Trinity. Grace Goodwin
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and I existed. I’d never understood Mother’s insistence that we have no family photos on the walls, no school pictures. Our rooms had always looked like guest rooms. Pretty, but not personal. We didn’t leave our clothes out. Or our shoes. There weren’t toothbrushes or makeup on the counters in the bathroom.
Our house looked like a guest house. A vacation rental. Always.
I’d hated it growing up. Capital H. But now I understood. They’d taken her and hadn’t even looked for anyone else. Had no idea she had children. Daughters.
Heirs.
But if she had been taken by Alerans, and we all agreed she had—me and my sisters, plus Warden Egara and even Prime Nial, the ruler of Prillon Prime and The Colony—we had to find her on Alera. Why would they stay on Earth? They knew nothing of the planet. Staying on Earth did them no good. Even if they killed her, they’d go back to Alera and reap their reward.
“Does this work on animals? Think of how amazing that would be. The symbiosis of the universe would be… complete,” Faith said, angling her head to the side to give the warden better access so she could wipe the spot with some rubbing alcohol.
Destiny was still pacing, a bundle of raw nerves. “Symbiosis? Really? They could be torturing our mother right now and you’re thinking about communing with animals? Do you imagine the bad guys even consider symbiosis? Hell, would they even know what it means?”
“No.” Faith grinned, completely unrepentant. “But Trinity certainly does.” Faith glanced at me, her hand going to the side of her head. She’d switched into speaking Aleran. “With her super-sexy Ardor coming on, she’ll want some serious symbiosis with a hot alien hunk as soon as we get to Alera.”
I rolled my eyes as Destiny waggled her brows and grinned. “Oh, yeah. Hot, sweaty, symbiosis. Probably more than once.”
“I can understand you,” Warden Egara added. “And I’ve shared the details of Trinity’s oncoming Aleran Ardor with Prime Nial—”
I groaned, blushing. I didn’t need everyone in the universe to know my pussy was wet all the time and aching for a huge cock. That I was becoming a horny slut, eager for a male to take me for a wild ride. Earth guys wouldn’t do. I’d tried that. Ten minutes of making out like high schoolers and my poor date had collapsed, unconscious, on his couch. I was like a freaking sexual vampire. Afraid I’d killed him, I stayed for a bit just watching him breathe. That had scared the hell out of me and I’d called the Interstellar Brides processing center first thing the next morning.
And given away mother’s location. Got her kidnapped. Tortured. Shit, maybe dead.
“Don’t, Trin. I can see it all over your face. This isn’t your fault.” Faith shook her head, giving me her very best motherly impression.
“It kinda is, Faith.”
“Bullshit, Trin. Biology. That’s all this is. Maybe we should just get you taken care of here. There’s got to be a few hunky aliens around who wouldn’t mind a quickie.”
“I don’t need a quickie. Thanks though.” No. Nothing quick would do. I needed a big Aleran male to shove me up against the wall and do me. Hard. Really hard. For hours.
God, I clenched my inner walls, aching and eager to be filled. This mating urge was getting out of control, but I clenched my teeth—and other places—and ignored it. Again.
“—and Prime Nial has assured me he will have an official Aleran consort waiting for you in the transport center,” the warden continued. “I don’t know much about Alera, but I’ve been assured your Ardor will be soothed by the consort.” She offered me a small smile.
“You’re kidding,” Destiny said, looking at me. “Did you know about this? It sounds like a male prostitute.”
Warden Egara shook her head. “More like an escort, although there really isn’t an equivalent on Earth.”
I was sure they could hear my sigh in the next room. “Yes. Mother told me. They are very rare and extremely expensive.” Having sex immediately upon arrival with a complete stranger? Not my thing, but my body was telling me otherwise. I was so amped up, I wasn’t going to have a choice.
“Hey, wait,” Destiny said, holding up her hand, the big needle all but forgotten. “You’re speaking Aleran, Warden. How can you do that? How can you understand us? I mean, you’re from Earth. You’re on Earth.”
Warden Egara turned and put the NPU gun away. “I was tested as a bride, given an NPU and matched to Prillon Prime. I had two mates who died in the war. When I chose not to mate again, I came back to Earth to help new brides find their mates.” She turned around, glanced at each of us, put her fingers to the spot behind her ear. “And you three? I admit, you’re definitely a surprise.”
“I’m sorry.” Always the peacemaker, but I had to say it. How sad. Two mates who died must be devastating for her.
Her smile was resigned. “It was a long time ago. And now, you three need to get moving.”
“Yeah, a secret Aleran princess, hiding away on Earth, waiting to ascend the throne,” Faith replied, noticing the way the warden had switched topics and clearly didn’t want pity or additional conversation about her dead mates. “Trin, your life is like a romance movie.”
“Except Mother’s been taken and I can’t control my own freaking body,” I countered. “It’s more like an action-adventure-horror.” My stomach twisted, remembering the way the blood had drained from my head when we watched the surveillance video, heard her scream of rage right before they’d shot her. Her instant collapse onto the kitchen floor. The way she’d slumped like a wet spaghetti noodle.
She’d hit her head on the corner of the cabinet on her way down. And I didn’t know if it was the twisted version of heat I was in or just my natural rage, but someone was going to pay for that. I wasn’t normally violent, but I had my moments. And this Aleran Ardor was not only inconvenient, it was flat out pissing me off. Forced to fuck or go insane?
What kind of messed up biology did these stupid aliens have, anyway?
“Prime Nial won’t be there to meet you himself as he’s on Prillon, three sectors away from Alera, but he will have a contingent of guards as well as the Aleran consort waiting to greet you.”
“It’s hard to think about this Ardor thing when my mother’s missing,” I said. I rubbed my hands on my jeans, realized I’d thrown clothes on this morning and hadn’t even brushed my hair in our mad dash to get to the Brides center. There was no way a consort was going to want to get it on with me looking like this. I tugged at the hem of my t-shirt and realized it was inside out. Fuck.
“Your Ardor started a few weeks ago. It was coming on whether Mom was taken or not,” Destiny replied. “Just think, if you’d been on Alera, this heat thing wouldn’t have been delayed until you were twenty-flipping-seven.” She waved her hand around in reference to the heat thing. It was easy for her to be blasé about it since she hadn’t come into her Ardor. She didn’t have a complete stranger waiting to fuck her brains out so she could stop going crazy. “I mean, if it had come on when you were twenty-two, like mother said it should, then you wouldn’t have slept with Aiden Dugen.”
Aiden Dugen. I had to laugh. Hindsight was definitely twenty-twenty. My college boyfriend should have been avoided. As for his cock, yeah, he would never be mistaken for a hot alien hunk. Hell, a hunky anything.
“Yeah, but that hot Atlan at the gate is probably hung like a horse,” Faith added, fanning herself with her hand. “If I’d known the aliens were that hot, I might have volunteered to be an Interstellar Bride.”
“If we stay on Alera, you’ll end up married to an alien,” Destiny said. “I think that qualifies.”
“Well, being only half Aleran, we don’t know if you two are going to have to deal with this stupid