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“Feel free to stop making this awkward anytime now, sucker.”

  He'd heard the term before, but somehow, it didn't sound as insulting coming from her; he blamed the smile. She probably could get away with murder in high court.

  “We do not touch breeding females we aren't contracted to without reason, Lena Smith.”

  “Man, you need to chill. I'm not breeding with anyone, feel free to get on with the touching.”

  Obeying made him cringe, thinking about what he would have to say in his report; but he was supposed to make her comfortable, so he put his hand forward and touched hers.

  It was small and cold. He held it for less than a second before jolting back.

  “That’s where you're supposed to, you know, tell me your name.”

  He really was; it would have been customary in nine cultures out of ten, but damn if that woman wasn't making him loose it. The problem was that she was taking charge.

  There was exactly one person in the universe actually able to issue an order to him, and he never did, so Jaycn wasn't used to it.

  “Sir Jrejn Asther Cyn Nphies, Prince of Essia, at your service.”

  “Bless you. Can you repeat that five times in a row really quickly?”

  While her smirk did suggest she didn't expect him to, he found himself considering the odd request.

  “Probably not. They call me Jaycn. We go by initial.”

  “Clever! Damn, you really are a superior race, aren't you?”

  He was pretty sure she was joking, but as her expression remained completely blank, he couldn't really tell. All he knew was that his mouth, reflected on the kitchen appliances, was definitely curved upwards.

  “Anyway, now we’ve done the whole introduction thing, wanna tell me what you want to do me for?”

  Jaycn was perfectly versed in most principal languages spoken throughout the entire galaxy; English wasn't an exception, so catching her voluntary slip, he raised an eyebrow.

  “One thing we might as well clear up right now: I'm fun, deal with it.”

  He attempted to look disapproving and hoped, for the sake of his report, that he managed to.

  Probably not.

  “Well, Lena Smith, you are aware that according to the treaty, we have access to medical records of every Earth inhabitant. There's a system running various tests in the background, and one of these tests has brought you to our attention on the seventh of September two thousand and twenty-seven.”

  “Are you seriously saying that it's about me having a low blood pressure? Because a letter would have done.”

  Was she able to open her mouth without sprouting some form of sarcasm? That was left to be determined.

  “Perhaps. Or it could be more important. We need to perform some additional tests to come to a conclusion.”

  “And then, you'll leave me alone?”

  Jaycn wasn't a liar, so he sighed.

  “And then, should the results be negative, it's likely to be the last you ever hear from the high council directly, yes.”

  If they were positive, however…

  “So all you need from me is a bit of blood?”

  “Yes.”

  For now.

  Lena

  Lena didn't mind that sucker.

  The one thing she hated was haughtiness; she'd grown up around a whole lot of people who believed they shat glitter, and they'd all made a point of letting her know that until her mother had a ring on her finger, she was nothing more than the bastard child of someone important - so people who took themselves too seriously rubbed her the wrong way.

  That was her number one peeve with Klints, because oh-my-word, did they take themselves seriously. They'd all quite obviously been fitted with a three inch thick broomstick up their ass at puberty.

  But Prince Julius Eliorus Whatever-It-Was had obviously managed to remove or adjust to his; he’d smiled. She was pretty sure she'd heard a muffled laugh, too.

  Also, he was hot.

  From the little information the Klints had shared, she understood that it wasn't actually physically possible for any of them to be unfit. Whatever genetic makeup might cause anyone to be born that way had been eradicated eons ago. From childhood, a strict regime of training shaped them into the GQ models they all seemed to be.

  But there was hot as in “I'm pretty sure he'd look good on TV” and then, there was “here are my panties, take me now.” Jaycn was under Curtain Two.

  He had the typical Klint attributes, insanely intense eyes, great shoulders and drool-worthy ass, and he coupled it with a careless elegance. His hair was long enough to have a little wave to it, and so dark one barely noticed it was green; most Klints were paperwhite, but he’d managed to catch a light golden tan, which made his warm amber eyes shine with something a bit wicked.

  Then, there was the smirk. Oh my, that smirk.

  So instead of giving the signal the dissenters watching outside her home were waiting for, she excused herself long enough to send a quick text.

  All good.

  It might be stupid to believe a guy because he was good looking, but well, women had done it for thousands of years and the human species had made it so far.

  Three

  The end

  Lena

  The Klint had claimed most of Zone A, including the Millennium Tower; there was a rumor saying that their actual emperor resided somewhere around there when he was visiting Earth, as their security seemed optimal around San Francisco, and when she was led into the guest room, she believed it.

  The room, near the very top of the fourth tallest building in the city, took over the entire floor; there was a Jacuzzi, a humongous bed, an actual grand piano, a bar, you name it. Nothing had ever screamed opulence like this space.

  Her eyes narrowed at the water fountain running on a wall. They had enough energy for that, but she had to buy a torch if she wanted to study after ten?

