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Authors: Unknown
and he couldn’t imagine a more perfect mate.
“You are here without authorization!” Elder Meadowlark shouted.
“I was attacked!” Ivy yelled right back. “I didn’t decide to come to
your planet for a vacation. My entire crew almost died.” Fisting her
hands as her sides, she curled her upper lip and glared. “Idiot,” she
muttered under her breath.
Kai pretended to sneeze to hide his snort of amusement. If possible,
her fiery temper made him want her even more.
“Please,” Ivy implored, her entire demeanor changing from one
heartbeat to the next. “I just want to go home. I’m sure you want that as
well.”
“Yes,” the elder answered, clearly confused by her abrupt shift in
disposition, “of course we want that.”
Kai didn’t know what his mate had planned, but he knew her well
enough to see through the timid façade. Ivy Dalton bowed to no one.
“Thank you.” She dipped her head, likely to hide the smile that
curved her lips. “I’ll prepare a message for my superior right away. She
travels, so hopefully she will be within range.”
“The name of your superior?” Elor prodded, and some unspoken
understanding passed between him and Ivy.
“Alexis Volis Tesera.”
Elder Meadowlark’s face contorted into a mask of rage, and he hissed
in a breath through clenched teeth. “Of the House of Tesera?”
“Well, two of her mates are.”
The Xenon had a long history with the dragons, none of it particularly
good. Considering their superior magic and advance technology, the
elders would never risk the wrath of the Dragon Warriors. Of course,
he’d shared this information with Ivy during one of their many
conversations, and he inwardly applauded her quick thinking and
resourcefulness.
After a brief discussion among the Court, Elder Meadowlark shook
back the sleeves of his robes and clasped his hands together at his
midsection. “Very well. The Court has deemed your request reasonable.
The return correspondence will, of course, be reviewed by the elders
upon its receipt.”
“Of course,” Ivy agreed easily. “Thank you for your generosity.”
Her tone dripped with sarcasm, a concept Kai was only beginning to
understand. The elder, however, heard only her words and smiled in
return.
“We do have one more condition, Lady Dalton.” Lowering himself
back into his seat, Elder Meadowlark folded his hands on the table and
leaned forward. “Whilst you are here, we request that you do not wander
unaccompanied. For your safety, of course.”
“She will be choosing her guard today,” Kai answered, earning him
a sharp glare from his mate. “Will that be all?”
“Actually, we have already assigned your chosen a guard. He’ll be
arriving at the citadel tomorrow morning, and I think you’ll find him
more than satisfactory.”
Turning just his head, he looked to Ivy for her reaction, but she only
shrugged. “We’ll meet with him soon,” Kai said to the elder as he took
his mate’s hand and pulled her away from the dais. “If there is nothing
further, there are important matters which need my attention. Until our
next meeting.”
Elder Meadowlark nodded once, his expression calculating. “Until
our next meeting, Vasili.”
“My lady, your presence is requested in the kitchens.”
Situated in her favorite chair by the north window of the library, Ivy
looked up from the huge, leather-bound book she’d been skimming
through. The words were written in Xenthian, but she enjoyed the hand-
drawn depictions that detailed the various islands.
“Hello, Lorcan.” She smiled brightly at the attendant as he crossed
the room to stand beside her chair. “Why am I going to the kitchens?”
“Your approval of the final menu is needed for the celebration.”
“Oh, right, I think Kai mentioned that.”
After her meeting with the Court, she’d recorded a carefully worded
message addressed to Commander Sullivan Archer, much to the relief of
the elders. Still, her message had been reviewed and examined half a
dozen times before finally being transmitted.
Funnily enough, Ivy had never actually met Alexis or any of her
mates, but she’d heard the stories. Stars, everyone had heard the stories.
Just like they’d all heard when the commanders of Alpha Station: X2 had
claimed a Krytos female and been converted. High Commander Jax
Spartan was going to lose his shit when he found out about her and Kai,
which honestly, had been her soul reasoning for addressing the recorded
message to his second-in-command, Sully. At least he wouldn’t scream
at her until the vein in his forehead throbbed.
Probably.
Closing her book, she set it aside and stood, stretching her arms over
her head and twisting to relieve some of the tension in her back. “Sion,
wake up. We’re needed in the kitchens.”
“No,” he grumbled. Flipping over on the oversized sofa tucked
between two of the bookshelves, he cracked one eye open to look up at
her. “Is there food involved?”
“We’re going to the kitchens, pussycat. What do you think?”
Growling insults under his breath, he sat up and rubbed both hands
over his face. “You know, I still haven’t forgiven you for volunteering
me for this guard gig.”
“How is this any different than what you were doing on the
Dreamweaver
?”
Dropping his hands, he cocked his head to the side and arched one
auburn eyebrow. “Here, I’m not getting paid to put up with you.”
Snorting, she left the shifter to pull himself together and turned back
to Lorcan. “Is Kai going to meet us?”
“I’m sorry, my lady, but the Vasili is still in a meeting with Elder
Blackthorn.”
“Oh, right.” Ivy hitched her smile a little brighter to hide her
disappointment. “Well, in that case, we shouldn’t keep the kitchen staff
waiting.”
Lorcan led them from the library and through the corridors to a
tubular elevator with a curving glass door. It surprised Ivy to realize that
in all the time she’d been at the citadel, she’d never actually seen the
kitchens.
Ivy expected to find a cool, damp basement made of the same stone
used in other parts of the citadel. Instead, the glass door slid open on the
lower level, and she stepped off the elevator in a warm, brightly lit
kitchen with gleaming black floors, marbled countertops, and chrome
fixtures.
