When we docked on Parvac, the Valens returned to their estate. Grandmother was eager to return to her schedule. I assumed her new man had worn her out. Unfortunately, Grandmother wasn’t the only one with a schedule to resume. The Hadrian was returning to Galaxic space. I didn’t even bother trying to hide my displeasure. Actually, I threw a fit, and Neema helped.
“See what you’ve done? You’ve spoiled her. She expects starship captains to forgo their duties for her amusement,” Eric said to Kane.
“Don’t blame me. Blame him.” Kane pointed at Papa. “I take orders the same as you do.”
Papa smiled at both of them and kissed my forehead before picking Neema up and tickling her. “Yes, my darling begins to behave as she should. I plan to spoil her even more in your absence.”
Neema giggled at her Gapa.
As always, saying goodbye to Quaid was torture and made me sad for the remainder of the day. Knowing my heart, my husbands were sweet and attentive until they too abandoned me to see to their own responsibilities. Even Sparrow left to go to her lab. Fitz alone remained with me, so I decided to be extra sweet to him. I was sitting on the couch with his head on my lap, running my fingers through his hair when Rolf interrupted.
“Princess, Inquisitor Gordian wishes an audience.”
Concern made my brow wrinkle. Usually, when one of my butlers introduced a male in that particular manner, it meant an offer of marriage was about to be made. Fitz sat up and lowered his bare feet to the white carpeting. I glanced to the right through the patio windows and saw Pierce, Lorca, and Thunderdrop playing with the children. Fitz and I stood as Cormac entered. Giving him my sweetest smile, I curtsied since he was carrying a large dress box tied with a bow.
“Good morning, Cormac. May I offer you some refreshments?”
“Yes, thank you. Coffee to go. This is for you. Please, go change.” I raised an eyebrow and puckered my lips at him in question. Cormac raised an eyebrow right back at me. “That’s an order, Ensign Probus.”
My fancy artificial heart sped up, and I tore the bow off the box. My excited squeal almost made Rolf spill the coffee. I kissed Cormac’s cheek and ran down the hall to my room to change. Fitz followed and helped me into my cadet’s uniform. My hand kept creeping up to touch my rank insignia.
“Let me take a picture, Teagan.” Fitz grinned at me.
After posing for Fitz, this time for him and not in the nude for a hired artist, which had been incredibly embarrassing, I ran back to the sitting room, jumped on Cormac, and gave him kisses all over his face. His deep chuckles resonated throughout my sitting room. I released my legs from around his waist and hopped down.
“Are you ready for your first day?”
I smoothed down my jacket. “Yes, sir!”
Fitz laughed at my bubbly behavior. Rolf brought lidded coffees to us on a tray. I held mine in my left hand, so I could hold Cormac’s hand in my right as we walked through the Palace. When I started swinging our joined hands back and forth as we walked, Cormac’s laughter echoed along the halls. Captain Merick Carus and Vice Admiral Dario Galerius shook their heads at us and grinned as we walked past them. A few of Papa’s officers didn’t look amused. From them, I sensed thick disapproval.
Whispering to Cormac, I whispered, “What crawled up their asses?”
“Most of the Warrior Caste is opposed to females joining our ranks in any capacity. As it stands, the only branch that will accept members of the Materfamilias Caste is that of the Inquisitors. Strict guidelines will be put in place to restrict female participation in field assignments outside of Parvac controlled space. In effect, females will be given research and clerical positions.”
I sighed. “That’s better than nothing.”
“I’m relieved you think so.” Cormac led me to a transport and then drove me to the Academy where he taught me the correct way to salute and then turned me over to my instructor, Inquisitor Rovek.
“Ensign Probus, you will spend three hours here each day. Allowances for you have been made due to your Imperial status and familial obligations. Your time here will be divided between academics and self-defense. Allow me to introduce you to your academic class.” Inquisitor Rovek gestured for me to enter a small room containing chairs and free-standing vid-screens where two other students currently engaged in their studies.
“Aunt Teagan!” Galina said.
Rovek barked, “Cadet Treves, as you were.”
Galina paled, sat, and went back to work on her assignments.
Inquisitor Rovek continued. “You are familiar with Cadet Treves. Your other classmate is Cadet Rheanna Verok. The three of you have made history by being the first females ever admitted into any military branch in the Empire. I expect decorum and maturity at all times that you appear in uniform.”