  That's when she recalled why they called them suckers. Well, one of the reasons why, anyway.

  It had all started because the Klints were tall, pale, strong, preferred being active during the night and well, that screamed vampire, but it had stuck when they'd realized that they were there to suck their resources, without giving anything in return.

  Contrarily to some of her acquaintances, Lena didn't hate them as a whole; she wasn't that childish. There was no point judging an entire species on their government’s decisions; she made up her mind about each one she encountered.

  And well, most of them had been ok, to be fair. Boring as hell, but fine – polite and respectful in any case.

  That didn't mean that she was comfortable here – because right now, she wasn't dealing with individuals. She was there because of a decision made by their system, their leadership, the cold, unfeeling machine which had decided that they could take Earth if they damn well wanted to.

  Lena had had exactly two choices. One had been to get whoever had come for her shot by the sniper armed with a long range blaster behind her window and join the Dissenters, and the other one had been to follow him.

  Here she was.

  Oh well. Might as well enjoy it.

  Calden

  The female was bold. He wasn't surprised. Nothing about her surprised him. Not her flaming hair, nor her lean muscles softened by feminine curves.

  When he walked in, she’d made herself as comfortable as she could possibly have in his suite. She was in his bathing pool, the red mane knotted on top of her head.

  There was some black fabric on the floor, indicating that she'd gone in completely naked.

  His fists clenched, along with every other muscle in his entire body.

  He hid it effectively. Calden had spent the last fortnight faking indifference and the practice served him well.

  “Lena Smith,” Jaycn called next to him, something between exasperation and amusement in his tone.

  “Shhh,” she replied. “This is the bomb, and you are not ruining it for me.”

  Jaycn was smiling. It was all Cal
den could do to prevent himself from growling. The familiarity between his old acquaintance and his mate was not to his liking.

  My mate.

  He hadn't questioned or denied it, after the initial shock. He even found some logic behind it.

  While Calden was more of a soldier and politician than an idealist, or even a scientist for that matter, Klints of his rank studied every single subject, so he knew the legends.

  The Klints had written about their mates as though their existence had been a fait-accompli until two thousand years ago. As there had been no records since, no one currently alive believed that their race came in mated pairs.

  But there was the proof.

  A system implemented in every medical database on Earth tested every blood sample, and reported the results to their bio-technicians. They scanned for some individuals – the known terrorists who attacked every Klint outpost they could reach, for one. Apparently, they’d also been scanning for a breeder compatible to him.

  Calden couldn’t recall authorizing such a venture, but someone had pressed the button and here they were.

  As Emperor, he had three breeders in his household but he hadn’t even attempted to procreate with any of them: their compatibility was under two percent. It wasn’t worth the effort.

  Somewhere at the back of his mind, he’d told himself he’d try for an heir when he found a decent match; five to ten percent, if he got lucky.

  The highest record had been twelve percent, so he couldn’t reasonably hope for more.

  Lena Smith was a one hundred percent match.

  Everyone believed it was an error because the system was attempting to match them to an ideal, something that didn’t exist: their mate. But there she was, in the flesh.

  It made sense, too.

  Two thousand years ago, male and female Klints had stopped breeding. They had sex, but purely recreationally. The following generations of females had been born unable to conceive children; it was somewhat logical that nature would have ceased matching them with barren females.

  But Lena Mary Smith was a breeder; a currently fertile, soft, delicious breeder and she was all his.

  Mine. Mine. Mine.

  He'd had to beat down the beast calling inside him repetitively over the last ten days; but no impulse had been so strong yet – he was shaking.

  He managed to stay where he was.

  Well, to be entirely honest, he took two steps.

  Make that three.

  “We’re ready for the blood test whenever you are,” Jaycn told the woman with an irritating familiarity.

  He'd always envied his cousin’s ability to take to any language with such fluency; Claden was formal in his own mother tongue, he'd never manage to sound quite so casual.

  The burden of being Emperor of three quarters of the known universe.

  His mate sighed audibly before grabbing a towel she'd left next to the basin, and getting up; she managed to wrap herself quickly, but not before giving him – and Jaycn – a peak of her curves.

  She may have been thin by human standards, but the Klints females were slim and straight up and down; her heart-shaped, bouncing rear, thin waist and the handful of breasts were the worst kind of decadence.

  Calden had taken another involuntary step towards her.

  That's when she turned.

  He'd seen a fair few pictures over the last few days. He might just have watched one or two recordings, too.

  So there was no reason whatsoever why she should have taken his breath away, yet she went and did just that anyway.

  It was the eyes, he hadn't know they were so deep, so full of mischief; well, when they took Jaycn in, anyway. Then, she glanced towards him and froze.

  Her green gaze locked on his, and after a laps that could be counted in seconds or centuries, he was the one who broke it.

  He needed to get the hell out of here.

  The plan had been to discuss his proposal himself, to explain everything to her – he knew she'd understand. The psychological tests she'd passed before being accepted at the Imperial Academy guaranteed it.

