want excuses, she wanted facts.
“It will be different this time, wont it.”
“Yes,” if anything, Amelia could say that she liked the prince for his brutal honesty.
“Not necessarily,” Galtan tried to defend his coming position with the men of the planet of his birth.
“Galtan, yes, it will.” When the prince used Galtan’s name in addressing him, Galtan sighed, realizing the futility of the argument. Amelia suspected that the reality was that the prince would not have been there, in the kitchen that morning if it wasn’t a desperate situation.
“I will worry about that when the time comes.” Galtan finally replied; he then turned and spoke individually to Amelia, “I have to get you off Amirak-Ren.”
That had been some hours ago. The prince had gone into a generally unused chamber and changed out of the messenger’s uniform, into a distinctly richly made cloak, belted tunic, and leggings all in shades of metallic bronze. The longest part of their journey had been from the center of the sprawling crystal city to the outskirts and the bustling spaceport.
They pushed through security. It seemed that there were plenty of men, particularly those that worked in the spaceport that had heard about the incident at Pavathi the day before, but none dared to argue with either man standing beside her. Galtan strode briskly on Amelia’s left side; the prince was on her right, together they created an impenetrable bubble of protection around Amelia. The various workers bowed and scraped to the prince’s demands as they bulled through the joined buildings; everything was prepared when they finally reached a small vessel, humming at its dock, prepped and primed for take-off. The prince stood by as they boarded and enacted his power, approving Galtan’s launch over the squad of warriors sent to stop their departure. Cleared, Galtan slammed the ship into an ascent; Amelia clutched the arms of her chair as they raced over the sand and glittering stone littered planet, before racing beyond the atmosphere.
For the first time in weeks, not in the immediate aftermath of a passionate coupling, Amelia truly relaxed. He kept his promise, the intent he made clear that first day. He is taking me home.
*
The instant the ship hit speeds faster than light, as they raced through space; Galtan put the ship on autopilot and turned toward Amiilya. She was asleep. As he stared at her beautiful face Galtan felt something inside of him break, the dam that held back compassion and emotion was fractured for the first time in his life, since his father’s mate had been destroyed.
He knew he had to let her go, but everything inside of him protested, screamed out that the human female he had shielded from the cruelties of those of his race, was in fact his mate. She was the one force in the universe that could make him feel anything more than duty.
Amiilya made Galtan happy. A simple word, but so all-encompassing that it was a true description of what the woman did to him. Torn, Galtan leaned back in his own chair, before the controls of the ship, and let his eyes close and his mind process his need not just for Amiilya’s body, but for everything that made her who she was.
*
The abrupt downshift of the ship’s speed woke her; Amelia blinked her eyes open and found a familiar ball of blue and green, with a spattering of brown, hovering in the inky blackness of space.
Earth. Galtan held the ship steady within orbit of Amelia’s home world and surveyed a planet, Amelia suspected he had never surveyed before that moment.
“The color is interesting,” Galtan commented softly. As Amelia