Galina’s cheeks had turned red, and I offered her a sympathetic glance.
Inquisitor Rovek pierced me with his frightening glare. “I refer to you, Ensign Probus. Holding hands with a superior officer while skipping down the Palace halls was asinine.”
“Well, I guess it’s a good thing that they didn’t see me with my legs wrapped around him before that.” I gave Inquisitor Rovek a healthy dose of my fully matured Parvac pheromones and watched as his pupils dilated, and the fight went out of him.
“Aunt Teagan,” Galina scolded.
I laughed and took my seat.
“For that, you will spend time in the ring, Cadet Probus. Get to work.”
I chuckled and rolled my eyes at his departing back. He had resorted to calling me a cadet to piss me off. Galina, Rheanna, and I had to begin with the same educational programs that the youngest cadets were given. However, we could progress at our own paces. It only took me an hour to complete the curriculum assigned to ten-year-old cadets for their first year. Understanding the programs and how to navigate them allowed me to complete the second year more rapidly.
“You’re really smart, Aunt Teagan. I’m still on the fourth lesson in the first year.”
“Galina, I already did all of this back on Earth when I was your age. It’s not that different. So, are they being nice to you here?”
“Yeah, it’s different though, being away from home. Rheanna and I have an entire dorm room all to ourselves.”
“We got to pick whichever bunks we wanted and get the bathroom all to ourselves,” Rheanna said.
“How many bunks are in a dorm room?” I asked.
“Ten,” Galina answered.
Inquisitor Rovek came back and escorted us to a large gym. “Cadet Treves and Cadet Verok, you will train with the other first years.” The girls joined a group of about twenty boys and began doing sit-ups. He led me over to a smaller group. “Ensign Probus, you will train with your team. Within this facility, Cadet Cedrenus is your commanding officer. Regardless of your rank, you are junior to Cadets Binder and Ross. The four of you will train together each day. Cadet Cedrenus, Ensign Probus owes me disciplinary time in the ring. See to it.”
“Yes, sir.”
Inquisitor Rovek strode away from us.
“Already in trouble?” Cadet Cedrenus asked.
I started to shrug, but recalled one of the very first lessons and answered with the appropriate, “Yes, sir.”
Inquisitor Rovek shouted over his shoulder so that everyone in the gym could hear, “Ensign Probus is to be treated like everyone else.”
Well, maybe he wasn’t such an asshole after all. I smiled at his departing back.
“Come here,” Cedrenus said. He tossed me a pair of gloves and put on his own pair. Then, he climbed into the ring. “I’m sorry about this. Try not to get into trouble again, alright?”
I had the sinking suspicion that I was about to get my ass handed to me. I joined Cedrenus in the ring. He started to circle me. He looked like someone who had been served all of his least favorite foods but had no choice but to eat them. Darting in, he gave my gloves a gentle tap.
“Oh, come on. What the fuck was that? She wants to be here. She thinks she’s good enough to be one of us,” a male said.
Cedrenus stopped and turned to glare at him.
Another male said, “Yeah, she may have fucked her way into our ranks, but now she has to try and remain. I’ll bet she won’t last the week.”
“I didn’t fuck my way in. My team made it to the beacon. But, hey, at least I know how to fuck. If I had fucked my way in, I’d already be an admiral. Come join me in the ring. It’s probably the closest your dick will ever get to a female.” I smiled down at him. I was ready for a fight.
“Teagan, what are you doing? He won’t go easy on you. His House is greatly opposed to female military service,” Cedrenus scolded.
Another male yelled, “She’ll probably cheat and get one of her husbands to fight for her.”
“I don’t need to cheat.”
The male yelled, “Go get her, Clark!”
Cedrenus looked pissed, but he hopped down from the ring. Clark put on a pair of gloves, ran, grabbed the top rope, and leapt over it and into the ring. He tapped his gloves together, gave me an evil grin, and came at me. For an eighteen-year-old, he was corded with muscle, and he was fast. Clark was also intent on putting me in my place, and from the look in his eyes it wouldn’t be a pedestal. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the wide, frightened eyes of Galina and Rheanna. This is what they would face, males trying to scare them out of their secret club, males using their strength to subjugate females.
