This shit is crazy. Utterly insane.
And the whole reason I was sent to escort Nyleena was because I’m the calm one. The sensible one. The one people rely on to not give in to the crazy.
And now look at me. I might be soul-mated to Serpint the Booty Hunter.
If I have gone this wild, deviated this far off my path, and I’m me?
Then what the hell is Nyleena getting up to back on Bull Station? There’s no way they didn’t remove her from her cryopod. These guys here on Harem, they know things. They have restraint when it comes to coveted silver princesses. Those guys back on Bull, they’re the complete opposite.
She’s the wild one. She’s the crazy one. You have to be to become what they made her into. And it was my job to get her safely to the other side of the galaxy and now the whole plan is fucked.
Utterly fucked.
I force myself not to think about it. I can’t think about it. I just need to let it go for now.
Just one night. That’s all I want. Just one more night as this princess they think I am. Because I know, I feel it in my heart, that deep down Serpint and his Harem Station family are good people.
And when they find out what I’ve set out to do… what we, the high-order princesses of Cygnia, were born to do… they will stop me.
They will lock me up. Lock all of us up, even the clueless low-order ones they keep up in that special harem. And never, ever want to see a Cygnian princess again as long as they live.
“Lyra?” Serpint says.
“Hmmm?” I mumble, feigning sleepiness.
“We need to go again.”
Oh, for sun’s sake. I forgot. You can’t ever just have one good time with an Akeelian.
“I have a headache,” I murmur, opening one eye cautiously and staring at the wall, waiting to see if he’ll buy that.
He turns me over, swipes a piece of hair off my cheek, and places his palm on my forehead. “Are you OK?” he asks. “You’re not getting sick, are you?” Real concern in his voice.
Which just makes me feel like shit.
“No,” I say. “No. My head is just pounding with… pounding things.”
He smiles at me, then huffs out a small laugh. “Pounding things, huh?”
I nod, staring up at his violet eyes. He glows too. Not like me, but he does have light inside him. What’s up with that light? I want to ask but I really do not want to have sex again and I know if we start talking about personal stuff like that again I won’t be able to talk my way out of it. Or he’ll talk me into it. Or, more likely, I’ll just lose control again and explode like the sun.
So I don’t ask about it. I close my eyes, turn back over and say, “Can you finish without me?”
Meaning… There’s the lotion and the bathroom, dude. Knock yourself out.
He’s silent for a moment. But then he says, “Sure, princess. Sure. That’s how I’ve been starting and ending my days for as long as I can remember. So no problem. You get some sleep.”
And then he kisses me on the back of the head, gets out of bed, and goes into the bathroom.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN – SERPINT
In the morning I don’t bother Lyra with sex. Just get up, go into the bathroom, and do my usual routine. Something is up with her, I can just feel it. Something big, too.
But also… I don’t want to be rejected again and I know she will reject me if I try to turn her on.
I don’t like that feeling.
And it’s not because I never get rejected by women, it’s just that I don’t want to be rejected by this woman in particular. I don’t want to work for it like I had to last night. I want her to light up for me because she can’t stop herself.
Which is all kinds of weird because three days ago I didn’t even know this girl. I had no long-term relationship in mind, and hell, I hadn’t even been with a woman in months because Draden, Ceres, Booty and I were on the other side of the galaxy where all the weird ones live.
And two days ago I was telling myself that stealing the queen was a huge mistake. And it was, but only because Draden and Ceres were killed. Because if I had not stolen the queen I wouldn’t have come back home to Harem in time to see Lyra all wild and feral in the harem room.
And my life would be so different right now.
Better? Or worse? I ask myself.
Funny that. Because I want to say better and worse. I want Draden and Ceres to be alive but I also want to be right here, with Lyra, thinking about how she’s my soulmate.