Ynyr (Tornians Book 3)
Read Ynyr (Tornians Book 3) Online
Authors: M.K. Eidem
By M.K. Eidem
I’d like to thank my family for all their support during this exciting time of my life, especially my husband. I couldn’t have done it without you. I’d also like to thank all my friends that have been there for me, answering questions and helping guide me, Judy, Reese, Sally, Julie, Reese, Fern, Beth, Susan and Narelle. Thanks, ladies!
Science Fiction Romance
Ynyr: Tornian Series
M.K. Eidem
Copyright © 2015 by Michelle K. Eidem
First E-Book Publication February 2015
Kindle Edition
Cover Design by Judy Bullard
All rights reserved:
This literary work may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, including electronic or photographic reproduction, in whole or in part, without the express written permission
All characters, places and events in this book are fictitious or have been used fictitiously, and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead, actual events, locale, or organizations are strictly coincidental.
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Synopsis
Ynyr was a third male, and while he was a fit and worthy Warrior, he had always known that no female would ever Join with him. Too many looked down on his family because of his mother’s refusal to leave his manno. He knew Ull would be able to overcome this because he was a first male and would one day be a Lord. Maybe even Vali, since he was a second male, but neither Ynyr nor his younger brother Zev would ever be acceptable to a female. The most they could hope for was to serve their House with honor but that all changed with the arrival of the females from Earth.
Abby's life had not been an easy one, especially after the death of her family when she had been sixteen, but she had thought things were finally looking up. She was a year away from achieving her dream of becoming a teacher. Soon she would be making a difference in the lives of children others had given up on... that all changed when she was abducted by the Tornians.
Ynyr and Abby had come together in the most unusual of ways, but that was just the beginning of their unique relationship. Together they had to do something no other Lord and Lady had to do. They had to take a House that had been destroyed by deceit and evil and turn it back into the worthy and respected House that it had once been.
Will the secrets left behind by Bertos and Risa tear them apart? Or will it be Abby's secret and Ynyr's reaction to it that does?
Ynyr sat in his new House area speaking to Korin when movement across the room drew his eye and he watched as the females under Grim's protection reentered House Luanda's area. It still amazed him how different each female was.
Tornian females all had black hair with varying skin tones and eye color. Their great height easily proclaimed them Tornian.
Earth females, while their skin tone also varied, so did their size and shape. None of them were even close to six feet, but it was the smallest among them that had made his breath catch from the first moment he had seen her.
He knew if he were ever to get close to her, she would not even come half way up to his chest. However, what she lacked in height, she made up for with soft, lush curves. They made him want to pull her close, made him want to protect her, even while he wanted to sink into her softness.
Then there was the color of her hair, it was nearly white yet when the light hit it just right, there were golden streaks running through it. Streaks the color of hunaja, a rare sticky sweet substance found only on his home planet of Betelgeuse. Her eyes, they were the most beautiful blue he had ever seen, and he knew he could lose himself in them if she let him.
She had captivated him from the first moment he had seen her at the Joining Ceremony. He hadn’t been able to help but wonder if she were the female he had spent so much time talking to through the hedge of the female’s garden. He could still vividly remember the day he had been walking along a path in a section seldom used when he was on his way to his resting chamber. Few used the path because it nearly doubled the trek to go outside and around the wall when there was an indoor corridor that went through Torino. Most Warriors only wanted to rest after a hard day of training so they used the shorter path through the House to their resting chamber.
On that day, however Ynyr knew sleep would be a long time coming. The Searcher had arrived with the Earth females the day before and everyone had been in an uproar because King Grim had claimed one of the females meant for a warrior chosen for the Joining Ceremony. Lord Bertos Guttuso was especially outraged and had immediately started to help his first male, Luuken, petition the Emperor to force King Grim to present the female.
Ynyr had never cared for Lord Bertos. He was one of the males that looked down on Ynyr and his younger brother Zev, all because their mother had refused to leave their manno after she had given him his first two males. It didn’t matter to Bertos that while he also had male offspring and didn’t need more he had still taken another female. That female who had given him another male several years ago and
she
had not left
him
.
However, in this situation Ynyr found he was in agreement with Lord Bertos.