Knowing my history as everyone did, Clark probably assumed I would cry and drop out. However, a lot about me was probably classified. Clark didn’t know me. I wasn’t the emotionally crippled girl who I had once been. My training with Yukihyo clicked in my head, and I began moving my feet. Clearing my mind of everything but Clark, I moved to the side just as he was about to hit me in the center of my face. His punch had enough strength behind it to stir the air. Clark meant to hurt me.
I avoided a series of strikes and pivoted away. All of my moves were defensive. I would become tired before Clark even became winded. Avoiding a punch to the ribs, I was unable to get out of the way of the fist that glanced off my jaw. My head flew back with the force of it and rattled my brain. Ducking low, I got away from him and to the ropes. Clark came after me. Instead of running, I charged him, getting in close to his body. I brought my right fist up into his nose and drove my knee into his side twice before he spun away. Now, he looked angry.
I smiled at him. He came at me like a starved ice bear. I dropped and kicked out with both feet at his ankles, knocking his feet out from under him. Clark was airborne for a glorious moment before he caught himself on his hands and flipped himself over and back to his feet in a move that reminded me of Hiroshi. I couldn’t avoid a punch to the shoulder. I spun with the force of it and jumped up, putting my roundhouse kick into practice. My foot connected with the side of his face. Clark took a second to shake his head. I used what I had learned from sparring and from watching Yukihyo’s fights. My legs were stronger than my arms. I lashed out with my right foot kicking Clark in the leg with all of my strength. Then, I tried to sweep his legs out from under him. It didn’t work. His glove filled my vision, and a pounding filled my ears. Yelling surrounded us. I jumped back up from where he had laid me out on the mat.
“Haven’t you had enough, little girl?”
“No, little dick.”
Anger filled his eyes. I grinned at him and moved to the side as he lunged for me. I got him in the eye before he had me against the ropes and started raining blows down on me. Gasping and desperate, I dropped to the mat, crawled through his legs, and kicked the back of his knee as hard as I could. He staggered and turned. I kicked him in the face. With a roar, he grabbed my ankle and knocked me flat on my back. I brought my legs up around his neck and twisted. His expression turned from rage to shock. I squeezed harder until he stopped struggling. When he hit his glove against the mat, I let him go. His face and neck slowly changed from purple to red as he breathed in the air I had kept from him. Our spectators were quiet.
A male cleared his throat. “Ensign Probus, I will spar with you tomorrow. Your left hook needs a lot of work,” Ensign Bishop said.
I recognized him from the awards ceremony. “Thank you, sir,” I said.
I bowed to Little Dick Clark and climbed down from the ring. Cedrenus helped me out of my gloves. I gave a nod to Galina. She had a fierce determination sparking in her white eyes. Cedrenus, Binder, and Ross, walked with me into the locker room and over to the infirmary. The doctor on duty looked furious. To Cedrenus, he said, “You should have been the one to spar with her.”
The cadet bowed his head in shame.
“No, Clark wanted to see if his dick was bigger than mine. I had to whip it out and show him,” I said.
“Oh, shut up. I piss harder than you hit,” Clark said as he entered with his team.
“I went easy on you. It was your first time being with a woman.”
The doctor was dabbing at my bloody nose. I jumped when I saw Inquisitor Rovek watching us. “Cadet Cedrenus, each day, you and your team are responsible for bringing Princess Probus to the Academy and returning her to the Palace. She may outrank you at the moment, but don’t forget that she is your most junior team member. Each of you is responsible for her. Is that clear?”
“Yes, sir,” they said as one.
Less than an hour later, they drove me to the front of the Palace and walked me up the front steps where both Cormac and Eli waited. Unreadable as usual, Eli stepped close to me and trailed his fingers over my face. He didn’t say a word. The boys with me were actually trembling in fear.
“Dismissed,” Cormac said to them. They saluted and left.
“When I’m at the Academy, stay out of it, Eli. I need to do this.” His eyes left my cheek and found my eyes. “They are trying to scare us out, and I won’t let them. If you want to help, then help me study. Bishop offered to help me.” I lifted my chin.
“Yes, he is a bright boy. Siding with you is the smartest thing he can do for his career. In your good graces, he might gain more power for himself. These boys aren’t typical soldiers that you might find in the fleet or the army. They are shrewd, cunning, and violent. Most of them have a sadistic streak or can distance themselves from their emotions. Don’t be fooled by their ages into thinking of them as harmless. They are pups now but grow into sharks.”
