“So you are going to have to approach when she is alone and convince her to view the recording before her guards attack. And no!” Lisa gave him a sharp look. “You can’t just kill them. You are trying to build a relationship between the Tornian Empire and Earth. Your first act there can’t be killing people.”
Ull growled his displeasure at that.
“You also can’t force the educator on her,” Lisa told him in a hard voice and could see that had been his plan. “I won’t subject Trisha to what the rest of us have had to go through. Trisha will either do this or not.”
“And if it’s not?” Ull growled.
“Then we’ll have to find another way. I know I can get you enough time for Trisha to at least consider using the educator, but you and your actions will be the deciding factor.” Lisa turned concerned eyes to Grim who sat beside her on the couch. “Are you and Wray sure Warrior Ull is the best male for this? Maybe I...”
Ull’s roar of outrage drowned out the rest of what she was going to say as Ull surged out of his chair. Grim was instantly on his feet and in front of his Lisa, his sword drawn and pointing at Ull. General Rayner did the same, standing protectively in front of his Jennifer, but ready to assist the King if needed.
“You will not threaten my Queen, Warrior Ull. First male or not, I will end you if you take so much as a step toward her.”
“She dares to question my worthiness in this!”
“When you act like this, then yes, I do.” Lisa rose, and while she moved to where she could see Ull, she remained behind Grim. “This is too important, and not just for the Tornians, but also the Kaliszians and the people of Earth. Females are not possessions on Earth, Warrior Ull. They aren’t going to just obey you because you are male. We are independent creatures. We make our own decisions, choose how we want to live our lives, and speak our minds. You’ve shown time and time again that you have trouble accepting that. Something I find difficult to believe with a mother like Isis.”
“My mother...”
“Is a remarkable female." Lisa cut him off. "She stood up for what she believed in, for what she wanted, and for who she loved. That you can’t appreciate that is what makes me question that you are the right male for this task. Trisha has had to survive and deal with a great deal. She’s strong and independent. She isn’t going to put up with your bullshit attitude toward females. She’s dealt with enough assholes in her life.”
“Assholes?” Ull questioned.
“Unworthy and unfit males,” Lisa clarified for him. “Ones that only want to use her for their own gains.”
“I am not an asshole,” Ull grumbled as he sat back down.
“Maybe not to other males, but to Earth females... Jennifer?” Lisa looked to Rayner’s True Mate.
“Total asshole,” Jennifer agreed.
“Look, Ull,” Lisa’s voice softened as she moved to sit back down, and slowly Grim followed. “I know what happened at the Joining Ceremony still bothers you. That you see not being selected as a reflection of your worth, but it wasn’t. It had absolutely nothing to do with you. You could have been the worthiest male the Known Universes have ever seen, and still, you wouldn’t have been chosen.”
“Ynyr was,” the words slipped passed his lips before he could stop them.
“Truth,” Lisa gave him a sympathetic look.
∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞
“Maybe I should be the one going to Earth,” Lisa whispered later that night as she lay in Grim’s arms, a hand absently caressing his chest as she gazed out the windows at the star-filled sky.
“No.”
“But, Grim...”
“You are with offspring, Lisa.”
“Truth, but that doesn’t mean...”
“I would not let you go without me.”
“I wouldn’t want to.”
“What of the girls? The other females? Do we leave them behind? Who will help and protect them if we do?”
Lisa’s heart clenched at the thought of being so far away from her babies if they happened to need her. She knew someday that time would come, but that wasn’t today. Then there were the other Earth females. The invited males had begun arriving, and she needed to be here to help supervise the meetings and calm fears. Releasing a deep sigh, she looked up at him. “You’re right. My place, our place is here on Luda, but Ull is still so angry, and I don’t understand why.”
“He is the first male of a Lord, my Lisa. He was brought up to believe he would be the first, and most likely only male, in his bloodline to obtain a female.”
“But why? He has three younger brothers.”