There were twelve fit and worthy males, chosen by their Lords waiting for the Joining Ceremony. His oldest brother Ull being one of them. Together they represented the best the Tornian Empire had to offer and any female would feel honored to Join with one… at least that was what he had thought until he heard the Earth female softly weeping.
A female should never have a reason to cry. He knew she thought she was alone and that she was trying to control herself, but he could also hear the heartache and
fear
in her little sobs. For some reason, the sound had hurt him.
He had not understood then why she was crying, but he knew he couldn’t just walk away. So he had done something that he had known was wrong. Something that would get him into serious trouble if it were ever discovered… he talked to the female and
she
talked to
him
.
Over the course of the following weeks, Ynyr was shocked at what he had learned from the female. This female had been alone... without male protection...
for years
. She said she hadn't needed any male to protect her, not until
they
had arrived. She told him about her family, about her mother, her manno and younger brother, told him how happy they had been together. Then she had told him how they had died.
She told him about her ‘parents’, as she called them and their love for one another. How she had hoped to one day to find it for herself but now she knew she never would… because of
them
.
Ynyr found for the first time that he was ashamed, of himself and of what his people had done.
A part of him had always thought his mother was strange… and selfish… and even
wrong
in her refusal to Join with another male after she’d presented his manno with Ull and Vali.
Now, after talking to this female, he wondered if maybe his mother was the
only
Tornian female who was doing it
right
. According to his little female… and that was how he had begun to think of her, as his... It was normal for Earth females to stay with just one male. It was normal for them to present multiple offspring to him and only him. It was normal for the male and female to care about each other.
That was what she wanted. To be with one male and only one male and raise her offspring. She did not want to be forced to abandon them. When she had spoken of what
they
were expecting her to do she had started to cry again.
Her words had caused Ynyr to realize that deep inside it was something he also greatly desired too. Not only to have a female, but to have just
one
female and spend his life with her like his manno and mother had done.
When the day of the Joining Ceremony had finally arrived, Ynyr had been torn. He wanted his brother to have a female. He just didn't want it to be
his
female. He had thought to speak to his manno about it. Yet he knew he couldn't, for there would be nothing his manno could do. His only hope that his little female would find happiness with the male she chose.
Nothing had gone as planned on the day of the Joining Ceremony. It had started with King Grim's female choosing Grim, who had been on the Assembly floor to answer the charges brought against him, as her male, instead of one of the other twelve. Then the remaining females, instead of choosing one of the males presented, had walked by them and asked for protection from the House Luanda until
they
found a fit and worthy male to Join with. It had shocked and surprised everyone that Grim had accepted them… every... one!
That should have been more than enough for one day, but it appeared the Goddess was not finished with her once chosen warriors.
It had been discovered that Lord Bertos and his current female Lady Risa had been attempting to end the Vasteri line. Lord Bertos, a male descending of Emperor Lucan Berto, the male that had caused the great infection, could become Emperor. However, he was not alone in his betrayal. Lord Reeve of House Reeve from the planet Vesta had also been a part of the conspiracy.
When Luuken, Bertos’ first male, finally exposed his manno’s plot chaos had once again descended as Bertos, Reeve and their warriors had tried to take over the Assembly.
They had failed.
Which was why Ynyr was now a Lord.
∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞
“Lords, Warriors, Tornians.” The Empress’ voice pulled Ynyr’s attention away from the female that had captured his attention and the past.
“Many changes have happened in the last week, changes that will take time to adjust to, such as a female addressing this Assembly.” Kim looked around the Assembly and saw she had everyone’s attention. “It is my duty as a Tornian. It is my right as your Empress, to see to it that
every
female is as happy with her male as I am with mine." She gave Wray a loving look. “That is why we,” Kim gestured to the females in Grim’s area, then to those around the Assembly, “have returned to this Assembly, for there is a female under King Grim’s protection that wishes to choose her male." Kim’s statement was met with a moment of stunned silence before all eyes turned to House Luanda.
