“Damn aliens!” she muttered.

  She slapped it then felt another dizzy spell sweep over her. Without Akkadi to anchor her, she was close to being sick again after all she’d been through so far this day.

  Chapter Four

  Akkadi strode through the halls to the uppermost deck of the space station, where his mother was in residence. He couldn’t help feeling surprised – and furious – at the human in his quarters. Other dwellers of the ship moved out of his path quickly and bowed as he passed. It was the same respect the human should have but didn’t.

  He reached his mother’s quarters and entered the antechamber, where two guards ten feet tall stood.

  They bowed their heads, and he waited for their transmission to reach his mother and return. One stepped aside, granting him access to her quarters. Akkadi entered. The quarters were much like his, with windows facing space and wide-open spaces filled with white furniture. The only exception was the colorful display of glassware in pink, green, blue, and amber that lined one wall of her quarters. The display of such wealth was extravagant. One plate would replace five times what he’d paid to buy the human back from the slave traders. His mother had hundreds on display. She’d told him once they were part of her dowry, a reminder of the world she left behind to marry his father.

  “Hello, son,” his mother said, emerging from her private chamber. Standing a full head and shoulders shorter than he was, her features were ageless, her deep blue eyes lined with smile lines and her ebony hair streaked with silver that matched her clothing.

  He bowed, as was customary to someone higher ranking, even knowing she disliked it when he did.

  “It’s not customary to see one’s son so often, I don’t think,” she teased. “What brings you to me this day?”

  “I am deeply sorry for disturbing you, my queen,” he said with formality.

  “You know I always love to see you. I would like to see you more often.”

  “My duties and our custom –”

  “I know, Akkadi. I can tease my son can’t I?” she asked with some impatience. “I’ll have to assume you’re not here for a social visit.”

  “I am not,” he confirmed.

  She gazed at him, waiting. He returned her look, always a little wary of the woman born to a time and place so far from his own. After his discussions with the human, he felt less comfortable around his mother than usual. His mother came from a similar time as Mandy, brought to the future when Akkadi’s father opened the star gate. It was tradition for each son and daughter of a Naki ruler to open the wormhole upon his or her twenty-fifth birthday. The fifth in his family to do so, Akkadi was the only to be rewarded with a craft of purebred humans from the past.

  Though right now, he didn’t think of dealing with the human in his quarters was particularly rewarding.

  “A craft came through the star gate,” he started. “I opened it, per your request, despite my objections to wasting so much energy.”

  “Tell me something new, son,” his mother said with interest. “You’re the youngest. Our last hope at finding what we need to preserve our bloodline. Did the craft survive intact?”

  “It did. It carried several hundred, but I was not able to save many.”

  “All your power couldn’t save more?”

  “No, mother,” he said with some amusement. “The power you think I possess doesn’t exist.”

  “Akkadi,” she chided.

  “It is my turn to tease, is it not?”

  “I want to know what happened!”

  Akkadi smiled. He had always been curious about his mother’s emotional outbursts. Trained to use his left brain rather than his right, he long since learned to control his human side and buried it under a sense of duty and discipline that left him regarded as one of the strongest Naki princes ever born. Yet he took pleasure out of teasing his mother every once in awhile.

  “The creatures on the planet learned the secret to needing a purebred human. They wiped out most of them in their attempts to mimic our results,” he said.

  “Unfortunate,” his mother said, her voice tight. She sighed. “What your people to do mine is nothing short of ghastly.” She sat down and clasped her hands in her lap.

  While he liked her fire, he didn’t like to see her sad. Akkadi sat across from his mother. Her gaze grew distant, and he guessed she was recalling the world she left behind thirty-five years ago, when she was brought here by the wormhole his father opened.

  “How many did you save?” she asked.

  “Five. Two females and three males.”

  “Only five,” she murmured. “A plane carries so many more. Oh, Akkadi!”

  “It took me too long to find them,” he said quietly. “I notified Urik, but he, too was too late.”

  She took his hand and squeezed it. Akkadi glanced down, reminded of Mandy on the planet. He had squeezed her hand like this after touching the soft, warm skin of her face. Her large eyes conveyed so much emotion, and he had been ensnared by her turmoil, her full lips and the shape of her body. He squeezed her hands instinctively, wanting to comfort her as he did his mother.

  “What of the females?” His mother’s voice pulled him from his thoughts. “Are they healthy?”

  “Both are.”

  “And …?” She gazed at him expectantly.

  “And what, mother?” he returned emotionlessly.

  “Akkadi, you are the most stubborn of any of my children!” she snapped. “You know exactly what I’m talking about.”

  For a long moment, he was quiet. He knew what she asked: if he had chosen to take any of the female survivors as a mate. It was the duty of at least one offspring of a Naki-ruler to mate with a pureblood human to stave off the possibility of their family – and influence – becoming diseased.

  He had no intention of taking a human as mate, even before seeing the woman in his quarters. He had a better offer to consider: a prominent Naki family offered the hand of their daughter to him. In exchange for marrying into the royal family, he would receive the secondary supply of energy he desperately needed. He’d been determined, until meeting Mandy.