“Which is unheard of. You know this, my Lisa. A female might stay with the same male long enough to give him two males, but four? It cast a stigma on House Rigel. No Kaliszian female would consider joining with anyone other than the future Lord.”
“And then Abby chose Ynyr, a third male.”
“Yes.”
“But if he wants a female so badly, why didn’t he put in his application to meet any of the women?”
“Pride. His younger brother is now the most powerful Lord in the Empire. He has a female, and she is already with offspring.”
“Well, he’d better get over it before he gets to Earth.”
“He is a Warrior. He will put his feelings aside and do what is required of him.”
“He’d better,” Lisa said, then forgetting Ull, stretched up so her bare breasts barely brushed his chest as she teased. “Now there is something I require of the Warrior beneath me.”
“What does my Queen require of me?” Grim asked, his shaft hardening as she shifted over him, her already slick channel brushing it.
“For you to love me, my King.”
“I do,” Grim growled as he slowly entered her and began to thrust. “I always will. For you are my Queen. My Lisa. My everything.”
With every declaration, Grim thrust harder, deeper, and the passion that never took much to rekindle between them ignited into a solar storm.
“Goddess yes, Grim!” Lisa cried out as she pressed her hands against his chest and arching her back, began to ride him. “You are mine. My King. My Grim. My everything.”
“Then give me everything that is mine, my Lisa,” he ordered, knowing neither of them was going to last long. Not with the way she was already tightening around him. Capturing one of the lush breasts she was so readily offering, he sucked it deep into his mouth the way he knew always pushed her over the edge, especially now that she carried his offspring.
“Grim!” she screamed as her release hit.
“Lisa!” Grim roared as he followed, and together they experienced heaven.
Chapter Six
“Jen, I would like you to meet Rebecca Mines.” Lisa introduced the two females the next morning in the sun room, after she had her guards exit, closing the door behind them. “Dr. Rebecca Mines, OB/GYN. Rebecca, this is Jennifer Rayner, General Rayner’s True Mate, and Kim’s sister.”
“Sister?” Rebecca’s eyes widened. “The one Kim was looking for when the Ganglians captured her?”
“Yes,” Jen answered. “They’d taken me, and the group I was with, six months earlier.”
“Wow. What are the chances of that?”
‘Probably better than you think,’ Jen thought but said nothing.
“Come, let’s sit,” Lisa gestured to the conversation area that sat in front of the wall of windows that let sunshine stream into the room.
“Wow, that’s really beautiful,” Jen said moving to get a closer look at the suncatcher that hung in the window. It was a myriad of colors that made you think it was just haphazardly put together, but on closer inspection, she could see the pattern repeated, like in a kaleidoscope. The shards of color it gave off in the morning light were amazing.
“Isn’t it?” Lisa agreed smiling. “Dagan made it for me for the Festival of the Goddess.”
“Dagan?”
“He’s our clothiers, Padma’s and Gossamer’s, second male. He’s very sp
ecial.”
“I’d say.” Finally taking a chair, Jen waited, and Lisa turned her gaze to Rebecca.
“Rebecca, the reason I wanted you to meet us here is that there is something I need to talk to you about. And it can’t go any further than this room.”
"Alright..." Rebecca's gaze traveled from Lisa to Jen and back again.
"More women have been taken from Earth,” Lisa told her bluntly.
"What?!!" She shot up stiffly in her chair. "Wray sent..."
"No!" Lisa cut her off. "Wray vowed to Kim that he wouldn't, and he hasn't."
"Then who?" Rebecca shot accusing eyes to Jen. "The Kaliszians?"
"Wrong again," Jen told her, her gaze hard. "The Kaliszians saved them. It was the Ganglians."
"The Ganglians..." Rebecca's words trailed off. "Oh, my God. How many survived?"
"All of them," Jen informed her. "The Ganglians didn't take them to rape. They kidnapped them so they could sell them to Tornian warriors on Vesta."
"What? No!" Rebecca denied, looking physically ill. "Callen would never..."
