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MELIS CAUGHT THE FAMILIAR sounds of booted feet on the floor, despite how soft the sound was. His ears were attuned to any noise in his office, especially because of the lateness of the hour.
Melis stifled a yawn, knowing he should be in bed; but sleep was hard to come by since he’d taken up the mantel of Kgosi. Even if he would’ve gone to his suite and lain down, his mind would’ve raced with everything still needing his attention.
He would work until he could barely hold his eyes open then, and only then, make his way to his bed.
He didn’t look up as someone fell into one of the empty chairs. There were only three people who would seek him out at this late hour and wouldn’t earn an announcement from one of the two guards at his office door; Huson, Mxolisi and Themba.
“Any of the lovelies catch your eyes yet?” Themba asked.
Melis finished the notes he was making on Isra. Knowledgeable. Asset? “No one is standing out quite yet. But I’ve only met with them a few times. I expect this to take longer.”
“Three days of your guests running around the palace is a long time,” Themba grumbled.
“Patience. I don’t want to rush my decision.”
“I was hoping your true lifemate was one of the invited guests and we could be done with this sooner rather than later.”
After his father died, Melis stopped thinking about finding his true lifemate. That’s when he’d given up the last of his childhood dreams.
The whole true lifemate business didn’t apply to people like him.
That’s what he’d been telling himself these past few days.
When his eyes lingered on the guard or thoughts of her ran through his head, he reminded himself of his responsibilities to his kingdom and to Ipakethe.
But even so, thoughts of her wove into the crevices of his brain, igniting areas he thought were dormant.
His species had a primal instinct that overrode everything else. Claim their true lifemate.
Every time he saw her, his vision became tunneled and claiming her was all he could think about.
The feeling was hard to fight, but he knew that, in the end, his willpower would override the primitive instinct.
His father was the finest Kgosi he’d known and like the Kgosis before him, had foregone a true lifemate, choosing instead to bond with Melis’s mother. His father’s and mother’s relationship had been built on mutual trust and friendship. Theirs had been a good partnership. One that Melis would be glad to have with his future mate.
His duty wouldn’t allow him to leave such an important position as Queen to fate. What if his true lifemate was frivolous, crass, not worthy of the title? Melis couldn’t pick his true lifemate, but he could choose his queen.
Melis grunted and went back to sorting through his choices. It was the only thing that kept his mind busy and from thinking about her.
They were all good picks. He had to give Huson credit for that. He’d scoured the files and found eligible females meeting Melis’s specifications. Except one. The Princess from Pheilit. From what he’d understood, Huson had extended the invitation to a sibling but the mother declined and offered the youngest daughter instead.
He didn’t want the Princess from Pheilit, but he’d accepted the offer to have her visit. Pheilit was more advanced than Ipakethe and Melis couldn’t afford to offend Queen Anaiel. She could be a formidable enemy, or truly worthwhile ally.
In fact, Melis didn’t want any one of the guests whose pictures and files he kept reviewing. No matter how many times he went through them, none of the off-worlders appealed to him more than the guard.
Push her out of my head.
What if she already had a mate? His chest rumbled. Melis extended and retracted his claws over and over again as murderous thoughts filled his head.
“Calm down, brother. I know how you feel about lifemates. I can dream, can’t I? You find her then bam, we’re done and signing contracts. Before I can blink, all the strangers in our palace will be gone.”
“I’m looking for someone who can help me lead our kingdom. My decision in this will have a great impact for Ipakethe. My future mate will have connections and allies that will bring us one step closer to being recognized as a Class 5-ii planet. Then we’ll petition for a seat on the governing body of the AC-141 XM3 sector. Then we move on to a seat on the Galactic Council.”
They’d discussed their plan at length, strategizing not only for their kingdom’s future but Ipakethe’s as well. What they desperately needed was planet-to-planet contracts built on inter-species bonds.
No. Lifemates didn’t factor into this plan. Melis retracted his claws. His duty pushed to the forefront of his thoughts once again.
“A true lifemate is irrelevant to me,” Melis added.
