128. Chapter Six
Chapter Six
V aleris
My parents have been gone less than an annum , but since the day of the crash, my world turned upside down. The threat of this forced mating set my fangs on edge. It was an added stress I didn’t need with all the pressure of becoming monarch of an entire planet before I was properly groomed for it.
Mathene is a trusted advisor, like an uncle to me because he was like a brother to my father. He’s been invaluable in bringing me up to speed on the political machinations of my cabinet. But he was wrong about Avania.
It was a terrible recommendation to simply impregnate her and send her to live in the east wing. As the first defiant act of my rule, taking her on this cruise was a good decision.
I don’t want a succession of courtesans to warm my bed. My parents had a true, loving mating. That’s what I want. I refuse to be contemptuous of this female. I’ll do everything I can to make our mating work. I have nothing to lose. If it fails, I can still follow Mathene’s advice and banish her to the east wing. I hope I don’t have to.
She’s so country. It’s an epithet tossed around at court to indicate someone lacking refinement and missing the capacity for quick repartee, which is a necessity at court.
When I think of Avania, though, that she’s country is something to recommend her. She’s so fresh, so open, so sweet. I like her na?ve country ways. The little female is growing on me. That she’s still wearing the knife I gave her around her waist? It’s endearing.
We’re still sitting in the bow of the Sun, looking at the scenery and holding hands when she isn’t drowsing. There are only a few staff onboard, and I plan to kick them off at night. Let them sleep on the four guard boats surrounding us on this trip up the river. I want to be alone with my new mate.
“Here we are, Queen,” I say gently to wake her.
She startles awake, then looks at me with surprise. By the expression on her face, it seems she forgot her circumstances and needed a moment to remember she’s mated now. To a king.
“That word jangles my nerves,” she says shyly as she swings her legs from the lounge to sit up. “I’m afraid it doesn’t feel real.”
“How about my lady? Would that be better?”
“Avania won’t do?” she whispers.
“How about Avania in private and my Queen in public?”
In answer, she smiles and squeezes my hand. It’s only now she looks off the bow and notices where we are.
“This looks like Rincon, my town.”
“That’s because it is Rincon.”
“You brought me home?”
Is there panic in her voice?
“Are you… returning me?” she asks, as if she were something I purchased from a store and regretted buying.
“No. I’m a doting mate who wanted to apologize for not having your mother present at our mating ceremony. I wanted you to have time to speak with her.” I could have stopped speaking here, but I want to begin this relationship on a foundation of honesty. “And I want to meet your mother. I want her to… like me.”
Her head ricochets to my face as if she can’t believe my words. Is it so odd I want her mother’s approval?
“She’ll love you, Your Majesty.”
“It’s Valeris in private,” I scold gently.
“She’ll love you, Valeris,” she says shyly, unable to say my name and look at me at the same time. Yes, I love her demure country ways.
Avania
I feel as if I’ve been gone for lunars . So much has changed. As we approach from the river, everything looks different from I’ve ever seen it before. It’s even more beautiful.
“There.” I point. “Is the social hall where the community has dances and art shows and festivals. My favorite is the klinket festival where any child under ten can bring in their favorite insect and have it judged.
“When I was six, I almost won for the oddest flying bellinger . It died before they announced my name, though. So I never won the prize.” I sneak a glance at him. Perhaps he has no interest in my small country town.
He’s chuckling, his eyes sparkling with affection as if to commiserate with me that I never won that ribbon for the most unusual bellinger . Since he’s interested, I tell him more.
“There’s my schoolhouse. It houses all grades. There is the Chitdon Park, named after the family who owned these lands centuries ago. Bands play there on summer evenings. And farther upstream is the Zaypien Station…” Maybe I shouldn’t have mentioned that. I still wonder if he resents this forced mating as much as I do. He probably doesn’t want to be reminded of his terrible luck of being bound to a female with such rough edges.
“Where my new mate plucked the crimson pellum ,” he finishes for me, his voice happy as he threads his fingers through mine.
The boat pulls over and we’re met by a black land hover that must have traveled here from the palace with the sole purpose of transporting us from this small dock to my mother’s house.
“Ready?” Valeris asks, his deep brown eyebrow rising with the question.
“Yes.”
Only a few minimas later, we arrive at my house—my mother’s house. It’s only now I realize I should have insisted on calling her when we reached Rincon. She’ll be mortified to have the King drop in on her.
The house is always clean and neat, but to have the King appear at her doorstep? She would have wanted to make sure her mane was brushed and groomed to perfection, as well as get on her hands and knees to dust the baseboards.
I breathe a sigh of relief when I see her on the front porch of our modest home. She’s wearing her prettiest blue dress and pinned above her breast, she’s displaying the broach my father gave her. I’m relieved someone notified her the King was coming to visit.