I moved closer and rested my head against Eli’s chest. Closing my eyes, I wrapped my arms around him and hugged him as I did Papa. The tension melted from me, and I felt safe. Leaning back, I smiled up at Eli. “I love you.” I lifted up on my toes to kiss his cheek and then went to my wing where I took a long, hot shower.
By the end of the week, I had settled into a new routine. I woke up early, played with Peter, Niklos, and Neema, and had breakfast as Princess Teagan. Then, as Ensign Probus, I went to the Academy until lunch. After the cadets took me home, I conducted myself as Princess Teagan again until the next day. In a moment of self-discovery, I realized that I thrived on living a double-life. At the Academy, I had to follow rules and obey others, but I could be myself, and I had a tendency to be sarcastic and crass. My smart mouth was helping me get better sparring partners. After our first match together, Clark wouldn’t even make eye contact with me. Academy gossip was that Clark and his team had had a midnight visitor who had terrified them. I didn’t know if it had been Eli, Kaoti, Drex, or someone else, and no one would tell me. I decided to find out.
After completion of my second week at the Academy, I had mastered the educational programs through year eight which put me at the level of the eighteen-year-old cadets. That was when I began to feel challenged with new material and unfamiliar terminology. However, as a level nine cadet, I was no longer sequestered with Galina and Rheanna. Instead, I was allowed to study with my team. They even helped me with my mathematics and chemistry, my weakest areas of study so far.
Everything was going great until Inquisitor Rovek walked in. Without saying a word, he handed Cedrenus a data chip and then left. Curious, we all crowded around Cedrenus to see what was on it. Unfortunately, the message was encrypted. It took us the next two days working together while running continuous programs to decipher it. All we discovered was a set of coordinates and orders to remain a cohesive unit.
Cedrenus said, “This is on the other side of Parvac.”
The rules for any assignment were always the same. Arrive at the target without discovery and await orders. Cadets weren’t allowed to use any transports owned by themselves or by their families, or anything that could be used to trace our identities.
“How do we get there?” Ross asked.
“Leave that to me,” Binder said. He had an affinity for hacking into locked systems and rerouting power, when it didn’t cause an explosion.
“I’ll handle our disguises. Trust me,” I said.
“I’ll start running scenarios,” Cedrenus said.
Ross said, “I’m on weapons and tech.”
Cedrenus said, “We’ll pick you up at the Palace at the regular time tomorrow to avoid suspicion.”
“Yes, sir.”
That evening, after the children had gone to bed, what I would do for our disguises finally came to me. With very little persuasion on my part, I had our disguises prepared and my plan organized.
When my team picked me up the next morning, they seemed nervous. “Are you ready to go?” Cedrenus asked.
“No, I had an idea. Want to hear it?”
“Alright, Bishop’s team already got caught this morning. They never even made it to their target,” Ross said.
“Shit.”
Bishop had a reputation. He was the best, always. I told the team my part of the plan. They were not enthusiastic, but they were game. We spent our morning in our classroom. Then, at lunch time, they dropped me off as usual. When my children went down for their naps, my team slowly started to trickle into my wing.
An hour later, Sparrow, Tracy, Violet, and Terre left the Palace to go shopping. Laughing, Violet said, “Do you see how he looks at her?”
Terre stared pointedly at her.
“Now, ladies. Let’s focus on having some fun,” Tracy said.
They got inside of a Palace transport and went to a boutique where they spent a few credits.
“I want to visit the indoor market that Teagan told us about,” Terre said.
“Fine,” Sparrow said.
They hired a nearby shuttle and flew to Cephissus. Violet pulled a frilly dress she had just purchased from one of her bags and held it up. “How do you think I’ll look in this?” she asked.
Sparrow said, “Dickless.”
We all laughed. Binder, who appeared at the moment to be Terre, lowered the shuttle. Then, when Violet and Tracy walked arm-in-arm into a café, the other ladies followed. Violet, who was actually Cedrenus, entered our code into a device we found under one of the café’s chairs. My green and gold eyes were hidden behind black films. It had been easy for me to disguise myself as Tracy after the experience I had had with Sara Eos. While waiting in line, I rubbed my left thigh, trying to make it appear as though I attempted to hide my discomfort.
