And my heart had nearly shattered into a thousand pieces of want and a thousand pieces of despair. I went to bed alone. Every night. Four nights I could have been with my mates, if they were mine.
Which they weren’t.
Apparently, my boss had already contacted Queen Leah and asked when she was going to send me home. He had work for me to do. Which was depressing to even think about.
I wanted to scream and curse, I wanted to beat the walls with my fists and pull my hair out. I wanted to rip out the hope, rip out my feelings and transport home without every cell in my body yearning for what I couldn't have.
The wistfulness I'd been feeling for the last two days had turned into a despondency so gut wrenching I couldn't bear to look at them. Every time I closed my eyes, I'd see all three of them, remember how Kayson and Geros touched me. Filled me. Fucked me. The way Kayson's tongue had worked my body until I was an exhausted mess. The way he'd tasted on my tongue. The way Mal knew to do things to me that I never would have known to ask for. The intensity in his gaze as I’d looked into his eyes, an orgasm riding me. I ached for all three of them. I didn't know if was from their magical Seed Power or because I had real feelings for them. Did it matter?
Everything was a damn mess and the fact that we were sleeping in the same apartment, just a few steps away from one another did not help. Not one bit.
Every time I heard their breathing in the darkness, I'd wanted to be in their arms. But I couldn't approach them. Not when Mal appeared to be actively avoiding me like a was a disease he might catch.
Tonight, I was going to tell them how I felt. I had it all planned out. I would state my desires plainly. I would not cry. I would simply explain that I had developed feelings for them, and I would like to have extra time to explore those feelings. Kayson and Geros, I hoped, would agree to give us a chance. Mal I was not sure about. He confused me. I could not figure out what he wanted from me. One moment his gaze made my body feel like he'd set me on fire, the next his gaze was so cold it was like he'd tossed a bucket of ice water over my head.
I needed to talk to him first. If he wasn't interested, I didn't want to embarrass myself in front of the other two by making an ass of myself in front of him. Rejection was hard enough. Rejection with an audience would break my heart. Because I did want him. His intensity. His dominance. The way he bossed me and made me call him, Sir. Everything he did woke a part of me I'd been ignoring for years. I needed him. Too much.
If Geros and Kayson would agree, I had decided to find another dominant male, maybe from Sector Two--like Mal--to join us.
My boss back home didn't know how long this assignment was going to take. He knew I was helping the queen. That I would be gone as long as I was needed here, be that a week or a year.
But he did expect me to come back. He was even checking my mail and watering my plants. Make that plant, singular. I was not very good at keeping things alive.
Frustration made me bold. I had no idea what the queen was planning, but I knew that I had to do something. I had to make sure that none of them got hurt. I had to make sure that the VSS plan was stopped, and that the princesses were safe.
So I did the only thing I could think of. I walked to the throne room and requested an audience with the queen. I didn't know what I was going to say, but I couldn’t spend another day wandering around, aching for alien males I could not have. All three of them had resumed their guard duties and worked strange hours. Which left me a lot of time to think. Too much time.
To my surprise, the guard returned quickly and led me inside with a kind smile.
I stepped into the opulent throne room for the first time, my eyes widening in awe. The high vaulted ceiling, the intricate tapestries, the gold and silver accents - it was like stepping into a fantasy world. The floor was a glossy marble, reflecting the light from the many candles and chandeliers that hung from the ceiling. At the far end of the room, four ornate thrones perched atop a dais. The first throne, the largest and most elaborate, was for the queen. I could only imagine her regal splendor as she sat upon it. The three other thrones, smaller but still quite luxurious, were for the three kings. Each throne was made of gold and encrusted with precious gems, the backs of the thrones decorated with intricate carvings of the royal crest.
The thrones were intimidating. Massive. And empty.
The guard turned on his heel and left me standing alone in the cavernous space. I turned in a complete circle, wondering what the heck I was supposed to do now.
“Smith! Over here.” Queen Leah’s voice echoed. I had to work to locate the source. I passed through an archway nearly as tall as the two-story home I’d grown up in and walked out into a courtyard.
I stepped into the garden and the beauty of the flowers and plants took my breath away. The vibrant colors danced around me, and the sweet scent of the blooms filled the air. Everywhere I looked, there were exotic plants I'd never seen before.
In the center of the garden, a lovely woman with red hair stood with a small blonde girl, about two years old. She was pointing to the different plants and flowers, telling the little girl their names. I couldn't help but smile, watching them together. The woman's face was full of joy, and the little girl's eyes were wide with wonder.
The two of them were so peaceful in the midst of the colorful blooms. I stood there for a few moments, taking it all in. It was easy to forget that the queen’s other daughter had recently healed. Or that the queen herself had been threatened and targeted by assassins multiple times. She was the glue that held the royal family together. Without her, or her daughters, the three kings might not stand so solidly together.
I had learned more of their history the past days. The three kings were identical triplets, separated at birth and sent to the three warring sectors of Viken to learn and grow. The idea was to unite them when they were grown, each familiar and loved by the sector where they had grown up. The one hang-up had been finding an heir all three sectors would accept after their deaths.
And so, the story goes, the three kings were matched to Leah, the gorgeous human woman sitting in this garden with me, and all three had filled her with their seed within an hour of their meeting. That way, no one would ever be able to argue who her true father was, or which sector the princess belonged to. Princess Allayna was truly a child of all three of them. And now, so was Lilliana. As the kings were identical triplets, even genetic testing would not yield results.
The Viken Sector Separatists profited greatly from the ongoing Viken wars. They had spent the last four years trying to disrupt the fragile new peace, kill the queen before she could produce an heir. And now, they were targeting the little princesses as well.
Master Gee was one of them. But he wasn’t the top of the chain. I’d been waiting to find out if the interrogations would yield any new information, but there had been nothing so far.
“Don’t be a stranger. Come in. Come in.” The queen motioned me forward.
“This courtyard is beautiful.” And it was. I could understand why the queen spent time here.
Leah smiled at little Lilliana, taking a flower from the little girl’s hand. “Thank you, lovebug. This is perfect. It’s very yellow. Can you find a red one?”
The little girl clapped excitedly and toddled off on unsteady feet to find her mother a red flower.