Even from here, I can see she’s coiled with energy, wanting to jump up and down when she sees me, but holding back in the presence of not only the King, but his entourage of guards.
Almost everyone in the town followed the royal hover here and they are five-deep at the edge of our property.
Our chauffeur opens the door for Valeris, but it’s the King himself who hurries around the hover to open my door. If that weren’t amazing in itself, even more surprising is the way something flutters low in my belly when my mate grips my hand.
He escorts me toward the porch where Mom has already stepped down to greet us. I can’t hold back another moment, and run into her arms, clutching her tight.
Even though the King is standing only a few fiertos away, Mom gives me all her attention as she smooths my mane from my cheek, spears me with her most sincere gaze and whispers, “Are you alright?”
“I… think so. Let me introduce you.” I have every intention of finding time alone with her before we hover back to the Sun .
Mom curtsies during introductions, and Valeris bows. My chest blooms with warmth at the respectful way he treats her.
As we talk in the living room, I can’t hide my amused smile when I see she might have stayed up all night. The baseboards have definitely been dusted. I love my mom.
Did Valeris say he wanted my mom to like him? If her wide smile and animated speech are any indication, she loves him. Especially after his heartfelt apology for not inviting her to the mating ceremony.
“Unforgivable,” he’d called it. “We should have waited for you to attend. Rest assured, you’ll be invited to any future family occasions.”
“Forgiven,” Mom says. “Both of you had a lot on your minds.”
When he rises to leave, I don’t ask. I simply pull Mom into her bedroom, wanting to speak in private.
“Oh, Avania. Is he this charming when you’re alone?” she asks breathlessly, obviously captured by his warmth and courtesy.
“He’s been very… indulgent,” I hedge, thinking about pulling a knife on him last night and that if he had a different temperament, I’d be in jail right now.
“As much as I dreamed of you plucking the crimson pellum flower, I never truly believed it would happen. I mean, it’s been 423 annums . If I’d thought you were to be mated last night, I would have discussed… the marital bed.” Her voice lowered to a whisper on that last word. “Was it… was it okay?”
I grab her hand and reassure her, “We’ve deferred that until I’m ready.”
“Oh,” her voice is filled with relief. “He’s truly a good male. I’d worried that his courteous behavior in the living room might have been a trick to hide his selfish nature from me.”
“He’s not selfish. He—” I cut myself off. I almost said he’s already given me a present, but then she’d want to see it and I don’t know how I’d explain the knife and scabbard. She might turn me over her knee and spank me if she knew I pulled a knife on the presiding monarch of the planet.
Valeris clears his throat in the other room and we both realize the King is waiting on us. It’s only after we cut our discussion short, I realize Mom never gave me the talk about the marital bed. I’m certainly old enough to have investigated things on the Intergalactic Database, but I would have loved to hear my mother’s personal advice.
We take our leave amid Valeris’s heartfelt promise to invite her to the palace. She can’t hide her shiver of excitement. I love to see her so happy.
We’re already back in the hover when I realize I want to grab a few personal items from the house. After running back in and rummaging in my room, I realize I don’t need any of these things. They’ve already been replaced with much finer items at the palace. All except one thing. My bow and arrows.
These items defined my childhood. No. They defined me . I learned to hunt in the woods behind my house. When I have my quiver full of arrows over my shoulder and my bow in my hands, I feel strong and unafraid. I don’t know when I might have occasion to use them, but they’re going to stay with me.
Valeris’s head tips back in surprise when I return to the hover with my possessions in hand. All he says is, “I thought the knife was enough. Perhaps I need a weapon of my own to even the power balance.”
I’m growing to love his sardonic smile. It’s endearing, especially the way anywhere between one and four fangs peek out, depending on his level of happiness. I’m coming to yearn for the rare four-fanged version.
I almost sit on it before I see it. There, sitting on my seat, is a pink pellum flower he obviously plucked from my mom’s front yard.
“I think I’ll have to make sure there’s always a pellum flower around to remind us of how we met,” he rumbles, his blazing gaze boring into mine.
How romantic! This is the stuff of the vids Mom and I like to watch. When I was younger and still looked at the white dress in my mother’s closet with awe and expectation, I used to daydream of a male who would be thoughtful and give me little gifts. I can’t hide my shy smile.
“Happy?” he asks.
I nod and glance at him. If I were a bolder lass, I’d scoot closer and grab his hand. We were holding hands on the Sun most of the morning. It wouldn’t be a shock. But I’m not a bolder lass, so I simply nod again and thank him for the trip to see my mom.
“This seems a good time to claim my second kiss,” he says, his voice rumbling with that deep timbre I only hear when we’re talking about touching.
He doesn’t wait for my agreement. I guess he got that earlier on the ship.
