Chapter 6

She ran off so quickly, that my hand that reached out into nothing fell uselessly back to my hip. It’s better this way, my mind tried to reassure me, let her go.

But my heart protested and my eyes stayed on her until the door closed behind her. Spent, I leaned against the wall, closed my eyes, and wiped my hand over my face. My heart was still beating rapidly, heated by our kiss.

Great Staphor, that kiss!

For a long moment I had forgotten everything around me, my life, my responsibilities, my duties—everything but her. Her pliable body snuggled against my chest, the touch of her soft tongue, the way she tasted of arrilies—a sweet herb—her hand in my hair, her laughter. I took a deep inhale as the same emotions that had run through me as I held her ran through me once more.

Not to forget the peace she brought me. The incredible stillness and rest. I knew I could easily lay in her arms for years and forget everything but her. An alluring notion. A dangerous notion.

The food I had ordered stood cold and forgotten on the table, ready to be served to my departed guest. I gave it a cursory glance, not hungry in the least, and moved to the bathing chamber. A cold shower should waken enough of my ever-present angry fire to push thoughts of her out of me and bring back the familiar always-smoldering heat inside me. For the first time in my life I felt like I needed the constant anger to shield me from this tiny human merrily, even while I tried to plan how to see her again.

My words of, You should return quickly to your quarters before you truly get sick, returned unbidden to me. It wasn’t so much the words, as the tone. I remembered the hoarseness of my voice all too well, caused by a stirring desire inside me to make this tiny human mine. My cock had throbbed to be plunged into her depths, the very tips of my fingers had burned to touch her in all her forbidden places, to explore her. It had taken all my self-control to utter those words, and hadn’t left me with enough strength to soften the tone of my voice.

As it was, it had done the trick. One look at my face had convinced her that it was wiser to flee and I barely held myself back not to chase after her.

Chase!

My mind was turning blurry at the image of me chasing her through the hallway, like our ancestors used to do with their mekarries, to make their ultimate claim. A true conquest of one’s mekarry. It took all my willpower to stay where I was and enter the bathroom instead of chasing after her.

The cold shower did revive my spirits, brought me back to being more of my normal self again, but the moment my head hit the pillow and I closed my eyes I saw her face in front of me, felt her lips pressing against mine, smelled the sweet scent of her.

I grunted and turned to the other side, pulling the pillow over my head, but it was no use. My body, my heart, and my mind yearned for the merrily. Yearned for her to be lying next to me and not just in a sexual way. That urge too was strong, but overpowered by all my other senses yearning for her.

What in Staphor’s name was happening to me?

Quietly I lay there, staring at the ceiling, giving up hope of finding sleep tonight. As much as I tried to occupy my mind with other things, things that should have rightfully stood at the forefront of my worries, like a report about an alarming number of kunyps—dangerous predators—stalking many of the planets under my lord protectors’ hold. A failed crop of pillug–cattle food—on a new outpost. The terrifying, revolting experiments the Cryons were doing on Seclenian larvae. The plight of the humans… And there it was, right back to Heather.

No matter where my mind turned, it always came back to her.

At some point I must have finally fallen asleep, because I woke to the servants opening the curtains to let the sun in. The aroma of hot tea, biscuits, and meat permeated the air and stirred me out of bed. I took the tray the servants left for me to my desk while they retreated, same as every morning, and browsed through my mail while sipping hot tea.

Another signed petition from my council members, urging me to find a mate and beget an heir… A devious grin spread across my lips at the thought of presenting the bunch of them with Heather… Amusement shot through me at the idea of how that would result in yelling, objections, and flustered faces. My amusement, however, vanished when I realized that I didn’t like the idea of my council members’ objections of mating with the human merrily. It wasn’t like I was going to propose to her, but I didn’t like being told what to do either.

I deleted the petition and moved to the next, to get my mind focused on something else. That one wasn’t any better though. It was a holographic message from General Doryngh, who had succeeded Sir Prior after his unexplained disappearance a few weeks ago—thank you Lady Madeema, for that headache. In it he berated me for my superior commander’s dealings with the humans, delivering weapons to them, and taking humans from right under their noses. He invoked laws from the GTU that fit his case and overlooked the ones that gave us Pandraxians the right to trade with the humans. He told me that he had filed an official complaint with the GTU and recited the case number to me.

I rubbed both of my temples to rid myself of the growing headache, knowing it wouldn’t do much good. I needed to deal with this situation, make a stand and announce the Pandraxian’s stance on the human cause.

First though, I commed Lady Madeema. “Have you found any actual evidence yet?” I didn’t explain who I was talking about. The Cryons and their experiments with the Seclenian larvae were the most pressing problems at the moment.

The hologram of her paced my office and she shook her head. “I have Sir Priough’s confession ready, Your Imperial Highness, and I have several intelligence officers en route to Cronack”—the planet on which the Cryons were conducting their unholy experiments—“but—”

“How are you expecting them to break through the Cryons’ blockade?” I challenged.

Lady Madeema had told me herself that the Cryons didn’t allow any ships to come close to Cronack, that they shot every spaceship down that dared to come within a few parsecs.

“I have my ways,” she answered slyly with a veiled look on her face that told me it would be better for me not to be informed about her tactics, which was probably right, but I still didn’t like the freedoms she took under the guise of working for me.

I liked even less that she thought she was keeping me in the dark of all her little plans. I knew that Sir Priough had not defected from the Cryons as she claimed, that in fact she had kidnapped him, but I agreed with her that it was in the interest of the empire to keep me in the dark on this and some other dealings of hers in which she had even ensnared my superior commander.

“You mean your smuggling filth, the scum of the galaxy?” I wagered.

If she was surprised I guessed right, she didn’t show it. Instead, she gave me one of her benevolent smiles as if I were her favorite pupil and anger slowly began to burn inside my chest.

“You and I both know that whatever evidence the smugglers might unearth and bring to us, will be inadmissible by the GTU. They won’t listen to smugglers.” Just like they wouldn’t listen to the humans or anybody who had bonded with them. I silently added. Damn, why was Heather stealing herself into my mind even now?

“It will be irrefutable,” Lady Madeema assured me.

“I heard that before,” I muttered, my temper rising, and cut the connection before I lost it.

I drummed my fingers on the top of my desk, tried to swallow the flaring anger down. It wasn’t easy and made only harder by another blinking message. This time from none other than Gar’Ny L’ym Tack, the Grand Overseer of the GTU.

My first impulse was to delete the message, but I resisted the childish urge and opened it.

The beginning sentence alone was enough to send me into a rage the likes of which I hadn’t experienced in a long time.

Emperor Daryus of the Pandraxian Empire, you are hereby summoned…

Summoned?

Me?

How dare they!

With a giant swipe of my arm, I cleared my desk of anything in my way. Tablets, comm devices, screens, they all went flying against the wall in one loud crash, barely heard over the roar of my fury.

Guards stormed in, but I was only peripherally aware of their presence and they quickly retreated once they realized I had fallen into one of my famous temper fits and the only people needing rescue were themselves.

I kicked against the dining table where Heather and I had been supposed to have taken dinner last night, sent it flying, followed by a rage that made me see only red.