Destiny, page 17
“Get dressed. You know I hate to repeat myself. I will tell all of you, together.”
“Okay.” Destiny was still smiling, practically glowing with happiness as her mother turned and walked out of our rooms. When she turned that radiant smile on me, my cock responded. My heart leapt. My entire body on fire for her. Beautiful. She was so fucking beautiful. “That’s my mom.”
“I figured that out on my own.” I smiled as she walked toward me, as she pushed me backward toward the bed. When my knees hit the edge, I sat, unprepared for the seductress who pulled the sheet from my hips and climbed, naked, onto my lap. She took my cock in her small hand and positioned it at the entrance to her warm, wet core.
“You’re mine, Nix. I meant what I said. I’m not giving you up.” She slid down, taking me deep. Claiming me in the most primitive of ways.
“Your mother is waiting.” Fuck. I grabbed her hips, arched up into her. Deeper. Harder. She arched her back and I leaned forward, taking her nipple into my mouth just so I could hear her moan my name, feel the harsh tug of her hands in my hair.
“She can wait ten minutes. I need you.”
I need you.
I gave up arguing. Celene Herakles was my queen, but Destiny was mine. If she needed me, who was I to argue?
3
Destiny, The Queen’s Solar
* * *
“I can’t believe you just walked into the palace like you own the place,” I said, for the first time taking my seat at the big table in the queen’s suite used for group powwows. The queen’s solar. Such a fancy name for a living room with comfy chairs, couches and a huge oblong table in the center surrounded by twelve high-backed chairs. The table could easily squeeze in half a dozen more.
After Mom had completely stunned me—and Nix, and I managed to tear myself away from my mate's hard body—it had taken about an hour for the four of us, Mom, Trinity, Faith and myself, to stop hugging and crying once we were all in the same room.
Between sobbing and holding on to each other like we might be separated again, we’d managed to confirm to our mother how we’d arrived on Alera. And that our Ardors had passed. And that Trinity had been acting as ruler. And where we’d been and what we’d been up to, Trinity at the palace, Faith in the Jax household, and me with the clerics. And all three of us had found and fallen in love with our mates. And. And. And. There were a lot of ands to fill the time.
All three of our mates had stayed in the room with us, Leo’s father a stoic guardian at the door, watching over all of us like he’d just won the lottery. The men had remained silent, probably equal parts content that the hunt for Mom was over and equal parts horrified at what four females sounded like when we were finally together and all talking at once.
To me, it felt like I was finally home. All I needed now was for Dad to walk through the door, hug Mom and plant a big fat kiss on her lips—just like I’d seen him do a thousand times before. Earth. Alera. I didn’t care where we were, as long as we were all together. A family. Plus Nix.
He was mine now, too.
I patted the seat next to me at the large table, but there was no need. He was already making a beeline for me now that I’d stopped moving. It was time to get down to business and finally solve the mystery of who took Mom and who was trying to kill all of us.
I was thrilled—over the moon—that Mom was safe, whole and alive, but the threat was still out there. Knowing that made my muscles tight and my jaw clench. I wanted to know who was behind this… and I wanted them dead.
Our mother looked lovely. I wasn’t used to seeing her in long, flowy dresses that were the popular style on Alera—she’d been a jeans and blouse kind of dresser on Earth—but it only accentuated the fact that she really was Queen of Alera. Growing up, we’d known, but now…
She looked like a queen. She talked like a queen. A badass, regal, no-nonsense queen wearing an ion blaster on her hip. Which was really fucking weird, since I’d seen her cleaning toilets, doing laundry, and covered in flour while baking cookies for school fundraisers. The whole situation was surreal.
Queen of the whole damn planet.
As if she could sense my thoughts, she moved to the head of the table and met my gaze, pinning me in place. I’d seen that look before, too. She was happy. And happy usually meant we were in for some serious mischief from her.
God, I’d missed her. So much.
My eyes burned again and I blinked back a fresh round of tears. Jeez, I was a mess.
