The only positive out of this entire situation was that we wouldn’t have to suffer much longer.
***
Adrian, Warlord Max’s Estate
The soft knock on the bedroom door had to be my mother. Stefani was already here, sitting on the oversized—Atlan sized—lounge that was puffy, soft, and large enough to hold four or five average humans.
“Come in.” I stood before a large mirror. I didn’t think it was an actual mirror, more like an advanced screen of some kind. It turned off when I wasn’t looking, the floor to ceiling frame becoming a lovely piece of abstract art. I guess art was art, no matter what planet you were on.
“Girls, how are you?” Indeed, it was our mother. Alone. Which was rare these days. Guess that was to be expected when she was head-over-heels in love with Max. They were good together. Really, really good.
“This gown is amazing, Mom.” Stefani waved her hand down over her torso to indicate the dark green gown she wore. This one was much fancier than the simple dresses we’d worn to the medical facility—make that prison—earlier. Same basic style, but these evening gowns had sparkling gold strands woven through the fabric in fascinating geometric designs. The patterns actually fooled the eye into thinking the lines were moving. It was totally amazing. I would have been excited about our attire—my gown was similar, but the base fabric was the color of yummy dark chocolate—except for the fact that I had on mating cuffs and no mate in sight.
Thank god the Atlans had updated their technology when it came to the cuffs. Apparently, the pain response programmed into the cuffs if a woman was separated from her beast was too strong for the human nervous system. So, they’d adapted the cuffs to make it possible to lessen the effect or turn it completely off.
I’d chosen ‘off’after the first zap had dropped me to my knees. My forearms still ached from the jolt I’d received when Max picked me up and carried me out of Kovo’s cell like I was a misbehaving toddler.
I’d expected a lecture on the way home. I’d received worried looks from both Mom and Stefani, and stony silence from Max.
Of course, he was the Atlan. The big, famous warlord. He was the one who was going to have to help me with this mess. Help me save Kovo.
Right? Hewasgoing to help me?
“Mom?”
“Yes?”
I turned away from the mirror, the dress and the fancy hairdo mom’s attendant had insisted on unable to hold my interest. Stefani’s hands were in her lap, locked together, her knuckles white. She looked gorgeous. Anxious. She didn’t speak. Which was fine. This was my mess. My mate. My fight.
“How are we going to get Kovo out of there? They can’t execute him now, right? He has me, a mate. He won’t go crazy. They’ll let him go? Do a retrial? Appeal? Something?”
Mom cleared her throat. That was never a good sign. “No. He is not there because he has mating fever. He is there because he committed murder.”
“Who? Who did he kill? Because if it was some jerk, or drug lord, or criminal that deserved it, they should reconsider.”
“You know that’s not the way the law works, sis. At least not back home. Murder is murder.” Stefani kept her voice low, almost a whisper.
I turned to my mother. “No one has told me anything. Not you. Not Max. Not any of the people who work in your house. Not that Doctor Helion creep. If Kovo’s going to die, I have the right to know the details about what he supposedly did.”
“Supposedly?” my sister asked.
I glared at Stefani. Sometimes it was uncanny, staring into a face exactly like my own. Sometimes, like now, I just wanted her to shut the hell up. “Yes. Innocent until proven guilty—”
“Which he has been.” My mother took a seat next to Stefani as I walked back and forth, so agitated I felt like I had bugs crawling around between my skin and my dress.
“Guilty of what, Mom? They said he killed someone? Okay. That’s what soldiers do. I just don’t think he committed a cold blooded murder. That is a totally different crime. My gut is telling me something isn’t right. Someone is lying. And even if Kovo did murder someone, I am one hundred percent sure they deserved it.”
“That doesn’t make sense, honey. There is no way you can know that.”
I didn’t dare look at my mom, didn’t want to glare at her or give her the evil eye. She didn’t deserve to feel the brunt of the rage I was feeling on Kovo’s behalf. “Like there was no way I could have known he was my mate? That his beast would not only accept me, but want me so much he refused to transform back into his normal, Atlan self?”
“He did what?” My mom sounded shocked. “Is that why he was in his beast form when we all arrived?”
“Yes. The beast told me Kovo refused to claim me, even though he knew I was his.”
“This doesn’t make any sense.” My mom, the queen of this proverbial castle, stood and began to pace as well. Her gown was a shimmering wall of black that reflected rainbows of colors when she moved, like a dark opal. She was covered in expensive jewels and her mating cuffs had been upgraded as well. They were beautiful, obviously expensive, and one could easily argue they belonged on display like an ornate set of crown jewels.
I looked down at the plain, pewter looking cuffs on my own wrists and sighed. As a representation of the differences in our situations, nothing could have been more perfect.
