Trinity. Grace Goodwin
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the warden added. “While that might sound hot and sexy, I can’t allow you to mindlessly seduce an honorable warrior and then head off to Alera. He’ll demand much more than you want to give. He’s not just a big cock to ride. You’d get mating cuffs and a hulking beast obsessed with you for the rest of your life. Not fair to either one of you if you just need that Ardor eased.”
I stared at the warden for a second, totally surprised she’d used the phrase big cock to ride in a sentence. And mindlessly seduce an honorable warrior? “I would never be that dishonest, with any male. Alien or not.”
“Good.” The warden’s brows were up and her lips were tight. Clearly, she had not appreciated Faith’s joke.
“Yeah, talk about bossy. That Atlan looked like a total alpha male. Probably way too bossy,” Faith added with a sigh that sounded suspiciously like longing. She tucked her dark hair behind her ear, then gave a little wince when she bumped the NPU injection site. “Even with a big cock to ride.”
She glanced to Warden Egara, who smiled in return.
“I’m not going to have a quickie with the Atlan guard just because my girl parts are craving what he’s got in his pants,” I said on a little laugh, squirming as I thought of exactly what he had in those uniform pants. The bulge couldn’t have been missed by any woman within thirty feet.
“Fine. The Aleran consort then. While you’re getting it on with Mr. Studly, we’ll do some investigating.” Destiny swung her arm over Faith’s shoulders and they both nodded.
“Right,” Faith added with a grin. “I don’t want to listen to your screams of pleasure. I might get jealous.”
I had no intention of going off with an Aleran version of a gigolo who was paid to give me a bunch of orgasms—all while my sisters searched for our mother. That was ridiculous. I’d been horny and eager for sex for weeks. I’d just… ignore it. Like I had been. Or I could just make myself come. It wasn’t like I didn’t have a vibrator in my bedside table. There had to be a place to pick one up on Alera, along with a whole bunch of batteries.
Taking matters into my own hands had helped… for a while. Lately, it would take the edge off, but seemed to only make my need, my craving, grow worse.
“Warden.” A woman in a matching gray and burgundy uniform to Warden Egara’s came into the room. “Coordinates are set for Alera; the transport room is ready.”
I glanced at my sisters. This was it. We were leaving Earth and going into outer space. To another planet.
Oh my god. It was one thing to have my mother talk about Alera. To speak Aleran. We’d used it as our secret language at school and no one knew a thing we were saying. Everything our mother had told us had all seemed like just stories. A game. Fun.
But now it was real. Really, really real.
“Holy shit,” Destiny said.
“Yeah, holy shit,” Faith added as we followed Warden Egara down a long hallway.
The transport room was similar to a Star Trek episode. A woman in uniform stood behind a table covered in various controls. Before her was a raised dais with steps leading up to it. Nothing else was in the room.
There was a hum in the air, a vibration beneath our feet. I looked down at my old sneakers, Faith’s sandals and Destiny’s black shit-kicking boots. I wondered if I should bother fixing my inside-out shirt.
Shit. Why bother? According to Warden Egara, the second we got there some alien consort was just going to strip me out of my clothes anyway. Ugh. Just… shit. I knew I couldn’t say no and stay sane. Hell, I was pretty damn sure I wouldn’t want to.
Destiny took my hand. Faith, the other. We looked to each other, then climbed the steps, turned around.
We were on the transport pad, the portal to another planet. To Alera.
“Good luck on your search for your mother,” Warden Egara said. She stood tall, hands folded in front of her, and didn’t speak about our heritage, or the fact that our mother was the queen. There were only two people who knew the truth—the warden and Prime Nial. And that’s the way we intended to keep it. At least for now. “Please, be safe and let me know how things go. I will be rooting for you.”
“Thank you,” I replied, my sisters nodding.
She looked to the transport tech person and nodded. The hum got louder, the vibrations intensifying. The hair on the back of my neck stood on end. I felt the tight squeeze of my sisters’ hands in mine. We were doing this. Together. Now. We would find our mother… alive, and beat the crap out of those who’d taken her. Make things right. Put Queen Celene back where she belonged, on the throne of Alera.
The Jones sisters were headed to Alera. Those alien kidnappers had no idea what they were in for.
“Your transport will begin in three, two, one…”
The warden’s voice faded. Piercing cold felt like a thousand frozen needles pressing into my flesh. My last thought was that the NPU injection hadn’t been that bad after all.
2
Captain Leoron Turaya, Planet Alera, Outskirts of the Capital City of Mytikas
The sky was black but for the stars as I stood watch on the outermost tower protecting the capital. No moonlight tonight, the darkness feeling like an omen.
“It’s late, Captain. The watch is mine now.” Gadiel was young, barely out of training, but he stood at attention ready to assume my position on watch. His gaze was full of honor and excitement, a look I well-remembered seeing in the mirror. That was before I joined the Coalition Fleet and spent nearly a decade fighting a horror worse than any I could have imagined. I’d seen the Hive, knew what they would do if they ever reached the peaceful planets within the protective arms of the Interstellar Coalition’s Fleet of battleships.
After ten years, my father had called me home. I could continue to serve on Alera, he argued. I would have fought for ten more, but my parents still hoped I would awaken to a woman’s Ardor, that I would choose a mate—or my cock would—and give them grandchildren to spoil.
I’d met countless women in my lifetime, all across the galaxy, and nothing had stirred within me. My body remained mine alone. And to be perfectly honest, I did not hold much interest in changing that. To be so obsessed with a single female? I’d seen mighty Aleran warriors fall, become nothing more than besotted fools. All because their cocks rose—finally—for The One. To be led around by the balls by a female was not what I desired. To be driven by something other than the honor to defend my planet? No, thank you.
I would remain a soldier, a guard, a fighter for life. An Aleran bachelor. Unaffected by the whims of a female.
“Sir?” Gadiel shifted uncomfortably, and I realized I had been staring into the distance, at nothing. No. Not nothing. The spire. That damn queen’s spire and how it glowed bright, the only thing illuminating the darkness.
“Very well,” I replied, turning to him. “May the light keep you.”
“And you as well.”
I nodded in acceptance of his words and left him to attend his duties. The city was at peace, at the moment. The last incursion by an outlying family had ended in bloodshed just weeks before. The tenuous peace would not last. The royal bloodline was weak, with no living members strong enough to carry one of the gifts. Ever since the queen’s disappearance over two decades ago, the capital had been under consistent attack by one grasping family after another. These families believed their wealth and armies would grant them the loyalty of the people.
They were wrong. So long as the queen’s spire burned bright, the royal guard would defend her throne