2. Mia

2

MIA

Ihad only ever seen the palace in photos and images on holo-TV.

It looked magnificent with its strange (to my eyes, at least) curved outer walls and the mushroom-like towers perched on top of each corner.

But none of the images or videos could have prepared me for the sight of the palace in person.

It was unlike anything I had ever seen before—and I liked to think I’d seen a lot in my thirty-two years.

Everything I had been working on, all those years of study and nose to the grindstone, had led to this moment.

I couldn’t help but congratulate myself under my breath: “You’ve finally made it, Mia.” I gave myself a pat on the back.

I had come for an interview, but there was no guarantee I would get it.

I had as much chance as anyone else—although my experience was hard to trump.

After my parents died in a freak shuttlecraft accident, I was left all alone in the cosmos.

They had moved away from Earth before the worst of the wars had taken place.

My father had always been into reading the news, but there were always things he couldn’t quite understand, or that the explanations from mass media didn’t fully explain, and that made him question the narrative he was being fed.

He took a step back and considered: What if everything we were being told was a lie?

And so he diversified the mainstream news he was consuming (which turned out to be pointless as they seemed to tell the same lies as everyone else) and was at a loss until he explored smaller, independent publications.

Some of it was out there and he wasn’t ready to fully believe what he’d seen. After all, why replace one set of lies with another?

It was only after he took everything he read with a fistful of salt that he began to see the bigger picture.

After two years, he began to feel that things were getting worse, not better, as some of the news outlets informed him.

And so one day, he told us that he wanted us to leave Earth and begin a new life elsewhere—where the rich and powerful didn’t have quite so much control over our lives.

He understood that it was a decision we all needed to make and treated us (even me, who was only eight years old at the time) as adults.

He laid out the facts he’d found and what he thought was the truth—although he admitted it was difficult to ascertain completely what the truth was—but we did the best with what he had.

He predicted that a new world war was going to take place, possibly with newly-developed weapons that, just a few short years earlier, everyone would have considered science-fiction—and he wanted to be as far away from it as possible to get.

I loved my school and friends and didn’t like the idea that I wouldn’t get to see them ever again.

My mom had the same concern with close family that acted as a safety net, but we all agreed that it looked like something bad was going to happen, and happen soon.

Dad, prepared as always, gave us a trio of newly-colonized planets to choose from that were crying out for fresh blood.

We decided upon Ghizzart 9 because it reminded Mom of the old western shows she used to watch on TV as a kid (although I don’t recall them ever having purple skies or flowers that sprung into song every day at midday—but I might have missed that episode) and we left to become farmers on the moon.

We made new friends quickly and I enjoyed my studies, which were taught completely different from those back on Earth.

I was forced to think critically rather than memorize all the dates and facts from an old textbook.

Less than eleven months after we moved, the most powerful countries on Earth declared war.

The battle lines were drawn between the old colonial powers and those known as the “developing” nations.

It seemed the poorer countries wanted to take their destiny into their own hands, and who could blame them for that?

The war was painful and vicious, and although we tried to reach out to friends and family, we did so quietly, knowing that if we weren’t careful, we would be recalled back to Earth to act as reinforcements to a war we no longer had anything to do with.

After all, we weren’t official Earthlings anymore!

It took ten years for the war to work itself out, and by that point, every nation on Earth had spent all its natural resources.

No one could fight any longer—even if they wanted to.

The war was over.

Less than a week later, my parents died in a freak shuttlecraft accident that left me without family.

I had just turned eighteen, and so there was no help for me.

I tried to run our farm by myself, but there was simply too much work.

My friends and neighbors tried to pick up the slack, but they had their own farms to take care of.

Finally, less than four months after my parents had died, I lost the farm—the only real home I had known—and accepted a job working as an assistant to an old but surprisingly rich Ulsen heiress.

She was good to me, kind, and taught me everything I needed to know about running her estate.

It was the first time I’d come in contact with the Ulsen on a personal level—although I had seen them from time to time when they made deliveries to our colony moon.