  She was a leader.

  But he couldn't. There was no way he could be in this room, look into her eyes, and speak to her for more than twenty seconds without ending up binding her to him.

  And that was no option if he wanted her to live.

  Lena

  “Who was that?”

  She didn't recognize her voice, strangled, caught in her throat.

  “Calden,” Jaycn replied. “Your hand, if you please.”

  She didn't even feel the prick, her eyes still on the door from which the one he called Calden had disappeared.

  She was frowning. She didn't know why she was frowning; about meeting him, or about him leaving?

  Calden was dangerous.

  He wasn't as attractive as Jaycn, or a tenth as approachable. His hair was unabashedly blue, definitely alien, and his eyes seemed to shelter an entire galaxy.

  He held his massive frame very still, and his expression was blank, proving that he was most certainly still fitted with a thick broomstick, deep up his rectum.

  It hadn't mattered. She'd wanted him to talk to her. No, scratch that. She'd needed it. The fact that he'd left without doing so had been a punch in the gut.

  What. The. Hell.

  Jaycn had plugged the flask containing droplet of her blood to an oval device which was presumably analyzing it, and when she finally managed to pay some sort of attention to what he was doing, she noticed he seemed confused.

  “So, am I free to go?”

  “No, I'm afraid, not yet. The results are… Positive.”

  He seemed quite shocked about it, which did trigger her curiosity, as well as her annoyance.

  No? What did no mean??

  “I need… We need to speak to you and…”

  “Jaycn,” she said to him sternly. “Spill it.”

  Somehow, it worked.

  “You're compatible. With Calden. At a very, very high level.”

  She frowned; there generally was one thing Klint referred to when they spoke of compatibility.

  “I'm not a breeder.”

  There were quite a few who had volunteered as breeders; their salary was humongous, their family was taken care of and they were fully included in the Klint Society. However, their fellow humans treated them worse than whores, given half a chance.

  Lena didn't have anything against breeders, but she'd aspired to a better life than popping out kiddies with whatever Klint she was most compatible to.

  “We are aware, but…”

  Jaycn sprouted out something that sounded like a curse.

  “Look, I need to go and get Calden, I can't explain…”

  Calden, as in I'll-lose-my-mind-when-I-look-into-his-fucking-gold-eyes Calden was supposed to explain something to her?

  No way. She wasn’t likely to understand a word he said.

  “Jaycn, you either explain it to me right now or I'm getting out of here. You can't detain me. There’s a lot of people who know exactly where I am right now.”

  He probably thought she was bluffing; she wasn't.

  However, he obviously didn't want to risk it.

  “Lena, should you bear Calden’s heir, you wouldn't be a breeder. It's not the way. You'd become one of our Elite. You'd have an entire planet to rule as you see fit, and a dwelling in each imperial state. I'm sure you could request North Carolina if you wish it.”

  Lena hadn't stopped shaking her head since he'd said “heir.” She wasn't bearing anything or anyone.

  “It's bigger than you, dammit! I'm sure there are others things you'd rather do but the entire world needs stability. Right now, Calden has a target on his back – and without an heir, the world would fall into chaos if the worst was to happen. You may think you're safe here, but the entire universe knows that we can breed human females. That means some of our enemy wish to destroy you – and there are other opinions amongst our ranks, too. Do you know what some vote
d for? Keeping human females locked and gagged in rooms, which any citizen of the empire could use for a fee! Calden vetoed it. That’s the only reason why you can say «I’m not a breeder» right now.”

  She blanched at that revelation.

  What the fuck.

  She hadn’t agreed with the Dissenters, because as far as she’d seen, the Klints hadn’t trampled their free will – but apparently, they had been right. Some of them wanted to.

  Trying to wrap her head around it was making her feel quite sick.

  “Hang on a second,” she said. One detail wasn’t matching up. “Why would the stability of the world have anything to do with me? Or with him.”

  Jaycn looked at her as though she was plain stupid, which really pissed her off. But then, comprehension lightened his features.

  “Sorry, I might have made myself clearer in introducing Cain Adelei Leyn Dein. Our emperor.”

  That's when, if she'd been that kinda girl, she would have fainted or maybe started to cry. As things stood, she just closed her eyes and laughed.

  She really knew how to fuck things up, didn’t she?

  Four

  Kidnapped

  Eight years later.

  Jaycn

  It wasn't the first time that he wondered whether the human race in its entirety had simply lost their damn mind; or they could be suicidal. He wasn't ruling out option two.

  However, right this moment, Jaycn didn't give a rat’s ass about the fate of the race which had openly declared war on the most powerful family in the galaxy.

  Well, that wasn't exactly true. There were two humans he very much cared to locate.

  Or rather, one human and a halfling.

  Shooting another Dissenter right between the eyes, wishing the bullets were set to kill, Jaycn ran forth, heading in the direction everyone else was leaving.