“Are you alright?” Sparrow, actually Ross, asked.
Tracy nodded.
We all ordered and sat at a table. Men smiled and flirted with us. We flirted back to a small degree, except for Sparrow. She just stared at them.
“Ready to shop?” Violet asked.
“No, I have to go tinkle,” Tracy said. The four of us went into the bathroom together. True to my word, or rather Tracy’s, I went into a stall.
“Seriously?” Cedrenus asked.
“Yes. What? You don’t need to go?”
“Shit. Yes, but how?”
“Carefully, hold your skirt up so it doesn’t get in the waste unit.”
From the stall beside me, Ross asked, “So, where to?”
Cedrenus said, “We are to search the home of Captain Osvaldo Decius.”
“For what?” I asked.
“It didn’t say.”
We left the café and entered a dress shop where we immediately began trying on clothes. No one noticed when a maintenance worker left the store out of the back exit. We were still trying on clothes when he returned an hour and a half later with an encrypted message. Then, with several shopping bags, the ladies returned to the Palace.
The next day, my team picked me up. In our classroom, I asked, “So, what did you find?” Cedrenus held up a scrap of paper. He slid it over a table to me. I read, “Cedrenus Team passes.”
The sound of a voice made us all jump. “Very good. Yours was the only team to succeed. The level twelve team who was tracking you still hasn’t figured out how you did it.” Inquisitor Rovek gave us a rare grin.
I smirked. “They allowed themselves to be distracted by beautiful women. See? I told you pink was your color,” I said as I smacked Binder on his arm.
Rovek smiled which was frightening. “You have the rest of the day to enjoy your own pursuits.”
After he left, I said, “I’m taking that as permission.”
“Permission for what?” Ross asked.
“I want to know which one of my men scared Clark and his team.”
They looked at me with varying degrees of wariness. Finally, Cedrenus spoke. “Whoever he is may not want to be found out.”
I shrugged. “Can we do it or not?”
“We’d have to tap into the security feed for their dorm.”
I raised an eyebrow and waited. A few minutes later, we all went for a walk to the building containing their dorms. Binder was able to tap into a control panel that he gained access to from within a supply closet. We huddled together and watched the security footage at a blurring speed.
“Stop,” Cedrenus said. “Turn it up.”
A dark figure had dropped down into Clark’s dorm room from the ceiling. “Not a word,” the male ordered. Then, he viciously struck Clark across the face. “Do not draw attention, or you become a liability, as do you all.” The man looked around the room at the other boys. Then, he was gone.
“I don’t know that man. That wasn’t Drex, Eli, Kaoti, or any of my Omnes Videntes.”
“Shut up,” Cedrenus nervously ordered. They rushed to put everything back as it had been. We left quickly. With feigned playfulness, Cedrenus said, “We have the day off. Why don’t you take us swimming in that fancy pool of yours in the Palace?”
Playing along, I said, “Fine, as long as you don’t mind me seeing you all naked.”
Once we were in the transport, I realized they were all scared. Whoever that man had been, it was bad. Telepathically, I called out to Zared and shared everything with him. My team and I had smiles on our faces and were laughing as we entered the Palace. My guards were waiting.
“Zared! Come swimming with us!” I gave him a big kiss.
I showed my team where they could change, but I cheated and wore my black two-piece from Thalassa. Then, I smirked at them as I entered the pool. Izaac and Xavier had taken up guard positions at the doors and activated shielding so we wouldn’t be overheard.
Zared asked, “Who is he?”
Cedrenus said, “He’s Clark’s father, Inquisitor Flavian.”
Zared asked, “Why does his father’s admonishment of him cause you concern?”
“Flavian said, ‘Do not draw attention, or you become a liability, as do you all.’ Whatever Inquisitor Flavian is involved in is so dangerous that he would kill his own son and his team to keep it secret. He didn’t punish Clark for fighting Teagan. He punished him for drawing attention to House Flavian.”
Zared smiled at him and empathically eased the fears of my team. “Thank you for your caution. All will be well. We will keep this information to ourselves. Agreed?”
“Yes, sir,” they answered.
My ladies entertained Cedrenus, Binder, and Ross until it was time for them to return to the Academy. However, I continued to worry about what we had learned long after they had gone. An angry barrage pulled me from my silent musings.