  Mandy was breathtaking, tall with soft, blonde curls, a willowy, feminine frame very different from the bodies of Naki women. Her breasts were large and her hips rounded. She smelled of something sweet and light. Edible almost, like some long lost Earth food. Even in his quarters, he’d found himself unable to look away from her.

  It was dangerous to one who relied upon duty and discipline. Mandy was the kind of woman who almost made him want to forsake both to spend more time with her. The sensations he experienced when they were together were powerful, unlike anything he felt before. She would be a distraction, something he had no room for when he was busy battling Ishta for the planet and negotiating treaties to preserve his family’s influence.

  Not only that, but she was oblivious to any sense of custom or propriety for those in his culture. She threatened to walk into space rather than stay. Had he ever heard of anything so irrational? A creature under the influence of emotion rather than logic was not going to survive long.

  She was nothing like his mother, who took on her responsibility and duty without question. His mother’s power among the Naki was eclipsed only by his father, the ruler of the Naki Empire.

  Why then was he considering returning to his quarters, just to see Mandy again?

  “Your people are too different, mother,” he said, his frustration slipping through. “They have no sense of gratitude or respect. They do not behave as you do.”

  “I didn’t behave like this, either, when I first arrived,” she replied. “They’ve lost everything, Akkadi. You must try to be a little more compassionate.”

  “I understand that. What I don’t understand is how you expect me to wage a war with an incompatible mate.”

  His mother’s gaze grew concerned. “Speak to your father, if you will, and ask him what he went through with me. He will tell you it was not easy for either of us. Akkadi, you never avoid your duty. I thought you would’ve mated with any human you found upon meeting her. What is it?”

  This human makes me feel out of control. Akkadi glanced at her, aware his purebred human mother would never fully comprehend how inferior the Nakis viewed emotions.

  “I don’t address father so informally,” he said. “It is not my place.”

  “Very well. Then you must trust me when I say it was difficult for your father and me. The humans don’t understand a world or a people like yours, Akkadi. They are compassionate, independent and hopeful. Your people bleed that out of you by the time you’re five and emplace a sense of duty and lack of concern for anything but accomplishing your goal.”

  “It keeps our people alive, mother,” he reminded her. “It keeps your people alive.”

  “It does. But if you are to choose one of these humans, you will learn much about the side of you that is also human. You are only half-Naki, son.”

  Akkadi took in her words, not liking the reminder. He thought of his father: cold, distant, merciless and of his mother: warm, sweet and happy. He’d rarely seen them together, and he knew nothing of the overlap of their personalities. It struck him now that they must’ve had some common ground. While duty-sworn, his father would never force his mother to give him heirs. Likewise, his mother looked upon his father with devotion and respect, emotions she claimed he had to earn. He wouldn’t have earned them by winning battles and negotiating treaties, which were all Akkadi knew how to do.

  “Hichele,” he said.

  “Is still an option,” his mother said, the frown reappearing. “She comes from a good family. I believe there to be some purebred human blood in her, for the majority of her family is immune to the disease.”

  “She would understand her place. There would be no distraction from my duty,” he reasoned. “You would give me your blessing and arrange the ceremony?”

  “She would be a dutiful wife,” his mother said. “Akkadi, give it some time. We know the humans will sustain our family. We don’t know if children born to Hichele would.”

  “Wise observation, mother,” he said. “I have met one human. I’ll seek out the second. If she proves to be more suitable, I’ll consider her before Hichele.”

  “I believe this to be wise, son. I am sorry the first human is so unsuitable. Is she too old? Diseased? Ugly?”

  “No, mother.”

  She waited. Akkadi said no more, his mind going to the human in his quarters. She was beautiful, and he’d been pleased by her shape and features. Until she began to speak to him, revealing she wasn’t likely to adapt to his world as his mother had. Worse, his fingers still twitched from touching her, as if they wanted to wind her curls between them once more.

  “Go now and make a decision before your father asks,” his mother urged him. “He will want to know why the activity in this sector has paused. If you tell him a craft came through, and you have a mate, he will not be angry.”

  “Yes, mother, your counsel is very sound,” he said. “This time.”

  “This time?” She laughed.

  He allowed a smile to slip free. He didn’t like the thought of leaving his mother in any mood but a positive one. She was easy to tease and quick to smile, traits he found endearing.

  “Very well, boy. Go.”

  Akkadi rose, ignoring the informality of the words directed at a Naki prince. His mother often slipped into old habits in private, saying things he couldn’t imagine she’d ever say in front of his father. He’d gotten used to his mother’s quirks at a young age. He still found them comforting in a way that left him wondering why, when they were so far beyond the ways of his people.

  “If the women are not suitable for you, they may be for your cousins, and the men for your sisters,” she added.

  “Of course, mother, I will protect them as I would you,” he said. “Urik rescued those he could. One ended up in the slave trade, but I bought her. The other four are on the planet.”

