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We found my father in his private garden. It was a point of pride, to be able to tame the wildness and beauty of Thorzan. Only great warriors had beautiful gardens. Only the brave risked surrounding their homes with poison plants that had killed the first of our kind to settle this planet.
When I approached, Father stood, towering a whole head above me. “I am glad to see you returned, Kaelum,” he said in his low, quiet voice. He could shout and scream as loud as any in battle, but instead, he most often relied upon the attention he earned with the calm command in his tone. Never had he raised his voice to me. “I was beginning to worry Vipha had upset you.”
His frown carried a heavy weight that edged too close to disappointment.
“Vipha does not warrant upset. I will concern myself with that hobbled scientist when he can pass beyond the first round of a tournament.”
Father nodded, and that hint of concern for my softness disappeared. “Any trouble off planet?”
“That is why I have come to find you first, Father. The Zathki attacked a transport ship—Crux’s, returned from Earth. Seven warriors died. We were able to save the human cargo, Crux, and most of his crew.”
“Vorian?” my father asked, his voice stiff.
Vorian was a plasma blade through my father’s heart—my mother’s first son, and proof that my father had not always been there to protect her. His mate had been harmed. It was the greatest insult one Thorzi could give another, to harm a mate. Better if Crux had stabbed my father instead.
That would have been forgivable—if Crux could find a way to my father’s soft flesh, then my father deserved the wound. But Crux’s work was too important to our people for the king to make his quarrel a priority.
“Vorian survives.”
A grunt and a nod—that was all my father cared to share on that subject.
“And what is this?” Father looked from me to the small man at my side. “The cargo?”
“This is Lucas of Earth.” I tipped my chin up, pulling him to my side, a step ahead, to present the beautiful human for my father’s survey. “He is mine now. Payment for my fight to bring Crux home to Thorzan.”
The downturn of my father’s black brows was so subtle it was hard to see, but I knew his moods. He was not pleased by the human under my arm. I had never had one of my own before, had never won a tournament to breed or taken a human lover. But this prize, he could not deny me.
“Take care, Kaelum,” he warned, looking away from Lucas without a proper greeting. “The Thorzi demand a strong prince.”
No, what they demanded was that I submit to one of their own, that I reject my mother’s people and the gift humankind had given us when they had first arrived on Thorzan.
They would not like my curiosity for this human. Father did not like it. And if it were to develop into a true preference, that would cause more problems on my path to the throne.
To me, with Lucas under my arm, against my side, it did not matter. I had claimed him, and I would hear his story and his words, and if I chose to keep him, that was my right as warrior. My human blood could not deny me that.
I brushed the soft curve of Lucas’s shoulder with my fingertips. “I always take care, Father.”
CHAPTER9
LUCAS
The king’s garden was absolutely stunning.
I’d never been a botanist, so I couldn’t get super excited about alien plant life, but it was a tropical paradise of clinging vines, bright foliage, and vibrant flowers—an explosion of color like an abstract painting.
Kaelum spoke to his father in hushed tones, respectful to the point of deferential, which I supposed made sense, if his father was the king.
His father, in turn, looked at me like I was a poisonous snake, determined to bite him. It kind of made me want to, well, bite him.
I hadn’t chosen this. I wasn’t trying to worm my way into his kingdom or whatever he thought I was doing. Seduce his son.
I mean, don’t get me wrong, the more I looked at Kaelum, the more I thought I wouldn’t mind explaining what I had really meant by hard up, and then alleviating the problem.
Yes, with his cock.
But I was, for all intents and purposes, a prisoner. The whole idea of consent was pretty muddled there, wasn’t it?
I wasn’t sure if I’d gotten the long or short end of the stick by being “claimed” as a prize, or a payment, or whatever I’d been. Crux had been pretty pissed about it, overall, so I was glad I wasn’t with him.
