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“You do not rule her as a male should,” the emperor commented, his tone flat with disapproval. “You allow a weak hybrid female to dictate to you instead. Perhaps you do not deserve your station as general superior of Ahn’hudin’s military.”
“I indulge my mate, for her happiness is important to me,” Jax replied, his tone carefully neutral. His tail unwound from around her body and began to swish.
“A warrior who kowtows to a female’s insolence ought not be mated at all, for he is not worthy to perpetuate our species,” the emperor remarked, his tone snide. “An unworthy male also does not deserve to commandmymilitary.”
Jax’s crest remained flat, but he seemed to swell and grow even larger. Feeling the rage emanate off him, Louella took a small step backward, all the length the leash would allow, in an attempt to evade the lashing tail and put distance between herself and the emperor.
“Iam the general superior, and Ahn’hudin’s military ismineto command.” Jax bared his teeth. Many of the emperor’s entourage exchanged uneasy glances. “Do you challenge me for my mate?”
“I am the emperor, and you serve atmypleasure,” the emperor said and cast him a look of distaste. He spat. The viscous glob sizzled where it hit the floor. Louella’s eyes widened in horror. He focused his predatory glare on her and said, “I will not sully my bloodline with a human hybrid and take one to mate, but she would make a luscious concubine.”
“No,” Louella whispered under her breath, her hands curling into fists. “Over my dead body.”
“Then challenge me,” Jax goaded. “Prove to the vice generals and all of Kaan thatyouare worthy of ruling Ahn’hudin as its emperor and its general superior.”
“Oh, shit,” Louella muttered under her breath, because the emperor was nearly as large as Jax and bulkier. Dressed in a leather battle kilt and wide straps criss-crossing his broad chest, she could see that the emperor’s bulk was all muscle. Like Jax, he hadn’t a spare ounce of fat on him, although his crest was shorter. She wondered if that was significant, then realized her musing had caused her to miss what was likely an important exchange of insults.
Jax handed her leash to Captain Ashtul who looked at it with distaste. He murmured to her as he led her back to join the company of Kaanian warriors who had formed their honor escort. “Come with me, honored matron, else you risk injury.”
The Kaanian warriors positioned themselves in front of her, a solid wall of barely restrained aggression all that protected her from the oncoming altercation. Louella knew male posturing when she saw it, courtesy of her inner city upbringing, and she’d developed a fine instinct to know when violence was inevitable.
The emperor moved in a slow circle around Jax. “I will not fight you, General Superior. An emperor does not engage in trifling fisticuffs with his subjects. To do so is to sink to dishonor.”
General Superior Yas’kihn turned to face the emperor, his yellow eyes narrowed and his claws extended. “You are emperor only bymysufferance, Gudren. You are a spoiled youngling who knows nothing of honor.”
The emperor huffed a laugh, a derisive sound. “Do you truly think so, Yas’kihn?Icommand our military; their loyalty is tome.”
“Ahn’hudin’s warriors are loyal to Ahn’hudin—”
“WhichIrepresent, you overweening thug,” the emperor snarled, pausing in his circular route around Yas’kihn. “Rather,youremain general superior only bymysufferance, for since my father’s passing, I wield the power and authority of the crown and orb!”
“You seek to benefit yourself and your cronies,” Yas’kihn said, ice dripping from every syllable. “I had hoped you would grow into your father’s wisdom, but you do not. You do not act in the best interests of our people.”
“Andyouact to benefit yourself, for did you not claim ahumanmate outside the terms of our treaty with Earth?”
“I did,” he acknowledged. “As did your former guard and the Scourge of Moriya with their mate.” Yas’kihn bared his sharp, pointed teeth. “Extenuating circumstances do not negate the truth of my claim.”
“You have no claim, so I decree it!”
“The laws of our people as well as our ancient tradition dictate that to negate my claim to my mate, you must challenge me,” Yas’kihn pointed out.
“Kill him!” the emperor ordered. “The male who kills the general superior will take his place by my side and take his female as his pet!”
The Ahn’hudi males surged forward. Due to the protocol of civility, none of them was armed with bladed weapons or firearms, but each of the vice generals was more than deadly, naturally armed with their claws, fangs, and even their sharp crests.
“Seal all egresses!” Captain Ashtul shouted in his own people’s language, which sounded like a feline yowl to Louella’s ears. Heavy metal doors slammed down to contain the battle.
As the Ahn’hudi vice generals attacked, Captain Ashtul barked a command Louella’s implanted translator failed to translate. All but five of the dozen Kaanian warriors in the honor guard who had escorted Yas’kihn and her to the reception room rushed to Yas’kihn’s defense as he met the vice generals with bared claws and fangs dripping powerful venom. Louella watched from behind the five Kaanian warriors who formed a muscular wall between her and the bloody melee, impeding her view but not the grotesque sounds of pitched battle. She heard grunts and groans, thwacks and thuds, yelps and growls, and screams and hisses.
Louella inched backward away from the blood that splattered and oozed across the floor, hands clenched around her own leash, until her back hit the wall. She could not help the whimper that escaped her throat as she witnessed the raw brutality of bestial aliens releasing their primal natures. She rather thought the battle resembled a group of komodo dragons battling a group of leopards and mountain lions. She remembered seeing a video which had recorded a fight between an alligator and a lion, the huge lizard nearly twice the lion’s size … and the lion won.
The Ahn’hudi warriors were deadly, no doubt, but she rather thought they’d strayed too far from their dragon ancestry. They’d evolved too much. The feline folk of Kaan remained intimately connected with their forebears. Despite being smaller than their huge reptilian allies, they were ferocious and fast, cunning and ultimately deadly.
Louella cowered against the wall.I should do something, she berated herself for not joining in Yas’kihn’s defense, despite knowing that she was a healer, not a fighter. Without fangs or claws, she wasprey.Either group of clawed and fanged warriors, she thought, would decimate an entire human army composed of SEALs, Rangers, Green Berets, and Delta Force operatives, if only because humans lacked the natural defenses these two alien species retained.
A guttural roar reverberated in the large room, making the walls vibrate. Louella, who had long since squeezed her eyes shut to avoid watching the horror and brutality, shivered, terrified that she’d be forced into sexual slavery to whichever traitorous Ahn’hudi male had killed Yas’kihn. Large hands reached down to draw her upright. Her body vibrated as another fierce roar erupted with a blast of heat.
The heat startled her and she opened her eyes to see a large glob of liquid flame splatter on the emperor’s torn and bleeding body.Where had that come from?