“What are you looking at, Destiny? I do own the place,” Mom finally replied to my statement. My thoughts were moving so quickly I’d forgotten what I said.
Captain Turaya, who looked at least as happy as we were that the queen was alive, pulled out her chair for her. While the look on his face wasn’t infatuation—he wasn’t in love with Mom—he moved with a depth of loyalty and reverence I hadn’t really seen before. He clearly loved her. Not the way Nix looked at me, but it was still love. Dedication. Absolute loyalty.
I remembered being told he’d been one of two—and the only one still alive—who had helped her escape the attempt on her life all those years ago. He’d helped her make it to the citadel, where she’d disappeared. Until now.
With Mom at the head of the table, Trinity sat at her right, Faith on her left. Their mates sat beside them. I took the foot of the table with Nix beside me. Captain Turaya sat in the open chair on my other side. There were two empty seats on each side, but I had no doubt that they would be filled soon. I would suggest to my mother that one of the seats be offered to High Cleric Amandine.
It was time to unite the planet once more. And my mother would need everyone to feel like they had a seat at the table to make that happen.
I slapped my forehead with my palm and shook my head. God. I sounded like fucking Trinity with my diplomatic thinking. What was happening here?
“There is much to discuss. Shall we start at the beginning?” Mom asked, although since everyone remained silent, the question was rhetorical. The only ones alive at the beginning of all this were Leo’s dad and the queen, herself.
“Twenty-seven years ago, not long after my official mating ceremony to King Mykel, we were suddenly and brutally attacked by a band of masked assassins during a dinner event with my mate’s family. The king was stabbed in the heart right before my eyes. I saw the dagger pierce his flesh. Watched him fall. His parents were murdered as well.” My mother placed a hand over her chest and looked at Leo’s father. “Would you continue from there, please, Travin.”
Holy shit. I didn’t even know Leo’s dad had a first name. But I had no doubt only Mom would be allowed to use it.
“Of course, My Queen.” Captain Turaya stood behind her chair, one hand on her shoulder. A friend offering comfort. “I was there. I, too, watched the attack unfold. A fellow member of the queen’s guard assisted me in fighting off some of the attackers. We could not save the king, but we dragged the queen from the room. She was defiant, even then, and wanted to stay and fight.”
“I do not bow down to traitors, Captain.”
“No, you do not.” His hand tightened on her shoulder and he released her, pacing along the length of the table as if the pain of his memories made it impossible for him to remain still. “As I said, we pulled her from the room. Then took her through the secret tunnels to the exit nearest the citadel. We were all bloodied, hurting. The guard with me did not survive the night. But we managed to escort the queen to the citadel, where she disappeared.”
Mom looked to the older man. “I am sorry for leaving you. For disappearing like that. I trusted you, but I could not risk your life by revealing my plan.”
“Plausible deniability,” Captain Turaya said with a nod. “I understand and you did what was right. Your spire remained lit all these years and has given us all hope. We remained faithful, ready for your return.”
Mom smiled warmly at the man, cleared her throat and nodded. “I stayed on Earth for all these years. I was selfish. First, I convinced myself that my daughters were not ready, but that was a lie. I was not ready. Our life on Earth was good. Peaceful. I am ashamed to say that I was not in a rush to return.”
“Did you notice anything amiss during your time on Earth?” Leo asked.
Mom shook her head. “Nothing. The kidnapping was a complete surprise. One minute I was sleeping, the next I’d been transported.”
Leo looked to his father. “And in all these years, you never figured out who was behind the attack? Who killed the king?”
Captain Turaya sat, at last, his shoulders slumped. “No. It was as if the attackers vanished into thin air. There was no trail. No DNA. No comm traffic. No abandoned EMVs. No vid records. Nothing. It was as if the entire incident had never happened.”
“They left behind corpses, Captain,” Mom said.
“It’s not possible.” Thor spoke up. “My mother spent decades in the Optimus Unit. Their tech is everywhere. They track every transport. Every message. What you are saying is not possible.”
