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“My dearuncle-father,” he said, holding his shot glass out in a toast and swaying badly, but somehow managing not to spill a drop as he swept a deep bow. “If you seriously think I’m going to do anything you say, now or ever, then you’re sadly mistaken. And if you’re deluded enough to think I’m going to marry some fucking,maleTygerian I’ve never even laid eyes on, and if you think I’m handing over my Army to this foreign Warlord…well, then you’re an even bigger fool than I took you for.” Kalen held up his glass in a toast. “And that, my dear uncle-father, is saying a hell of a lot.”
Kalen quickly tossed back his drink and then slammed it to the floor in a spray of broken glass as the entire roomful of people seemed to hold their breath. Kalen gave everyone a big smile, turning to pour himself another drink in a new glass and then holding out his arm way too dramatically as he toasted the room.
Fuck it—he was making a point.
“I’ll see you dead and in hell first, Nerol, and I’ll take great pleasure in it.”
Chapter Two
Meanwhile, on the planet of Tygeria
Prince Mikol yawned as he walked toward his bedroom, along the wide corridors of the palace. It was late, past “midnight” as his omak, Ryan, would say, though the term, as his omak intended it, was something of a misnomer. Days were shorter on Tygeria than on Earth, so the time Ryan might think of as the literal middle of the night came at an earlier hour on this planet. It thus had none of the faintly sinister implications of the Earthan term, in Mikol’s opinion.He remembered Ryan reading him the “Fairy Tales” of his people when he was very young and being confused at the Fairy Godmother's advice to Cinderella to be sure and get home beforemidnight. It hadn’t given the poor girl much time to have any fun at the ball.
Time seemed to be on his mind a lot recently, though, and largely because of what his father had just lectured him about. His father, Prince Mikos, seemed to think it was long past time Mikol should have “settled down,” mated someone and begun having heirs. Mikol was already much older than Mikos himself had been when he married.
Mikol got ready for bed as soon as he reached his room and lay down on his back, thinking about their conversation earlier that day.
“I’d been married to your omak for perhaps six cycles by the time I was your age,” Mikos had told him, leaning back in his chair and regarding his son. “You were born only a short time after our marriage.”
“I’m still young, Father. I have plenty of time for all that.”
“Time to do what? Carouse around the galaxy and get drunk on that pleasure moon of Lycanus that you and your friends seem to enjoy so much? Fornicate with every attractive man you get drunk with? Because that’s becoming a prodigious number by now, Mikol. And I remind you that your uncle Derrick is married to a pirate, becausehegot drunk and fornicated with a man he didn’t know on that very same moon you seem to like so much. He wound up married to the disreputable man. A fucking pirate, Mikol. Surely you remember all the trouble that’s caused in this family.”
“Fornicate” was overstating it a bit—he liked to fool around with other men, of course, and he did so at every opportunity. But his omak, Ryan, not to mention his omak-ahn, Blake, had taught him well. If a Tygerian male fully penetrated another male, a bond could develop that was damn near unbreakable. So yes, he made love to other men, but he’d never “fornicated,” as he understood the way they were using the word.
As for the trouble his father had mentioned after Derrick married his pirate, there had been trouble indeed—his grandfather, King Davos had sought to put this pirate in prison. Derrick and the half-Lycan Drex ran away, and Davos was led by the two escapees on a wild chase that almost killed them all. That included the King’s Consort, Blake, his father’s omak, who had involved himself by following his husband into a mysterious place called theNever Never. This area of space, which “came and went, depending on your need for it,” sounded like a black hole, if such a thing hadn’t been utterly impossible. But whatever it was, impossible or not, it had trapped Davos, Blake, Prince Derrick and his pirate for four long cycles, though to them, time had passed by much more quickly. Blake had returned pregnant with Rakkur, his seventh child. And another of his father’s brothers, Prince Larz, who had gone missing during the time wasn’t found until much later. When he was finally located, he was married to his own kidnapper, a fact that had infuriated Prince Mikos, and he and his brother Prince Larz still barely spoke even to this day.
Thus, marriage could be a sore subject to Mikos, and Mikol had to be careful how he navigated this issue.
“All of your sensible, sober friends are married now.” Mikos told him. “And the kingdom needs you to produce heirs. I called you here to inform you that I’m actively looking to arrange a suitable marriage for you from several offers I’ve already received, and when I find one, I’ll expect you to do your duty with no arguments.”
Since this was his fierce father, not to mention Mikol’s commander-in-chief, there was little to do but nod and agree. It was true, after all, that Mikol’s friends who were his same age had been mated for a few cycles, and already had children. As the prince in the direct line for the throne, Mikol knew that children were important to his parents, not to mention his grandparents. His omak, Ryan, along with his grandfather, Blake, never seemed to miss a chance to remind him it was high time he got on with it.
