Seduced by Two Warriors (2 page)

As
a consequence, there had been revolts throughout their history, but not only to
do with the laws surrounding sex. This recent revolt was the most pronounced in
their history, from what she’d been told.

The
Tyranns had formed about fifty years ago, but the original group’s intention
was never to simply invade a planet, annihilate it, and take its inhabitants
captive. They only wanted to be able to enjoy the sexual freedoms they’d been
denied because of the Regum laws.

They
built facilities for the Velone women that were said to be more lavish even
than the quarters at the Zoo, and the women weren’t treated like prisoners.
They were given every material comfort, and no one abused them or gang-raped
them. They were paid well for their sexual services and had come to Voyeur Moon
from Velone voluntarily.

“The
Velone women were given jobs here in the Ministry,” he said.
“After
their star exploded.”

She
knew that, too. The star around which Velone revolved had exploded a few years
after the Velone women started coming to Voyeur Moon. The Regum had then
retracted their policies concerning those facilities, and closed them all down.
They used the star’s explosion as a way to prove that what the Tyranns had done
was evil.

Gia
decided not to point that out to Petroff at the moment.

“And
that’s when the extreme faction began to take over,” he said. “After we took
those women off Voyeur Moon and closed down the facilities.”

“Well,
you did go back on your word to them.”

He
sighed out loud. “I know we did. But you have to understand, Gia. We’re
fighting centuries of tradition. It’s not an easy thing to turn
one’s
back on one’s upbringing.”

“I
suppose not. But it’s good to hear a Regum say he understands this from the
point of view of the men who simply wanted to be able to enjoy sex with a
woman.”

Petroff
colored, as she knew he would. “Most of us deny those urges. Again, it’s our
upbringing.”

She’d
denied her own urges for over two years now, but not because she’d had any
other choice. The idea of making love for pleasure no longer felt possible. Not
after what she’d been through. Gia tried to mentally force away the memories
one more time. Maybe having another Earth woman to work with every day and talk
to was the perfect solution? Fallon would understand. So would Cord and Arlo,
for that matter. They’d been there, at least for a short while.

“While
I can understand your upbringing and how difficult it is to get around it,” she
said. “I do not and never will agree with what the Tyranns are now doing.”

“None
of us do, either. Invading your planet because of some misguided notion that
all of your women are porn stars and would be willing to have sex with anyone
and everyone … it’s preposterous.”

Gia
nodded. She couldn’t speak right now. At his words, the memories came fast and
furious. There was no way to stop them this time.

“And
then they realized their mistake. Oh how
magnanimous
of them. So instead of taking steps to return your women and fix your dying
planet, they formed an extreme faction that now does even worse atrocities.
Idiots.”

Petroff
didn’t know the extent of what Gia had endured during her brief stay in the
holding cells. She’d never told anyone the entire story. She wiped the sweat
off her forehead and then clasped her hands in her lap, under the table, and
tried to keep breathing.

“Apparently,
this faction didn’t care that they’d misjudged the Earth women. They built the
holding cells, and as if allowing men of all three planets to simply take your
women from them and use them in any way they wanted to, without rules or
restrictions wasn’t bad enough, they sent your men to the mines on Addo and
denied them enough food or water to survive the grueling work.”

Gia
nodded. Her entire family had been taken at the same time, and it was only by
sheer luck she’d found out what had happened to the rest of them. Mercifully,
her sisters and mother had died from becoming sick in the close confines of the
holding cells, but without having first gone through what she had. Her father
and two brothers had been sent to the mines and were all dead within months.

Gia
swallowed hard as tears threatened. Petroff knew what had happened to her
family, but he was on a roll now. She knew he didn’t mean to bring up painful
memories for her by reiterating all this. He was simply very passionate about
the subject, and for that she was grateful. Having a sympathetic leader was
what had kept her safe and hidden here for two years.

“And
then they built the Zoo. And those of their own kind who opposed it—men born as
Tyranns or who joined them willingly—were betrayed by friends and family and
forced into hiding, or killed. They killed their own kind rather than listen to
reason from them. Now, the only Tyranns left are the ones who would see your
planet blown out of space rather than go backward. They’re vicious and cruel.
Anyone with a conscience has long since left the Tyranns and Voyeur Moon.”

Except
your own spies and the
Addonian
spies
.
And thank goodness for them, or
none of them would have any information to use.

