Abziarr and his unwilling Queen (Lords of Arr'Carthian 1.5) by Cathy McAllister

Chapter 1

    The glider door slid open and I rose from my seat to exit. My feet touched the Arr’Carthian palace grounds. Even after four months of peace between the two royal houses of Arr’Verkuzzi and Arr’Carthian, a slight unease still crept over me when I stepped upon land that had, not long before, been enemy territory. I automatically felt for my dagger, sheathed to my left, to reassure myself that I was not stepping entirely unarmed onto once enemy territory.  
    “Your Royal Highness,” the palace servant greeted me, bowing respectfully. “May I ask you to follow me?”
    I nodded and crossed the royal park behind the male. I had to slacken my pace so as not to overtake the servant.
    “Abziarr!” A joyful cry sounded and a smile softened my tense features, as my daughter ran across the lawn to me. My daughter! That was still a novelty for me – unfamiliar - especially as she regarded the prince of the Arr’Carthian as her father and, to her, I was simply Abziarr. But I could live with that. I was happy to be able to have any contact with her after so many years and I was truly grateful to Marruk for raising Solima as his own daughter.
    “Solima,” I responded, delighted, taking her in my arms.
    “Did you think it over?” she asked with excitement, her eyes shining as she looked at me.
    “Of course I thought it over,” I said, laughing, “but I could hardly transport a foal by glider. It’s coming by land and you’ll need to contain yourself for two or three days more before you have it.”
    Her expression reflected her childlike disappointment, but then she smiled and took my arm.  
    “That’s OK. We’ve got massive news. They’re on their way here. The Cordelia is already very close.”
    “Is it really?” I said, smiling at Solima’s enthusiasm.  
    Not long before, Solima had been abducted by slave traders and, whilst in captivity, she had met the likewise abducted Ladies Keela, Amber, Lory and Charly, all of whom came from a planet called Earth.  
    When her adoptive father, Marruk, had freed her, Keela and Amber, Marruk had fallen in love with Keela and made her his mate. Lory and Charly were later freed by Kordan, the general of the Arr’Carthian, and Amano, the captain of the Cordelia - they then travelled to Earth on the Cordelia to enlist more willing females for the Arr’Carthians, because there were very few females on the planet Karrx7. Solima could clearly hardly wait to see the Earth females again and to meet the new females.
    “Come on, we’re sitting on the terrace,” said Solima, taking my hand.
    I let her lead the way and we stepped onto the terrace where King Mortociar and Queen Moreena were sitting with Prince Berka and the Earth female Amber.  
    “Your Highness,” I greeted the queen, kissing her hand, before shaking the king’s hand and he gestured to me to take a seat.  
    “It’s high time we left off the formalities,” said the king. “After all, today is a significant day. Call me Mortociar and my wife Moreena.” He turned to his mate. “You have nothing against that, do you, Carisha ?”
    The queen smiled.
    “Of course not. What could I possibly have against that?” She took my hand and squeezed it kindly. “Through Solima you are actually almost part of the family, my boy,” she said.
    I did not think badly of the fact that she called me ‘my boy’. With anyone else I would have considered it to be showing disrespect, but Moreena said it with so much maternal warmth that I wished that I had had a mother like her. My father had kept my mother away from me. I had hardly ever seen her and knew her only as a timid and subservient female who had feared my father – and rightly so, because in the end he bore the blame for her death.
    “Would you like some tea?” asked Amber, pouring me a cup as I nodded. I took the tea and drank a few sips. For a while we chatted about this and that, then Keela and Marruk came from the palace to join us.
    “I