Abziarr and his unwilling Queen (Lords of Arr'Carthian 1.5)

The glider door slid open and I rose from my seat to exit. My feet touched the Arr’Carthian palace grounds. Even after four months of peace between the two royal houses of Arr’Verkuzzi and Arr’Carthian, a slight unease still crept over me when I stepped upon land that had, not long before, been enemy territory. I automatically felt for my dagger, sheathed to my left, to reassure myself that I was not stepping entirely unarmed onto once enemy territory.

“Your Royal Highness,” the palace servant greeted me, bowing respectfully. “May I ask you to follow me?”

I nodded and crossed the royal park behind the male. I had to slacken my pace so as not to overtake the servant.

“Abziarr!” A joyful cry sounded and a smile softened my tense features, as my daughter ran across the lawn to me. My daughter! That was still a novelty for me – unfamiliar - especially as she regarded the prince of the Arr’Carthian as her father and, to her, I was simply Abziarr. But I could live with that. I was happy to be able to have any contact with her after so many years and I was truly grateful to Marruk for raising Solima as his own daughter.

“Solima,” I responded, delighted, taking her in my arms.

“Did you think it over?” she asked with excitement, her eyes shining as she looked at me.

“Of course I thought it over,” I said, laughing, “but I could hardly transport a foal by glider. It’s coming by land and you’ll need to contain yourself for two or three days more before you have it.”

Her expression reflected her childlike disappointment, but then she smiled and took my arm.

“That’s OK. We’ve got massive news. They’re on their way here. The Cordelia is already very close.”

“Is it really?” I said, smiling at Solima’s enthusiasm.

Not long before, Solima had been abducted by slave traders and, whilst in captivity, she had met the likewise abducted Ladies Keela, Amber, Lory and Charly, all of whom came from a planet called Earth.

When her adoptive father, Marruk, had freed her, Keela and Amber, Marruk had fallen in love with Keela and made her his mate. Lory and Charly were later freed by Kordan, the general of the Arr’Carthian, and Amano, the captain of the
Cordelia
- they then travelled to Earth on the Cordelia to enlist more willing females for the Arr’Carthians, because there were very few females on the planet Karrx7. Solima could clearly hardly wait to see the Earth females again and to meet the new females.

“Come on, we’re sitting on the terrace,” said Solima, taking my hand.

I let her lead the way and we stepped onto the terrace where King Mortociar and Queen Moreena were sitting with Prince Berka and the Earth female Amber.

“Your Highness,” I greeted the queen, kissing her hand, before shaking the king’s hand and he gestured to me to take a seat.

“It’s high time we left off the formalities,” said the king. “After all, today is a significant day. Call me Mortociar and my wife Moreena.” He turned to his mate. “You have nothing against that, do you,
Carisha
?”

The queen smiled.

“Of course not. What could I possibly have against that?” She took my hand and squeezed it kindly. “Through Solima you are actually almost part of the family, my boy,” she said.

I did not think badly of the fact that she called me ‘my boy’. With anyone else I would have considered it to be showing disrespect, but Moreena said it with so much maternal warmth that I wished that I had had a mother like her. My father had kept my mother away from me. I had hardly ever seen her and knew her only as a timid and subservient female who had feared my father – and rightly so, because in the end he bore the blame for her death.

“Would you like some tea?” asked Amber, pouring me a cup as I nodded. I took the tea and drank a few sips. For a while we chatted about this and that, then Keela and Marruk came from the palace to join us.

“I thought you weren’t going to come,” said Moreena and the king chuckled behind his hand.

“I’m sure they had more important things to do,” said Mortociar with a wink, causing Keela to blush.

I hid my smile behind my hand. I liked Keela a lot. When I abducted her four months earlier, in order to get to Marruk through her, I had the pleasure of getting to know her a little. She was not only strong, faithful and brave, she was also amusing.

“Is there any news?” she asked, clearly in order to move the conversation away from her love life.

“Yes, they’ll be here soon,” answered the queen. “Ceyla? Calculate the arrival time of the Cordelia.”

“At this point the Cordelia is within our orbit, Your Highness,” replied the palace computer.

“Thank you, Ceyla.”

Keela and Marruk sat on an empty bench and Amber, clearly revealing a pregnant belly beneath her dress, poured them tea.

“Your Highness,” Ceyla spoke again. “My sensors are telling me that the Cordelia’s beamer has just been activated. General Kordan is with the first landing group.”

“Thank you for the update,” Moreena responded, delighted.

Kordan was the first to come into sight. No wonder – this giant even towered above most Carthians by half a head. Keela was clearly unable to remain seated. She immediately jumped up, craning her neck in her excitement. She suddenly shouted out.

“Susan!” she called, her voice cracking with emotion. “That’s my friend, Susan!”

She ran through the garden towards the new arrivals - her friend had now spotted her, too, and was waving. They embraced, laughing and crying at the same time. I rose from my seat, as did the others, to follow Keela.

“I don’t believe it! You’re really here? Susan? That is sooo… cool!” I heard Keela say excitedly.

Her friend was laughing. I was as if hypnotized. Her laughter released an electrifying tingling sensation deep within me and my tiger became restless.