She
took several deep breaths, desperate to pull her thoughts back to the present.
“But the Addonians and Regum still have contacts working inside the Tyranns as
spies.”

“A few.
Very few.”
He shook his head. “And that is our difficulty. We have so little information
now. And it’s also why our own people refuse to believe it has become so bad.
It’s why we need the help of Earth women who have actually been there.”

All
she’d ever told Petroff and Honora was that she’d been in the holding cells,
and had escaped the man taking her to his home on Voyeur Moon when his land
craft had mechanical trouble. It was storming, and she’d simply run. He’d lost
her in the woods.

They
knew where she’d gone after that, and they knew that the couple who had taken
her in had contacted the Regum. But they didn’t know how many other men she’d
been given to before. And they never would. Not if she could help it.

“That’s
why so many Regum are willing to work with Addonians and even former Tyranns to
stop this. And that’s why I believe you would be perfect for this position. You
have firsthand experience, and you speak several languages fluently.”

He
was right, and she knew that. She had to do
something
.
She was only twenty-eight. And while she knew her own planet was practically
uninhabitable now and she could never go back, twenty-eight was way too young
to give up and have no life. She was grateful for the shelter and the job, but
she wanted more.
So much more.
She wanted things she
was no longer sure she’d ever have, but she had to try. She wasn’t ready to
give up.

She
wanted to fall in love. She wanted to be able to have sex again without the
fear of being touched. She wanted friends. She wanted to do all the things she
missed doing, with people she enjoyed being with.

If
she stayed here, her life would continue as it had been.
Safe,
but lonely.
Boring.
Empty.
Without
the possibility of love or physical pleasure.
If she could help others,
she had to do it. It would bring healing to her own life, and give her purpose
once more.

“All right.
I’ll do it. I’ll work for them.”

Chapter
Two

Rune
and his brother Thane, younger by two years, knew all too well what the past
forty-plus years on Sera and Addo had been like. They weren’t
Regum
, but they had been fortunate enough to have lived over
twenty years on Sera. Not only had they grown up with Regum as friends and
neighbors, but when Thane was only twenty-one, they’d started and had run
together a successful freight company on Addo, with the blessing of the
Regum
.

Until
the day it all came crashing down around their ears. The same day that their
friends and former clients, Vaughn and River, were accused of writing software
programs to undermine the Regum defense systems. It was a bogus charge, of
course, but one which had become all too familiar in their world by then.

Rune
whistled as the land craft pulled up outside the Ministry. He turned to face
Thane as the two climbed out. “Is it my imagination, or has this place become
even more imposing since we left?”

Thane
shrugged. “I think it’s your imagination. We haven’t been gone that long.”

Rune
grinned. “This is so weird. You and
me
working inside
the Ministry.”

The
extreme faction of Tyranns that had grown out of the original group had their
hands and their contacts in everything, including commerce on Sera. And if a
business owner didn’t play along with a scam, they often found themselves on
the wrong end of the Regum courts, by way of false accusations and manufactured
evidence.

But
in the case of Vaughn and River’s company, it was the Regum who had wanted them
to stop writing and selling software programs for the Tyranns. They’d refused.
It wasn’t that River and Vaughn agreed with what the Tyranns had become. They
hadn’t known. None of them had until after the Regum began putting people in
jail for selling to them, or providing them a service such as software
programs.

As
usual, the Regum had gone about it half-assed backwards. Instead of
distributing information to let business and service owners know what was going
on, they came in like gangbusters and ordered them to stop selling or trading
with the Tyranns. No explanation. The fact that they’d started this department
to take back Voyeur Moon, along with others who had similar functions, only
proved they knew they’d put the cart before the horse one too many times now.
It was a start, but they could do better.
Much better.

“Weird,”
said Thane. “But I’m excited about it.” He glanced at his phone.
“Fourth floor, B wing.
We’re to report to Cord.”

“I
can’t wait to meet them. Wonder how they look for dead people?”

The
two laughed. Cord, Arlo, and the Earth girl named Fallon were the only three
people known to have escaped the infamous Zoo. And the Tyranns had promptly attempted
damage control by circulating a report that the three had been apprehended and
put to death, but the truth had leaked out. And now they ran a branch of the
department he and Thane were working for. Talk about karma.

The
reason why Rune and Thane had volunteered for this liaison position had as much
to do with what the Regum had done to Vaughn and River as it did with the
reason they’d joined Jakara and the rest of the Addonians. It was the right
thing to do on multiple levels.

