Page 2 of Royal Mate

2

P aige Spencer, Insuri Planetary Defense, Station Alpha, Transport Room

Did the obnoxious ringing in my ears mean my head was still attached? I felt like I’d been thrown into the back of a garbage truck, compressed, smashed, stirred up and spit back out into my current position lying on my back on the cold, hard floor. I didn’t smell grass or trees or anything outdoorsy. There was no breeze. I was definitely inside. Somewhere.

I patted myself down, starting at my over-sized breasts under the hot pink T-shirt. The ugly brown pants and scuffed white tennis shoes I’d worn to work had survived the trip, my shoes and socks perched neatly on the floor next to me. Stifling a groan, I put them on as quickly as I could. Nothing seemed to be broken or bleeding. That was a win. Other than the pain roaring through my skull, everything felt normal-ish.

The imaginary knife shoved into the center of my head faded away as I rolled onto my side and then pushed myself into a sitting position. The agony level changed from an ‘I- can’t-function’ to a solid ‘I-could-run-if-I-was-being-chased-by-a-lion’.

I looked up to see two bright discs of light directly overhead blasting me like two small suns. I stretched my neck side to side and looked around.

I was on a very large, flat surface. Huge. Someone could park a large jet airplane on what I assumed was an alien transport pad. The disk-shaped lights above me were placed at even intervals all over the ceiling and hung directly over the hard, cold floor. I felt like I was sitting on ice cubes.

“Hello?” I yelled, but no one answered.

Migraines weren’t really my thing, so I assumed the fading pain in my head was a side effect of whatever the hell had just happened to me.

C-R-695, that’s what. The peeling alarm hadn’t stopped, the noise worse than obnoxious high school fire drills.

“Interplanetary regulation C-R-695 requires any non-Earthling to be transported immediately and directly to their home planet.” Too bad my perfect mimicry was wasted, since there didn’t seem to be anyone around to hear me. The alarm was bad, but the flashing blue lights weren’t helping my headache either.

“I can’t believe women volunteer for this shit.” Stabbing pain. Cold, hard floor. No alien hottie to welcome me and tell me I was his destiny, his perfect love, his one true mate.

Like that was real.

I hauled myself onto my feet and took a couple steps, just to make sure I could. True love? Forever mates? No. I was too much of a realist for that fairy tale. I’d watched my parents get divorced—twice each—every time they saw each other they argued about who was going to pay for me, the poor little orphan they’d adopted to try to save their marriage.

A shiver raced through me, and I wandered toward what looked like a control station of some kind. There were three chairs large enough that I could crawl onto the seat, curl up and take a nap, multiple monitor screens mounted both to the control array and the walls—I had to assume they were like computer monitors since they were currently empty and blank—and an assortment of symbols printed in a language I’d never seen before. I ran my fingertips over one of the figures. It was beautiful, like a mix between a Chinese character and hi-tech, glittering, gold foil art. Hundreds of symbols covered the raised platform, which came up to my chest. I was about average height for a woman, but whoever made these were much, much taller than I.

“What is this place? Where is everyone?” Wherever I was, it wasn’t where I wanted to be. Goosebumps rose on my arms as I caught a reflection of my image in one of the blank screens.

I looked scared. Eyes too big and a bit manic, wild tendrils of hair had escaped my braid so that I looked like I’d just ridden on a motorcycle without a helmet. I was still wearing my work clothes. Oddly, they were dry. I distinctly remembered falling into that stupid pool of blue water.

“At least you’re not naked, girl.” I’d sunken to talking to my reflection. I wiggled my legs and arms, shrugged my shoulders. Everything seemed to work. I could think. I could talk. Now I just had to find someone who knew how to run these controls and ask them to send me home.

“Hello? Anyone here? I need to go home!”

No one answered. Was the alarm ringing because of me?

Where the hell was I? Was this truly another planet? I hadn’t seen anyone yet, so I had no idea if I was about to see regular humans or ten-foot-tall green monsters.

Shouting sounded from the other side of what looked like a massive, four-part sliding door, each section larger than the lift door for a double garage.

I hunched down to hide behind one of the massive chairs as one of the giant doors lifted, disappearing into the two-story ceiling. Oh, boy. I was about to meet an alien.

Warlord Stohn at the bride center wasn’t bad. Maybe these aliens would be nice?

I peeked through the armrest as two large males—they looked human, thank god—wearing dark blue military uniforms ran into the room, guns of some kind in front of them like they were ready to kill anything that moved, including me.

Shit.

I plastered a smile on my face and rubbed my suddenly sweaty palms on the worn material covering my thighs. What would I say? Hi, I’m Paige from a planet called Earth and there’s been a huge mistake?

Yes. That would about cover it. This was a mistake. I wasn’t supposed to be here, wherever here was. Planet Insuri. Some other Coalition planet. Didn’t matter. I wanted to go home. Now. Right now. My birthday was in a week, and I’d already been invited out to dinner with friends. I’d splurged and ordered a small, triple layer, dark chocolate and cherry birthday cake from the local bakery; the expensive one.