Some months ago, true lifemates had been irrelevant to Themba as well. Melis had arranged for Themba to mate with Chikondi re Bacuzil. Joining their family with Chikondi’s was seen as a boon for both families and the bu Kumkani Kingdom. The re Bacuzil’s were one of the most profitable, non-royal families on the planet and they were being courted by all five kingdoms. That they’d chosen the bu Kumkani Kingdom to align with had been an honor.
The re Bacuzils had the wealth and prestige of a great house. They owned the largest precious jewel mine on Ipakethe, and their spice company was profitable, with buyers spanning the reaches of the galaxy. They were one of very few families with such ties.
Melis’s kingdom was rich as well, and all three brothers had personal wealth, but they lacked what the re Bacuzil could offer. Connections and alliances.
When Melis had asked Themba to take Chikondi as a mate, Themba had agreed without hesitation. Their proposed union was important, it would help them on their way to becoming recognized as a planet that could offer ample trade, services, and tourist destinations.
As a thank you, Melis had bought Themba space in The Hunt; an illegal game. That’s where he’d found Payton, his true lifemate, and reneged on the bonding.
Melis had thought all was lost. Chikondi’s family, feeling slighted, would’ve aligned themselves with another kingdom who might’ve, with the newly added credits to their account, began aggression with the bu Kumkani Kingdom.
Other kingdoms and powerful families might’ve also thought the bu Kumkani Kingdom couldn’t be trusted to keep their word. Contracts might’ve been broken, and chaos could’ve ensued.
Even knowing all that, Themba couldn’t bring himself to forget about Payton and go through with the bonding to Chikondi. To absolve his family and kingdom from any fallback from his actions, Themba had renounced his position, and with it his family, and left Ipakethe.
It was ridiculous, and Melis had been upset at the time. He’d effectively seen everything he’d hoped to build for his kingdom and planet destroyed, but he wouldn’t do anything to ruin his relationship with his brother.
He’d arranged for the re Bacuzil family to visit the palace, in order to deliver the news face-to-face and salvage any relationship between the two families. But as he was delivering the news, Mxolisi had declared Chikondi was his lifemate.
For the next month, Melis had been busy changing the bonding contracts to remove Themba’s name and add Mxolisi’s. Melis had then convinced Themba to return with Payton and her dog, Jack, and since then they’d settled in nicely.
“But if you did find your true lifemate,” Themba said. “Then we wouldn’t have to accommodate mate-seeking females and be forced to attend all these parties.”
Themba pushed his tongue past his lips. He’d never liked entertaining. It was part of being a royal none of them actually enjoyed. Not even their father had liked it. It had been their mother, when she’d been alive, who’d had to drag everyone to one royal event after the other.
“You didn’t complain too much during the last party we had here,” Melis noted dryly.
Themba gave Melis an easy-going smile. “That was my wedding. It was fun.”
Melis finally raised his chin and gave Themba a knowing look. “I had just about the same amount of ‘fun’ at your wedding as I had these past evenings.”
Themba smirked. “That’s because you don’t know how to relax, brother. My wedding celebration was the perfect place for you to sit back and enjoy yourself. You didn’t have to do anything but be my best man.”
“I couldn’t relax,” Melis grumbled. “I didn’t understand anything that went on. Your assistant served as the preacher—whatever that is—and Payton got upset with her because she didn’t read exactly from her passage of the Holy Bible—again, whatever that is—and Mxolisi pouted the entire time because he had to serve as the ring bearer and wasn’t the best man. I would’ve gladly let him take over that duty for me, but I liked the title.” He shook his head. “Human customs are so strange.”
“Some are great.” Themba waggled his eyebrows.
Melis rubbed his tired eyes. “Oh, Ancients. Please keep your perverted sex life to yourself.”
“It’s not perverted. It’s downright sinful. Humans like to use restraints and they use sweets to cover sexual organs then lick—”
“Stop!” Although it did sound interesting, Melis didn’t want to hear about his brother’s and new sister’s sex life. “But on the topic of humans. I think one is here working as a personal guard.”