Ynyr watched Queen Lisa stand as the Empress finished speaking, her eyes traveling over the Assembly for several moments before she spoke. "Empress Kim is correct. Abby,” The Queen gestured and the hunaja haired female that had so captured Ynyr’s attention stood. "One of the females under King Grim's protection has found a male that
she
believes is worthy of her. Since the Emperor has dissolved the Tornian Joining Ceremony, we, your females, have decided that a new tradition is needed, a blending of the two cultures if you will. On Earth, there is also a ceremony for when a male and female decide to Join. It is witnessed by the male and female’s family and friends, showing they support the union. The male and female face one another, they speak vows and make promises to one another. On Tornian, the female removes her cape and the male puts his own around her, signifying his willingness to care for and protect her." Lisa paused.
"As Abby will be the first to choose her male here on Tornian it is her right to decide the ceremony and I believe she has chosen very wisely.” Lisa’s gaze turned to House Rigel.
“Lady Isis if you, Lord Oryon and your male offspring would present yourselves on the Assembly floor, House Luanda will join you there, so all can witness this joyous occasion."
∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞
Ynyr was the last to arrive on the Assembly floor and while he moved to stand next to his younger brother Zev, his eyes never left the tiny female.
Abby… this beautiful female’s name was Abby, but was she the one he had spoken to? Would she choose him? Doubtful, because even though he was now a Lord, his House was in shambles. No female would be willing to live there until it was secure and that could take years.
∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞
"Two families now face one another," Lisa began. "Showing their support for the Joining of this male and female. Soon they will become one family, an Earth tradition. It is Abby's choice though to follow the Tornian tradition of her male covering her with his cape, surrounding her in his protection. A blending of the two traditions." Turning Lisa gave Abby a fierce hug. "Are you sure?” She asked softly.
"Yes," Abby spoke softly and Ynyr stiffened. Nodding Lisa stepped back looking to Grim.
"This female made a request for protection from House Luanda,” Grim told them. “A request I gladly granted. Abby now states she has found a male worthy of her and I agree. She has chosen well. With this Joining, House Luanda and House Rigel shall now always be linked for Abby is a member of
our
family." Grim looked down to Abby. "Abby choose your male."
∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞
Abby took a deep, steadying breath, then stepped away from Grim, moving toward House Rigel. She couldn’t believe she was actually going to do this. She was going to choose a male. One she barely knew. No, that was wrong. She knew Ynyr. He was the one that had calmed her fears. He had made her feel safe and that was when he had only been a voice through the hedge.
How her life had changed in these last few months. The decision to work late at the college library, covering for Anne so she could go to a party had been what had brought Abby to Tornian along with the other eleven females from Earth. She had been terrified when she had awakened to a yellow-skinned male leaning over her. She remembered screaming, remembered trying to fight her way out of his grip, but he’d been too strong.
He had given her a hard shake, then spoke to her for several minutes, forcing her to answer questions that made no sense. Neither did the fact that she knew the answers. Finally, after giving her arms one last painful squeeze, he had left, and Rebecca had been there, wrapping her arms around her, drying her tears.
It had been just her and Rebecca at first, but that hadn’t lasted long as one by one, more women had been brought into the room. Some by the yellow-skinned bastard they came to know as Luuken and some by others. The only constant was the blue-skinned one called Callen. He was kind, would smile at them and answer any questions they had.
Lisa was the last one brought on board, and that was when Abby had finally accepted the fact she was never getting off that alien space ship they had been brought to. She was never going to get back home. They were being taken to a planet called Tornian to Join with fit and worthy males because it had been discovered they were breeding compatible with their males.
Something called the great infection had spread through the Tornian people and the males now outnumber their females two hundred to one. They needed females, so they came to Earth and took them.
Abby had watched as Lisa had demanded she be returned home. They had all done that but then Lisa had announced that she had children on Earth and that she couldn’t leave them. They had all been shocked. It was the one thing they all had in common, the Tornians called it unprotected, meaning there was no male protecting them. Abby called it alone, meaning there was no one that was going to miss them if they were gone.
Abby’s family had been killed in a car accident four years earlier. They had all gone out for a family dinner, her mom, dad, little brother and her. It was something they did every Friday night. Pizza and a movie. A sudden ice storm had come in while they were in the movie. On the way home, her dad lost control of the car on a curve and it rolled down a ravine. Her parents had been killed instantly. Her little brother, Davy, died in surgery and Abby, while she had no life-threatening injuries, had been in a coma for three days. When she woke, she discovered her arm was broken and her family was gone.