After
River and Vaughn had lost their business and had been sentenced to prison on
false charges, the Regum had gone the extra step and circulated untrue stories
about the brothers to discredit them. It had worked.

Vaughn
and River had contacted now-legendary Tyrann-turned-Addonian warrior Jakara,
who in turn had enlisted the help of an Earth couple who were attorneys. Betsy
and Blake Williams had helped prisoners escape the clutches of the Tyrann Zoo
and the Addo mines before. They had come to Sera originally to work, but soon
decided their negotiating skills were needed more on Addo to help stop the
Tyranns.

Blake
and Betsy had tricked the Tyranns and the Regum courts into believing that
Vaughn and River were headed for the Zoo, in exchange for the charges being
dropped. Normally, this kind of scheme went off without a hitch and the
so-called prisoners never arrived on Voyeur Moon. They were given new
identities, and took their place on Addo among the working class, hiding for
the rest of their lives. But something had gone wrong this time, and Blake and
Betsy Williams had found themselves in Atkins Prison on Voyeur Moon.

River
and Vaughn had become fugitives from both the Regum and the Tyranns, and thus
went to work on Addo for Jakara and his band of quiet warriors, working behind
the scenes, using their IT skills to combat the threat. Rune and Thane had been
instrumental in helping free Blake and Betsy from prison, but that also had
come with a price.

River
and Vaughn now lived near the ocean on
Addo
, along
with Blake’s and Betsy’s niece, Marianne Kowalski. Jakara and Callie lived in
the same house now, as well.

Marianne
had had nearly succumbed to the same fate so many Earth women did these days.
She’d almost been tricked into coming to Voyeur Moon by the Tyranns because of who
she was. They’d sent her a letter on Earth that appeared to have come from the
Regum, asking Marianne to join her aunt and uncle on Sera.

In
reality, the Tyranns were attempting to round up any remaining families of
people like Betsy and Blake, to use those family members as bait. They were
desperate to out any Earthlings who dared to work for the Regum or Addonians
against the Tyranns.

Because
a spacecraft belonging to the Addonians had found Marianne on Earth before a
Tyrann crew found her, Jakara and his team discovered the letter scam, and were
now working to prevent any more victims of it.

They
also worked to infiltrate the Tyranns and pull off daring prison rescues, like
Blake’s and Betsy’s, but those had become increasingly difficult as the Tyranns
tightened security on Voyeur Moon even further.

But
Jakara was too tenacious to let that stop him. After Vaughn and River went into
hiding, Jakara had contacted the Regum and laid it out for them. Either they found
a way to work with the Addonians to take back Voyeur Moon and eradicate the
Tyranns, or this could go on indefinitely.

Jakara
wanted all false charges against business owners to cease. He reasoned with the
Regum, explaining that if they had better informed their people what was really
happening on Voyeur Moon in the first place, business owners would voluntarily
stop trading with the Tyranns. And no one would write software for them, or
sell it to them. It made sense to the Addonians, and the Regum
were
finally beginning to listen.

Vaughn
and River had eventually been granted a full pardon, although their business
had not been restored. In reality, they no longer wanted it. They were far too
busy working with the Addonians and enjoying their blissful life with Marianne.

As
for Thane and Rune, they had readily volunteered for this liaison position. It
was a chance to return to Sera and reconnect with old friends and family, as
well as a great opportunity to put both their former and newly acquired skills
to use in fighting the Tyranns. After all, the original core mission of the
Addonians had been to bridge the gap between Regum and Tyrann.

Now
that they realized no such bridging would be possible because the Tyranns would
rather kill every Regum and Addonian than work toward a peaceful solution, the
Addonians had turned their focus on helping the Regum stop the Tyranns for
good. And then, maybe then, they’d find a way to convince the Regum to relax
some of those ancient laws that had sparked this whole mess in the first place.

A
man could hope, after all.

They
found the Propaganda Branch of the Department of Reclaiming Voyeur Moon easily
enough, and although they’d never met Cord, Arlo, or Fallon, enough Addonians
who had met them had described them so well that Rune knew who they were
immediately.

Fallon
looked at Cord and Arlo like they’d hung the many moons of Addo, and her blonde
hair and sparkling blue eyes were exactly as Rune had pictured them. Cord had a
loud mouth, but seemed friendly, and his dark hair and dark eyes reminded Rune
of Vaughn. Arlo also had dark hair, but his eyes were as green as emeralds.

