Alien Captain's Claimed Bride: A SciFi Alien Romance Page 8

  “Can you not see that human queens are kind and devoted creatures?”

  Meric sat back in his seat, taking no pleasure in having this conversation in front of his own young. “I acknowledge that they appear to be much different than the queens we have known. You know appearances can be quite deceiving. All queens start out nice, but they all turn on us eventually.”

  “If the symbionts are indeed soul-suckers, they lull us into a false sense of security because it makes us all the more emotional when they tear us down. They feed on our distress, so they take care to generate as much of it as possible.”

  “What you say makes a certain kind of sense.”

  “Are you worried she will choose you?”

  “I do not mind sharing my body warmth with her if she demands, but I will never agree to be her breeder. Nor will I risk you or any of my scions to pass by her vision. No good can come of having a queen in our clade.”

  Timric’s still angry voice sounded off again from across the room. “I am sick and tired of being restricted to this section of the ship. Other young warriors are apprenticing and I am not.”

  Meric’s eyes landed on his young scion. He was sitting on the floor with his wings wrapped around his body. “You are being trained to follow in my footsteps as a warrior and a captain. We train on diplomacy and the Intergalactic Council member worlds, and your grandsire trains you on database management. We teach you all that you might learn in a formal school and more. I take care to make sure we have time together in the early mornings and some throughout the day to study and train. You get more and better quality training than any young male on this ship.”

  Timric perked up and finally gave him a small smile. “I like being trained by you both.”

  Meric’s sire chimed in soothingly. “Perhaps you worry too much and are not in Queen Stacy’s sights for breeding. Who does she share her bed with? Unlike Draconian queens, human queens prefer breeding with the males they use for pleasure.”

  “I am told that no one enters her chambers except her caretakers occasionally. I debrief the warriors selected to guard her chambers every single day. They report not only does she sleep alone, but she rarely approaches our warriors at all, electing to use me as an intermediary when she needs something.”

  “Do you not find it strange that she allows no males to console her?”

  “Perhaps she does not care for our kind. I made it clear that if she wished a warrior to service her, he would submit to her wishes without question. Therefore I know she is aware that she can have any of us if she wishes.”

  His sire jerked in his seat. “Repeat to me exactly what you said to our queen, Meric.”

  “I told her that Draconian males are not gifted with the right of choosing. Therefore if she wished a warrior, he could not refuse her advances.”

  “How did she react to hearing your words?”

  “She did not respond positively, now that you mention it. She stopped smiling and interacting with me, except in the context of advancing our mission.”

  The older drone sighed, his wings drooping. “Do you not think this is strange, my scion, that she stopped approaching you when you told her this?”

  Shrugging one shoulder, Meric responded, “Queens are strange. It is their defining characteristic.” Meric was intentionally not disclosing that he told Stacy he did not want to be selected. His father would not approve of his decision to deny their beautiful new queen.

  “Or perhaps she requires more of breeder than obedience. From what I have read and seen with my own two eyes when we were on Dracon Two, human queens do not believe in forced breeding. That is why they created laws against the practice.”

  “Laws I will invoke if she approaches me in that manner again.”

  “I do not believe you will have to worry about it anymore. Human queens prefer to be desired and pursued by their males. If you had taken but a moment to observe them, you would know this already. You think you know all there is to know about queens because you were a breeder to a Draconian queen. Human queens are much different.”

  “I do not care to make subtle distinctions between queens. I respect this queen for her attempts to assist us in our mission but that is the limit of my patience for her. Once this mission is complete, I plan to drop her on Dracon Two and be done with her.”

  “I rue the day that I hatched such a stubborn scion. It is a good thing you have produced so many strong sons already, for the chances of you mating voluntarily are virtually nonexistent.”

  “If you find human queens so fascinating, you should approach one yourself.”

  His sire’s face contorted in a mask of disgust. Meric knew it was directed at him, rather than the idea of mating a human queen.

  “You rankle me, Meric.”

  Refusing to be browbeaten by his sire, Meric stared at him blandly.

  Finally, the older male let out an exasperated growl and took his leave of the group. Alone with his young, Meric finally allowed his walls to come tumbling down. “Come my scion,” he said and opened his arms, “tell me about your day.”

  His youngest came to sit on his lap. The tiny scion was barely flying under the power of his own wings, it being less than five turns of the season he burst from the shell. Some Draconian children flew fresh out of the shell, but his line did not. Their wings were thick and soft, unlike most Dracon, whose wings were covered with a thin webbing of skin. They had long since accepted this as simply part of the heritage of their clade.

  Meric pulled back the baby’s golden strands and ran his fingers though the soft mass. Every single one of his scions had long filaments growing from their heads, much like the human queens. It was a rarity and the most obvious mark of his line. It was also the quality that drew queens to haunt their every step, all wishing to make little queens of their own with golden strands.

  Wrapping his arms around his little one, he vowed never to risk their being seen by a queen until they were old enough to defend themselves properly. In addition to protecting this quadrant of space from the rule of Draconian queens and their symbionts, Meric also hoped to protect his young ones from being selected by a Draconian queen. He knew all too well how vicious they could be.