“But it’s the truth.” Leo’s father leaned back in his chair, suddenly looking his age, which was several years older than my mother. “Whoever orchestrated the attack was a genius. It was no random or hasty action. The plan was executed perfectly. They murdered the king and his parents and left absolutely nothing for us to trace.”
“Perfect, except for Mom’s escape,” Trinity added.
“That’s because she’s a troublemaker, like me,” I tossed out there. I had to grin at Mom, break up the tense mood. All this talk of death was making the air too thick to breathe. I had heard the stories before, but it had never been real. Not until now.
I looked around, felt the blood drain from my face as an idea occurred to me. “Wait. Here? It happened here? In this room?”
Mom looked around, her eyes taking in everything, but seeing the past. “Yes. I am not pleased to be back, but at least the décor has been changed.” She looked at the dark green silks on the windows, the pale green sofa cushions, the dark marble table. “It used to be dark brown and burgundy. The cushions on the couch were like red wine.”
“Okay.” Faith waved her hand through the air. “Enough of this bullshit trip down memory lane. If everyone died, who was looking for you all these years? And how did they find you?”
Trinity squirmed in her seat and I leaned forward, my hand on Nix’s thigh squeezing tightly. I didn’t notice, until his warm touch covered mine. I let up, but didn’t lean back. Whatever Trin was about to say was going to be good.
“I think that’s my fault, actually,” Trinity said.
Oh, hell yeah. Called it.
Faith’s head looked like it was about to explode. “What?”
Trinity looked from Faith to Mom to me. I was nodding in agreement. I’d figured it out a while back. “You contacted Warden Egara, didn’t you? Asked about Alera. The Ardor.”
Mom offered Trinity a small smile.
“Yes,” Trinity continued. “My stupid Ardor. And less than two days later, Mom was gone and we were running from the CIA.”
“I don’t think they were CIA, Trin.” Faith leaned to the side and into Thor’s shoulder. She processed fast. We all did. “Those Men-In-Black were probably NSA or some other way-top-secret organization that doesn’t exist.”
Nix went stiff next to me. His glare focused solely on me. “Are you in danger? Are these males from Earth hunting you, mate? Do we have more to worry about than just a ruthless killer on Alera?”
I sighed. God, he was so damn cute. “No. They were after us, but we ditched them at the Bride Processing Center. You should have seen those big Atlan guards back them down.”
“God, they were huge,” Trinity said with a laugh.
“And hot,” Faith added, waggling her eyebrows.
“Enough.” Mom interrupted before we could go into a full-out assessment of the Atlan warriors and their big... everything. Not that Faith was wrong, but I had Nix now, and absolutely zero interest in any other man, or alien, touching me.
“How they found me is irrelevant. I was transported using a mobile transport beacon. I have no idea how they acquired such rare technology from the Prillons, but they did. They slapped the beacon on me and transported me right out of our house and into a prison cell aboard a spaceship orbiting Alera. They held me there for several days, beating me, starving me, demanding the jewels. Once the spires lit for you three, I was transported again, to the planet, into the custody of Lord Wyse.”
“That bastard. I knew it! If he wasn’t dead, I’d kill him again.” Trinity, in a full rage, was a sight to behold, so much like Mom it was scary sometimes. “We saw signs of a struggle, heard you scream, but nothing more,” she said. “We immediately went to the Interstellar Brides Program because we knew that was the nearest transport center on Earth. We had to get to Alera.”
“And your father?” Thor asked.
“He said you two had talked about things before,” Faith replied, looking to Mom. “He said he had a safe place to go until we could send for him.” Faith reached across the table and offered her hand to our mother, who took it. “He’s fine. He’s smart as hell and not afraid. The Men-In-Black were after him, but I know Dad. They’ll never catch him.”
“Yes, you’re right. Good.” Mom sighed in relief and leaned back, breaking Faith’s hold. “So, Lord Wyse is dead?”
