Chosen by the Riexian Prince Read online

  The woman paused again, although this time it was clear she wasn’t waiting for anyone to respond, she simply wanted the information to sink in before she continued.

  I restrained a glowering sigh. I may have lived in the desert, scowering for food, but I wasn’t dumb. Judging by the looks of everyone around me, I wasn’t alone in that sentiment.

  When the alien woman seemed confident that everyone understood her request, she continued her spiel, this time speaking slower, as though her instructions were gaining complexity.

  “When you board the ship your ident will guide you to the health deck. Once clean you will be fitted with your TerraLink adapter, that will mark you as property of the corporation until your debt can be paid in full. It is there you will receive your assignment and further information concerning your role in your new home.”

  The woman nodded once before stepping aside, letting five large Grug warriors take over. The same ones that were forcing and prodding all the other relocators into the surrounding ships. They seemed to be ready for the same situation here, large wooden bats gripped in their hands. The scales that covered their green bodies bristled like the hair on a dogs back.

  I may not have been sure if this was still the right choice, but I also no longer had a say in the matter. It was run inside, or end up crying and screaming with the rest of them.

  After everything I had been through, after starving and burning in the sun and watching my parents and my brother die and shrivel up in the sun bursts. I had nowhere to go but forward.

  The Grug were now smashing their bats against their palms, but I didn’t need to be told twice, instead I steeled my shoulders and ran onto the ship.

  2

  Nora

  The fresh drop of blood that rolled over my strangely pale skin looked odd. Everything about it looked odd. I had never seen my skin look so clean, or so pale. I had seen my blood before, I had plenty of scars to prove that. But seeing the bright red drop against my unearthly clean skin was like something from a fairy story one of the ancients would tell the children in her community. Something about a princess and a frozen wish, maybe there was a queen. Or something. I never paid much attention.

  My stomach twisted as I stared at the red of my blood rolling over my clean skin, dripping slowly from the implantation site. It made me wish I could recall the story, if only to remember something that wasn't quite as painful as the rest of my memories of Earth. Like my parents as they ran from the wall of flame, or the ancients who sat in the sun hoping to be taken by a flare, or my best friend Trin who had died in a raid last year.

  It was foolish to remember them all now. When I sat in a spaceship, ready to start a new life.

  "There you go," the older woman said. She was so wrinkled and grey-skinned I couldn't be sure if she was a human or an alien. "Tap the screen twice to activate it, the menu is set to 'illiterate' so you should be able to navigate it easy enough."

  I stared at my indent wrist, now fitted with a small electrical face about the size of a thumbnail, the glass box glued to my skin just underneath the ident I got when I was born. That every human got when we were born.

  The old woman wiped away the last of the blood and pushed herself up from the large white couch we had been sitting on, the massive squishy thing perfectly center in a room so bare it might have taken up the whole space ship.

  I hadn't seen much of this ship besides the cleaning area, where I had been scrubbed and sanitized, my hair coated with a bright blue goo that I could still smell. I was sure there was still a lingering residue there, killing or scrubbing, or whatever it was doing to my hair.

  Between this room, the showers, and the hallways that linked them all, everything had been white. White walls, white floors, even white paintings. White on white - as if that made any sense.

  "Someone will be with you shortly, dear," she crooned, patting her hand against my shoulder. "Go ahead and start your welcome."

  She nodded once to the large scanner at the end of the couch before she began to waddle toward the door, leaving me sitting alone with a fancy new tracking device in a room so white it was hurting my eyes. Something I had deemed impossible having grown up in the sun-baked desert of the Dranks.

  “Start your welcome,” I repeated scooting toward the scanner she had indicated. Holding my breath, I placed my fancy new wrist underneath the scanner and waited.

  The red light flashed in slow intervals as it read the information encoded there, the light buzzing before the screen on my wrist sprang to life. The flat image was the same as the holoscreens I had used when I had signed up for TerraLink. With one exception, those had been green and faded and you had to go pretty deep into the caves to be able to make anything out. I took me five tries to get my name right, I just couldn't make out the shapes.

  This image was nothing like that.

  This image was bright and crisp and beautiful. It didn’t look like a screen at all, it almost looked real.

  A low buzzing of what I was sure was supposed to be music chimed around me, the image from the holoscreen appearing on the wall opposite the couch, the large picture exploding into a sphere of swirling green and blue that spun on a slow axis, revealing faded purple landmasses. At least I thought it was blue, purple, and green. I had never seen the sky that color, and the faded trees in the low lands were not even close to being green in comparison to this.

  I didn’t even know how to explain this.

  “Hello, earthling 157N0R4, welcome to TerraLink, and welcome to your new home.” The same AI voice from the entry hall filled the room, the soothing sweet tone calming what was left of my nerves as I sat, staring at the twirling planet as it projected itself into the air. So big. So bright. So blue.

  I wondered if you could see the sky from the surface. I wondered what color it would be.

