Scandalous Heroes Box Set (176 page)

Turning her head away from the window, she glanced in the direction of Rymingten, the cursed male cat. This was entirely his fault.

No one on Argona could fault her for her actions in kidnapping one of the King of Kitcy’s sons. The man had seven and Rymingten was the youngest. It was known all over the galaxy that her planet was dimensioning. It was reducing in population because Argona was primarily made up of females, there were very few men. Since shortly before her birth no male children had been born. As a magical planet there were many things they could create or produce; clothing, food, plants, and housing, but not life.

No, they needed males for this.

Their lack of the masculine gender was also the reason warriors from other planets had repeatedly attempted to invade and take over Argona. Many of the women were captured and made laborers on other planets. However, they were not only majji, they were warriors themselves. So, they had battled fiercely, bringing victories over and over again. They wanted males to join with them to rebuild their planet with offspring not attempt to dominate the Argonian inhabitants. If they had been lesser females—frail and weak—then all would have been lost.

However, they needed more than a strong present, Argona needed a future. They could only achieve that future by joining with strong males, fighters. They would have to understand and honor the strength and way of an Argonian female. That led their search to Kitcy, to Rymingten.

Rymingten. He would be the first of many. She was sure that his disrespectful refusal to join with her had put a halt or at least stalled her mother and the battle council’s plan to proceed in their abduction scheme to claim more galaxy males.

Queen Eyleen
. A whimper slipped out of Krysteena as rejection and loss ate at her core.
Mother
. The scream broke forth in her thoughts as she tried to draw an image of her mother in her mind. Quivering, it faded. As always the figure appeared and vanished, shredding her soul with despair. She screamed mentally.

“Hello, my daughter.” Suddenly, Eyleen’s image was there in the living room two feet away from the old man as he slept in the overstuffed chair. Vibrant and clear, her mother stood clothed in a melon-hued floor-length chiton with a serene smile on her face, as if it had only been yesterday that they had last seen each other. In Fifth Galaxy time, it was barely thirty days. Their days, with their three sons, were much longer than an Earth day.

She rushed to her apparition and stretched her cat form prostrate at her queen’s feet.
I thought you would never come. That you had decided to leave me here.

“Never, Krysteena. I always keep my word to my chil—”

Queen Eyleen!
Rymingten came skidding around the corner of the kitchen, his striped gray body tumbling and sliding along the tile as he lost his footing in his haste.

Krysteena gazed at him from her stooped position and laughed at his clumsiness and ridiculous appearance as an Earth cat. Now that her mother had finally appeared, Krysteena could allow her humor to come forth. Soon Rymingten would be out of her life for good. She didn’t take heed to the echo of sadness in her heart or allow it to grow. It was true that over the year she had gotten to know him and even recognized the spark in her belly that ignited every time he was close to her, that she kept buried inside, but their time had come to an end. He didn’t want her, had never wanted her, refused to assist her people and she would only allow herself to feel joy at his departure.

Finally, finding purchase, he halted and came to her mother and dropped down to his belly.
I humbly ask your forgiveness, Queen Eyleen.

Her mother’s figure hovered before them silently. They both raised their heads, glancing up at her.

“Do you recognize that I am a powerful queen and my wishes are not to be brushed aside like a stardust moth?” Her eyes were fixed on Rymingten.

I do. And as I stated a year ago it was not my intention to refuse your petition, however—

“Do not allow your next words to cause me to regret coming to get you, Rymingten. I can very easily leave with only Krysteena.” Her mother warned.

Krysteena watched the male cat press his jaws tightly together and the short, low growl that emitted from him.

For a brief moment, she wished he would say something that would make her mother leave him here on Earth truly alone. It would serve him right for pissing off her queen and being banished, not to mention having made it so that she was cursed with him.  But, Krysteena could not wish that for him. After a year with him, they were linked in an odd way. When he suffered, even the smallest of things, like hunger for food, she felt a small awareness of his ache.

She wasn’t sure what her mother’s purpose had been for placing her with him. Over her span of life, Krysteena had been nothing but a devoted daughter, following the queen’s every order. So, why she wondered.

“We return.” The queen declared when no further words were uttered by the Kitcy warrior.

Queen Eyleen waved her hand in a circle high above her head and a celestial wind rushed around her, Krysteena, and Rymingten like a million tiny stars.

Krysteena’s ears began to ring and her body felt constricted by the pressure of cosmos trekking. It wasn’t comfortable, but it was quick.

Before they took their next breath they were once again in the throne room of Argona in their normal form. Krysteena was overjoyed to finally be rid of the fur that had covered her body for a year. As if time had not moved, her mother sat regally on the throne, Krysteena stood beside her and Rymingten was on his feet before the queen. The council members were seated at a long table on the side of the room observing.

She’d almost forgotten how handsome and virile he was in the flesh. His short dark-golden colored hair, so different in length and texture from hers, made her fingers itch to touch it. He now wore the open shirt and trousers of his planet and seeing the way the material clung to his great height and the multitude of muscles covering his body made her feel feminine in a way she’d never experienced before. It was similar to the deep ache in her core that she had felt while they were in house cat form. But greater. That desire that had throbbed through her body and the scent she emitted had been manifested by her mother to taunt Rymingten, it hadn’t been real. However, what was happening to her body now was very
real
.

It wasn’t only sexual attraction; as an Argonian sexuality was common for them, something they learned to embrace at a young age. On her planet there may not have been males for them to join and breed with, but they did have sex dens with males from different, lesser planets. Non-warrior men. What she was experiencing was something else, something more intense and unfamiliar. It was so powerful she feared it, but as an Argonian female she was taught to fear nothing.

“What say you, Kitcy warrior? I offer you the blessing of joining with my eldest daughter. Live with her in her dwelling and breed with her. Submit yourself to my rule. Her authority.”