Themba straightened. “That can’t be right. We went over the guest list and no humans were on it. I would’ve noticed that and told Payton. She’s been wanting to meet other humans since leaving The Hunt. Maybe a species resembling humans? A Sket? I showed Payton a picture of them and even she thought the resemblance was uncanny.”
Melis tapped the top of his desk in thought. “Maybe. You could be right. But I didn’t remember seeing a Sket on the list either.” He sat back in the chair and it instantly comforted his aching back muscles.
He touched his keyboard and Princess Una’s name appeared. He selected it, bringing up her guests. She had an assistant and two Oncun personal guards.
The playfulness dropped from Themba’s demeanor. “What’s wrong? A security breach?”
Melis displayed the pictures of each person in Princess Una’s party to project over his desk. “I don’t know if I would classify this as a security breach, but both guards are listed as Oncun.” He pointed to the guard who’d accompanied the princess to the meet and greet. “Clearly she isn’t an Oncun.” One guard was brown, the other green. One had a flat broad face with a flat affect and the other had signs of life behind her vibrant eyes. There was no mistaking they weren’t of the same species.
He flicked Princess Una and her assistant’s pictures out of the way and arranged the two guards’ pictures side-by-side. Elkah Tax of Luur and Atlanta Georgia Moore of Luur. They both had the same jeweled designs on their faces, but that’s where any similarity between them ceased.
“Maybe she was adopted by them?”
“It doesn’t matter. They should’ve completed the security form in truth.” Themba stood. “I’ll get the team to their suite and sort this out now. We may have to remove her from the planet.”
Melis put up a hand. Normally he would’ve agreed with Themba. With so much at stake, he had to be careful who he let roam his palace. There were so many people who wanted him to fail. But to see the beautiful guard leave Ipakethe? No, he didn’t want that to happen, that’s why he hadn’t said anything to Themba earlier. At the very least he would find out what she was and update her security file.
“Tomorrow Chikondi and Payton are taking the guests on a tour of the palace gardens. Have Payton talk to her and see if she’s human or not. If she’s human, that’s most likely why she wasn’t truthful on her security application. Announcing that would only bring unwanted attention to herself.”
Humans and their home planet were protected by the Okuthyu. The Okuthyu had stumbled upon Earth many, many years ago and deemed it off-limits to the rest of the galaxy. No other species was allowed to encroach or visit, and since the Okuthyu had seats on the Vela CE-182 Galactic Federation of Planets, they’d made laws governing Earth, with the punishment of death if broken.
There were instances where humans were illegally taken from Earth, as was the case with Payton and the other humans who had been abducted and sold into The Hunt. But, in those instances, the abductors had obviously thought the crime was worth the possible punishment.
There were very few humans living on planets outside of Earth. The Okuthyu tracked those humans closely, and often moved them into a protected community on a private planet.
Unfortunately, since Earth was protected and humans there weren’t aware of their status or that other species occupied their galaxy, once they left it, the Okuthyu didn’t allow any humans to return. They said it was to further protect humans and their place in the galaxy.
“We don’t know this person or her reasoning for lying about her species. We should have her removed. If she’s a Sket, she could be dangerous.”
Skets were notoriously secretive and kept to themselves. The weapons tracking their airspace, ready to blast any non-authorized approaching ship, made sure that visitors stayed away and left them alone.
“She came as a personal guard and she’s behaving as one. I only want to confirm her species without bringing unwanted attention to her. Do you think Payton would mind finding out?”
Themba squirmed. “I don’t know if I want my mate around this guard without first finding out more about her.”
Melis quirked an eyebrow. “Payton survived The Hunt. Do you actually think she’ll be afraid to speak with someone smaller than her?”
Themba’s chest puffed out with pride. “She would’ve won if I hadn’t taken her out, too.”
Melis chuckled. Themba was proud of his mate, as he should be. There were many casualties in The Hunt. That Payton had made it to Level Two was a testament to her fighting and survival skills.
“Have her take Jack with her. Her dog won’t let any harm come to her.”