  “This is Ariex, a humanoid based planet located in the Rose Galaxy. Orbiting a yellow sun and featuring an atmosphere similar to that of earth you will be able to breath easy here, swim in the fresh water oceans that cover 90% of the planet and dine on food that we have found most compatible with your being.”

  The voice continued as the images on the screen morphed and changed images from the planet in turn. Figures walked over a raised bridge, small children laughing as they played in water, an odd looking fish cutting through a current of beautiful blue-green water.

  I didn't even try to stifle a gasp as the images changed again, showing me the first real image of a Riexian. A muscular, humanoid man burst out of the calm water on the screen, shaking glistening drops from his long dark hair, as even more streamed over his greyish skin. He was tall, his broad muscles more defined than I had seen on any man on earth. He stood in the light, water streaming over his body and making him sparkle like silver in the deep light of their suns. Deep red eyes smoldered as he looked right into the camera, walking toward me and if he was going to touch me.

  “Hello handsome.”

  I would have gladly reached out and touched him. I wanted to, the holocene was that real, and that was creating a real problem with how warm everything was getting thanks to the look the man in the image was giving me. Or perhaps, it was more the presence of the man in the first place. His wide chest, his powerful arms and legs, the large bulge that was barely covered by the skin tight pants he wore…

  Good lord! I had never seen pants that tight before. I had only seen what hides beneath pants once before, and it was devastatingly obvious that this Riexian was hiding something much bigger.

  Everything stirred inside of me, like from knees to breasts and become alive and begging.

  I needed him, I needed him inside of me.

  Attempting to expel the boulder in my throat, I swallowed and shifted my weight. I needed to control my breathing. Breathing, and the thunder of a heart rate that I was sure my ident was gleefully tracking.

  “Keep it together, Nora,” I mumbled to myself, the old habit one I had picked up when I would spend months in the mountains hunti
ng alone.

  The AI voice had continued on without me, speaking long after the image of the man had left and instead showing a glistening golden city as the calm AI voice explained about their class system. I barely heard. My head was still swimming with images of wet muscles. I was growing just as damp.

  Forcing myself back into reality, I released a shaky exhale, just as the city vanished and the image of TerraLinks logo populated the screen, underneath were some odd shapes that I was sure were letters.

  I didn’t need the letters to know what was coming. This was my assignment.

  “Earthling 157N0R4 you have been assigned to Ambassadors Kryn’s home in the Master City, known to locals as Prynal. You will be assigned to cleaning your masters quarters while completing your training in Riexial mating habits. Upon completion you will take your place as breeder to Ambassador Kryn.”

  Fuck yeah!

  All my thoughts from before became real, and all of that throbbing need picked up into overdrive, my thighs clenching together at just the thought of him entering me. My heart simultaneously stopped dead and attempted to take a flying leap into the smog-filled sky.

  The renegade organ fluttered and flew as both excitement and fear coursed through me. It was exactly what I had hoped for – a mating position. And not any mating position – I was to mate with the Ambassador. I would be treated well, and be able to pay off TerraLink with enough time to spend my last years traveling the solar system.

  Just like I had always dreamed of doing.

  It was perfect.

  The house they showed me was perfect.

  The planet was perfect.

  Everything was…

  My excitement fell to the wasteland of Earth as the ship rattled in take-off beneath me, the shake increasing as we left the atmosphere, as the picture on the screen changed to show me my new master.

  It was not the handsome man who had emerged from the water. It was not a man that looked anything like that, and I was sure did not have a cock to match, not that I would want it.

  This man was old, with grey hair flying out of his nose, and hard red eyes that made my insides twist in fear. Any warmness I had felt for my prospects left as I sat still, staring at the image, unable to enjoy the spark of the stars as they flew past my window.

  I had never seen stars before. Right then, I wished that I never had.

  3

  Kyel

  My ship had been flying at Light 2 for almost three days now, unable to go faster thanks to the fragile bodies of the human cargo. It had taken us a quarter of the time to reach the tiny war revenged planet my father had negotiated trade with, and now we were stuck, going far too slow for my liking.

  We could nearly be there by now.

  I growled in boredom and slammed another shot of the Greeg FireSlug Juice my crew had procured from one of the other transport ships. If there was one benefit to this new arrangement it was that we also gained access to a massive hanger with ships from every part of the galaxy. It was the prime opportunity for some illegal bartering, and a black market had popped up almost overnight, something I would never have guessed as we approached the grey rock, the water dried up, the surface poisonous from far too many wars.

  The black market on its own had almost made the trip worth it. I would have to remember that for subsequent trips. I had been dying to get my hands on a Beilliet warp drive for a while now. They were hard to come by after their planet's destruction over a century before and I had heard a few whispers of some others trying to offload them. I was sure I had seen one of their banged up vessels parked not far from where they had been, the once bright yellow rose barely distinguishable on the hull.