Unlike before, when Rymingten’s response was quick and negative, he took his time to glance away from the queen to Krysteena. Those bronze eyes of his locked on her, eyes she’d become used to staring into during their banishment.

She wished her power allowed her to mind read, see what it was that he was thinking, but it didn’t. So, she waited with the queen and the other council members staring at the scene before them. They were most likely wondering how it would play out this time.

“What is your desire, Krys?” Rymingten asked.

My desire?
Krysteena wasn’t sure how to respond to that question. This could truly be her out. She could tell her mother that after spending a year with this warrior she had no desire to be with him through galaxy eternity. That she would prefer another be found that was more to her liking. However, as she stared into those majestic eyes, she couldn’t get her mouth to open and make the request to have him banished or sent back to his own planet.

“I am the one making the request here, Kitcy male.” Queen Eyleen leaned forward and shot Rymingten with a piercing look.

Seeming unfazed, Krysteena watched as his gaze slowly left hers and was set on her mother.

“My pardon, Queen Eyleen. Please do not take any disrespect. However, it’s possible your daughter may not be willing to join herself to me. If this is the case I do not believe it is important whether or not I give my consent if she does not wish for the situation to be made between us.”

Not waiting for her mother’s response to his small speech, he once again stared at her.

His gaze was too intense. The heat radiating from the unwavering look he gave her had heat spreading through her breasts and making her nipples draw tight against the standard soft material of her chiton. Tightening her hands at her back, she stifled the urge to place a protective globe around herself to ward off the effect of his gaze. However, she wasn’t even sure it would work in such a manner.  

“You may be correct in your assessment. What say you, offspring of my womb? Have this warrior or should I send him to the labor board for work?”

Krysteena knew the custom of her planet that captured males who refused to submit to a joining usually were sent to the harvesting fields to work, but for some reason she couldn’t see such a life for Rymingten. She wanted to harden her heart against the imposing male, but something she truly didn’t comprehend hindered her.
Was it possible that the Kitcy people were some kind of emotional sorcerers?

“We wait?”

“What shall you have for my life, Krys…joined to you or the fields?” His gaze may have been intense, but, she noted the small arching of his brow.

Is he funning me? Did he see this all as a joke?
Perhaps even now after experiencing the queen’s power he was plotting a way of escape? Hm, he would learn soon if this was his scheme that it was not possible. The boundary of protection around their planet was put there by using all of the Argona females’ powers, it was unbreachable. Impossible for anyone to travel out of it or in it without an inhabitant’s presence aboard a vessel.

However, that wasn’t the situation or an issue at present—her answer was.

“I will join with him. Now your fate lies in your own hands Kitcy warrior…what say you?”

Krysteena was sure if he rejected her mother again, the queen would end his existence. Even if her mother appeared to offer him a choice of labor…she knew what the queen most likely suspected—this warrior would be too much of a risk. He had enough stubbornness and determination that he could incite an uprising with the other males there. So, the best would be for Queen Eyleen to turn him into galaxy dust and release his soul to the gods.

That outcome would sadden her. Even as she tried to imagine what life would be like with him if he agreed.

“Queen Eyleen, I would be honored to join with your daughter Krysteena.”

Unsure of how she felt, or how to respond, Krysteena simply gave a quick nod.

~YH~

Still leaning forward, the queen eyed him, her gaze sharp, discerning as it had been when she had cursed him. “It is no longer that simple, Rymingten, son of the Kitcy King.”

Trepidation rattled his core. He was a warrior, a Kitcy male feline who didn’t like feeling anything but confident, in control. “Is it not your wish for me and Krysteena to be together?”

Her chuckle was loud, boisterous, but ended abruptly. “Only if you prove yourself worthy.”

Worthy
? A year ago he had assumed nothing else was needed from him, only an affirmative response. Now having been cursed and sent to Earth for a year with her daughter was not enough. This planet seemed to be filled with too many secrets and impulsivity. What else would this queen require?

“How would I do that? Was giving up a year of my life not enough?” He bit out in an attempt to keep his temper reigned in. His patience had been tested and stretched beyond the capability of most warriors from his planet. No one would see fault in him if he merged into cat form, a form he had not taken in too long, and proceeded to tear the planet up until he found a vessel to head for home.

There was a slight tilt to the queen’s head letting him know that maybe he had not subdued the evidence of his temper enough in his tone. “You shall battle her. Spar with her to prove you are strong enough to be her breeder and be joined to her.”

He glanced at Krysteena who stood silent, tall and proud beside her mother not uttering a single word. He could not fault her for that, on Kitcy it would be frowned upon to have someone speak out against the commands of the king. Returning his gaze back to the queen, he said, “I fail to see why a challenge is warranted. I have already given my agreement.”

“On Argona we do not birth weaklings. Every seed brought forth
must
be viable and capable from conception. This can only happen if the parentage match is equal in strength.”

This was something not done where he came from. Women were precious and honored on Kitcy. Even the thought of a male exerting physical force on one of them, the weaker sex, could be punishable by death and a new match for the woman would be found.

“Can you not take my word? The word of a Kitcy warrior declaring my strength should be enough. For isn’t it the reason you removed me from my planet?” He spread his arms wide, showcasing the height and girth of his form for all to see. If they needed him to, he would merge and display the magnificent beauty of his feline to give more attestation. Everyone across many galaxies trembled at the sight of their animal forms.

“The potency of your issue is at question. It can only be determined in such a way.”

Galaxy gypsies and choking moon dust, what kind of barbaric inhabitants were these.
Allowing his hands to drop loudly to his side, he held the queen’s gaze.

With her arms laid flat, one on top of the other at her chest, she returned his stare. “What say you? Agreement or to a prison to labor and toil in the fields for forty years.”