They were big, impressive creatures with well-defined muscles. I had never met one less than six feet in height—and that was a female who had not yet finished growing or coming into her horns yet.

The old lady died soon after training me, and with no other member of the family interested in running the estate, they sold up, and I was forced to move on to another job.

On and on it went, working for one powerful alien species to another, and each time, I learned something valuable about their cultures and traditions.

I saved what I could and used it to make payments on the family farm. It was where I hoped to retire one day, so I might raise and support my own family.

But there was still a lot left to pay down.

I made a lot of friends, many of them not so socially accepted, but once you got under their skin and understood that all living creatures were the same and that all wanted to thrive and protect the ones they loved (even if it meant breaking a law or two) well, life became a lot whole easier.

Some of the most generous people I ever met turned out to be criminals. And some of the worst people turned out to be criminals too.

I learned that it was not the vocation you chose (or that chose you, as the case may be) that made you the person you were. It only enhanced the kind of person you were, to begin with.

Money did not corrupt. It only enhanced your natural instincts as to what you were in the first place.

A bad person with money became even worse.

A good person with money became even better.

Money was only a magnifying glass.

During all that time, I had my eye on what I considered to be the best job in the entire galaxy:

To work as an assistant to the Ulsen Royal Family.

They were rich and powerful, with a ton of influence.

They paid well and I could see myself owning my farm outright with just a few more years of hard graft rather than the ten or more in less prestigious positions.

Someone bumped into my shoulder and almost sent me sprawling.

It wasn’t a single person but a group of them, gossiping amongst themselves like the gaggle of wayward hens on our farm.

The one that knocked into my shoulder turned to me.

I smiled up at her in what I hoped was a friendly expression, but she only pursed her lips and sneered at me sourly.

Her face was powdered white, and her lips were blood red, painted on as if she hadn’t had a mirror to look into while she was doing it.

Her perfume made me gag.

I recognized them as Sirens, supposedly the most seductive and sexy creatures in the Ulsen Empire.

Judging by the way they made themselves up, I doubted that.

But what did I know about what turned Ulsen males on?

As the gaggle of hens raised their noses and marched away, their hips swaying in crooked movements, I could only assume I was going to see a lot more crazy things like them while I was here.

If I get the job.

I stuck my tongue out at her and pulled a face.

She didn’t see it but one of her friends did and she hastily whispered in the queen hen’s ear.

She looked me over head to toe and snorted derisively. “She’s only human,” she said. “Her backward species don’t know any better. Come girls, let us find the prize males at the ball. And remember your training. We’re not called Sirens for nothing.”

Only human.

After being the dominant species on planet Earth, it was strange to be considered at the bottom of the evolutionary food chain in the rest of the galaxy.

I took a deep breath.

I am an executive assistant, I told myself. I am hardworking and professional.

And soon, those bickering hens would be asking me for permission to see members of the Royal Family.

I spotted a Ulsen with a holo-tablet and figured he must be the one I needed to speak with about my interview.

I smoothed my jacket and pants, took another deep breath, and ascended the steps to meet him.

* * *

I followedthe interview assistant’s wake as he led me into the palace and through the infinite hallways, dodging between hundreds of Ulsen dressed to the nines.

“Is there… some sort of event… today?” I said, slipping between two partygoers heading toward the load music and bright lights in the distance.

Whatever party it was, it was already in full swing.

“It’s Steyatt week,” the interview assistant said by explanation. “It’s unfortunate the interviews were arranged at the same time, but hopefully, that will be a mistake the new Royal Assistant will avoid in the future.”

He looked back and ran an eye over me as if that person couldn’t possibly be me.

I ground my teeth, determined to show him I was the best person for the job… and was grateful that he wouldn’t be the one making the final decision.

The hallway was packed and then suddenly released like a cork from a champagne bottle as the party guests entered the ballroom and spread out, meeting friends and acquaintances and grabbing drinks from silver platters.

I coughed, choking the cloying stink of the overpowering fragrances they were all wearing.