“Chitter chitter clack chitter chirp.” I blinked down at Thunderdrop and saw images to accompany his angry tirade. In them, I was cringing in fear, but Thunderdrop jumped to my uniformed shoulder glaring at my enemies with venom dripping from his fangs.
“You want to go with me to the Academy tomorrow to protect me? You don’t mind?”
“Chirp chitter,” he said which was the equivalent of, “Yes, I’ll go with you. Of course, I don’t mind.”
“Thank you, Thunderdrop. That makes me feel much better.”
“Chirp,” he said. Then, he waited until I opened the door leading out to the porch. He went out and darted off to the gardens. Lately, Thunderdrop hadn’t been spending much time with either me or Sue, his pet octopus, and I started wondering what he was up to.
Big strong arms surrounded me from behind. I breathed in Yukihyo’s scent and closed my eyes. He whispered, making me strain to hear him, “Are you ready for our overnight date?”
“Oh, yes, and I have the next two days off.”
Yukihyo’s lips came down to touch my neck, and I shivered, but something felt off. “While you were engaged with your visitors, I made arrangements with your barge captain and the children’s nurses. Go put on something you do not mind getting dirty.”
“Do you want to come and help me?”
“I’ll help you once we are onboard.”
I smiled up at the pink and gold striations in his eyes and ran to my room to change out of my dress. Fear, rather than arousal, heated my blood.
Into my thoughts, Walter asked, “What is it?”
Silently, I responded, “Someone is here in my wing trying to lure me away.”
“Stay put.”
“No, I have to get him away from my children. They’re asleep in the nursery. Where is Yukihyo?”
“Lord Ponidi is at his factory.”
“We’re going to my barge. Keep guards on my Momma and Papa.” I could sense Walter and Vawn preparing to track and defend me. The low roar of telepathic communication among my Omnes Videntes was white noise in my mind.
“Captain Kaoti will be near as will we.”
“Understood.”
Yukihyo waited for me near the patio doors and grinned, putting a finger to his lips to keep me quiet. He had spoken to Pierce and Lorca, tricking them both with his disguise. Feigning excitement for our secret, spontaneous date, I ran to him. I pretended to burst with eagerness and joy as we ran across the back lawn to the lake where my white pleasure barge waited. However, my eagerness was to get the imposter away from my loved ones, especially my children. How did he get into my wing and past all of my guards to begin with? The barge started moving as soon as we were aboard. I didn’t see Kaoti, Walter, or Vawn.
Stalling, I laughed and threw my arms around the imposter’s neck. I assumed he wore a strong neural blocker, because when I was near him, I couldn’t reach out to my Omnes Videntes. I’d need to put distance between us to do so. How many yards separated my bedroom from my sitting room? That was how much distance I would need. His lips took mine and tasted of some unfamiliar sweetness. I felt faint and swayed in his grip before shaking my head in an attempt to clear it. My vision had become fuzzy around the edges, and a mental lethargy made my thoughts and fears become wisps I couldn’t grasp.
He walked me backward to my circular couch and pushed my black jogging pants down my legs before I could stop him. He tore the blasters from the holsters I had tried to hide and let them skid across the deck. He pulled the curtains closed, pushed me down to the couch, and buried his face between my legs. I grabbed at his hair, clawing at him.
“Get off of me! Stop!”
He continued his assault, lathing at my most sensitive place with his rasping tongue. He pushed a finger and then another into me, ignoring my screams. His lips hadn’t been the only part of himself that he had drugged. The imposter had laced his fingers with a powerful stimulant that overpowered my mind and body, forcing me to climax for him against my will. When I screamed at him again to stop in frustrated helplessness, he finally quit pushing into me with his fingers. He removed them and wiped his fingers on his shirt.
“Now, I see why males would die for you.”
I slapped his face as hard as I could.
“Don’t be angry. You wanted it. Your body begged for my touch. You came for me.”
“You tried to trick me and then drugged me, you piece of shit asshole!”
“Yes, I did. You couldn’t tell me and your Laconian soul mate apart.”
“Oh, but I did. I just wanted to get you away from my family and out here alone where my guards could kill you.”