The
two walked toward the group, and Rune’s attention was drawn by another woman he
didn’t know, standing off to the side. She had a lush, curvy body, and her
smile was shy but warm. Her dark hair hung in soft curls halfway down her back,
and when she glanced at him, her dark eyes held the promise of passion and
loyalty. Now he understood what Jakara had meant when he’d described his
reaction to seeing Callie O’Doyle for the first time.

Callie
was Jakara’s mate. She was an Earth woman that Jakara had been sent to retrieve
for the holding cells, before the Zoo was built. Jakara had already opposed the
extreme faction of Tyranns quickly gaining power over the entire group, and one
look into Callie’s blue eyes had convinced him that his views were the correct
ones.

Instead
of taking her to the holding cells, he’d first hidden her inside his quarters
which at that time were on Addo. That was before the Addonians had formed and
kicked the Tyranns off Addo completely. And then Jakara had broken all the
rules and hidden Callie at his home on Voyeur Moon. Until a former friend and
his own Section Chief had betrayed him, that is. But Jakara had been drawn to
Callie with one look at her face, and that was exactly how Rune felt right now,
watching this Earth woman.

Who
was she? She obviously knew Fallon, Cord, and Arlo. She spoke to them with the
easy familiarity of talking to old friends.

“There
they are,” said Arlo, coming forward to shake hands with Rune and Thane.
“Jakara described you both so well I knew you on sight. Welcome to Sera, again.
And welcome to our little corner of the Ministry.”

“Thanks,”
said Rune, his gaze cutting to the Earth woman. “We’re happy to be here.”

“Let
me introduce you to everyone. This is Cord, and this is Fallon.”

The
two shook hands, and then Arlo moved next to the other Earth woman. “And this
is Gia Falconetti. She transferred here from one floor above us just yesterday.
Gia has been here working in the Ministry about two years, and escaped the
holding cells before she was given shelter here on Sera. She’s a translator,
and is going to be primarily responsible for writing informational pamphlets
and online content to distribute to the people of Sera and Addo.”

“We
want to help them understand what’s really happening on Voyeur Moon,” she said,
shaking first his hand and then Thane’s. Rune loved her voice. It was dusky and
warm, and it had a lyrical quality to it. He could easily imagine it whispering
and moaning in the dark, their bodies naked and sweaty as they made love for
hours. This woman was captivating. Was she with anyone? He hoped not.

“Well,
that’s why we’re here, too,” said Thane. “To let everyone know what’s going
on.” Rune cut his gaze toward his brother, grinning. He looked like a dog in
heat, not that he could blame the man.

“Well,
come on in,” said Cord. “We’ll show you to your offices.” Rune and Thane
followed him to two empty spaces that barely had room to house a desk and
chair, but it didn’t matter. They were used to working anywhere and everywhere,
so to have a dedicated space with actual walls and a door made Rune feel like
royalty.

“My
office is right next door to both of yours,” said Gia. “And Fallon, Cord, and
Arlo are around the corner.” She swept her hand in a small circle. “And here’s
the rest of it.”

He
smiled at her,
then
followed her gaze around the
remainder of the tiny department branch. There was a water cooler, and next to
that a small refrigerator and sink, with a coffee machine on the counter against
one wall. A large conference table with eight chairs around it dominated the
spot near the other wall. No windows. They must be in the center of the
building.

“Where’s
the rest of the department?” asked Thane.

“Next
door,” she said. “And no, it doesn’t look any more lavish than this.”

“We
could use some color in here,” said Rune.
“Maybe a painting
or ten?”

“I
asked if we could paint the walls, but apparently that’s not allowed.”

“They
want us to focus on our work,” said Cord, rolling his eyes. “Not on art or
color.”

Rune
nodded. “That’s the Regum, all the way.”

“We’re
all having lunch together today,” said Arlo. “So don’t make any plans.”

He
looked directly at Gia.
“Sounds good to me.”

She
returned his smile. “Apparently they have some great restaurants close to the
Ministry. So, welcome, and I’ll see you both later.”

She
disappeared into her office and shut the door. Once Rune finished setting up
his desk, which took all of ten minutes, he and Thane went into Arlo’s office
and closed the door.

Rune
didn’t waste any time. “Is she with anyone?”