I should have brought a nose peg! I thought. And a pair of sunglasses while I was at it…

Their dresses—both male and female—caught the overhead light and flashed, making me blink and screw up my eyes.

It was beginning to give me a headache already.

The conversations I heard were nothing of interest but I sensed it wasn’t really the conversations that were important anyway…

Each member of the conversation locked eyes on their partner, some smiles were broad and expansive, while others were small and teasing. Some licked their lips while others gently touched each other on the arms and shoulders. Some were less gentle and ran their fingers through their partner’s hair, or knocked on their ornate horns and listened to the sound that came out.

Others still took a partner by the hand and led them out of the room as if they were going to dance…

Except I could see no dancing taking place anywhere in the ballroom.

A few of the males turned and looked at me, their eyes shining and bright, the females they were talking with stepping in the way, blocking me from view, and glared down at me over their shoulders.

A couple even “shooed” me away with a wave of their jewel-encrusted hands.

I turned to leave but the scent and the bright shining clothes and the rolling music made the room spin.

I stumbled toward one of the archways leading toward the exit and tripped and fell.

Someone caught me and lifted me up onto my feet.

He dusted off my knees and checked my face.

“Be careful, little one,” he said, his tongue lashing his lips and making them drip with saliva. “You might get trampled under foot, and no one wants that…”

There wasn’t an ounce of genuine kindness in his features, and I hastily backed away from him.

He was quick to close the gap between us, gasping in a rasp that made his stinky breath cloud around my face, blocking my senses and making it hard to think.

“I… I… I’m here to…” I managed.

“Oh, yes. I’m quite sure what you’re here for…” he said. “Quite sure. Come. Let us find somewhere quiet we can be together…”

No! I wanted to scream, but opening my mouth would only make him breathe harder on me.

This was not how I expected my first day in the palace to go!

Before he could grab my arm, someone else did on the other side.

It was the interview assistant.

My hero!

He paid me no attention and focused instead of the bulging, slobbering male Ulsen that had approached me.

“I’m very sorry, sir,” the interview assistant said, “but she’s here for an interview and has nothing to do with the Steyatt Ball. I’m sure there are much better matches for you among the other guests.”

Without waiting for a response, he turned on his heel and marched across the ballroom, his hand clenched tight about my upper arm.

“I told you to stay close!” he snapped.

“I did!” I protested. “But I got lost in the crowd! And the smell and the noise—”

He brought me out into the hallway. The air was clean and refreshing and I felt my senses coming back to me.

“You must take a deep breath and hold it when passing through the ballroom. If not, you’ll get washed beneath all the—”

“Stink.”

“The fragrance,” the interview assistant said. “If you intend on working at the palace, you’ll have to get used to how things are done in the Ulsen culture.”

“I have no problem learning. But somebody needs to explain to me—”

“Not today,” the interview assistant said, turning on his heel and marching away. “And certainly not by me. Come. And this time, stay close.”

I followed hot on his heels and risked a glance back over my shoulder in the direction of the party.

It was my first failure at the palace, and I was sure there would be many more.

“Learn from your failures and ensure you never make them again,” my father always said. “It’s the fastest way to learn.”

If that was the case, I was going to be the fastest learner of the Ulsen culture in history.

I only hoped I didn’t lose the chance to work here before that happened.

I heard a commotion in the ballroom as I passed another arched doorway heaving with stinky bodies.

“Excuse me,” a deep male voice said, invisible behind the writhing mass of bodies. “I have to, uh, do something.”

“Prince Rivvac,” an older voice said. “Have you met my daughters? They just came of age and are very keen to meet you—”

“Ah. They’re beautiful,” that same deep voice said. “I have something important I need to do—”

At least I wasn’t the only one who wanted to escape the party, I thought.

I focused on the interview assistant’s back as he led me to the waiting room.

* * *

As I wasthe last person who had turned up in the waiting room, I was also going to be the last one to be interviewed.

Every fifteen minutes, the interview assistant came in, called another interviewee’s name and led them out of the room.