Sunlight streamed into the room from the narrow windows set high
on the far wall, and the most delicious smells wafted from the three
enormous ovens. Kitchen attendants dressed in white tunics worked at
different stations, chopping, peeling, stirring, carving, and kneading.
The entire room operated with fluid efficiency, and Ivy appreciated the
beauty in its well-crafted order.
A large, wooden crate in the back corner drew her attention, not
because of its size, but because of the squeaks and snorts coming from
inside of it. While Lorcan spoke with one of the chefs, and Sion conned
the attendants into feeding him, Ivy wandered over to the crate to
investigate.
Gripping the edge of the box, she leaned over to peer inside, and
immediately started giggling. Blue straw had been scattered across the
wooden planks, and at least twenty of the tiniest, most adorable piglets
she’d ever seen lifted their heads to peer up at her.
No, not piglets, but they did closely resemble them. Instead of pink
skin with bristly hair, they each sported a thin layer of shiny black fur
with big white splotches. Their floppy ears perked up when she cooed to
them, and they wagged their double tails like energetic puppies. Their
snouts twitched as they sniffed at her, and when she lowered her hand
into the crate, they all gathered around to rub their furry heads against
her fingers.
“Lorcan, what are these?”
The attendant glanced over his shoulder, his eyebrows drawn
together. “
Bekshin
, my lady.”
“They’re so sweet.” She chuckled when the tiniest of the
bekshin
rolled
over on his back, revealing a white patch of fur in the shape of a star, and
wiggled closer for her to rub his belly. “Why are they in the kitchen?”
“Uh, Ivy, you may not want to get too attached.” Sion jerked his
thumb toward the carving station. “I think they’re on the menu.”
The horror of it sunk in slowly, and Ivy’s stomach rolled
uncomfortably. “They’re just babies!”
“They’re only small animals,” Lorcan assured her, as if that made it
all better. “They are fully grown.”
“No.” Lifting her hand out of the box, Ivy folded her arms across her
breasts and set her jaw. “We’re not eating them.”
“It would be a splendid dish to serve your guests for the celebration,”
one of the kitchen attendants answered, her eyes wide and eager. “The
bekshin
is considered a delicacy, my lady. We thought you would be
pleased.”
“Pleased? Pleased?” Ivy sounded almost as squeaky as the piglets,
but she didn’t care. “We. Are not. Eating. Them.”
Lorcan started across the room, Sion following behind him, and two
of the attendants shuffled around their workstations in her direction. She
yelled at them to stay back, and when they didn’t listen, she completely
lost her mind. As quickly as she could move, she reached into the crate,
pulling the
bekshin
out in pairs.
From there, complete chaos ensued.
The fuzzy piglets squeaked and chuffed as they darted around the
kitchen, their tiny hooves clacking over the floor. The smallest one
somehow managed to climb into a sack of flour, and he rolled around in
it happily, kicking white powder all over the pristine tiles. Two others
found their way onto the countertop beside the sink, and they took turns
diving into the soapy water.
Attendants rushed around the kitchen, stooped over with their hands
reaching toward the floor as they tried to corral the
bekshin
. Sion leaned
against one of the counters, laughing his fool head off, and Lorcan’s
mouth hung open as he watched the scene unfold.
“Leave him alone!” Ivy yelled when one of the attendants snatched
the runt with the star-shaped patch of fur out of the flour bag. “Don’t
touch him.” Flying across the kitchen, she plucked the piglet away from
the attendant and cuddled him to her chest. “How could you eat them?”
When she’d released the
bekshin
into the kitchen, she’d been under
emotional distress, and honestly, there hadn’t been much of a plan
involved. She’d just wanted to save the sweet little piglets from their
terrible fate, but now, she realized they had no way to escape. The staff
would eventually catch them, put them back into their crate until it was
time to cook them.
She wouldn’t let that happen.
“Everyone out!” she ordered, jabbing her finger toward the elevator.
“Everyone get the fuck out right now!”
* * * *
the office connected to the meeting hall, his head down and his brow
creased. “They attacked without provocation?”
Kai stood near one of the windows, watching a bright-red willowhip
hop along the stone fence of the courtyard. “That’s the report Ivy gave of
the events, and I believe her.” From the hip pocket of his tunic, he
produced a small piece of parchment and unrolled it before passing it to
his father. “She drew this.” He’d examined the drawing—just a cluster
of three dots in the center of basic circle—many times during the past
few days. “Are you familiar with it?”
The elder held the parchment loosely, tracing the drawing with the
tips of his fingers. “I am not.”
“We have no record of a vessel other than Ivy’s entering our airspace
at the time.” The appearance of the unknown craft concerned Kai more
than he’d let anyone know, including his mate.
“Cloaking?” Elor rolled the parchment and passed it back. “With the
advanced firepower Commander Dalton described, as well as the ability
to go undetected by both her systems and ours, I don’t believe this is a
new race.”
Kai agreed. Unknown, but certainly not a species in its infancy.
Among one of the oldest races in the universe, the Xenons had seen and
recorded much, dating back millions of years. Which only made it more
worrisome that they had no information about these hostile newcomers.
Before he could respond, a vidscreen flickered to life over the
desktop, showing a very harried-looking Lorcan.
“My apologies for the interruption, sirs, but we appear to have a
situation in the kitchens.”
Kai’s heart seized in his chest, and he stepped toward the display
with an angry snarl. “Has something happened to Ivy?”
“No, no, Vasili. I assure you she’s quite well. It’s just that—” The