recognized as his thinking pose. Never a good sign, especially when directed at me. “Would you care to tell me why there are Kwado warships en route to Zarpazia and the Chamberlain is calling for your head on a ceremonial pike?”
I sighed deeply, casting my gaze to Lilibet, who gave me a faint, encouraging nod. Sometimes it was better to show than tell. I reached over, my hands spanning her tiny waist as I lifted her to sit on my knee, positioning her where the comm screen could capture her fully.
“King Vraxxan, meet Princess Lilibet,” I said, watching my cousin’s eyes go wide with shock and something that might have been understanding. “She and her MeMe were guests in Prince Qurbaga’s harem for far too long and decided theywanted to leave. So, I’m helping them leave.” I spoke almost in code, noting by the subtle change in Vraxxan’s expression that he read through my carefully chosen words to the horror underneath.
A faint sound of dismay, soft and heartbroken, preceded Lucy squeezing herself into the frame beside her mate. Her expression conveyed that she, like Vraxxan, realized exactly what kind of hellish existence Lilibet had endured in her short life.
“Hello sweetie.” Lucy softened upon seeing the youngling, her voice taking on that special tone human females used with younglings—warm honey mixed with protective steel.
“Lilibet, this is Queen Lucy,” I offered, watching her reaction with careful attention.
Lilibet studied Vraxxan and Lucy’s images, her head tilting as she processed the unfamiliar faces, then her cherubic features broke into a radiant grin. “Hello,” she offered to both of them with perfect politeness, then her attention turned solely on Lucy. “You look like my MeMe.”
“Lilibet’s MeMe is a human female,” I explained quietly, watching both the king and queen’s expressions grow hard as granite, their shared look conveying more than any words ever could. We needed to talk—privately.
“Lilibet, my princess,” I said, holding her securely against my chest as I stood. “Let’s put you back to bed with MeMe so I can talk to King Vraxxan and Queen Lucy, okay?”
“Okay,” she linked her arms around my neck happily, her trust in me humbling.
I carried her back to my quarters, each footfall carefully placed to avoid even the whisper of sound on the metal decking. Jolie lay in the center of the bed like a sleeping goddess, curled on her side in peaceful slumber, her dark blonde hair a glorious disarray of waves spread across my pillow. The sight of herthere, so vulnerable and beautiful, hit me with the force of a plasma cannon. I’d never seen anything more breathtaking in my entire existence.
I motioned for Lilibet to be quiet as I sat her on the edge of the mattress, the surface barely dipping under her featherweight. “Shhh, don’t wake your MeMe up. Go back to sleep, princess.”
Lilibet stared up at me with those impossibly expressive green eyes, and I caught a glimpse of something that told me that while she was undoubtedly a sweet child, a small but formidable being lurked just beneath the surface. I looked forward to meeting the spirited side of her personality.
“Can we have more pilot lessons later?” She whispered, her voice barely audible but filled with hopeful anticipation.
“Of course, Princess,” I leaned down and brushed my lips across her smooth forehead in a copy of the chaste kiss Jolie bestowed upon me earlier. The youngling sighed happily, the sound pure contentment, and my heart underwent that strange transformation again, turning into a pile of warm, bubbling goo.
She grinned with sleepy satisfaction, immediately cuddling against Jolie, and was fast asleep within minutes.
I strode back toward the cockpit, knowing duty called, but would have been content simply to stand there and watch them sleep.
“The Kwado prince claims you stole them,” Vraxxan told me as I settled into the pilot’s chair, his holographic image flickering slightly as the transmission stabilized across the distance between us.
I rolled my eyes, along with issuing a disgusted snort that echoed through the cockpit. “Stole?” I repeated, my voice dropping to a low, dangerous rumble. “I found them hiding in an alley outside Space Pearls. The human has been held as a harem slave for years.”
Lucy’s features twisted with revulsion, her eyes flashing with righteous fury. “And the little girl?”
“The youngling of another slave, unfortunately deceased,” I explained, my jaw clenching. “The human raised her since birth. Qurbaga was planning to give the youngling to an associate as a gift, which precipitated their escape.”
If Lucy had possessed scales like her mate, they would have shifted to black. Instead, her hands clenched into fists at her sides as she spoke through gritted teeth. “You protect them, Diarvet.”
“With my life,” I vowed, though my mind was already churning over another troubling issue. “I wonder how the Kwado discovered their location so quickly. We’d been away from the space station for barely an hour when their warships intercepted us.”