“That’s just the thing, Princess Probus. They won’t be coming. All it took was a misting of what you tasted from my lips to incapacitate Kaoti, Walter, Vawn, and several Imperial Guards. Chemical compounds are my specialty.” He grabbed my wrists and clicked metal restraints over them. “When we have more time and privacy, I’ll spend more time seeing to your needs. At the moment, we are on a tight schedule.” He tossed me my pants.
I was going to find out who he was before I escaped so I’d know who to tell Kaoti to assassinate. I called out again to Zared and met a mental wall. I looked down at the restraints on my wrists. They were equipped with neural blockers, powerful ones. He moved the curtains aside, and I saw the reason my captain hadn’t come to my aid. The male steering my barge was unfamiliar to me, a stranger. The imposter sat beside me, and I struck. My knee bore down on his cock, and my hands went for his face. I managed to rip one of the white films from his eye before he hurled me down to the deck. His real eyes were brown.
“You’re a Parvac.” I shoved the white film into my pocket.
“You’re a feisty one. I might be angry if I weren’t thinking about how good you felt around my fingers, squeezing me with your hot, wet flesh.”
I saw torn skin on his throat, but it was fake skin that our struggle had loosened. It hid a voice modulator. He bent and picked me up, putting me back on the couch. Once he thought that I was calm and subdued, I struck out again, this time going for his throat and knocking the modulator free.
“Talk to me, big boy. Tell me again how much you want me.” I crushed the device under my foot and kicked it before he could grab it. It hit the shielding they had erected around my barge before it could go overboard.
The barge began to slow, and I recalled how Drex had almost taken me in the same way. When we were near the bank of the river, the shielding dropped, and I was hauled from the barge and over to a couple of rollers that had been hidden under more shielding. The imposter tied up my hair and shoved a helmet over my head. Like the restraints, it was equipped with neural blockers. The bastard picked me up to put me on the roller, but did it carefully so I wouldn’t be able to kick him. He mounted the roller in front of me and drove through the forest’s undergrowth at a reckless speed. The other male was behind us.
“Where are you taking me?” I yelled.
He ignored me, refusing to speak. Seeing an opening in the landscape with fewer boulders and trees to hit, I pushed down with my left foot and propelled myself from the roller and into the woods. The jolt of impact with the hard ground knocked the air out of me as I tumbled against hard snapping branches and rocks. I rolled and rolled hitting everything that was hard or sharp in the forest until a tree trunk was kind enough to slam into my back and stop my dizzying journey. My body was on fire with pain. The forest had become unnaturally quiet. I pulled in a few ragged breaths and got to my knees. The quiet meant that the rollers had stopped, and the males would be coming for me.
As quietly as possible, I got to my feet and began a random path through the forest trying to be as quiet as my husbands were when they hunted. I heard a whoosh of sound moments before something dropped down in front of me. Forcing myself not to scream in fear, I stared at Farowyn.
In a panicky whisper, I said, “Two men are trying to abduct me. One of them looks like Yukihyo, but it isn’t him.”
Without a word, Farowyn slipped my bound hands over his head and used his claws to take us high up into a tree. I saw through the visor of my helmet one of Farowyn’s men in a tree across from us.
“She was right here a second ago.”
“Well, where is she now?”
“I’m not getting a reading, but several craft are heading this way. If we deviate, we will be discovered.”
“Go,” the one disguised as Yukihyo ordered.
Farowyn gave a slight nod of his head. The leaves in the trees gave an almost imperceptible movement. After a few minutes spent in stillness and silence, Farowyn began running and leaping from branch to branch with me in his arms. Sometime later, he encouraged me to hold my legs around his waist. Then, he jumped high, spread his arms, and glided with me across the wide lake and all of the way to the Palace grounds on the other side where groups of soldiers actively patrolled. Several of them ran in our direction. Farowyn lifted my arms from around his neck and removed the helmet from my head. I pressed my face to his chest and cried.
“Teagan!” Momma yelled. She ran to us from across the lawn. “Take her to the infirmary!”
Obeying her, Farowyn picked me up and quickly carried me inside. Momma stayed in step beside us.
“Where is Zared?” I asked.
“They all went looking for you, my sweet. We couldn’t sense you. I still can’t even though I am touching you.”
“It’s because of these.” I lifted my hands.
