Page 12 of Alien Prince’s Fake Bride (The Tentacle Throne #1)

- Mareliux -

I bounce out of the bed and stare in horror at the sleeping alien female. She’s completely bare, with an unspeakably arousing triangle of exotic hair right in the middle.

Umbra! Her name comes to me, but I feel as if I’ve been drunk.

There’s a strange taste in my mouth, and I remember having my face down in Umbra’s…

“Oh gods,” I groan in horror. “What did I do to that poor alien?”

“ She wanted it, too,” Bellatriz chirps from somewhere.

My hand goes to my side, but there’s no sword and I’m naked. “What?”

“ She wanted it as much as you did. Probably more.”

“What in icy Dages happened?” I demand, finding my pants and draping Umbra’s clothing over her to protect her modesty as much as I can.

“ Calm down. There was no coupling. You enjoyed her taste and she enjoyed your tongue and tendrils. Again, she enjoyed it more. Well done, by the way. You had her making some very impressive noises.”

“But what… oh, does she practice the Forbidden Arts?”

“ No, she doesn’t dabble in the dark sides of the Syntrix. But you’re getting close.”

“Stop talking in riddles,” I command as I strap the sword to my side. “I would never have acted like this. With an alien, a captive? Did I force myself on her? My memory is unclear.”

“ That’s a question of some nuance,” Bellatriz chirps. “ I will try to answer it properly. Do you remember me talking about a veil?”

“No. I remember you mentioning a veil that surrounds the planet Earth, but you didn’t explain it.”

“ But I did. I explained that the veil is a Syntrical Nullification Barrier. Someone placed it around Earth, and I suspect it’s been there for a long time indeed.”

I struggle to close my pants over my still raging erection. “Get to the point.”

“ The veil stops the effects of Syntrix. Blocks it out. Well, not completely, of course. But well enough for the inhabitants of Earth to never have experienced Syntrix in their world in any meaningful way. They don’t know what it is. They never had it.”

I wince as I’m finally able to close my pants. “They never had Syntrix? How can they… how can they live? ”

“ Mostly well enough, as it turns out. But I will get to the point, as you command. Umbra has never been in a place with Syntrix. And I was worried about the shock she might experience passing from inside the Syntrix-stopping veil to outside it, where Syntrix is everywhere. I had our ship hang still in space, right inside the veil. Then, to keep her safe, I needed her to be in a particular state of mind, one so strong that even the sudden appearance of Syntrix wouldn’t bring her out of it and possibly break her brain.

And the only state that powerful is climax.

I needed her to come , Prince. To keep her safe, as you had commanded.

So I filled this room with venecis gas.”

I freeze and stare down at the sword. “You what? You gassed us?!”

“ Yes,” the sword chirps cheerfully. “ Oh, I’ve done much worse things in my day.

This is nothing. I manipulated the ventilation system to synthesize the gas and pump it in, which is a quite a feat in itself.

Then I got you into an amorous state to where you both lost control and then…

well, you know the rest. She climaxed wonderfully, thanks to you.

Just when she did, I gunned the engines and we passed through the veil while she was in the throes of ecstasy.

It worked. She suffered no ill effects.”

In a flash I remember it. The strange wave of joy I felt when she went over the edge, Umbra’s shaking, her eyes rolling back in her head, the bucking that shook the whole bed… it looked too strong to just be an ordinary climax. But she is an alien, so maybe that is normal for her.

And I did suddenly feel the echo of her joy through the Syntrix.

I quickly check Umbra’s breath and heartbeat. “Her heart beats fast.”

“ That’s quite a normal rate for her species. But I must say you showed remarkable restraint. I would have expected you to jump on her at the first sniff of the venetis.”

“I wanted to,” I growl. “Thank the Syntrix I was able to keep some control. She must be furious now.”

“ Oh, she shouldn’t complain. She took active part in it.

The venecis gas doesn’t really do much other than lower your defenses against your own desires.

It can’t make you do something you really don’t want.

It’s just that you were both really horny deep down.

Most organics are, in my experience. You both got what you wanted. ”

“But she never had a chance to decline,” I fret. I stand by the door, reluctant to leave Umbra. She looks so small and vulnerable in the big bed…

“ Yes, she did. You asked for her permission. She could have withdrawn at any time. She just wanted it. For most people, the venecis gas is an escape. Finally they can do what they really want, not what they think they should. That’s my understanding, anyway.

” Bellatriz sounds completely unconcerned.

On an impulse I go over, bend down, gently push a hank of exotic hair out of Umbra’s relaxed face, and look down on her.

“She’s a brave little thing. And she stayed strong, even after she was taken aboard my ship and met me and Caret’ax, men who must look very strange to her.

She fought the whole time, until your damned venecis gas came into the room. ”

“ She’s a tough cavewoman,” Bellatriz agrees. “ But she’ll be fine here. Now, do you want to set the course, or shall I control the ship remotely?”

“I’ll go to the bridge,” I tell her as I leave the cabin. “Keep an eye on Umbra and let me know when she wakes up.”

I lock the door from the outside, not wanting an alien as resourceful as Umbra to run around the ship on her own.