I waited three years to be able to afford that cake. Damn it. I was going home.

“Come out! We know you’re in here!” Security guard number one called out as the second pushed a series of buttons near the door. The blaring alarm went silent, and a sigh of pure relief left my body.

“There’s been a mistake!” I called out to the two guards. “I just want to go home. I’m not armed!”

The guard who’d yelled at me appeared to be shocked. “Show yourself, female.”

Slowly, I rose to my full height and stepped out from behind the chair with my hands up in the air so they wouldn’t think I was trying to hide anything. “Don’t shoot! My name is Paige Spencer. I’m from Earth. There’s been a mistake. I’m not supposed to be here. I just want to go home.”

The guard who’d turned off the alarm settled his rifle on his shoulder and kept it pointed at me. He stood behind the first guard, who’d lowered his weapon and held his hand up, palm out, as he tried to coax me into moving closer. “We’re not going to hurt you, female. Come forward and we will take you to the general.”

“Can your general send me home?” I took a step forward, my entire body shaking with relief. They weren’t scary looking, ten-foot tall, green monsters. They looked like the other aliens I’d met, big, muscular, and gorgeous. Not quite Atlan big, but close.

“He is the only one here who can authorize your transport.”

“Okay. Good, because I want to go home.” I took another step.

The guard standing closest to the door fired his weapon and a stream of bright white light flew through the air. I ducked behind the chair and the control panel behind me burst into flames.

“What the fuck are you—” The first guard yelled.

The second fired again. “The intruder pulled a weapon. She is a threat!” He fired a third blast as I screamed and leaped behind the control station, out of his line of sight. His shot hit a panel in another set of large doors, shattering a large glass section closest to the floor.

Shit! So much for them being friendly.

“Cease fire!”

“The intruder is running!” Another blast hit the glass—or whatever the stuff was—behind me, widening the opening until it was big enough for me to crawl through, if I had to.

“Cease fire! That’s an order!”

“I am under direct order of the queen to secure this transport station against intruders.” He fired again, his heavy boots hitting the floor as he moved closer. I was running out of time.

The edge of the control panel exploded above my head. He wasn’t stopping. He was going to kill me!

“Shit, shit, shit!” I eyed the newly created opening in the wall behind me. I could make it. I had to make it. “I can do this. I can do this.” Muttering my new mantra, I ran for the opening. From the corner of my eye, I saw the first guard tackle the second just as he fired his rifle. The blast whizzed past my head, the sound like singed meat in a hot pan. I dove through the hole.

I rolled onto my hands and knees. Scrambled to my feet. I was in a long, dark hallway. Right or left? Did it matter?

I ran toward the dark end until I came to a door with a standard looking lever. I pushed on the lever, grateful when the door swung open to reveal a large office complete with an oversized black desk with three chairs facing it as well as a meeting table on the opposite side of the room that seated ten people. There were no decorations or personal items that I could see. Maybe this was an extra room, and no one would bother me for a while.

I closed the door behind me as quietly as possible and pushed a button that I hoped was the door’s lock. Seconds later, the two guards’ voices sounded from the other side of the door, still arguing.

Apparently, one of them still wanted to kill me.

I backed away from the door and looked around for a place to hide. There was nothing except the desk. Luckily, the front facing piece went all the way down to the floor.

I darted behind it and crawled underneath, pulling the large chair back into place behind me.

My breath came out of me in loud, ragged gasps that I fought like hell to control. One of the guards jiggled the door handle and I clamped my hand over my mouth and held my breath until they moved on.

What the hell was I going to do now?

I settled my forehead on my knees and waited. I huddled under the desk for what was probably ten or fifteen minutes, but it felt like an eternity. The door opened, the alarm once again blaring in the outer corridor.

“Someone turn off that fucking alarm. And get Faolan and Peadair in here. I want to know what the fuck is going on.”

“Yes, General.”

The door clicked closed and I drew myself into as small a ball as possible as the general pulled the chair back and sat down.

Oh, my god.

He was huge. His thighs were the size of small tree trunks. Typical of most men, his legs were splayed wide and the bulge in his pants was too big to be real.

Holy shit, this guy was hot from the waist down. He smelled like the most amazing cologne I could imagine, so good I wanted to bury my nose in his thigh and snuggle in. His cock was huge. The muscles in his legs bulged beneath a form fitting uniform that left nothing to my imagination, not that I would have been able to come up with anything better.

What did he look like? A compulsion I couldn’t seem to control came over me and I shifted so I could peek up at his face.

He was freaking gorgeous. Drop dead, take-me-now gorgeous. White hair so bright it looked almost silver fell to his shoulders and framed a cut jaw, high cheekbones, and eyes the color of sapphires, eyes which were staring straight at me.