"Of course he wouldn't," Lisa quickly reassured her. "This was done by Reeve."
"Callen discovered this?" Rebecca asked, the color slowly returning to her face.
"No, the Kaliszians did when they intercepted a Ganglian ship in their Empire.”
"I don't understand."
“Look, the Kaliszians have been intercepting Ganglian and Zaludian ships ever since Wray was shot down over Pontus,” Jen told her. “They’ve been trying to figure out why the two are working together and they think they might have figured it out.”
“And that is?”
“To disrupt the balance of power by supplying Tornian males with compatible females, and the Kaliszian people with food. If they do this, then they will become the two most powerful species in the Known Universes.”
“But there’s no way they can do that,” Rebecca argued. “Neither species has a home world.”
“They could because they know where Earth is, and they are the only ones, as Wray has kept its location a secret.”
“But you said the Kaliszians have been intercepting their ships.”
“And every time we do, they’ve been able to delete their navigational data. It’s one of the reasons Treyvon and I wanted to speak to Wray. We want to return the women to Earth, but can’t because we don’t know where it is.”
“And if it becomes known that there are compatible Earth females in the Kaliszian Empire…” Lisa trailed off.
“It could mean war,” Rebecca whispered.
“Yes. Some of the Warriors are getting desperate, Rebecca. If they attack…”
“Treyvon and Liron would defend them. They would have no choice, not after what Aadi did.”
“Alright. So what’s the plan and why are you telling me this? I’m just a doctor.”
“The plan is for Ull to go to Earth and make contact, explain what is happening, and try to negotiate a treaty that will not only protect Earth but help the Tornians and Kaliszians.”
“The Tornians kidnapping us isn’t going to help with that.”
“We know, which is why Ull is following Jen and General Rayner to Pontus first, to pick up the women they rescued and return them to Earth.”
“Along with the surviving men from the group I was taken with,” Jen added.
“But not us.”
“No, Rebecca, I’m sorry. I tried to get Wray to let you be returned too, but...”
“He refused.”
“My new brother-in-law can be a real asshole,” Jen muttered, “but in this, I have to agree with him.”
“Of course you would!” Rebecca accused. “You’ve had it pretty cushy, haven’t you? True Mate to a General. Sister to the Empress.”
“Rebecca,” Lisa tried to cut her off.
“Cushy?!!” Jen growled. “I’ve had it cushy? What do you know about it? Were you captured by the Ganglians? Were you forced to witness them raping females? Were you sold as a slave? Made to work in a mine? To live in a cave! Were you starved, Rebecca? Was your husband beaten to death right before your eyes? Did you cry every night and wish you could just die?”
“I...” Rebecca was cut off by the doors of the sunroom being slammed open, and a male she had never seen storming through them, despite the guards trying to stop him. He was instantly in front of Jennifer, pulling her up and into his arms.
“What is wrong, my Jennifer? Who has upset you?”
Grim stormed in bare seconds after Treyvon, his sword pulled. “Lisa?”
“It’s all right, Grim. Things just got a little... heated.”
“It’s my fault.” Rebecca slowly stood, her eyes full of regret and just a little fear of the large, Kaliszian General. His hard, glowing gaze pinned her even while he still gently held Jen. “I didn’t understand her situation. I just assumed she’d been safe in the Kaliszian Empire all this time.”
“While it is truth she has been in our Empire since her abduction, she has been far from safe,” Treyvon growled.
“I gathered that. I’m sorry, Jen. Truly,” she said when Jen looked at her over a massive bicep. “I usually don’t just jump to conclusions like that, but lately...”
“Your life’s been in turmoil.”
“Yes.”
“It’s okay, Treyvon,” she reached up to gently caress his cheek. “You can put me down. I overreacted too, and I have a feeling that’s going to be happening a lot more for a while.”
“What do you mean?” Treyvon asked, slowly putting her back on her feet. And while he released her, one hand stayed on the small of her back.