Caret’ax is on the control bridge of the ship. He straightens when he sees me. “Everything in order, sir? How is our future empress?”

“Ambassador Umbra is sleeping soundly,” I tell him, not wanting to go into detail. “She’s been through a lot. But you told me these women can be capable.”

He gives me a searching look. “I’m happy my opinion has been confirmed, sir.”

I sit down in the prince’s seat and take the controls. “We’ll make our way back to Khav, but first I want to check on the legion at Grefve. A surprise visit may strengthen their morale. And there should be a pontifex there.”

Caret’ax raises an eyebrow. “A priest? For the wedding, sir?”

“It would be perfectly valid,” I argue as I set a course. “And a prince getting married at a remote military base carries a message, don’t you think?”

“ That the Empire is breaking up?” Bellatriz quips from her scabbard. “ So badly that the future emperor himself is kept so busy fighting at the border that he can’t even take the time to get married on Khav, like nearly every emperor before him? That message?”

“No,” I growl, “the message that the future emperor takes the security of the Empire so seriously that he won’t waste time on silly ceremonies and overwrought pageantry.

” It annoys me that Bellatriz’s judgement is probably accurate.

That is likely how it would be seen by the people.

And it wouldn’t be completely wrong. The Empire is under great strain, thanks to the Vyrpy and the endless intrigues and backstabbing at the court.

But mostly because the Emperor is weak in the Syntrix.

Once, his skills were among the greatest in the Empire, and everyone could feel his strength through the Syntrix.

It made the people strong, too. Everyone could sense his determination, in the same way a lamp lights up a room.

But he got weaker. Now he’s too weak to be noticeable at all.

His mysterious, but persistent illness has taken its toll, and he should have left the throne a long time ago.

The way things are, the Empire keeps getting weaker.

The only thing that can help us now is a new, strong emperor who can sit on the Tentacle Throne and send strong threads of Syntrix out to our forces.

And I will be that emperor. I will strengthen our resolve, make us strong and fierce again.

But I will need a wife. Or, I’m thinking now, someone that everyone thinks is my wife. Because all I need is for my stepfather to think that I’m married. When he passes, I will be Emperor and nobody will care whether or not I actually am married.

My stepfather is right — the greatest challenge and danger to any emperor is his own wife. History shows that with painful clarity. It’s like having a venomous slike in your home and in your bed.

So the safest thing is not to have one at all.

“I don’t need to actually be married,” I think out loud.

“I can be fake married until the Emperor dies. To someone who will accept my non-proposal. To someone who will have no choice. To someone I can easily get rid of when the time is up, without having to kill her. To someone I can simply take back to her caveman planet and never worry about meeting again.”

“ A fake marriage?” Bellatriz asks from her scabbard. “ With Umbra?”

“She fits the requirements,” I state. “The next emperor actually being married to an alien will not sit well with the Imperial court in the long run. Or with the people of the Empire. And the last thing I need is more intrigue and more plots against me. If I get married for real, that’s it.”

“ Because there’s no divorce in the Empire,” Bellatriz points out. “ Other civilizations have that, but we don’t.”

I nod. “Exactly. So when I ascend to the Tentacle Throne, and then announce that I was never really married, that I was only doing it to foil the unreasonable and unprecedented demand of a senile and unpopular emperor, everyone will be relieved. I can get on with my actual work, to bring the Empire back to its glory days. Without sharing my bed with a deadly slike.”

“ And you want to enter into this fake marriage on Grefve,” Bellatriz says. “ Where you control everything and everyone, so this scam can be easily carried out.”

I lean back. “ Is it a scam, though? If both I and the non-bride know that it’s not real?

Who’s the victim? Umbra just wants to go home.

Very well, when I’m emperor, she can. Everyone’s happy.

Anyway, that’s not important. I will get fake married, I will show my bride to my stepfather on Khav, she and I will leave, the emperor will probably not live much longer, and then I can put Umbra back where I found her.

Then I will return to the capital, happily unmarried, and all the noble families with unwed female members will be in a frenzy to have me, the emperor himself, marry into their clans.

Do you see the leverage that will give me?

I can play the court like a finely tuned harmonium for decades, the way the court usually plays a married emperor. Or rather, the way his wife plays him.”

“ It all fits together,” Bellatriz chirps. “ If the plan is carried out. And if our Umbra is going to accept.”

“Her name means ‘shadow’,” I quip. “She can’t complain about being a part of some innocently shady dealings with no victim.” I look over at my bodyguard. “You’re being very quiet, Caret’ax. I take it you don’t approve?”

“It’s not my place to approve or disapprove of your dealings, sir,” the caveman says through clenched teeth. “I’m only a simple warrior. And I’ve never known you to act dishonorably.”

I give him a glance. “Until now, you mean?”

He stares ahead, staying quiet.

“There’s not much honor to be found at the Imperial Court,” I tell him drily. “Honor is the most expensive luxury in the universe. Even the emperor can’t always afford it. Especially not if he wants to become and stay emperor.”

“ Or so they say,” Bellatriz adds. “ Prince, sensors in the ship indicate that your guest-slash-captive-slash-accessory to fraud is awake. And she’s not where we left her. She’s going straight towards the armory.”