“As a doornail,” I said. Nix looked confused by the term, but he could figure it out. Context was key. Although, now that I thought about it, a doornail… dead. Yeah, it was stupid phrase, but Wyse was dead. Sooo dead.
I thought back to how our house on Earth had been trashed. Not a lot, but enough to know something had happened. Mom had warned us about the possibility of someone eventually finding her. We’d heard her scream, but by the time we got upstairs, she was gone.
But we were ready. Our entire lives, she’d told us what to do. Still, we’d only imagined the scenario. Then it had become real. All of it. The stories of a faraway planet. The strange language she’d forced us—and Dad—to learn. The culture and customs she’d drilled into us but we had never used. Until now.
The car chase on the way to the Bride Processing Center felt like a lifetime ago. Earthlings. God, it had been so simple. Just a car chase. No ion blasters. No transport technology. No aliens. Or assassins. Or thirty-year plots to unravel. It had been like the Wild West, now that I looked back. Some of my last moments on Earth.
“So, you were treated poorly. Questioned about the royal necklace.” Trinity was back in analyst mode. “What else?”
Faith’s eyes widened and she leaned forward. “Someone wanted the necklace? Did they find it?”
Mom shook her head. “That night.” She tipped her head toward Captain Turaya. “When I went into the citadel, I hid it. No one knows of its whereabouts, but me.”
That was a lie, of course. Mom knew where it was, but so did we. We’d made sure it was still in that hidden compartment inside the citadel when we’d first arrived. We had all agreed it was safest to leave it where our mother had kept it hidden all these years. And we’d been right to protect it. Someone kidnapped Mom to get the necklace. “If they want the necklace, then someone thinks they can take the throne.”
“But what if…” Leo lifted his chin. “I beg your pardon for speaking plainly, but what if your spire had dimmed? The necklace would have been lost forever.”
She shook her head. “No.” Her gaze flicked to each of us, nearly too quickly for anyone to notice. But Nix did. His hand still rested over mine on his thigh, and I felt his muscles tense.
“The royal jewels will remain hidden until I decide to retrieve them.” She said nothing more, and I glanced around the table. It didn’t answer Leo’s question, but he didn’t point that out.
“Why would someone want the royal necklace? What use is it without the queen herself?” Thor asked. “With no spire lit, there is no heir. The jewels are worthless without an heir.”
Mom looked to him, smiled. “A common belief, but not correct. The citadel chooses who shall rule. How the ancients created such a gift, I do not know, but the citadel is more than a building. More than stone. The citadel is alive. Intelligent. If the royal line were truly to die out, I am sure the citadel would choose another to rule in our place.”
“So if someone wanted to rule, but wasn’t the queen or a descendent, they would need the necklace,” Thor offered. “And what? Hope that by having the necklace the citadel would make him or her the true ruler of Alera?”
“Correct.”
“What?” What the hell was Mom talking about? I’d never heard this before. “Mom, are you telling me that if they actually managed to wipe us all out, they could actually take over and rule the planet?”
Mom thought for a moment, tilted her head. “It is possible. But not likely. The citadel sees all, and would likely not reward such dishonorable behavior.”
“It really is alive?” Thor seemed fascinated by the fact. Me? I was not amused. Not in the least.
“Not alive, as we are,” she answered. “But an ancient intelligence dwells within. I cannot explain it or tell you more.”
Well damn and double damn. I was going to be spending some time in the citadel. See what I could see. What Mom was describing was the most amazing artificial intelligence ever conceived, and it was millennia old. Five millennia, at least. No. More. That was more like ten… ten thousand years.
Holy shit.
“Then the person who kidnapped you wanted you dead and the necklace for himself,” Nix said. He’d been quiet until now, but clearly analyzing everything. “Or herself.”
“I’ve had a lot of time to consider the possibilities,” Mom said. “Years. You said there have been attempts on your lives as well since you’ve been here. I was found… after all this time. I was kidnapped and brought to Alera and questioned after the necklace. But then—”
