Grayson pushed himself up in bed so he could lean against the headboard. Pain stabbed through his shoulder and down his back and arm. He cursed and tried to shift again for a more comfortable position, while his valet shoved pillows behind him.

      “I still think you’re being unreasonable, Grayson.” Queen Alyssandra waved away his valet and arranged the pillows herself. “You need to heal, and you haven’t even kissed the Seer yet, so how can that be considered cheating?” Sunlight streamed through the open balcony window of his bedroom to glint off Alyssandra’s tumble of mahogany hair and the lavender beads decorating her scattered braids.

      Grayson relaxed back against the pillows and flashed her a grateful smile before he turned his thoughts to putting into words something he couldn’t explain even to himself.

      “Leave him be, Alyssandra,” King Stone added from a nearby chair.

      The queen rounded on her husband, her hands fisted on her hips. “Are you telling me that from the time you understood we were betrothed until a few months ago, when you found me on Earth, that you didn’t find sexual sustenance with anyone?”

      Heavy silence suddenly filled the chamber, and Grayson almost felt sorry for Stone for walking into such a self-made verbal trap. Almost.

      “Well, no….” Stone admitted.

      Over the past few months, Grayson had become used to their familiar banter. Even the kind they did only through telepathy, which left everyone else in the room feeling like they were watching an Earth television show with the sound off.

      Stone had definitely changed when he’d finally found Alyssandra, but the changes were for the better. He was happier and more content somehow. Grayson envied him that.

      “What have I missed?” Prince Ryan, the third leg of the Trio of Disaster, burst into the room and immediately made himself at home. He plopped onto the overstuffed ottoman and snatched the goblet of ale from Grayson’s untouched dinner tray.

      Grayson smiled. “Alyssandra was winning another argument with Stone.”

      “It wasn’t an argument,” the king and queen said together and then laughed.

      Ryan downed the ale and then pantomimed a large yawn. “So, in other words, I haven’t missed a thing.”

      Alyssandra shot Ryan a mock caustic glare, and he grinned at her, obviously unrepentant. “I was trying to convince Grayson to let one of the maids help him heal his shoulder before the Seer wakes up.”

      “Are we going to talk about what to tell her, or are we going to argue over my health and welfare?”

      The queen gave him a meaningful look, clearly communicating that she would drop the subject…for now. However, Grayson had no illusions that she would give up permanently. She was one of the most tenacious people he’d ever met.

      Alyssandra poured a new goblet of ale for Grayson and laid the dinner tray on his lap. “If you refuse to find sexual sustenance, then you need food, so eat.” Her voice was firm and told him this was the price for her dropping the earlier subject.

      He smiled, picked up a piece of bread, and bit off a corner.

      Ryan refilled his borrowed goblet of ale. “From what you’ve said, Gray, the Seer is an independent and very stubborn woman. She has her own business and a life back on Earth. We can’t just huddle around her bed and when she wakes up tell her she’s been chosen to give up her entire life, move to a different planet, and participate in a triangle that resembles Earth’s Roman orgies so we can save our planet.”

      A dull throb started behind Grayson’s temples and slowly radiated outward until the pain in his shoulder throbbed with the same rhythm. All his energy had been focused on finding the Seer. He hadn’t given much thought to breaking the news to her about what they hoped she would give up, and do, for a planet she knew nothing about.

      A quick glance around the room assured Grayson he wasn’t the only one who had put off that particular line of thinking. Everyone’s faces darkened with concern.

      The queen sat on the foot of Grayson’s bed, careful not to jostle his food tray. “We’ve found her—we can’t just give up now. There have obviously been women in the past who were willing to do this—from what I can tell from the queen’s archives, the triangle has been instituted at least three times in our history.”

      Alyssandra had been kidnapped when she was an infant and taken to live on Earth with the losing faction of a quarter of a century old civil war. The kidnappers had raised her ignorant of her true heritage, and Alyssandra’s mother, Annalecia, had slowly weakened on Tador from grief and strain. Annalecia’s symbiotic relationship with their home planet had deteriorated until Tador had slowly begun to sicken and die.

      Luckily, Alyssandra had been recovered and was able to ascend the throne in her mother’s place, but now the planet was too far gone for only the queen and king to repair through their generation of sexual energy. Their only hope seemed to lie in some obscure references in the queen’s archives—something called the triangle.

      Unfortunately, time was extremely short. The Seer had to be taken through the Klatch coming-of-age ceremony on her twenty-fourth birthday, which was just a handful of days away. Only then could the triangle ritual be completed.

      Alyssandra chewed her bottom lip and shook her head, the beads in her scattered braids clinking together softly. “I think we need to convince her to stay for a while and get to know the planet, the Klatch, and Grayson, and hope she falls in love with all three enough so she will want to stay here with us and perform the triangle.”

      Grayson let the idea roll around in his mind for a minute. “She’ll be angry when she finds out we lied to her.” A large fist closed around his heart at the thought of starting a relationship on omissions and lies. But even if the civil war hadn’t happened, he would’ve been slated to marry another full-blooded Klatch and produce heirs, regardless of his personal feelings. How was this different, except that he had found the woman himself?

      Ryan leaned forward, setting his goblet of ale on a nearby table. “True, but once she calms down, she’ll understand why we had to omit a few facts up front.”

      “I’m not so sure about that.” King Stone’s expression showed nothing but doubt.

      “It’s not like we have much of a choice. Otherwise, we’ve lost before we’ve started.” Ryan stood and gazed around the room. “We said we were willing to do whatever it took to save the planet and institute the triangle. Are we, or aren’t we?”

      Stone scrubbed a hand over his face, his appearance suddenly tired and sad. “It’s up to you, Grayson. She’s slated to be your mate. Do we tell her outright, or go with Alyssandra’s plan?”

      The weight of three heavy gazes pressed down on Grayson, and he looked away. They were right, this was his decision, and he would bear responsibility for whatever he chose.

      His thoughts strayed to Katelyn as he’d seen her fighting off the Cunts in her shop.

      Her fiery red hair had billowed