Page 54 of The Alien I Fell in Love with on Walpurgis Night

“What do you know about that?” I ask.

The men all smile at my naivety. “There are no secrets in the Empire. Everyone knows Imperial Fleet Reserve Commander Axl is a fixture in the High Priestess’s Punishment Rooms. We all suffer with him when he suffers.”

“What do you mean?”

“He only does the Empire’s dirty work. What none of us want to admit happens illegally in the galaxy. The small dark details that keep everything in the Empire running smoothly. And for this, he carries a lot of guilt,” the eldest man says.

“But he’s not a bad man. So he carries this burden heavily,” adds another man.

“That’s why he visits the High Priestess and she tries to beat the guilt out of him so that he can see the light of the Empire,” the older man explains. “But as he gets older, the less he’s able to recover.”

“Then he showed up with you and surprisingly everything changed. Everyone knew Commander Axl’s days at the palace were numbered.”

“We are outside the Empire but there’s still a woman here,” the youngest man says.

“Are you talking about me?” I ask. “I’m not an Alliance woman. I’m hardly going to repeat anything you say here.” The men all shrug and look away. I try to get the conversation going again and ask, “Did you think the High Priestess would make us marry? How did you know we weren’t?”

“The slaves from House Zu confirmed it. And, yes, I thought the High Priestess would make you marry.”

“It was a surprise that she didn’t,” another man with only half a head of silver hair says. “We knew then it was the Empress’s jealously that stopped it.”

“What?”

“The Empress. She’s always had a romantic flair for Commander Axl and there were rumors especially when they were young that they were lovers. Because of that, no woman would ever be good enough for him according to the Empress. That’s why he’s always been single.”

“So he left me at the palace alone because of the Empress?”

“She forced him back. He didn’t have a choice. He couldn’t enter.”

“His sister made it sound like…”

“Commander Axl’s sister benefits from his close relationship with the Empress. She would have killed you herself if the Empress would have asked her to, and then apologized to the commander afterward.”

“I knew that Lia wasn’t fond of me, but I thought it was because I’m human.”

“Commander Axl’s mother and sister have a woman earmarked for Axl from their own circle and approved by the Empress.”

Jealousy spreads through my body. “What’s so special about her?”

“She’s obedient to the Empress, and will enjoy having complete control over the commander.”

Captain Ace interrupts us with an announcement. “Sorry for the delay. We’ve been stopped for a routine check by the fleet. If any of you are carrying contraband you will be put off with your cargo. I made that noticeably clear when you booked passage on my ship.”

Captain Ace seems annoyed. I evaluate the other passengers, trying to guess which, if any of them, might be carrying contraband. In the end, they all look like legitimate traders to me. “What is considered contraband in the Empire?”

“Drugs, humans, other animals.”

“None of us have any of those do we?” the man with all silver hair asks. The other men smile and answer that they don’t. And then we sit there in silence.

I hear the officers from the fleet announce themselves over the ship’s intercom and then we hear distant noises of them beginning to look through the ship. By the sound of their boots there are a lot of them. They’re loud and clearly skilled at this as they’re moving fast. There’s some shouting and then one enters the room we are in.

“In here,” one of the officers says in his comms.

I look at the other men wondering, who is the criminal? I’m speechless at first when two officers grab me by the arms.

“I’m not contraband. I’m going back to Earth. It’s all legal.”

“We have orders,” says one officer.

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