I was screwed. There would be no arguing, no calling back and asking to speak to someone over Commander Zeus’s head.I’d been left behind by the Coalition. Abandoned. A pawn. A chess piece. No, not even that. Less. Completely disposable and already forgotten.
Again. Just as my birth parents had done when they gave me up in a closed adoption. Just like my adopted parents when they used me to get at each other during their divorce, and during every holiday after. I’d been a weapon to be wielded by one or the other, used to inflict maximum emotional—or financial—pain on their former spouse.
The Coalition was not going to allow me to go home. They thought I was royal? As if! I’d cleaned more toilets than any princess in the history of princesses. And betrothed? To some stranger I’d never met? Getting married in six freaking days? On my birthday?
No. No. And hell no. This couldn’t be happening. I was supposed to be home, eating overpriced chocolate cherry cake. This was all wrong.
“What just happened?” I asked. “Why does the Coalition think I’m a princess? I’m not. I promise you, I’m not. Get him back.”
I turned to find Addan and the guard both on one knee, heads bowed low like I really was royalty.
Oh, shit.
6
Addan
Fuck.As much as letting her go tore at my soul, the idea of her taking Prince Martainn as her mate made my blood boil.
“Paige.” I corrected myself. Fuck. “Your Highness, the laws are clear. You cannot leave.”
“This is insane,” she replied. “He’s wrong. That Zeus guy has to be wrong.” Her foot moved as if her body held too much energy to remain still, the odd white shoes making a tapping noise as she lifted and lowered her toes over and over again. “Has this ever happened before?”
“No. Not once since the accords were signed.” Not since Paige’s mother was murdered and her aunt, Alienor, was forced to assume the throne. At that time, Queen Alienor had approached the Coalition and negotiated The Coalition Accords. She did what she needed to do to protect the planet without committing us to being full members of the Interstellar Coalition of Planets.
So far, we’d been lucky. Commander Zeus and his battlegroup protected this sector of space, and we’d had verylittle threat from the Hive invaders. I could count the number of times we’d eliminated Hive Scouting ships on one hand over the last twenty-five years. I’d only been in command for a few years, but I knew our planet’s history.
I also knew Queen Alienor had proclaimed the female who stood before me to be dead, murdered along with her mother all those years ago.
Now that I knew the truth, Paige’s resemblance to her mother was undeniable. The same dark red hair, pale green eyes and heart-shaped face. Paige was the same age now that her mother had been when she’d been murdered. In fact, they could be twins.
How had I not seen the truth? I’d seen countless images of the former queen. Fuck me, a large portrait of Paige’s mother hung in the entryway of this very building.
I hadn’t wanted to see the truth, too consumed with fucking Paige and feasting on her sweet pussy to acknowledge her true identity.
Still, why had the queen lied all these years? Not just to the public, but to me? Was it to protect her claim to the throne? Or had she feared planetary unrest if our people knew the truth, that an infant princess had not been murdered, but taken? Gone missing?
Did she truly believe the princess was dead? How would she have come to that conclusion without proof? Without seeing the infant’s dead body? If there was any doubt, why keep the possibility a secret?
The answer came to me before I’d finished thinking the question. The former queen’s loyal guardians would never have given up the search. We would have turned the galaxy inside out to find the missing princess. They never would have stopped looking. I’d been young then, a lad of ten, just entering my training at our military academy. Even then, I’d been devastatedby the loss, as had the entire planet. The noble houses had erupted. We’d been on the brink of civil war.
Queen Alienor had been a steadfast and responsible leader. She’d routed out the filth who’d attempted to end the royal line and stabilized the planet in a time of extreme unrest. Her son, Prince Martainn, had only seen five summers at the time. The fact that he’d grown into a spoiled, arrogant ass was irrelevant to the law. If Paige was who Commander Zeus claimed, Prince Martainn was, in fact, her betrothed.
He didn’t deserve her. Yet I knew the laws of Insuri better than most. The only way for a royal princess to break a betrothal was if she found and claimed her Resonant, the male whose energy signature and DNA both activated and resonated with her own. Her perfect match.
The day before, when she was between my thighs and her hand stroked my cock, I’d asked her if it was her intention to claim me. She’d said no.
I was not hers. I was not her Resonant, not her perfect match.
There was nothing either of us could do about that biological fact. I had failed to activate her mating instincts, her need to claim me, the primal, instinctive need all Insuri females experienced when they met the male destined to be theirs.
It was not me.
The queens of old were not cruel, they allowed their offspring twenty-five years to find or select a mate of their own. However, to ensure the continuity of the royal bloodline, all female heirs were betrothed at birth, just as Paige had been. Should they fail to find and claim a Resonant mate by their twenty-sixth birthing day celebration, they were wed to their betrothed.
A few females grew to love their betrothed and eagerly awaited the day. Some were lucky enough to stumble upon their Resonant mate before the deadline.
Most hoped, but did not claim a male for their own, and had no choice but to obey the Queen’s law. Paige, though, was different. She didn’t seem to know the rules. Didn’t know anything about Insuri. Didn’t know about her betrothed. Living on Earth, she’d had no time to know him or find her true mate.