  “Give Urik my regards.”

  “That would not be appropriate, mother.”

  “Give them anyway, son.”

  Akkadi bowed and left, the sense of frustration remaining. He’d hoped discussing the issue with his mother would help. While his father was unapproachable with such a thing, his mother often spoke out of emotion. And it was emotion – not logic or duty – that was bothering him right now. He feared for his people’s future. The fifth child of the Naki king, there were four sisters ahead of him who should’ve found a human to mate with and keep the bloodline strong. His father and grandfather had been one of two sons, and they’d found their human mates when they opened the star gate.

  Four princesses had opened the star gate since then, expending incredible resources and energy to do so. Four princesses had come away with nothing. No one expected the fifth child to, either. There’d been no ceremony for Akkadi’s twenty-fifth year, no advisors waiting beside him when he opened the star gate. He’d done it on his own during a lull in the battle with the Ishta, at his mother’s insistence.

  The three human men would find their ways to his sisters’ sides. Even if he didn’t find the human women compatible, his cousins might. His five male cousins had been raised with him and his sisters after the deaths of their parents. They treated his mother as their own, and she loved them like they were hers. It was another of her strange human tendencies; the ability to love so many people unconditionally. She raised ten children while negotiating diplomatic relations for his father. There were days when Akkadi marveled at her ability; it was his admiration for her that kept him from rebuking her more often for her emotional treatment of him in private.

  Even so, he could barely tolerate her fondness for Urik, a man around Akkadi’s age who had been his rival since the son of one of his mother’s sisters – who traveled with her through the star gate – was discovered when Akkadi was ten. This cousin acted more human than anyone Akkadi knew, causing natural conflict between warm human emotion and cold Naki discipline.

  Akkadi walked to his personal bay, where the smallest and nimblest ship in his fleet waited for him. He boarded. As they left the space station, he issued orders for Urik to meet him in one of their secret places, along with the four humans. He couldn’t risk bringing them back to his ship, not before he had more protective medallions made for them. Even his mother wore one of the necklaces that hid the fact she was a purebred human from everyone. Too many Nakis were desperate for a cure to be trusted with the fact there were pure humans among them. Only the royal family’s top advisors knew the truth to preserving the bloodline.

  A short time later, Akkadi entered the underground facility they used for emergency meetings. He pulled his hood up and waited with checked impatience. He’d all but decided to tell his mother to arrange for his ceremony with Hichele, even if the human woman here was more tolerable than the one in his quarters.

  Hichele was a Naki from a sound family who would know her place and produce his heir, leaving him to fight the Ishta over the human world. He would leave ruling and preserving the family’s bloodline to his sisters, trading both for what he did best: extending the influence of his family.

  At long last, Urik appeared, sweating and battered. His black uniform was torn in a few places.

  “I lost one,” the warrior said before Akkadi could ask.

  “You have the remaining four?”

  “I do. We separated them after the first went missing and hid them around Aratta. I brought two with me.”

  “You’re not normally so ineffective,” Akkadi said. “How did you lose one?”

  “Believe it or not, there’s a war going on down here, too,” Urik snapped. “I’m fighting off your people, the Ishta and half the humans here, who have gone completely rabid from disease.”

  “I’ve given you ample –”

  “I know. I do nothing for you, Akkadi. What I do is for your mother.”

  Akkadi’s jaw clenched. The idea of the half-human warrior before him even mentioning his mother made him want to eliminate him from the planet.

  “I understand,” he forced himself to say. “My mother does not provide you with the shards and weapons your rebellion needs to survive down here.”

  “Understood. You want to see your humans or not?”

  “Bring them in.”

  Urik left the room then returned shortly with two humans in black clothing. Akkadi took them in with a critical gaze. They looked unsettled but healthy enough. The male human was young enough for any of Akkadi’s sisters, tall and muscular, his skin a fascinating shade of caramel. The woman was much older than the human in his quarters, closer to his mother’s age. She might do for his eldest cousin, who was ten years older than he. Disappointed not to find another, better-behaved Mandy, he waved them away. Urik led them out and returned a moment later.

  “Keep them safe,” Akkadi said. “I’ll send for them when I have medallions made.”

  “How long will that be?” Urik asked.

  “As long as it takes.”

  Urik mumbled a curse. Akkadi sensed his cousin’s stress and realized he was the one being emotionally unreasonable. No matter what Akkadi felt for Urik, his cousin was protecting people important to Akkadi’s family out of love for Akkadi’s mother and respect for his Naki-cousins. Urik performed his duty for purely emotional reasons, but he still did it.

  “I’ll have one in about two days,” Akkadi added in a quieter tone. “We are experiencing a shard shortage I am working hard to remedy. My mother is grateful for your help.”

  Urik’s features softened. He nodded briskly.

  “About the fifth. I think we can find her,” Urik said.

  “I found her. Again,” Akkadi replied. “She’s safe on the station. I had one medallion ready.”

  Urik studied him. “Akkadi, if you don’t want her, I do.”

  “Your kind –”

 

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28