He pats his lap twice, just as he did earlier, and I scoot closer until he lifts me and places me crosswise on his thighs, my hip against his belly. I may not have had the opportunity to speak with Mom about the marital bed, but I’m pretty sure the hard club pulsing against me is his thing .
He takes a deep breath in and out of his nose. It warmly rustles my mane. He waits the longest moment as I’m caged between his muscular arms. When I look into his eyes, he gives me a no-fanged smile.
“Where shall I kiss?” he asks.
I’m not sure whether he’s asking me or talking to himself.
“Hmm.” He looks me up and down like a predator assessing where he wants to dig into his prey.
The waiting is at once both terrifying and delicious. I feel his breath ghost across my cheek, his muscular arms hold me tight, his heartbeat pulses against my shoulder.
If he’d simply gotten the kiss over with, I’d already be back in my seat. But he’s stalling, considering, assessing, and during this time, my fear is dwindling. I’m getting comfortable, perhaps far too comfortable, on his lap.
Finally, he nods his head almost imperceptibly and grips my hand. Just as he did earlier today, his touch is warm and gentle and he pulls it toward his mouth. This time, instead of my palm, he hovers his mouth over the pulsepoint of my wrist.
He’s barely touching me and my heart is pounding in my chest so loudly I’m certain the chauffeur can hear it behind the barrier where he sits. Certainly my new mate can hear it. And in case he’s hard of hearing, he must feel the blood pounding beneath my skin.
His breath is coming out in gusts from his nose onto my forearm. For the first time, I’m aware of his scent. Like our ancestors who descended from predatory forest beasts, he smells like piney woods after a rain.
Because his head is tipped forward and he can’t see my face, I’m not shy about the way I drink in his scent. It not only fills my nostrils, but it does something to my emotions. At first, it soothes me. Then it’s as if a switch flips inside my brain. I don’t feel soft and mellow at all. I feel desire. For him. For my mate on whose lap I’m sitting with his thing pulsing against my hip.
I want to skim my hands over his pelt, comb my fingers through his bronze mane, and for the first time, I wonder what it would be like to kiss his lips.
Those lips, those velvety lips that are dipping lower and touching my wrist. At first, it’s the softest brush of those pillowy lips. Then he increases the pressure, just the slightest increment at a time.
He lets out a little grunt, but doesn’t remove his lips from my skin. Ah, I remember the rules. One kiss for wherever, whenever, and for however long he wants. But his own rules said only one kiss. He can’t lift his head to take another, although I’m hoping he will.
Instead of stealing a second kiss, he opens his lips and slips his tongue to slide against my skin.
I can’t control the little noise that escapes me. It’s somewhere between a yelp and a moan. My lids flutter shut, then I force them to open. I want to watch, although all I can see is Valeris, my King, his head bent over my hand.
But that tongue! It’s lapping softly there. I can feel his burrs lightly abrading my skin. Every warm puff of breath warms the cool liquid spot. My body is clenching in the oddest way. Something at the apex of my thighs is quivering.
I capture my bottom lip with my top teeth to keep from making any more unseemly noises, but I can’t control my urge to tip my head back, close my eyes and allow my new mate’s ministrations to warm every ince of my body.
I think this goes on for hoaras , although I recall it wasn’t a long ride from the Sun to my mom’s house. Finally, he gives my palm one longer, harder lick, then lifts his head to gaze at me.
I’ve never seen his eyes this color before. They seem lit from the inside, as if there’s a fire glowing within him.
He has to see the glazed look in my eyes. That one kiss on my wrist, a place I’ve touched a thousand times when putting on or removing my wrist-comm, turned my whole world upside down.
I come to the thunderous realization that I want more kisses.
By the hungry look on his face, not only does the Ton’arr King know this, but he wants it, too.
Valeris
One of the perks of growing up a prince was the ready availability of willing females. Out in the hinterlands, young females like Avania may be groomed to keep themselves pure to adhere to societal dictates, but in the circles I kept, there were no such expectations.
I am no virgin.
I’ve sheathed myself in many females in my day, but this one kiss… this one kiss has turned me upside down and inside out. My cock is pulsing with need. It’s a good thing I wear a loincloth underneath my loose silken trou because otherwise my state of arousal would be painfully obvious to the most oblivious observer.
How interesting that out of all the females who’ve thrown themselves at me, or who I’ve picked from the crowd at court, this female is the one my body yearns for. This female, who fate chose for me sight unseen.
“We’re at the Sun , my lord,” the chauffeur’s voice announces through the comm.
I set Avania on the seat next to me, my hand reluctant to release her forearm where I’d been holding her during our kiss. Leaning over, I press a kiss to the top of her head, then laugh. “I stole that one.”
She makes a noise, an attempt at a chuckle, but it’s clear she doesn’t find it funny. When I inspect her face—green eyes glassy, cheeks flushed, lips slightly parted as if in a daze—I realize my effect on her is as strong as hers is on me.