Dragon King's Alien Queen

Chapter 8

As always, Kiera took point. Coming down the ramp, she couldn’t stop herself from lifting her face to the sun and enjoying the warmth. The air was clean and fresh with a slight floral scent coming off the breeze. It was the first non-artificial, clean air she had breathed in a long time. There had been so much going on at the beach that she hadn’t stopped to really enjoy it. Here, with the king standing with them, she knew no one would attack them, so she could afford to take just one moment.

Opening her eyes, she smiled a true smile for the first time since meeting the large alien.

“Good?” he asked her softly.

“Very good,” she responded. She moved further, letting the others step off the transport. Their reactions were much the same as hers had been. For that one, unguarded moment, there was pure bliss. At the beach there hadn’t been time to really take in their surroundings before Glacian and then Rokk had shown up. Once they had made it out of the crash, they had instantly gone into survival mode.

“Come. Let’s get you settled.” Glacian motioned toward the stairs. He proceeded them up and swung open the doors as they reached them. The doors were exceptionally large. Come to think of it, everything here seemed to be. It made sense as there were dragons going in and out as well as people.

The doors opened to a large ornate foyer. There were multiple doors and a curved staircase leading to upper floors. Huge paintings hung on the wall. Statues and bouquets of flowers that Kiera had never seen before were scattered around with a few benches for people to rest on as they socialized. The enormous front windows let in a lot of light.

“This place is amazing!” Kiera was completely enchanted. The first thing she wanted to do was open the doors to see what was on the other side. She had never seen anything like this outside of a book. Reading stories about castles of old was so different from actually stepping into one. Earth was so overpopulated that all the older historic buildings had been torn down or renovated into public housing. Nothing like this had been seen in a very long time. It was like they had stepped into one of the books she had read as a child. Come to think on it, that book had dragons in it too.

“What did you say?” Glacian now stood beside her looking down at her curiously.

Only then did Kiera realize that she had spoken in English. Glancing around, her crew was just as awestruck as she was. Still alert, but awestruck.

“I said this place is amazing,” she repeated in Drakian. She did her best to draw her excitement in. She had to remember she was in a new place that held untold dangers. Being aware of her surroundings and not blinded by all the new discoveries was where she needed to be until she was absolutely sure her group was safe. “It’s very beautiful.”

“You don’t have castles like this where you come from?” Glacian couldn’t help himself. He stepped closer to her and reached up to touch a strand of hair that was coming loose from the knot she had her hair in. Surprisingly, she didn’t shake him off as he had expected her to. It was soft and silky. He couldn’t help but wonder how long it was.

“Not anymore,” she said, still gazing at everything around them.

There was a sudden commotion coming from the stairway and they all turned to see a tall, orange Drakian woman storming down the last few stairs. Her short red hair had a windblown look to it. She was a beautiful woman, athletic. She was wearing a skimpy, shimmery dress and heeled sandals. Not a single Drakian she had seen so far had been dressed this way. In a way, Kiera thought that she sort of resembled a flare. The orange woman was unquestionably pissed; her tail was slashing behind her in fast agitated flicks. She was arguing loudly with another woman who may have been a maid, judging by the apron wrapped around her like a short skirt over her tunic. Scratch the earlier assessment. She looked more like a dynamite stick. One that was ready to explode.

Once she reached the bottom, her gaze found our group, which wasn’t difficult as we were in the middle of the foyer, and instantly headed towards us. Something about her made Kiera’s instincts kick into high gear. Going on instant alert, Kiera slowly slid her bag to the floor and felt her crew behind her do the same. She knew she could count on them to watch each other’s backs.

Glacian noticed the difference in the group instantly. They went from amazed to lethal faster than he had seen any other species, including his own. He made a mental note to ask Kiera about it later. Glancing at Rokk, he noticed that his advisor was already on his comm unit demanding security.

Kittra stopped in front of him, glaring daggers. He simply lifted his eyebrow.

“I demand an explanation! I am going to be your queen. Yet suddenly, I am told I am to be sent to King Balkan in Venia!” The female was raging to the point that her skin was turning a deeper shade of orange. It wasn't a good look.