  If he were being honest with himself, Meric would admit to taking a false position with his sire. He was much less suspicious of the human queens than he appeared to be. He strongly suspected they were more docile, altruistic, and companionate than the queens they had known. He was becoming ever more fascinated and interested in their new queen. And finally, he was secretly pleased to be the only male Queen Stacy had asked to share her bed. However, none of that meant he truly trusted her or that he was interested in being claimed by her.

  That no longer seemed likely since he’d stopped being so open towards her. His mind wandered as he listened to his young talk to each other. Even when she was annoyed with him, she’d been warm and inviting towards him. His hand lifted and he ran his fingers down the ugly scar on his face as he remembered her soft hands tracing the mark when they were in the medical unit. Her hand had been tender and her eyes kind and understanding about the abuse he’d suffered. The moment he’d explained how little control males had over the mating process, she’d backed off, respecting his reluctance to become her breeder. He’d never known a queen to respect a warrior’s boundaries before. It put his mind to rest about working in such close proximity to her over the last lunar.

  12 Plan of Action

  Stacy

  Sitting in her quarters with Riya, Stacy felt more like her old self than she had in a long time. Their afternoon visit was a rare and precious opportunity to see her longtime friend and the only real socializing she got. Knowing the warriors didn’t feel comfortable in a reciprocal relationship made her reluctant to engage with them. How would she ever know if they were attracted to her or just being polite? Perhaps Draconians were not the best choice in potential husbands.

  They sipped a hot drink similar to tea while waiting for Kearney a
nd Kendra to arrive. “It’s like a luxury to take a moment for ourselves during this mission. I feel like I should be doing something to help find that rogue ship.”

  Riya replied pleasantly, “Taking a little downtime for ourselves while the warriors hunt down the vessel will help us be calmer and in a better position to think on our feet when we catch up with it. Kearney and Kendra are looking forward to spending a little time getting to know you.”

  “I’m looking forward to getting to know them better as well. They have your seal of approval, so they must be fantastic.”

  “Yes, they’re both smart and resourceful. Kearney is the older of the two and more outgoing. Kendra doesn’t speak as much but when she does it’s always meaningful. I got to know them pretty well when we were aboard the Yuroba ship.”

  “I’ll bet the Yuroba were fun to deal with.”

  “They were different from the other species we’ve met. They don’t have a formal education system. Did you know that?”

  “Are they literate?”

  “Every single one can read, write, and understand advanced concepts. They believe a person should take responsibility for educating themselves, most through life experiences. I saw one small child taking apart a drink dispenser, just to see how it worked. They have a high tolerance for that kind of behavior as long as the item is put back together properly.”

  “I guess we should be prepared to see all kinds of different cultures if we continue to travel to other worlds.”

  “I quite like that idea. It’s why I’m thinking of volunteering to be an ambassador for Dracon Two.” Chuckling a little she added, “I just hope I don’t keep running into trouble out in the black.”

  Riya seemed completely at ease with their situation, whereas Stacy was anxious most of the time. “Being abducted by the squid men still gives me nightmares. I can’t imagine how you are dealing with being kidnapped twice. Doesn’t it ever mess with your head?”

  Riya sat up a little straighter, her slight body wrapped in colorful teal sari. It was clever of her to continue to wear them, because not only did they make her comfortable but her crew saw them as gowns, which they thought every woman should wear. Waving one hand through the air, she responded good-naturedly. “It falls in the category of accepting what one cannot change. For many generations my ancestors lived under the caste system. Since changing one’s caste was impossible, we learned to find peace and happiness in the life we were given.”

  Stacy was happy to discover her friend was truly doing as well as she seemed. “It must be nice to have such strong spiritual beliefs.”

  “My faith gives my life meaning and symmetry. I am like a leaf blowing in the wind, concerning myself only with creating good karma wherever I land on any given day.”

  Stacy smiled at the always positive woman. “So, have you taken a liking to any of the warriors?”

  Putting the back of her hand up to her forehead, Riya quipped. “You get to the girl talk pretty darn quick.”

  Stacy interpreted the gesture to be one of fake exasperation. Slowly her anxieties started to melt away as she listened to Riya’s long drawn out story of Captain Calen and how both of them talked so much no one else could get in a word edgewise. “He’s definitely charming and attractive, but he guards his heart from me. It makes it difficult to tell if we are a good match.”

  “Our captain is the same way. He told me that women are the ones responsible for initiating a courtship. The thing is, Draconian males are apparently not allowed to say no or object to anything a woman asks them to do.”

  “Poppycock. Calen tells me no all the time.”

  Stacy scrunched up her face in a pensive expression. “Are you sure about that, cause that’s not what Meric said at all.”

  “Calen mentioned that Hope gave him pointers on luring a queen.” She made little quotation marks with her finger when she said the last three words.

  “What in the ‘verse is luring a queen? That’s a strange turn of a phrase.”

  “I’m guessing that women are supposed to initiate courting based on signals of interest by the warrior. Calen insists on escorting me around the ship, taking meals with me and arranging what seem suspiciously like dates.”