I sniffed at my clothes and grimaced.

The stink of the partygoers’ perfume and body odor had penetrated my clothes and I wasn’t sure if I would ever be able to get it out.

Not that it mattered.

Peeking around at the other applicants in the room, I realized my hopes were already dashed before I even started.

I recognized many of the other applicants’ faces.

They were famous and already successful in their own right.

Some were even high-powered lawyers, and I couldn’t believe they would be interested in an assistant position until I realized that the palace would attract the biggest, most successful people (as well as the most ambitious) in the entire empire.

My shoulders shrank further, and I caught another whiff of the pungent perfume from the ballroom.

I considered getting up and leaving right then.

After all, what was the point? I had no chance against these guys.

The interview assistant came into the room again, called another impossible to pronounce alien name and led them out.

But it wasn’t in my nature to give up, not when there was still a ray of hope to be had.

The next time I looked up, I realized I was alone.

The last to be called…

The last on the list…

I sighed and caught that sickening whiff on my clothes again.

I took my jacket off and set it to one side, kicking up a clod of stink and making my stomach roil.

Oh God. Please, no…

I sat bolt upright and leaned forward so I couldn’t spew over myself…

I waited for my stomach to settle and felt relaxed that I wasn’t going to throw up after all. I leaned back and—

An explosion erupted in my stomach as I felt the puke coming up.

Oh God…

I hurried out of the room and, unsure which direction the bathroom was in, I opened each door, one after another.

The first room I came to was a bedroom. The Ulsen couple inside were buried within each other’s arms. They turned toward me as I stared, wide eyed.

The female’s eyes were as wide as mine while the male’s eyebrows lowered… and winked at me.

He shifted his weight to wave a hand for me to join them.

I hastily shut the door, feeling even more sick to my stomach.

On the plus side, the shock of the sight had settled my stomach…

Grrrummmm…

Or so I thought.

“Oh, give me a break!” I said desperately as I sped toward another door.

I hurled it open and found another Ulsen couple. The male pressed against the female, a hand wrapped tightly around her throat, holding her off the floor. They didn’t even notice me this time and I considered hurrying to the bathroom on the other side of the room. In their current state, I doubted they would even notice me hustling across the room. Then I thought better of it.

The last thing I wanted was to piss these giant creatures off, or worse yet find myself trapped between two of them…

I stifled the thrill of excitement—and yes, I was shocked to find it really was excitement and not terror—that trailed up my spine and hastily turned to the third door.

I was relieved to see it wasn’t a bedroom, but it wasn’t a bathroom either. It was festooned with items for cleaning. I decided to let myself hurl and aimed directly for the empty bucket.

I fell to my knees. My body performed three more unconscious crunches before my stomach was empty.

I smiled, sighing with relief.

Throwing up over myself would have been the perfect end to a disaster of a day.

“Do you mind?”

Oh my God…

My neck turned slowly to peer up at the two blue-skinned figures that I had mistaken for fancy coats buried in a deep embrace among the other items of clothing.

The female was wearing one of the uniforms—at least, she had attempted to wear one as the skirt barely reached the top of her thighs. It was split down either side, her larger-than-human size barely able to squeeze into the tiny size. The male’s enormous cock pressed firmly into her pussy, perfectly visible from my position on the floor.

“Um. Sorry.”

I scrambled backward and slammed the door shut.

I just stared at it, shocked at what I had witnessed…

Even the most sedate office parties could boast at least one rucking couple, but to have opened three doors and found each hosting a mating couple?

What had I stumbled into?

A Ulsen orgy party?

Grunts emitted from behind the cleaning closet door, my interruption having apparently had zero impact on their rutting activities.

I got to my feet and unnecessarily clapped off my hands as the floors were spotless.

Was this what the elite lifestyle was like these days?

Sex everywhere?

I thought back to the nasty older Ulsen with his stinky breath and shuddered at what he had wanted with me…

If the prizes behind the mystery doors were any indication, it wasn’t something I much wanted to be part of.