“You are making demands of your king? I owe you no explanation. I want you gone and so you will be.” Glacian was not giving this female even an inch. She was always demanding things she had no right to. Every time he sent her out of the castle, she would find her way back in. That was another reason why he had decided to send her to his brother. He was several hours away. It would be more difficult for her to come back.

Standing next to Glacian, Kiera was able to easily follow the conversation. Rapid fire assessment went through her mind as she tried to piece together what was going on. The woman thought she was going to be Glacian’s wife, but he’s now sending her away. Why would he do that? He was being so cold to the woman. Was that due to his personal feelings for her or because he was king and was forced to be cold and indifferent? If the royal etiquette was the same here as it was on Earth, then the woman had overstepped, and his demeanor made sense. Who in their right mind would yell and make demands of a king? Well, besides herself anyway, she thought, thinking back to the beach. He hadn't reacted this coldly to her when she had done it. There was something she didn’t know about this situation. Pieces were missing. She would hold off on her judgment.

“There is no reason to send me away. King Balkan already has a harem. He doesn’t need me there. You cannot just throw away what we have!” The woman’s breathing was becoming heavier in her rage and claws had now replaced her fingernails.

“There is every reason. You were never meant to be my queen, for which I have repeatedly told you. The fact that you have convinced yourself that you could be is not my issue. It is yours. Now that I have found my queen, I do not want you here causing any more trouble than you already have.” Glacian remained calm and authoritative. He had made his decision. There was no changing it.

“What do you mean you found your queen?” she screeched belligerently. She suddenly became aware of the group standing with them. It was obvious they weren’t Drakian. “What are these things?” The disgust in her voice was abrasive.

None of the crew so much as flinched. Their expressions giving nothing away. They were trained in multiple ways to handle hostile opponents. Their guard never dropped.

Glacian’s eyes flashed. “That is quite enough, Kittra. These are the survivors we found today.”

“Survivors?” she sneered. “I don’t understand why you insist on taking them in. They are nothing but vaskos. We should just kill them and be done with it. It would save all the resources they consume. And what are they even doing here? Survivors are not allowed in the castle.”

Kiera didn’t know what a vaskos was, but it didn’t sound like a compliment. For someone who was fighting so hard to be queen, this woman was acting very undeserving of the role. Kiera definitely didn’t want to live in a world where someone like her ruled. She had to fight to keep her thoughts and opinions to herself. Which was strange. Usually she had no problem doing it when it involved something that didn’t pertain to her.

Glacian smirked but there was still icy fury in his gaze. “You have just proven why you were never fit to be queen. But let me introduce you. Greg, Mikhail, Fabrizio and Bao.” They each nodded in turn just as they had at the beach. “And this is Commander Kiera, my Queen.”

Kiera almost took her eyes off the enemy to roll them. Now he was okay with using her rank? And throwing her in front of a problem that wasn’t hers? She had almost convinced herself that he had not been serious about the whole mate thing. Simply stating that you are mates may be the way things were done here, but it wasn’t how it worked for her. But this was his situation, his lover, and she would let him deal with her how he saw fit. For now.

“You are replacing me with something that isn’t even Drakian?” Kittra shrieked.

“Ah,” Glacian said, completely unaffected by her tirade as he looked over Kittra’s shoulder. “Gyo, Terra,” he addressed what looked like guards coming their way. “Since Kittra seems to be having issues taking orders, escort her to Venia. King Balkan is expecting her.”

There was a loud growl. Incensed at being ignored and dismissed, Kittra lunged at Kiera. She was fast but Kiera was trained and ready. Ducking under Kittra’s outstretched claws, Kiera slammed her fist into the other woman’s soft stomach. She didn’t know if it would have the same effect as on a human, but Kiera wasn’t the type to not defend herself. As Kittra bent forward trying to catch her breath, Kiera swung her arm in a smooth, hard uppercut against Kittra’s jaw. There was a crack of bone before she passed out on the floor.

“Wow. I guess it doesn’t matter what species they are.” Greg whistled. “They seem to have them in every culture.”

Kiera immediately went back to her ready stance, ignoring Greg’s muttered comment. She didn’t know what everyone’s reaction would be to what she had done. She supposed she had gone a little overboard. There had really been no need to completely disable the rejected woman. But Kiera had never been one to hold back. No reason she should start now.