  “That doesn’t sound right.”

  “So far we’ve visited their version of a galactic planetarium room. It’s a darkened room lit only by holographic images of the stars. He held my hand. We spend time in their hydroponics bay, where he made them grow flowers for me. He brings me one every evening, saying I need something that equals my beauty to see me through the night. There’s more but I don’t feel comfortable sharing. Anyway, I think that’s what he means by luring a queen. It’s old fashioned, sweep-a-girl-off-her-feet romance.”

  Shocked and a little jealous, Stacy exclaimed, “Wow, you are one lucky woman. There ain’t nothing like that going on aboard this ship, that’s for sure. I don’t think Meric even likes me as a person, much less a potential mate.”

  “Does that bother you?”

  Shrugging she chewed on her bottom lip before finally coming clean.

  “I have a gigantic crush on him, and that’s an embarrassing thing for a grown woman to admit to.”

  Riya rolled her eyes. “Tell me it’s not just because he has hair. He’s the only one that does among all the Draconian warriors I’ve ever seen.”

  “I like a lot more than his hair, but he cold as ice most of the time.”

  “Calen says he was heavily abused by his former queen for about seven or eight years. Plus he’s got a bunch of children to contend with. I doubt he has much time for romance.”

  “I didn’t even know he had kids. He doesn’t tell me anything. Some people are strange about who they have around their children.”

  “This is true.”

  “I’m beginning to think that maybe I’m just not what men want. No one approached me on Earth. My father had to make arrangements with the son of one of his business associates. All the warriors I’ve interviewed seemed nice and accommodating, but there was no spark, and I’m pretty sure they were just being nice by engaging with me. Now it’s the same thing with Meric all over again.”

  “Good men are hard to find. I was never approached either on Earth. Maybe your captain is interested but doesn’t feel like he can take time away from his little ones at this point in his life.”

  She knew for certain that was not the case. If it was he’d just say so. “Let’s talk about something different, like remembering to thank Hope for pointing your hot warrior in the right direction about dating.”

  Taking the hint that she didn’t want to talk about Meric anymore, Riya shifted to the new topic of conversation without missing a beat. “I’ve not settled on him yet. I’m a girl who knows her worth. He’ll have to open up and share his feelings. I’ll not allow him to win me over with flowers and those beautiful dark eyes.”

  “You might want to meet him halfway, if you’re really interested in him.”

  “That’s good advice. I certainly don’t want him to get discouraged.” After a short pause, she added quickly, “Don’t worry about Meric. If it’s meant to be it will happen, my friend.”

  Stacy nodded, feeling her emotions rise a bit. The truth was her gigantic crush on the man was unrequited. He had been nice enough to rebuff her awkward advances in the nicest way possible. Though he didn’t reveal much about his emotions, he was really polite and thoughtful in a lot of ways. Captain Meric was also honest, dependable, well-spoken and intelligent, not to mention drop dead gorgeous. Even the multitude of scars covering his body couldn’t distract from his from his attractiveness. She was a goner for his chiseled jawline and magnificent wing span.

  Her door chimed, and she voice prompted it open to reveal the sisters from the Jeron. Stacy stood and motioned them into her sitting area. Like her, they were wearing uniforms. Stacy didn’t think Riya was giving up her sari for anything.

  “Welcome to our ship. Come and have a seat.”

  Kearney res
ponded politely, “Thanks for inviting us.” They grabbed a seat on a nearby settee, looking ten kinds of serious. “Is this really a social call? Riya said it was but it seems like we’re wasting time when the priority should be figuring out a way to slow down that ship.”

  “I feel the same way, but if we don’t take some time to decompress we’re going to explode, probably when we’re most needed.”

  Kearney grinned, “Fine, we’ll sit around and shoot the shit. Too bad the Draconians don’t have an open bar. I could really go for a mixed drink about now to take the edge off.”

  Stacy sat back in her chair. “If we did have alcohol, what would you be drinking tonight?”

  “With the mood I’m in, I’d jump behind the bar and keep mixing liquors until I found something that knocked our socks off.”

  Stacy shot up in her seat. “Say that again.”

  “I’d mix different liquors all up until I found something with a kick.”

  Her sister frowned. “You don’t create more effect by mixing different types of liquor. It’s all about how much you drink.”

  “Sure you do. It’s called the potentiation effect. You know like when you’re taking a medication and it’s not strong enough. Sometimes the doctor adds a secondary medication to boost its effectiveness.”

  Raising one eyebrow, Kendra asked, “Don’t they usually just increase the dosage?”

  “Sure sometimes, they increase the dosage. But some drugs are already potent. Increasing the dosage may push you in danger of hitting the lethal limit. Adding another medication can be a better choice. Combining can create a situation where the combined effect is greater than the sum of its parts.”

  Kendra chimed in, “Your nonsense is doing my head in. I could really go for a cosmo about now.”

  Her sister frowned. “You’re too young to drink.”

  Their back-and-forth banter was so much background noise for Stacy because Kearney’s fixation of mixing volatile cocktails had given her an idea. “It’s crazy but it just might work.”