He'd thought he might have a little more time, even if his father managed to arrange a marriage right away. He was familiar with royal weddings, since a couple of his uncles—well, one of them anyway, Nicarr—who wasn’t all that much older than he was, had a wedding that took a long time to negotiate. Contracts had to be drawn up and then there were more long meetings after that to decide where and when the nuptials would take place, along with complicated wedding customs of both worlds to be observed. He remembered it as being a long, drawn-out process. Then the bride had been murdered and Nicarr wound up married to her half-brother, the king, but that was another long story.
His uncles all seemed to have crazy stories of how they met and married their husbands. It was way too much drama in Mikol’s opinion, and nothing he had time for. All the others, like Anarr and Vannos, not to mention Larz and Derrick, had rushed-up, more or less slightly scandalous weddings, and Mikol couldn’t in good conscience join their ranks. His omak would kill him, not to mention what Blake would do.
No, it wasn’t for him. He wanted a normal life and a normal husband. Someday—when the time came. Hopefully, that day was still a while in coming.
Mikol sighed and turned over to get some rest. He could worry about all this later—maybe, if he was really lucky, his father would forget all about it and become preoccupied with some other pressing business. After all, there was plenty of time left before he had to be tied down to marriage. Clinging to that thought, he closed his eyes and drifted off into a peaceful, untroubled sleep.
By the next morning, Mikol had mostly forgotten about his father’s threats to make him settle down and find a mate. Not that he really thought his father would forget about it entirely—no such luck. But Mikol felt sure it would be a few more weeks before this thing reared its ugly head again. That’s why he was so surprised to receive a message late that afternoon that Mikos had agreed to marry him to a young prince from the planet Loros, which was in the eastern quadrant of the galaxy. To add insult to injury, Mikos had already signed a preliminary betrothal contract, so it was pretty much a done deal, and Mikol had never even laid eyes on this intended fiancé or knew anything at all about him.
Mikol immediately stormed upstairs to his father’s office, managing to make himself calm down a bit along the way, as he valued his life. It wouldn’t do to show his quick temper to his formidable father, who was not exactly known for keeping his own in check. The office was empty, with the door locked when he reached it, so he went along to his parents’ private quarters instead. The corridor leading to the family home was quiet that afternoon, with only his parents and his youngest uncle, the still unmarried Prince Rakkur, currently in residence in the huge palace.King Davos had recently left on an extended “vacation” off planet, along with his consort, Blake. Davos had been wounded in a small skirmish with some pirates—thankfully none affiliated with his son-in-law Rhaegar Barbosa’s Drex pirates —on Nevos 4, a Leerian moon, a few weeks earlier. A stray shot from a disrupter had hit him in the chest. It had come perilously close to his heart, scaring the wits out of everybody involved.
The king had been treated in the field and immediately taken to the nearest medical facility for more treatment. He was expected to make a full recovery. But his doctors advised rest, and the Royal Consort Blake, badly shaken by the event, had begged him to take an extended vacation off planet. Blake had taken the position that if Davos stayed in the palace, he’d simply be tempted back to work again, which was undoubtedly true. Since they’d left, his grandparents had already visited Vannos and his husband King Stefan on Morovia, and now they were on the way to Xalia to see their next to youngest son, Nicarr and his mate, King Axel. Mikol smiled at the idea, knowing that Blake and his uncles were no doubt having a great time, but wondering how their spouses were taking it. Blake was known to be a bit “demanding,” perhaps, with his sons-in-law, though Mikol adored him, and in his eyes, at least, he could do little wrong.
Humans were endlessly fascinating to Mikol, having grown up with two handsome, fine specimens in his own home. His bearer and omak, Ryan, had been a colonel in the Alliance army before he gave it up to marry Prince Mikos, who at that time was Ryan’s most bitter enemy. He’d had to literally change everything about himself and leave all he knew behind him when he came to Tygeria. Mikol admired him for that, as well as for his courage and his ability to still influence his fierce father with only one look, when literally no one else could.
He tried to calm himself as he went to their door and knocked. He heard Ryan call out, “Come in,” and stepped inside.
Ryan was reading with his feet up on the too-soft sofa thing he had specially ordered years ago and sent to him all the way from Earth. Blake had one or two in his quarters too. Ryan looked up as Mikol came in and smiled broadly at him. “Hi kiddo, come in and sit down. Your father just got home and he’s changing clothes. Sit down and tell me what you’ve been doing all day.”
Mikol took a seat on one of the harder chairs he and his father both favored and returned the smile his omak had given him.
“Nothing too exciting. Meetings all day. First thing this morning with General Haggoz, and then more meetings all afternoon.”
“The new threats from the Pton.”