I checked a few more doors before I finally found a bathroom and—even more miraculously—discovered it was not inhabited by a pair of rutting Ulsen.

The water was cool. I washed out my mouth, gurgled, and washed my hands. I pulled paper towels from the dispenser to dry my hands. I wiped my face as best I could without completely ruining my makeup. I touched it up and looked at myself in the mirror.

“You’re here,” I told my reflection. “It’s batshit crazy. It’s insane. But you can do this. You can do anything. I believe in you.” My father’s words coming from my lips.

I left the bathroom, feeling a little better about myself, and returned to the waiting room.

* * *

I’d expectedto see the interview assistant waiting impatiently for me, but he wasn’t there.

I checked down the hall.

Had he come already? I wondered. Would he think I had gotten cold feet and up and gone?

I returned to my seat and pressed a hand to my stinky jacket.

No, I thought. He would have seen I’d left my jacket behind and known I was still present.

So I sat and I waited.

An hour passed before I finally threw up my hands and gave up.

After the worst day I’d had in a long while—and it said a lot about my life that I it wasn’t even the worst day I’d ever had.

And that was saying something.

I put my jacket back on and peered up and down the hallways.

Sure, I might not have made the best impression but surely they would at least give me an interview?

Or had they just forgotten about me?

I’d come a long way for this interview and for them to completely ignore me…

It made me fume.

Fuck this!

I recalled the direction the interview assistant had taken the other interviewees and turned in the opposite direction.

I wouldn’t give them the satisfaction of knowing I’d waited all this time.

To hell with them if they couldn’t recognize a quality candidate when they saw one.

Their loss.

I paused when I heard a door close somewhere behind me.

A female Ulsen gently shut a door, turned, and left.

Probably just another rucking couple, I thought… then thought better of it.

That female didn’t look like she’d just enjoyed a quick one. She looked too put together, with not a single hair out of place. With the way these Ulsens fucked, I didn’t think she would come out looking so organized.

She must be part of the interview team, I thought, and ground my teeth so hard my teeth hurt.

Instead of turning a one-eighty and heading for the exit, I performed a complete three-sixty and marched toward the room she’d just come out of.

I’d waited an hour and I was going to let these people know they were assholes!

It might prevent me from working in the palace ever again but there was only one thing worse than being ignored and that was being forgettable. That was one of my father’s biggest lessons over the years:

“Always make an impression. Even if it’s negative, be memorable. The worst thing in life is to pass through it without having an effect on anyone, to be a ghost.”

Steeling myself with my father’s words, I marched toward the door. I pushed aside all the concerns that kept trying to bubble up and cloud my judgment.

Now wasn’t the time to back down.

I knocked on the door and growled under my breath that I should be so timid.

When no one said “Come” I decided to burst in. I refused to be ignored again!

I shoved the heavy door open with my shoulder and peered in to see there was a male Ulsen inside, sitting perched on the corner of a large bed.

I hesitated only a moment. Maybe I had been wrong and they really had just finished rucking. Then saw that the bed was perfectly made without a single wrinkle on it, save for the creases caused by the male sitting with his head in his hands.

I guess the interviewees had all been a disappointment, so I marched inside.

I berated him and forced him to give me the interview I was promised. To my surprise, he did so, and we took chairs on opposite sides of his desk.

I was no expert when it came to Ulsen appearances but I didn’t mind admitting he had pleasing features.

He was tall without being overbearing, obviously muscular without making the mistake of swelling his muscles to the point of self-obsession. His gleaming black horns added an extra foot, maybe a foot and a half, to his height. They were straight with a slight kink in the middle, pointing powerfully up at the ceiling.

His eyes were the intense golden orbs of the Ulsen, with purple flecks in his irises that always made me think of black magic or the explosive shine from a starburst.

He crossed his legs, one foot over his knee, and leaned forward, peering at my Resume. He tapped a pen against the palm of his hand, his knee bouncing with nervous energy.

“I see everything is in order,” he said. “The job’s yours.”