Farowyn put me down where Dr. Fotri indicated. My right side was on fire, and I could feel every breath I took. “He disguised himself to look like Yukihyo. He was in my wing. He was near my babies. How did that happen?”
“Get these restraints off of her,” Momma ordered.
One of her Imperial Guards, Captain Aegisthus, Kaoti’s uncle came forward. He worked for a few minutes before freeing my hands. Gratefully, I rubbed at my wrists that were dirty and bruising.
Momma said, “Leave us. Guard the door.”
Dr. Fotri took the eye film from me.
“Teagan, something else happened worse than the obvious. I can feel it from you now that those dreadful restraints are gone. What is it?” Momma demanded.
I shook my head at her. I was too embarrassed to tell her. I wanted to forget all that had transpired. “I want them found and questioned. That is all.”
“Teagan, I won’t let this go. I’m your mother, and Ryan is family. You will tell me everything.” Her tone was insistent.
My face began to burn with shame. I wasn’t a virgin. I had plenty of experience with my husbands. Why had my encounter with the imposter left me feeling as I did? He hadn’t raped me, but I still felt dirty.
“Teagan.”
Giving up, I told her and Dr. Ryan Fotri, my first cousin once removed, everything. I couldn’t read my Parvac cousin, but Momma seemed imbued with an anger to rival anything I had ever sensed from Papa, Yukihyo, or anyone. I was forced to submit to an entirely too thorough examination where Dr. Fotri collected samples from me before I was allowed to scrub myself practically raw in a hot shower in the infirmary. The soap stung all of my cuts and scrapes, but I didn’t care. I felt dirty. Eventually, Momma coaxed me out of the shower and into clean undies and a camisole, so Dr. Fotri could tend the injuries I had gotten when I had jumped from the roller.
“Where is Kaoti?” I asked.
“Just outside. I’ll get him,” Momma said quietly.
Moments later, Kaoti entered and stood at parade rest a few feet away.
I asked, “Do you know who he is?”
Kaoti nodded. “Inquisitor Flavian.”
“Are you sure?”
Dr. Fotri said, “I tested genetic samples from both your royal person and the eye film. There is no doubt as to his identity.”
“Kaoti, I want you to either arrest him or kill him, whichever you prefer.”
“Nothing would have pleased me more.”
“What?” I asked, completely confused by his answer.
“Farowyn’s men delivered them a few minutes ago along with their contact. The Omnes Videntes now interrogate Flavian, Maxim, and a merchant named Lewis Soval.”
Kaoti’s words took me a few moments to process. Farowyn’s men captured two Inquisitors, alive?
“I told him to stop, Kaoti. He wouldn’t stop.”
Momma put her arms around me and held me. Through our bond, I felt anguish from Yukihyo. He had learned what had happened and paced outside in the hall. He worried seeing his face would hurt me more. “Yukihyo,” I cried out.
Kaoti turned on his heel and returned with Yukihyo. I had a hard, snotty cry on him until I had gotten it mostly out of my system. “He tried to trick me. Aside from looking like you, he knew about our plan to go on a camping trip on the lake… the date we made on Thalassa before we went into the mineral caves.”
Yukihyo said, “How would he have known about that?”
It seemed like Yukihyo was asking Zared the question rather than me. I heard a loud grumbling sound. Kaoti’s hands went to his weapons. Orders were being shouted in the halls.
“Defensive shielding up,” a guard reported to Kaoti.
“Where are my babies?” I cried.
Kaoti spoke into an earpiece. A few minutes later, Pierce, Lorca, and Terre entered with the children.
“Oh, Mommy got boo boos?” Neema asked. I nodded. “Here.” She handed me her doll.
Soon, Fitz entered the infirmary. He was furious but trying to hide it behind his politician’s expression. His hair was wet as though he had just showered and changed. I heard Momma asking what had happened. Then, Phillip strode in looking angrier than I had ever seen him. He took something from a drawer, smiled as he walked to me, smoothed my hair from my forehead, and then got me with an injector.
“Why’d you do that?”
“You’ve been through enough today. Take a nap.”
I caught a glimpse of Nico and Drex before Fitz hid them from sight. They looked like wrathful deities, intent on retribution. Splatters of blood were in an angled line across Nico’s face, but it wasn’t his. My heart thudded in my ears as the sedative Phillip had given me sent me into a dreamless sleep.