‘
Mate
,’ I heard it inside my head. ‘
My mate!
’

“Did you think I was going to let you have all the fun here? And anyway, I needed to bring you something,” said Susan - I was staring at her lips like a complete fool. Those lips! I wanted to kiss them. No! I had to kiss them. I was suddenly incapable of thinking of anything else.

“What?” I heard Keela ask.

“Tarzan and Jane, of course!” said those lips, smiling. If only she would smile at me like that.

I wondered who Tarzan and Jane might be and why they seemed to be so important to Keela. I only hoped that this Susan had no mate - if she did, I would challenge him. I had to have her! I would fight any male for her, if I had to.

“They’re here? You’ve brought them with you?” Keela asked so loudly that it hurt my ears.

“They’re still on the ship, they’ll be brought down soon,” her friend explained.

“That’s … I’m lost for words,” sniffed Keela.

Then she turned to another young female who had just arrived and hugged her. She had black hair tied in a ponytail.

“I’m so happy that you’re well,” said Keela. “We’ve all been so worried since your abduction.”

“I’m happy to be back here, too,” answered the black-haired female who had to be Lory, because Kordan was standing behind her, territorially,

looking as if he would devour anyone who came too close to his mate. “I thought it would be great to go back to Earth, but once I was there, I just wanted to get back here as soon as possible. We’ve got so much to tell you - it’ll take days.”

“We’re having a barbecue this evening. We can chat all night,” declared Keela.

In the meantime more and more people from the
Cordelia
had arrived in the garden. Soon there was such confusion that I no longer knew whether I was coming or going. Everyone was greeting one another and talking at the same time. I observed the situation with amusement. Two little wild cats, of a breed unknown to me, had also been brought along and they were moving back and forth, restlessly, in a cage. Then something dawned on me and I laughed quietly. So these were Tarzan and Jane - two cats. They looked a little small and delicate compared with my tiger, but Keela seemed to be very pleased to see the cats. My attention returned to Susan. Her dark brown locks fell, tousled, over her shoulders and she was just pushing a strand behind one of her small, sweet ears. She was laughing about something. I had long since zoned out of the conversations around me: too much confusion and the only thing that I was interested in was this beautiful Earth female - my mate.

The peace treaty was signed, but all that I could think about was Susan. Tomorrow I would return to my castle and I wanted Susan to come with me. But how was I to manage that? Up to now she had given me the cold shoulder. She was standing by the fire with a glass of
tajaka
, talking with some females who had also come on the
Cordelia
. The fire created a gentle shimmer on her skin and her eyes shone as she laughed about something that one of the females had said. She still wore her hair loose and I wanted to bury my hands in those locks. When she was close enough for me to breathe in her scent, I immediately grew hard. She smelt of temptation itself. My tiger became restless in her proximity, too, and I had difficulty keeping him in check. The Earth females had been told that we were shape shifters, but I did not want to risk shape shifting here. When I showed my mate my alter ego, I wanted to be alone with her.

“You’ve got your eye on the little one, have you?” I heard a deep voice beside me.

I turned to look at the Carthian general. He was a giant of a male, even by our standards here on Karrx7. Unlike most of the males here he did not wear his hair long, but cropped short and spiky. Kordan was a master in remaining expressionless. Many thought him cold-hearted, but I suspected that he simply masked his feelings. He could not be all that cold if he had been able to conquer a female like Lory.

“Yes,” I responded only vaguely, looking back at Susan.

“She won’t yield to you voluntarily,” Kordan said quietly.

“Really? And what does the general suggest?”

“Lory was also a difficult case like this one. There are females who can’t be won over with beautiful words and gifts. Some females have to be forced a little.”

“Are you suggesting that I rape her?” I asked, glaring at the general. His expression did not change, then he looked towards the fire, to Lory, who was standing with the queen.

“No,” he said. “Then she would hate you. But you could abduct her and then persuade her to yield to you. I consider you to be a male who is capable of taming such a wild little cat. But you have to have her on your territory. She’ll never listen to you here.”

I took in Kordan’s advice. He was right. Susan would never go with me voluntarily and the chances of winning her, if she stayed here, were zero. But I had to go back because I had a lot of duties. I did not want to leave my brother, for too long, with the reins in his hand. It might occur to him to take my place forever. I had to leave the next day and if I wanted Susan to be with me, then I would probably do what Kordan had suggested.

“Yes, you’re right,” I said at last. “Tomorrow I’ll take her with me, whether she wants to come or not.”

“Tomorrow? When all eyes are upon you? I’d suggest that you abduct her tonight.”

“Why are you doing this?” I asked, because I was wondering what the general hoped to gain by helping me. Was it a trap to see whether I was worthy of peace?”

“Because I know from my own experience how important it is to conquer one’s mate,” he answered quietly.

We looked at one another. It was unnerving, looking a male in the eye and not being able to read a hint of emotion in his expression. He must be a difficult opponent: not only because of his massive stature, but because it was like dealing with a robot. With most males it was possible to predict what they would do: it showed in their expression, milliseconds before they struck. But with Kordan it was like staring at a mask.

“You know that Marruk and his males will be after you, as soon as they know that you’ve abducted the female?” he asked.

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