I blinked. “Huh? That’s it? No questions?”

“What questions should I ask?”

I was dumbfounded. “I don’t know. How about something about my experience?”

“Okay… Well, do you think you have enough experience for this position?”

“Sure.”

“Great.”

He stared at me and I stared at him.

I was gobsmacked. “That’s it? Seriously? What about the other interviewees?”

Unless I knew better, I would have said he had never hired anyone before… but how was that possible when he was the interviewer?

He shrugged and itched his chin with the pen. “Pretty much. They didn’t have the experience we needed.”

“Okay. Then when do I start?”

“Right now.”

“Now?”

He frowned. “You have somewhere better to be?”

I shook my head. “I can’t believe… Seriously?” Off his nod, I couldn’t help but speak my thoughts out loud: “If I knew it was this easy to get a job at the palace, I would have applied years ago!”

In just a few short years, I would earn the money I needed to fully pay off the family farm. It was happening… It was really happening!

The interviewer leaned back in his chair and tucked his folded leg further up his knee. “Yes, well, we do have to discuss… your duties.”

“Of course,” I said, relieved to finally be discussing something that had to do with my new position. “I’ll be assisting the Royal Family in a general capacity—”

“General capacity? No. You’ll be serving one of the princes.”

“Oh. I thought it was more of a general role?”

“It is. I mean, it was. But that position has been taken by someone else. This is a… new position. Newly opened.”

“Oh. Then what will my duties be?”

The interviewer cleared his throat. “Oh. The usual. Fetching the prince his meals, taking charge of his schedule, making calls, pretty much… anything he asks.”

I smiled. “That’s the role. So when will I get to meet him?”

“Soon. Very soon. In fact—”

There was the barest of knocks on the door before they burst open, spilling a trio of giggling Sirens into the room.

“Oh,” they said, looking between the interviewer and me, a sneer curling their lips at seeing me sitting opposite him.

The interviewer immediately leaped to his feet and, if I didn’t know any better, I would have said he had been on the verge of sprinting across the room and hurling himself out the window.

Instead, he caught himself and, hands curled in front of himself in an awkward pose, just peered back at them.

“We were told you were alone,” the Siren with purple lipstick said.

She glared at me as if I was the one at fault.

I raised my chin and glared back. “Well, he’s not. And if you’ve come for an interview, I suggest you wait your turn.”

The Sirens cocked their heads as one and flicked questioning expressions at the interviewer.

“Interview?” Purple Lipstick said.

“Uh, yes. I’m taking a more… professional approach.”

The Sirens scowled. “As you wish, Your Highness.”

And with that, they backed out of the rooming, shutting the doors behind themselves, their glaring red eyes the last thing I saw, promising violent retribution. (And why they dyed their eye color I would never know as their natural honey irises were a thousand times better than the artificial red.)

But that wasn’t what caused me the biggest surprise. I hopped from my chair. “Your Highness? You’re Royalty?”

The “interviewer” spread his hands—a tiny movement as he barely moved his hands.

Taken by surprise and unsure how to react, I performed a half-curtsy, half bow.

“Don’t do that,” he said. “You don’t need to bow to me.”

“But that’s what staff do with Royalty, isn’t it?”

“Yes. But I’m hoping you could be a little… more than a member of the staff with me.”

For some reason, I felt a shiver rush through me. “What does ‘a little more’ mean?”

He glanced toward the closed doors and back to me again. “I need you to keep the Sirens away.”

“So tell your guards. That’s what they’re there for, isn’t it?”

“Yes… and no. And the Sirens will find a way through. They always do in the end.”

“So how would I keep them away?”

Rivvac licked his lips, looked away, and then returned his attention to me again.

He pulled his hands away, revealing the massive bulge in the front of his pants that he’d been hiding up until now. Boy, did I feel a fool for not noticing it sooner. It was like going to Paris and not seeing the Eiffel Tower (if it hadn’t been destroyed during the war).

“I want you to be my Steyatt mate,” he said.