  It would be worth any price I would pay for it, and just the chance brought a smile to my face. I took another slam of the thick juice, feeling it flow down my throat and inebriate me further.

  If I had to spend the rest of this journey holed up in my quarters like this, I would. No need to twist my arm. Anything to avoid our slow pace. Of course, the slow pace had one benefit. It kept us from my father. Perhaps I could slow the ship further.

  I needed another shot of the volatile liquid to help me swallow that thought.

  “What in the Green Gods name are you doing?” The angry voice of my best friend, Drayl, ripped through my head as the dark room lit up like a blast from a Pryori gun. I cringed at the light and slid off the chair I had been curled up in, both actions showing me just how drunk I was.

  It had been far too long since I had access to Greeg FireSlug Juice and had obviously forgotten how much I could take.

  “Worshipping to the Blood Goddess. Praying her to wipe my father from the green and make him pay for his delinquencies,” I growled back as the door to my quarters slid shut, thankfully shutting us in the dark again.

  “I can see that.” Dryel laughed, the humor not lost on him.

  “In truth,” I drawled, my words slurring together obnoxiously. “I have horrendously miscalculated my tolerance for this stuff.”

  I shook the mostly empty bottle to the side for my friend to see, and Drayl instantly burst out into laughter. The sound cut through my head like a serrated blade and I winced.

  “I can see that, too,” Drayl said as he snatched the bottle away. “You are aware that this was supposed to be a gift to your father on the completion of a successful trade. Yes?”

  “Why do you think I drank it?”

  “Do you have any suggestions as to what we are going to do, now?”

  “Water it down,” I growled, pressing my large grey palm into my forehead in an attempt to stop the spinning. Instead it only moved down to my stomach. Everything was twisting and turning in a desperate need to find its way back up. “The old bastard deserves it. He’ll never know.”

  “Oh, he’ll know,” Drayl said, his laugh persisting. “Your father knows his liquor, and can hold it better than you can, it seems.”

  “Doesn’t mean he deserves it,” I growled, the snap and command befit of my breeding seeping out of my angry voice.

  At least Drayl had the decency to ignore the comment.

  “Why did we only buy the one bottle?” I continued, my laughter joining my friend’s, although I was sure it might have been more from the inebriation than from the humor.

  “Because it cost over four hundred credits and no one thought anyone would be foolish enough to have more than one pound.”

  Drayl slammed the bottle on the counter, this time in obvious frustration, and turned toward me, fitting me with a warning scowl that had we been on the bank of the wide ocean of our home world would smell of battle.

  A battle Drayl knew he would lose. I was the greatest at the swim on our planet. I had been trained by the best, after all. Being raised by the ruler, the Ambassador, of Ariex had some advantages.

  Although I wasn’t sure that traveling off planet to escort new slaves to their home was strictly considered a benefit.

  “You are a fool, young prince,” Drayl continued on, obviously intent on driving his point home. “Ship, lights on.”

  To add insult to injury, the room illuminated with Drayl’s simple command, sending my head into a split.

  "Son of a bastard fool," I growled in anger and threw an antique bonding bowl at Dryel’s head. I threw my long muscly arms over my head in an attempt to block the light further and let fly a long stream of profanities, something my friend only laughed at, the noise adding to the head splitting pain.

  “Kitchen, prepare Telleran Blood, three times chilled.” Drayl said as he placed the bottle in one of the many cabinets that lined the wall above my tank, the many fish I had brought still swimming lazily through the waters, waiting to be eaten.

  “Don’t waste resources, Drayl,” I snapped, peeking out from behind my forearms before snapping them shut in regret. “I’m not drinking that.”

  “Yes you are, tonight is the welcome dinner for the earthlings, and you have yet to make an appearance on this ship.”

  “And…?�
��

  “And it’s a little odd for the government representative to be boxed away while all of your servants are hovering around answering twenty questions an hour…”

  “I have no interest in leaving my quarters,” I interrupted him, my eyes hard as I fixed my friend with a glower, damn the pain splitting through my head, this was worth it.

  “Don’t lie to yourself, Kyel, you would take any chance to strut your robes and authority before the bonded. You have no interest in seeing .”

  I winced at the guess and turned away from my friend, leading the latter to guffaw loudly through the room. I didn’t even have to say anything, Drayl knew me too well, or rather, he knew the situation too well.

  The future queen of my planet, an earthling. An earthling I myself had lusted after for nearly two years no less. My father would stop at nothing to shame the memory of my mother, his vindictive behavior was more suited to a child than to a ruler.

  Thank goodness I was the crown prince, as long as the earth beauty didn’t produce my father an heir before he died, I would take the throne. Perhaps, if I was lucky, I could right all the wrongs my father was about to commit.

  If I could not have the girl for my own, to cherish and love as I had once dreamed, then I would be sure to make sure that right was done by her before she took her last breath. I could only hope that my father's plans were not more nefarious and that I would get the chance.