“I’ll get to that, but first.” She turned to face Rebecca. “I’m sorry too, Rebecca. I should have explained myself better when I said I agreed with Wray. I didn’t mean that you should have to stay here, have to Join with a Tornian. What I meant was, for right now, we need to proceed as if nothing has changed. If the Ganglians or Zaludians find out what we were trying to do…”
“Lisa! You told her?” Grim frowned down at his Queen.
“She has the right to know if she’s going to help,” Lisa told him, not intimidated in the least at his fierce frown.
“Out!” Grim turned to face the guards. “Close the doors. No one enters.”
“Yes, sire!”
“They were supposed to be doing that before,” Lisa’s lips twitched looking at Treyvon.
“No one keeps a Kaliszian away from his True Mate,” Treyvon told her. “Especially when he knows she is in distress.”
“How did you know?” Rebecca asked looking confused. “Were you walking right by? We weren’t that loud were we?”
“It’s a True Mate thing,” Jen told her, not willing to go any further than that. “So are we okay? With what I said I mean? I would understand why you wouldn’t be, what with not being allowed to go back too.”
“Yes,” Rebecca said nodding.
“Thank you, because the reason we’re telling you this is that we need to ask for your help.”
“My help?”
“Yes, as a doctor. You see there was another female with us when we were taken. Mackenzie, Mac.”
“And she’s not returning to Earth with the other females?”
“No, she’s the True Mate to Treyvon’s Second-in-Command, Nikhil... and she’s pregnant.”
“I see.”
“It was the other reason Treyvon and I wanted to meet with Wray and get him to tell us Earth’s location. We were going to go there to find my sister and bring back the information Luol, our Healer, would need to make sure Mac had a safe pregnancy. We didn't know that the new Empress was my little sister. Or that you were here.”
"It must have been a shocking reunion."
"It was, especially meeting little Destiny.” A smile filtered across her lips as she thought of Destiny. “Thank you by the way.” Her gaze included Lisa. “Kimmy told me she couldn't have done it without the two of you.”
"Kim and Rebecca did all the h
ard work. I was just there for support,” Lisa said, downplaying her part.
"You were there for more than that. Kimmy told me how you, Rebecca, took a knife in the back to protect Destiny and that you, Lisa, distracted that psycho Risa long enough for Kim to get her out of the room."
Neither woman said anything.
"Which is why I'm hoping you’ll come to Pontus with us and help Mac.”
“Is this Nikhil as big as him?” Rebecca motioned to Treyvon.
“Bigger.”
“Bigger?” Lisa and Rebecca said in disbelief.
“Commander Nikhil is one of the largest and most powerful Kaliszians in our Empire,” Treyvon told them quietly. “He is also deeply concerned that because of this, the offspring the Goddess has blessed them with might harm his True Mate. If you were able to assist our Healer in making sure that doesn't happen, the Kaliszian Empire would be in your debt.”
“As will I,” Treyvon said giving Jennifer a hard look. “For I believe my True Mate is with offspring but has yet to tell me.”
“I wanted Rebecca to check me first to be sure. You saw how Nikhil lost control when he just thought Mac might be.”
“One of your Elite Warriors lost control?” Grim questioned moving slightly closer to Lisa.
“But for a moment. Earth females are smaller than ours. Are you saying you haven’t feared for your Queen?” Treyvon looked at the difference in size between Grim and Lisa.
“I have,” Grim acknowledged quietly, and the two males shared an understanding look. “Which is why if you choose to go with them, Rebecca, I must demand you be here for the presentation of our daughter.” He put a protective arm around Lisa, pulling her close.
“Of course I would be,” Rebecca quickly reassured Grim. “But Hadar now has enough knowledge to care for Lisa if I’m gone for a while. He did just fine when I went to check Abby.”
“This is truth, Grim,” Lisa looked up at him reassuringly. “And I can make sure Rebecca does a thorough scan before she leaves if that helps.”
“She will,” Grim growled.
“I will,” Rebecca agreed.
∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